Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ledded" data-source="post: 1361400" data-attributes="member: 12744">Actually, "longsword" is a broad sweeping category encompassing hundreds of actual categories/makes of swords across quite a few cultures, the term being coined by an RPG and not actually being used to describe an actual sword by anyone who actually wore one on his belt.   What D&D classifies as a 'longsword' for simplicity's sake includes swords with completely different uses, styles, weights, lengths and time periods.   It's like going to your local gunshop, and asking to purchase a "Big Pistol".  When looked at like you are a nut, you can only answer "Here.  In this book.  It says Micky Spilane has a 'Big Pistol'.  Sell me one."  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Even "bastard swords" and "great swords", while being loose terms of classification used by actual historians, denote a wide variety of blades that the only thing they have in common is length, grip, culture, or style of use, and sometimes not even those.   Is that a bad thing?  No, not really.  It does keep it simple in D&D, though I have occasionally come up with a character with a specific type of 'longsword' in our game, and the DM will work with me if I've got a good reason having it deviate from the 'longsword' category. Sorry about the OTC, just wanted to toss that out there from the perspective of a sword-nut, since we often get into the minutia of gun-bunny goodness on these boards.  If you want, I can supply you with some very good source material references off-list, just PM me.  You said it.  I prefer to take what is good with what is bad, and I often don't agree with everything that a given author does in his RPG.  I dont like every weapon block in UMF, have trouble sometimes quickly finding what I want in my Big Bang books, and I'm still not happy with the treatment of shotguns in a lot of books out there, but I take from whatever I like or agree with, overwrite their nice neat tables, and go with it. Will I buy this new gun book?  Maybe, once I read a few reviews from our more gun-savvy folks on the boards and get a chance to browse it.  But only if it has something to add, and with the pretty good sources of info that I currently have, it better do something new if it wants my $$$.</blockquote>

Verification