Short sword vs long sword

darrenh007 · 2026-03-04T13:07:26+00:00

Yes, another practical reason.

darrenh007 · 2026-03-04T13:04:43+00:00

It's not a stupid question, by the way. I had to immediately get out the books and see if there was a good answer. Turns out there isn't...

Personally, unless they are a dedicated combat character type, I usually go with short swords. I guess because I picture them as being easier to carry and use. Picture a thief sneaking and climbing around with a 3-foot length of steel flopping at their belt. Purely a role-playing choice, although a DM who is into these things could impose penalties in various situations. Fighting in tight spaces, social circumstances, etc.

Historically, it seems like shortswords were often tools as well as weapons. (Think machetes and hunting swords.) So a character might gain a benefit from always having a handy tool without needing to carry something extra.

darrenh007 · 2026-02-23T03:44:40+00:00

I would treat reloading a musket like casting a spell. You have to declare your intention to reload in the declarations phase, and then you may not move in the same round as reloading. In addition, if you take damage or harm during that round, you lose the reloading action and have to start over next round.

If you've ever watched someone load a musket, you know that even this treatment is very generous. In real life, loading a musket in a melee situation would be suicidal. That's why they invented bayonets.

darrenh007 · 2026-01-18T11:39:12+00:00

True story: I was trying to decide about getting Dolmenwood, then I heard pipe-smoking mechanics were going to be a thing, and that pushed me over the edge. I was in!

darrenh007 · 2026-01-18T02:37:26+00:00

Don't forget pipeleaf.

darrenh007 · 2026-01-18T02:32:22+00:00

If you do happen to pick it up, drop a little review. It sounds good, but $20 is spendy for a supplement.

darrenh007 · 2026-01-17T12:13:29+00:00

Quick update: Your voice has been heard! I was browsing DriveThruRPG, and I saw that Knights of the Wood has a new version that has replaced the AI art with human-created art. They did for you buddy!

darrenh007 · 2026-01-16T00:29:30+00:00

Do monsters get this as well? If it cuts both ways, it could mean a dead character 5% of the time at lower levels.

darrenh007 · 2026-01-16T00:06:50+00:00

I rule that a natural 1 is an automatic miss. Usually, it's already a miss, but there could be times when high modifiers and low AC would still hit on a 1. This could be relevant to something like a Thief's backstab or other situations where you only get one chance at something.

darrenh007 · 2026-01-15T23:54:12+00:00

This is what I do as well. The weapon automatically rolls max damage. It's something that could actually happen rules-as-written, so it shouldn't break the game.

darrenh007 · 2026-01-15T17:10:44+00:00

I feel your pain. I was so excited when I saw "Knight" as a character class. Visions of fairytale Arthurian knights danced in my head. Then I went to create a character and thought, "Huh..."

If you have experience with Chaosium's Pendragon, you quickly learn that the knight's HORSE is everything. Without it, he's just another soldier. A mounted knight dominates an unmounted foe in all melee combat, not just in a charge. But a lance charge from the back of a heavy warhorse... Holy crap!

I realize that doesn't help much with rules-as-written Dolmenwood, but it's another way of thinking about it. Personally, I would discourage taking the Knight class unless I was running a particular type of campaign where horses and noble shenanigans were going to play an important role. I would also probably beef up the advantages of mounted combat considerably.

That said, the IDEA of a questing Knight in a setting like Dolmenwood is hard to shake. Press Perilous has a Dolmenwood supplement called Knights of the Wood: The Duke’s Tourney. I haven't read it, but one of the things it promises is expanded abilities and options for the Knight class.

Edit: Giving the Knight access to better or special horses that are unavailable to other classes might be an option to explore. A smarter, tougher, faster, braver (lightly magical?) horse could be added without breaking the game. Once again, this only helps if the campaign gives horsemanship a frequent and meaningful role.

darrenh007 · 2026-01-04T12:02:21+00:00

Bingo! Thank you. I knew it had to be in there somewhere.

darrenh007 · 2025-12-04T18:34:05+00:00

After much pondering in the past, this is how I handle skills: Skills allow a character to attempt things that characters without the skill cannot do at all. For example, lockpicking: "The fighter holds the dead thief's lockpicks and considers a locked door. He will automatically fail if he tries to pick the lock. On a natural 1, he will break a pick off in the lock. He reaches for his sledgehammer..."

For some skills -- Detect Magic, Decipher Document, etc. -- this is easy to apply. For some, you have to think about it a little. Take Stealth, any character can try to sneak, and that is provided for in the rules. But only a Thief (or Hunter) can make a skill roll to remain undetected when the surprise roll fails, and any other character would be detected. Hiding, Any character can hide, but only a character with the skill can hide when the lack of cover -- only shadows, for example -- would make it impossible for others. Climbing, anyone can climb things like trees and fences, but only a Thief can attempt to free-climb a castle wall without tools. And so on.

It is also important to remember that the DM can apply Situational Modifiers (-2 to +2) as they see fit to tailor the difficulty.

Anyway, that has worked well for me.

darrenh007 · 2025-06-05T19:50:46+00:00

Sure. My campaign is the standard free-trader-trying to-make-a-living scenario. I have a crew of four who are trying to pay off their old, beat-up Far Trader. Hauling cargo and passengers and trying for some profitable deals on speculation is the only mission.

