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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 1647558" data-attributes="member: 15999">I've been playing for a mere 21 years myself.  Started with red book D&D (the one-book set), never played 1E.  But once 2E came out with "The Complete Book of Fighters," both groups I was in (one as DM, one as player) saw a proliferation of 2-weapon fighters.  Did NOT see it in other editions, because it wasn't as overpowering.  And once 3E came out, I didn't see it reappear.  The dominance of 2-weapon style came and went, thankfully, because they fixed the balance.  FWIW, I do consider "you must be desperate for fun" to be an insult.  Keep that in mind next time."Cultural" reasons in prefering one weapon over another might include "short bow requires less time to train troops than longbow," "axes are cheaper/easier to make than swords," "our tribe doesn't have the know-how to make composite bows," "katana good against unarmored foes" or "firearms would hurt the interests of the ruling class."  These are not "just because" - they are actual justifications based on some sort of logic.  That's what I was trying to do with my examples - give the justifications behind the cultural decisions.  "It's tradition" alone was not the sole reason in most cases. To a great extent, I agree with you.  I like fantasy cultures to have customs and taboos that are illogical, because that reflects history.  Superstitions, practices that people think are magic but really aren't, useless charms and trinkets, etc.  But I think military applications are one instance where humanity has spent countless hours tweaking, refining, and adopting improvements to get really good at killing each other.  And when life and death are on the line, anything that is clearly sub-par would be dropped.  The Japanese quickly tossed culture overboard for pragmatism once they had to fight other powerful nations armed with guns.  Therefore... because I like my dwarves to be able to use axes without appearing stupid for compromising their effectiveness... I favor making axes equally effective to swords (and, really, against large foes with thick hides such as giants or dragons, one would think the weight and concentrated penetrating power of an axe should be very useful, and a pick even moreso).</blockquote>

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