"2 weapons in LotHS" Topic

[This is reposted from the WAB LoTHS forum as I have not had any responses so far]

One thing I have noticed is that, when I buy pirate minis with melee weapons, they often have a weapon in each hand. Even if it is just a sword and knife.

I was surprised that the rules didn't give an option for fighting with two weapons, except for the special skills. I'm toying with a simple house rule for this (like an extra attack but -1 to each die rolled in melee). Otherwise if you play WYSIWYG then you'd end up spending extra dubloons on a weapon which is useless.

I don't know if rules for this are covered in LotR or LotOW and could be adapted.

Any views on this? Was it covered in an earlier version of the rules and then scrapped for simplicity?

Thanks
Chris

Chris,

The reason I went with fighting with two weapons as a skill and not just allowing it for everyone is that it is hard to fight with two weapons at a time. I hada discussion with a few of my playtesters that are also re-eactors of various periods & they all told me that fighting with two weapons at once is very difficult. In fact it seem to be more a hollywood thing than reality, not saying it never happened, but it was rare, hence the reason for having it a skill.

If your group wants to come up with a house rule, than go for it, its your game have fun with it :-)

Tim Kulinski

Realism in a pirate game? Isn't that an oxymoron?

That's interesting, from my understanding one of the most common forms of Ren rapier fighting was with sword and dagger, at least most of the period manuals have it covered. I find that with a bit of practice it's not too dificult to master two weapons like rapier and dagger or case of rapiers. Having the dagger for defence is very handy, and also handy if you end up getting close in.

David S.

Realism in a pirate game? Isn't that an oxymoron?

I suppose you could include a scurvy rule if you want realism. :-)

Everybody make their role against scurvy. Bob remember to add you bonus for your "Scurvy Resistant" skill.

LLC aka Ron

"Everybody make their role against scurvy. Bob remember to add you bonus for your 'Scurvy Resistant' skill."

Just stay away from Frothers – I think that's where he hangs out these days.

If one studied fencing, one learned how to fight with both hands, either with sword and dagger, sword and shield, or two-handed weapon.

However, I doubt most pirates went to fencing school. They were mostly trying to intimidate the heck out of their opponent. I doubt fighting on a heaving vessel in close quarters really lent itself to learning how to fight with sword-and-dagger 'on the fly', but I could be wrong.

As to realism and introducing scurvy: I think I might have to do that for when a gang starts to run too low on cash…:)

David's post reflects the kind of thing I was thinking of, althouh Yair has a point about Pirates and fencing school (Thinking about that has just bought back memories of the Monkey Island games…).

I guess I was hoping that there might have been a skill to enable heroes to use two weapons in general, not just two swords.

I am a 3.Dan Kendofighter (Kendo = japanese swordfighting). You can use one or two swords, more exactly bambus – swords replacing original swords. In our tournaments from about hundred Kendofighters only 1-2 use both swords, a smaller and a longsword, because it is even for trained tournament kendofighter very difficult to fight efficiently with two swords. A percentage from 1-2 percent for me seems to be a skill and not something everybody do.

Werner G. Elb aka Samurai Elb.

Unfortunately my pirates haven't learnt Kendo. If only they took the time they might actually hit something for a change (or maybe I should just buy new dice!).

I'm the meantime I'll just carry on using house rules to allow for the sword and dagger style fighting from the period. Rob does say in his introduction about it being 'Hollywood style' history after all! Otherwise I can't seegood reason for buying a knife for characters, especially when there is next to no difference in the cost of most weapons.

"Rob does say in his introduction about it being 'Hollywood style' history after all!"

Hmm, I thought I wrote that in the forward, but maybe i was mistaken ;-)

Its your game, if you like using your House rules than go for it, have fun with the game…

Tim Kulinski

Tim

Whoops. Not sure how I ended up thinking it was Rob who wrote it. Sorry!

Chris