Bow question.....

As far as I understand it you can Parry with a bow (now) for the same reasons you could ever block weapons with a bow in the first place.

I mean we are talking about a system here where a dagger can block a greatsword. So not everything is %100 or even close to %100 realistic. In this situation I really would stress that its done this way for balance as a game mechanic IMO...
 
FrankManic said:
No, I mean, a bow that short just wouldn't work. The spring couldn't store enough energy to throw an arrow any considerable distance with any force. From what I've experienced you need about three feet of something to get a good bow going, and even then you'd probably have to make it a composite recurve. My fifteen pound kids bow is about twice as long as a legal alliance short bow, and it's about as dinky a bow as you can have and still cast an arrow off of.Mind you, I've already made two short bows with black duct tape to rep horn nocks and a suede leather grip, but they look sort of silly.

Come to think of it, what's the reasoning behind being allowed to parry with a bow? Is it something along the lines of allowing the player to defend themselves while they work their sword out or something? A real bow doesn't weigh enough to effectively parry with, and even if you did manage to pull it off you'd destroy the bow, even a little chunk taken out of the wood would likely make the bow snap the next time you tried to draw it.
Click to expand...


As soon as you explain in real world science how I conjure lightning and fire from thin air with just a couple words, 9 square inches of cloth, birdseed, and a rubber band, I'll tell ya the physics behind a 25" bow and how it generates force ;).

:D :D
 
Magic.

Duh.
 
"Magic: Duh" - An innately cast spell which has the same effect as Feeblemind. :mrgreen:
 
I think I could actually make some kind of bomb with birdseed, a square of cloth, and a good mortar and pestle. Small enough particles suspended in air will explode violently if you can get the conditions just right...

As for the lightning thing... How much range do you want, and can I hide a car battery in my backpack?
 
Hrm. You could put a small fire-cracker in it as the initial burst charge to disperse the aerosol, then use a secondary incendiary charge to ignite it.

Dooby dooby doo.

When they say 'Ribbon' for arrow packets, does that literally mean a piece of ribbon? Could I use braided yarn, or a strip of thin leather or something?
 
I think the intention is that its a visible soft string. Yarn is probably fine if thickenough to be visible leather might be a bit too firm dependant on thickness
 
Yarn is (in most places) acceptable.

The leather I might have a concern about... but we all know that arrow packets are very dangerous and could constitute a choking and/or strangling hazard.
 
As the ¨tail¨ is one foot long, the person´s neck would have to be 4 inches in diameter for the tail to get around it. Barring the impossible, I don´t think it would be a hazard. Of course, I have no power to decide that - it would be up to the safety people. On the yarn question I have seen many people use it; I believe it is acceptable.
 
Yarn is fine, but not recommended as it tangles like crazy. I wouldn't recommend leather. A whip in the face with a leather string - especially when wet, could hurt quite a bit.

Your best bet is 1/4" fabric ribbon. Not giftwrap ribbon. It tangles the least, lasts decently long and makes your arrows easier to find/retrieve when thrown.
 
I use yarn. I duno, it does tangle a bit but it flies and lies a bit flatter than fabric ribbon.
 
Hooray for sarcasm being lost on the internets. :-)

So David, something that is round lies flatter than something that is flat?

Or do you mean less visible twisting?
 
lol yea,

"lying flatter" probably was a poor choice of words. Yea what I meant was; has less twisting, and IMO looks more believable as a shaft than shinny fabric ribbon. When it doesn't tangle tends to hang more limply too... ;)

(I realize not all fabric ribbon is shiny... but a lot is.)
 
So, I made up some bow cores tonight.

1. Take your 5ish foot length of PVC, cut a notch in each end. Loop string around each notch in such a way that the core is taught and flexed, almost like a real bow.

2. Tape off one end. use a lot of tape and secure it as well as you can, you're trying to make it water tight for at least five minutes.

3. Boil some water, preferably in a kettle or something similar. Slowly, carefully pour boiling water into the core until it's full, then set it aside. Repeat for all cores.

4. This is a bit tricky. the cores I made turned out wonky, with uneven curves over each limb. I think what happened was that the weight of the plastic was enough to deform the curve. I'd suggest hanging it from a nail or something until it's cool to try to avoid this. I don't know if that will work though.

the result? Three longbow cores, once I cut them down to length. A small puddle on the floor. No burns.

Yata!
 
As opposed to taping it might be worth it to buy a PVC pipe cap... they are less than $0.60...
 
corking if you have a few extra corks lying around from wine bottles works pretty much flawlessly for the boiling water bending design.
 
Okay stupid question here.

If the bows do not have string and do not shoot anything (as the 'arrows' are the same as spellpacks and need to be thrown), then could you use PVC joints in the bow to make a better looking recurve or something of the like?
 
absolutely. And actually what this thread was talking about is using heating methods to bend the pvc so you could get more subtle shaping than what can be produced with joints. But those could work too.
 
Absolutely not.

You cannot use PVC joints in any weapons.

I cannot find this anywhere in the book, but I know that I have seen weapons failed for this specifically.
 
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