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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Atlatl

Post by Jabroniville »

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ATLATL/SPEAR THROWER (12 ep)
Place/Time of Origin:
Stone Age

Spear-Thrower Stats: Strength-Damage +3 (Extras: Ranged 5, Penetrating 4) -- (12 Equipment Points)
Maximum Damage: 8

Positives & Negatives:
+ Silent- some scientists believe that the nature of these devices allowed people to throw javelins much more quietly, making them more efficient weapons at night.
+ Not as much strength is required to use an Atlatl as compared to another ranged weapon like a bow & arrow. As such, women and children are capable of using it almost as powerfully as men.
 
- Complexity- needing an extra device to hold in one's hand makes this a more impractical weapon in closer quarters, and you're more likely to lose it.

-The Spear-Thrower (like an Atlatl) is an ingenious little device you barely ever see anywhere that allows for extra force to be used in a throw. Ideally, it acts as an extra lever (basically like having two elbows), doubling the force of the throw. Spears thrown from such a device can reach up to 93 mph- as fast as some fastballs! Modern variations have produced throws of 850 feet!
Shock
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Re: Jab's Builds! (TESS-One! Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!)

Post by Shock »

The Valkyrie character in Diablo 2 is a really good example of a high level spear user.

And because I have a weird fascination with polearms and have seen a lot of old, weird gaming stuff:

Random Polearm Table (Jan Simons/Space Gamer 74)
3 Ox Tongue
4 Bill
5 Bill Hook
6 Glaive
7 Guisarme
8 Voulge
9 Guisarme Voulge
10 Glaive Guisarme
11 Glaive Voulge
12 Guisarme Glaive
13 Voulge Guisarme
14 Vouige Glaive
15 Glaive Glaive
16 Glaive Guisarme Voulge
17 Voulge Glaive Guisarme
18 Glaive Glaive Glaive Guisarme Glaive
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Builds! (TESS-One! Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Atlatl are remarkably easy to use; I’ve been into traditional archery off and on since I was a kid and have recently gotten back into the sport with my local SCA chapter (and just dicking around on my own). One of the Barons in the local SCA is well past his fighting years and has been teaching Thrown Spears, Throwing Axes, and Atlatl to the rest of us... My aim was okay, but I just could not generate ample force to do much with a spear or thrown axe*, but with maybe five minutes of instruction I was nailing a torso-sized target at fifty yards with the atlatl four out of every five throws.


* A real annoyance for me, personally, since the battle axe is my favorite period weapon for combat. 😭
BARON wrote:I'm talking batgirl with batgirl. I love you internet.
Jabroniville
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Lances

Post by Jabroniville »

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LANCE (6 ep)
Place/Time of Origin:
Pre-Historic Cavalry Spears leading to Middle-Ages European designs
Type of Damage: Piercing, Bludgeoning (kinda)
Typical Make: Wooden or metal short handle with counterbalance, with an extremely long metal pointed section at the front. Protective covering for the hand.
Manner of Use: Wielded with one hand on horseback, directed towards enemy's head or centre.
Typical Wielders: Highly trained Knights only.
Variants on Design: Various sizes & shapes available, with fine or wide tips.
Famous Wielders: King Arthur & his Knights (in legend; not in real life), Alexander the Great

Stats: Strength-Damage +4 (Feats: Reach 3) (Extras: Penetrating 4) (Flaws: Only Useable Mounted & Requires a Charge) (Inaccurate -1) -- (6 Equipment Points)
Maximum Damage: 8

Positives & Negatives:
+ Intimidation factor. Entire books of tactics had to be written around the lethality of a cavalry charge- with longer and longer spears & pikes being used to counter them.
 
- Heavy. Lances are ideally only a Cavalry weapon- shorter ones are required for foot combat. Generally a Squire or Retainer would be required to wield the weapon.
- Once the charge is completed, Lances typically only do +2 damage, and would probably be dropped for a sword.

