Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Gingervitis]

The Japanese female warriors always sounded like bullshit to me. Like no shit well fed women with polearms in a fortified position were better against malnourished peasants with farming tools as makeshift weapons.

It doesnt matter if they’re juggernauts, peasants, or starving African children. If they can credibly kill you, and you kill them, most people would count you as a warrior

 

[Snekposter]

The Japanese female warriors always sounded like bullshit to me. Like no shit well fed women with polearms in a fortified position were better against malnourished peasants with farming tools as makeshift weapons.

You do realize that a lot of the nastier medieval weapons were directly derived from farming tools? The billhook is the most obvious example, with flails having their origins in threshing tools, and a mattock would fuck up a knight just as easily as it does soil. Hatchets can cut limbs just as well as branches, too.


Go ahead and tell that wouldn't fuck up a dude, armor or no armor.

To more seriously answer your question, they actually were pretty well trained, mostly because their lives would frequently be just as forfeit as their husbands if either the castle fell or he did. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain by strapping on armor and fighting. Hell, the naginata as a weapon is almost entirely down to Tomoe Gozen's talent with it during the Genpei War. No, they weren't commonplace, but just become women are inherently disadvantaged that doesn't mean said inadequacies are completely insurmountable. There's a reason they preferred weapons like polearms and the bow and arrow, after all.

Hell, the Dahomey Amazons were the terror of Western Africa until they made the mistake of charging a bayonet line and getting impaled before they could close past them to sword range. But even the Romans couldn't charge head-first into pike formations and win, so that's not really a giant black mark against their personal skill at arms, just their choice of combat tactics.

That's not a warrior.

If shit went down they'd be just as expected to lead the defense as their husbands were, and if necessary fight on the front lines same as their husbands were.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Being physically disadvantaged doesn't mean every match-up against a man is hopeless, but it does weigh the fight much more heavily towards technique and equipment. A sword to the throat will kill someone no matter whether it was wielded by a man or a woman. A woman will have to compensate for her average shorter range and lower upper body strength when fighting a man, but those aren't insurmountable in a real combat situation (read: not a 1v1 duel in a flat arena where both parties are 100% aware of each other).

Going back to the subject to RPGs, player characters in most combat-heavy games are by definition special people so it's pointless to bring up sexual dimorphism unless it's actually relevant to the rules. Realism goes out of the window when the character can survive a dragon breathing fire on them, anyway.

The Japanese female warriors always sounded like bullshit to me. Like no shit well fed women with polearms in a fortified position were better against malnourished peasants with farming tools as makeshift weapons.

Women from samurai families were trained in self-defense since they were expected to defend the household when then men of the house were away on duty. They weren't warriors in the sense of going off to war as ground troops (unless things had gone fantastically pear-shaped), but when the biggest threat was usually bandits or angry peasants, having training and a weapon made them dangerous opponents in those situations. And in sieges any sword is better than no sword. Sure, their purpose was defensive but they could fight and were expected to.

Mind you, that's samurai women. As in, a single caste. Everybody else, not so much. I think I read something about some Buddhist nuns also getting combat training in order to defend their monasteries and themselves against bandits. But that's about it. You weren't going to see women fighting as levied ashigaru, for example.

 

[AnOminous]

You do realize that a lot of the nastier medieval weapons were directly derived from farming tools? The billhook is the most obvious example, with flails having their origins in threshing tools, and a mattock would fuck up a knight just as easily as it does soil. Hatchets can cut limbs just as well as branches, too.

Halberd = best polearm. If you disagree u r feg.

Going back to the subject to RPGs, player characters in most combat-heavy games are by definition special people so it's pointless to bring up sexual dimorphism unless it's actually relevant to the rules. Realism goes out of the window when the character can survive a dragon breathing fire on them, anyway.

This was generally my reasoning in disregarding sex differences even in early D&D when I was like 12. If a girl wanted to play, great. I wasn't going to inflict Gygax's bullshit on her for it. That said, of the girls who actually did play a game I was GM'ing, one wanted to be a chaotic evil half-orc assassin, another a male straight up barbarian brawler, and another a male paladin. No healsluts.

I just never viewed realism as being more important than fun.

Later on I did have some "dimorphism" but it was usually for world-related reasons, like some magic was gendered. I had a sort of Bene Gesserit inspired religious order that had unique abilities and spells. They were all NPCs, though, and generally hostile to the characters. I probably would have let someone play them, though.

 

[Snekposter]

Halberd = best polearm. If you disagree u r feg.

I'm a fan of poleaxes, but that's really just because the English nobles loved to crack open French skulls with them. I'm fond of just about anything that makes the French seethe.

