Missile Weapons

Missile weapns are weapons which leave the grasp or possession of the user to reach their target-usually traveling through the air. There are two types of missile weapons: thrown and projectile.

Thrown Weapons

Generally, thrown weapons can be used as melee weapons but they also are balanced for throwing. Thus both the javelin and the pilum are one-handed spears which can also be thrown. Thrown missile weapons usually are of short range since they are relatively heavy, and relatively heavy because they must be capable of withstanding hand-to-hand combat. Their dual function shows that they are auxiliary weapons, augmenting an adventurer's normal melee weapons. It is difficult, though not impossible, to carry enough thrown weapons to last through a battle.

Damage Bonus: When using thrown weapons, an adventurer gets the benefit of only half his normal damage bonus. (Examples: if an adventurer has a 1D4 damage bonus, his bonus with thrown weapons is 1D2. If a throwing adventurer is immense, with a damage bonus of 2D6, his throwing damage bonus would be 2D3. A 3D6 damage bonus would give a 3D3 throwing damage bonus.)

Range: Range for throwing weapons is given in the missile charts given on the page before.

Projectile Weapons

Projectile weapons are weapons which project a missile at a target. This category includes bows, crossbows, blowguns, atlatls, and slings.

Special Effects of Missile Weapons

Parrying a Missile Attack

Thrown weapons can be parried if the parrier is aware of the attack and is ready to parry. Projected missiles cannot be parried. However, an adventurer may specify that he is holding his shield in one place, covering specific hit locations, and those hit locations will be protected with the shield. If a shield is slung on the back of a missile target, the shield will provide 1/2 of its armor points as protection against chest hits.

Parrying with Projectile Weapons

Most missile weapons can be used to parry with if the need arises. Those weapons listed as having no armor points cannot be parried with-they are too soft and pliable to present adequate resistance to attack. Basic chance to parry with a missile weapon is 20%. this skill is never trained, but it can be increased through experience. If the armor points of a missile weapons are exceeded by the hit, the missile weapon takes the usual 1 hit point damage, but in this case is useless as a missile weapon until it is repaired-imagine your bow after it has parried a sword slash.

Firing Into A Melee

When throwing or projecting into a melee, the missile user cannot be sure he will not hit a friend. His chance of hitting a particular target is divided by the number of people in the melee. If his player rolls a number between the adventurer's normal chance to hit and the adventurer's chance adjusted for shooting into melee, the gamemaster should randomly determine which of the targets was struck. (This random determination can still result in the intended target being hit.) The missile firer becomes eligible for an experience check only if he hits his intended target.

If the adventurer is using a missile weapon on a mass of targets and doesn't care who he hits, his chance of hitting is increased 5% for every extra body shot at, as long as the bodies are packed closely to each other. If enemies are approaching in a loose skirmish line, the missile user must pick one target. If they are packed into a dense spear wall, he may fire at the massed troops.

Firing Vertically

Attempting to fire up at a target subtracts 10 percentiles from a missile user's chance to hit, as discussed in the combat modifiers section. In addition, halve the effective and maximum ranges for a missile weapon fired at a target which is directly overhead.

Missile Weapons Table

* Dart from blowgun will usually have a poison of 2D10 potency.
** Once 12 shots have been fired, it takes the character's DEX strike rank +3 to reload one quarrel.
*** These weapons do not do impaling damage with a special hit.
@ This is a damage modifier.

