>My first reaction to all this was to think - if one weapon could do all
>these good things, why didn't anyone use them historically?
And weapons aren't used in isolation -- they're part of a "combat system" that includes armor, fighting style, tactics, and even strategies. Greek hoplite shields and armor worked pretty well for them. But it doesn't work well when you have to fight light cavalry.
BTW, what Mark described might also be an ox-tongue spear <http://members.aol.com/dargolyt/TheForge/oxtongue.htm>.
Getting back to HeroQuest, I think the fact that there really isn't a super weapon that always works in real life is one reason that HQ doesn't pay a lot of mind to specific weapon types. That and the fact that literary heroes don't either: "Dalla said, 'Which weapon will you use to withstand Hviting [a named sword]?' Kormak said he would use a large, sharp axe. Dalla considered it advisable to find Skeggi of Midfjord and ask for the sword Skofnung." Kormak did so -- clearly to him the weapon type doesn't matter, he only used Skofnung because it was magic. [Kormak's Saga, from "Sagas of Warrior-Poets."]
So it's perfectly OK for the Rinliddans to use a weapon that's sub-optimal in some situations, if it fits their fighting style. The warrior is more important than the weapon, and if a cool weapon makes him feel better, that's the one to use, all things being equal.
-- David Dunham Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
Powered by hypermail