First of all I better state where my prejudices come from :). I have previously done European fencing (foil, a long time ago, the last time 8+ years ago), what the Americans on this list seem to refer to as recreation fighting, that is fighting with realistic weapons (only casual / not past the level of 2 handed spear or 1 handed spear and shield) and my current sport Kendo (Japanese fencing which is done with a split bamboo 2 handed sword while wearing half armour protecting head, wrists and chest).
These experiences have lead me to have problems with the RQ arms/armour/hit location system....
In response to my earlier post on the fact that a shield is still present on your arm if you miss a parry, so why is there still the same chance of hitting the arm behind it as of hitting the other arm..... "ian (i.) gorlick" <igorlick_at_bnr.ca> replies
>There may be some validity to the suggestion that a shield should provide
some
>degree of passive protection to the shield arm even if you don't make your
>parry. Go ahead and suggest something, but please don't ask us to make
another
>roll of the dice to decide the issue.
To which very reasonable comment, since there are certainly enough dice rolled in a combat already, I suggest a modified hit location table - if the arm is x number of locations on a 20 sided dice, vary that according to shield type, so a small buckler would still be in the way on the highest of those numbers, bigger shields in the way on the top 2, and a whopping cumbersome legionary shield is always in the way, unless the user fumbles a parry of course, in which case the arm is open in addition to the usual consequences.
This would also allow fighters to delay strike ranks and avoid the smaller shields if they really want to hit the arm....
On consideration I suppose detailed discussion like the above really belongs on the RQ Rules list, the Gloranthan problem is that the current RQ3 system makes it difficult to feel you are having a 'realistic' stoush in our current Dorastor campaign where armour and weapons are bottom of the heap and no-one has skill over _at_60% except where they have a Humakti or Yelmalio gift.
On another tangent, in Kendo your sword is your shield, and it performs this task not just by parrying, but by it's mere presence / position if held in an appropriate manner, as such a bonus for striking an unshielded opponent is not reasonable if your opponent has a significant enough weapon.
Aden
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #237
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