Weapons and Ruhebinden (Peace Knots)

Perrenland is a country where the majority of the population are trained soldiers who take pride in owning their own weapons. However, people generally object to weapons being carried openly in the streets by those who have no good reason to do so. Also, some establishments refuse to allow entry to those openly carrying weapons. In recognition of the general desire for peaceful streets, the practice of using ruhibinden (peace knots) is widespread.

Ruhebinden allow people to carry their weapons in public because they are knotted securely into the scabbard or weapon case in such a way that the weapon cannot be drawn and used until the ruhebinden is undone. A person whose weapons are all securely fastened in this way is deemed to be unarmed in the eyes of the law - and attacking an unarmed person is something which the law does not view kindly. All visible weapons, including daggers but excluding unstrung bows, must be ruhebinden before you can claim to be unarmed.

A basic ruhebinden is a short length of rope or leather. Within Perrenland, many people have developed the concept in much more sophisticated ways. For example, the standard Rosrijder ruhebinden is made from platted horse-hair and dyed in the owner's clan or sept colours; a Roodberg ruhebinden often has a small skull on either end, the more dangerous or outlandish the creature the better (snake skulls from the swamps of Traft are often used); a Hussen ruhebinden often ends in two large intricately knotted balls. The standard Landwehr ruhebinden is made from three intertwined leather thongs died in the colours of their Canton (2 thongs died the primary colour and one thong died the secondary colour).

It is often possible to tell a person's clan or canton from an examination of their ruhebinden. That said, a wide variety of ruhebinden are available for sale at any fair or market in Perrenland, made from a range of colours, materials, and ornaments.

A certain amount of status can be gained from a well-tied ruhebinden. For this reason, some of the knots one sees are very ornate and elaborate.

Metagame information:

A standard ruhebinden requires a DC 12 Use Rope check to untie. The DC increases by +2 if the character is in combat, unless they elect to give up their Dexterity and shield bonuses to AC. Members (or ex-members) of the Auszug get a +2 bonus to Use Rope to untie a ruhebinden, as they have been trained to tie a neat knot.

Some establishments may require a more complex knot, requiring a higher DC check, before allowing entry. The complexity of the knot is determined by making a Use Rope check to tie the knot in the first place: the character can set the difficulty at any number equal to or lower than the result achieved, with a minimum value of 12. On a roll of 1 (for tying or untying), you get a knot that can only be untied if you take 20.

A Knowledge: Local (Iuz's Border States) check will identify the clan/canton/area a particular ruhebinden comes from. Identifying a common ruhebinden is DC 5; the more obscure the ruhebinden, the higher the DC.

Characters can tie fake ruhebinden that are actually disguised slip-knots by succeeding at a DC 12 Use Rope check. The DC of the Spot check to detect a fake ruhebinden is equal to the result of the Use Rope check - that is, the DC of the ruhebinden that the fake is emulating. For example, if the fake is emulating a DC 15 ruhebinden, a Spot check of 15 or better is required to detect the deception. A person with five or more ranks in Use Rope receives a +2 bonus to this Spot check.

It is a move-equivalent action to untie one ruhebinden. Alternatively, a character can untie one ruhebinden while moving or double-moving. In this case, the DC increases by +2 if moving or by +4 if double-moving. Note that the weapon still needs to be drawn after untieing the ruhebinden.