One-Handed Sword Use

[Riev]

inb4 allow one hand free to use subdue
inb4 one hand +bash +trip
inb4 one handed ++kick/elbow strikes


Actually....

.....

[Jihelu]

inb4 allow one hand free to use subdue
inb4 one hand +bash +trip
inb4 one handed ++kick/elbow strikes


Actually....

.....

If there was another skill added 'One handed' or whatever that emphasized those, I think that'd be cool. The more you have, the chance you have at grapples/bashes/punches that stumble your opponent. Make it a rare but useful occurrence and I'd think it would be worth it.

[montarion]

Gladii did not have crossguards, but then the Romans were too busy conquering the world to bother with fencing.

Also, I think that for Zalanthan materials, thrusting/crushing weapons would be much more practical than slashing ones.

They had gladiators to do their fencing for them.

While I don't know what would go into coding it, I do think there's merit for a "single weapon" style in ARM (bonus to... Idk dodge and parry or something?) even if only for stylistic reasons. It is a game, after all, and Rule of Cool should definitely apply.

[Jihelu]

Gladii did not have crossguards, but then the Romans were too busy conquering the world to bother with fencing.

Also, I think that for Zalanthan materials, thrusting/crushing weapons would be much more practical than slashing ones.

They had gladiators to do their fencing for them.

While I don't know what would go into coding it, I do think there's merit for a "single weapon" style in ARM (bonus to... Idk dodge and parry or something?) even if only for stylistic reasons. It is a game, after all, and Rule of Cool should definitely apply.

If you aren't playing for the style points, you aren't having fun.

[Synthesis]

People probably dueled 1-handed because lugging a shield around everywhere D&D style is a fucking giant pain in the dick.  Who cares if the fucking thing only weighs like 10 pounds or whatever.  You ever carried around 10 pounds with one arm all day?  No, you haven't, because it's impossibly fucking annoying.

Plus, with one hand free, you can punch and eye-gouge and pull hair and trap and trip and hip toss and pull your concealed knife and all that jazz that never made it into formal fencing.

[Armaddict]

People probably dueled 1-handed because lugging a shield around everywhere D&D style is a fucking giant pain in the dick.  Who cares if the fucking thing only weighs like 10 pounds or whatever.  You ever carried around 10 pounds with one arm all day?  No, you haven't, because it's impossibly fucking annoying.

That is probably the most relevant thing said thusfar, imo.  We just don't worry about that kinda thing in fantasy lala land.

[RogueGunslinger]

That's why you wear it on your back. I would love it if an open hand punched while a weapon is wielded in the other. That would be sick.

[Patuk]

I wonder if one-handing maces would become stronger than etwoing or dual wielding them in such a case.

[Armaddict]

If staff ever wants to do like a...game-inventory audit, to go over the entire database of existing items and make changes as necessary (and perhaps line in new features), I'd totally be down.

I'd love for itemization to be more of a thing that affects more about how combat and day to day movement works.

[CodeMaster]

A bit tangential, and definitely a pipe dream, but I always thought a bit of grappling during melee would be a cool feature to add in a MUD.  Every X seconds you could either "hit" or "parry" or "grapple".  Depending on what your opponent is doing vs. what you're doing, you may or may not get a bonus to combat, and the combat messages would change in subtle ways to describe the bonuses.

Hitting beats grappling beats parrying beats hitting -- so paper rock scissors, essentially.  The equilibrium strategy is (of course) to choose one of them at random.  But maybe having your offhand free gives you a bonus to grappling.

Your opponent knows you're good at grappling, so he chooses to hit more often to negate your bonus.  But you know he's going to hit more often, so you choose to parry more often, and you get these mini mind games happening that are actually game theoretically strategic rather than random dice rolls.

[racurtne]

People probably dueled 1-handed because lugging a shield around everywhere D&D style is a fucking giant pain in the dick.  Who cares if the fucking thing only weighs like 10 pounds or whatever.  You ever carried around 10 pounds with one arm all day?  No, you haven't, because it's impossibly fucking annoying.

