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Interesting dynamic, I like the social tie-in and have been using something kind of myself as part of the new lifepath character generation system for Codex (Codex Ingenium). More on that in a second.
The problem I would have with that system is the idea that everyone had to follow the same pattern, i.e. fealty to your lord and war against the pagans (for warriors) and so forth. I think historically here is always more variation.
Also I’m a bit dubious about the “Roman Magic” thing, at least as being universal, since most of the major Saxon settlements (like London / Londinium) were old Roman settlements. The Saxons were relying on Roman fortifications just as the Britons did before them. That said I have read about the concept of the Saxons being (understandably) superstitious of Roman ‘magic’ so I know that is a thing.
In my system I am using Ehren, which a German word very roughly meaning ‘honor’ or ‘face’. There was historically also different versions of Ehren based on the diffrent Estates. For example in German-speaking areas there was the concept of Adelsrechte (iura nobilium in Latin) means something like “Nobles Rights” but it also refers to their responsibilities, which would be considered somewhat similar to the ideas of fealty and defending the community and so forth which you outline for Warriors above. Rights always also mean responsibilities back then, whereas today we separate the two concepts. Then there is Bürgerrechte, which today means just “citizens rights” but in the middle ages it meant specifically town citizens (Bürgers) rights – and their corresponding responsibilities, including helping to maintaining the harmony of the community and doing things to beautify and improve the community, as well as defending it and upholding civic honor.
Ehren means all of the above, depending on your estate(s), but also has a strong overlapping connotation of personal honor. You have to maintain your reputation and not make a fool of yourself, both for your own individual merit and that of your family, your community, and your estate.
Aside from that though there seems to be a separate concept of Ehren for priests, which I would call Piety. Some priests and especially prelates had Ehren, (some were strait up warlords) but many did not, and this was reflected in the public opinion of priests and a lot of the animosity against them, which was fairly widespread in Central and Northern Europe by the late medieval period.
I think for criminals and outcasts, there is another version I would call élan, which means sort of the thrill of doing something daring, or pulling off something risky with style. This is the honor system for pirates and bandits.
I will send you a copy of volume II. It includes missile weapons (including crossbows), armor, and firearms. We recently updated the firearms data based on the Graz tests and a series of accuracy tests done in the 19th Century (I had underestimated the accuracy and effective range a bit). The armor data as I said was largely derived from Alan Williams, and as you noted upthread, it is somewhat predictable assuming relatively good metallurgy. He did tests with firearms and also mechanical tests with arrowheads, lance and spear points and so on.
With regard to crossbows specifically, there is a bit less clear understanding of the medieval type in modern academia. I have been following recent academic studies and ‘living history’ experiments very closely, and used a wide variety of sources, mostly recently Andreas Bichlers work, as he is the first to begin to approach the reported performance of real (higher end) medieval crossbows. Or the famous shot by Mr Gallwey.
Nice blog by the way. A lot of the guidelines for the Codex system were derived from Alan Williams published test results. I had a summary of some of them in one of the books at the end as an addendum.
I agree with you when it comes to ballistics, from tank games like Squad Leader etc. 30 years ago I was aware that penetration values for a given projectile at a given range against a given thickness and type of armor are fairly predictable. I think it’s a little less so with arrows and crossbow bolts, though similar. Thrown weapons, and of course weapons with which you stab and thrust, cut and bash, depend a lot more on the human factor which is highly variable.
Another nuance – what happens when you attack from horseback?
From doing test-cutting I think the effect of weapon damage against a given target or medium does vary a lot.
Have you seen the core rules or the weapon / armor book? If you don’t have a copy I can send you review copies.
Without rewriting those, the system in the Codex has worked pretty well I think, and is a reasonable approximation of the reality.
In a super abbreviated form, here is the breakdown.
Weapon penetration depends on attack type. P and B type attacks (Piercing / Penetrating or Blunt / Bludgeon) have the best penetration (or ability to cause damage in spite of the armor). Slicing or slashing has the worst, and Chopping or cleaving is in the middle.
