[MA/HT] Innocuous Improvised Weapons

[Daigoro]

Steering wheel locks (aka club locks) haven't been mentioned yet. They used to be pretty common, but I don't see them much these days.

Are these meant to be off-the-shelf items, or will the person have made their own?

You could maybe take a vacuum cleaner tube and conceal some weights inside its length for a makeshift baton.

Camera tripods or monopods would work, although they're usually built to be light. They have the extra advantage of telescoping, and expensive or newer ones have quick-lock mechanisms.

Manfrotto is a popular high-end brand (Amazon link).

For that matter, you could try a selfie stick, if you add some weights to it.

[malloyd]

A cane is fairly traditional. It does look a bit odd beside you if you obviously don't need one.

You can put a sturdy screw on handle on a squeegee or snow brush, and nobody will find it out of place in your car, though you may need a couple seconds to screw the head off before you can use it as a baton or short staff.

An actual small knife is a reasonable thing to have in a tool kit, hiking pack or similar collection of equipment, at least most places outside of Europe. You can probably get away with a walking stick (or a pair of metal trekking poles) with that hiking pack too.

Other than tools, sporting equipment is probably your best place to look. Lots of sports and games involve hitting a ball with a relatively sturdy stick or paddle. By itself a baseball bat probably is suspicious, but thrown in your trunk with a glove, and a gym bag with shoes and change of athletic clothing it's not very suspicious. Likewise the shaft of an adjustable dumbbells with a couple of weights already attached, though you'll need a few seconds to take them off. Slightly less weapon like equipment might even ride in the front with you fairly innocuously - a ping-pong paddle doesn't scream weapon, but getting hit with one edge on will hurt more than a punch.

If you want to actually carry it around with you rather than have it in your vehicle, the cane (or crutch, hiking stick or trekking poles) is probably your best bet. At night a sturdy flashlight might work too, but finding one that is both durable and not suspiciously "tactical" might be difficult. An antique metal one maybe?

I suppose some unexceptional articles of clothing are better than nothing, and anybody can walk around with steel toed work boots or a belt with a heavy buckle without seeming terribly suspicious. If you are a woman from the right culture or ethnic group, hair sticks have a bit of a tradition too - some of them probably rate the wooden stake statistics off the shelf, never mind a disguised weapon version.

Edit: also consider what you might be able to disguise as "sex toys". A "dildo" strong enough to be a functional baton, or a light whip, might pass for that, and you have an excellent excuse for why you were carrying them "concealed". Indeed if they are caught on a routine stop everybody might be embarrassed enough not to look at them too closely.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What's the smallest and least threatening thing you could carry to get a Party at -1 with your Knife skill?

A hand weight? A candlestick? The base to the mag-mount antenna on your car? A wooden beer mug? Maybe that one uses Shield skill instead.

I think the issue here isn't so much finding something, as finding a reason to be carrying it. Nothing "everybody" carries around all the time is a useful weapon, because anything big and strong enough to be a weapon is inconveniently large and/or heavy. If it's big and long enough to count as a baton it probably won't fit in your pocket, certainly not comfortably. It has to be longer than your hand so some of it sticks out when you are gripping it, and your clenched fist is usually pretty close to filling the width of even a large pocket. All of this stuff is only innocuous situationally. If you have a reason to be carrying a tool belt (you're at a job site) or a hiking pack (you're somewhere people hike) or a heavy flashlight (it's actually dark), walking around with those is not something you are going to be asked about. If you carry them into city hall, exactly the same items are going to draw suspicions.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Yeah, that's a Brawling fist-load, but it won't allow you any kind of Parry, even penalized, with an armed skill.

What's the smallest and least threatening thing you could carry to get a Party at -1 with your Knife skill?

Maybe a pencil or credit card.

[Rupert]

While it's not great for a swung attack, a glossy magazine tightly rolled is sturdy enough to make good thrusting attacks, and would be perfectly adequate for parrying (aside from the problem most improvised weapons have - no guard) at least a few times. Keep it a car's map pocket or dash compartment, roll it up at need. If you've a few extra moments, maybe wrap some tape around it so it doesn't try and unroll if you lose your grip.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Maybe a pencil or credit card.

I think those are too light to be useful parrying tools. Even by the rules. Parrying something more than 7 times its weight breaks the parrying tool on greater than a 6 in 6 chance and doesn't count as a parry. An unsharpened pencil I have here weighs in at 4.5 grams on my postal scale, 7 times that is 31.5 grams, or 0.070 lbs. You could attempt a thrust/imp stop thrust with a sharpened pencil, but you won't be parrying anything significant with it

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I think the issue here isn't so much finding something, as finding a reason to be carrying it. Nothing "everybody" carries around all the time is a useful weapon, because anything big and strong enough to be a weapon is inconveniently large and/or heavy. If it's big and long enough to count as a baton it probably won't fit in your pocket, certainly not comfortably. It has to be longer than your hand so some of it sticks out when you are gripping it, and your clenched fist is usually pretty close to filling the width of even a large pocket. All of this stuff is only innocuous situationally. If you have a reason to be carrying a tool belt (you're at a job site) or a hiking pack (you're somewhere people hike) or a heavy flashlight (it's actually dark), walking around with those is not something you are going to be asked about. If you carry them into city hall, exactly the same items are going to draw suspicions.

Fair enough.

A SHORT BATON need not be a very large item, however. It weighs 0.5 lbs. for a purpose-built weapon, so I'm hoping I can find a flashlight or something that could be used with the same skill and stats.

There are plenty of flashlights that qualify as KNOBBED CLUB or even SMALL MACE, but I want a smaller and lighter one than that. Something that genuinely is just a solidly built flashlight of reasonable size, which a middle-aged fellow who is always prepared, like a good Boy Scout, might always have handy.

He'll have a full-range of tools in the car which can be used with Axe/Mace and Shortsword skills, but nobody is going to put a tire iron in a pocket and even wrenches or steering wheel lock bars are pretty suspicious if you conceal them on you.

Mind you, the character has a Licence to Carry issued in Texas and legally carries a handgun. He also owns several electroshock weapons, including a TASER. He's just traveling to other states and wants to avoid legal trouble.

He knows where his LTC is honored and intends to stick to those states. But he doesn't have enough Law skill to be certain how those various states might view purpose-made self-defense weapons like TASERs, ASP batons or the like. Ideally, he'd want to carry a selection from his arms locker, but he's aware that TASERs are illegal for civilians in some jurisdictions, but doesn't know exactly where they are legal and what restrictions there might be on their carry, possession or use in certain states.

So he's not going to have anything on him that could land him in legal trouble, but he still wants to be able to subdue a person without killing them. And he wants to be able to turn that person over to the police while having a legal self-defense claim, because while if the occasion comes up, he plans to strike first, the potential threat would probably be a wanted criminal illegally armed. So, as long as he doesn't use an illegal weapon, he figures he can get away with hitting them from surprise, if he happens to notice anyone following him.

The character is a former cop, but not in the US, and while he is a professional security consultant, he doesn't have perfect information on self-defense laws in all US states. I mean, he can look them up, but driving through multiple states in a day, there's room for some error there and he wants to avoid risking arrest.

[Donny Brook]

Which category these fit depends on their size:

A t-square
A bubble level
A sturdy mechanical pencil (especially good if you also carry a length of steel dowel or decorator nail you can put in instead of lead)
A wallet chain with a bunch of keys
Instrument strings
A screwdriver (with a multi bit kind you could maybe even sharpen one)
A table leg
A nine inch nail
A long bolt with a hand-size group of nuts screwed down to the end
A metal water bottle
A sturdy loaf pan
An electic guitar you dont mind sacrificing
A large carabiner clip you can get your fist into
Shelf hanger, garden gate, etc. hardware
Pipes, certain shapes of faucets, etc.
Cast iron frying pan
Rolling pin
Hefty spatulas and tongs
Sections of electrical panels etc.
Joist hangers
Luggage handles (esp. the long ones that slide into the back of the case)
Iron lawn/garden decor
Furniture or automotive springs
Certain medical or therapeutic braces

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Icelander

The character is a former cop, but not in the US, and while he is a professional security consultant, he doesn't have perfect information on self-defense laws in all US states. I mean, he can look them up, but driving through multiple states in a day, there's room for some error there and he wants to avoid risking arrest.

In that case, you might as well carry an actual baton. Get a dowel and paint it a bright color like in some children's toys if you want it to look a bit non-weaponish.

If you actually use something as a weapon it almost doesn't matter what it is. If your self defense claim will actually hold up in court, a jury isn't too likely to convict you instead because you had a stout stick, and with that sort of background using nothing whatsoever isn't going to avert suspicion. Looking innocuous is an issue for passing routine checkpoints, or being stopped "randomly" for looking or acting suspicious. It will not help very much if you are picked up because they are actually looking for you, and certainly won't help if you actually used the thing as a weapon.

Seriously, if you've got an actual concealed weapon permit somewhere, nobody is going to believe you didn't consider the weapon potential of something you were carrying before you decided to use it as a weapon. Not even if you actually hadn't.

[Donny Brook]

Long stove or refridgerator door handles
Full length toolbox handles
Towel bars and shower curtain rods
Diatomesial earth insect control stuff in a squeeze-puff container/dispenser is NASTY in the eyes
Geometry set tools
A spiked dog collar or any L or F shaped bit of metal put prongs-up in your boot laces could improve kick damage
Anything like a folding handle or whatever that when removed is shaped like the jawbone of an ass
A grip-strength exerciser (possibly modified on the fly)
A big roll of wire or aluminum foil
Bike chain
Rods from a car seat
Heavy duty telescoping window squeegie handles
Certain custom gear-shift handles