[LT] What is an Arbalest?

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

I agree that the authors probably used either the LT crossbow rules or some blend of the old Vehicles rules and the GURPS gun damage formula, but I would not worry too much about what assumptions they used.

I have no idea where Wikipedia gets the idea about steel bows, but as far as I know they appear around the 14th through 16th centuries not the 12th. Arbalest is just Englished Frenched Latin arcuballista "bow-shooter" so it is just as vague as English crossbow. Many Medieval Latin sources just say "ballista" for all shooting machines from the kind that could be loaded on horseback to the kind which needed a team of men to move them from the store-room onto the wall when enemies approached.

Which reminds me ... kind of ironic that we tend to use "ballista" for "bolt firing engine" and "catapult" for "stone throwing engine" given that, IIRC, the Romans used precisely the reverse definitions.

[GodlessRose]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

I agree that the authors probably used either the LT crossbow rules or some blend of the old Vehicles rules and the GURPS gun damage formula, but I would not worry too much about what assumptions they used.

Yeah, the only reason I'm giving it so much thought is that I'm working on some house rules for crossbows. I want to be sure I understand what's in Low-Tech before I change it. :)

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by GodlessRose

Yeah, the only reason I'm giving it so much thought is that I'm working on some house rules for crossbows. I want to be sure I understand what's in Low-Tech before I change it. :)

Ok. Don't forget that damage increases very generously with ST, so there will always be tension between extrapolating forwards from the ST-to-damage chart and extrapolating backwards from the performance of real weapons and Doug Cole's wounding formula.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by GodlessRose

Yeah, the only reason I'm giving it so much thought is that I'm working on some house rules for crossbows. I want to be sure I understand what's in Low-Tech before I change it. :)

Have you considered The Deadly Spring?

May not be what you want, but if you're thinking about bow/crossbow stats, it probably should be on your radar.

[scc]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Which reminds me ... kind of ironic that we tend to use "ballista" for "bolt firing engine" and "catapult" for "stone throwing engine" given that, IIRC, the Romans used precisely the reverse definitions.

I think the thing is that the Romans ballista, while throwing stones, where crossbow like, so when someone made one that threw bolts, it got called a ballista

[GodlessRose]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Have you considered The Deadly Spring?

May not be what you want, but if you're thinking about bow/crossbow stats, it probably should be on your radar.

Yeah, I'm familiar with TDS, and I've spent some time playing with the spreadsheets. It's a fascinating article. But I don't like the idea of using it to generate weapons to use in play, since it is so complex, and isn't consistent with the rules for other muscle-powered weapons (ranged and otherwise). The rules for spanning methods need a lot of work, too.

I'm definitely using it to inform my house rules, though.