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Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

That would be fun, wouldn't it.

HEY! The kids from the old D&D cartoon! Wonder if they're still lost in there...

All you'd need to make that campaign work would be to ban any sort of Dimensional Movement powers, or come up with a reason why such powers temporarily don't work (such as when Mab closed the borders to allow Dresden a head start on Maeve).

Liberty's Edge

Male Human Boston Private Detective

Sounds like it would be fun.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

I am going to be signing off early tonight; I'm feeling a bit under the weather and I really need to get some sleep tonight.

tumbler, feel free to to play me as stunned if you want to move things along tonight. I was meaning to add that in as a complication anyhow - I noticed I forgot it in the list I posted this afternoon.


tumbler wrote:
Now I want to run a campaign of fairly normal people or kids lost in the Nevernever.

There was a spin-off of the Elementals comic by Bill Willingham called Ironwood.

It was made into a setting for a game I don't recall.
The premise was a group of medieval English settlers started a colony in a magic forest and couldn't get home.
Of course, there were elves, dwarves, gnomes, dragons, etc., etc.
It sounds like standard fantasy, but I assure you it was anything but common.
The story took place in that world's Renaissance, with a uber-wizard trying to get an item that would let him visit/rescue his lost love in Hell.
And it was quite dirty.

So, fairly normal people, add magic world/NeverNever, shake, look at the world a few hundred years later.
Awesome


as promised a list of urban fantasy (mostly)
these are on my shelf, so many are older. there are more in boxes and piles in the closet, on the floor, etc; but these were easy to make a list of

Spoiler:
Aaron Allston (of Champions fame) Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil

Patricia Briggs all

Emma Bull War for the Oaks (Minneapolis- 'land of 2 seasons: snow removal and road repair, or was it road removal and snow repair) the story of a war between two factions of fey and the mortals they draw into their affairs. one of the best urban fantasy novels i've ever read

Mike Carey several books. "dry", British, long

Harry Connolly the twenty palaces novels. very good

Elaine Cunningham Shadows in the Darkness

Mark Del Franco a series, set years after faerie returns to earth

Charles deLint he named the urban fantasy genre

David Eddings High Hunt (not fantasy, but hey- David Eddings) very good

Esther M. Friesner Druid's Blood Victorian urban fantasy, with alternate Sherlock Holmes

Randall Garret Lord Darcy books, alternate world urban fantasy with alternate Sherlock Holmes

Simon Greene lots, more pulpy and over the top

Kate Griffin all

Kevin Hearne all

Nina Kiriki Hoffman start with The Thread That Binds The Bones and keep going

Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner the Adept series

George R R Martin edited the Wildcards anthologies and mosaic novels, though not fantasy, it does do super powers in a modern world very well

Kelly McCullough Web Mage, etc I'll just say "Wow."

Seanan McGuire the October Daye series; the first was not the best but later books do the Fey in the world very well and kind of run the same style as the Dresden Files

Nick Pollota the Bureau 13 books (also a RPG)

Michael Scott Rohan Chase the Morning and sequels

Neal Stephanson Zodiac (not urban fantasy at all, but set in Boston and by Neal Stephanson)

Rob Thurman anything she wrote

Harry Turtledove The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump alternate worl modern fantasy, do not read if you can't stand puns

Tad Williams the War for the Roses faerie urbanized (long)

Terri Windling edited the Border anthologies

Roger Zelazny wrote the Amber novels, the Merlin series, and others such as Lord Demon and Dark Traveling

Edit: I could do a similar list of RPG's related to urban fantasy if you would like.

(I'm an old geek)


Male Human Monk 5 (Qinggong Master of Many Styles from the Sacred Mountain)/Fighter (Brawler) 3

"Kelly McCullough Web Mage, etc I'll just say "Wow.""

THAT'S the one I was trying to think of in the Recruitment thread.

Rynjin wrote:

Third concept: "Magical hacker" based on another series I read a while back.

