A sheperd sling could be a great ranged weapon alternative to both bows and crossbows since It's just a piece of rope and the ammunition is easily be sourced. Once the ammunition is placed on the pouch It can be operated with just one arm so the other arm can be used to carry a shield, that's how they were used in medieval battlefields: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_N%C3%A1jera#/media/File:Battle_najera_froissart.jpg

Multi-function weapons and equipment! If you can pack as many functions into each single item you're carrying, then you can wear a smaller total number of items in general. In realistic medieval stuff, that may be limited to some extent, the laws of physics can only be stretched so far after all. But with medieval fantasy, you can bring magic into play and munchkin power-level your equipment to your hearts content...or at least to the limits of what your GM will allow! =^x^=

It´s kind of fun. In some computor games you carries around a wagons load of things, weapon and armour. I kind of wounder where the spear went when i decided to use a great sword. don´t know where the shield went.

Noooooo don't waste the legendary tome!

You might be interested in the german pen and paper RPG "Das Schwarze Auge" (the black eye). I know some of it is aviable in english di don`t know how much though.

I think he's more of a 18th-19th century antique sword dealer, not so much a medieval one.

He's Solas from Dragon Age inquisition, hiding in London as an antique arms and armor merchant from the other elven gods

Except when he is trying to sell us raid shadow legends

I mean, that is his dayjob.

I'd leave out the word "imagine"

Ye Olde Weapon Shoppe

I just picture a grey scale tint over the video

Skyrim modders should take notes.

hello there

Well that is very expected person to come by

A little tape on the tips of the ears would turn you into an instant half-elf man-at-arms.

I agree, but the "ye olde medieval fantasy arms and armor and equipment merchant store" is quite a mouthful...

Beautifully put

YO!! Official head cannonry

Tod from Tod's Workshop is the armorer in this world, yes?

@@unexpectedparolemadwerewol6565 The artificer, actually, I would say.

@@unexpectedparolemadwerewol6565 Oh ye, He sells crossbows and shanks of all kinds, a perfect contact for the rogues.

By several accounts, including by one of the priests accompanying his retinue he died going for a bathe and swim in the river so unlikely to have worn any armor at that time.

@@mangalores-x_x I'm aware there are multiple accounts for the cause for Frederick I's death, but some of the accounts list him drowning in armor. We don't really know the exact details. Regardless, don't ford rivers wearing your halberk!

Yeah, but Barbarrosa was almost 70 and wasn´t enjoying all this adventuring back than, I would guess.

Was a looking for this comment 😄

Imagine what might have happened if he had simply survived that damn river crossing.

Legolas had a bow, quiver and long white knife at the start, but they ALL used armor and appropriate equipment during the main battles.

Tolkien also never once mentions plate armour of any kind iirc but somehow PJ decided every lowly pleb from Gondor would be outfitted in full plate armour that doesn't actually work but looks awful. Reeeeeee

@@Pentagathusosaurus i don't so much mind the plate armour but the uselessness of it was a ridiculous directorial choice. Could have easily hav e been shown as effective and demonstrating how significant the overwhelming numbers of the orcs were to the battle.

@@Pentagathusosaurus actually the soldier of minas tirith would be some of the best men in the kingdom, it was the allied states(southern fiefdoms) that brough up more yeoman like troops. Sad that they didnt include the half elves of dol amroth in the movies.

@@cognitivedisability9864 not half elves- men with some elven ancestors

Medieval and early modern soldiers did not carry much camping gear according to our sources. They would sleep rolled in their heavy woollen cloak or even greatcoat, not in tents. Though here in Greenland, things are different. I would expect the colder parts of Scandinavia and Russia to be as well, though there you have the advantage of trees, which is invaluable.

@@PalleRasmussen Yes, most recreation kits have: Cup, bowl, spoon, knife, flint, tinder (or shavings box), blade sharpener or other weapon maintenance items (Like wax, twine, oil and cloth, etc), gaming set (Usually cup and dice), religious tokens, and some rope/string. Not much more than a double wide belt pouch of items. They seemed to rely heavily on baggage trains and local foraging while on campaign, hence why attacking logistics was so damaging.

