Spears for throwing

[phiwum]

How many spears can a man carry on his back? Surely, spear throwers must carry several, right?

[Terquem]

just imagining ease of use and awkwardness of storage I would guess no more than 5 to 8, of the short spear type, but longer spears might be harder to manage in any sort of quiver that you could draw from. If I remember correctly the roman soldier typically only carried 2 or 3 pilums, but they are significantly heavier than a simple leaf tipped spear.

[TippetsTX]

As there are no specific rules for this, we must decide what is reasonable... i would limit it to 3 full size spears (assuming one is being held) or up to 6 javelins.

[phiwum]

I was leaning towards three myself, which seems in line with what Tippets suggests. I'm surprised by how many Terquem suggests.

Terquem, when you refer to "short spears", we're still talking spears and not javelins as the terms are used in TFT?

ETA: According to Wikipedia, a pilum was about two meters, which puts it in the spear category for TFT. The weight is about right for a TFT spear too (though of course we take the official weights with a grain of salt). So, I'm reckoning two to three still seems about right. Five sounds like rather a lot for spears, but okay for javelins.

[Axly Suregrip]

I stick with the rules on ITL pg 65. Everything is carried "in the hands", "on the belt" or "on your back". I do not treat these literally. That is, they are readied, ready for quick access and packed; respectively.

So, "On the Belt" is any weapon that can be readied in one turn in combat. For these two of weight greater than 2.0 lbs is allowed. And upto 4 more of 2.0 lbs or less. For these if they are too large they may be slung across the back but still count as "on the belt" since they were placed to be available. These on across the back would be shield, pole weapons and two handed weapons.

To answer your question, this means I would allow two spears or two javelins to be "on the belt" ready to be drawn. If the players wants, I would allow one more in each hand. Thus one ready to throw and 3 more almost ready.

And if they want more tied to a pack, then I would allow unlimited ones in the pack. These, as per pg 65, would take 4 turns to remove from the pack after 2 turns to remove the pack from your back. Or a friend pulls them from your pack for 4 turns a piece without having to spend turns removing the pack.

[Chris Rice]

I only allow 1 spear to be carried. But you can carry several javelins.

[Kieddicus]

I run it the same way Axly Suregrip does. Save for only making it take one turn to ready a spear from a pack once you spend the four turns to remove the pack.

[Miley Spears]

Originally Posted by phiwum

How many spears can a man carry on his back? Surely, spear throwers must carry several, right?

You can only carry one of me. :D