Roleplaying guide

Just now I stumbled upon this guide and to be honest it made me arch a brow. It's having some information that was unknown to me or in fact...I thought it was the opposite. For example, according to this guide, plate is actually more comfortable to wear than you think (they specify why). Furthermore, you can even duck and roll over in plate, and stand up again. Myself on the other hand always believed, mainly due to what I hear of fellow roleplayers (and they've basicly all been on this server), that plate was very uncomfortable to wear, and slowed you down loads, and such.

Also, 2handed maces, swords and such are not *that* slow as people tend to think. And there's many more. I certainly like it.

Link:

http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/forum/page/1/m/2737230/viewthread/3522003-roleplay-indepth-realism-guide

What are your thoughts?

Plate does slow you down, and makes rolling about slower and less agile. But it doesn't stop it.

Though I can imagine rolling in plate isn't the comfiest of things to do.

Well, yes it does slow you down compared to cloth and leather. But I always gained the impression that when I roleplayed with friends and randommers in WoW, that they felt plate was really slow and really heavy and really uncomfortable. Whilst this guide states:

-Plate armor is not that heavy nor restricting. A full suit of well-made plate is approximately forty pounds, and a wearer can fairly easily run, jump, roll, duck, and even dance. The main reason plate wasn't more common in real life was the expense and availability, not for any reasons of weakness. It's very effective, and very strong. The only real danger from wearing it is a matter of overheating, which is definitely worth keeping an eye on but very manageable.
Binidj wrote:
Because of the extremely thick padding worn under both chain-mail and plate armours, they were actually very comfortable. Unlike what we are told in a number of tabletop roleplaying games, sleeping in armour can actually be quite comfortable. I have had a very good night's sleep whilst wearing a chain hauberk and felt no ill-effects the following day.

Although heavy armours do not restrict movement, and feel quite comfortable when properly fitted (plate armour that's too big or too small is horrid), when one takes the armour off at the end of the day there is a strong feeling of levitation! You don't notice how heavy armour is while you're wearing it but you certainly do notice when you're suddenly not.

typically men who would wear such items would be used to it anyway, so er...

didnt need to know that D:

And this one I find interesting too.

-Two-handed swords, maces, and flails are surprisingly light and fast weapons. In real combat, mobility was king, and slow weapons got you killed. A few specific tips about each:

A six-foot zweihander actually only weighs about 7-9 pounds, and can be swung quickly and recover from missed attacks quite well. The bottom 25-30% of the blade was often dulled into what was called a ricasso, which allowed the wielder to grip the area for more well-balanced thrusts and even to invert the blade to strike out with the pommel in a move called a mordhau - murder strike. This was an effective way for sword-wielders to counter heavier armor that their blades couldn't pierce.

Seiken Lionmane wrote:typically men who would wear such items would be used to it anyway, so er...

didnt need to know that D:

To be frank this topic wasn't to enlighten you. I was more or less...confused when I read all of this, whilst I was taught indirectly some other things and just wanted to bring it up to hear some thoughts. I can't by the life imagine that I've been the only misguided one...

Crojwin wrote:

Seiken Lionmane wrote:typically men who would wear such items would be used to it anyway, so er...

didnt need to know that D:

To be frank this topic wasn't to enlighten you. I was more or less...confused when I read all of this, whilst I was taught indirectly some other things and just wanted to bring it up to hear some thoughts. I can't by the life imagine that I've been the only misguided one...

oh no, theres plenty. i get nagged all the time that my warrior moves too fast for a guy in armour.

I didn't know that about the Shields and Plate thing! I guess DK's -do- have it right after all, huh? (Also, looks like I need to change my daggers, got a bit too much of a curve to them!)

A very interesting read, thank you for linking, Crojwin.

I see...well atleast I am glad I stumbled upon this guide then. Just smack your enemies with the link posted in OP then, Seik <.> Perhaps even more effective than a two handed sword.

Crojwin wrote:I see...well atleast I am glad I stumbled upon this guide then. Just smack your enemies with the link posted in OP then, Seik <.> Perhaps even more effective than a two handed sword.

But then i cant hammer them with logic, reason and point out constructively all of the floors to their arguments.. .crushing their self righteouss soul-- fine i'l just link it!

...but i still wanna crush souls.

Eodain wrote:I didn't know that about the Shields and Plate thing! I guess DK's -do- have it right after all, huh? (Also, looks like I need to change my daggers, got a bit too much of a curve to them!)

A very interesting read, thank you for linking, Crojwin.

Indeed, I occasionally used curvy daggers too. And that part about wielding 2 swords of equal length, that it's bad. I like that one too for rogue like characters =P sometimes I had two 1h swords of equal length...meh. Not that it all in the end matters for RP in a fantasy setting but still.

