[Low-Tech/Basic] Pick: War Club or Pickaxe

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

I guess that's the pickaxe minus pick - or axe-adze, though it's not completely the same.

It looks like another example of how names get applied somewhat loosely to weapons and weapon-like things. There's also a dolabra writeup on (for what it's worth) the Deadliest Warrior Wiki, proclaiming the dolabra to be a pick.

Well, whatever sort of axe/adze/pick/hammer combo weapon head falls under a given name, it's nice that GURPS will handle it.

While we're talking pick stuff:

1) I've poked around at creating a more universal setup for hand weapons vs hand weapon-like tools (maces vs hammers, warhammers vs pickaxes, etc.), but have nothing exciting to report. Like many commenters here, I'm still pondering what exactly defines the differences.

(The model I'm leaning toward: Tools like logging axes and pickaxes are generally very robust – they "attack" trees, stone, etc., not thin armor and flesh – and are heavier than weapon counterparts. More to the point, weapons stick to reasonable minimum ST for combat nimbleness, whereas tools typically have minimum ST greater than user ST. That high minimum ST isn't a problem at the slower, regular pace of labor, but isn't suited to the frantic needs of combat. That's what currently seems sensible to me, anyway.)

2) Should anyone want 'em, I recently added light and heavy versions of the one-handed melee pick on my page of new weapons. Oh, and throwing versions of the same, too. (Was a throwing pick ever a thing? Probably not. But why let that stop us? : )