-Lances are the BIG-TIME polearm weapon, being a lethal cavalryman's best piece of equipment. It's a little rarer in pop culture and fiction since it's limited to mounted fighters (hard to shoot for cinema).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Jul 06, 2018 5:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: Jab's Builds! (TESS-One! Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!)

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Heh. I always remember the Atlatl for being introduced alongside the Aklys in Unearthed Arcana for AD&D (1st edition).
FuzzyBoots
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Re: Lances

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Jul 06, 2018 1:40 am LANCE (6 ep)

....

- Once the charge is completed, Lances typically only do +2 damage, and would probably be dropped for a sword.

-Lances are the BIG-TIME polearm weapon, being a lethal cavalryman's best piece of equipment. It's a little rarer in pop culture and fiction since it's limited to mounted fighters (hard to shoot for cinema).
FWIW, I answered this SF&F Stack Exchange question about non-mounted troops carrying lances and it was a thing, as illustrated in the combat manuals of the time. Basically, the extra-length was compensated for in the same way as with longswords, by gripping the lance a bit higher with the other hand.
Jabroniville
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Blades

Post by Jabroniville »

BLADED WEAPONS:

-Bladed Weapons are among the most-common, and Swords especially are iconic for medieval style heroes. Many have the Improved Critical Feat, owing to the ability of a blade to find a "sweet spot" or choice organ- the shorter size of the blades, and the fact that the weapon is sharp on multiple ends, makes it easier to hit where you want.
Jabroniville
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Knives

Post by Jabroniville »

ImageImageImage

KNIFE (2 ep)
Place/Time of Origin:
Virtually any place, at least 2 million years ago by humanity's ancestors
Type of Damage: Piercing, Slashing
Typical Make: Hard metal (usually steel, stone in pre-historic cultures) with a plastic handle
Manner of Use: Wielded single-handedly to stab vital organs or slice arteries
Variants on Design: Concealed with snap-out blade, attached via string, various shapes & sizes based off of use as a tool & culture of origin (like the Malaysian Kris and it's curved blade), may have serrated or saw-like edges, "Swiss Army Knife" containing multiple extra tools (more ep)
Famous Wielders: Thugs in comics & movies, Fighting monkeys, Hong Kong Gangster-Heroes

Stats: Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Improved Critical) -- (2 Equipment Points)
Throwing Knives: Strength-Damage +1 (Extras: Ranged 4) -- (5 Equipment Points)
Maximum Damage: 5 (4 for smaller blades)

Positives & Negatives:
+ Easily concealable, with pockets and holsters all over the body that can hold them.
+ Cheaper to buy, and mostly legal. You can't just carry 'em around openly everywhere, but they raise a lot fewer eyebrows than pretty much any other kind of weapon.
+ Throwable- more aerodynamic than pretty much any other kind of melee weapon. You lose the Knife of course, but in terms of range it's pretty great. Pretty much maxes out around Damage 4, though.
+ A Jackknife or Switchblade, a smaller blade, can be hidden in a simple pocket on regular clothing, and is the hardest overall weapon to spot on someone. It can also function as a cheap Multi-Tool, making it easier to explain away as something minor. However, it's damage potential is lower (likely +3 or +4 damage maximum). Looks bad-ass while doing complicated song-and-dance sequences in a "rumble", though.

- Poor range. Knives are pretty damn short. This has no real in-game effect, though could make a difference in terms of damage you can theoretically do to larger creatures or objects (you can't go much further than the surface of something that's too big).
- Low Damage Limit. Super-strong characters won't get any benefit at all, and for a lot of people, it'll only change the TYPE of damage inflicted, not how much damage you'll do (I can't imagine even Spider-Man doing more damage with a knife than unarmed- it's just a Slashing Damage instead).

