D&D General Weapons should break left and right

[Micah Sweet]

That is an quote from one my player who did not want to deal with extra math. And you got the wrong suspect.

Ok, obviously I don't know your player. But that comment is still insulting to me and potentially so to anyone who cares more about resource management granularity than you and your players.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And ancient strings did not have deal with a wimp with bat naughty word on his fingers nuking his position.

What are you talking about?

 

[jasper]

What are you talking about?

Any body talking about history of weapons which did not have to deal with magic, tech, or magic tech.

 

[Morrus]

I find referring to a game that allows for item damage as "accountant base" is insulting, and I suspect intended as such.

I’m sure that if the game had feelings we could ask whether it felt insulted. But this is just you manufacturing insult where there is none. You are not the subject of the comment; an inanimate object is. Manufactured outrage is annoying. Stop it, please.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

While there are no numbers that I can find after a in-depth hard core internet search of approximately 2 minutes, I did find a mention of armies bringing along spare bowstrings. Now, I don't think this is any indication that they broke on a regular basis but they did wear out. Which is logical, we have far better materials than they had back in the 13th century. On the other hand they didn't have giant spiders so no spider silk bowstrings or other ways of creating supernaturally strong strings.

The reason I mention this is because it goes back to a point I made earlier. One reason I don't add in maintenance, cleaning kits, whetstones so that the game is more "realistic" because I don't really have a clue and even if I did I wouldn't know where to end. It makes sense now that I think about it that people would replace bowstrings every so often, but I never would have even considered it. I have no idea what else I'm missing so I just assume that the characters are competent at what they do and do not share our 21st century level of ignorance of basic maintenance and care of their gear.

Yes.
Modern bowstrings wear out too. I guess my point is that both modern and D&D-land bowstrings fail - but they very very rarely fail in a "cool" "dramatic" "'This will be so much fun! And you are a killjoy munchkin to disagree!'" break-in-combat-on-a-fumble way. Instead they fail in a dull, boring, "hmm, this is looking worn; better replace it with one of my spares" way. A way that, as you imply, is generally best assumed to exist as an abstraction below the level of played-out detail.

 

[LordBP]

Yes.
Modern bowstrings wear out too. I guess my point is that both modern and D&D-land bowstrings fail - but they very very rarely fail in a "cool" "dramatic" "'This will be so much fun! And you are a killjoy munchkin to disagree!'" break-in-combat-on-a-fumble way. Instead they fail in a dull, boring, "hmm, this is looking worn; better replace it with one of my spares" way. A way that, as you imply, is generally best assumed to exist as an abstraction below the level of played-out detail.

Kevlar strings usually fail under full load, so they are a bit dramatic. Don't think they are used much anymore because of it.

 

[Maxperson]

First, your claim that a sword was never a primary weapon of choice is false as the historical record is concerned. It wasn't the only weapon used but it certainly wasn't the equivalent of a military commander's sidearm. Second, no one has ever downplayed the influence of the representation of swords in cinema. Meanwhile there were dozens of weapons in AD&D, I even provided the list.

What I did say is that if a player wants a character that uses something other than a sword is that when it comes to handing out magic items there is nothing stopping a DM from providing a magical weapon of the character's choice. Just because the default was a +1 sword, the DM makes the final call on what it is when they describe it. So can we stop with the strawman?

What's funny is that I remember swords being dominant in 1e games as well, but I went back and looked at the 1e DMG and swords occupied 11% of the random magic item table, while Other Weapons occupied 14%. Randomly rolled, you'd find more non-sword magic weapons.

The 2e charts were even more skewed towards non swords. The first roll resulted in 1/3 of all weapons automatically being non-swords. The other 2/3 of the other roll made it to the second chart where 55% of the weapons on it were non-swords. More than 66% of magic weapons randomly rolled weren't swords, unless you count scimitars which had its own category for some reason, and then it's nearly 66% weren't swords.

What I remember happening in all the AD&D games I played in, which is what did happen, must have been the result of DM/player bias rather than from the 1e/2e rules.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

First, your claim that a sword was never a primary weapon of choice is false as the historical record is concerned. It wasn't the only weapon used but it certainly wasn't the equivalent of a military commander's sidearm.

the only swords i can think of that were used as primary weapons would be greatswords (e.g. zweihanders, claymores, odachis, miaodaos, etc.) and the gladius. i think also the falx? am i missing any?

 

[AlViking]

Yes.
Modern bowstrings wear out too. I guess my point is that both modern and D&D-land bowstrings fail - but they very very rarely fail in a "cool" "dramatic" "'This will be so much fun! And you are a killjoy munchkin to disagree!'" break-in-combat-on-a-fumble way. Instead they fail in a dull, boring, "hmm, this is looking worn; better replace it with one of my spares" way. A way that, as you imply, is generally best assumed to exist as an abstraction below the level of played-out detail.

I would assume that everyone needs to do basic maintenance on their gear. But if in a hundred years internal combustion engines are a thing of the past I wouldn't expect them to know how often you have to change the oil or even that you had to change it. Meanwhile cars may break down but for most people it's a rare occurrence with a well maintained modern car, certainly not something we have to deal with on a daily basis just because they can break down.

 

[AlViking]

the only swords i can think of that were used as primary weapons would be greatswords (e.g. zweihanders, claymores, odachis, miaodaos, etc.) and the gladius. i think also the falx? am i missing any?

I linked to the article a while back but a lot of extant images from that era show plenty of swords being used in battle. It just depended on when, where and for what use. Guns did eventually become the standard weapon of course, but until then it was a mix depending on unit and what the soldiers had or were familiar with.

What was interesting about the Romans, depending on era, was that they had both a spear and a sword. The spear, called a pilum, had a long spearhead made of soft iron. They would throw it before engaging in melee and the spear would bend after being thrown meaning the enemy couldn't throw it back.