Coincidentally, the French also really, really hated some of the English cavalry sabers used during the Napoleonic Wars on account of how deep and broad the resulting cuts were.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

So, I apologize for this being an out-of-nowhere and very late topic, but a player with my DnD group brought it up recently; I was curious as to what you guys thought.

What do you guys think about DnD 5e's Oathbreaker class? Like, do you guys think people playing it is an interesting choice, or should it be restricted to NPCs only? Have you guys ever played or DM'd for anyone who wanted to play an Oathbreaker? You find it to be kind of a "red flag" for a table if a player wants to play one? What do you guys think?

 

[Gingervitis]

So, I apologize for this being an out-of-nowhere and very late topic, but a player with my DnD group brought it up recently; I was curious as to what you guys thought.

What do you guys think about DnD 5e's Oathbreaker class? Like, do you guys think people playing it is an interesting choice, or should it be restricted to NPCs only? Have you guys ever played or DM'd for anyone who wanted to play an Oathbreaker? You find it to be kind of a "red flag" for a table if a player wants to play one? What do you guys think?

It’s a pretty big red flag for faggotry.

Real men use the Unearthed Arcana Oath of Treachery

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

The Japanese female warriors always sounded like bullshit to me.

That's not a warrior.

Women of the samurai class were fully trained combatants who would even fight in battles alongside their male counterparts, especially in castle sieges where they were forced to take up arms. They were known as Onna-musha, and Tomoe Gozen is probably the most famous example who even commanded hundreds of troops in battle and personally beheaded several noted samurai. There are many other famous and notable accounts of female warriors and even generals in Japanese military history, and many clans were de facto lead by women at various points in history. DNA testing of battlefield sites have showed that, in many cases, as much as 30% of the battle dead were women.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Mind you, that's samurai women. As in, a single caste. Everybody else, not so much. I think I read something about some Buddhist nuns also getting combat training in order to defend their monasteries and themselves against bandits. But that's about it. You weren't going to see women fighting as levied ashigaru, for example.

Actually, during the height of the Sengoku period of Japan, even female peasants took up the sword and fought for certain militant Buddhist sects, like the Ikkō-ikki.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

So, I apologize for this being an out-of-nowhere and very late topic, but a player with my DnD group brought it up recently; I was curious as to what you guys thought.

What do you guys think about DnD 5e's Oathbreaker class? Like, do you guys think people playing it is an interesting choice, or should it be restricted to NPCs only? Have you guys ever played or DM'd for anyone who wanted to play an Oathbreaker? You find it to be kind of a "red flag" for a table if a player wants to play one? What do you guys think?

You should feel bad for playing DND 5E it is D&D for droopy eyed armless children

 

[The Ugly One]

especially in castle sieges where they were forced to take up arms

Women fighting when the only alternative is death isn't uncommon in history, nor is teaching women to be capable of defending themselves. Happened in WW2, too. Go to any gun range in America, and you'll see women with firearms, learning to protect themselves. Modern historians love to exaggerate such incidents as meaning women were somehow able to match men in combat in eras where the only force driving a weapon forward was muscle.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It doesnt matter if they’re juggernauts, peasants, or starving African children. If they can credibly kill you, and you kill them, most people would count you as a warrior

I respectfully disagree. A warrior is someone that goes willingly outside of a safe place to risk his life. I was plenty of times on patrol duty in the army (including some shitholes) and I wouldn't call myself a "warrior".

You do realize that a lot of the nastier medieval weapons were directly derived from farming tools? The billhook is the most obvious example, with flails having their origins in threshing tools, and a mattock would fuck up a knight just as easily as it does soil. Hatchets can cut limbs just as well as branches, too.


Go ahead and tell that wouldn't fuck up a dude, armor or no armor.

Peasants and bandits didn't have access to those, and what they did have was extremely low grade weapons and armor. Japan suffered from having really bad sources of iron.

To more seriously answer your question, they actually were pretty well trained, mostly because their lives would frequently be just as forfeit as their husbands if either the castle fell or he did. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain by strapping on armor and fighting. Hell, the naginata as a weapon is almost entirely down to Tomoe Gozen's talent with it during the Genpei War. No, they weren't commonplace, but just become women are inherently disadvantaged that doesn't mean said inadequacies are completely insurmountable. There's a reason they preferred weapons like polearms and the bow and arrow, after all.

You have a few women who won the genetic lottery to be able to fight on the front lines, but the idea of a female fighting force is ridiculous for a reason. Especially when you have equipment weighting dozens of kilos, which where the average female physique makes the difference insurmountable.

But like I said before, in DnD your party is people who won the genetic lottery anyway, so having a female with them isn't too ridiculous.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I hate the trope of a group of ragtag rejects coming together and trying to do something because it gets used so much in that kind of media.

