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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 3898655" data-attributes="member: 307">I read Beowulf within the last month (I was reading Eaters of the Dead and then reread Beowulf itself for comparison), and that's not how I remember the scene at all. Beowulf and his companions were attacked by Grendel in the middle of the night, and Beowulf shatters his sword on Grendel's invulnerable hide. I don't recall any "dishonorable to fight an unarmed opponent with weapons" in there. Maybe I missed something, but Beowulf was a guy who liked his weapons and armor - when he boasts of swimming the sea and fighting sea monsters, he says he did it armed with a sword and in his armor, and he wears his armor when he dives into the swamp to fight Grendel's mother, and grabs a giant sword he finds in her lair to kill her.But that's a side issue, and you didn't address my real point. It is all well and good for an author to handwave away difficulties like a hero fighting a 100 foot tall dragon with wearing nothing but a loincloth and wielding a toothpick, but any game system that gives someone an advantage for having weapons and armor is going to encourage the use of weapons and armor. Unless you come up with some sort of game system that gives little or no advantage to weapons and armor (which I think many people simply would not accept in a game system), players are going to routinely make the pragmatic choice and outfit themselves with the best equipment they can get their hands on.</blockquote>

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