Can't remember the name of it, but quick breakdown is Greek myth is true, but over the years spellcasting and stuff has changed with the times, and spells are basically programs, and magical creatures (like goblins and trolls) are basically machines (to the point that the main character's goblin familiar doubles as his laptop). Eventually the main character becomes a lesser god (The Raven), an agent of primordial chaos. I only read the first two or three, but I think there are more.

Good series.


tumbler, if you don't want to go by the die roll, Connected lets me use a Hero Point to 'automatically secure the favor' and I'll spend it if you prefer.

And 'The Gm has the right to veto any request if it is too involved or likely to spoil the plot of the adventure.'


Nah, that sounds good. What is it you are looking for?


From a story perspective.


tumbler:
John was attempting to find a source for Kishan on lore of the children of the dragon and I remembered the news about the Iraqi art thefts and thought John's black market connections might have a crossover to a source.

He wants to get a contact number for an expert and pass it to Kishan.

The source I quoted referred to 2 men. One at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute (Clemens D. Reichel), the other now the Head Librarian of the Blegen Library at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (Chuck Jones). (Who doesn't want to talk to a man named 'Clemens' or someone name after the guy with the cartoons?)

The bit about the active artifacts was to show the source was clued in to magic.

If we went with one of those, one choice would be to let Jackson use his old Chicago contacts to get the guy there to talk to her. The one in Athens might give Kishan a chance to use Warden leverage to get her questions answered.

Or a road trip to Chicago. Or a run through the NeverNever to visit Athens.

Either might take more time than we have till sunrise, but John was less worried about that and more interested in finding out what the Fomor intended.

Also, John is feeling ignorant of the Fallen, Jinn, and nephilim and wanted to contribute as well as show hidden depths.


Cornielius:
That is all great stuff. I think you just added a new layer to the campaign.

Looks like Clemens is now at University of Toronto and Chuck Jones is now at Penn State. Those are 6 to 8 hours by car from Boston (at legal speeds, obviously). Or if you wanted something challenging, you could have Clemens in Iraq actively working to excavate something. It seems like he does extensive field work. Thanks for sending me down the rabbit hole of academic reading about the ancient Middle East, by the way. Either of these guys could work for your purposes. Run with it.

I am spoilering things for efficiency and so you know what characters know things, but anyone who wants to should feel free to read them. If anything needs to be truly secret, I will PM it.


Dr. Clemens Reichel grew up in a small town in the Black Forest of Germany. He seems like an excellent contact. He also has almost movie star looks.


If it sounds interesting, there appears to be a run of open-house events at the Royal Ontario Museum on Fridays between Oct 9th and Nov 27th. Including Oct 16th.


It is nice to have the real world for research. I just wish there were a google maps for the Nevernever.


Well, since the NeverNever is possibly based on the dreams of mankind, you could back engineer it.

Wiki has an article on dream interpretation.
You could look at what you wanted to say and reverse it to the symbols that could represent it, then 'map' the area of the NeverNever to match it.

Warning: I just spent about an hour looking at dream interpretations and symbolism and now my coffee is cold.


Example:

Wiki wrote:

Dream sharing is the process of documenting or discussing both night and day dreams with others. One of the primary purposes of sharing dreams is dream interpretation.

The sharing of dreams dates back at least as far as 4000-3000 BC in permanent form on clay tablets. In ancient Egypt, dreams were among the items recorded in the form of hieroglyphics. In ancient Egyptian culture dream sharing had a religious context as priests doubled as dream interpreters.

Those whose dreams were especially vivid or significant were thought to be blessed and were given special status in these ancient societies. Likewise, people who were able to interpret dreams were thought to receive these gifts directly from the gods, and they enjoyed a special status in society as well.

And I'm a gamer, so I see most of this type of staff in the context of a game.

Liberty's Edge

Male Human Boston Private Detective

I thought of an interesting organization to add to the game: the Metropolitan Library from the Librarian series.


That absolutely fits. I just went to half price books and bought some things from Cornielius' list.

I had thought that the librarian series was based on a book or books, but apparently not?

