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alanajoli
2007-01-11, 11:18 PM
Hi all,

I'm looking for a recommendation on a d20 accessory/supplement that actually lists which weapons are appropriate for which eras of game play. I could do a ton of research and figure out which weapons are most appropriate to a Crusades campaign as opposed to a Renaissance campaign (and then compare them to a Sengoku period samurai campaign). But I'm really hoping there's a pdf publisher out there somewhere who has done that for me, and I can buy the results for $7.95, give or take.

If anyone knows of this kind of sourcebook (or, heck, a Web site offering the information), I'd love to hear about it!

Alana

Hario
2007-01-11, 11:20 PM
d20 arms and equiptment guide, its 3.0 but little would be changed if brought to 3.5 it has the time period for types of weapons early in the book too.

Matthew
2007-01-12, 07:48 AM
I don't think any D20 supplement provides such information accurately, but it doesn't matter too much because D&D mechanics don't really support that sort of detail.

Saying that, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Option: Combat and Tactics supplement does provide such a break down, for all its errors. The Palladium Book of Weapons and Armour is a classic non D20 resource, but it only divides by culture and not by time period.

Dhavaer
2007-01-12, 01:15 PM
d20 Past. I have no idea how accurate it is, but all the equipment has a year listed, before which it cannot be purchased. It only goes back so far though (about 1400, I think) so swords, bows, axes etc aren't listed like that.

nyjastul69
2007-01-12, 01:30 PM
This might be what you're looking for.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=5195

alanajoli
2007-01-12, 11:48 PM
Wow, you guys are great help! I knew there would be in the know people on these forums.

I'll keep my eyes open for d20 Past and A&E Guide next time I'm in my local gaming store (though I imagine A&E is tough to find now, except on ebay). The Highmoon book looks great, too--I wish I'd been able to find it when I was trolling RPGnow before I posted. thanks nyjastul!

Matthew's right about the balance issue coming up with D&D mechanics vs. realistic play. One of my players and I have been talking about the difficulty with largely getting rid of heavy armor, because it limits the classes that have that proficiency as a class ability. Finding something equivalent to give them, if I decide to go with a culture that uses lighter armor, will be something I'll have to play around with. And with lower equipment armor classes, I'll have to compensate with available magic (which, while not realistic, I don't mind integrating--but it does bother me to have long sword fighters dueling against rapier weilders *shrug*).

At any rate, I'll have to decide if my pet peeve will make the game too hard. I'm really glad there are resources that have taken it into account!

Thanks again for all the advice.

Alana

Hurlbut
2007-01-13, 10:16 AM
Really? Hard to find? I saw a copy in the Barnes & Nobles bookstore on a College campus in middle of Mississippi last week.

alanajoli
2007-01-13, 04:10 PM
Huh, maybe I'll be lucky and it will be on the shelves of my local B&N. We don't have the well-stocked gaming sections here in southern CT that I was used to up in Boston. (And no actual gaming stores for a fifty mile radius or greater! The agony!) :)

-Alana

Hario
2007-01-14, 01:13 AM
Huh, maybe I'll be lucky and it will be on the shelves of my local B&N. We don't have the well-stocked gaming sections here in southern CT that I was used to up in Boston. (And no actual gaming stores for a fifty mile radius or greater! The agony!) :)

-Alana

What are you talking about? I live near worcester which is 30 miles outside of boston and there are 2 gaming stores (at least) in that one "city"

Wehrkind
2007-01-14, 02:15 AM
Perhaps to offset the disadvantage of not having access to heavy armor, you could give a free feat from a handful of choices set towards a certain type of fighter, such as Toughness or Combat Expertise.

Alternately, in era's before heavy armor, Barbarian is a better class flavor wise than Fighter, so that takes care of the armor bit, and after heavy armor was used a lot you saw more powerful guns anyway, which puts it somewhat outside the realm of D&D's time periods.
Also, restricting the spells by way of cash would be a good way to help balance as well. Reduce the overall Wealth by Level guidlines by a set percentage, and remove mages auto learning spells, requiring them to be bought (expensive relatively, and rare) found (rare) or researched (expensive.) Leaves Divine casters more powerful, though.

alanajoli
2007-01-14, 06:48 PM
What are you talking about? I live near worcester which is 30 miles outside of boston and there are 2 gaming stores (at least) in that one "city"

Oh, I didn't meant to imply anything about outside of the Boston area. I just was comparing my current residence (in southern Connecticut, near New Haven) to where I used to live in Cambridge (near Pandemonium Books, which is possibly the coolest book&gaming store in the world).

The closest game stores to me are in Manchester, which is about an hour away, and one of them is more a hobby shop than a game store (good game stock, but far more model train sets, airplanes, and programmable robots than dice). I assumed when we moved here that there had to be something local, due to our proximity to Yale, but alas, the Ivy League Geeks have failed me on this front. (They do throw a mighty fine convention in Stamford though--again, an hour away...)

*sigh*

-Alana

alanajoli
2007-01-14, 06:50 PM
Perhaps to offset the disadvantage of not having access to heavy armor, you could give a free feat from a handful of choices set towards a certain type of fighter, such as Toughness or Combat Expertise.

Oh, that's definitely a good idea. Who wouldn't like an additional starting feat?

I'm actually thinking flavor-wise going with a Musketeers era campaign, so limited fire power, but post shining armor. Lots more personal dueling, rapier play, etc.

But I'm going to poll my players on what kind of campaign they're interested in before I really decide. Right now I'm at the very beginnings of my research phase.

-Alana

Hurlbut
2007-01-14, 07:46 PM
Why not this? http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm It benefit characters with medium or light armors and unarmored ones.

Wehrkind
2007-01-14, 09:49 PM
The Three Musketeers is set in the 1620's, and plate armor was peaking, or slightly on the decline, at that point. Fighters should be able to get the best armor possible at this point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armor#Plate_armour.2C_1400_-_1620

It was not until rifled bullets really hit the scene that armor became useless. For a while armor was perfected specifically to stop musket fire.

Jayabalard
2007-01-15, 12:02 AM
It's not D20, but I seem to remember that GURPS High Tech had a pretty good break down of weapons by Era; "High tech" being the opposite of "Low Tech" (ie fantasy) and not the same thing as "Ultra Tech" (Future Tech)

How useful that would be... /shrug ... it would be a pita to convert stats, but if it does have the historical information you're looking for then it might be worthwhile.

alanajoli
2007-01-15, 10:00 AM
Oh, I really like that defense bonus variant. It is now bookmarked. :)

As for the 1620s--yes, plate mail was still around (it was into the 1900s, as per that same article), but it took on different situational importance. As the article says, starting in the 1500s, bits and pieces of a suit of full plate were discarded for the actual military men (except, probably, officers on horseback). I have to concede that it would still be available (and therefore accessible to my players), but whether or not it makes sense for the type of adventure being played is slightly different. Plate mail seems to become solely an army thing (rather than a personal combat thing--eg. jousting from an earlier era). Personal combat in the 1500s moves toward dueling, typically done with rapiers, sabres, and competed in unarmored.

Probably the more sensible thing to do would be to leave armor alone and just play pre-rapier, since the rapier itself has a very specific historical context and use. ;) Since one of my players is now pushing for a Robin Hood style game, we'll see what happens.