Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1670584" data-attributes="member: 177">In terms of simulation, realism = complexity is an old truth you can learn from any physics teacher.  The real world is complicated.  If you want to simulate it, the simulation will be complicated.  Realism is only one subset of verisimilitude.  Verisimilitude is a likeness of truths.  There are many truths with which we may be concerned.  There is no one single "the question".  There are many questions.How good your source data may be is not relevant if your methodology is not also realistic.  Getting the weight of the historical weapon correct isn't relevant if the lifting capacities of humanoid-framed creatures isn't similarly technically correct.  Did you go rewrite all the encumbrance and lifting rules too?  If you did, things are getting more complicated...Plus - you are talking about a game where men can survive falls from 200 feet onto a stone floor and walk away as if nothing had happened.  A game in which a wizard can toss a 20' radius ball of fire hundreds of feet from his body - fire that is hot enough to kill in seconds, but which cannot scar!In tha face of that, is differentiating between a kern axe and an existing game polearm verisimilitude?  Is it in line with the other truths in the game world?  How is basing combat on real-world masters a good thing when characters don't wound, bleed, and die like real-world people?  The real-world fighting styles would likely be less than effective against a hero with a hundred hit points who doesn't weaken, tire, or bleed until he's completely incapacitated.And adding rules to cover all that certainly makes the game more complicated...Yes.  That's nice.  But you were asking us what we wanted.  I was giving one answer.  What you want wasn't what you asked to know.  Don't ask a question if you don't want an answer.See above - patching realism upon an otherwise unrealistic system does not yield greater overall verisimilitude.  It tends to create dissonance.  Especially when there are already game items vaguely similar to kern axes and messers, such that I have to start remembering fiddling details to keep them all straight.  And I'm not even entering into the argument as to whether or not one shortish, broad, single edged sword is really all that much different from another, or one hacking polearm is different from another.Now, we get to the important bit - the constructuve part of the criticism:That being said, your book may be a fine one.  I don't mind you trying to sell me different combat.  But it being "realistic" isn't a selling point.  The game as a whole is not realistic, so I don't think "realistic" combat is a good match.</blockquote>

Verification