-The common Knife is THE thug weapon of choice, as well as a superfluous weapon used by most "assassin" types. The weapon should be standard issue for all goons & military thugs, though "costumed" goons tend to have more firepower (guns or weapons related to the villain's gimmick, like Stun Blasts or something). It's hardly the most devastating thing ever, and gives no bonuses for range, but is notable for hitting the "sweet spot" more often (Improved Critical), and is more regularly used as a throwing weapon than any other type of hand-held weapon not originally designed for that purpose. Note that the multitude of knife-types out there are all pretty much the same cutty thing, whether it's a samurai's ritual-suicide-tool Tanto, or a Scottish Dirk. Any bigger and you get a Sword or Machete, the Knife's daddies.

-Knives are probably underrated by a lot of the media, as they are responsible for a TON of deaths. Usually not fatal since the blades are so small (especially the kind most people just carry around on themselves), it doesn't take a lot to perforate the human heart or something, and multiple stabs can cause a bleed-out. My best friend is a cop, and he goes to stabbings ALL THE TIME (my hometown is nicknamed "Stabmonton" by some- guns are incredibly rare in Canada, so knifings are comparatively common). Most aren't that serious (many people don't even realise they've been stabbed), but still, at close range a knife is just as dangerous as a gun (which can only go in a straight line- knives can slash OR pierce, giving them a much wider "threat range").

-Push Daggers or Punching Daggers are a rarely-seen variant, but were common in some areas. Debuting in India, they became common in the developing United States amongst gamblers and even politicians looking for a discreet weapon for self-defense. They are usually used with a little T-Bar thing and "punched" forward. Basically like a shorter version of Wolverine's claws, working on the same principles, but usually for Piercing attacks. They even became popular in World War I (when guns and other weapons were in shorter supply). Push Daggers are lethal because you could probably justify using your Unarmed Combat abilities with them, rather than relying on whatever your Fighting or Knife Rank abilities were.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (TESS-One! Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!)

Post by Jabroniville »

greycrusader wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:05 pm I've always liked Thundra, since she's a goofball, early Bronze-Age, "social relevance" character-but usually a lot of FUN in the hands of Marvel writers.

Yeah, she could work on an Avengers team, if the writer(s) would play up the silliness a bit, maybe playing her off against someone like Hercules or the (Janet Van Dyne) Wasp. And the whole ridiculousness of her origin-"wait, if you beat up a really strong male hero in your timeline's past, it somehow means your side wins a war against an alternate world? How would THAT work?!!!"
She'd be a great fit with any team, really. When BatgirlIII made an "Avengers" roster including Kate Bishop, I immediately figured she'd play great off of Thundra. One is never serious; the other is only ever serious.
Frank Cho is a wonderful pin-up artist-but WOW! his illustrations of Valkyrie and Thundra (and Shanna the She-Devil and She-Hulk and Hipollyta...) really show he suffers from same-face AND same-bod syndrome.

All my best.
Hey, if Frank Cho's ladies all looked like voluptuous bodybuilders, then he can copy all the faces and bodies they like :).
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (TESS-One! Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Haha- BEST

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Jabroniville
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Swords

Post by Jabroniville »

SWORDS:
-Swords are pretty much THE Hero's Weapon in many forms of fiction, and probably the best overall melee weapon in real life, especially if you're going it solo. In massed ranks you'll want polearms, but individually a sword is better than a spear, axe, pike or whatever- it's more maneuverable, lighter, has good range, and VERSATILE. Spears can really only stab well, axes can only slash & bash, etc. Swords can stab, slice, hit (claymores and junk would hit like a freaking hammer on someone wearing Armor). There are various makes throughout the world, often becoming iconic to their area or era (the Japanese katana, the Arabic/Persian scimitar, the Scottish claymore, the rapiers of the Renaissance era, etc.).

And people just look PROPER when wielding a cool sword as their weapon of choice- they can be personalized to match any archetype or character. He-Man & Conan are bad-asses with giant muscles, so they used big freakin' swords to show off their manliness. Drizz't has those light scimitar-lookin' things. Ladies in stories often used rapiers, and so did smooth stylish fighters like Zorro, The Three Musketeers and Inigo Montoya. And who could forget the legendary Samurai and their fancy-ass curved-bladed katanas? That stuff looks HARDCORE. If you wanna look like a proper-ass hero of the story, you need to get yourself a sword.

