Missing weapons

[Atgxtg]

27 minutes ago, SDLeary said:

The Mostali Repeating Crossbow doesn't have a lever to reload, and it magazine is on the bottom, to better aid with aiming. No one knows how the bolts reload!

SDLeary

The Mostali probably do. 

Hazarding a guess, my money would be on a spring  that gets primed on the energy from the shot bolt. The whole thing might be wound up, in advance, with enough stored energy to fire the whole magazine, or even several magazines.  Mostali have some sort of clocks for fixing the machine, right? 

[Brootse]

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

The Mostali probably do. 

Hazarding a guess, my money would be on a spring  that gets primed on the energy from the shot bolt. The whole thing might be wound up, in advance, with enough stored energy to fire the whole magazine, or even several magazines.  Mostali have some sort of clocks for fixing the machine, right? 

Sounds logical. Would anyone have more pics of mostali crossbows? The only ones I found were basically just chu-ko-nus.

Now, of course one could make up an in-world explanation for it, and say that they just resemble externally chu-ko-nus and have springs and stuff inside, and that the humans just copied the look.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Brootse

[metcalph]

4 minutes ago, Brootse said:

Now, of course one could make up an in-world explanation for it, and say that they just resemble externally chu-ko-nus and have springs and stuff inside, and that the humans just copied the look.

Another possibility is that the secret of the cho-ku-nu leaked in the east.  There's two dwarf cities there - one was overthrown by the Kralori and the other in Teshnos embraced Octamonism.

[PhilHibbs]

Just going to throw this in here.

 

[styopa]

On 10/11/2018 at 10:52 AM, Atgxtg said:

Very D&D ish, although with RQ you're probably doubling dipping with actual 2H weapons, since they do more damage than their 1H counterparts than in D&D. For instance a greatsword does 2D8 compares to 2D6 in D&D. 

Logically, it would make a fair amount of sense to have a weapon damage system entirely re-arranged mechanically in which:

• melee damage is fundamentally wielder-strength based, and then modified by (examples off the top of my head):
  • damage caps based on the mass of the weapon
  • bonuses to the minimum damage for a sharp edge (or just a general bonus to damage, but with degradation over use)
  • bonus damage generally for a point (but with a cap on max damage for thrusting based on diameter)
  • damage multiplier based on if you were using it 2h on it or no.

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by styopa

[soltakss]

On 10/11/2018 at 5:59 AM, Jason Durall said:

We are happy to answer questions, but don't take a lack of an answer as disinterest! 

 

See page 208 for the stats of a great axe, and page 210 for its description. Based on the description one think of it as a labyrs, a sagaris, or something like the Dane axe. 

 

The bastard sword is pretty much a 15th-16th century weapon, which feels somewhat out of place in Glorantha. It may be introduced in a later sourcebook as a regional weapon, or it might show up in the Gamemaster Sourcebook in an expanded equipment table. 

 

Alternatively, use the RQ2 stats for a Bastard Sword. Little beats going into combat with 2 Bastard Swords, a hefty Shield and a Berserker spell.

[Zozotroll]

Certainly.  I was just interested in the process that let in a rapier but dropped the bastard sword.

[Lord High Munchkin]

8 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Just going to throw this in here.

 

Obviously the Mostali would replace every "grown" (ghastly "organic" stuff!!!) component with some much more acceptable manufactured parts....

Which raised the thought in my mind - do the Mostali actually use wood (in weapons, or even at all), or do they have some other dwarf-made alternatives?

[styopa]

7 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Alternatively, use the RQ2 stats for a Bastard Sword. Little beats going into combat with 2 Bastard Swords, a hefty Shield and a Berserker spell.

I know we're not all simulationists here, but the idea of anyone smaller than a giant dual-wielding two 4+' blades* makes me die inside a little bit. 

*ostensibly IIRC this is what D&D/RQ2 meant by 'Bastard Sword'.

An "actual" bastard sword would really be only the size of a broadsword with a longer handle, suggesting that the idea of either capping damage bonus for 1h, or multiplying damage bonus for 2h use is IRL spot-on.

 

[soltakss]

24 minutes ago, Lord High Munchkin said:

Obviously the Mostali would replace every "grown" (ghastly "organic" stuff!!!) component with some much more acceptable manufactured parts....