Those are fun, and I can always jam on playing Bob Newhart.

Liberty's Edge

Male Human Boston Private Detective

I've only ever seen the movies and the first season of the TV series, but thought it would really fit with the mishmash world we're creating. If we do introduce it, I don't know if I want Jarrod to get involved with them or not lol


Male Human Artificer | Hero points: 1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

tumbler, is it okay for me to move a couple points around? I realized I had an unintentional oversight in my skills.


Yes.


tumbler wrote:
I just went to half price books and bought some things from Cornielius' list.

What'd you get?

Liberty's Edge

Male Human Boston Private Detective

So another character concept I'm wondering if its possible to make using M&M: He's called the Cartoonist, and his abilities are based off of The Mask staring Jim Carrey and Space Jam staring Micheal Jordan. Basically he'd have the powers of a cartoon character: a malleable body, a pocket dimension in his pockets, the ability to quickly change outfits in a second or less, things like that. Of course, I won't even try to build him with one of his abilities: immortality while being watched by a living being.


Male Human Monk 5 (Qinggong Master of Many Styles from the Sacred Mountain)/Fighter (Brawler) 3
Detective Jarrod Liam Jackson wrote:
So another character concept I'm wondering if its possible to make using M&M: He's called the Cartoonist, and his abilities are based off of The Mask staring Jim Carrey and Space Jam staring Micheal Jordan. Basically he'd have the powers of a cartoon character: a malleable body, a pocket dimension in his pockets, the ability to quickly change outfits in a second or less, things like that. Of course, I won't even try to build him with one of his abilities: immortality while being watched by a living being.

I ran an M&M 3e game right after discovering the SRD and one of the characters was exactly this, actually.

SATURDAY MORNING, HERO OF JUSTICE

Game didn't last long though. Had a hard time getting Huff (that character's player) to post, and Amoeba's player bailed without warning. Again.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

Sorry for my absence. Weekends are sometimes busier times for me as I have little ones to watch over.

I've thought of having a character that was sort of a modern spin on that - with the concept that our reality could be a simulation inside a computer (an idea way older than the Motrix movie, actually). Instead of a Cartoon Character, living by Cartoon physics rules, he'd be a computer game character, with access to all the standard Developer's Codes... No-Clip, Infinite Ammo, Summon Weapons, God Mode, Map Point (Teleport), even a Save Game option (there's a suggestion on how to do that in the Super Senses section - basically, you spend a hero point and revert the game back to an earlier point, your prior experience having been a precognition. You'd then start play again, but with the benefit of knowledge of what had already been played out.)

Of course, everyone else would think he's nuts, because there no way life could really be a simulation, right?

As an aside, are you looking for replacements in that game? I love M&M.


Male Human Monk 5 (Qinggong Master of Many Styles from the Sacred Mountain)/Fighter (Brawler) 3

I'm not. I shut it down months ago. I was having fun with it though, maybe I'll post a Recruitment and see if Cogito and Rasputin's players are still interested (they're in my Carrion Crown and Skull and Shackles groups). I'll send you a PM if I do.

They were a super group that had a base underneath a Denny's, run by a man with the ability to slow down time (crazy fast service, great prices!), so it was kind of a lighthearted affair. Still, semi-realistic (people could die, and the power categorization and stuff was based off Worm, of which I and Amoeba's player are big fans), with potential for dark moments down the line.

Liberty's Edge

Male Human Boston Private Detective

I actually had a character concept for a story a few years back like that. He got sucked into a GameShark disk and when he got back out he was able to utilize various cheat codes for real life.

Also, I'd be interested if you brought the game back, though I don't have any of the 3e books, just 2e.


There is a group of villains called the Toon Gang, right? They have the basic set of Bugs Bunny/Tom and Jerry style powers. Can't die, infinite bullets. I can't find them in the main book or remember what book they are in.


Actually, M&M doesn't charge points for connection, it charges points for the feats to use them quickly, without much roleplay.

John's Connected lets him make a Diplomacy check to call in favors.

