Armour & weapon designs (part V).

[Lephys]

How's about a blade with a straight edge on one side (for slicing and general sword-cery), and a serrated edge on the other (for those pesky treants, or Druids/folks with something like Barkskin cast on them.)

 

[Karranthain]

Other interesting bits:

 

The weapon balancing is still very rough.  In general, fast weapons do a small amount of damage per hit but the most damage over time (though this can be heavily blunted by armor).  Slower weapons do much more damage per hit and the least damage over time, but are much less affected by armor.  Each type of weapon has its own special (though not necessarily unique) bonus as well.  E.g. sabres inflict a short-duration damage over time effect, estocs and stilettos lower the target's armor by a flat amount, morning stars do either pierce of crush damage depending on what the target is more susceptible to (automatically), etc.

 

Magical implements are the fastest of the ranged weapons, but also do pretty mild damage.  The rest of the ranged weapons tend to scale in this order of decreasing speed and increasing damage: hunting bow, war bow, crossbow, arbalest, pistol, blunderbuss/arquebus.

 

 

 

Weapon specializations are grouped together by themed category: e.g. Knight, Noble, Soldier, Ruffian, etc.  Only fighters gain access to WS.

 

 

Pistols can be primary weapons.  They are the fastest-reloading but least damaging firearms.

 

Looks like we'll have some fun with all those unique weapon types!

[Suburban-Fox]

How's about a blade with a straight edge on one side (for slicing and general sword-cery), and a serrated edge on the other (for those pesky treants, or Druids/folks with something like Barkskin cast on them.)

 

 

Interesting point, actually...medieval weapons weren't designed to fight fantasy creatures, so maybe some weapons would be designed with a similar function in mind, that give bonuses against certain creatures due to their design, not just magical enchantments.

[Lephys]

Interesting point, actually...medieval weapons weren't designed to fight fantasy creatures, so maybe some weapons would be designed with a similar function in mind, that give bonuses against certain creatures due to their design, not just magical enchantments.

'Twas a half-joke. But, I actually didn't think of that. Good point,

 

This sort of came up some time back when people were talking about bows. The specs of military-type bows were being pointed out as problematic in some ways for proposed usages of bows and applications of Strength and whatnot, but then something along the lines of "maybe in a world filled with dangerous creatures and such instead of just armored people, adventurers would be a lot more likely to use hunting-type bows?"

 

8P

 

I do very much like to think of the differing applications and designs that would arise in a world very similar to ours, but not quite the same. Sometimes all it takes is that one factor: a common enough threat that isn't "humans"/armies, a plentiful enough resource or process that wasn't plentiful/available in real-world history, etc.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Lephys

[quest1on]

That's the reason why in one of those threads people discussed pulling a small balista or falconet on a cart around in case of dragons, trolls and other mofos that look like a moving castle.

[Karranthain]

'Twas a half-joke. But, I actually didn't think of that. Good point,

 

This sort of came up some time back when people were talking about bows. The specs of military-type bows were being pointed out as problematic in some ways for proposed usages of bows and applications of Strength and whatnot, but then something along the lines of "maybe in a world filled with dangerous creatures and such instead of just armored people, adventurers would be a lot more likely to use hunting-type bows?"

 

8P

 

I do very much like to think of the differing applications and designs that would arise in a world very similar to ours, but not quite the same. Sometimes all it takes is that one factor: a common enough threat that isn't "humans"/armies, a plentiful enough resource or process that wasn't plentiful/available in real-world history, etc.

 

 

On the other hand, if those dangerous creatures had tough hides, I reckon that powerful crossbows and firearms would be more popular. If they'd have speed on their side as well, longbows could see use.

 

If armies were fighting dangerous beasts regularly, I bet Hussite's Wagenburg would see frequent use:

 

 

Essentially a mobile castle.

 

That's a lot of firepower concentrated in one place:

 

On the wagons:

 

 

Between them:

 

 

And even under them:

 

 

All in all, it's a very interesting topic I must say. How did the arms develop in the world of PE? Which tactics are used frequently? How heavy is the armour?

[quest1on]

In one of original Witcher short stories there was a band of dragon hunters who had different suits of armour (and horse armour) for fighting different kinds of beasts: the firebreathing ones, acid-spitting ones and such. But they also used two-handed swords on horsback while gripping their briddles with teeth, so... yeah, I would probably prefer genetically modified super monster slayer.

[Karranthain]

Innistrad from Magic the Gathering was mentioned before, it's pretty cool:

 

Rapiers make everything look better.

 

 

Ranger or a druid?

 

 

And a very Warhammer-ish piece:

 

[quest1on]

And a very Warhammer-ish piece:

 

Karl Kopinski's art is really great, here's another of his MtG pieces from different expansion:

I like this helmet design, something like high gothic salad/chapel de fer. This is another view of it:

[Karranthain]

Yeah, Kopinski's superb - he often does historical pieces as well and I assume that's one of the primary sources of inspiration for him.

