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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imperialus" data-source="post: 5321909" data-attributes="member: 893">Ok, wow... This post is going to take a while for me to even digest, much less process and work into my outline.  I would like to kick it off though by thanking you for the thought that you obviously put into it.  I should also point out that I've also posted this thread over on Dragonsfoot and for anyone who follows that forum as well you'll have to excuse a bit of repetition in my answers.In thinking more about the premise I think the 'tone' I'm trying to capture is the rather wiggy period between say 940(something) when the last major Viking incursion captured York and 1086 when the Domsday book was completed and the Normans secured control of Wessex, Mercia and most of Northumbria.  That said, my larger goal is to create a logical and internally consistent world with its own history.  I'm not terribly interested in being able to point at my campaign and say "Look! I recreated Norway under the reign of Herald Finehair!"  Historical accuracy is important, but only insofar as it can impart the tone that I'm going for. Now, regarding the anachronisms.  I'm almost certainly going to drop the Bastard Sword from the list.  I think I included it more out of a personal love for the Type XVIIIB which I think was pretty much the pinnacle of European swordcraft and I glossed over the fact that the damn thing didn't exist yet <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />.Shortswords are a term of convenience more than anything.  It just rolls off the tongue better than "Stabbing weapon, longer than a dagger but shorter than a sword." <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />As far as the armour anachronisms go I think I'd have a tougher time moving away from them, largely for game balance reasons, but also because I think I can fit them into the larger campaign while keeping the logic of them intact.Regarding the different types of mail:  First, in my defense I don't think I ever once referred to it as "chainmail" unless specifically referring to the D&D armour that I'm replacing. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  It's a pet peeve of mine as well.  I think I have differentiated between mail of varying qualities, ranging from the "munition quality mail" (an anachronism I know, but I think the concept fits) to the "Double mail" (not an anachronism though it is unclear exactly what for Double mail was).  Hauberks fit nicely in between.  That said, I need to do some fixing regarding the types of helmets that come with the armour.  Bassinets just don't work.  Coifs, Kettle hats, Spangenhelms and Nasal Helmets  are where it's at.As for the specific armours, I think it's important to at least try to come up with enough diversity to cover a similar AC spread as is found in the PHB, simply for game balance reasons.  If I limited the list to (essentially) padded armour and 'chainmail' it leaves a critical AC gap for Thieves, Fighters, Paladins, Clerics, and Rangers.  I'll either be dolling out a lot more magic chainmail than I would want to, artificially mucking with monsters THAC0 or accepting the fact that the frontline fighters will be taking 10-15% more damage during combat due to the lack of the "plate" class armours.  This would probably lead to a natural progression where I'd be seeing a ridiculous number of Elvin Fighter/Mages simply for the Armour spell.  That said, I could probably do away with Brigadine and leave a gap at AC6 within the spectrum of 'normal' armour at least but I'd be really leery of getting rid of the Coat of Plates and the Steel Breastplates simply for balance reasons (unless of course you could suggest a non anachronistic type of armour that would fill a similar role?)I see Ringmail as filling an important role, and I'm actually debating replacing studded leather with it entirely.  Resources are scarce in the region and I could see ringmail being constructed out of rings that were originally intended for the production of mail but were rejected for one reason or another, or even rings that were recovered from battle damaged mail suits.  It creates a low cost alternative that common soldiers and mercenaries could even construct themselves using detritus from a battle and a leather or padded jacket.  Like I said before, I have no problem with anachronism, as long as it is internally consistent.Now I'd also like to make clear that Double Mail is the heaviest type of armour that is commonly seen.  Both coats of plate and Steel Brestplates (the biggest anachronisms) are extremely new technology developed in response to the intensity of the warfare that the humans have found themselves in.  Prior to the invasion of the Hobgoblins warfare was a relatively low intensity affair, consisting of small bands of professional soldiers fighting over things like cattle and relatively small parcels of land.Coats of plate and Breastplates have only been developed in the last few years and are extraordinarily expensive and hard to come by.  Like I said in the writeup "Every coat of plates in the region has been imported at great expense from the Kingdom of Redderinn."  Also, I didn't detail it in my original post, but there are no steel breastplates in existence in the region.  Thusfar they have only been manufactured in extremely small quantities by the dwarven citystates over the past 10-15 years but the Dwarves are completely cut off from the Human kingdoms by the Hobgoblin empire.  There is literally maybe 2 or 3 dwarves in the world who can be said have mastered the technique of hardening the steel to the point where it would make a functional breastplate.  The Coats of Plate developed by the humans consist of unhardened plates sewn into an outer garment to we worn over top of the mail.  It's not terribly practical, almost a prototype than anything else.Last but not least, Scale armour and Lamellar are unique to Elves who developed their armour technology independently from the humans so I see no great difficulty in handwaving the fact that it was uncommon outside of the Byzantium and the Middle east.  To further up the weirdness factor they're also made out of specially treated wood.  Since wood (if one were to be daft enough to make wooden armour in the real world) would need to be worked very differently than steel it makes sense that it would be carved, have holes drilled into the pieces and then either sewn onto a backing in the case of Scale or laced together as is the case with Lamellar.</blockquote>

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