Shorticus

Are there any Dungeon Masters here?

I used to DM D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder, but have long since decided it just isn't my cup of tea. However, I used to be big into play by post for that sort of thing.

Here are my suggestions to you:

• Try looking in the Tabletop Roleplaying section, first. You may have better luck there.
• If that fails, try the Paizo forums. They have sections devoted to play by post games.
• Finally, you may consider the Giant in the Playground forums, though that's a dangerous place to tread.
• If the last two options don't sound appealing to you, you may consider trying out other tabletop games on these forums. I've seen people push a huge variety of stuff over there, though I haven't dived in myself.

Happy hunting! I hope you get the Pathfinder or 3.5 experience you're looking for.

Let's Gush!

One thing that I absolutely love is having the opportunity to actually coordinate with someone to cooperatively write a scene.

Look, I know this doesn't happen very often for some reason. The easiest way to RP via a forum is to just take turns writing your scenes out. This works great for certain kinds of roleplays - nation roleplays, for instance - but not so well for others. It's those others that seem to hurt from the nature of forum RP. Simple conversations can turn into long paragraphs of nothing happening; action scenes can become a sort of competition to see who can write the bestest and meanester. Etc.

But when you shoot PMs back and forth with someone to handle a conversation, or when you use a chatroom or Google document to write out and edit your work together, there's this awesome since of "Holy crap, this is looking like a scene from a BOOK!" Paragraphs of nothing turn into witty discourse, back-and-forth snapping and comedy gold. Action scenes actually get the speed they need to feel like action scenes: one character swings, the other parries, and then his foot is kicked out from underneath him, and on and on the fight goes. It flows so much better, reads so much better...

And in the short time I've had this account, I'd had the opportunity to collaborate on a neat dialogue scene with someone, I've discussed future collaborations with others, and I've had pleasant conversations with players whose characters were going to be at odds with mine... It's a good feeling. I don't know if I'll have a lot more collaborative works while I'm on this site, but I hope I do.

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Also, I just want to say that it's nice to be able to join roleplays that let me post at a pace that's... well, more my own. I'm a busy student, and I can't always post at the same rate as everyone else. In the past, I've lost friends over my busy schedule: people I played tabletop games with, people I roleplayed on WoW with... Some folks I played with just couldn't accept that my schedule was unpredictable, that I'd have to skip some game sessions, that I'd have to reschedule things to study more, or that, yeah, I sometimes forget I have an assignment due until the last minute and so have to stop whatever I'm doing and get that assignment done.

But thus far, I've had great experiences on the forum and great leniency concerning my timetable. Folks don't mind that I expect to only be able to post <X> times per week. I haven't been throttled for posting something a day after I said I'd have it done. There's a lot of understanding in general. I'm happy about that.

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Finally... Look, I'm not one for shoutouts normally, but I just want to specifically thank everyone in the Age of Dawn thread. The thread has a nice, varied cast, a great GM, folks who don't mind my posting frequency, and a unique way of telling a story. It manages to feel freeform yet directed and guided at once. I've seen players write up their own lore, and I've seen the GM work that lore into the story wonderfully. And did I mention that pretty much everyone in that thread makes me happy to be a part of that roleplay?

Yeah, long story short: I'm pretty happy I dropped into Roleplayer Guild. This is an experience I needed.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

The point is, though, that solid fighting weapons were accessible to the average man, even if only when he went to go on a march to war. A stout spear, a used sword, a fighting axe, a mace, a shield - all of these are perfectly reasonable weapons to own, and it certainly isn't unheard of.

You wouldn't go to war with a woodcutting axe. A woodcutting axe isn't very effective for warfare. You'd have a specialized fighting axe which COULD be used for other purposes in a pinch. You'd have a spear designed to kill people that you COULD use to go hunting. Your bow would quite possibly be higher poundage than a hunting bow. While at the beginning of the medieval era I'm pretty sure you'd see peasant levies with seriously crap-tier weapons, the point is you'd have a real weapon in war, not an improvised one.

You are right that the wealthy would have really expensive swords as a status symbol... but that doesn't mean that decent fighting swords were too expensive for normal men to own.

One thing you said was definitely true, though:

Any high ranking soldier had access to better arms and gear, this has always been the truth. If I was paid more I'd buy lifesaving gear. Proper swords, some good armor. A shield that's not made from a table.

Especially among mercenaries, the more experienced sorts would have the best armor and weapons, and they'd do exactly what you said: spend their money on getting better armor to stay alive.

A Hostile Galaxy [Science Fiction Civilization Political Simulator]

Thus far...

Two planned insectoid races, two synthetic races, two catgirl races.