 

Here's another work of his, done for Warhammer:

 

 

And now, for something completely different (and probably outside of PE's timeframe):

 

[Woldan]

Dispatch attacking goblin hordes like a boss with the volley gun! 

 

 

 
And the ball-bomb launcher:
 

 

If you are attacked by a raging cyclops you better carry one of these on your shoulder, the 25mm wall gun. Replace his eye with a 1500 grain heavy lead ball. 
 

 
Tear entire flocks of harpies a new one with the heavy 28mm blunderbuss shotgun. (Fire at your own risk)
 

 

 

Show dragons what heat really means with the 105mm recoilless rifle firing HEAT (high explosive anti tank) rounds 
 

 
Wait, wrong game....

Edited March 22, 2014 by Woldan

[quest1on]

While we're talking about less popular firearms, there's something from Polish military history I'd like to show you:

This thing is called półhak (literally "half-hook"). It's a pistol-sized gun made by sewing off harquebus. Yes, it's the first historical Lupara. Here's a couple more pictures

[Woldan]

Now I want to carry a sawed-off arquebuse under my trench coat and rob liquor stores. 

[LadyCrimson]

That ball-bomb launcher is really interesting...

[Woldan]

That ball-bomb launcher is really interesting...

Yeah, but also dangerous in more than one way. It fired a ball grenade with a fuse (or a chemical fuse) that had to be lit before shooting the gun. So if the gun misfired and did not send the bomb out of the barrel you better drop it quickly before the bomb goes off. 

Also the recoil must have been absolutely brutal firing such a heavy grenade, even at low velocities. Newtons third law. The gun was not fired directly from the shoulder (that would have resulted in a broken shoulder) but still. A difficult and potentially dangerous (dangerous for the shooter, the bystanders and the enemy - dangerous for everyone!) yet effective weapon.

 

Matchlock multibarrel cannon. 10 times more gun, 10 times more fun.    

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2014 by Woldan

[Jarmo]

Those sawed-off arquebuses are the awesomest pieces I've seen in a good while. Just brilliant.

But the wall guns are the thing, in a world with trolls and ogres and more, those'd be all over the place.

 

Or the predecessors, siege crossbows and other "light heavy" weapons.

 

On a semi serious note. I wonder if the reason roman legions would carry around a bunch of Scorpion thingies when going into gaul and germania, real difficult terrain back then, if it had something to do with the possibility of meeting monsters or giants or something? (And they did actually meet war elephants or maybe angry rhinos which don't really lose out to an ogre).

 

But I'm almost positive they didn't actually make them out of plastic.

[Woldan]

I think scorpions had more range than any other mobile and easily deployable weapon, imagine a volley of those at massed troops that cannot return fire due to the distance. Must be really bad for the morale...

 

it was like the ''grasshopper'' cannon of the roman time. 

 

Edited March 23, 2014 by Woldan

[Tauron]

Just stumbled upon this one. We need more of these.

[Karranthain]

All those guns...the next Kickstarter has to be Arcanum 2, surely!

 

If not, a spiritual successor would be just fine too...just saying.

 

[Tauron]

All those guns...the next Kickstarter has to be Arcanum 2, surely!

 

If not, a spiritual successor would be just fine too...just saying.

 

 

Spiritual successor, uhm maybe. I just hated the magic vs tech after awhile. It didnt make sense imo. I wanted to be dual wielding techomage.

[Karranthain]

 

All those guns...the next Kickstarter has to be Arcanum 2, surely!

 

If not, a spiritual successor would be just fine too...just saying.

 

 

Spiritual successor, uhm maybe. I just hated the magic vs tech after awhile. It didnt make sense imo. I wanted to be dual wielding techomage.

 

 

I enjoyed this aspect personally - but I felt that it wasn't handled that well mechanically. But the effect this conflict has had on the world was presented well, I felt (vide Tarant vs. Dernholm).

 

Getting back on topic, how about them bicornes?

 

Edited March 26, 2014 by Karranthain

[sesobebo]

 

 

 

this is waaaaaaaay more handy. (:

Edited March 26, 2014 by sesobebo

[Woldan]

A revolving matchlock gun? That thing is cute.-   And not a b_tch to clean since it has only one barrel. 
 
A random Tschinke: 
 


And a closeup from the surprisingly complex lock: (no wonder why those things were so expensive back in the day)

 

And here we have a flintlock-axe. Gunswords? Gunaxes! 

 

[Lephys]

Getting back on topic, how about them bicornes?

If I may be an uneducated noob... what exactly is a bicorne?

[Woldan]

Googled it, it seems to be some sort of napoleonic hat.