Some Ralios contribution, at last! I had started suspecting that everybody had marked Safelster as a blank land in their maps of Genertela.
> Another question. Genertela says that most warfare is carried out
> by mercenary bands, with a small quantity of knights from each city. The
> first image that brought me was the condottieri bands of early renaissance
> in Italy. Also that allows for frequent not too violent wars, great for
> MGF. The only other possible parallel in the RW that I can think of are the
> mercenary greek hoplites (Xenophon et al) that were indeed very similar in
> style and manners (to avoid the parallel Safelster=XIVth century Italy).
Actually, the most correct parallel is XII-XIV century Italy mixed with the religious warfare of post-Reformation Germany. I assume that the tech-level of Safelstran armies is that of chain mail with some small plate joints and single-handes weapons. Plate armor, polearms and crossbows, which were the actual equipment of the Italian mercenaries, are more appropriate in Loskalm IMO. Maybe Loskalm is the equivalent of the French national army? However, I like your parallel with the "condottieri" - the actual Italian term is "capitani di ventura", which stands for wandering captains.
> In
> that case you have a nucleus of cavalry (who will consider themselves
> knight caste, and are indeed mostly poor knights and social climbers)
Rokari peasants are forbidden to ride horses, so they have got to be knights (or Henotheists, but are we sure they can ride?).
> So what do you prefer? Historical parallel with
> professional crossbowmen (and some longbowmen) or historical variance.
Again, Rokari peasants are prohibited to use crossbows. If we assume that most mercenaries are peasants, the Safelstran equivalent of the Japanese ashigaru, this leaves out all mercenaries belonging to Rokari and Rokari-derived churches if they do not want to risk excommunication. Although many of them may not care, I tend to prefer a different approach. I assume most infantrymen are armored spearmen or bowmen with some sword training. If set against a charge, even a long spear is effective agains cavalry, especially if your mounted opponent wears only chainmail. I leave fancy-style polearms such as glaives as high-tech goodies (dwarf-made?) not generally available. Maybe you must go to Bad Deal to get some, not mentioning the price. Two-handed swords may be landsknecht (?) greatswords rather than claymores, and I assume they are the province of Henotheist Humakti (Humathi IMG), which may well be the core mercenary units.
> And to give a bit more gaming content:
>
> Fencing Schools
Now this was good! I think rapiers need some rules amendments, besides the one given in the Chaosium RQ3 errata, and thrusting broadswords are overestimated in the current rules, but your piece was definitely useful and should be an example for other contributors. The only thing I would like to add is the following consideration: the appearance of the new fighting style is somehow linked to the increased importance of merchant classes in Safelster. The latter should IMO prefer a sort of weapon which is elegant to carry and to wield, can easily dispatch an unarmored opponent and can be easily carried while attending city business. Knights, OTOH, had always preferred heavier weapons because they were expected to fight armored opponents, possibly from horseback where elegance is not allowed, but once they have learned the trick from rich merchants who are trying to enter the upper classes themselves, where allowed by the local church, they have begun learning fencing techniques, too.
> P.S. I think I will be published in Tales one of this days
I hope so, but why on earth did you not submit your fencing contribution for the Ralios special of Tradetalk? I inserted some comments about fighting styles in my article in it, but yours are far better IMO. You should contact the editor, however, since I am just a contributor.
http://www.geco.it/~guccione ------------------------------
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