Jab’s Builds! (Beaker! Sam Eagle! Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Meteor Hammer

Post by Jabroniville »

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METEOR HAMMER (8 ep)
Place/Time of Origin:
Shaolin Temples
Type of Damage: Bludgeoning
Typical Make: Long string tied around one or two heavy metal implements at the ends.
Manner of Use: Held and swung with one or two hands, the metal end being launched while the other parries or defends.
Variants on Design: Various shapes of the metal end available (Spade, sphere, block, etc.)
Famous Wielders: None, really

Stats: Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Reach 4, Split 2) (7) -- AE: Damage 3 (Extras: Area- 15ft. Shapeable +1/2) -- (8 Equipment Points)
Maximum Damage: 5

Positives & Negatives:
+ Esoteric and weird. Just makes you look unique.
+ Easily concealable- it's just a weighted thingie on a string

- Easily-grabbable and damaged (it's just a STRING... or a chain).

-I actually came up with the idea for one of these myself (a friend in Art School had some fancy little metal thing he made in Sculpture class, and I figured that sticking a rope to it would make it a pretty hurtful weapon, especially if upgraded comic book-style), but later discovered it was a real thing. Basically it's a small metal object attached to a rope or chain, and used like a ranged Bludgeoning attack. It'd look pretty cool for comics, though it's pretty rare. I've seen some Shaolin Monks use them in displays, though its use as a weapon is probably limited in real life, like with most "______ on a string/chain" weapons.
BriarThrone
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Re: Meteor Hammer

Post by BriarThrone »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:07 am -I actually came up with the idea for one of these myself (a friend in Art School had some fancy little metal thing he made in Sculpture class, and I figured that sticking a rope to it would make it a pretty hurtful weapon, especially if upgraded comic book-style), but later discovered it was a real thing. Basically it's a small metal object attached to a rope or chain, and used like a ranged Bludgeoning attack. It'd look pretty cool for comics, though it's pretty rare. I've seen some Shaolin Monks use them in displays, though its use as a weapon is probably limited in real life, like with most "______ on a string/chain" weapons.
The meteor hammer is interesting for performances. As a weapon, it leaves a lot to be desired. Like most weapons that the Chinese classify as "soft" weapons, honestly.

On the plus side, with a meteor hammer, a skilled user can get a lot of momentum behind them. Getting struck with one is positively devastating. It is also hard to parry, as the striking surface hits like a truck, and parrying the rope it's on causes things to get unpredictable in a hurry.

In the negative column... it's a ridiculously challenging weapon to use from the get-go. If you're not great at using it, you very quickly become the equivalent of the boxer throwing constant haymakers - your control is crap, and any decent opponent is going to be able to exploit it. Even if you are very good, though, the weapon is just... not very responsive. Miss your first attack, and you're extremely vulnerable. In order for this weapon to be something other than an all-or-nothing gamble on the first shot, you have to be vastly superior to your opponent at controlling range... and if you are, why not kill him with literally anything else?

Most soft weapons suffer from power transfer loss, but the meteor hammer is less susceptible to this, just because of the huge amount of momentum, but it's still there. More than power transfer, though, there is the issue of bounce. If the first time you strike a solid object with the meteor hammer isn't an incapacitating blow to your opponent, you're screwed, because the head will bounce unpredictably and uncontrollably, and trying to bring it back under your control is going to take a few seconds. And those are seconds you're going to need, if you failed to incapacitate someone you were attacking with a meteor hammer. They're likely to take that kind of thing... personally.
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Woodclaw
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by Woodclaw »

I can't believe I was missing this set of builds. I really need to gid out my own armory posts from the old forums.
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Woodclaw wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:48 am I can't believe I was missing this set of builds. I really need to gid out my own armory posts from the old forums.
Cool! I think I forgot about that Armory of yours. Now go back and read all of these- start from the beginning :)!
Jabroniville
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Chainsaws

Post by Jabroniville »

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CHAINSAW (10 ep)
Place/Time of Origin:
1830s Germany, modified in 1920s America
Type of Damage: Slashing
Typical Make: Mechanical device- metal equipment surrounded by plastic case, featuring a long chain studded with sharp pieces.
Manner of Use: Held firmly against objects or people, allowing chain to do the work.
Variants on Design: Buzzsaws (similar, but a circular jagged cutter), may have diamond studs (for cutting concrete)
Famous Wielders: Leatherface, Ash Williams, Splatterhouse's Protagonist

Stats: Strength-Damage +4 (Feats: Improved Critical) (Extras: Penetrating 4, Multiattack 4) (Flaws: Limited- Penetrating Only if Held Against Target) (Inaccurate -1) -- (10 Equipment Points)
Maximum Damage: 8

Positives & Negatives:
+ Exceptionally-frightening and dangerous, and will draw an immediate reaction from anybody.

- Extremely loud- cannot be used stealthily.
- Power Loss: Mechanical object. It requires a power supply, and has many intricate parts, making it easily-damaged. Even water or electricity will mess it up.
- Very expensive, though not more than a masterwork katana or something.

