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Anyone notice how rare these are?

Other then King's Blade and Serpent Scimitar (Which is decidedly lackluster...) there seem to be no rewards for good old fashioned swords.

Were they trying to discourage swords as much as possible?

I have no doubt that the People of Gondor will have at least one sword-centered Reward. One reason for this makes sense: swords are more technically advanced than spears, axes, and bows.

Since the game has been set (mostly) in Wilderland, it makes sense that up to now the only sword rewards we've seen are Numenorian (King's Blade) and the Scimitar (and the Lakemen do a lot of trade)... all the other starting cultures in the game either 1) do not use swords very much (the Mirkwood Elves as spears are far more practical in a forest, or the Dwarves who favor axes or use their mining tools as much as anything), or 2) the cultures are not rich enough to have the kind of smith-craft required to make them (basically the rest).

The Elves of Rivendell probably could/should have had a sword reward, but thinking off the top of my head, I can only think of the spear Aiglos (of Gil-galad) when it comes to more recent famous weapons described as used by High Elves. Of course there is Narsil, but that is Numenorian. Perhaps the developers should have had a unique sword reward for the Dunedain. I think actually that would have made sense to do, rather than their special arrows.

Well, those arrows do STACK with enchanted bows, giving Dunedain archers a powerful advantage on other cultures who get enchanted bows. (A Mirkwood elf with an enchanted bow loses the woodland bow property, for example...)

But yeah, they probably needed a Sword Reward. I know the fanmade Dunedain did.

Blubbo Baggins wrote:One reason for this makes sense: swords are more technically advanced than spears, axes, and bows.

I'd be surprised if the reason is as complicated as that. I suspect it was more a matter of swords already being so prominent in other RPGs and fiction and Francesco was just trying to give other weapons some love. That's my theory, anyway. After all, six cultures have swords as starting weapons, there just aren't many cultural rewards.

Hmm. You could be right, and I'm not so much speculating why Francesco & Co did not make sword rewards, but more saying that the design choice was fitting.
As far as how much swords are described in cultures of Wilderland by Tolkien, again, we only see their use mostly among the Numenorians and Dwarves. (Hobbits as a result of the former). From a technological and story standpoint, it does make sense that these cultures don't have particularly powerful swords. Bardings do have swords (and "Swordmaster" virtue) due to being so near the Dwarves, and the Lakemen due to their trade. But on their own, these men cultures (including the Rohirrim) do not have the advanced smithing that Gondor and Elves have. Sure they can make swords (which is why they are available for most of these 6 cultures) but they aren't special swords that Tolkien put into the text.

This is just speculation of course.

I thought you could upgrade a sword through play? If so why not just use those rules to create your own?

Terrypinkona wrote:I thought you could upgrade a sword through play? If so why not just use those rules to create your own?

Yes, you can use the generic Rewards to improve a sword, or a Loremaster might give you a shot at a magical weapon (in the form of a sword). But I think AA's question has more to do with the cultural rewards, which tend to be a better deal.

And making your own (or refluffing the mechanic benefits of something else) is an option. Some people want to see official things as opposed to unofficial options.

I could see Bardings perhaps needing a sword as a cultural weapon out of the wilderland cultures, but none of the others.

A case could be made for both High Elves and Rangers, but perhaps both of those cultures would instead, in years gone by, invest effort into magically enhancing their most swanky weapons, so it actually makes sense not to have it as a cultural reward.

That's why the Numenorian Arrows idea makes sense...

Those Dunedain knew that a reward bow would get placed by a magic bow.

But those arrows stack...

poosticks7 wrote:I could see Bardings perhaps needing a sword as a cultural weapon out of the wilderland cultures, but none of the others.

A case could be made for both High Elves and Rangers, but perhaps both of those cultures would instead, in years gone by, invest effort into magically enhancing their most swanky weapons, so it actually makes sense not to have it as a cultural reward.

The King's Men virtue does give them a benefit when it comes to Swords, so that's something in their favour.

I'm becoming of the mind that Noble Armour should have been a Barding thing, instead of a Beorning thing. I know that when the cultural rewards were first figured up, the idea of Insight providing bonus dice to Encounters was not present, but now Beornings have a tremendous advantage in two out of the three core pillars (and they're no slouches in combat, even if they're easy to hit). So it seems like some rebalancing might be in order.