Why would a "modern" fantasy world with firearms still have swords and plate mail?

Humanophile · Apr 22, 2002

My only problem with that is that chain-esque armors have too much of an archaic feel to them, which IMHO isn't as in-genre. Plus, to have decent protective power as opposed to being just a thin sheet of steel, it would have to be pretty heavy, which is a problem when your opponents always have the chance to outrun/outmaneuver you.

What'd probably happen is similar to some bulletproof vest styles today, you have a heavy vest with pockets all over to drop steel plates in. Maybe a light steel mesh sandwiched in there with the kevlar, but primarily plates for antimagic. That way, if you needed to move quickly, it wouldn't be as much hassle to shed the weight, or have minimal protection without as much worry.

Horacio · Apr 22, 2002

PenguinKing said:
* (I'm reminded of a scene from a Final Fantasy game with small boys playing a game that involved zinging each other with scaled-down, "subdual-damage" variants of destructive combat-magic, but that's just silly, isn't it? )

Not, it isn't silly. In fact, I like the idea...

DungeonKeeperUK · Apr 22, 2002

I'll probably cover points said before, but I too have thought about this and this was the musings from my mind..

Danger : The avarage gunpowder weapon would be prone to misfire adn even exploding in the hand, many people may be wary of carrying adn explosive device in their hands, dependant on how long the firearms have been in circulation.
Also with the likes of fireballs etc running about carrying an amount of gunpowder about is not always a good idea
Armour : If the culture has evloved to a point where guns are prevelant, then so too would the armour change, such as layered ceramic armour coiming in to defend against bullets, but put your flashy ceramic armour up against a sword/war hammer/battle axe adn its more than likely going to shatter
Availability : Not only for normal guns but magical ones, as has been said before a +5 Longsword will beat down a gun in one one combat, unless revolvers have been invented you've got a shot at the foe before they start to close in adn not much time to reload
Training : Useing a gunpowder weapon may be a triucjy exercise, it aint just point adn click, getting training may be hard
After Care : Makeing sure that gunpowder don't get wet can be a pain
Looking Cool : Showing prowess with a sword is sooooo much cooler

erm... thats it for now..
bye

Maldur · Apr 22, 2002

Neal Stephersons SNOW CRASH has several reasons:

"Almost everyone knows how a sword works, the sharp, shiny part cuts off body parts. A gun can do all kinds of damage and you can't really tell from looking at it. So a swords makes a more intimidating and scary weapon"- Hiro Protaganist

"swords don't run out of ammo"- Hiro Protaganist

btw snow Crash is a must read

Black Omega · Apr 22, 2002

Ultimately if I wanted to do a game like this, I'd probably say that the weapons and armor were magic in a modern world where magic was otherwise forgotten. But magical creatures were returning and magic was the only way of dealing with them. So these artifacts from the far past suddenly become useful.

Barring anything world specific, platemail is just too impractical and given the choice of a sword or a shotgun, I'll take the shotgun.

BiggusGeekus · Apr 22, 2002

DungeonKeeperUK said:
[*]Training : Useing a gunpowder weapon may be a triucjy exercise, it aint just point adn click, getting training may be hard
[*]After Care : Makeing sure that gunpowder don't get wet can be a pain

My understanding is that guns, even the older ones, are actually easier to use when compared to a longbow. Ben Franklin wanted to use longbows in the American Revolution but that idea never took hold because nobody had three years to get good engough with the things.

I think the main reason is after care. Given a magic environment the cost to make sure the gunpowder doesn't blow up or get wet would be fairly high. You'd have to enchant the powder, gun, or carrying pouches to make sure nothing happened. By that time, the whole point of the gun (ease of use) has just been nixed by a wizard's item creation.

BG

[fanboy]
PS Snow Crash is awesome.
[/fanboy]

Hand of Evil · Apr 22, 2002

It could be still used for protection, just like metal/plastic plates are used under kelvar.

Or the most common enemy uses weapons that it is most effective against.

The Babylon 5 Centaury answer, "Because that is the way it is done and has always been done, it is tradition." Meaning that something could still be in use for the simple reason that they are following years and years of tradition. I think you could find this in a lawful world.

The_lone_gunman · Apr 22, 2002

I am currently reading a book called "The magic of Recluse" which does a great job of incorporating magic/firearms. The idea is that there is two kinds of magic, chaos and order, and firearms, while nice weapons, are easily disrupted by chaos magic. Thus swords, staves, and other mundane weapons are still used to great effect. You could do something similar in your campaign, where firearms are very powerful, yet they are easily "disrupted" somehow by magic.

TLG

Tetsubo · Apr 22, 2002

I could seea number of possible reasons:

*Uneven tech levels. Some countries having a lower or higher tech level than others. Much like in our own world.

*Magical or technical "dead" zones. Sometimes magic works, sometimes technology works. But a sword and mail *always* works.

*As has been pointed out they're could be a tradition of dueling.

*Early firearms didn't work all that well and were very slow to load. Hand weapons were and would be good back-up.

*Races that don't use a lot of magic would love firearms.

Why would a "modern" fantasy world with firearms still have swords and plate mail?

Humanophile

First Post

Horacio

LostInBrittany

DungeonKeeperUK

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Maldur

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Black Omega

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BiggusGeekus

That's Latin for "cool"

Hand of Evil

Hero

The_lone_gunman

First Post

Tetsubo

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