11-11-2009, 06:31 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Breaking arrows
Quick question. How often to arrows, or bolts, break when used?
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11-11-2009, 06:33 PM | #2 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Breaking arrows
This was covered, IIRC, in Low-Tech originally. I suspect we may see a rule in the new Low-Tech.
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11-11-2009, 06:47 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Re: Breaking arrows
Alas, I do not have Low-tech. Maybe someday.
Until then, and unless somebody gives me a better idea, I think arrows and bolts will break on a 1 or 2 on a d6, and fine quality arrows and bolts break on a 1. Sound good? |
11-11-2009, 08:09 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Breaking arrows
The one game I played in where this ever came up the GM ruled that arrows broke on a Bow or Crossbow roll of 7 for quality arrows or 9 for regular arrows. There is no second die roll and it doesn't matter if you hit or miss, you know the arrow is recoverable right away.
And the percentages match pretty close to 1 in 6 or 1-2 in 6.
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11-11-2009, 09:33 PM | #5 |
MIB
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Re: Breaking arrows
My ruling has always been about Major Wounds. If it's a Major Wound, there's a risk of bleeding, and the impaling weapon is stuck in the victim. Its being stuck in the victim ruins it.
Ones that just injure or miss the victim aren't stuck and can be retrieved and reused, but need a little cleaning up, sharpening, whatever. It's rarely an issue, though. The combat is usually over long before anyone runs out of ammo.
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11-12-2009, 04:39 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
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Re: Breaking arrows
Quote:
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11-12-2009, 08:05 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Mar 2009
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Re: Breaking arrows
Let say that it depends if the arrow is carbonium fixed or made out by wood. I do practice bow, and I can say that none of my arrow got broken, even if sometimes them hit the ground. I can summarize that Carbonium high-tech arrows will broke only on a critical failure.
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11-12-2009, 08:23 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Breaking arrows
Quote:
While replacement arrows of acceptable quality can be made "in the field" with Armory, these issues become especially critical for specialty, expensive ammunition. Meteoric iron arrows? Silver arrows? Flaming Arrows +2 vs Orcs? Harder to make out of town. Especially in the case of alternate non-magical materials, like meteoric iron or silver, but even with regular steel it also becomes of acute interest whether the arrowhead is recoverable and can be attached to a new shaft, or whether the archer is reduced to flint knapping, or even plain sharpened wooden sticks.
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
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11-12-2009, 09:02 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Breaking arrows
Quote:
We never had a shaft damaged. We lost heads, we lost feathers, we lost nocks. The ones without practice heads still got shot and still stuck in the targets. I think the ones that lost nocks got new ones cut into them with a pocket knife. Even the ones that lost a feather may have gotten re-used but they did seem to be less accurate. Some wore out eventually but it was a very extended process. The messing about with archery that occurred when my Father tried out bowhunting yielded similar results. Incidentally, I have Incompetence:Archery though ir may be a Physical Quirk linked to my awful vision. You can't correct your aiming technique if you can't tell whether or not you hit. I'm not sure the result would qualify as a true random number generator or not but it might be close. For shaft damage you're going to need some sort of scenario where your arrow sticks in and the target rolls over on it or it misses or falls out and gets stepped on. Relatively low probability stuff. The D&D convention I've always seen used of "50% survival if it messes, automatically destroyed if it hits." is completely unrealistic to my knowledge. The "Can you find your misses?" may be more realistic if you're suffering time constraints, but if you can find the arrow you can almost always salvage some part of it. The heads are the part you can't make in the field.
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Fred Brackin |
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11-12-2009, 09:11 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Breaking arrows
Quote:
Going into further detail about the head, specifically, is something I'm interested in only because that tends to be the bit made out of something exotic and involves doing the damage and changing the weight of the arrow - replacing the feathers with sub-optimal feathers from a sub-optimal species is probably below GURPS resolution, but firing an arrow without flights at all definitely is within the resolution of the game system, as is firing an arrow initially balanced for a steel broadhead after the head comes off. I have NO CLUE what effect loosing the knock would do.
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All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
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