Improving the Tonfa

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

A tonfa and short staff can be assembled into a crutch for someone pretending to be crippled.

Good point. It's looking more and more that the tonfa's out of combat utility is an important consideration.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It's hard to imagine a place so restrictive on weapons that one would need to smuggle in sticks. Interesting ancient Chinese settings involving sneaking in to assassinate royalty might fit, I suppose.

Not smuggle in sticks, tonfa are after all a classic weapon to use under a weapon ban, but disguise sticks until you reach striking range. It's rare for people to take no notice that you are carrying around a stout and ergonomic length of wood.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

If the goal is just to make it more mechanically appealing, you could always just declare it an ethnic badass weapon.

Yes I could, but I want realistic benefits. The alternative is to leave them as is not ethnic cool them. I'm hoping that putting it's features under greater magnification some niche benefits will emerge that will provide justifications for it's use.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

...That's just not a reasonable expectation for regulation gear, I think. There's some reason it's the regulation gear, but it's very likely to be one at a policy or political level that is contrary or irrelevant to the PC's direct interests.

Well I don't expect it. I realize that a lot of regulation gear is chosen because it's cheaper or easier to learn. It's nice to try to find some kind of point that the players can point to as superior.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

And, well, the tonfa does have a niche of 'superiority', if you let the term be flexible enough. You can use it both as a baton and as an arm-guard for 'unarmed' parries. Other weapons don't do that. It is true that that doesn't encourage specializing in Tonfa skill, but it is a merit of the tonfa as a weapon. Police in particular have significant potential use for both modes.

Well yes. It has a significant benefit for NPCs and it will show up with the occasional PC. I'd still like for it to have more value as it's own thing rather than a tool for unarmed fighters.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

How so? It's got a bonus to a technique you usually won't use, and loses the reach C option on a thrust. It's better if you intend to really use those disarming moves, but do you?

It's got a real bonus which is useful even if it comes up rarely. The tonfa does thrust crushing at reach C so you can just punch with the jutte to replace that and wear something (or try to acquire a custom jutte with a at least somewhat enclosed hilt) to protect you from Hurting Yourself.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

To me it seems like a nice bridge between fully unarmed and fully armed. The more realistic the combat, the more useful it is.
Using house rules that reduce damage, anything that improves unarmed force greatly improves effectiveness, as well as removing Karate's absurd ability to parry weapons without risk.
The psychological effects of using a one handed blunt weapon versus a more overtly lethal weapon like blades cannot be ignored in any situation not full out war.
You come at me with a sword, I know that you're trying to kill me, and I must fight with everything I have.

The thing to compare it against isn't a sword though. It's other one handed blunt weapons.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Compared to the bulk of the alternatives, a tonfa really isn't a very good weapon. It was originally used because it was difficult to have access to anything better. Police forces likely adopted it because a) it's a less-lethal truncheon with a handguard and b) it can be used to enhance unarmed combat (and many cops are probably better at Brawling than Shortsword).

If you want tonfaguy to be a decent choice, then just like making sword-chuck guy a decent choice you're going to have to change some things. For tonfaguy, making access to weapons (and weapon-using skills) extremely restricted works. For both, letting the weapon be cinematically useful (in the case of sword-chucks, that's pretty much "usable at all") can give it a leg up. If you're looking for a good reason for realistic, armed-combat-oriented characters with reliable access to other weapons to use one, you'll likely be looking for a long time.

I'm looking for a good reason for guys using blunt mostly wooden weapons to use the tonfa instead of the other choices. Things like swords are being completely ignored.

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

For wuxia or kung-fu-movie campaigns where everyone is expected to have a degree of skill in both armed and unarmed combat, a tonfa can be a remarkable point-saver, permitting a tonfa-dude to save something in the neighborhood of 2-12 points to invest somewhere else. That benefit isn't small: you can do a lot with those points.

Saving points is important for NPCs or incidental choices of PCs. Cost saving isn't the sort of thing PCs build around though.