I haven't done much fighting myself, but spent quite a bit of time discussing fighting techniques in college with one of my political Science professors who was an experienced knight in the SCA. Since SCA fighting was specified in the RuneQuest II book as the guide they used for realism, I asked the guy a lot of questions. He was a highly experienced fighter. Perhaps other SCA people on this list could comment on what he told me.
According to him, a *good* two-weapon fighter was the most dangerous opponent -- the best fighters he knew used two longswords simultaneously. He mentioned one named Moonwolf (I think) who took on ten or twenty people at once and won. Granted, the ten must have used awful tactics. On the other hand, the professor was emphatic that two longswords were the most effective combination he knew of.
My memory is a little shaky on this point, but I *think* that he also said that a quarterstaff was the best weapon to use in the martial arts -- that is, hand-to-hand stuff. A skilled martial artist feared a quarterstaff more than a sword or club. I'm not sure why -- something about length and leverage, possibly.
On a completely different (and now dead) topic, I looked through an old copy of RQ:AIG recently, and found that the Enchantment section specifically mentioned swords which cast their spell-matrix spells when drawn, as well as other, similar magic items. They didn't list casting times or percentages, however.
Third topic switch: In the latest Starry Wisdom I read that Glorantha: The (roleplaying) Game will wait until "Glorantha has reestablished its market presence". The miniatures game is apparently intended to be the main tool by which Glorantha is popularized. This concerns me. I talked to the owner of a local hobby shop which also produces miniatures, and he told me that miniatures and miniature-using games are *not* doing well. He was pretty dubious about the chances for widespread success of a new miniature game.
He also told me that business has been on a downward trend -- for some time he's been doing no more business than he was doing eighteen years ago (1978), despite the fact that a local chain of six hobby stores (Eric Fuchs) folded recently.
He says that young people who come into his store are mostly interested in CCGs, not roleplaying. That being the case, perhaps Glorantha would be better publicized by a CCG, much as I hate to say it? But quickly, since the card-game fad is clearly fading.
-->Pete
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------Editor, Interregnum RPG/Science Fiction APA/magazine -- email for info. Interregnum WWW home page: http://www.tiac.net/users/maranci/index.html FRP adventures, art and more: http://www.tiac.net/users/maranci/rq.htm
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