Castlevania's Combat Cross

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Xplo

As an item, the Castlevania cross boomerang thing (which is, apparently, NOT a "Combat Cross") is unrealistic to the point where it doesn't even make sense to base it on something real. Give it whatever stats and cost you want.

I'm sure there's probably some close-fit that we can devise if we allow for some translation between media.

What about a Large Hungamunga with a variant weapon enchantment of Planar Visit (that makes the weapon Astral), Loyal Weapon, Dancing Weapon and Ghost Weapon?

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by Xplo

As an item, the Castlevania cross boomerang thing (which is, apparently, NOT a "Combat Cross") is unrealistic to the point where it doesn't even make sense to base it on something real. Give it whatever stats and cost you want.

How about I slap a +9 CF on a hungamunga and call it a day?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

How about I slap a +9 CF on a hungamunga and call it a day?

For a weapon that affects both substantial and insubstantial targets on the way in and out and passes through anything (substantial or not)? No. I don't think so, unless there's some relatively cheap mundane process in the setting that gives weapons this ability, in which case you'd see it on bullets.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

For a weapon that affects both substantial and insubstantial targets on the way in and out and passes through anything (substantial or not)? No. I don't think so, unless there's some relatively cheap mundane process in the setting that gives weapons this ability, in which case you'd see it on bullets.

I think you're reading too much into the mechanics of the video game. Almost all weapons (with the exception of thrown daggers, IIRC) pass through all targets in their arc or line of attack. If I was making a Castlevania-inspired thrown cross, I would not give it such magical properties, and just treat it as a cinematic bladed boomerang-axe.

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I think you're reading too much into the mechanics of the video game. Almost all weapons (with the exception of thrown daggers, IIRC) pass through all targets in their arc or line of attack. If I was making a Castlevania-inspired thrown cross, I would not give it such magical properties, and just treat it as a cinematic bladed boomerang-axe.

Considering that the axe-throwing knight enemies use axes with a similar attack pattern (thrown forward in a straight line, pass through characters and walls, then return along a reversed path at a certain distance) boomerang axe makes sense to me.

I think the knife goes through walls too, and it's not supposed to be a magical knife so far as I know; it's just that it gets destroyed upon contact with an enemy because it's the weakest weapon while the throwing axe and the boomerang cross keep on a-truckin'.

And when a Castlevania protagonist is wielding it -every- weapon effects insubstantial enemies, if ghosts even count as insubstantial in the series.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Jpomena

What stats would it have in GURPS terms?

I just wrote this up on my blog (inspired by this very thread).

[vierasmarius]

I had another thought, on the subject of boomerang-type cinematic weapons (not those built as Innate Attacks, but weapons wielded with Throwing Art). How to represent the ability to strike a target on the return? Well, there's one similar technique that comes to mind: Return Strike, for flails and kusari. For a -5 penalty you can deliver a surprise attack as the boomerang returns to your hand. Combined with Rapid Strike, you can hit one enemy twice (the boomerang slashes across the target and continues past, then strikes again on the return), or strike two enemies on one throw.

[Xplo]

There's a lot of wackiness that happens when you try to translate 2D Castlevania games to GURPS. For instance, knockback is a thing - but no evil creature ever seems to suffer from it, only the player character.

The boomerang is one of the most powerful and sought-after subweapons. Daggers have long range, which is the only thing that makes them preferable in any way to the whip, but only hit the first enemy they touch and don't potentially hit twice like the boomerang. Axes do pass through everything, but the games are fundamentally designed around attacking enemies in a horizontal direction most of the time, and hitting more than one enemy at a time with the arcing trajectory of the axe is either luck or contrivance - so "hitting multiple enemies" is not really a thing you ever use the axe for; it could vanish, stay stuck in the target or floor, etc. and it wouldn't make any difference. ISTR walls stop daggers, but even if not, walls and floors stop holy water, so not everything passes through solid objects.

In translating the boomerang to GURPS, I tried to keep those specific characteristics that make it the best subweapon in the game and distinguish it from other weapons.

Yes, you could say that the thing is just a hungamunga. But if you make it something that doesn't have the ability to strike multiple enemies multiple times, then you've abandoned the spirit of the thing, IMO - and at that point you really ought to ask yourself why a vampire killer is carrying around a hungamunga, a weapon so goofy that even Ethnic Cool can barely redeem it.