Plus, with one hand free, you can punch and eye-gouge and pull hair and trap and trip and hip toss and pull your concealed knife and all that jazz that never made it into formal fencing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guige

But yeah, it would still be annoying as hell.

[Tetra]

People probably dueled 1-handed because lugging a shield around everywhere D&D style is a fucking giant pain in the dick.  Who cares if the fucking thing only weighs like 10 pounds or whatever.  You ever carried around 10 pounds with one arm all day?  No, you haven't, because it's impossibly fucking annoying.

Plus, with one hand free, you can punch and eye-gouge and pull hair and trap and trip and hip toss and pull your concealed knife and all that jazz that never made it into formal fencing.

If you're a soldier, carrying a shield could mean the difference between life and death.  If a volley of arrows comes sailing your way, a shield is going to save your life.  You don't hold it in your hand all day - that's what sheathing arms/strapping it to your back is for.  Shields are not a convention of D&D, they are a convention of war.  Read most anything related to ancient history & warfare, there are shields present.  Not because it's a fantasy trope, but because they were practical and effective.  

Also, punching someone who is wearing full armor and has a heavy weapon would almost always be wasted effort comparatively.  What makes more sense: punch someone with your free hand, or deal a critical blow to the vitals with a well-placed longknife?

If you're talking about amateur brawling, sure, fight with a free hand.  But a highly-trained opponent with combat experience is not going to be slighted by your empty fist.

[Armaddict]

Watching those videos has made it so that kinda bugs me that dual wielding longswords is so popular in game.  Bugger!

[Harmless]

Watching those videos has made it so that kinda bugs me that dual wielding longswords is so popular in game.  Bugger!

Schola's vids? keep watching his channel then. He talks a lot about dual wielding styles which were almost as popular as sword and buckler. They usually used a dagger or something similar though like a rapier. But they certainly have merit. Two identical weapon use was very very rare.

[Majikal]

Schola's vids? keep watching his channel then. He talks a lot about dual wielding styles which were almost as popular as sword and buckler. They usually used a dagger or something similar though like a rapier. But they certainly have merit. Two identical weapon use was very very rare.

But it looks so much fucking cooler...

[Patuk]

Dual-wielding sabres is something the Chinese consider a martial art form all of its own, and those are supposed to be identical just fine.

[HavokBlue]

Thai swordfighting in what I believe is the krabi-krabong style, utilizing two swords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-TytzvopOY

[Jihelu]

Butterfly blades were used together, I think/know. Don't know much else where people used two IDENTICAL weapons.

[nauta]

Hehe, the title of this thread is "One-Handed Sword Use".  *dork snort*  Get it?

[montarion]

Hehe, the title of this thread is "One-Handed Sword Use".  *dork snort*  Get it?

Only just now and really I'm kind of ashamed of that.

[Saellyn]

People probably dueled 1-handed because lugging a shield around everywhere D&D style is a fucking giant pain in the dick.  Who cares if the fucking thing only weighs like 10 pounds or whatever.  You ever carried around 10 pounds with one arm all day?  No, you haven't, because it's impossibly fucking annoying.

Plus, with one hand free, you can punch and eye-gouge and pull hair and trap and trip and hip toss and pull your concealed knife and all that jazz that never made it into formal fencing.

I carried a roughly 16 pound weapon around on a sling on my shoulders in basic and THAT was a fucking pain in the dick, so yeah. 10 pounds on one arm is seriously annoying.

One handed seems like an Inigo Montoya thing, only in this situation in Arm you're waiting for an opportunity to really fuck the other guys ribcage up with something small and sharp that he doesn't know you have.

[Sakra]

After watching these guys http://www.armouredswords.ca/Osgoode2014/ACS_DaveAvJeff1.html fight, I signed up for their sword handling class. If you can find one in your area, I highly recommend it.