Of female characters in RPG's

[Alex]

(...) yes it would be demoralizing if you were a male caster being protected by a female warrior.

Yes, much like going into surgery and finding out the one who is going to operate on you is a woman or calling for a Uber ride and getting a female driver.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

one who is going to operate on you s a woman

me after the surgeon enters the room

 

[Brancaleone]

"Here are three opponents who all want to kill this Master. The first aims to kill him with a thrust. The second intends a cut. The third will throw his sword at the master like a spear. If the Master can perform a mighty deed and avoid being killed, then God will have indeed blessed him with great skill."

That's some laughably shitty translation.

 

[Harthwain]

Given the history of warfare, I have a sad suspicion that the morale penalty would actually work in the inverse.
If you are defending your land in the medieval period, you would not want your women to fall in enemy hands.

That tactic [of taking your family with you] didn't really help the barbarians who fought against Romans and Byzantines though.

I find it hard to believe that any war council with their backs against the wall, who had the ability to add a few women to the batallions, would decline that opportunity on account of "we need them to bear children".

Depends on the leadership. Hitler was averse to the idea of sending women to factories. It took significant effort from Goebbels and Speer to convince him to go with the "total war" measures. Now imagine telling Hitler you want women to serve as soldiers.

 

[notpl]

Adult women are certainly more effective soldiers than children.

If you told me I had to pick between joining a squad with 15 year old boyscouts or a squad with 24 year old trained female soldiers, I'll take the boyscouts every day of the week.

Does this boy look 15 to you?

Fun fact: The average age to begin puberty was 16 until just a couple of generations ago. That kid might actually be 15 or 16, and the only reason that idea seems strange to you is because all our endocrine systems have been irrevocably fucked by microplastics and other poisons. Neat!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Adult women are certainly more effective soldiers than children.

If you told me I had to pick between joining a squad with 15 year old boyscouts or a squad with 24 year old trained female soldiers, I'll take the boyscouts every day of the week.

Does this boy look 15 to you?

Fun fact: The average age to begin puberty was 16 until just a couple of generations ago. That kid might actually be 15 or 16, and the only reason that idea seems strange to you is because all our endocrine systems have been irrevocably fucked by microplastics and other poisons. Neat!

Puberty ages are returning to what they were traditionally until industrialization fucked humans up.
https://research.reading.ac.uk/rese...ng-puberty-younger-medieval-skeletons-reveal/

 

[notpl]

Adult women are certainly more effective soldiers than children.

If you told me I had to pick between joining a squad with 15 year old boyscouts or a squad with 24 year old trained female soldiers, I'll take the boyscouts every day of the week.

Does this boy look 15 to you?

Fun fact: The average age to begin puberty was 16 until just a couple of generations ago. That kid might actually be 15 or 16, and the only reason that idea seems strange to you is because all our endocrine systems have been irrevocably fucked by microplastics and other poisons. Neat!

Puberty ages are returning to what they were traditionally until industrialization fucked humans up.
https://research.reading.ac.uk/rese...ng-puberty-younger-medieval-skeletons-reveal/

Neat if true (the actual evidence cited here is not especially compelling) but even so, that boy would still be in the atypical late-puberty period of human development.

 

[NecroLord]

 

[Arbiter]

Now imagine telling Hitler you want women to serve as soldiers.

How is that worse than sending children into battle?

In late years of WW2 German women operated AA guns due to shortage of men.

 

[NecroLord]

Women should be in the rear with the gear.
Putting women in units consisting only of battle-worn,hungry,traumatized men may not be the best of ideas.
Otherwise,they can easily serve as nurses,in hospitals,desk work etc.

 

[mondblut]

it would be demoralizing for male warriors to fight female soldiers, onani bushi etc in real life.

mondblut is this true?

Sorta. Having soldiers abandon fighting and plunge into a rape orgy in the midst of battle does not bode well. Business before pleasure.

 

[Desiderius]

Moreover, the easiest way to increase power and wealth of a nation is to enslave/vassalize other nations and use them for further conquests. Much faster than waiting 15 years until next generation grows up. Roman empire was built that way, it's not like Roman women were giving birth to an exceptional number of children.

When they were rising to power* they did. They had to turn into vampires when they stopped.

Many such cases.

* - as a Republic

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

it would be demoralizing for male warriors to fight female soldiers, onani bushi etc in real life.

mondblut is this true?

Sorta. Having soldiers abandon fighting and plunge into a rape orgy in the midst of battle does not bode well. Business before pleasure.

It's what separates barbarians from professionals yes. Caesar would disapprove.

 

[Harthwain]

How is that worse than sending children into battle?

Allow me to clarify: we're talking about Hitler's point of view here - not an objective one.

Besides, there are some other factors to consider, Hitler's personal chauvinism* aside:

1) Women did work in factories before, during World War I, so this wasn't breaking taboo as much as sending women to fight and it did allow to free men from work in the factories and send them to the front. It also suited the belief (and the propaganda aimed at boosting zeal/morale) that men had to protect their families (wives and children).

2) It was legal for the Volkssturm to conscript people between 16 and 60, even though by our standards it means sending underage children to battle. Then again, there was a lot more of crazy stuff that was legal (and, as such, accepted) in the Third Reich, so this particular one is not really raising my eyebrow.

* I mean chauvinism both in the sense that women were supposed to multiply the superior German race (there were some talks about legalizing polygamy, if I am not mistaken, although not everyone would be allowed this privilege) and that men's role is to protect women, their wives/families in particular.