-Chainsaws are popular murder weapons in movies (B & regular), seeing as how they can cause the most grotesque wounds imaginable, and are great at dismembering bodies. In real life, however, they're too heavy and hard to use (not to mention attention-getting), so they're quite rare as weapons. It's a Penetrating attack, but only if you hold it against something (likely a helpless victim or an inanimate object), it's Inaccurate, and its power supply (electric or gasoline) means that water, a leak, or lightning can probably break it easily. These little things mean that despite it's incredible amount of damage (Multiattack allows it to hit multiple times, if only at +4 Damage), it's limited enough as a weapon that it's not the default that the "+6 Chainsaw" in the main rulebook is- it SHOULD be Strength-Based damage, after all- a weaker person might just have the blade deflect off of whatever it struck.
BriarThrone
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by BriarThrone »

As evocative as things like the Warhammer 40k chainsword are, chainsaws are tools, not weapons. Being a farm kid, I have ample experience with them. They're highly effective firewood makers, but trying to use one on something that could fight back would be awful. A chainsaw's blade will foul pretty quickly if struck from the side while in operation, to the point where parrying with a decent stick would get the job done in very few tries. They're designed to be as safe as possible, so when they encounter unusual use conditions, such as aggressive use and active resistance, they specifically, deliberately lack design features preventing failure.

If you can overcome all that, though, they make a terrible mess.
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M4C8
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by M4C8 »

BriarThrone wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:53 am As evocative as things like the Warhammer 40k chainsword are, chainsaws are tools, not weapons. Being a farm kid, I have ample experience with them. They're highly effective firewood makers, but trying to use one on something that could fight back would be awful. A chainsaw's blade will foul pretty quickly if struck from the side while in operation, to the point where parrying with a decent stick would get the job done in very few tries. They're designed to be as safe as possible, so when they encounter unusual use conditions, such as aggressive use and active resistance, they specifically, deliberately lack design features preventing failure.

If you can overcome all that, though, they make a terrible mess.
If you were using a chainsaw on more than one enemy would the all the blood and flesh cause it to stop?
Last edited by M4C8 on Mon Jul 09, 2018 9:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by FuzzyBoots »

For the meteor hammer, Gogo Yubari is a pretty decent go-to for a famous wielder.
https://youtu.be/3y8ucwiTe80

Going a few pages back, for staves and nunchaku, their usage in Japanese marital arts are different from what most people think of as the "usual" method. Staves tends to be used a lot like spears, held at the middle and one end, and nunchaku are largely used like clubs, with the chain used more for joint locks. You can blame a lot of the spinny stuff on Bruce Lee, who was borrowing Fillipino moves because they were more cinematic.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Most of the more exotic “martial arts weapons,” like meteor hammers, hook swords,ribbon daggers, and what not are not really intended to be practical weapons of war. They’re meant to show the skill, finesse, strength, and control of the wielder during displays.

China has close to six continuous millennia of recorded history, much of it in astonishing level of detail. What do the actual soldiers march to war with? Spears, poleaxes, spears, bows, spears, swords, spears, crossbows... Oh, and spears.
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KorokoMystia
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Batgirl III wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 5:16 pm Most of the more exotic “martial arts weapons,” like meteor hammers, hook swords,ribbon daggers, and what not are not really intended to be practical weapons of war. They’re meant to show the skill, finesse, strength, and control of the wielder during displays.

China has close to six continuous millennia of recorded history, much of it in astonishing level of detail. What do the actual soldiers march to war with? Spears, poleaxes, spears, bows, spears, swords, spears, crossbows... Oh, and spears.
That’s probably why Dynasty Warriors embellishes things and gives the characters all sorts of ridiculous not historically accurate weapons, since it’s more fun that way.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Fighters in Dynasty Warriors use ridiculous weapons for the same reason karate practitioners in Street Fighter do hurricane kicks and throw fireballs.
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L-Space
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by L-Space »

As kids, my friend and I each had set of foam nunchucks, so we could bludgeon each other (and ourselves) at will, without risk of injury. Of course, it took us all of 10 minutes to realize that you could just slip the foam covers off, revealing the hard plastic bars beneath. We had a lot of bruises and welts at the end of the day, but I could do some pretty neat tricks :lol:.
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Woodclaw
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by Woodclaw »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:09 am
Woodclaw wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:48 am I can't believe I was missing this set of builds. I really need to gid out my own armory posts from the old forums.
Cool! I think I forgot about that Armory of yours. Now go back and read all of these- start from the beginning :)!
I remeber I posted a thing on shields, I might have to go back and dug it out.

BTW, I already read most of the entries, but if I start commenting we would be here until December.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Oh god, shields... The only thing Hollywood screws up more than swordfighting is how shields are used.
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BriarThrone
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Re: Jab's Builds! (THUNDRA!!!! Swords! Katanas! Nunchucks! Axes!)

Post by BriarThrone »

FuzzyBoots wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:10 pm For the meteor hammer, Gogo Yubari is a pretty decent go-to for a famous wielder.
https://youtu.be/3y8ucwiTe80

Going a few pages back, for staves and nunchaku, their usage in Japanese marital arts are different from what most people think of as the "usual" method. Staves tends to be used a lot like spears, held at the middle and one end, and nunchaku are largely used like clubs, with the chain used more for joint locks. You can blame a lot of the spinny stuff on Bruce Lee, who was borrowing Fillipino moves because they were more cinematic.
I very much like the Japanese style of staff/spear. Probably my best weapon style. The Japanese style of use of the nunchaku is better than the Chinese short sweeper or whatever they call it in the Filipines, but it means that the weilder's grip is compromised. It's kind of a bad bargain either way.
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