Slings!

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Plane

The term sling always makes me think of the "slingshot" which is like a stick with a stretchy thing you pull with the other hand, I think used by Dennis the Menace. I don't think it could be used 1-handed and it probably required a lot less skill to aim with, as well as no actual arm movements.

If "slings" is used to broadly refer to this and the iconic weapon in that Al Jazeera article you linked, does anyone know any more specific terms for it, like perhaps a "whip sling" or "spin sling" or "throw sling" ?

The picture looked to me like a stylized one of the sort often done in war portraits in times past.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by tbone

Wikipedia says the size of typical stones "can vary dramatically, from pebbles massing no more than 50 grams (1.8 oz) to fist-sized stones massing 500 grams (18 oz) or more." Hmm, it would be nice to see a little optional game detail offered for stone size, even if just for S, M, and L stones (although I guess DFRPG already does offer L-size stones, via the Heavy Sling).

BS offers lead bullets for prodds and slings, but I don't see a weight stat for these. DFRPG does offer a weight: 1 oz., which is right on the nose as the weight Wikipedia says is typical for historical lead bullets. (Maybe Wikipedia was the source for DFRPG's weight stat.)

Yes, we included the Heavy Sling to cover the slingers who liked fist-sized stones rather than thumb-sized bullets, since the existing Sling stats represented one hurling smaller bullets.

The weight and price stats for shot are on Low Tech pages 76 and 78.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Depends on how much you are willing to allow under the name.

I'd probably set the distinction between a slingshot and a bow as a sling storing most of the energy in the string, vs a bow storing most of the energy in the arms (they actually have very similar components).