Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[Jabroniville]

BOWS AND ARROWS:

-Bows & Arrows were commonly-used up until the time when crossbows and guns became totally common and more easy to use, but this often leads people to discount the bow & arrrow as a less-powerful weapon. In reality, an arrow hits with the same force as many bullets, and does as much (or more- they're a bitch to get out of the flesh) damage. The ACTUAL reason they got dropped was because they are RIDICULOUSLY difficult to use- the old English saying apparently goes "To make a great archer, start with his grandfather". The muscles used, the way you draw the bow (apparently you push the bow forward- not pull the string backwards), your position, the exact way you aim to make the arc go properly, etc. The idea of just "point and shoot" being an option with guns pretty much made people see the benefits real quick of dropping these fairly complex instruments of death. You could train boys to shoot straight in a couple of hours- training archers took a bugger of a long time.

STANDARD BOW & ARROW (6 ep)
Place/Time of Origin: Many Pre-Historic Cultures
Type of Damage: Piercing
Typical Make: Bent Wooden U or W-shape held by a string, alongside wooden/metal shafts with metal/stone sharp implements at the tip.
Manner of Use: Bow held with one hand, string pulled back with the other, while holding the end of the arrow.
Variants on Design: Various sizes and shapes available (including modern-day highly complex metal arrangements), with different shaft types. May have feathers on the end of the arrow to assist in flight.
Famous Wielders: Legolas, Robin Hood, Black/Golden Archer, Hawkeye, Green Arrow, Speedy

Stats: Blast 4 -- (8 Equipment Points)

Positives & Negatives:
+ Massed Fire- large numbers of troops together either create a Multiattack, or (in HUGE numbers, like in massed combat) Area Attacks that can do a ton of damage to anyone without Shields.
+ Removing an arrow from a wound is a timely and difficult venture.
+ Stealthy. Bows make little noise compared to, say, modern firearms.

- Complex and difficult to use. Arguably the single most-difficult weapon to learn, and might be justified with a "no using if untrained" rule.
- Minor complications like running out of ammo (almost never happens in the comics, but most Archers DO have a big sling of arrows on their backs that can be targetted), having broken strings, etc. Easily damaged with Smash attempts.
- While not under "Strength-Based Damage", you actually need to be pretty strong to draw a bowstring- strong back and shoulder muscles, to be exact. People weaker than Strength 2 may have difficulty and lowered-damage. Recurve bows lessen the amount of strength required.
-Requires a guard over the wrist (to prevent string injuries), hand/finger (drawing the string), and the chest, if the user is female and particularly "talented" in that regard.

-The standard Bow & Arrow is likely the one for forest fighters and common peasants. It ain't pretty, but it gets the job done, especially in mass numbers. It's also a ridiculously common comic book weapon, ever since Green Arrow popularized it back in the day. Now almost every comic book universe or Avengers/JLA rip-off features at least ONE bowman alongside all the other heroes, typically a fancy version with Comic Book Gadgets attached to the weapons (A Boomerang Arrow that acts like a Boomerang despite having an arrow attached to it, and a Boxing Glove arrow that flies true even though it has a BOXING GLOVE ON IT), and the ability to throw multiple arrows at once (an impossibility with a real bow- the string release won't work right if you try that). As the first-ever long-range weapon (javelins don't count), they're pretty famous.

Longbows & recurves and all that are basically all the same kind of Bow stat-wise, though some might have weaker Damage. I was thinking of a longer Range for Longbows, but really even they'll lose some accuracy at distances greater than a hundred feet. Apparently medieval Archers didn't like to loose more than "six per minute", as more than that would prove exhausting (and probably wasteful).

[Jabroniville]

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.

Comment on everythinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

[Jabroniville]

CROSSBOW (8 ep)
Place/Time of Origin: Late Middle Ages Europe
Type of Damage: Piercing
Typical Make: Complex, wooden/metal armature with string system to pull back shafts of wood/metal.
Manner of Use: Bow held with one hand, string pulled back with the other, while holding the end of the arrow.
Variants on Design: Various sizes and shapes available, with different shaft types. 
Famous Wielders: Arsenal (Roy Harper)

Stats: Blast 4 (Extras: Penetrating 4) (Flaws: Requires a Full Round Action to Use- No Moving & Stuff) -- (8 Equipment Points)

Positives & Negatives:
+ Can penetrate most types of Armor. This is often a Complication of the Armors themselves.
+ Removing an arrow from a wound is a timely and difficult venture.

