Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - How to keep melee weapons relevant in a setting with "guns"?

AlexanderHowl · 07-17-2018, 04:43 PM

Yes, but that was because Dune was pretty much a science fiction rip off of the Once and Future King. It was essential a fantasy novel with science fiction trappings. After all, Star Wars and Star Trek had harder science than Dune, and that is not something that I say lightly.

When it comes to parrying bullets and beams with melee weapons, you are going to end up with a lot of broken weapons. The average broadsword is a Homogenous object with DR 6 and HP 12. A 30-06 deals an average of 25 points of pi damage, meaning that it will take around 4 points of damage. After three parries, it must make a HT roll every time it attacks or parries to avoid breaking. Even if it survives, it will be destroyed after 18 parries of a 30-06 and, with a -5 to parry, it is just not a good investment (you need 10 levels of Parry Missile Weapon to make up for the -5 to parry, meaning 40 points, which could have gotten you +2 Basic Speed instead).

A laser is even worse though (and you need Precognition Parry from Martial Arts). It does an average of 21 points of burning damage and halves DR, so the broadsword takes an average of 18 damage every parry, meaning that it last four parries at best. Once again, Basic Speed seems like a better investment.

07-17-2018, 04:43 PM	#15
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: How to keep melee weapons relevant in a setting with "guns"? Yes, but that was because Dune was pretty much a science fiction rip off of the Once and Future King. It was essential a fantasy novel with science fiction trappings. After all, Star Wars and Star Trek had harder science than Dune, and that is not something that I say lightly. When it comes to parrying bullets and beams with melee weapons, you are going to end up with a lot of broken weapons. The average broadsword is a Homogenous object with DR 6 and HP 12. A 30-06 deals an average of 25 points of pi damage, meaning that it will take around 4 points of damage. After three parries, it must make a HT roll every time it attacks or parries to avoid breaking. Even if it survives, it will be destroyed after 18 parries of a 30-06 and, with a -5 to parry, it is just not a good investment (you need 10 levels of Parry Missile Weapon to make up for the -5 to parry, meaning 40 points, which could have gotten you +2 Basic Speed instead). A laser is even worse though (and you need Precognition Parry from Martial Arts). It does an average of 21 points of burning damage and halves DR, so the broadsword takes an average of 18 damage every parry, meaning that it last four parries at best. Once again, Basic Speed seems like a better investment.