Thrown weapons in IN

[Dalillama]

I may be missing something, but I can't find anywhere in the published materials that deals with throwing things like knives, hatchets, spears, or even rocks. I roughed out the following for knives and hatchets for the seafaring IN game I'm trying to start:
Thrown Axe:
Power: 1 Acc:1 Range: str

Thrown knife:
Power: 0 Acc:0 Range: 1/2str
I did it by comparing the range increments of GURPS weapons that do appear in IN, and applying a roughly similar ratio to guess what fraction of ST to use in IN. I did something similar with acc and power, i.e. thrown axes and knives do basically the same damage as handheld in GURPS, so they have the same power in IN.

[Captain Midnight]

I'd look at the "Throwing" skill (core book, pp. 77-78).

For a seafaring game, you'd probably want to know beforehand how you're going to handle harpoons -- I'm not sure if I'd just treat them like spears, or give them extra power for the size and barbs.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Captain Midnight

I'd look at the "Throwing" skill (core book, pp. 77-78).

For a seafaring game, you'd probably want to know beforehand how you're going to handle harpoons -- I'm not sure if I'd just treat them like spears, or give them extra power for the size and barbs.

And there it is. I think I missed it at the bottom of the page there. Nevertheless, I feel that even for as system-light as IN is, the throwing rules provided there are insufficient for a game where thrown weapons are expected to be significant. Specifically, according to that page, you can throw a rock, a knife, a hatchet, and a spear the same distance for the same damage, which seems off.

As for harpoons, they certainly shouldn't have a higher base power than spears (not that I know what Power to assign spears; I'm thinking +3 or 4); they tend actually to be on the small side, as I understand it. I'd call the barbs an extra 2 hits when removed, though, based on the Gae Bolga from LR. The main effect, of course, is that there's now a rope connecting the harpooner and the harpoonee.

[JCD]

Weapons in general seem pretty weak in IN. The designers, from what I recall, expected the players to mostly go Celestial to fight.

Because...it was more dangerous to you, more difficult to damage, and much harder to heal than physical damage.

Those designers were spot on...

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by JCD

Weapons in general seem pretty weak in IN. The designers, from what I recall, expected the players to mostly go Celestial to fight.

Because...it was more dangerous to you, more difficult to damage, and much harder to heal than physical damage.

Those designers were spot on...

Oh, I know, but that still leaves me looking for a way to fix it. Also, you forgot the inherent cost of going Celestial in the first place; in at least half the fights I've participated in in IN everybody involved was too low on Essence to go Celestial. If we had the Essence, we could do something about the situation besides hitting people.

[Archangel Beth]

Doesn't the CPG have more weapons in it? (I know I was looking at the errata and found some for more weapons...)

I think the key design thing is that celestials are supposed to get face-to-face and rumble, not throw things at each other from "safe" distances or have firefights where cover and aim might matter. (For those, use GURPS...)

Which doesn't actually help if you want those rules, of course, but bear in mind that the combat system for IN really is tuned for face-to-face, and you may want to tweedle anything else a lot more than you might expect, depending on your PCs.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

Doesn't the CPG have more weapons in it? (I know I was looking at the errata and found some for more weapons...)

Yes, it does. That's one of the reasons it's usually listed as a must-buy book, along with the GMG (with the in-universe timeline and the takes on real-world religions) and Liber Canticorum (with all those Songs)...

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

Doesn't the CPG have more weapons in it? (I know I was looking at the errata and found some for more weapons...)

It does, but not spears. Also, many of them are things like chainsaws and cattle prods, which are out of place in a historical game.

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

I think the key design thing is that celestials are supposed to get face-to-face and rumble, not throw things at each other from "safe" distances or have firefights where cover and aim might matter. (For those, use GURPS...)

Granted, but what about people who are throwing things at them while they're trying to get up face to face? Boarding actions traditionally involve a certain amount of hurling edged and/or pointy things in the course of trying to get aboard or keep someone from doing so.

EDIT: Also, using GURPS would mean having to round up 3e players and/or trying to adapt G:IN to 4e, and I remember the last time we tried to do that on the boards here.

Originally Posted by Archangel Beth

Which doesn't actually help if you want those rules, of course, but bear in mind that the combat system for IN really is tuned for face-to-face, and you may want to tweedle anything else a lot more than you might expect, depending on your PCs.

So far I haven't got any of those. :( Someone expressed mild interest in the Play by Post thread lower down, but nothing since then.

[Archangel Beth]

Considering what little I know about Pearcy's style of GMing, I strongly suspect that "if people are throwing things at the PCs," the game mechanic would have been something like, "Roll Dodge; if you fail it, take the failed check digit in hits. You'll take X time to get up the rope, so you'll need to roll Dodge...oh, 3 times before you get to the top."

>_>