Re: OOC Thread
The common advice with self defense instructors for an unnarmed person vs. a guy with a knife? Run away. I'm sure their advice for fighting a sword would be even more so a case of 'run away, you fool.'
A sword has reach, it can casually cause serious damage with just a small amount of pressure because it's a ~3 foot razor blade built to do the damage it does, and in the hands of a guy like a Prince of Amber it's a monstrous proposition to tell someone to attack them unarmed.
The system without the accessories proposed by Dungeon World gives no benefit one way or another, unless the DM imposes it. As it exists without those modifiers, the difference between a guy with a sword and a guy with a spoon is nil. The question in my mind isn't if there should be penalties, it's just how much.
Having read the Dungeon World's weapon rules, regarding reach and the various other qualities on weapons, I'd suggest just using their weapons rules. It's not so scary and daunting it requires a PhD to read through and suss out what the various qualities mean, and it gives a relatively fair weighting to the weapons.