Slings, realistic physics, The Deadly Spring

[ErhnamDJ]

If you say someone is able to generate Watts equal to three times their Basic Lift per arm at the maximum, and that a sling has an efficiency of around ninety percent (which is just me making something up), and that attacking with a sling takes between a third of a second and three-quarters of a second (depending on swing style), then what you end up with is:

A minimum of Joules equal to nine-tenths of Basic Lift.

And a maximum of Joules equal to nine-tenths of two-and-a-quarter times Basic Lift.

So that seems to fit the data fairly well. I'd probably call the weaker attack a regular attack and the stronger attack an AoA (Strong) and leave it at that. And I'd probably come up with some Strongsling perk that mimics Strongbow, if you're using that one in your game.

[Icelander]

As usual, experimentation reveals that typical projectile weights in historical military use weren't the most effective designs, but instead some compromise between economy, logistical concerns and sufficient effectiveness.

2-3 oz. glandes outperform 1 oz. ones in more or less every way that you can mention. They even attain more initial velocity.

But they were less common because the improved performance was less important than having more ammunition for the same amount of lead.

Since adventurers often worry more about the effectiveness of each shot than economy and logistics, I'd think that looking at 100g, 200g and even 450g designs would be worthwhile.

As a GURPS rule of thumb, standardised shot are at least +1 Acc commpared to even carefully chosen stones. Found stones are -1 to hit compared to that.

I see no evidence that the staff sling rates a +1 Acc compared to any other design, especially since it is very awkward for point targets in straight flight paths. It does get longer range, though, with the same projectiles. Also, it allows for heavier projectiles without loss of velocity, which will improve both range and damage, but increase ammunition Cost and Weight.

Lead ovoid/biconical glandes outrange stones of the same weight by around 50%, fairly consistently.

[The_Ryujin]

This site might help out a bit:
http://slinging.org/index.php?page=t...eorge-alsatian

It goes into three models covering how a sling effects acceleration.

[gilbertocarlos]

I have a few simple houserules, but not on the deadly spring level:
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=74207

[Icelander]

I'm leaning toward using cr damage to model slings, but using an AD to model the abysmal performance against any kind of armour. This would range from (0.5) to (0.1), for what we usually think of as sling ammunition, but AD(1) is entirely plausible for 1-lb stones, as those have a wounding mechanism that is qualitatively different from that of bullets.

[Nereidalbel]

This seems relevant.

[The_Ryujin]

Well if your going that route then T.Bone's GLAIVE could work as a nice middle ground, it's meant for 3rd ed but it has some nice rules on how weapon length increases swing damage.

http://www.gamesdiner.com/glaive

In his mod
Swung weapons have a Swing Effect Modifier equal to (Effective weapons length (max equal to your arm length)+arm length)*1.5)/how many hexes tall your are in feet

And swing damage adds = SQRT(weapon weight in lbs*Swing effect mod*2)

So assuming a ST10 Joe Normal with a ~3ft arm, a 2ft sling and a 3oz stone you'd get swing effect ((3+2ft)*1.5)/3 = 2.5 and a damage adds of SQRT(0.1875*2.5*2) which comes out to 0.97 which we'll round up to +1 giving him a swing damage of 1D+1 for sling.

After that we'd just need to figure out range.

[DanHoward]

I've already posted the results of Thom Richardson's Egyptian sling the last time this subject came up.

[vicky_molokh]

Sorry for being the one to ruin your party, but wouldn't this ruin the way sling damage (both penetration and wounding) compares to thrown weapons, woomeras, and swung/thrusting mêlée weapons?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Sorry for being the one to ruin your party, but wouldn't this ruin the way sling damage (both penetration and wounding) compares to thrown weapons, woomeras, and swung/thrusting mêlée weapons?

Pretty much all ST-based weapons have questionable damage physics; bows just happen to be the easiest to analyze because the biomechanics don't matter, you can get the same results from a mechanical crank pulling the string.