Well, this week sucked.

So, despite my first few posts, I never claimed this was a gaming blog. Since that is the case, I am going to share my non-gaming experiences from this week.

I totaled my car on Wednesday. Ice on the road, a guardrail, and it all added up to a totaled Toyota Corolla. Thankfully no one else was involved, despite it being rush hour. I was also able to walk away from the wreck without any injury at all. No idea how. So, as you can imagine, I've had a stressful week.

My insurance company is Progressive, and I am truly amazed at how efficiently they sorted everything out. I had a check in hand Friday. Really, I'm just stunned. My only complaint about the whole thing is that they are putting a lot of pressure on me to get a new car. I can understand the urgency; they don't want to pay for the rental longer than they have to, but I live in a state where it is illegal to sell cars on Sunday (most stupid thing I've heard in 2015 so far). Slightly annoying, but they sorted out the car much faster than expected & actually gave me more money for it than I'd expected. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with Progressive.

Who doesn't need a few more weapons for 5e?

En World has a collection of user made 5e creations. Some are better than others.

I find that I really like the stuff created by the user Jargogle. He expands the weapon list a bit, & also provides extensive lists of Asian & European weapon & armor equivalents.

Check it out: 5e weapons & armor

Two-handed weapons and optional speed factor

In the DMG there is an optional initiative rule called speed factor. It lists a bunch of modifiers for different weapon types and situations that affect your initiative roll. There's more to it than that, but that's not important for my purpose here. Anyway, the table lists a -2 penalty for two-handed melee weapons. That's completely wrong.

Now, I'm not an expert in medieval weaponry. I have, however, been taking medieval combat classes for a little while. I guess I can really only comment on the sword, as the class hasn't included things like axes or spears, but it has been clearly demonstrated by the instructor that the longsword is noticeably faster when used with two hands rather than just one. Now, I'm not talking some giant monster two-handed sword that you couldn't possibly use one-handed. Though looking at that table, it also gives a penalty for a heavy weapon, so if I were to use speed factor, I would consider just ditching the two-hander penalty and only apply the heavy weapon penalty.

It basically has to do with greater control of the sword. To really hit someone hard with a one-handed weapon, you pretty much have to get some momentum behind it. When you have two hands on the hilt, it takes a lot less motion to get power behind the hit. Does this apply for the other versatile weapons besides the longsword? I'm not sure, as I haven't worked with an axe or spear. Honestly, I would assume so if I was using speed factor and I'd just dump that two-handed penalty altogether.

Just my .02.