Jackson's Contacts lets him make a Gather Information check in only a minute, instead of spending a lot of time doing research.

Kishan could do much the same as John did, but without the Feat, she would have to roleplay the event and you might have seen her connections on-screen.

Not necessarily a big difference, but the feat was only 1 point.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

FYI, my home computer just crashed yesterday, and is resisting all attempts at resuscitation. This leaves me with just my phone for updates, which I find really awkward, and I tend to avoid when possible. This may leave me spotty for a few days as I try to get things worked out, so my apologies for the sudden drop in my post rate...


Not a problem. And feel free to post badly formatted posts if that helps.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

Ok, my home PC is still toast, but hopefully I can get some decent posts in here at work, as breaks and lunch allow...

Don't know what happened to my laptop, as it pretty much just stopped working (freezing up within moments of signing in). I tried recovery, and then tried a reinstall (since the data is backed up anyway), and the reinstall actually failed (at the same point on two attempts). Even though the Hard-Drive check comes up without errors, I'm suspecting a corrupted data packet or HD issue that the test can't detect. A bit of a pain, but it is a very old laptop (2006) that I was only using since my daughter used her beverage to slake my newer laptop's apparent thirst, and I still hadn't been able to afford to replace that one... Ah, computers. Hate 'em, can't live without 'em.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

I'm sure that in a place like this a massive Nerd Alert is mostly unnecessary, but yes, I am a huge weapon nerd. I am the type that has a collection of early sword manuals, and reads descriptive typologies for fun. Not quite to the point where I'm thinking about forging techniques while I fondle myself (but now that I think of it...)

Suffice to say there is a reason why in a game where "sword" is the only option listed in the equipment section, I gave my character an obscure transitional sidesword native to late 16th century Croatia, even in an environment where most nerds are going to say, "What the heck is a sidesword." We all take our kicks where we can get 'em.


You might need to advise Rynjin and I, then. I have only a rudimentary nerd knowledge of swords. In that I know a lot about fake sword fighting (stage combat), and I know that real sword techniques generally look pretty boring on stage.

I'll give the pertinent details and you guys can fill in your parts. Obviously, Aaron gets to decide what the sword does because he is paying points for it.

As for story, it would suit my purposes if the sword was originally forged from iron in the early iron age around 1200 BCE and reforged sometime between the 8th and 13th century. There is some wiggle room on that end. There should be a small nick in the blade that has been sharpened out. That is all that I need.


Male Human Monk 5 (Qinggong Master of Many Styles from the Sacred Mountain)/Fighter (Brawler) 3

I like learning about weapons myself, so any knowledge you want to drop I wanna catch.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

Ooh, I love a good knowledge dump. I'll see what I can come up with. Keep in mind I'm an (enthusiastic) amateur, so there may be occasions when I get an exact detail wrong, or ascribed to the slightly incorrect period or culture, but on the whole it should be pretty close.

*Provenance: Contrary to popular belief, and popular depiction, there has been pretty much no point in history at which the sword was the main battlefield weapon. Any warrior worth his salt, if given a choice between a sword and a spear, if his life depended on it, he'd take the spear. In later periods it'd have been a halberd, or a musket, or whatever, but pretty much never a sword. The sword was the original sidearm, so called because you wore it on your side, you could carry it with you so that if something happened to your real weapon, you'd have another to fall back on. It was a backup weapon. Even those cultures we picture as sword centric, like the samurai, were archers and spearman first (Bushido actually translates as something like the way of horse and bow). It was only after Japan was entirely conquered by a shogun in the early 17th century that sword-culture took off, as they all became bureaucrats instead of soldiers, and bureaucrats don't carry battlefield weapons, but the do carry sidearms!

