Piano wire as cinematic low tech weapon?

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Yafnag

You are right. Lasso rules fit pretty well, and together with the wire garrote cutting damage rule, the weapon part is done. Thank you.

Now remain only the swing movement to manage.

It is physically possible with a whip, but it takes a lot of skill.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Yafnag

Now remain only the swing movement to manage.

This is just targeting an object with appropriate structural strength, hitting it with the rope/wire/whatever, and then swinging across. If this is cinematic, as your title implies, then you can release it with a Ready maneuver or a Fast-Draw roll to do it instantly, I'd say. I'd allow you to cover a gap roughly a third longer than the length of the rope, give or take.

[jeff_wilson]

A piano wire lasso has a problem with being very light for its rigid strength and surface area, and not going where it's wanted to go due to very little resistance to unwanted forces. Here's a story about a guy using them to trap fish, but he has the loop deployed in the river beforehand as a snare, not a thrown weapon.

ISTR an earnestly fictional story where a guy uses some nasty sharp wire tied to two rocks. He grasps one rock in two hands and uses it to whirl the other overhead. He closes with the prey animal and the gives the wire a hard yank back and the far rock spindles around the animal's neck, fatally. This might work better with another guy to flush the animals past the rock guy, perhaps along a cliff face or defile.

Some grooved weights as for fishing might work to give the wire sufficient inertia to be thrown like a conventional lasso, but they'd need to be lightly clamped to avoid restricting the cinching of the noose, and might need to be replaced frequently as they fall of and are lost.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

A piano wire lasso has a problem with being very light for its rigid strength, and not goign where it's wanted to go due to very little resistance to unwanted forces. Here's a story about a guy using them to trap fish, but he has the loop deployed in the river beforehand as a snare, not a thrown weapon.

ISTR an earnestly fictional story where a guy uses some nasty sharp wire tied to two rocks. He grasps one rock in two hands and uses it to whirl the other overhead. He closes with the prey animal and the gives the wire a hard yank back and the far rock spindles around the animal's neck, fatally. This might work better with another guy to flush the animals past the rock guy, perhaps along a cliff face or defile.

I'm sure all you say is true, and yet in a cinematic game, my tendency would be to say "yeah, sure, you bet" and look the other way at that pesky physics stuff.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I'm sure all you say is true, and yet in a cinematic game, my tendency would be to say "yeah, sure, you bet" and look the other way at that pesky physics stuff.

It's nothing you don't learn any time you work with wire in the garden or pasture. It's hard to make bare, loose wire go where you want it, and the most likely place for it go when you throw one end it is back at the other end. Ouch!

[Yafnag]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

This is just targeting an object with appropriate structural strength, hitting it with the rope/wire/whatever, and then swinging across. If this is cinematic, as your title implies, then you can release it with a Ready maneuver or a Fast-Draw roll to do it instantly, I'd say. I'd allow you to cover a gap roughly a third longer than the length of the rope, give or take.

Perfect, thanks!

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

A piano wire lasso has a problem with being very light for its rigid strength and surface area, and not going where it's wanted to go due to very little resistance to unwanted forces. Here's a story about a guy using them to trap fish, but he has the loop deployed in the river beforehand as a snare, not a thrown weapon.

ISTR an earnestly fictional story where a guy uses some nasty sharp wire tied to two rocks. He grasps one rock in two hands and uses it to whirl the other overhead. He closes with the prey animal and the gives the wire a hard yank back and the far rock spindles around the animal's neck, fatally. This might work better with another guy to flush the animals past the rock guy, perhaps along a cliff face or defile.

Some grooved weights as for fishing might work to give the wire sufficient inertia to be thrown like a conventional lasso, but they'd need to be lightly clamped to avoid restricting the cinching of the noose, and might need to be replaced frequently as they fall of and are lost.

True. Indeed I have mentioned about manriki, that have weights to both ends. But for gurps purpose, lasso rules can be apply to a piano wire with weights too, I think.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Yafnag

Any idea how to create a gurps balance weapon for TL4 that can make a range constriction attack? The sci-fi monowire whip is too much powerful.

If the problem with the monowire whip is just that it is too powerful, the obvious fix is use exactly the same rules but lower the damage - knocking off the +1d - that is using Sw-2 for the weapon table and 1d (or equivalently -4) less damage anywhere else - and ignoring the armor divisor entirely seems to produce something not too out of step with TL4 weapons.