- Complex. Multiple parts in the contraption make breakages or blockages more common.
- Minor complications like running out of ammo (almost never happens in the comics, but most Archers DO have a big sling of arrows on their backs that can be targetted), having broken strings, etc. Easily damaged with Smash attempts.

-Crossbows pretty much made mounted knights obsolete in olden times. Their penetrative power essentially punched right through the Armor, where regular arrows usually failed, meaning that warfare as we know it was changed forever. The fact that the weapons were nigh-impossible to use in standard combat or at close range (you had to wind the mechanism) was immaterial- it killed armored guys, and that was that. Also becoming rapidly-obsolete was the Bow & Arrow, which required a lifetime of training, physical strength, and tremendous innate skill. Suddenly mere conscript soldiers could do a "point and shoot" with these things, so that even their slower shooting didn't matter.

-Combined into one Flaw are all the issues with using a Crossbow- the winding, the putting a new quarrel/bolt in, etc. You kind of have to spend a whole round reloading it. Stat-wise, it actually looks a tad worse than the Bow & Arrow, because there's no real in-game effect for the skill required to use a Bow & Arrow properly. Of course, comics ignores most of that, and leaves them both as the same kind of weapon. Guys can even use both to Multiattack!

[Spectrum]

Kung fu was my exercise of choice back in highschool. A pretty good exercise for a fluffy kid without many social skills. The sifu really helped me develop into a decent-ish human being. Went off to college and things dropped by the wayside.

Decades later, start back with a direct descendant school. Lots of fun going back and working through the muscle memories with small stylistic differences here and there.

Like.. learning the nunchucks early on. My goodness, I hated that weapon. It seemed like no matter how much I tried to add padding, I'd find a way around it. Sparring helmet, steel cup, full sleeves.. the damn thing kept hitting me. Didn't help that rolls were involved (good way to get dizzy), or passes between the legs. Thinking more on it, wonder if I can add some of my kidney issues to smacking myself with them.. repeatedly.. at speed and force. Frrrrk.

On top of that, let my brain get in the way. Yes, I realize that my personal best chance is to minimize any chance of getting into a fight. Still.. I can find a long stick, a shorter stick and might be able to thwack someone with them enough to convince them that I'm not worth it. My chances of finding two smaller sticks connected by a chain are.. yeah, don't think so. In any case, I realize that I'm in for a pummelling and some nice hefty medical bills.

I did think that it was interesting on why different styles hold the nunchucks differently. If I'm remembering correctly, the higher you hold the bar, the bigger the tradeoff between control and force. Can get a nice thump in if you hold it from the back, if you manage to hit... and vice versa.

While all students had to go through the same series of (seven?) weapons- once you hit the black belts, a few more interesting weapons came in. Lots of people went with various spears. One or two went with canes or umbrellas. One young guy decided to go with the meteor hammer. Fun watching him alternate between yoyo tricks (Polynesian weapon?) to striking out at it with nasty speed and accuracy.

Huh, might need to look around again and see if there are any kata oriented schools that can fit into my work schedule.

[Jabroniville]

FIREARMS:

-Guns are ubiquitous in all forms of fiction, and pretty much changed all warfare once they were reliable. The ability to basically negate all Armor, and let untrained people do Bow & Arrow-level damage easily, wiped out SO MUCH of the pre-existing military theory that tactics changed instantly. armored knights, spears, pikes, armor-piercing weapons, the bow & arrow, and even the crossbow, all eventually went away, and once they started attaching blades to the ends of rifles, there was almost nothing else left from "old-fashioned" weaponry.

Guns in comics (and most fiction in general) are a bit tricky- they either exaggerate the threat of guns significantly (the Instant Death Bullet, where Mooks fall down like flies to a single shot and die the second they’re hit), or turn them into minor threats that don't kill unless they hit a sweet spot (ie. taking a bullet through the shoulder and being fine, instead of slowly bleeding to death). Mook Accuracy is pretty legendarily-bad as well, meaning that most super-heroes are NEVER, EVER shot (unless they're invulnerable to bullets, at which point every Mook turns into Bullseye and aims right for the chest). To reflect this, I actually prefer a system that just gives Mooks TERRIBLE accuracy- I mean, hitting someone who's running around is pretty damn difficult ANYWAYS, so generally having low Ranged Attack is justifiable.