@@PalleRasmussen Yes, because they had supply trains (or personal servants) to carry it for them en masse. Small companies or individual adventurers as discussed in this topic may not have such luxuries and may need to handle all of it themselves.

@@littlekong7685 No awl/pricker to accompany the knife or for general hole-punching?

@@nevisysbryd7450 Not historically. The company armourer/quartermaster would probably have them.

Orks would be excellent archers. Tall, long arms and exceptionally strong.

Beautiful

@@macharim you're making me imagine some d&d long-armed bugbears using japanese bows

@@macharim I'm stealing this for my DND world lmao

@@caelb9764 just look at Lurtz from LOTR for inspiration!

Check out the Lindybeige channel. He has several like this.

and rocks are everywhere

@@ObsydianShade you can just use stones off the floor, they won't be as accurate but itll work in a pinch

And slings are much more silent than any sort of bow.

Slings were very much carried as an individuals weapon way back in the day, perhaps more commonly than many people assume. They were even encountered in urban settings, as in the case of Benvenuto Cellini, who recounts the rapidity at which people pulled out their slings and started throwing, after noticing that one of their 'Kin' was losing in a duel. "There was a great crowd of people present, among whom were many of the adversary's kinsfolk. Seeing that the thing was going ill for their own man, they put hand to their slings, a stone from one of which hit my poor brother in the head. He fell to the ground at once in a dead faint" The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Also, regarding the subject of sound... Slings can be both quiet as hell... or loud as fuck! How loud your particular sling will be depends on multiple variables, tapered or non-tapered release cords, style and thickness of the braid/cord and the length of the tassel at the end of the release cord can all affect whether a sling will be loud or not. You can 'silence' a sling though in the case of slings with longer release cords (Which are meant to be held in the fist rather than by finger... though you can hold these by a finger) by folding over the end of the cord over itself and stitching it shut... in effect creating a tab at the end, this tends to create a silent sling.

@@ObsydianShade hitting a rabbit with a sling is no easy feat.. I’d rather carry a bow and quiver with an axe and dirk on my belt and a long sword on my horse.

Responds in 18(00) strength :-) and of couse if your a Paladin you have your "batman" who cares your spare weapons in a golf trolley

"But this is a european medieval inspired campaign, so your monk has to be occidental! And no kung fu!"

@@HappyBeezerStudios "You think you can handle that?"

@@HappyBeezerStudios "Sigh.... Crusader it is then...."

To Slowhand credit he had a big shield to protect him still. But I agree some form of head protection is important. Slowhand got hurt pretty bad in his face for not wearing a helmet

A retired lieutenant from the warband of the black knight, now he is selling quality gear to adventurers. His past allegiances are not to be levied against this mans good name.

Can someone tell me how you even move around in a dungeon's tight confines with a 10' pole period? Or large pole arms? (Hey, my character has a full fledged Pike!). And a lot more food and water would need allowed for unless you want to be starving and dehydrated. Then again, in the real world, not many gold coins were 1/10th of a pound. And earlier AD&D had absurbd weapon weights for swords compared to what they actually weighed. If you tried to swing a 10 or 15 lb. sword in an actual fight, you'd get tired really fast. Even the biggest swords you would normally use would be in the lower single digits in pounds. And they also had misconceptions about how limited your movement would be in something like plate armour (plate over chain); It's been shown that modern humans in those sorts of heavier armours could still vault onto a horse (or off of one) and sommersault (thought not a typical combat action.... lol). Armour is built to try NOT to prevent the soldier from doing what he needs to which requires mobility. Also, after looking into it, and looking at modern jute or hemp rope and break strengths (and working strengths), it became obvious that D&D also has rope that is way too heavy (in size and weight).

@@ghandimauler I was looking for some photos of fully laden "adventurers" and ended up on a website called "Go Viking Hiking". There are some great shots of what you need to survive in a Olde Worlde environment for a few days. Also, Shadiversity did a video about adventuring gear that was eye-opening. Finally Bob Worldbuilder has been doing some videos about movement in d&d versus real life. 😍

Look at those ears, he's clearly an Elf in disguise!

Yes I do, I call him Well Mannered Matt.

New idea for my next playthrough. Thanks.

