Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > The Fantasy Trip

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-09-2019, 06:28 PM   #1
HeatDeath
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

Am I correct in understanding that after a figure fires a light crossbow, they have to spend a turn doing Ready Weapon before they can fire it again, and that after a figure fires a heavy crossbow, they have to spend two turns doing Ready Weapon before they can fire it again?

On a related note, if a character is carrying multiple boomerangs, they would also have to spend a turn doing Ready Weapon after throwing one before they could throw another, unless they had a second one readied in their "off" hand, in which case they could throw it again immediately but would take a DX penalty? [Unless, of course, they were ambidextrous? :) ]
HeatDeath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2019, 06:31 PM   #2
hcobb
 
hcobb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeatDeath View Post
On a related note, if a character is carrying multiple boomerangs, they would also have to spend a turn doing Ready Weapon after throwing one before they could throw another, unless they had a second one readied in their "off" hand, in which case they could throw it again immediately but would take a DX penalty? [Unless, of course, they were ambidextrous? :) ]
ITL 37:
Boomerang (1). Prerequisite: Thrown Weapons.
Thrown Weapons (2): ... He can also throw any weapon on the same turn he readies it.
__________________
-HJC
hcobb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2019, 06:40 PM   #3
HeatDeath
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

Interesting. That certainly seems to justify the comment in the "Flinger and Blob" article in the Companion book that boomerangs obsolete light crossbows.

Boomerangs do one point less damage each, but you can carry two of them for the weight of a light crossbow and you can fire them on back to back turns, which is enormously useful during the initial closing phase of a fight.

Am I playing the crossbows correctly? And an interesting followup question: given that it takes two turns of "Ready Weapon" option to ready a heavy crossbow, do those turns have to be back-to-back? I can't find anything asserting that, so I infer the answer would be no. [Presumably the first ready is re-cocking the thing, and the second turn is loading the heavy bolt, or somesuch.]

Does this seem right to everyone else?
HeatDeath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2019, 08:27 PM   #4
Kale
 
Kale's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Cowtown, Canada
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

You can carry an awful lot more crossbow bolts than boomerangs, so you are less ammo restricted with crossbows over the longer haul...?
__________________
FYI: Laser burns HURT!
Kale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2019, 09:16 PM   #5
HeatDeath
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

The logistics are different, for sure. If you win the skirmish, or even if you're reasonably clever during the skirmish, you can recover your boomerangs. I don't know if crossbow bolts are typically recoverable, and the ITL rulebook seems silent on the issue.

OTOH, it certainly wouldn't take a very sadistic GM to contrive a situations where your cleverly min-maxed boomerang-based character build becomes completely useless. Like putting you in a running carriage wagon chase. >:)

For myself, I tend to play individual Melee/Wizard skirmishes, rather than running ITL campaigns, and boomerangs aren't even in the base Melee rule set, probably in part because of these considerations - they aren't quite mathematically balanced with the rest of the weapons, and therefore require some subtle attention from a human GM.
HeatDeath is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2019, 10:02 PM   #6
JohnPaulB
 
JohnPaulB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Portland, Maine
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeatDeath View Post
Am I correct in understanding that after a figure fires a light crossbow, they have to spend a turn doing Ready Weapon before they can fire it again, and that after a figure fires a heavy crossbow, they have to spend two turns doing Ready Weapon before they can fire it again
You are correct. This would be hand cocking.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeatDeath View Post
Am I playing the crossbows correctly? And an interesting followup question: given that it takes two turns of "Ready Weapon" option to ready a heavy crossbow, do those turns have to be back-to-back? I can't find anything asserting that, so I infer the answer would be no. [Presumably the first ready is re-cocking the thing, and the second turn is loading the heavy bolt, or somesuch.]

Does this seem right to everyone else?
If you are strong enough to use the crossbow, you're strong enough to cock it by hand and not need a cranequin (detachable crank). Using a cranequin takes 12 turns to fully cock. I would say that if you are handpicking the crossbow, it would have to be back to back.

ITL page 116 Cranequin: A partially-wound-up crossbow can be set down without unwinding, if necessary; the work will not be lost.
__________________
- Hail Melee

Fantasy Chess: A chess game with combat.
Don't just take the square, Fight for it!
https://www.shadowhex.com
JohnPaulB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2019, 07:36 AM   #7
hcobb
 
hcobb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

You can't brand a boomerang.

Typical fighter:

ST 12 DX 11 IQ 9 MA 10
Light Crossbow(2d+2 for brand, shot per turn due to adjDX 14), Broadsword(2d), Very fine dagger(1d+1/1d+3 HTH), Brand(1d-2), Small shield(1), Toughness(1)
Crossbow, Missile Weapons x3, Sword, Shield, Toughness I

$50 Light Crossbow
$20 Quarrels x 20
$420 branding x 7
$80 Broadsword
$200 Very fine dagger
$30 Small shield
$30 Labyrinth kit
$5 Belt pouch
$60 Branded stick
$40 Backpack
$5 one quart wine
$10 Two days rations
$50 Clothing
__________________
-HJC

Last edited by hcobb; 03-10-2019 at 07:49 AM.
hcobb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2019, 03:18 PM   #8
larsdangly
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

It's almost criminal that the boomerang exception clause didn't get fixed in the Legacy edition. It is one of a small number of really dumb, broken things about the mechanics, and it would be so easy to fix. Like, don't let a thrown stick do 2d-1 damage (!!!!!). Or, have a thrown weapon use the thrown weapon range modifiers. If any of my players ever pays enough attention to the rules to figure out that for 1 talent point they can have an auto-fire light cross bow, I will nerf the crap out of it. Luckily none of them care about the whole combat optimization mind game so it hasn't come up.

What drives me nuts about the boomerang is its comparison with other weapons. Would you rather have someone hurl a javelin into a random body part, or get hit by a boomerang? It is totally obvious that a person in mail armor with a shield is immune to any number of boomerangs flung at them, but should be mindful of a bunch of hurled spears. Yet the game says they are in mortal danger from a boomerang tosser a dozen yards away, while a spear hurler half that far away is a meaningless distraction.

Last edited by larsdangly; 03-11-2019 at 03:21 PM.
larsdangly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2019, 03:35 PM   #9
hcobb
 
hcobb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

Boomerang requires three talent points this side of a halfling. Crossbow only requires one.
__________________
-HJC
hcobb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2019, 03:56 PM   #10
larsdangly
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: Crossbows and Ready Weapon option?

I'd forgotten you needed thrown weapons for it. Anyway, the double-whammy of a high damage combined with missile weapon range makes it unreasonable at almost any talent point cost. I think they should have put extreme advantages like that into some sort of mastery-tier talents, like they did for the melee weapons and unarmed combat.
larsdangly is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:06 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.