Isn't that the entire premise of DnD? A bunch of weirdos, misfits, or just desperate people go on a quest for treasure, usually by raiding tombs and dungeons no one with any sense goes near?

Does anyone know some good OSR or Indie tabletop games? I want to learn about the non-mainstream ttrpgs

Define "good".

Good mechanically? Lots. I hear Castles and Crusades is good. I hear Dungeon Crawl Classics is good. I hear games like Basic Fantasy and Old School Essentials are just reprints of old DnD.

Games people actually play? Few. I had a good time with Knave. I love Tiny d6 for one shots (though recent versions suck). But getting people to play outside the WotC Piazo bubble is difficult.


Odd question. Does anyone know any good short megadungeons or open world games?

A planned campaign for summer has fallen through due to schedule changes. They refuse to play the shorter published modules due to being linear/railroady. Modules like Keep on the Borderlands and Secret of Bone Hill are too long for the limited time frame. Only one I know that might fit the bill is the original Ravenloft. I'll likely just call the whole campaign a write off, but was wondering if you guys have any recommendations.

 

[AnOminous]

A planned campaign for summer has fallen through due to schedule changes. They refuse to play the shorter published modules due to being linear/railroady. Modules like Keep on the Borderlands and Secret of Bone Hill are too long for the limited time frame. Only one I know that might fit the bill is the original Ravenloft. I'll likely just call the whole campaign a write off, but was wondering if you guys have any recommendations.

Anything like the original S modules if you don't mind them being incredibly deadly. They're not all Tomb of Horrors, but even something like White Plume Mountain is pretty grim in parts.

It's hardly a megadungeon (the original was something like 16 pages), but it's a tricky puzzle dungeon with Grimtooth-level traps in it.

For a longer more campaign-type thing, I always liked the Saltmarsh modules which involve fish people in a coastal town pretty clearly modeled on the Deep Ones from Lovecraft. There was originally a four-part campaign based on them, but there are also a number of standalone scenarios you can more or less mix and match with without necessarily running an ongoing campaign heading to some kind of climactic ending.

Again, these are mostly fairly deadly.

 

[PAM Cooking Spray]

is almost entirely down to Tomoe Gozen's talent with it during the Genpei War

tomoe gozen never even existed
this is like saying some weapon existed because of lady guinevere

Tale of the Heike was an epic, not a historical account.

I assume you're going to reply by linking to the wikipedia article that really, really wants her to be real, and before you do, switch to the Japanese version which clearly states she's a fictional character.

 

[Gingervitis]

Anything like the original S modules if you don't mind them being incredibly deadly. They're not all Tomb of Horrors, but even something like White Plume Mountain is pretty grim in parts.

It's hardly a megadungeon (the original was something like 16 pages), but it's a tricky puzzle dungeon with Grimtooth-level traps in it.

For a longer more campaign-type thing, I always liked the Saltmarsh modules which involve fish people in a coastal town pretty clearly modeled on the Deep Ones from Lovecraft. There was originally a four-part campaign based on them, but there are also a number of standalone scenarios you can more or less mix and match with without necessarily running an ongoing campaign heading to some kind of climactic ending.

Again, these are mostly fairly deadly.

Iunno. I’d say start them with the Ghost Tower of Inverness pregens, play through it, and have them deal with the fallout of giving a magic gem to a blatantly evil wizard.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Women fighting when the only alternative is death isn't uncommon in history, nor is teaching women to be capable of defending themselves. Happened in WW2, too. Go to any gun range in America, and you'll see women with firearms, learning to protect themselves. Modern historians love to exaggerate such incidents as meaning women were somehow able to match men in combat in eras where the only force driving a weapon forward was muscle.

Women didn't only fight in castle sieges. As I said, there is archeological evidence of women taking part in normal battles away from castles alongside their male counterparts. There are historical accounts of this happening as late as the Boshin War, where there was an all female unit that fought bravely and acquitted itself well fighting on the side of the Shogunate/Ezo Republic after it fell back to Ezo.

tomoe gozen never even existed

There's some dispute as to her existence and the details of her life, but she's attested to in multiple accounts and was quite famous in later generations in Japan. And she wasn't even the only female general of her era.

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

Actually, during the height of the Sengoku period of Japan, even female peasants took up the sword and fought for certain militant Buddhist sects, like the Ikkō-ikki.

They job to guns

 

[Ghostse]

Odd question. Does anyone know any good short megadungeons or open world games?

Tomb of the Serpent Kings. Get your group off the gay-frog 5e tit and back to old school.

 

[AnOminous]

The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. Now there's a fun one. At least if you're the GM. If you're the players, maybe not so much.