"Why yes you can... In the right context!"

you pay for a sword and get a lesson for free

Without them playing sesdions are going to be bogged down in logistics, your economy be horrible since your loot carrying capacity will be to small. Your quest may brake because you lightened your load by selling that special item you need now.

@@michaelpettersson4919 it would probably fix the economy because you could hire a wagon team to haul it all back for a fraction of the price of a suit of mail.

@@Zraknul Well, yes, if the GM and in computer games, the developers thought of that. Those wagon teams probably scoured real life battlefields as well and probably "assisted" not yet dead soldiers to speed things up.

Mega storage device type 3 Capacity nearly unlimited!

Hell yes! :) first item you spend serious money on in any good D&D or CRPG ;) "Boodle bags" are more important than anything except a healing potion also cause loot scavenging of the "murder hobos", AKA Adventurers, is essential lol

Ye Olde Glass Cannon

If ye can't impress them with your Bihander Baffle them with your bollocks

Warband pvp mode eh?

But it all depends on the *CONTEXT*

@@imugi-16 Context and encumbrance.

"Matt Easton, from Easton Contemporary Arms"

Skal... “Actually I’m more interested in pommels.”

the elven e pat at the brothel said almost exactly the same thjng!

The cross pollination from all the channels is fantastic. e.g Shad going full Lindybeige, Matt going full Shad, etc etc. It makes it very easy for them all to see how to do a certain type of video if they feel the urge to, and they can just jump straight into it instead of cautiously poking around looking for a way to do it.

Or perhaps a short composite bow, if you have the coin for it.

A sling or shortbow would be better, trouble with shortbows is their relative lack of power. My choice would be sling over one as well.

If you have a staff sling you can throw harder and you can use the staff as a polearm

Also, no crossbow love?

@@JinKee They're bulky, awkward to wear, and have a slow rate of fire (which isn't ideal for adventuring skirmishes).

Rope! i knew i forgot somethign!

noncombat gear would be on his horse....

@LurchTheBastard - Modern tactical vest pockets and pouches that were originally intended for ammo magazines work great for snacks, shades, lip balm, or sunscreen for land search and rescue technicians. Keep what you need often or quickly within easy reach. Dump the rest in your rucksack. Search managers: "Now add a large caliber handgun and at least 2 full magazines of spare ammo to your kit, because this search area is known to feature lions and tigers and bears." SAR Techs: "Oh, my!"

How do you load a sling with one hand?

@@ristoravela652 Palm the string, drop the rock with forefinger and thumb. Let go of the pouch. Ez

It's not really comparable, and weight is far from being the main issue. There are two main issues: 1. Space - the kind of equipment the modern soldiers use, and the way it's stored and distributed over the body, is quite different from what a medieval-like soldier might have to carry. 2. Combat fatigue - the kind of combat modern soldiers do tends to be far, far les tiring than someone fighting in melee, or even shooting with bows. Note that I'm talking exclusively about the fighting part - in the case of modern soldiers, this means shooting firearms, in the case of a medieval warrior, this means swinging a halberd or shooting with a bow. Obviously the weight of modern weapons + ammunition will be much more than that of medieval weapons, and that's a factor in moving around. So, just because modern soldiers can march hours on end, and then fight, with a certain load, don't assume that a medieval warrior might be able to do the same with an equally heavy load that would be appropriate to their world.

It is. However, their "pockets" and other items would be all tied/looped around their belt as well. Even if you take the armor off, you will likely want to put the belt back on, anyways. That said, you would definitely want to select belt and other carry specifications to accommodate that (for example, integrated sword belts suck if you ever want to take the sword off, still want a belt, and do not have a spare/casual wear at-hand).

A sling is not easy to use. It's even worse than bow, in term of training. You don't give them to someone that is not already quite proficient in it. If he is, he would be already a hunter or someone specialised in it.

@@pieines7299 easy to practice though, if you're marching a long distance you will a lot of time to practice and unlimited ammo really

@@pieines7299 You can learn to use a sling in hours, hit a man sized target at 50ft in a few days. But hitting an eye, or a songbird yes, would take years to master. But we are also talking about a professional adventurer alone or in a small group in the wilds for months at a time, plenty of time to learn and practise.

Add Skall in a green brig and you're only missing a yellow one (more likely golden) for the full Power Brig Rangers force. Perhaps Ian Laspina aka Knyght Errant?

