From: robert@isgtec.com (Robert Osborne)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Throw away your greatsword! ( Big vs. Small Weapons )
Date: 30 Jul 92 20:11:14 GMT

jwadsley@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au writes:
> Are social and economic reasons the only ones to use a small weapon?

Pretty much, except for special circumstances (eg. close quarters).

> [ other reasons we could use ...]
> o Speed of drawing: 
> o Keeping your hands free:
> o Space required:
> D&D is fond of 30 foot ceilings and 20 foot wide corridors. This is a lot of
> room. A more realistic underground dungeon would have smaller rooms and
> corridors. An orc warren would probably have 4-5 foot high ceilings at best and
> 3-5 foot wide corridors.

I once forced a party to crawl through a giant ant farm (well not
really forced, since it was the only way to get away from a bunch of
REAL nasties, they *really* wanted to crawl :-).  The next time
they reached a town everbody was buying daggers and shortswords :-)

> o Protecting your friends:
> o Speed of attacking and parrying:
> The lighter and more manoueverable a weapon is, the faster it may attack and
> parry. Smaller weapons may also recover more quickly from attacks or parries.
> Smaller weapons are fast enough to enable feints and complex attacks. Larger
> weapons rely more on a single heavy blow. This is the rationale behind the
> buckler. Reducing the size and weight of the shield reduced it's basic
> protective value. The extra speed of the parry and counterattack compensated.
> GAME: Use a more complex attacks per round system or reduce the number of 
> attacks per round for large weapons.

You have to be careful on this one.  The reason bigger weapons are used
is that, on a one-to-one basis in good terrain, they are better.
Don't try too much to make smaller weapons 'better' in straight up
hand-to-hand because this will make it unrealistic.

> o Endurance:
> It is a lot more tiring to swing a polearm repeatedly that a rapier. Imagine
> playing squash or tennis with an artificially heavy racquet. You would tire a
> lot faster.
> GAME: Increased fatigue for using a large weapon in battle.

While this is true if everbody is using a big weapon, I don't think it
would be true for mixed weapondry.  The person with the big weapon
doesn't need to commit themselves to an attack.  Think of great sword
vs. rapier:

    1) the warrior with the great sword has it in the ready position
       and just waits for the rapier weenie to get a little closer
    2) the musketeer bounces, weaves and pokes at the lunkhead
       with the great sword trying to get him to actually commit
       himself

> Note; These ideas do not make small weapons suddenly better than large
> weapons. Large weapons still have more reach and do more damage.

The idea is to make the party think about more than just combat
efficiency.  Once I had a party wandering about a small city in full
combat regalia:  bows, polearms, longswords and armour.  After about 20
minutes they ran into a hastly formed and rather large company of the
city guard who politely asked them their business and then asked them
to disarm or leave the town.

The party ALMOST attacked :-)

Rob.
--
Robert A. Osborne   ...!uunet.ca!isgtec!robert or robert@isgtec.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc