Weapons important to narrative?

From: Andrew Barton <AndrewBarton_at_...>
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 19:07:46 -0400

> question is more properly posed as, which sorts of narratives should
> be more expressly supported in the rules, ones in which there is
> very little distinction made between different fighting styles,
> different cultural traditions, and even different weapons, or ones
> in which this is made more of?

...

> It's already been pointed out that these things _are_ often
significant
> in genre fiction in general; perhaps even more to the point,

It seems to me that the level of detail in systems such as Runequest is equivalent to the sort of Western fiction written by JT Edson, where each character's weaponry is described in great detail (and repeated in each successive book) - there are also scenes where one character explains to another all the design features needed in a good cowboy boot.

Myths and fantasy rarely seem to go into such detail, even when the authors would have the knowledge to provide it.

The exceptions are highly magical weapons like Stormbringer, or Need in the Mercedes Lackey stories. These swords have their own abilities and personalities, and in HW should probably be represented as Allies or even Patrons.

Andrew