@@Harrowed2TheMind Nice catch, and I'll check Ian's channel as a rec!

@@Harrowed2TheMind Not yellow, but beige! I would see Lindybeige in a brigandine coloured like this.

@@Stefannice Genius! Loyd could indeed be the pink... I mean, beige ranger!

Blunt Poleaxe. Counts as a walking staff. If encumbrance is a problem you put it down and draw your sword. Alternatively one of them spikey long clubs or a mace-headed polearm.

@@Primalintent a fucking heavy walking staff, that defeat a bit the purpose. But why blunt ?

A short Machete (or cutlass) would probably be a nice middle ground weapon. A big F-off chopping weapon like an axe, a sturdy camp tool, but small and nimble enough to fight with as a slashing weapon. Dagger is great for grappling/sidearm. You still have the concern of range, a sling is a nice tool for that. Small, light, deadly in the right circumstances, and you can throw rocks for hunting small game to save your lead shot.

@@littlekong7685 oh yeah I forgot the sling. Crazy how some string and leather , hell some duct tape , can become such a lethal weapon.

@@afinoxi what's the duct tape for? I can think of better ammo.

imho buckler is for single hand weapon (short sword or dagger) set that needs more mobility. It is short range dueling weapon. Archers do not fight at close range if they don't have to and they need bigger shield to hide from other archers.

So was I. I'd always thought sword and buckler with a bow was fairly common. However, after a quick look at historical artwork I couldn't find any examples. Saw many examples of archers with swords, but none with bucklers.

I think a archer's loadout has two options: with a long sword, maybe even a war sword as Shad puts it, or with a one handed sidearm, most likely an arming sword, and a buckler. I think Matt didn't mention it cuz that's sort've getting into specifics, though I do wonder if swashbuckling gets in the way of using a longbow somehow. I definitely think Matt believes that the long sword's longer hilt, when the sword is in scabbard, gets in the way of using a shield. There are things that would be obvious to people who wore this kind of stuff often that we, who don't, are completely oblivious to.

@@tokul76 sword and buckler can be worn together on the belt while you use other weapons, they are basically a sidearm set, and archers most definitely have to be worried about having a sidearm in the chance they have to defend themselves in melee. Also, while there are definitely examples of short swords, if we are talking specifically about medieval European weapons, you kind've don't even use the term short sword. That is more or less a thing made up in D&D, and the usage became standard in popular media. The Romans for instance began to abandon the gladius for the spatha. This happened before the migration period, otherwise known as the Viking era. Since that point, pretty much everyone in Europe used full sized swords as sidearms cuz why wouldn't you.

Stephen A in the Rome Total War mod Europa Barbarorum, many archer units had small shields strapped to their arms. It's a good historically accurate mod so I'd expect the use of shields by archers to be common in the ancient world.

It was tailor made many years ago.

Name of the tailor?

@@scholagladiatoria Looks great, do you know where’s the best place to get a tailored gambeson nowadays?

Check out Shadiversity's brigandine video. He bought something that looks quite similar.

@@vaporz109 Check out Shadiversity's brigandine video. He bought something that looks quite similar.

a halbow?

What if I have a horse? And one of those bow "sheaths" for my reflex bow what eastern light cavalry used? What I don't know is where to put the lance if I switch to the bow :D

Sounds like one of Shad's pet projects.

@@MorbidEel or boerd.

I'm pretty sure I remember something about spear caps to be placed on top of Japanese yumi bows. Bow becomes spear at need. (Also seems a good way to wreck your bow).

"as a" omg enough cornball

As an experienced D&D 3.5 player, I absolutely love Heward's Handy Haversack. The bag and all it's contents together magically only ever weigh 5 pounds, even when fully loaded with 120 pounds of gear. It's bigger on the inside, 12 cubic feat of storage in spite of only being the size of an average school backpack. And it costs a mere 2,000 gold pieces. It's consistently my first magic item purchase, even ahead of the little marvel that is Ring of Sustenance.

Thanks for the word "jazerant", had not heard of that variation before [scribbles into a notebook]

In Baldur's Gate, I gave everyone a ranged weapon like a bow or a sling if they didn't have the ability. It's good to get a couple of shots in before the enemy closes.

