09-21-2007, 12:01 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: Where the pike?
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09-21-2007, 12:12 PM | #12 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Where the pike?
What the other guys said. A pike isn't a melee weapon in the conventional Basic Set or Martial Arts sense. At its heart it's more akin to caltrops, a tank obstacle, or razor wire, in that it's a defense used to impede mobility through a controlled area; it just happens to be more portable. The bulk of the killing is then done by other weapons -- in this case, bills, halberds, bows, crossbows, muskets, etc. The fact that some chap is holding onto the far end makes it look melee-weapon-ish, but use is closer to something like Explosives, Poisons, or Traps in nature, in that it's all about effective deployment, not parry, feint, and thrust.
In game terms, have a formation of soldiers roll against the higher of average Spear or average DX-based Soldier (at TL2-4), with either taking a -2 for unfamiliarity if they've never used pikes. Success means the pike formation holds up. As an individual combat weapon, it would be about a Reach 6 spear that can't parry, feint, resist feints, or disarm; that takes many turns to Ready after each attack; and that can only attack at all if the user took a Wait in order to Stop Thust, although you could generously allow a user to poke with it like a spear at about Spear-6 if he's just standing there. The place for such rules is squarely in some putative Mass Combat book, though, and not Martial Arts. I think a martial-arts historian could make a good case for pike warfare only be a "martial art" inasmuch as artillery gunnery and logistics are "martial arts."
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
09-21-2007, 12:19 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Where the pike?
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09-21-2007, 12:21 PM | #14 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Where the pike?
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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09-21-2007, 03:31 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Newcastle, Australia
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Re: Where the pike?
Thanks Kromm. How come the pike can't feint, disarm, etc? Surely any object could be used to disarm someone if used correctly.
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09-21-2007, 03:59 PM | #16 | |
Aluminated
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
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Re: Where the pike?
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09-21-2007, 03:59 PM | #17 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
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Re: Where the pike?
The pike is something like 15-20 feet long. You don't use it by moving it around; you use it by planting it in the ground and holding it steady. It's really hard to disarm someone with a weapon that you don't actually move. :)
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09-21-2007, 04:03 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Newcastle, Australia
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Re: Where the pike?
So a normal human couldn't use it to feint, disarm, etc. I'm assuming that someone with super strength could use it that way.
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09-21-2007, 04:06 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Where the pike?
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I'm looking at doing a double length katana for one of my upcoming campaigns, for a Japanese super named Samebito. . . . Bill Stoddard |
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09-21-2007, 04:12 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Newcastle, Australia
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Re: Where the pike?
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