01-02-2015, 12:55 PM | #81 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
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As I said it above, tonkwas are considered as one of the deadliest kobudo weapon. Sais were the weapon of the Okinawan policemen (thanks to their ability to disarm and the fact that, as metal weapon, they can parry other metal weapons like knives and swords). The bo was the most usual weapon because a staff is useful for a lot of ordinary things like walking. So, a lot of people had a bo at hand in their ordinary life... And for the number of weapons taught, our masters just say that the main goal of kobudo is to learn a lot of very different weapons in order to become able to defend yourself with any tool at hand. Here are the mandatory ones: http://www.oshukai.fr/kobudo-okinawa...obudo-dokinawa Last edited by Gollum; 01-02-2015 at 01:00 PM. |
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01-02-2015, 12:56 PM | #82 | |
Join Date: Nov 2011
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
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01-02-2015, 01:35 PM | #83 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
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*I suspect this is actually used more like a polearm; sw+2 imp, Reach 1,2*, Parry 0U, 6 lb, MinST 9† is probably about right. **As I mentioned upthread, these probably shouldn't be their own skills. Jitte/Sai is probably Knife (making up for the lack of that), and Tonfa is Shortsword. |
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01-02-2015, 01:52 PM | #84 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
Fundamentally, a tonfa is a club (probably shortsword-equivalent) with a somewhat unusual grip. That grip under normal conditions should give a bonus to thrust damage and a penalty to swing damage (because you can't use as much wrist rotation as you would for a normal grip; there's a reason you don't see hammers and axes with perpendicular grips); a spin technique might increase its swing damage to match that of a normal club.
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01-02-2015, 01:57 PM | #85 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
This is the principal illusion of the tonfa. Because the "spin" technique increases the power generated in a blow, tonfa wielders are deceived into thinking that it is actually better than a regular club.
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01-02-2015, 03:19 PM | #86 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: France
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
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All depends on what you exactly mean by club, of course. The French translation is "massue", "gourdin" and "matraque", three very different weapons (with different sizes and weights). Tonkwa is certainly not better than a "massue" (which can be very big and heavy), but obviously much powerful than a "matraque" (policemen blackjack). Furthermore, the spin is precisely what makes the tonkwa powerful. It's not a deception. It's its main feature, exactly like the blade is the main feature of a sword. A tonkwa without the possibility to spin is no more than a clumsy blackjack, I do agree. But using tonkwas without making them spin would be the same thing than using a sword only with the flat side... Something against the purpose of the weapon. I think that GURPS characters who have got the Tonfa skill are supposed to know how to spin their tonfa exactly like characters who have got the Shortsword skill know how to hit with the blade rather than the flat side. Last edited by Gollum; 01-02-2015 at 03:33 PM. |
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01-02-2015, 05:10 PM | #87 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
The only people who truly have a significant interest in optimizing hand-held striking implements, at least over the last few centuries, are makers of hand tools; assuming there is optimization to be done, hand tools should be 3-4 TLs more advanced than melee weapons.
We don't see perpendicular handles on swinging tools (hatchets, machetes, hammers, mallets, etc), which tells us that whatever utility is added by a perpendicular handle is not one that's useful to hand tools. Hand tools value accuracy, power, and ratio of effort to power, which tells us that either the swing grip costs a large amount of accuracy, or it's still inferior in striking power to a straight grip. Consideration of the biomechanics of a tonfa argue for both (chain weapons, by comparison, have quite a lot of speed and a fair amount of power, but very poor accuracy; they have historically had value for dealing with grain, but are largely replaced by mechanical tools). I'm just going to compare apples to apples: assume the same rod weight and length. |
01-02-2015, 06:51 PM | #88 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
So... going back to the idea of altering a tonfa to give it a little something extra, something that has even come up on the boards before (here, though no one official weighed in) sounds at least plausible: making one or both ends into large spikes.
Obviously, this increases the risk to the user; even a relatively large but still pointy spike can do bad things violently rubbing against you (let alone if you accidentally stab yourself). Just parrying wrong could result in your opponent driving a spiked end of a tonfa into yourself. Seems safer than the blades though. I myself would probably not make it a "tonfa spear" so much as just have the end shaped to a point; even if it was only good for some form of piercing damage (still trying to wrap my head around that addition to 4e, so I don't know if small or large would be appropriate) instead of impaling, it gives you something other than crushing attacks to work with. It also seems like even in a more or less realistic game, you'd have two options with how to make it; either having it always be pointed on one or both ends (probably the best option) or having something that can be removed (screw on caps?). I'd be worried about the last bit in terms of breakage and the fact that each configuration should handle differently; seems like too many drawbacks in a realistic game to be worth bothering with, but then again we are already talking exotic weapon mods.
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01-02-2015, 07:41 PM | #89 | |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
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01-02-2015, 10:49 PM | #90 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Charlotte, North Caroline, United States of America, Earth?
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Re: Improving the Tonfa
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Even modern police forces seem to be using as many extendable batons as tonfa, and many officers are choosing to go without batons at all. A baton can be taken from the cop and used against him, as well as being once more step on the use of force continuum.
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house rules, low-tech, martial arts, tonfa, weapons. |
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