Name: The name of the weapon. For the most part each of these weapons must be learned independently, so they are not divided into named categories as are melee weapons. However, anyone learning to use one kind of bow can use any kind of bow, anyone learning one form of crossbow can use any form of crossbow, and anyone learning dart or javelin can use the other.
STR/DEX: This is the minimum STR and DEX necessary to use the weapon. For every characteristic point shortof the necessary amount, reduce the adventurer's chance to hit by 5 percentiles.
Base %: This is the base chance of successful attack with a weapon for someone who has not used the weapon before. If previous experience gives the character a minimum ability with the weapon, use that percentage instead.
ENC(m): The approximate weight in kilograms of the weapon, with some adjustment to account for the clumsiness of certain weapons. The number in parantheses is the approximate weight of one missile(m) for a projectile weapon. For arrows and crossbow quarrels, a quiver of 20 missiles equals 1 ENC point. Standard war load for a full-time archer is 50 arrows-2.5 ENC.
Damage: When a weapon strikes, in game terms it does a certain amount of rolled damage. Thrown weapons in addition do damage of half of the thrower's damage modifier the user's normal damage bonus. Some weapons shown above do not damage but entangle the target. See the descriptions of the individual weapons for game effects.
AP: Armor points of the weapon. As for any weapon, the armor points decrease by one each time the object's armor points are exceeded by a blow.
Effective Range: Within this distance the weapon will hit the target at the skill percentage possessed by the user.
Maximum Range: The weapon, or its projectile, can reach no further. Chance of hitting a target between this range and effective range (see just above) is half that for effective range.
Rate of Fire: The maximum number of times that a weapon may be used in a single melee round.
1/#MR: This weapon is clumsy enough to use/reload/recover that it may be used only once every several melee rounds: all the other melee rounds must be spent readying it for use again. Example: if a character is using a weapon which fires once in five melee rounds, then he must spend the other four rounds readying it for use again, doing nothing else, or it cannot be ready to fire on the fifth round.
1/MR: The weapon is slow to ready, and may only be used once in a melee round.
1/SR: Use the weapon on the adventurer's DEX strike rank, then on his DEX SR + 3 + DEX SR again. Example: Arcos the Archer has a DEX SR of 2. He can fire a composite bow on SR 2, then must take 3 SR to get another arrow and notch it, then fire the second arrow at his DEX SR after that. Thus, he will fire at SR 2, then SR 7. He can spend the remaining three SR getting out another arrow to fire at SR 2 of the next round.
Cost: Price of weapon in pennies at its place of manufacture.

Engines

Engines are war machines which fire immense missiles and consequently need large crews to run them. They are best at siege work, for they are clumsy, slow to fire, and can easily be overrun in the field. On the Engines Table below, the Siege Arbalest and the Ballista are bolt (quarrel) firing.The Catapult, Springal, and Trebuchet primarily fire stones. The Springal can, with some modification, fire bolts as well.

Descriptions and Special Effects

Arbalests

The Arbalest is the smallest and simplest siege engine. Effectively it is a large crossbow servicable by one man. However, it needs a stand to support it, takes several melee rounds to load, and fires a bolt larger than the spirit magic spell Multimissile can manipulate.

The Ballista has the same straight trajectory and a similar payload (a bolt) as the Arbalest, though this eninge is much larger and needs at least three men to crew it (aimer, loader, gunner).

Catapults

Catapults are large instruments like ballistas but they arc their payloads (roundish stones) on a parabolic trajectory. Thus they aer called 'indirect fire' weapons. They are harder to aim at a specific mansized target, but are ideal for reaching over walls of open fortifications and can be used to fire at ships.

Springal

Similar to the catapult, though smaller, the Springal can be used to throw either stones or bolts. Bolts are launched in a direct trajectory and stones must be indirectly thrown.

Trebuchet

Once built, a trebuchet will only affect a single area. It cannot be re-aimed. It can, though, launch a tremendous load of rock at that area.

Special Effects

Engines are rarely used for individual attacks. They are fired at masses of men or at walls and other structures. The base chance to hit, given in the Engines table, derives from a general impact area of approximately 40 SIZ. The chance of hitting goes down by 1% for each SIZ point smaller the target may be.

Remember that the trajectory of Arbalests and Ballistas is straight, and will only miss to one side or the other of the target. Catapults have a parabolic trajectory, effectively lobbing the projectile, the missile may fall anywhere around the objective.

Shrapnel

Catapults can shoot loose bags of rocks, or clay projectiles which will break up and scatter sharp shards over a rough radius around the point of impact. The shards will damage people, but not buildings. Damage done is about 1/6 the damage doneby a comparable solid projectile, but it is done to everything within a radius equal in meters to the number of D6 rolls called for by the solid shot damage roll.