>However, to overly
>simplify the mechanics makes the whole game "vanilla." Players need
>little hooks on which to hang the qualities and differences between
>their characters.
You can easily play up the distinction between fighting styles by amply describing what they do with their weapons. "I lunge at the foe with the right gladius going for his head and the left going for his abdomen, that'll be a 10 AP bid" is handled more quickly (and lyrically) than deciding that both his weapons are going on the offensive and making unwieldy subtractions from the defensive scores of all involved.
>So far all I have heard is that this skill idea is just "chrome."
I thought it was pointed out that the skill idea was excessively complicated and that the mechanics were overly intrusive. The fact that the guy fights with two weapons is "chrome" and shouldn't be handled any differently mechanics-wise than any of the other fighting skills already subsumed under close combat.
>By that same argument, so are weapon and armor
>ranks. I have to disagree completely.
Well at higher levels of skill, the differences in weapon and armour ranks only have a passing bearing on the actual outcome and so often get ignored. It matters little whether Beatpot Aelrin comes after you with a potato peeler or a cleaver, you are still mincemeat.
>but in the day to day rigors
>of combat, using two swords should be different from using a sword
>and shield, just as using a sword and shield is different from using
>a sword without a shield.
But note that there is no mechanical difference in the rules between using a sword and shield and using a sword (whether it be a rapier or two-handed) alone*. So introducing complex rules to determine the effects of particular fighting stances only ensures that more time is spent on the player with the two-sword character with minimal improvement in game enjoyment. What are all the other players going to be doing when you and the player debate over the merits of a particular tactic and whether rules needed to be created to cover those. Hence the suggestion of just describe it and assign a bid value.
*apart from the aforementioned weapons and armour ranks.
--Peter Metcalfe
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