*Significance: The idea of a sword as a sign of status and as an heirloom has some merit to it, but only at certain points in history and in certain cultures. Pre-12th century, good steel was very hard to come by, and so often swords would break or bend if used incorrectly, so while one sword might be passed through generations, another warrior might go through a dozen swords in his lifetime. What makes a good sword was poorly understood pretty much up until modern metallurgy, which is why when a sword lasted generations, it started taking on a mythic air. The reality had mostly to do with two factors, good steel, and proper tempering. Until the spaniards discovered a good way to mass produce good steel in the 12-13th century, it was hard to come by. The best came from India, and was called Wooz or Wootz. It was just by random happenstance the perfect mix of alloyed metals to make awesome swords, but once the mine ran out, no one knew how to duplicate it (try explaining to a 10th century smith that his alloy needs more vanadium and cobolt). The west first encountered it in Damascus, which is where the legend of Damascus steel comes from (though it was really imported into Damascas from India). After the 12th century or though, Spanish steel made a big impact, and heirloom blades became more practical. Ironically, they became less necessary, as the glut of surviving blades increased ever after. This drove the price of swords down to wear even common men could afford them. Of course the gentry made it illegal for anyone but a knight to carry a sword except in time of war. However, when the call to arms went out, every two bit merchant and farmer would pull his sword out of the attic. In regards to temper, heat treating the blade makes a huge difference. Heating and quenching means the difference between a sword bending and springin back to shape, or staying bent. On the other end, it means the difference between bending under pressure, or snapping like an icicle. Basically, you need a balance; hard enough to hold a keep edge, soft enough to spring. Too soft and it bends and gets dull; too hard and it snaps off the first time your hit a shield or another weapon. Ironically, the Vikings, for all that they are considered brutish and uncivilized, where some of the best at the art of tempering, and we're reputed throughout the Viking era as the best sword makers. Of course, even they needed Wootz to do it, which they traded for and weren't even aware of where it came from originally.

*Weight: a detail most average folks get wrong, but most nerds are already in the know about. Medieval swords, and just about all one handed Iron Age to modern era swords were quite light, weighing in at about 2-2.5 lbs. Keep in mind most pre-modern men averaged about 5'7", compared to the modern western average 5'10". Any heavier and you'd tire to quickly to use it any length of time.

*Edge: There is an idea in some circles that western swords were dull, or at least not particularly sharp. It's false. Western warriors kept their blades very very sharp. The theory was that a dull blade would tear and bash as much as it would cut, but it was based on poor observations of rusty recovered blades, and not of well maintained specimens or contempory accounts.

*Two-Handers: Pretty much did not exist until plate armour made using a shield redundant. William Wallace was about 300 years too early for that big Claymore.

More to come, but I'm on an iPad, and don't want to lose a post for getting too long...


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

*Edge to Edge Parrying: A lot of arm-chair nerds get up in arms about this one, when sword fighting, did fighters hit another sword with their own sword's sharp edge when blocking a strike, or try to take it on the flat? Many a nerd-rage warrior will tell you that Hollywood has it all wrong, because a "real" swordsman would never block with his edge, because one hardened steel edge will bite into another, leaving chips and nicks. What those fellows forget is that, A) when fighting another warrior, he's probably going to be using a spear, since only an idiot would choose a sword over a spear, B) that the other guy is probably going to be using a shield (as pretty much everyone in history did) and block with that, C) That most fights last only one or two exchanges before one fighter gets injured enough that he cannot continue. That last one is one of the most critical, since fights are so short, worrying about your edge is pretty silly. In the end, when it comes down to it, if you are in a fight for your life, are you going to be more worried about your edge, or your life? Your sword is a tool. You may like it, but it's not worth dying for. If it breaks, you can buy a new one (since you are wisely still alive to do so). So, edge to edge parrying is probably the most likely answer. Most of the surviving swordsmanship manuals specifically tell you to parry with the edge, though there are exceptions and some manuals do prescribe parrying with the flat of the blade. Seems like elements of that debate predate modern nerd warfare.

I think the real irony in this is the misplaced nerd rage. They are right that Hollywood fights are wrong, but they picked the wrong detail. It's not how they parry all those blows that is mistaken, it's how many blows there are in the first place (and how many warriors start the fight with their sidearm in hand, instead of a real first tier weapon). All contemporary accounts pretty much describe all fights the same way; 2-3 exchanges, and one fighter would be too wounded to continue (though might not actually die for minutes, hours, days, or at all, but the instant kill myth is somewhat distinct from weapon myths...

