> Hmmm, if "everyone" knows how to use an axe to chop
> wood, and it's easy to convert from
> axe-as-wood-chopper to axe-as-weapon as has been
> suggested...
As written for William Marshal:
"What is it then to bear arms?
Does one employ them as one might a harrow,
a winnowing-fan, an axe?
No, it is a far more arduous labor."
It makes a big difference when the chopped thing is chopping back. A big enough difference that kid or steadwife without weapon skills is probably best modeled by having them use their "Heortling 17" with a -10 modifier.
For the completist, the whole passage concludes:
"What then is Chivalry?
So strong a thing, and of such hardihood,
and so costly in the learning,
that a wicked man or low dare not undertake it
Whoso would enjoy high honor first must display
that he has been well schooled to such arts. "
Axes are top heavy, which concentrates their force to break shields or helms, but top heavy, meaning that repeat blows cycle poorly, strength is required even if used two handed, and the weapon tends to stick. Yes, I know HQ isn't a simulationist game.
Shifting slightly--I would imagine that a tool smith and a weapon smith in glorantha work very different magics in the making of their goods. Tools have blessings to AVOID injuring people, while weapons exactly the opposite.
I imagine in some lands there's superstition that eating with a fighting knife is bad luck, for example. It wants to kill, so it might just poison you.
Mike Dawson
William Marshall Fan Club
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