7-9 pounds on a Zweihander? Is that really true? I mean, a second source would be nice. My dumbells are 12kg atm, which is apparently 3x the weight...

I haven't read his sources but he does provide them in his guide. The source for the 2h sword he uses:

http://saw.wikia.com/wiki/Sword#Two-handed

Although I can't find it in the source he provides (I'm sure I am overlooking though) I googled it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zweih%C3%A4nder

It says 2kg, which is 8 pounds I believe. (Average)

Well, i own a katana... a real folded one. thats some good quality steel right there and to me it feels dammed light. so i can agree with the point on the zweihander possibly being not to heavy at all.

...thanks for linking this btw Croj!

Np, enjoy :p

Generally a good guide. Even if it should be stated that Plate slows you down. SLIGHTLY.
Not in the "you can't move as quickly incombat way" as the "You can't run as quickly" way.
Take a modern soldier in combat gear. I believe that gear all in all north of 20 kg. According to a friend it's around 20-25kg with AK5, spare magzines, combat west. With a kevlar west it's a few kg's more. Soldiers can run, throw themselves, roll etc. Not day one, but two years? No problem. Still, not as agile as without the gear. And you can't run as fast in the gear as without. Still, the weight is distributed in such ways it doesn't tier you out much.
A good example on weight distribution is two people, each with a 25 kg pack on their back.
The one who has the weight on their hips can walk all day, then feel fine. The one with it on their shoulders will be DEAD!

The swords bit I'm fully on. Still, for a bad user it's LONG AND UNWEILDY still, but a master it's cake since they know where the weight is.

For western sword combat (and some on the making) Check out Reclaiming the blade, a wellmade documentary. Mentions the gripping the blade to hit with the pommel.

In general it is a good thing.
Only other thing to mention is that when not hit in the head adrenalin generaly help you when hit since it supresses the pain, for the moment. And that you can condition your body to exhale when hit, which will make bad hits towards your lungs less painful and a bit quicker to recover from.

I can also testify that getting hit in your eye FUCKING HURTS.
It is so bloody fucking painful. It feels like your head is about to explode for at least five minutes, and then you think you've gone partially blind for half an hour as you can hardly see.
And that is without any major bloodvessles in and around it burstning from a slight knuckle lift that I got into my eye by mistake when training. I couldn't get back into it for like, over an hour. Over half of that was spent with a cold cloth on my eye.

If you want I can post it for you in the guide's thread, Muzjhath, with credits to you of course. He updates the guide when recieving feedback (if he manages to find that what one says is truth)

Not right now, or at least not that. This might be a reason for me to make me an account myself over there. Finally.
And need to work on all those statements some myself first.

This I do like^^ Weapons and armor guides are most appriciated! Thanksy

I do feel a big difference ought to be made for plate armor and full plate armor. I can imagine a cuirass, plated wrists and plate covered gauntlets won't stop a man too much in his movement. However, if you have pauldrons sticking out with a big neck protection, I can't imagine how it can -not- impair a roll, even to the side to get up.

I can imagine plated cavalry to have thick leg armor all the way to his waist before the chest armor and pauldroms. I don't see how they can move around unhindred either, though I suppose the inside of leg armor could be in chain so the soldier can at least walk properly.

As for the 2 handers, yes, they aren't -that- heavy. They also don't have 20cm wide blades like we have become used to in fantasy art. There was a dulled side for double grip which was also used to fight with the blade over shorter soldier-to-soldier distance, but in spite of these aids it's still slower than a 1h blade.

I think there's a reason 2H didn't become the mainstream, "1 blade to own them all" weapon. As far as my Wiki knowledge goes, the blades proved particularly useful against pike and spear formations. But there aren't records of it being effective against other formations, which gives me reason to believe they simply weren't effective against them.

Perhaps.. The soldiers wouldn't be able to form as tight (and thus solid) a formation since they need more room to wield the blades. And once the advantage of length is removed, the blade is less wieldy than a 1Hander.

Well JP. When talking about two handed blades. While yes some where those LONG close to two meter thins. More common were blades that were about half a sword longer than a onehanded sword. Since they figured out the weaknesses of a too long blade in a shorter space.
Still, half of the Two Handed info doesn't apply on ANY of WoW's two handed weapons (and hardly onehanded) Since they are more modeled after Nightmare in Soul Caliburs sword than anything else.

True true... But I suppose the style of the blade doesn't impact the wieldy-ness. Not in fantasy apparently.

https://youtu.be/xm11yAXeegg

https://youtu.be/0kKLgSTkCEo

https://youtu.be/WMuNXWFPewg <--- is probably what you are looking for.

Let's see him try that when he lands in an ocean of pikemen who are there to get him, instead of mud.