01-06-2020, 07:39 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: London, UK
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Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
News item on BBC & elsewhere :
Man, 26, 'used seagull as weapon in cafe attack' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-51013458 Not very nice for the seagull , but pretty amusing when you read the headline unexpectedly ! Just wondering if others have used animals in a similar way ? I recall an AD&D game where Big Mac's Knight scooped up an enraged Badger from a Baiting Ring , & used it in one (Mailed) hand & his backup Dagger in the other set about the thugs who had organised the baiting . Having metal armour & his hand & forearm covered in it , saved him from any collateral Badger attacks , his non armoured opponents had no such luck . A fifteen pound Badger in the face is no laughing matter ... Otherwise I can't really remember many . Someone doing a Crocodile Dundee & chucking venomous snakes at unsuspecting foes perhaps ? In fictional examples Captain Vimes using a Swamp Dragon as a firearm in Guards! Guards! (DiscWorld) & Doxies etc in some Harry Potter fanfics & that's about it . Until above Seagull incident , I never thought to see a real life example - obviously setting a dog on someone is different .
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01-06-2020, 09:52 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
Just last month, a fellow in the UK used a narwhal tusk to help fend off a knife attacker. (Useful things, those narwhal tusks, if you happen to have one nearby.)
But as for using an actual animal as a hand weapon: The only case that comes to my mind is a rather grisly one I read a few years back involving - no surprise - chimpanzees. (The scariest animals out there, IMO.) Skip the following paragraph if you prefer your forum posts free of unappetizing imagery. So a male chimp in the wild was observed snatching an infant chimp. For lunch. The infant's mother gave chase. The male decided to bludgeon her with the weapon he had at hand: the baby. He drove her off with his "club" and then ate it. GURPS/DFRPG offer stats for chimps, carnivorous/gladiator gorillas, and the like, but I don't think I've ever used apes as monsters in a game. Some monsters are just too disturbing.
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01-06-2020, 10:04 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
Quote:
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01-07-2020, 12:15 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
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01-07-2020, 03:20 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Poland
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
Well, if you count sapient creatures as animals and shields as weapons, there was that one time when my gnome just couldn't resist covering my half-orc friend. Because I didn't have enough Strength.
This campaign was very far from RAW, but it was so memorable it left me a nickname for eternity.
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01-07-2020, 03:51 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
Quote:
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01-07-2020, 03:54 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Poland
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
I'd say it's a flail or two-handed flail.
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01-07-2020, 10:17 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: London, UK
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
Quote:
Snapping Turtle Bolas might be an extension of this idea ? In AD&D's Dark Sun setting , metal was incredibly scarce & people would often improvise with organic natural materials : Bronze Wood = super tough hard wood as strong as Bronze ; Shed scales/Hide from Armoured Monsters and yes Tortoise/Turtle materials . One of these were a pair of Tortoise Shells with bone blades extending forward strapped to the forearms . They could be used as a pair of short blades & a pair of Bucklers at same time & also a favorite of Druids as it used wholly non metal components . Could easily imagine a largish live Tortoise in a fantasy setting with a ultra tough (spiked?) shell , EASILY being used as both a Shield AND a weapon ... Alligator Snapping Turtles can sever whole hands !! 8-|
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01-07-2020, 06:27 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
That fits. With the Improvised Weapons perk, the specialization, or both? Maybe some kind of 'uncooperative weapon' perk?
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
01-08-2020, 12:49 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: London, UK
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Re: Animals used as improvised 'Hand Weapons' ?
'Uncooperative Weapon' somehow puts me in mind of the infamous 'Laser Guided BEES' !!! :-D
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