In late years of WW2 German women operated AA guns due to shortage of men.

Sure, Soviets did the same thing. If my memory serves, half of the AA guns in Stalingrad had women's crew. But I never heard about German women made into soldiers, while there are some examples of Soviet women in the army (and not all of them being in the support roles). Hell, in 1917 Russia created Women's Battalions. Even if we chalk it all up to propaganda purposes, this was still an important precedence. This does show the difference in approach between Germans and Russians.

 

[Arbiter]

Sure, Soviets did the same thing. If my memory serves, half of the AA guns in Stalingrad had women's crew. But I never heard about German women made into soldiers, while there are some examples of Soviet women in the army

AA operators are still combatants that can die in combat, just like regular artillery crews.

 

[octavius]

Some of you guys, and especially KeighnMcDeath seems a bit angry, so I thought I'd cheer you up with this motivational video.

Boy power, yeah!

 

[KainenMorden]

Hmmmmm

So the good guys lost? Is that what you're getting at?

 

[Riddler]

Female warriors were nearly non-existent in real life and for good reason. I don't want to see women in my party in melee. They shouldn't be using bows either because that requires more upper body strength than what they have.

Women in the party aren't immersion breaking if they're ranged spellcasters. I also allow exceptions for when there's a good explanation for the woman being strong enough to fight (e.g. Jaethal in Kingmaker being undead).

I've never played an RPG where actual high-poundage longbows firing hundreds of meters away are a factor, in typical gameplay they're being fired at distances of 15-20 meters tops which even a weak woman is perfectly capable of. Also, girl party members are naturally suited to backstabbing roguery.

Even fairly small historical bows have like a 100 pound pull weight. To pull off rapid fire with that you'd have to be a woman that's jacked beyond reasonable belief.

 

[Desiderius]

Hmmmmm

So the good guys lost? Is that what you're getting at?

Nah, Modernism offed all the good guys 1912-1919. WWII was Evil will Evil marring.

 

[KainenMorden]

Fair

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

This particular play has often been misinterpreted as the master, possessing the skills of the art is able to face three fighters at the same time. The illustration and text actually reveal that the particular "posta " or guard which the master has assumed is able to defend and offend an attack from any one of the originating offensive stances.

Misinterpreted according to who? You don't write that it's a "mighty deed" afforded by the grace of God that he survives if it's merely one opponent he's facing.

From my own copy of Colin Hatcher's translation of Fior di Bataglia sitting in front of me:
"Here are three opponents who all want to kill this Master. The first aims to kill him with a thrust. The second intends a cut. The third will throw his sword at the Master like a spear. If the master can perform a mighty deed and avoid being killed, then God will have indeed blessed him with great skill." Response: "You are all cowards and know little of this art. You're all just words without any deeds." - Again implying this is not a 1v1.

And another:

31r-a - "Here we see three friends who seek to kill this Master, who's awaiting them with his two handed sword. The first intends to throw his sword at the master like a spear. The second aims to strike him with a cut or thrust. The third intends to throw two spears he has made ready, as you see drawn here." Response: "I wait calmly for them to come at me one after the other and my defense won't fail against cuts, thrusts, nor any handheld weapon they throw at me." - Again, multiple opponents.

That's some laughably shitty translation.

Really? Because the translation is by a guy that spent 17 years studying the language of the original manuscripts and putting it into an easily comprehensible form. There's a whole commentary section in the forward on the translation methodology.

"It's important to understand that the manuscript is written in verse (irregular loose rhyme or meter) perhaps for mnemonic purposes. To make it fit in verse (including a need to rhyme however loosely) Fiore has used many unusual expressions and many redundant words. In making my translation I have not attempted to create verse. I have given Fiore's unusual expressions their best equivalent translation and I have eliminated as much of the redundancy as I can (for example excessive over-use of the word "and")."

An alternate translation by Kendra Brown that says essentially the same thing:

"We are three players that wish to strike this Master. One would strike with the point, another the edge, and another wants to throw his sword against the aforesaid Master, so that it will be a great feat indeed if this Master is not killed. May God make him suffer."

We don't any evidence that a noble was killed by an arrow in any of those battle. English yeoman indeed play a important role, but it's because they won decisively against their crossbowmen counterpart , and were able to maim the horse who were already having difficulty dealing with an unfavorable landscape.

Enguerrand de Monstrelet (d.1453), governor of Cambrai

"At length the English gained on them so much, and were so close, that excepting the front line, and such as had shortened their lances, the enemy could not raise their hands against them. The division under sir Clugnet de Brabant, of eight hundred men-at-arms, who were intended to break through the English archers, were reduced to seven score, who vainly attempted it. True it is, that sir William de Saveuses, who had been also ordered on this service, quitted his troop, thinking they would follow him, to attack the English, but he was shot dead from off his horse."

 

[Rincewind]

"Great empires are not maintained by timidity."

Sure, but where are all those great empires now? "Live by the sword, die by the sword" and "you reap what you sow" come to mind.

 

[KainenMorden]

That's inevitable, nothing lasts forever

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Alias might look like a woman but it is a construct.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Alias

Alias was more a clone than a construct. Her sister clone got pregnant, after all.

Alias was the original prototype construct; the others were her clones.

 

[mondblut]

The first intends to throw his sword at the master like a spear.

and another wants to throw his sword against the aforesaid Master

Does this book say "a sword is not a missile weapon" anywhere? Seems to be a lamentable omission.