Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by AsenRG

That's a habit from the Walpurgis Fechtbuch, Glorious General!


I'd argue that there are lots of thrusts in the above fechtbuch. The rounded tips just mean that Dark Ages swords didn't expect to meet armour...but a rounded tip will go through a man.
!

But the WF illustrations I've seen are all with buckler as well, which is a different issue. But I don't want us to go off on a total digression.

(I was also fascinated the first time I saw WF at how the two hands are almost always kept together.)

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

True, but I do expect cliff-hangers along the way.

Part of the "suspension of disbelief" of a book or TV series is pretending that we don't know the hero will live. We all KNOW that Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise will survive, but we pretend that the Mugatu might kill him.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Agreed; I watched some nice person roll up her PC on Sunday - it took something like two hours, and we really didn't start play until after three pm for a one pm session. I did a lot of shopping, while I waited.

* dies *

I won't play a game with that long and involved a character process. I'll still play something like that if somebody makes a character for me.

And vis "programmed encounter levels" - Even in the early days there was this idea that "the further down the dungeon you go the more dangerous," but it was NOT a rigid mathematical process.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Asen my friend, of course not. It's not so much that I hate skirmish games and want absolutely nothing to do with them, it's just that I don't like the fact that they have become the default historical miniature wargaming format. To me it is endemic of our hobby as a whole.
Everything is easier, quicker, and video game like. Episodic little fights. I miss the Grand Strategy of wargaming and spending an entire afternoon and evening resolving a single battle, or a weekend fighting a campaign. Also, as a wargaming enthusiast seeing massed armies of painted units on a table is amazing.

Shemek

So come to GaryCon and play "Battle on the Ice," where the armies of Prince Alexander Nevsky contend with the perfidious Teutonic Knights for control of Novgorod, as seen in the movie "Alexander Nevsky."

In accurate 1:40 scale (1 figure = 40 troops)

Originally Posted by AsenRG

And I love swords. Or at least I tell that to swords so to get them in bed!
Joking aside, one has to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of all things.

In early drafts of the first Star Wars, energy blades were common. When boarding the Princess' ship at the beginning, the stormtrooper commander says it's too close quarters for blasters, so use blades.

Then George realized that energy blades worked better as this ancient, semi-mythical thing that only a few weirdos adhering to this ancient religion have even heard of, and he came up with the neologism "lightsaber".

And the rest is history.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

So come to GaryCon and play "Battle on the Ice," where the armies of Prince Alexander Nevsky contend with the perfidious Teutonic Knights for control of Novgorod, as seen in the movie "Alexander Nevsky."

In accurate 1:40 scale (1 figure = 40 troops)

I'd love to go, if only it were a little closer to where I live. One day hopefully.

Not all arena battles are to the death, I know that.

Anka'a got her start as a nude boxer. Sort of "halftime entertainment" between the blood rounds.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

We never really got deeply into it with Phil, but I have NO doubt the Tsolyani have their own versions of "the cut direct," "the cut indirect," and enough other variations on "Big Boys and Big Girls Big Book of Big Snubs" to give Jane Austen the vapors.

Oh, most assuredly! Phil would always groan, Cyrano-like, at all the missed opportunities for really great insults and snide comments in the original group. "Too crude" was his usual critical review. We, on the other hand, would always ask the major-domo for a really good put-down; the simple fact of asking them always caused the offending bore great agonies, as the conversations around us would stop dead while everyone waited breathlessly for us to let them have it. It was wonderful.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Part of the "suspension of disbelief" of a book or TV series is pretending that we don't know the hero will live. We all KNOW that Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise will survive, but we pretend that the Mugatu might kill him.

* dies *

I won't play a game with that long and involved a character process. I'll still play something like that if somebody makes a character for me.

And vis "programmed encounter levels" - Even in the early days there was this idea that "the further down the dungeon you go the more dangerous," but it was NOT a rigid mathematical process.

Of course we all knew that he'd survive - it was always a question, like in the serials, just how this would come about.

Yep. Fifth Daughter was playing in her now regular RPG group today at the FLGS (I gave her a ride and painted figures while she played; a wonderful way to spend the afternoon) and was up and running in fifteen minutes along with all the other players and their new PCs. The GM was right up front about just getting the basics, and everything else would come later as needed in the game.

Well, yeah. We paid out money and took our chances, which is why we were so damn careful in Tekumel and Blackmoor.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

So come to GaryCon and play "Battle on the Ice," where the armies of Prince Alexander Nevsky contend with the perfidious Teutonic Knights for control of Novgorod, as seen in the movie "Alexander Nevsky."

In accurate 1:40 scale (1 figure = 40 troops)

If recent developments bear fruit, I may yet be down there for this. I will, however, be bringing my Tibetan copper trumpet so that I can go "FWAAAAH! FWAAAA-FWAAA!" to rally the Knights as may be needed. Consider yourself and any passer-by duly warned.