April 13, 2011 / Todd Gdula / 8 comments
The kwaiken is like a dagger. It’s a type of small tanto, historically carried by both men and women of the samurai class. As with the tetsu no bo (kanabo), I’m having a hard time finding a reliable translation. Kwaiken literally translates to “chest knife” or “bosom knife,” but whether or not the literal translation carries the intended meaning isn’t clear to me just yet. Because it was carried in the obi, and the obi (especially on a woman) was worn on the lower chest and upper abdomen, I think the meaning is probably literal.
The traditional kwaiken has a wooden handle and saya (sheath)—very much like a shirasaya tanto—but was substantially smaller. The modern westernized version usually has a wrapped handle, which is more traditional for a full-sized sword. The sheath is often Kydex or Concealex, but I personally prefer leather…
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March 31, 2011 / Alex Putnam / 6 comments
While the origins of the sword are clear, the history of single-edged blades is a bit murkier. Some such blades, however, have become iconic in Western history in their own right: the pirate’s cutlass, the scimitar of the Middle East, and the cavalryman’s saber. Others have failed to catch the limelight of history.
Back to the Future
Curved blades and single-edged swords were independently invented and reinvented across history. The Egyptian khopesh—the name a transliteration of a Canaanite sickle-sword (itself an update of a third millennium Sumerian weapon)—was a Bronze Age weapon that was effectively a hilted hybrid of sword and axe, designed for cleaving blows. Beyond this early statistical outlier is the Greek kopis, a curved sword derived from the civilian knife, and although less used than the more famous xiphos, it was a favorite weapon of Hellenistic cavalry; the historian (and soldier) Xenophon recommended the curved blade in his treatise On Horsemanship. The Iberian falcata was a parallel but later development, derived from the Iron Age Celts’ sickle-shaped knives, and went on to influence Roman sword design and the more famous gladius…
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March 28, 2011 / Sam Hing / 8 comments
And the winner of the Real Steel Death Bug Contest is… Sam Hing and his spider dagger. We had many great entries but only one could be winner. Todd Gdula, Wolfgang Baur, and myself had a tough choice, but the final decision was unanimous: the spider dagger won the day. Congratulations, Sam! —Scott Gable
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This dagger bears a gleaming blade and a multitude of metallic legs. A single multifaceted gem is inset into the blade, gleaming like an eye. It scuttles toward you with disturbing speed.
Spider daggers are frequently created to act as assassins for thieves’ guilds and mages. Swift and silent, they leap on their targets and slice them apart. In some dark cities, fear of spider dagger attacks keep the populace passive and the “gifts” of the merchants high. A brace of spider daggers can reduce even hardened adventures to sliced and bleeding corpses with shocking speed…
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March 10, 2011 / Todd Gdula / 27 comments
In physics, an interesting way to work out a problem is something called a thought experiment. This allows physicists to build what is essentially an imaginary environment and create conditions that would be very difficult to create in the real world. What I am proposing to you here is that we craft a thought experiment to make us exercise our minds in a way that perhaps we haven’t tried before. I believe this will be useful in generating more interesting game environments.
Get It Together, Softy
In 24 hours, you will be transported to another world. Whether it’s Earth in the dark ages, Middle Earth, Krynn, or the Forgotten Realms doesn’t matter. You’ll randomly be “dropped” in a village, a dungeon or cave, or a wilderness area. You’ll be provided with a pack containing several days’ worth of food and basic survival tools, including fire-starting supplies, a good map, a big sturdy camp knife, and the appropriate clothing. All you need to select is weapons and armor.
The only information you have to help make your selection is that you will be facing humanoids and possibly whatever the indigenous wild animals are—nothing worse than bears and mountain lions. If you face magic, you’re toast, and there’s nothing you can do to prepare for it anyway. You can only pick weapons that are within the technological limits of the destination…
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February 24, 2011 / Alex Putnam / 6 comments
Just about everyone has seen one form of sword fighting more than any other: fencing. From masked Olympians whose win or loss is recorded by an electronic sensor to swashbuckling movie actors who clang prop swords together but only land hits when the plot demand it, both are a far cry from the battlefield weapons of the last 3,500 years.
Since most roleplaying games feature swords from throughout history, how exactly did mainstream conceptions get to where they are? Take a deep breath, say to yourself “there’s no such thing as a perfect sword design,” and let us go back in time a bit.
From Trial by Combat to Olympic Medals
The notion of a gentleman’s duel and of swords designed for civilian self-defense are each distinctly notable influences. Judicial duels — essentially government-sanctioned trial-by-combat or the “wager of battle” in English sources — had been a prominent and surprisingly regulated part of Germanic and English common law throughout the Middle Ages, but it gradually petered out by the 1500s. Gentlemen’s duels, while socially accepted, were usually illegal in Europe; however, authorities enforced such legislation with questionable vigor. Over a 10-year stretch of the reign of Henry IV at the start of the 17th century, at least 6,000 nobles were killed in duels, so dueling was officially banned in France in 1626.
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The kwaiken is like a dagger. It’s a type of small tanto, historically carried by both men and women of the samurai class. As with the tetsu no bo (kanabo), I’m having a hard time finding a reliable translation. Kwaiken literally translates to “chest knife” or “bosom knife,” but whether or not the literal translation carries the intended meaning isn’t clear to me just yet. Because it was carried in the obi, and the obi (especially on a woman) was worn on the lower chest and upper abdomen, I think the meaning is probably literal.
