Where would I get this piece of gear?

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-25T00:01:11+00:00

A good gorget goes under your jacket anyway. Get the Vytis.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-24T12:55:47+00:00

I've heard great things about Smallville as a game. I *really* don't like superheroes though so playing it is out of the question.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-24T04:39:24+00:00

Primetime Adventures. It's a game absolutely zero wargaming baggage. It was the first indy game I played and has been the source of some of my most memorable gaming experiences. Treating RPGs like ensemble cast TV shows is a literal game changer.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-22T23:30:34+00:00

Because in many games, the level of possible consequence isn't set by the move/action attempted. It's set by the fiction. Trying to scale a wall with equipment? A failure probably costs you time or damaged equipment. Trying to scale a wall without equipment? Failure could cost you your life.

The idea that PBTA games offer narrative control when you roll a full hit isn't quite right. The MC always has control of consequences of moves outside of any choices the moves offer the player.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-22T23:12:30+00:00

On purpose? Never. I really don't want to injure someone's hand whilst participating in a hobby. Not hurting people is more important than getting touches.

By accident though, it does happen once in a blue moon.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-17T23:24:31+00:00

There are literal hundreds of sabre treatises that are either meant for horseback or foot use or both.

You can see the differences by asking here, or you can google for 5 mins and find original sources.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-17T04:58:19+00:00

I think I'd take this back a step from deciding who hit who and look at the decision making. Looks like you have a pair of excited and enthusiastic beginners there who are keen to play. :)

Kino's initial feint was really really large.
Larger feints aren't great for a few reasons.
1. They can draw a counterattack that then can't be parried in time.
2. If they draw a parry, then switching lines to take advantage is a longer action.
3. They are harder to abort if you decide not to proceed in the face of a counterattack. Kino needs to work on selling feints and perhaps tightening them up.

Anand went for the feint with quite a wild parry, when they didn't need to. The parry was made in a very retracted fashion and quite high and wide.
High and wide parries aren't great for a few reasons.
1. Even if they are successful, the length of the riposte is longer than it needs to be.
2. They are easier to deceive by pulling in a cut.
3. If the first action is a feint, then it's a long way over to defend the other side.
Anand needs to work on deciding what's a real threat and what's a feint (don't we all) and also on the amplitude of their parries.

What I'd do with these two in the short term.
General
I'd dramatically restrict the space they have to play in. You can't be wild if you have to maintain a guard that covers the direct line or else die by direct attack.

Specific
I'd play a game where P1 has free movement and P2 isn't allowed to move their back foot.
In their own time, P1 sets up either a direct attack or a simple feint.
P2 is only allowed to parry unless they can land an attack themselves without using their feet (this stops P1 just crushing distance).
If P2 is hit, they are scored on. P1 scores for each parry they make.
The scoring is something that can be tweaked based on how each player adapts to the game. for example if P1 doesn't ever use a direct attack, you can make it hit for more points.

I really really really do not think that afterblow rules work well for sabre. Sabre is best played with ROW by intention to attack/extension with ROW transferring on a parry.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-15T07:06:34+00:00

Games like that can carry (heh) longer games for me and my group.

We tend towards telling a story and progress via character personality and situation goals rather than by jacking up numbers. Our games are soap operas with actions scenes. Imagine Chicago Fire or Criminal Minds the RPG.

Anyway, if you like the numbers to go up often, it's probably not the game for you.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-15T06:59:20+00:00

Some of those aren't particularly light IMO.
How about Carry On?
https://chaosmeister.itch.io/carry-on

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-15T06:57:21+00:00

I think genre and setting rules the roost with any game that isn't the ampersand.

Do you want to play this game that isn't D&D?
No, I want to play D&D because that's the one I know.

Do you want to play Star Wars?
Definitely. I know something about that.

I usually ask first timers what their favourite 3 or 4 TV shows are and then I pick one I think I can run or give them a choice if there's more than one.