I love slings in pathfinder. Especially on barbarians that add Strength to damage with 0 skills/feats involved.

Enjoyed that version of Fallout.

WITH HUNDREDS OF UNIQUE CHAMPIONS AND GRAPHICS THAT LOOK OKAY SOMETIMES

In defence of RAID, they have done more for content creators on KZfaq than KZfaq has done in recent years.

I would say my Fighter-Artificer is good. Crossbow, Longsword, and Shield with Half-Plate. He also carries vials of oil and acid on his belt. If he's lucky, he'll get a shot off as he marches into melee combat with his mechanical war-dog to prevent anyone reaching the squishies.

I believe atlatls and javelins can have larger heads than most arrows. So it would produce a more deadly wound against large animals and beasts, killing it faster than you could with a bow, but you'd be sacrificing the speed and range of the projectile. Maybe a fair tradeoff if you're hunting monsters, though.

Spears are already looked down by games and movies, imagine their throwning counterparts

Spears are generally underrated, I have found over the years.

Yes

@@scholagladiatoria Aha! I KNEW it!

A composite shortbow is going to be pretty expensive, though, and a wooden one might not be powerful enough for an adventurer's needs.

@@InSanic13 Such factors were arguably not as much of a concern for cultures with a strong steppe or rich horse-archer warfare backgrounds, at least.

He literally mentioned them a couple of times

@@InSanic13 Well in many games adventuring characters are well off they are not peasants and also above average Rune Quest is a bit more realistic than DnD

​@@mauricewalshe8234 I generally see adventurers as mid-status (or at least starting out that way; obviously, it's possible for them to make it big), and mid-status soldiers in medieval Europe never seemed to really use composite bows or composite--lathed crossbows.

Really? That sounds very interesting, I am sure it will turn out well.

I'd recommend to adjust based on the different climate/setting. Historically most soldiers in Mali for example didn't wear any armor, and only the most elite "knights" got stuff like chainmail.

Darth Easton.

and the problem with that in the games I played was the mount would inevitably be killed, run off, or stolen..every.single.time.

@@zwinmar21 well that's the risk of adventuring so you better risk your horse and life for some fine coin 😉

A lance was less a group of cavalry, as the basic unit around a single man-at-arms. One man-at-arms/knight, one squire, an archer or two, a page/valet/servant, a handful of horses, and a cart/pack animals to schlep their stuff.

@@patrickdusablon2789 I think either of these would be an amazing adventuring party. I love the idea of a "fire team" with a well-defined relationship and goal, but NO ONE I've played with wants to coordinate character creation to that degree. It seems every TTRPG player wants that extra-special unique build that struggles to find a reason to cooperate with a Party; the Edgy Rogue, the Self-Righteous Paladin, the Bad Attitude Fighter, the Gender Unclear Sorcerer, the Autistic Bard-barian, etc. I get enough inter-personal drama in real life, my fantasy is to have a team that works well together and gets along without trying to stab each other in the back or deal with deep personal issues.

@@AM-hf9kk depending on the outfit you're dealing with, you could be dealing with a band of misfits wrapped around a man-at-arms rather than a well-disciplined band of professional soldiers. To make it work in a TTRPG, there might be a need to re-jig things, and put things in context. Maybe the man-at-arms of the lance is the fighter/paladin, but the lance is really a vehicle for getting a mage/sorcerer to the front. Your rogue/rangers are the lance's archers, with a fighter, paladin or cleric as the squire? Just spitballing here.

Good weapon if you're well practiced. Add a pouch of lead sling bullets & you're good to go.

Wasn’t a sling lose most of it effectiveness if the opponent was wearing any measure of armor?

@@Specter_1125 There's a good bit of concussive force involved, so no.

@@Specter_1125 Even with armour a sling could break ribs, rupture organs causing internal bleeding, and penetrate cloth armour or wicker shields.

@@Specter_1125 the same can be said of swords.

In my opinion everyone should have a ranged weapon. A sling is excellent when it is to complicated to bring a bow.

@@michaelpettersson4919 You would need an bow or some other ranged weapon if you are adventuring without a horse, otherwise you would literally just get kited by anyone with an ranged weapon if they just run faster than you lol.

Currently working on one myself. Care to elaborate on how you handled it?

