I think we run the risk of creating Mary-Sue and Marty-Stu characters. All stories and names are forgotten after enough time, and most dreams and desires go unfulfilled. Many plots and plans are never realized. It's just the way things are supposed to go naturally.

If you bring back a character from the distant past, will this character be considered old and frail? Or will the character be as young and skilled as ever? Will you demand OOC that everyone recognizes the importance and history of your character, or will you IC accept it if no one knows who you are and if they roll their eyes at your old stories and memories?

The last thing I'd throw in the mix is that creating new characters is fun. Roleplaying means developing a character, and much of that development happens early on. In planeshift, the settings say we start off as nobodies and then our characters grow in skill and fame. We give our characters some basic ingredients, but the develoment depends on the interactions and events that happen afterwards. If the game is about character development, then at a certain point an old character is "done". To keep things interesting people invent these life changing events, but then you're back at the Mary-Sue / Marty-Stu thing.

Quote from: zanzibar on December 14, 2013, 06:52:53 pm

Shields are another example though, staying on topic. Shields are almost useless if the approaching army has skirmishers outfitted with pilums. But shields are given a lot of importance in RPGs, whereas many people right now are typing "pilum" into google as they read this.

sorry to be a nitpicker but ... pilum were not especially effective against shields by themselves, what made them especially effective was the way they were used by roman army: they were used against charging army when they were covering about the last 30-20m. The good coordination of the centurions fore lines trowing the pilum all at once against the charging enemies made it so a rain of pilum landed on the enemy and was very effective at stopping the charge in many battles. The only reason why a shield was not very effective is because it's very hard to make an efficient use of a shield while charging on foot, especially against incoming projectiles. Same could be said for arrows but what made the pilum an effective weapon for the roman army is they didn't need a specialized soldier to use it (unlike archers), the same soldier was trained to trow the pilum then switch to the spatha or gladium (depending on the historical age) to engage in melee combat once the distance with the enemy was covered.
Still shields were and are the best way to protect oneself from long range and short range attacks even nowadays, of course provided they can stop the projectiles (which is not the case with firearms but police still use it against mobs).

I thought pilums lodged themselves in shields though, so that they would need to be discarded? And were they only used against charges? Or were they also used by skirmishers to soften up defenders in advance of Roman attacks?

This is probably the first time anyone has ever complained about this particular thing.

There are roleplayers who strut around town in full platemail, 24/7. Most roleplayers do this, actually.

I'm here to tell you all that this is ridiculous. Plate armor should only ever be worn in combat, at a post, or at a dressy event.

It is not possible to run from Hydlaa to Gugrontid in full plate armor during the day without overheating or collapsing from exhaustion. It is not possible to outrun an unarmored man while you are wearing full plate armor. It is not possible to defeat a mob of men just because you are wearing full plate armor.

I know that everyone in Game of Thrones is wearing plate all over all the time. Yes, it looks cool. But those are costumes, and it is not historically accurate.

Also, fighting in armor is much different than fighting armored. I tried to find some realistic examples of swordfighting. Hopefully these help some of you.

Armored fighting, showing many basic techniques. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnqOMbFDEAI

Unarmored fighting with longswords. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjT4JepA-Vc

Sword and shield fighting. Felt like I should throw this in here. No one seems to know how to use them, and I think that's why there are very few shield-users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkhpqAGdZPc

Anyway, you can see the difference between armored and unarmored fighting. For some variation, I'll also include an accurate scene from a movie. Unarmored fighting which resembles fencing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhwIrONyEzg

Armored individuals would be hard to take down one-on-one or on the battlefield. However, they could easily be killed if they were mobbed because they lacked mobility. There is no such thing as impervious armor. There are unprotected segments around the joints, the neck, and the face. So it is unwise to wander around the city in full-plate. You could be jumped any moment, unable to outrun your attacker, and stabbed quite easily when you had not even drawn your weapon.

The more logical approach toward protection is leather armor or light chainmail.

You can argue that my complaint is pointless since this is a game and games are unrealistic, but we have always striven to be somewhat realistic in roleplay. The inconsistencies bother me. I would like to see things like armor and weapons make a difference. I'd like to see people knowing what they are roleplaying. I'd like to see heroes in shining armor be shivved to death in an alley by unencumbered rogues. 

It's also somewhat of a rock-paper-scissors thing to a limited and specific extent. Heavy plate armor won't help much against a halberd. There are arrows that cause devastating wounds but bounce off of armor, and there are arrows designed to piece armor. A flanged mace might look silly but it's specifically designed to hurt armored opponents. The stiletto was armor piercing, although it was especially used to finish off fighters that were on the ground, but I can imagine it being effective in backstabbing and assassination.

It would be nice though if your armor affects how fast you can run and how quickly your endurance is drained. In a fantasy setting though, where you have people with super-human abilities and magic and enchanted items and fantasy materials, you have to be somewhat forgiving when things get unrealistic.

Sunscreen is for those who believe age is a curse and death can be avoided.

We mostly keep the cursed bones in hollowed out books. The misc. section of the Scholars' area is pretty dusty these days.

Definition of troll: one who posts deliberately provocative messages to evoke an emotional response.

All good poetry then is trolling.

Hi moogie!

Living in the shadows is not a retreat. Those in the inner circle understand this.