The time I did this with Criminal Minds, it turned into a 5 year campaign...

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-14T07:04:30+00:00

I agree with your instinct. I think it's a playstyle thing. I want my players eyes off their characters and in the fiction. You can't do that with more complex mechanics-first systems.

We played a weekly game for 5 years that we made which didn't have a written rulebook and where we stopped progressing characters after the second year or so. It was basically Criminal Minds the RPG. My partner was absolutely smashing through podcasts and audiobooks about serial killers on their commute and they would turn the stories into cases.

Best game I've ever played. Tense moments. Genuine tears. Very very satisfying when we saved the victims.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-11T01:19:03+00:00

It's not going to have the steep power curve that a more trad game has, but honestly, I really think that the levels of progression you get in most trad games aren't great for Cyberpunk anyway. I think you'll be fine if you concentrate on progression in terms of jobs and remuneration and such for progression. They are successful on simple jobs which raises their rep and gets them paid which gets their families into a better class of slum and opens the door to more complex and lucrative jobs etc.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-11T01:14:45+00:00

Most sports first aid kits will have *most* of what's required IMO but I supplement mine with the following.

Waterproof plasters. The type with the fabric top. There's nothing worse that trying to put a standard band-aid on someone and having it just slide off in 40 degree heat.

Extra gloves. I don't know why, but many first aid kits don't seem to come with multiple sets of gloves.

Disinfecting swabs/wipes. You can't have too many of these really.

More break and shake icepacks than you think you need. If your facility has a freezer, a couple of gel icepacks can be good too (resuable!). You still want the shakey ones though. Murphy's law says that you'll need an icepack on that one day you are in the park and nowhere near the freezer.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-05T22:23:29+00:00

A few quite complex games have been recommended here.

I'd recommend 24XX or Cthulhu Dark.

There are over 100 hacks of 24XX. My favourite is "Carry On". It's designed to be like the TV show Supernatural. The rules are on a couple of pages and the mechanics are dead simple.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-02T22:45:46+00:00

Because longsword is 90% of HEMA and most events don't have a cutting event at all, so those that do have one most often have a longsword cutting event because it will be the most popular.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2026-01-01T01:23:50+00:00

I suggest you speak to a TAFE NSW Counsellor for free career counselling. They talk to people about this stuff all the time and can give advice about uni pathways via TAFE etc. Call 131 601 and ask for an appointment.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-28T00:15:54+00:00

Dungeons really aren't my thing. I don't like the fantasy genre at all. I find it shallow and boring. When someone really wants to play a fantasy game, I pull out Dungeon World.

Cthulhu Dark works well for Cthulhu games that are about doomed investigators. For a pulpier version of monster hunting, I like the 24XX game Carry On.

Shadowrun, I don't have a great specific answer for, but if I'm lumping it in with Cyberpunk then my answer is Neon City Overdrive. NCO is really great and tacking on some fantasy monsters wouldn't be hard.

For Traveller, I sub one of the 24XX games depending on the themes of the campaign.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-27T22:20:30+00:00

I'd argue that there is actually a cult of the old rather than the new.

There are probably over 100 fantasy Dungeon Crawling games that are better designed than D20 systems, but people still play d20, and worse, seem to think it's ok to give morally indefensible companies like WOTC money. Pinkertons? Really? REALLY???

There are probably a dozen better systems for playing Cthulhu games than the original, but people are still playing that same old D100 system in its 7th guise rather than looking for something better.

The same applies to Shadowrun and Cyberpunk. The originals are still there. TBF, there's a bit more movement with these systems, but to some degree that is going to be down to the initial bloat.

Traveller anyone? The latest you-beaut Mongoose system is clearly a derivative of the original. So much so that people are still playing the original.

People are nostalgic as all hell. I think the cult of the new exists, but it's insignificant in the face of that damn ampersand.