Which raised the thought in my mind - do the Mostali actually use wood (in weapons, or even at all), or do they have some other dwarf-made alternatives?

I think they would use wood. After all, they recycle dead Aldryami as food, so why not recycle dead plants as raw materials?

 

There would be a lot of straightening, reshaping and reprocessing though.

[styopa]

45 minutes ago, Zozotroll said:

Certainly.  I was just interested in the process that let in a rapier but dropped the bastard sword.

I used to think this was just a retcon - that the rapier in RQ2 was in fact just an anachronism. I mean, it's fantasy and not meant to be historical reconstruction, it's not a big deal. 

But I was clearly wrong; the RQ2 appendix *specifically* states clearly "This is not the overlong laborate(sic) weapon of our Renaissance, but instead a basic cut and thrust weapon.  Lighter than Broadswords."

So rapiers should actually be pretty common (that high dex requirement is a little tough) for anyone who wants a longer blade than a shortsword/dagger, but doesn't want to swing/carry a broadsword.  I would however give it the option of doing impaling damage (ie "cut & thrust") making it not a bad choice, tactically.  Less damage, but chance to impale.

 

[womble]

The example of bronze rapiers I've seen pics of would make poor cutting weapons because of the pronounced central rib. I'd say they could be used to make swings with, and the sharp edges would slice, but if (for some reason) the character chose to use it that way, they'd not get the benefit of the Special. So if a weird monster, say, took no damage from impaling weapons, they could still swing at it but no Slash or Impale would occur.

[Zozotroll]

I remember a book showing bronze swords that had pulled apart at the hilt from being used to slash instead of thrusting.  That was back when I was still in College, so many decades ago, and I dont remember the book title.  Clearly somebody else had found a monster that needed slashing.  I guess the name threw me, I just have a hard time with a fat rapier.

[Mechashef]

2 hours ago, styopa said:

An "actual" bastard sword would really be only the size of a broadsword with a longer handle, suggesting that the idea of either capping damage bonus for 1h, or multiplying damage bonus for 2h use is IRL spot-on.

I've tried a couple of rules over the years. but my current one is following the example with Short Spear in RQG.  If a weapon that can be used either one or two handed is used two handed, I bump its damage up to the next dice.

So a Battle Axe which does 1D8+2 when used one handed, does 1D10+2 when used two handed.

This is consistent with official stats for a Short Spear (1D6+1 when used one handed and 1D8+1 when used two handed).

I would have a Bastard Sword do 1D8+1 when used one handed and 1D10+1 when used two handed.

This makes such a weapon do more damage than when used one handed, but still less than the dedicated two handed weapons in their category.

I'm considering using that rule for almost any one handed weapon, even a dagger but at some penalty (perhaps to attack or parry) as they are not designed to allow two hands (i.e. a dagger would require one hand to be placed over the other and thus represents the classic two handed downward stab with a dagger).

None of my one handed weapons do 1D12 (or an equivalent) damage so I haven't had to worry about stepping up from there.

 

 

[Atgxtg]

5 hours ago, styopa said:

Logically, it would make a fair amount of sense to have a weapon damage system entirely re-arranged mechanically in which:

• melee damage is fundamentally wielder-strength based, and then modified by (examples off the top of my head):
  • damage caps based on the mass of the weapon
  • bonuses to the minimum damage for a sharp edge (or just a general bonus to damage, but with degradation over use)
  • bonus damage generally for a point (but with a cap on max damage for thrusting based on diameter)
  • damage multiplier based on if you were using it 2h on it or no.

 

Yup, I did something like that for a variant, based off of how Bushido does it, Pendragon, and the demon table from Elric!/Stormbringer. What I did was give a base damage dice from STR+SIZ. I think it was (STR+SIZ)/5, nearest. So an average person used a d6 . Then weapons shifted the damage p or down steps on the die ladder. A shortsword might be +1 steps (1d8 the damage average as 1D6+1), a broadsword +2 steps (1D10, the same average as 1D8+1, a greatsword + 5 steps (1D10+1D6, or 2D8) and so on. Or I might have did damage by weapon and shifts by STR+SIZ. it's been awhile. 

 

It was nice in that it smoothed the damage progression, and got rid of all those plus that make it impossible to get a graze, and stabilized the damage for large creatures so that they could get glancing strike too. An attack that did 1D6+9D6 (10D6) got changed to something like 6D10