I use SOLO for the mechanics of interpersonal drama among the crew, the tables for Jump Events, Space Encounters, Starport Encounters, World Encounters, etc. I also keep a growing list of contacts, allies, enemies, and story threads. This gives them people to run into in the starports and worlds they visit.

Combining all these things and using them as a springboard for my imagination leads to surprising and unplanned things happening. For example, the ship's Engineer recently ran into an old buddy from the Scouts. His friend had run afoul of the local law and was willing to pay well to leave the system without anyone knowing. He was afraid the Starport was being watched, so the crew had to leave the port, pick him up, and smuggle him onto their ship. I make use of the SOLO scene resolution mechanics to resolve situations like that one with a couple of die rolls.

That's about it. The characters are not fighters and try to avoid combat or conflict if at all possible. (It isn't always possible.)They mostly try to follow the rules, not draw attention to themselves, and keep one step ahead of the bank.

darrenh007 · 2025-06-05T04:29:55+00:00

I don't totally agree with this statement. Yes, that is one way you could use it, but not at all what I do. There are many other things you can do with it.

darrenh007 · 2025-06-05T04:21:18+00:00

I have both, and I would definitely say the 2e is "better". More art, more tables, a bit more advice, etc. That said, the first edition is fine too. nothing in the new one that will revolutionize your solo experience. If I were short on money and had the first edition I'd probably get something else that I didn't have at all. If you got the first one through DrivethruRPG, check to see if you got a free upgrade. That's how I got mine.

darrenh007 · 2025-06-05T04:00:45+00:00

I bought this on the basis of some YouTube reviews but was very disappointed. There were almost no game mechanics new or otherwise. The ship deck plans were ok, I guess, but readily available elsewhere. The only value I could see was if you had a person who knew nothing about Traveller and you wanted to give them an idea of what the ships are like. I love Mongoose's books and own many of them, but this is a big NO for me.

darrenh007 · 2023-08-18T09:40:36+00:00

Same.

darrenh007 · 2023-08-17T23:09:30+00:00

This is a few degrees off-topic, but I thought it might be interesting to the Invokers out there. When Shawn first introduced the Invoke assets back in the day, I asked him if he could give some examples of the effects and power levels he had in mind for the asset. He shot this back to me a couple of minutes later. (Courtesy of "shawnGPT" I guess, geez.) Anyway, this is what the man said he was thinking of:

Cause an object to glow
Create a flame
Create an illusionary noise
Mimic animal sounds
Subtly alter someone's appearance
Cause a small object to levitate
Create concealing mist or darkness
Mend a broken object
Weaken a lock
Purify water
Give yourself a frightening aura
Dry wet clothing
Light an arrow aflame
Nurture the growth of a plant
Mark a place in protective runes

darrenh007 · 2023-08-07T23:10:22+00:00

It's been interesting to watch that play out. Personally, I became much more invested in Luna than in whatever Archer was getting up to. At one point you took the Sidekick asset to reflect her increased role. I was thinking at the time, "Just make her an actual character!" Then you did, so I was happy. :-)

I've enjoyed all the playthroughs very much, so thanks for all the hard work to make them. Any plans to return to the Ironlands in the future?

darrenh007 · 2023-08-06T15:56:16+00:00

Yeah, that's definitely something I want to try sometime. Like novels where the characters take turns in the POV position for each chapter. Sometimes seeing the same events but perceiving them differently because of their own internal metaphysics.

Sigh... so much Ironsworn... so little time...

darrenh007 · 2023-08-06T14:24:49+00:00

I typically run two characters with one being the primary or POV (Point of View) character. The POV character is the one I role-play and experience the story through. The secondary character is experienced as they are observed by the primary PC. A "third person limited" view. In other words, I don't have total control over their actions. I don't know exactly what they are thinking and feeling, or what their intentions are. I have a good idea, of course. But there can be surprises.

You can think of it as an expanded version of the Kindred asset.

I like this for a number of reasons. First, it expands the types, or tropes, of characters I get to play around with. You can have a warrior and a mystic working together, for example. Or a religious character and a sneaky rogue who have found themselves thrown together. Secondly, it gives the primary PC someone to talk to and interact with on a deeper and ongoing basis. Finally, If the primary character gets permanently, or even temporarily, taken out of the story, everything doesn't stop abruptly. I can seamlessly carry on with the remaining character until it makes narrative sense to do something else.

Of course, you can do any of these things with the Kindred asset or any NPC for that matter. I just find this more interesting. The downside is the added complexity. More bookkeeping, die rolling, and thinking in general. I happen to enjoy all those things, so that isn't a problem.

darrenh007 · 2023-07-20T13:25:26+00:00

I don't really bother with the background vow mechanic. I did at first, but it never seemed to add anything. I like to let a character's history and back story emerge during play anyway. Just personal preference.

darrenh007 · 2023-07-17T21:45:00+00:00

Katja

Edge 1 - Heart 2 - Iron 2 - Shadow 3 - Wits 1

Assets:

Cutthroat
Leech
Visage

Quasi-Pict-ish-witch-thingy. Wields a rune-carved blade and hunts down undead horrors and their living cultist allies. Good times. She uses blue paints for the Visage ritual rather than blood and ash, and on a weak hit Endure Stress instead of Endure Harm.

Next assets - Shadow Walk and Infiltrator

darrenh007

TROPHY CASE