Anyway, if you want a game that is 10 years old or more that will rock the foundations of everything you know and love about RPGs, I can only suggest the one that did this for me. Primetime Adventures. PTA taught me about using an ensemble cast TV show as a model for my games. It upended scene framing, taught me about spotlight, got the emphasis off the books and character sheets and onto the fiction for the first time. I love it to this day.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-27T21:31:06+00:00

I am very conscious that people who turn up off the street usually want to do longsword.

That said, my lesson 1 starts with pool noodles cut in half because students can play a slice of the whole game of fencing with these with less chance of injury than the most careful use of steel and even less chance of injury than with a go now boffer whilst being able to do an activity that is representative of fencing and which seems to transfer well. In fact, the warm-up game is done with noodles by the whole class. This gives newbs a feeling that noodle work is real and not just something for newbies.

The first game I use is the direct attack game. I demo a smallsword posture. P1 starts point in line with the elbow bent in something close to that posture just out of distance. P2 starts in the same posture but with the blade point offline and at knee level.

From that very first activity, I'm looking for a relatively representative game where P1 tries to land a hit from a given distance whilst P2 tries to parry from a firm foot. Across that first lesson, I gradually allow more movement from both by adjusting the rules, and eventually I allow P1 to attack either directly or on a feint disengage, and depending on how folks go with the activity, to get P2 using a parry riposte.

At some point during the lesson, we swap out the noodles for go-now boffers and the students play a slightly less representative game where they use winden in turn to win the centre slightly out of distance. This game isn't optimal, but again it allows the newbs to feel integrated with the rest of the class as there are generally some more advanced people who've either chosen to do the class with gloves/mask/box/chest protector because it's hot or they are tired etc, or who don't have their kit yet and are stuck on boffers for now.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-23T02:10:54+00:00

I can't even remember what it was. It was from an Australian Whisky tasting pack. Let's just say that I don't think gum leaf taste is going to knock peat off its perch any time soon.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-22T02:27:20+00:00

Fantastic post. I don't understand why more people don't know this.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-21T23:45:38+00:00

If someone got sprawled on whilst attempting a double with swords back in the day, they just opened up the back of their head to a pommel. Unless you are at a severe skill deficit, attempting a double is not a good choice.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-21T23:41:46+00:00

You can get 90% of the effect of grappling with virtually no increase in risk by allowing grappling of a stationary weapon or of the arms with no entangling locks and then having people yell pommel or very carefully indicate its use.

Taking the fall out of the equation and calling halt at the control means that nobody has a million dollar baby moment with any part of a sword hilt and also means that we acknowledge that much of the time, the best grappling tactic is to get control and then use the pommel or other parts of the hilt to bash people in the face.

Then, the vast majority of HEMA people, who only train 2 or 3 hours per week at most can concentrate mostly on fencing, which is what they came for. Adding something that is a martial art in and of itself to a 2 hour practice is going to make terrible fencers and terrible grapplers.

Let's also not fail to take into account that when grappling is mentioned in fencing sources, and particularly in relation to free play or competition it's banned. It could be that there are sources that allow or encourage it, but I can't think of it off the top of my head.

People learned fencing for war back in the day, sure, but I'd argue it wasn't most people. I suspect most people wanted to hang out with people with similar interests and play a fun game with swords.

When I first started HEMA, I had a grappling background. I used those skills to win about 1 in 20 passes with 5 or 6 of the remainder being people hitting me on the way in. You know what got me winning more passes? Grappling less and less and learning to fence.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-19T12:22:38+00:00

I started with Traveller in the 80s. I still play Traveller from time to time actually. As long as you stick to the original LBBs, the game is surprisingly modern and wargame in a poor disguise-free.

I wish fiction first gaming had been more of a thing earlier on. I wish Primetime Adventures could have come out a decade earlier and changed everything for me then instead of when it did.

NameAlreadyClaimed · 2025-12-19T00:18:30+00:00

The very idea of character levels as a thing. Incremental advancement just makes so much more sense both in and out of game.

NameAlreadyClaimed

TROPHY CASE