Katanas are the penultimate blade: I actually love Katanas, and I've trained with one for years, however, they are not all that special in the broad scheme of things. The Japanese had amazing smiths, but their achievement was not in making a better sword than anyone else; it was in making as good a sword as they did with the low quality steel they had at hand. Recall when I was saying earlier that good steel was hard to come by, and even before the end of the Viking era in the 10th century the Wootz mine was running dry, there was a few centuries before the Spanish came up with a decent substitute (but still not as good) for the Wootz steel that disappeared earlier. Well, this it to put in perspective that the only steel that existed on the island of Japan was of such crappy quality, that an 11th century smith pining for Wootz and having nothing nearly as good would still have turned up his nose at the stuff. It was crap! It is was the rest of the world would come to regard as Pig Iron; suitable for horseshoes and nails, and that was about it. The Japanese managed to take that kind of steel, and turn it into blades just as sharp (but not sharper) than their western contemporaries. It still had some downsides, they had to layer the steel in such a way that the could make the edge super hard to hold that edge, but leave the spine soft. It did the job brilliantly, but left a weakness where a katana that gets bent does not spring back to shape like a western sword, it stays bent. Go to any test-cutting demonstration or practice with Japanese swordsman and in with their gear you'll also see two straight metal rods about half the length of their sword. They are for straightening the blade, as when you hit a hard target with the edge even slightly off centre, your sword will be bent until you pry it back into shape. (highlander left out that bit...)

Those are the most popular myths that come to mind off the top of my head. Feel free to ask if others occur to you. I'm going to read up a little on Viking era sword specifically to see if I can think of anything that would affect the description. Initially, what I am thinking is that the sword might slightly pre-date the Viking era, as it was a Viking era myth. Myths come from before the time when the tales were told, not during them... This would probably mean a forging date of 6th or 7th century A.D..


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

Viking era swords (and the earlier "Migration era swords") were usually made by pattern welding. Instead of being made from a single piece of metal, they would usually begin life as three cast steel bars. The bars would be heated, twisted individually, and then twisted together before being hammered into their sword like shape. This would create patterns in the blade, thus the name pattern welding. It also allowed a smith to mix and match various kinds of steel (this one made a sword that was too soft, and the sword I made from this steel shattered, but if I mix them...), to get a blade that balanced the qualities of different types of metal.

As I said before, there was an air of mystery about what made a good sword, and it was often said that not even the smith himself would know how good a blade might be until it was tested in battle. From the modern perspective it is easy to see, that because samples of metal did not have the same consistency as modern mass produced alloys, that every attempt could be different. Even if you did everything exactly the same, one attempt might make a masterpiece, and the second a flawed blade. (As an interesting aside, because of the way the blades were forged from three bars, there are many contemporary accounts that say when a sword broke, it often split lengthwise as the forged pieces split back into their original components.). In addition to the consistent metal issue, add to this this that tempering the blade had to be done by feel and experience, as there were no thermometers that could tell you if the blade was at 1300 or 1400 degrees. The judgement had to be made by the colour the steel was glowing (which is why tempering was traditionally done at night). Get it wrong, even by a little, and the properties of the final blade could be significantly different.

Of course, none of this really matters that much in regards to how an ancient sword would be used in a supernatural rpg; reality and history do need to take a back seat occasionally for what works in the game. However, i do love the history, and it can be fun to incorporate elements of it where possible. I think this gives you a little background on the era, but the specifics probably don't make that much of a difference to the game. For game purposes, pretty much all I was looking for was when does it date to, does it appear authentically ancient as opposed to modern reproduction, and does it seem magical. After that, any extra detail or stuff that ties into history is just gravy.

Anyway, hopefully some of you found this an interesting read, and not too much of a digression from the game...