The armor DR is usually doubled against Chopping attacks and tripled against Slicing attacks. (This also depends on the type of armor, textile armor can be more vulnerable to slicing). Conversely Slicing attacks do the most potential extra damage against bare flesh, while Chopping attacks are in between, and Piercing or Bludgeoning attacks do the least.
This only matters if you get a critical hit though.
Any kind of solid metal armor is more or less impervious to most hand weapons, unless you are extraordinarily strong or have special skills. For example an Iron Cuirass has a DR of 9 / 18 / 27. A Milanese harness (untempered steel) has DR of 12 / 24 / 36 for the main armor and 8 / 16 / 24 for the ‘weak spots’.
A typical sword or dagger does D6 to D8 damage. Some do more but can only do Critical Hits for slashing and chopping (Falchion, Backsword, Killij). If you hit in an armored place with a dagger thrust, with D8 damage + your strength bonus, you might cause a small wound. With a critical hit in a thrust, if you used all four dice, you might punch through it and cause real harm. With a Cutting or Slashing attack you are unlikely to harm someone through an Iron Cuirass.
The damage is still variable but the armor is pretty effective, your best bet is to go around it (if possible, such as if they are wearing just the breast plate) or to grapple them, or use an armor-piercing weapon.
A roundel dagger, a military pick, an estoc or an ahelespeiss all have some enhanced armor piercing features, which basically eliminate part of the armor. For example if you were thrusting with an ahelespeiss (awl-pike) you would get a +4 AP, meaning the Iron Breastplate would only have a DR of 5, making it more likely you could hurt the wearer. You’d still need a critical hit to do real damage but you would be poking holes in the armor and making little stab wounds.
Lighter armor such as a gambeson or an arming doublet have less protection, for example a light gambeson has a DR of 3 / 6 / 3, which means it only partly protects you. An arming Jack, which is a gambeson that has little pieces of metal sewn inside it, protects at 5/ 10 / 15. The metal is good protection but there are gaps. A brigandine doublet protects at 7 / 14 / 14 – it’s much better protection though somewhat vulnerable to slicing.
This may not represent the full protective ability of armor but it’s pretty close. In theory if you did 4 Dice attacks you could pierce armor sometimes but in practice people use armor piercing weapons and / or try to go around the armor (Bypass attack in Codex rules). I think it works pretty well.
If the total of the modifiers is negative you are too stupid to be able to construct a memory palace. Like me in real life!
Me either, that’s quite interesting. Once you learn about the ideas behind it, and all the smart people who were deeply into it, it becomes rather compelling. It’s not the “hocus pocus” of popular culture. To be honest I don’t really know what it is, but it’s “something”
This struck me as interesting:
“No man or woman shall dare or presume to put new cloth with old in any work (laborerio), on pain of …”
This sounds like they had women masters (not unusual in Central Europe but I didn’t know they had them in Venice)
Tennis balls have been used for a long time to teach thrusting with rapiers and foils, epees etc. This has been adapted to longswords as well
The comment “wisdom and intelligence modifiers” on page 19 is correct I think – if you had a -1 modifier for Wisdom and a +4 for intelligence, your memory palace total would be 3. Modifier can be either a penalty or a bonus.
All other typos fixed.
“The Archdruid of Peak Oil?”
I listened to the first two episodes. The guys voice is a little … weird, like he’s trying to sound a bit too spooky. But if you can get past that it’s pretty good. I agreed with basically everything he said and I thought he said a lot in a pretty short amount of time which is a sign of mastery of the subject. I was a bit relieved to note that he used pretty much the same sources I did in Superno. He did mention one grimoire from a court record in Krakow that I’d never heard of but in a quick google search I couldn’t find anything. I may need to listen to that part again to make sure I heard the name properly, or I might email him.
What is more impressive than his knowledge of the magic grimoires and practices (he is definitely a practitioner) is that he seems to understand medieval society more generally fairly well, at least so far. That is very rare. I’ll definitely listen to the other episodes.
