Mercurial Greatswords, Rule of Cool weapons

[vierasmarius]

There's the Chinese Nine Ring Sword, which is the closest you're likely to find. Of course, the rings are purely decorative. Claims that they were used to trap an enemy's blade or make an intimidating rattle might be true in a cinematic universe.

[Phantasm]

No one ever accused D&D of getting anything right. ;)

That said, we have two ways to take this: realistic and cinematic/ethnic cool. As others have stated, the realistic version of this is probably going to be worthless with breakage issues.

In a cinematic campaign I'd limit them to being an "ethnic cool" weapon used in only one region by elite warriors with a -2 to skill, U on the Parry, and +1 or +2 to swing (but not thrust) damage. I'm tempted to say that there's a -1 or -2 penalty to thrust damage due to the quicksilver moving towards the hilt due to inertia. The Exotic Weapon Training perk (MA/PU2) may be applied to buy off the skill penalty. I'd give it a +3 CF.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Of course, in a cinematic campaign, my vote goes for the mercurial sword over the hula-hoop sword, simply due to Rule of Cool.

What?! You could spin multiple sharpened hula hoops at once, and get multiple attacks, preferably while wearing your belly dance costume. That's way cooler than some slight damage increase from something you can't even see.

[gilbertocarlos]

Originally Posted by malloyd

What?! You could spin multiple sharpened hula hoops at once, and get multiple attacks, preferably while wearing your belly dance costume. That's way cooler than some slight damage increase from something you can't even see.

Hula hoops of Sword-nunchucks.

/CLOSE THREAD

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by gilbertocarlos

Hula hoops of Sword-nunchucks.

/CLOSE THREAD

Considering the thread, and the obsession of 'Cool' over practical - shouldn't this be Hula Hoops of Mercurial-Katana-Nunchucks? Sounds like an exotic ninja weapon to me.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by malloyd

But I mean the one where you imagine the mercury hitting the front increases the impact. Yes that's nonsense, equivalent to thinking the bullet would hit harder if you sawed it in half and glued the back to the front with slightly flexible glue, but it's a common story.

Huh, the story I saw (in Day of the Jackal) was that it was a sort of expanding bullet, with the mercury striking the front causing it to explode outward, which isn't nearly as silly. Though it's probably no better than a simple hollowpoint.

[Anders]

Aren't poisoned bullets banned according to some convention or other anyway? I imagine that poisoned swords would be banned in the same way.

[Disliker of the mary sue]

Ah yeah this is why I like this forum...seems like a lot of people here has esoteric knowledge.

Hm maybe their should just be a general thread of "what would these weird weapon stats be in gurps and how would they function in a realistic setting"

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Disliker of the mary sue

Ah yeah this is why I like this forum...seems like a lot of people here has esoteric knowledge.

Hm maybe their should just be a general thread of "what would these weird weapon stats be in gurps and how would they function in a realistic setting"

That requires only an edit of the thread title, since this one already covers more than just swords with mercury in them! Here's a good one... The Devil Horns of Metal!

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Inhaled vapors might be the most reactive form but mercury filled bullets are supposed to be about using the mercury as an expansion gimmick/ You don't want the sort of expansion Wide but shallow) such a thing would do if it did anything.

Mercury compounds can be obscenely lethal.

Quote from its Wiki page.

"The toxicity of dimethylmercury was highlighted with the death of the inorganic chemist Karen Wetterhahn of Dartmouth College in 1997, months after spilling no more than a few drops of this compound on her latex-gloved hand."