Swords are EXTREMELY common in the media (generally speaking, almost every medieval/historic-style hero uses one as a weapon unless he's a Kung Fu master or something- rarely have I ever seen a movie where the main hero's chosen weapon is a SPEAR), but not SO much in the comics. Because of the inherent lethality of a blade, heroes in the comics usually used blunt weapons (Shields, Billy Clubs, Hammers of the Gods) or energy-based stuff that isn't immediately fatal. Some guys, like Leonardo (fights robots), the G.I. Joe ninjas (also fight Robots, but could slash guys in the comics) and Shatterstar (TWO-BLADED SWORDS, BITCHES!!), used them, but I have a hard time thinking of a lot of them off the top of my head.

A Note About Swords:
-Sword Nerds are pretty prevalent online, and, much like I noticed in threads about "Which Dogs are best in fights?" (when I was doing the Animal Builds and wanted to find out which dogs could beat wolves), you will find the exact same sort of obsessive dorks fighting online about Which Is The One True _____. In general, they're all the same- they come into the thread, make sure to disregard everyone ELSE's statements, and then point out The One True _____, which is always obscure, always quite foreign, and oh, they make DAMN SURE to mock the Commonly-Accepted Best ______. They will always use terminology created just for their unique fandom (what kind of douchebag creates their own pithy terms for stuff? DORK). Dogfight-knowledgeable people (who of course are ALWAYS clear to make sure we know they don't ACTUALLY fight dogs) always use the term "Game Pit" and ensure that The One True Dogfighting Breed is "far superior" to the "Game Pit".

-The much-hyped super-powers of the Japanese Katana are, of course, a legendary source for snark these days, and obsessive behavior about these cool-looking Asian weapons has led to a lot of blowback disregarding them, and hyping other (almost always European) swords.
scc
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Re: Jab's Builds! (TESS-One! Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!)

Post by scc »

Ares wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:21 am Ben Grimm just might be the ultimate Kavorka Man, as TV Tropes describes it. Dude looks like a Brick Wall that walks like a man, and at various points he's had She-Hulk, Thundra, Tigra, similar women just swooning over him.

Thundra is a fun character, albeit one you need to play as being over the top with some depth to her, because those are the only thing keeping her from becoming one of Jab's Four Fatales parody toxic feminists. Basically the one of the main things that saves Thundra is that she's always displayed as being over the top and in the wrong, so it's more played for comedy than any serious social commentary.

I could completely see her on the Avengers as "that one character" who is the trouble maker type that Jab seems to love, and would have completely different dynamics within the group, annoying everyone for different reasons.

I am curious about Ben apparently never defeating her. I thought one of the reasons she obsessed about him before really getting to know him is that she couldn't beat him either.

She and Valkyrie wound up basically being the same character with different color hair and weapons, which I'm sure disappointed Jab to no end. Especially when Frank Cho insisted on drawing them in a book together.
I remember Ben holding back when he was fighting her being the gentleman he is. That is what I remember as a kid anyways.
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Goldar
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Re: Jab's Builds! ( Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!!!! Polearms & Blades!)

Post by Goldar »

But back then, Thundra was stated to be able to lift "only" 60 tons, while Namor, Thing and Hulk were all a quite a bit higher. Now, Marvel says Thundra can lift 75 tons, which makes her closer to those she battled before.
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Ken
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Re: Jab's Builds! ( Terminus! Terror! THUNDRA!!!! Polearms & Blades!)

Post by Ken »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:40 am LOL- funny news out of Africa: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/w ... 587c0d6553
The title in the link sounds pretty funny, in a black humour kind of way. I can't pull up the article, though.
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When the most powerful super hero on Earth marries an ordinary man, hilarity ensues.
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