Male Human Monk 5 (Qinggong Master of Many Styles from the Sacred Mountain)/Fighter (Brawler) 3

I did not know all that about Viking blades. Interesting that that decorative quality is a natural part of the smithing process.

I will say, it perhaps makes sense that supernaturally strong and fast and nimble fighters would favor a sword. They don't need to worry about reach as much since they can close the gap faster than most humans can react, and would likely favor a closer ranged weapon so they can get in where the enemy can't retaliate. Probably why daggers are so common as primary weapons in such fiction as well.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

In a fictional world, rules of the real world are less important. This speaks to the real reason swords are the most popular weapon in fiction... Swords are just cool.


Hero points: 1/0; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

... and shields, being less cool, are usually much less effective in games than in reality. I remember that from the backyard playing around with padded rebar and lumber-built shields.

Liberty's Edge

Male Human Boston Private Detective

Meh, I've always had a fondness for blunt weapons in real life, though I do have several swords and other blades. It was a very interesting read, however. Thank you


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0
Detective Jarrod Liam Jackson wrote:
Meh, I've always had a fondness for blunt weapons in real life, though I do have several swords and other blades. It was a very interesting read, however. Thank you

Any corrections or alternative perspectives from a fellow ancient weapons aficionado?

Liberty's Edge

Male Human Boston Private Detective

No corrections, since I never really went in depth on forging (something I should probably change since I want to learn blacksmithing before I die). Honestly, my love of blunt weapons comes from the fact that it's just hard to block damage from a mace or hammer the same way you can a sword or axe. Unless you catch the hilt of the weapon, you're left with just dodging to avoid damage.

Which, you know, you should do anyway, regardless of what you're being attacked with.


I was aware of Wootz steel, but did not realize it was all from 1 mine in India.
I've seen it mentioned in reference to other areas forging blades (like the Vikings you mentioned), but didn't think it being traded that far.

That's very cool.

In regards to myths about swords, I've read of the Romans legions using the gladius as a primary weapon in melee after throwing pilums at a distance. I've also heard gladius were one of the first primarily thrusting swords. Is that true?


Hero points: 1/0; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

A shield can deflect some of the energy of a blunt weapon - but the rest of it goes into your arm. Trust me, you're going to feel it later.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0

That'll teach me to try and make such a long post on my phone. I usually know better and just double or triple post under these conditions, or type it up on google docs and copy it over after. But I guess I hadn't lost a long post in a while so I got cocky.

That is just so frustrating that I don't feel like redoing it now, but I will aim for later tonight if I can.

Quick version is chiming in on the Fomor's stuff, opinions on strategy/next move, and then a summary on the sword. That was the park I was trying to fancy up with links to relevant info. However, even though I'd need switching tabs for a hour, when I did it the last time it decided to refresh the page, wiping out my whole post.


Warden Kishan of the White Council | Hero points: 4; Luck 1/1; Bruises/Wounds/Conditions: 0/0/0
Wisp - Jasper Black wrote:
A shield can deflect some of the energy of a blunt weapon - but the rest of it goes into your arm. Trust me, you're going to feel it later.

I had actually played with the idea of giving Kishan a smallish round shield, as both a Shield Focus, and as a mundane shield for fencing. Thought it would add an interesting flavour. However, I couldn't budget the points at the time for another device.


Male Human Monk 5 (Qinggong Master of Many Styles from the Sacred Mountain)/Fighter (Brawler) 3

I hate it when my phone does that. It also likes to return to the first page I went to on a tab I open after a while for some reason. Especially frustrating for tabs I have open for ongoing stories (reading Twig right now) and when I'm bingeing a manga.

EX: I read up to the beginning of chapter 202, but opened the page originally on chapter 186...it'll snap back to 186 no matter what.

As for the shield, perhaps if we ever "level up"? I've never played an M&M game long enough for it to happen, but I believe there are rules for gaining new character points after several scenarios without increasing the overall PL?


You will get one Power point per session. Though I'm not sure what that means here. Probably after whatever the next step is.

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