Sword for my MC?

[spikemarktwo]

So, my main character usually doesn't carry a sword, seeing as this story is set in the modern day. However, sometimes you just need something to bring on the bloodshed, so at the point that he doesn't need to worry about concealability, he carries a sword, or at least uses one

Comments

[ashindk]

I'm not sure what you mean, do you have him carying a viking style sword with a hand-and-a-half handle? Or did you skip the hand-and-a-half idea all together?
Original viking swords are always one handed. If you see anything else, it's a replica made by bad reenacters with a need to compensate ;-)

[spikemarktwo]

:D

Seeing as he's not carrying an actual viking sword (he's old, but not that old), but rather a sword he had made specially for him by someone old enoguh to have smithed swords for the vikings, he pretty much has free reign to have what he likes.

It uses the same basic design as the viking style, but the handle is shaped so that he can get a couple of fingers of his off hand onto the grip, witht he rest gripping the pommel, if he needs extra grip on a really hard swing. So it's not a trie hand-and-a-half handle, it's just an inch or so longer than it usually would be on a sword that size.

[ashindk]

I think that sounds realistic. The shape of the pommel on a viking sword is usually shaped in a way that's great for gripping in a fist to use the sword two handed.

[spikemarktwo]

cheers :)

[sollersuk]

The factor you have to take into account if he is carrying it on his back is the length of his torso. If the sword is any longer than this, sitting down will be even more inconvenient than any of the problems with carrying it on the hip. I would recommend a cutlass (I can still, just, remember some of the moves my mother showed me that she learned from her older brother who had done cutlass drill in whatever organisation he belonged to): very good multi purpose blade, good for blade and point work and excellent for parrying, but, unfortunately, short.

[spikemarktwo]

he's a big guy. He can sit in his sword, it's just uncomfortable, so a) the sheath detaches from the rest of the rig (which has enough weaponry on it to make it uncomfortable anyway) and b) if he's wearing the rig, it means that whatever he's dealing with is BIG. As in, big enough that sitting down, concealing it, anything like that...not an issue. If the rig goes on, it's war. If he needs to sit down, he's either dead or it's over. Either way he cna take the rig off.

Cutlass is good, but like you say, short. Plus, it just doesn't have the same cutting power behind it as a medieval sword. I tried out a few kinds, it's actually bloody hard to decapitate someone (I used ballistics gell with plasti-bone inserts to test, and pigs) with a cutlass. It was, comparitively, easy to do so with a broadsword.

[sollersuk]

Say he's 6'6", he won't be able to have a sword blade much more than 3' without it getting in the way when he sat down.

If the scabbard is in two pieces, sheathing the sword will have a lot in common with zipping oneself up the back!

It sounds as though you didn't have a particularly good cutlass; used in real action, it was at least as good as a kukri, which apart from combat situations* is regularly used to decapitate sacrificial animals.

*One of the classic stories, from the Brunei "confrontation", concerned three Indonesian soldiers sleeping in a tent. The Gurkha who found them decapitated the one in the middle, and left the other two to wake up in the morning and be terrified.

[sollersuk]

It also occurs to me that a sword down the back, fastened at top and bottom, would present the same difficulties in running as a Victorian young lady wearing a backboard.

[tarvae]

I'd personally disagree on the difficulties of carrying a sword on the hip - I've been doing so as part of my hobby for the past 16 years on about one weekend in three and if the sheath and hanging straps are correctly adjusted it's easy to forget it's even there after a while but YMMV

As to the back rig - the only two issues I can see are how hard it can be to put a sword away after using it in that kind of arrangement and the potential for getting injured by the unprotected portion of the blade if you are thrown onto it during a fight if you've not had time to draw.

[spikemarktwo]

It's not about forgetting it's there, but running full-tilt in it is tricky, you've got to steady it with one hand to stop it swinging quite badly (at least, that's always been my experience.) Also, it was a matter of fitting it into the rig

[likantropos]

A sword can also be carried on a strap over one shoulder. I mean, like a messenger bag. This way it can be moved back and forth, to suit immediate needs like running and quick draw. And, most importantly, it's vague enough to justify anything.

[spikemarktwo]

yeah, I just wanted to have something that didn't need readjusting. Like above, if he's wearing it he's under attack/attacking the whole time. If he's got to holkd or adjust every time he needs to run etc, it's not ideal

[parmalokwen]

Don't dismiss ease of sheathing as a factor. If he needs both hands to, say, climb over a wall to pursue or flee a foe, an easy vs complicated sheath would be the difference between winning/surviving and not.

If a bastard sword-type blade is enough to decapitate whatever he's decapitating, don't make it thicker than that. It will be utter hell for pointwork.

Ammo can be carried in places other than the hip--in a cargo pocket, a vest pocket, in a belt pouch/fanny pack/sporran type deal. I'm used to seeing people deal (and doing the same myself) with foam swords, Nerf guns, and ammo simultaneously while playing Humans vs Zombies. Less lethal and more squishy, but the principle is the same-- being able to run, shoot, swing a sword, and generally live your life surrounded by zombies and not tripping over your rig.

[spikemarktwo]

Sheath is nice and easy. Broader blade fits his style more, and he's strong enough to use the heavier sword for pointwork. I also made the tip sharper, but built more for through armour than through flesh. If it can do armour, it can do flesh, but not necessarily vice versa.

his torso is pretty much covered. It's pretty much impossible to find more spcaee. Plus, when I shoot, I like to rekoad fast, and the hips best for that. Cargo pocket, slow, anything that needs undoing, too slow. torso is covered with sheathes and puches already. I would need to refit the whole thing for that.

Sheathing is easy, trid it out and no problems.