A new term for me!
British officers were responsible for their own kit, so they'd head down to the tailor's for a uniform and while they were there, they'd buy the sword that goes with.
The tailor, quite often, did not sell swords that were a good idea to take into a fight.
But they met the size-shape regulations.
There's also a lot of fashion involved in a lot of swords.
Many surviving examples of blades that are intended to look good, but are compromised by how they were made.
There's even a couple of examples where the design is compromised to make it more comfortable to lug around!
How does one GURPS this?
The idea of a cheap quality sword with fine (decorated) has a lot of appeal to represent these, but even a cheap sword is considered to be correctly designed, just cheaper materials. I think I need something like cheap (poorly balanced)...
It's been my experience that stuff usually breaks while it's running/being used. Not talking about corrosion fault from improper storage, talking about your garden variety "well crap! Now I gotta go buy a new one!" failures.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, having your weapon break during use is a bad event. Which can tarnish the brand... User confidence is kinda important for weapons.
Maybe have low odds of failure, but the fault event is catastrophic when it occurs.