Battle of the dynamic duos?

Crisis in the Kremlin! [Borderline Advanced Political Thriller]

I'm still working on my sheet, but I'm going to ask that I be allowed to represent the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

A Hostile Galaxy [Science Fiction Civilization Political Simulator]

<Snipped quote by Sigma>

Its been to long since its divine glory has graced your meaningless lives Fuso has returned! you filthy dishonorabru gaijin western barbarian brutes
:P

Relevant

@ClocktowerEchos

Do you know what the planet Gaishen sounds like?

Gaijin.

Your people are Gaijin.

FRAMEs: Chapter II [Reboot] (Mech combat, politics & corporate intrigue)

Lut, I don't think flamethrowers are as effective as you may think.

@Massasauga

I know I certainly didn't intend to make it a superweapon or anything. I COULD see ammo blowing up, for instance, but the armor would have to be penetrated for that to work. And most ammo would probably have have extra protection from that sort of thing to prevent chain reactions from blowing a FRAME up...

FRAMEs: Chapter II [Reboot] (Mech combat, politics & corporate intrigue)

I'm not going to have much time to post Wednesday night, but I WILL have time to post Thursday. So, yeah, starting tomorrow night works for me.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

Katanas. HAHAHA! They are not super weapons. They're made of earth found metals. They're not alien nor supernatural, and they do have limitations. Katanas are piercing and slashing weapons. Worn as a sign of social status and far to expensive for most common soldiers to even purchase. This is nothing new to any common soldier, European soldiers fighting for kings had basic weapons, maybe a woodcutting axe, or a hammer. Sometimes a shield or buckler. Any high ranking soldier had access to better arms and gear, this has always been the truth. If I was paid more I'd buy lifesaving gear. Proper swords, some good armor. A shield that's not made from a table.

Okay, so, let me clear something up: swords weren't super duper expensive in Europe. You're right about swords being a status symbol, but it's not because they were super expensive.

The first thing to remember when you talk about medieval weapons of war is most of these weapons are derived from a tool used for another purpose. A warhammer is derived from the common hammer; a spear could be used for hunting, as could a bow and arrow; a battleaxe is derived from the more common woodcutting axe. Daggers and knives could be used for more than killing, as could slings, and a shield is really just a means of protecting yourself from injury.

But a sword? A sword has one purpose, and that purpose is to take life away from other humans.

Swords weren't especially expensive, as I said. A regular footsoldier or a peasant in the medieval era could get his hands on one. The real question is whether or not he could waltz around town wearing one without being eyeballed weirdly. After all, what's some jumped up peasant doing with a weapon whose sole purpose is to kill? Shouldn't that right belong to knights? To wealthy men?

Weapons in general weren't all that uncommon. Actual usable spears, axes, shields, and, yes, swords weren't far from the hands of any army. Armor was the tougher thing to get your hands on, at least in the early medieval era. Vikings wearing chainmail were much rarer than Vikings wearing little to no armor. Footsoldiers throughout a lot of medieval history would be considered fortunate to have a gambeson or some padded cloth with metal rivets underneath. You can be darned sure, though, that a proper footsoldier would probably have a spear and a dagger thrust into his hands, or maybe a shield and something to whack someone with.

Training helps, but when it comes down to it, 1v1 fights are a mere roll of the dice between two sets of odds. Sometimes people have drastically better odds, but two people who are really good at what they're doing, even when they're using drastically different things, is like comparing apples to oranges. Yes, some are better at their martial art than others, and that's slightly more measurable, but comparing two martial arts that have endured the test of time in order to definitively tell which one is better is kind of, well, not super plausible.

This is very true, and I think it's worth mentioning that medieval warfare was centered around the siege because battles could result in a loss. You only fought battles if you were pretty damned sure you could win.

1v1 fights, I think, are much the same. You don't want to fight someone of near to equal skill because even an untrained fighter could kill you with a bit of luck. You want to have every advantage possible when fighting someone.

That said, some equipment is outright better than other equipment... in certain situations. I'd rather have a warhammer or mace than a battle axe if I'm fighting a guy wearing plate armor, for instance. I'd rather have a saber than a shortsword if I'm going into a 1v1 duel between two guys wearing little to no armor. And I think if I was witnessing a knight in plate armor go up against a samurai in medieval Japanese armor, I'd much rather bet my money on the guy in plate armor because it's designed to deflect weapons like the katana.

But if you took that same knight and samurai and put them in a hot environment where they had to take their armor off, I'd wager the samurai would have a much better chance than before of beating the knight.

A Hostile Galaxy [Science Fiction Civilization Political Simulator]

Someone likes Warhammer 40k.