@@nevisysbryd7450 Instead of tracking discrete weight totals (lbs, kg, etc) heavy and/or cumbersome items are assigned a load value, which is roughly equal to the item's weight in stone for compact dead-weight, or more for awkward items like polearms, ladders, or several glass vials. You can't carry more load of gear than your strength score (the system is based on old-school D&D so strength ranges from 3 to 18, with 9 to 12 being average.) In addition to load value one is limited by storage space, which is limited to whatever you can carry (a 2-handed weapon or a 1-handed polearm and shield for example), up to 3 holstered items (swords, maces, hand axes, or other side arms) one of which must be a dagger or smaller, what you can wear (clothes, armor, rings, etc), up to 4 very small items in your pockets, a coin purse, and up to 8 different items of cargo (or stacks of the same item) in one's backpack. Many items have no load value, but are still limited you this storage space, or if enough copies of the item are carried it will begin to have a load value. If you need more cargo space you can get sacks which add cargo space at the expense of adding to load carried (small sacks add one cargo slot and are worth 1 load and large sacks add 4 slots and are 3 load). It seems complex when I write it out like that, but when you design a character sheet around it to only include inventory space in accordance with storage space it ends up being pretty workable in play.

@@Hushashabega Ah. Yeah, dense information such as that can be conveyed much more easily via a GUI (which is what the character sheet would be). Thanks!

If you want a 'realistic' encumbrance system you could base it on current military thinking. Soldiers today basically have four 'levels' of gear, the first is what is worn, the second is what is carried into combat, the third is the 'patrol kit' or 'day bag' that is usually taken for extended patrols and is dropped before fighting, and the forth is the 'marching kit', which contains stuff like spare clothes, tents/shelter, etc. and is worn as little as possible, and preferably carried by vehicle (or if you are talking medieval, horse) The beauty of this system is all 4 levels are roughly the same - about 15kg per level for Western armies. So Level 1 is 15kg of armour/protective gear, 2 is 15kg of weapons and ammo, 3 is 15kg patrol kit (extra ammo, thermal clothes, 1 days rations and water, spade, etc) and 4 is 15kg marching kit which is the extra rations, cooking equipment, shelter etc. So just for a hash up of a basic system for medieval game, lets forget about the marching kit and assume this is carried by horse (it usually was back then). Since 15kg is the base amount, for an RPG lets say 10+strength kg per level assuming a game with strength values from 1 to 10 - if the values are higher just adjust in proportion, so strength score from 1 to 100 would be divided by ten. That means a weakling character can carry 10kg of armour, 10kg of weapons, and 10kg in his pack (plus whatever is on his horse) - the pack is NOT accessible in any form of combat, it can be used to replenish arrows/bolts/magic herbs/broken weapons AFTER the fight, but not during it. A max strength guy can carry 20kg of armour, 20kg of weapons, and 20kg in the pack. The beauty of a system like this is it stops players cheesing encumbrance systems by having a ridiculously strong character with plenty of encumbrance points to spare carry ALL the party's essential/noncombat gear and ALL the gold and loot, meaning your weakling 1 strength character has enough carry capacity to wield huge polearms and wear full plate....

Or a nice handful of plumbata!

The very expensive invisibility enchanted backpack that let you adventure in style!

@@michaelpettersson4919 is the backpack armored

Bag of holding works a treat let one character have one problem solved but limit the stuff they can pull from it or they'll try and pull out a live horse had the horse suffocate in the bag taught a lesson that day

He sort of covered that in a much older video on carrying and encumbrance. Whereas this one focused on armament, the other talked about portable shelter, cooking supplies, and how all of that depends on the specific of the adventure in question.

@@nevisysbryd7450 Yeah, I also remember a video like that but I can't find it. And it would be nice to see the combination of gear needed.

@@ThatsLeoYKnow Yeah, the combination is not something that has been covered very well on youtube, since you need to balance all of those together. Here is Matt's earlier video. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/otKAdNh43py8poU.html

Heikki Hallamaa yeah spike on knee cap works a treat

Speaking of creature size: monsters that do create their own environment would have their tunnels made in a size that is convenient for them. Why does it seem that tiny creatures dig tunnels so convenient for large invaders?

