combining a Quarterstaff with a sling

[King Leonidas]

to make a staff sling? would you add any penalties on this? what's your thoughts? easier to grapple? does the ranged weapon get increased damage?

[whswhs]

Statistics for the staff sling are already provided on p. 276 of the Basic Set and p. 76 of GURPS Low-Tech. I recommend checking there and then asking about any questions they don't answer.

[King Leonidas]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Statistics for the staff sling are already provided on p. 276 of the Basic Set and p. 76 of GURPS Low-Tech. I recommend checking there and then asking about any questions they don't answer.

right cause that answers my question

[whswhs]

Glad to be of help.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by King Leonidas

to make a staff sling? would you add any penalties on this? what's your thoughts? easier to grapple? does the ranged weapon get increased damage?

Originally Posted by King Leonidas

right cause that answers my question

Well it is where I would start, giving you the weight and vital stats.
If using a staff sling as a staff I would tie off the sling so its not loose and flopping around. Otherwise just use the matching stats for it as the mode changes, making sure weight matchs.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Glad to be of help.

You basically weren't.


KL, since the Staff Sling is essentially a Jo Staff with a sling attached, I'd look at the differences between a Jo and Quarterstaff, and then just apply those to "upgrade" a staff sling into a "quarter staff sling".

So I'd call it +1 damage, +1 ST required, no other differences. It's no easier or harder to grapple a staff sling that any other weapon you try to grab.

[tbone]

As noted, Low-Tech's staff sling is a 2-lb stick that hurls 0.05-lb projectiles.

Switching to a longer, 4-lb stick, I'd imagine you could create the staff sling equivalent of a heavy sling, i.e., a "heavy staff sling" that hurls 1-lb projectiles.

But as far as I know, there isn't yet a published writeup for such a heavy staff sling. (And as I discuss here, details of GURPS' handling of slings confuses me all around...)

[King Leonidas]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

You basically weren't.


KL, since the Staff Sling is essentially a Jo Staff with a sling attached, I'd look at the differences between a Jo and Quarterstaff, and then just apply those to "upgrade" a staff sling into a "quarter staff sling".

So I'd call it +1 damage, +1 ST required, no other differences. It's no easier or harder to grapple a staff sling that any other weapon you try to grab.

so you would not remove the 2 bonus to parry or anything?. and where is the joe staff? one of my players are thinking that the thickness of the quarterstaff will cause to much air resistance as well.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

You basically weren't.


KL, since the Staff Sling is essentially a Jo Staff with a sling attached, I'd look at the differences between a Jo and Quarterstaff, and then just apply those to "upgrade" a staff sling into a "quarter staff sling".

So I'd call it +1 damage, +1 ST required, no other differences. It's no easier or harder to grapple a staff sling that any other weapon you try to grab.

There is never any statement how long the staff for the staff sling is; considering it doesn't have to stand up to bashing someone's skull, it could easily be just as long as the quarterstaff but less thick. Its high bulk of -6 certainly implies it's similar in size (Bulk is used for the Holdout penalty, and a quarterstaff is probably around -6 for a Holdout penalty). It should be roughly half of the weight of a quarterstaff (the sling portion is probably around the same 0.5 lb as a normal sling, making it a 1.5 lb stick; the quarterstaff has a pound of metal on it in the form of the two endcaps, so it would be a 3 lb stick), so a quarterstaff-length stick with 70% of the radius of a proper quarterstaff should suffice. If anything, the combination weapon should deal a bit less damage due to it requiring more energy to accelerate and also having more air resistance, but I think that would be fine to ignore.

Originally Posted by King Leonidas

so you would not remove the 2 bonus to parry or anything?.

I wouldn't, I'd just boost the weight of the weapon by 0.5 lb (the weight of a sling) and the cost by $20 (the cost of a sling; apparently the staff is assumed to be free in this case) - although the generic Combination Gadget rules would instead call for +1 lb and +$10 (you use the 50% mark because you can't really use them as both at the same time). The GM might decide that the added weight is too much for the staff to be considered balanced enough for the +2 Parry to still apply (much as it doesn't apply for polearms). One solution there would be to boost the weight of the opposite metal cap a bit to get the two sides equal in weight; that would be +0.5 lb and +$2.50 or +1 lb and +$5, depending on if you go with my suggested +0.5 lb or the more generic +1 lb. Another option would be to remove the endcap on the sling-side, for -0.5 lb and -$2.50; if going with +1 lb for the sling, in this case you'd basically remove one endcap and double up the weight of the other, for no change in weight or price.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by King Leonidas

so you would not remove the 2 bonus to parry or anything?. and where is the joe staff? one of my players are thinking that the thickness of the quarterstaff will cause to much air resistance as well.

If you can swing it fast enough to hurt somebody, you can swing it fast enough to launch a projectile. The thickness of baseball or cricket bats do not seem to vastly add to air resistance or slow their swings, and anyway the parachute effect of a solid pouch would be considerably larger, and yet people use leather pouches anyway rather than string cradles that would let air flow through them.

I do think the sling should interfere with using the staff as a melee weapon a bit, but if you roll it up and tie it in place, or remove it, you should still get the parry bonus. You might lose a point of damage striking with that end of the staff though, since the shape you need for a decent release probably rules out a metal end cap. Wrapping and tying the sling up (or unwrapping it to ready it as a sling) will take a bit of effort, though with practice you can probably get it down to 5 seconds or so. Removing it entirely depends on how you attached it, and methods vary, but if you are planning to dual use, a loop knotted into a groove around the staff works fine, and you could use a knot that can be easily pulled to release it, or maybe even pop the loop out of the groove in no more than a Ready action. Though you probably still ought to demand the 5 seconds to tie it back on, assuming you didn't drop it on the ground and lose it when you popped it off.

On the alternate question, does a longer staff add anything to the effectiveness of the sling. Well maybe, but you could get most of the same "benefit" from [longer strings], and people usually don't because moving the release point even further above your head makes it even more difficult to hit close by targets. That's OK for a siege or anti-siege weapon where you are targeting an area or formation, but is a pretty serious drawback for hunting, target shooting or adventurer style skirmishes. Actual staff slings seem to be somewhat intermediate between jo and quarterstaff lengths though, so I think either works with the standard statistics - they might have slightly different ideal string lengths, but I think it's below the resolution of GURPS weapons whether your stick is 4 or 6 feet long.