How Fast Could My Characters Learn To Fight?

[Tundra]

I have a group of six characters, in their late teens and early 20s, going on a quest. They did not expect to have to deal with anything violent.
Two or maybe three of them have had some sort of weapons training before, in the sort of 'upper class learning how to fence and do archery' way, not in an actual 'training for war' way.
And then they find out that they're going to have to learn how to fight.
They don't have to become trained assassins or anything, or total experts. They can use common sense kinds of fighting too (Like, frying pans to the head).

But I wanted them to try and learn some tactics along the way. What might they learn? How well might they manage to do at it?

[AXJ]

Personal talent will have a lot to do with it. Some people learn FAST. Some people never get very good at all. It'll also depend on who's teaching them. A good teacher makes all the difference.

I'd say four weeks of dedicated daily practice would be a minimum for someone to go from nothing to being minimally capable of defending themself, unless they were just a prodigy. You'd really want two to three months to get to a point of any real competence against opponents who have been doing it a while.

[bardsandsages]

I have a group of six characters, in their late teens and early 20s, going on a quest. They did not expect to have to deal with anything violent.
Two or maybe three of them have had some sort of weapons training before, in the sort of 'upper class learning how to fence and do archery' way, not in an actual 'training for war' way.
And then they find out that they're going to have to learn how to fight.
They don't have to become trained assassins or anything, or total experts. They can use common sense kinds of fighting too (Like, frying pans to the head).

But I wanted them to try and learn some tactics along the way. What might they learn? How well might they manage to do at it?

If you are talking about good ole fashion "street fighting" if they are athletic and have good wits they can pick that up relatively quickly. If you are talking about swordplay, they would need some sort of formalized training so as not to hurt themselves with the weapons.

Total time is sort of dependent on what is going on. Do they have time to go find a mentor and actually train? Or do they need to "wing it?" What, exactly, are we talking about? Monster hunting, or fighting against other trained opponents?

And of course, there is always dumb luck. As we say at the gaming table, everyone drops a "20" once in a while. :)

[MichaelB]

It also depends what they're learning. Street brawling is pretty much poicked up on the fly, but traditional Kung Fucan take anywhere nup to 30 years to master.

minimal competence in my particular style of kung fu (wing chun) is about 3 years, unless you're training (with a master) pretty much full-time (around 5 or 6 hours per week), where you can become minimally competent in around 1 year.

Also, things like swordplay can dioffer between styles. The European broadsword was so difficult to maneuvoer that apparently engluihs knights had to start learning from a very young age, and continued learning and practicing well into middle-age. Contrast this to the Chinese dao (broadsword) class of weapon, which required much less training than the straight sword, meaning more people could become competent faster.

Things like small-unit tactics and strategy would be fairly easy to pick up using common sense or a good book (things like flanking your opponents, situational awareness, etc. etc.) that can help you survive in a large fight.

Really though, as AXJ said above, a lot of fighting is about timing and dumb luck. Everyone exposes themselves at some point (exposes the weak points in their armour, I mean, not thje lewd kind of exposure), and being able to take advantage of that split-second weakness is all about timei9ng.

And when it comes to it, anyone can swing a sword. The effectiveness of how they swing it varies, but a trained unarmed iknife-fighter versus an untrained guy swinging a knife around wildly, and the trained guy is probably going to get hit, at some point. Especially if the untrained guy has enough determinationb, focus and raw savage hatred.

That doesn't mean the trained unarmed guy won't be able to disarm the kife-swinger, but there's always a chance.

[Tundra]

Street fighting, with the addition of some sword use for some of them- the transition from say, fencing, to... actually stabbing. Or Archery.
I think they're going to prefer NOT to kill anyone, but they want to be able to defend themselves, or grab someone so that they can hold them hostage, or escape from places. Though they're preparing themselves for *maybe* having to kill someone.


I doubt they're going to have a proper mentor. They're meeting up with a traveller sort of gypsy guy... but that's not for long. I think he's just going to give them a crash course, then they're on their own.

[AXJ]

And when it comes to it, anyone can swing a sword. The effectiveness of how they swing it varies, but a trained unarmed iknife-fighter versus an untrained guy swinging a knife around wildly, and the trained guy is probably going to get hit, at some point. Especially if the untrained guy has enough determinationb, focus and raw savage hatred.

Erm. Not so much, especially with heavier swords (read, not rapiers/sabres). Random wild swinging would not work so well on the SCA heavy weapons guys. :lol: I guess it might happen on a chance, but for the most part, wild swinging of a heavy piece of steel results in countless openings for a trained swordsman. Seems like newbs generally do slightly better with lighter weapons tho.

[Tundra]

So, what stuff should they do? They're doing it mainly as a 'just in case' thing, for now.

[AXJ]

Do they have a teacher?

[Dwiesel McAllister]

I think the actual learning of techniques may vary depending on the person. I think it might be very effective if they learned how to avoid blows at first, and then added in fighting stuff.

Can they use their special abilities in any way?

[Tundra]

I want them to try and use their special abilities yes. One will be very good at preempting blows for example.
I'm not entirely sure if I can make it possible that they have a teacher. I think they might have someone with them for a few weeks to be able to start them off on it.

[Dwiesel McAllister]

Maybe, if they cannot have a formal teacher, they could help each other. Like, the ones that have experience (albeit possibly limited experience) in archery or fencing could help teach the others? Is it at all possible for one of your characters to come from a background that would make it possible for him/her to have skills in street fighting and maybe teach the others, or have you finalised all that already?

[KeinesV]

Necessity will also play a large part. If they are fighting desperately all the time they will learn the practicals of the stuff much faster than they would otherwise. Especially if not learning means they'll pretty much die sooner than later.

Street-fighting is somewhat different. It's a seat of the pants kind of activity, and much of it is largely hardwired into a species as violent as us. Still, an experienced fighter will do much much better than an unexperienced one. Note that I did not necessarily mean trained.

As for transitioning from fencing to actually stabbing, that wouldn't be as hard as one would think. If a character has sufficient motivation, he would just do it, and hurting someone with an instrument can be a very visceral and in way satisfying behavior. From fencing to stabbing an unarmored opponent would only be a matter of instead of declaring a point just pushing hard. People use weapons so often because they really do most of the getting it done.