​@@randomnobodovsky3692 Late post, but I'll make a stretch of a guess: either the DM forgot that detail OR those tunnels used to be a lair for _something as big._

@@jannemerilainen6988 I always thought it's part of the genre. Just like ventilation one comfortably can crawl in (in different genre).

Very much NOT how Tolkien described Orks.

@@PalleRasmussen I was in mind of DnD like orcs. Tolkien's orcs are goblin rubbish.

Consider something other than leather armour :-)

@@scholagladiatoria not biker jacket leather but hardened vegitan leather breastplate, but I do know where you’re coming from 😊

@@visualartsbyjr2464 Actually, better than using tanned leather would be boiled rawhide or half-tanned leather(meaning just the surface is tanned, but not the core). The tanning process softens the material, so if you want maximum toughness/hardness for protection, you are better off using leather pieces that haven't been tanned, which is known as rawhide. Half tanned leather might be used instead of pure boiled rawhide because it takes a protective coating better. It's hard to get oils and paints to stick to rawhide's surface.

@@visualartsbyjr2464 I'm not sure if hardened leather breastplates were really a thing. Consider a leather brigandine over a gambeson

@@NMahon That's actually what the word Cuirass meant originally. The original item was of boiled or hardened leather (there are multiple versions of the process, involving some kind of glue or oil) that later was made in steel. There are just relatively few survivals in museums and such (because the material is biodegradable). If you look into it, a few have been found in waterlogged situations. books.google.com/books/about/Leather_in_Warfare.html?id=XyLBAQAACAAJ

There's no real reason why that quarterstaff can't be a spear, as long as it's legal. Otherwise, you're quite right

@@taylor_green_9 as it turns out there is a reason: the ideal walking stick is one with an iron gripping spike on one end (this spike would not be long enough to make an effective spear point) and either nothing, or a leather pad on the other for surfaces the spike is not good for.

Lord of the Rings (in the books) is one of the few examples that accurately displays concerns of weight and the balance of speed vs protection. The characters set out lightly equipped- Aragorn with his Sword, Boromir carried a sword, a shield and his horn, Legolas had a bow and arrows and also a long knife, Gimli had a two handed Axe and whore alone a mail shirt since dwarves make light of burdens, the hobbits had their barrow blades (Frodo had Sting and his Mithril coat which was hidden) Gandalf had his staff and Glamdring. (and they still needed a baggage pony to carry provisions) When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli arrived at Edoras they were all given Mail shirts and helmets (except Gimli who had a mail coat already) in addition to shields. Lord of the Rings is the prototype for all "party systems" so common to D&D and modern RPGs have gotten away from the core idea- each character is specialized for specific roles (expect hobbits they are just dead weight) One thing in Fantasy type stories is that characters can be equipped at different points in the story with different weapons, the most important thing is that they have the skill to use the tools they can get access to. Also having squires would be a good idea if you ever want someone who is a full time warrior to have. Gates of Fire did a good job of showing how the relationship between a battle squire and a warrior- plus that lets the squire carry ranged weapons to support the melee warrior.

Movies tend to disregard the helmets due to the medium. It's the same reason super-heroes are constantly removing their masks. They want to show the actors' facial expressions. And, for fantasy settings, also to make them stand out more, be easier to identify. What bothers me more is when they give the characters long hair or, in the cases where they do have a helmet, things jutting out... That's, like, no, you don't want things that your opponent can grab and pull on, or something that deflects a weapon into you, rather than away from you.

I'd recommend The Red Knight by Miles Cameron. Follows a mercenary company in a fantasy setting complete with squires, valets and camp followers of various kinds.

Do you really?

@@josephpeck8723 Depends on the context, really. Some worlds are better than others.

@@StergiosMekras Indeed.

While I'm interested in taking a look if its a tabletop RPG, based on Matt's apparent priorities I have concerns. I've taken some of the advice that Matt has given in multiple videos into account in my own tabletop game design, but overall the main priority of a game should be to have fun, and a lot of his complaints about what is realistic historically would be unrealistic to incorporate into a tabletop game and still keep it fun for most people, I believe. A video game would be a different matter, since the computer can take all these things into account without hurting gameplay more easily, and I'd love to see Matt as a consultant for such a game.