Hi all. I'm going to start running a game on Friday, and my group made characters last week. One of my people wants to use two weapons though, and I can't find any rules for that in the book. I know that's more of a movie thing than an actual book thing, but he's inspired by several of the movie moments where the characters picked up a second weapon when the fighting got heavy.

Also, if he is allowed to do that, can he add the encumbrance of both weapons to his parry value since he's a swordmaster/blademaster?

Thirdly, I'm wanting to use the adventure in the book and the adventure from the Decipher RPG loremaster's screen as a springboard to my own campaign. The Decipher adventure starts off in Rivendell with Elrond giving the adventurers a task. Is this a problem with the limited scope of the game currently? I know Rivendell is on the map, and it's actually where our fellowship met the first time, but is using it as a starting point going to cause problems?

Thanks.

Decipher never developed northern Eriador beyond that module with The House of Margil, & C7 has not yet released their Errantries of the King, so you'll have a difficult time sending them north from Rivendell if they decide to do something else. You'll have to wing it, unless you use material from MERP, etc.

You may want to consider adding something to The Marsh Bell, to expand it beyond where you're at, beginning your player-heroes in Dale/Esgaroth. That said, their Tales from Wilderland should hopefully be available by next month, & when you finish The Marsh Bell, you can continue with those adventures.

Just a quick mention, the rules mention Rivendell should not be allowed as a starting sanctuary. In fact, player-heroes should have to discover Rivendell and spend a Fellowhip Phase opening it as sanctuary before the LM allows their Fellowship to make use of the .

Maybe try the more recently published PDF adventure, Words of the Wise.

Regards,
E

Where does it say that? I looked through the book when we were forming the fellowship, and looked for places that they couldn't use. One of them was wanting to use some of the battlefields and such as a meeting place, but I wasn't sure about that since there's not really anything there...

In the chapter Company Creation, under the section First Meeting found on page 80 of the AB:

"The first thing to do is decide where the company was formed. To do so, the players choose a suitable place from those named on the Adventurers’ Map. Locations that qualify as havens or sanctuaries are an ideal choice, as these are Free Peoples strongholds, cities or villages known to welcome or, at least, tolerate the presence of adventurers (Rivendell cannot be chosen as a starting haven: it is a hidden place, and the company must first find its way there during the game)."

Regards,
E

There are no rules as yet for two weapon fighting. It's the Wits score that is used for parry, rather than the weapon encumbrance, so this wouldn't change. You may want to give the character the equivalent of a buckler (+1) to indicate that one blade is being chosen for defence, and the character would select which weapon is used to strike that round.

It can be assumed with the rules as they are currently that characters can hold a weapon in each hand. However, they can only strike with one of those weapons per round.

Swordmaster says you get a bonus to your parry equal to the encumbrance of the sword while in defensive stance. Is there an errata or something that changes that?

Hi Willharv,

There was a long thread on ideas for two weapon fighting a while ago. The thread is simply called 'two weapon fighting'. There's some nice ideas in there. I would use Trotters idea for a search solution to it.(see hi post on previous page).

Basically, nothing official is written on 2 weapon fighting. To be on the safe side I would say a dual-wielder cannot wield a Longsword in his main hand (so either a Sword or a Short Sword), and in his off-hand he cannot wield anything bigger than a Short Sword. For the purposes of Swordmaster, the total Parry bonus would at most be 3 (1 encumbrance from the short sword and 2 from the sword), which is the same as it would be if the character were wielding a Longsword.

To offset the disadvantage compared with a character that would simply wield a Longsword 2 handed, you might consider either letting the character benefit from a Buckler (since he's not attacking with his off-hand weapon), or outright consider the off-hand short sword to be a buckler for all intents and purposes. The Short Sword and Buckler have the same encumbrance anyways.

My first suggestion - don't do it! At least not to the point that allows it to be any better than attacking with one weapon - no difference in "mechanics" just the flavor.

There are no Drizzt' D' Urdens in Middle Earth - especially since Wulfgar was so much more awesome! Eh Thorsgold???? or what that Haldabarad that went rounds with me on that. (I can't remember which) :-)


There are some good suggestions on


THIS THREAD however.

I just see the request and option of two weapons as a preferred and normal style (as opposed to out of necessity like swinging a torch) is simply cheese - and has been ever since the Complete Elves Handbook in 2nd Ed D&D. hehe

It wasn't me.

Hadn't noticed that virtue. I'd only allow the bonus for the on-hand weapon, and it is only while in a defensive combat stance. For the off-hand, I'd treat it as a buckler at most. The coordination required for 2-weapon fighting limits the size of the weapon that can be wielded.

Ideally, the weapons should be balanced for a full-on stance (e.g. 2 axes or 2 short-swords). For a fencing stance (one side facing the opponent), a longer weapon is usually used in the on-hand (e.g. a sword and short-sword, or sword and dagger). Weapons such as the longsword and long-hafted axe couldn't be used as a dual weapon.