True, for a narrator without some background there's no reason to assume a gender bias at all.
>> >While it is just possible that Dara Happen women
>> >generally learn dagger combat the idea that Tarshite
>> >women are usually proficient at axe and shield combat
>> >seems incredible.
>
>Actually I'd put that the other way round. Darra
>Happan women get told "no, you're female, sit still in
>your own quarters and be good". I'm surprised they get
>to learn dagger. But that a Tarshite girl gets the
>same opportunity to learn axe as a Tarshite boy -
>sure, why not? She may be less inclined to use that
>opportunity, but it's there if she wants it. And she
>spends the winter listening to her dad and his mates
>describing their last fight in loving detail while
>mending the shield. She'll know far more about axe and
>shield combat than a DH boy.
So Tarshite culture is so different from Sartarite that women learn a specialist fighter's weapon as opposed to none at all? Personally I think Tarshite men learn spear & shield combat more often than axe & shield. The axe is the Tarshite warrior's weapon just as the sword is for Sartarites.
I'd agree that upper class DH women are very unlikely to even learn how to use a dagger but in the rougher parts of the cities I'm sure many woman learn to use a knife or dagger for self defence. And there'll be ten times as many women in the latter group than the upper classes who can afford bodyguards to protect them. As Greg indicated the skill probably should be "brawling" rather than a proper fighting skill. And in a fight against someone with a proper combat skill brawling should have a -10 modifier.
>Then the gender issues usually get covered by those
>hidden keywords Mike was refering to earlier, and by
>choice of profession. (DH male and female seem to me
>to be separate homelands! segregation and so on). So
>your average Heortling woman gets a gender keyword
>that includes things like "endurance", "patience",
>"able to give birth", "able to suckle a child".
>Heortling men would get a gender keyword that would
>include "strong", "boastful", "able to father a
>child", "bearded".
I don't think this approach is useful in dealing with gender keywords. A steadwife could easily be stronger than a male sage and I'm sure Heortling women boast - just about different things. I'd restrict the gender keyword to physical absolutes. As far a cultural differences go even for DH culture a single homeland keyword with the differences spelt out, as the Heortling one does, should be sufficent.
[snip]
>What do you reckon, is this a step in the right
>direction? We end up with a homeland keyword that's
>very broad but lower level, and a professional keyword
>that's more concentrated, plus very specific gender
>keywords, many of whose abilities are at "you've got
>it or you haven't" level.
It's actually going back to the Hero Wars rule whereby abilities from the cultural (now homeland) keyword are at 13 while the occupation abilities are at 17. In that context having things like farming and spear & shield combat appear in the homeland keyword make sense. They may appear in the character's occupation keyword as well but here they are at a lower level.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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