A lot of stuff about guns is mixed up in the media, though it has little effect on M&M games because the rules are MEANT to reflect the media. For example: there is no such thing as "shooting to wound" for pretty much anyone with a gun. If you're shooting them, you are committed to killing them- no exceptions. That is the FIRST RULE they learn in police training. All shots are supposed to be directed as the centre of mass- aiming at individual body parts is almost guaranteed failure (shooting a moving target is MUCH harder than you would think), could hit someone behind the target, and is too risky considering someone you're shooting at probably has a gun, or can get close enough to stab you. Only Snipers (who generally aren't under live fire and can take their time on an unsuspecting target) generally avert this. It can be done in the comics because guys all have super-aiming, but not in real life (you can not, for example, shoot a gun out of someone's hand in a real firefight). Also, most Pistols have terrible accuracy at longer ranges- you need a Rifle to hit a target from further away.

So M&M had a bit of a decision to make regarding Guns, and they ended up going with Blast 3-6 for most varieties. And I think this kind of fits. I mean, a bullet isn't more dangerous than most arrows- the gun only replaced the bow because you can train someone to shoot straight in 1/100th the time it takes to make a quality archer. Modern rounds are a bit more dangerous, so what I've done is basically set up a generic Gun design you can add stuff to at-will if you need it.

Firearm Stats:
Blast 4-6 (Pistols do less, Rifles do more) (8-12 Equipment Points)

-These little bonuses reflect the various things you can add to a gun- 

Bonuses:
"Rifle Range" Extended Range 1-2 (1-2 Points)
- Rifles add range to the shots.

“Automatic Setting” Multiattack Extra (Inaccurate -1) (3-5 Equipment Points)
Automatics fire more quickly, though note: in real life this is meant as covering fire or “blind fire”- it sends your accuracy COMPLETELY to Hell, and should only be done in short, controlled bursts. You also run out of ammo pretty much instantly while doing it. M&M players can probably get away with firing off like this whenever, though, since people rarely run out of ammo in fiction.

“Sniper Rifle” Improved Critical, Extended Range 3-5 (Flaws: Distracting) (Plus 4-6 Minus 4-6 Equipment Points)
-Snipes do a lot of damage at range, though generally have to be sitting there silently, and not be in the middle of a fight while doing it. The extra damage and range thus comes with the price of making the shot Distracting. Also note that real-life Snipers are basically master mathematicians, calculating stuff out and making little charts to adjust for wind, distance, and THE CURVATURE OF THE EARTH for some of the more extreme shots. Modern snipers have access to a ton of Equipment for this, whereas in the old days, it was more experience and guesswork. Snipers are also often chosen as much for their minds than their accuracy- it’s easier to teach a guy to aim than it is to teach a good shooter to directly shoot dozens and dozens of people in the face. It can take a toll to deliberately kill dozens of people, compared to other soldiers, who often don't see their victims or know somebody died.

"Silencer- Fictional Version" Subtle (1 Point)
"Silencer- Real World Version" Features 1: Alters Where is Sounds Like the Shot Came From (1 Point)
-Silencers in fiction generaly make the bullet a little tiny “pew” that is hard to discover. In real life, silencers are meant to dull the sound of the bullet and make it harder to tell where the shot came from. I mean, bullets travel fast enough that they’re loud no matter what you did.

“Shotgun” Damage 4 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Cone +1/2) (6 Equipment Points)
-This is basically an Alternate Effect to the main gun’s damage- Shotguns can fire out a spray of “buckshot” and damage a small patch of area. Most comics just use it as a super-big awesome gun.

Old-Timey Guns:
-Guns from older time periods (around the invention of guns to World War I) were quite similar, but typically only at lower Blast values. They were also a lot more gribbly and harder to work, and malfunctioned a lot more. They held only a handful of shots, some had to be manually reloaded EVERY TIME, and more.

[Batgirl III]

[Y]ou can not, for example, shoot a gun out of someone's hand in a real firefight[.]

Well, not on purpose anyway.

[Jabroniville]

TASERS:
Affliction 4-6 (Strength/Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Feats: Reach 2) -- (10-14 Equipment Points)
-Tasers are a (generally) non-lethal way of dealing with a threat, and often used on a knife-wielding assailant if you have the option. Several officers actually reject the weapons these days, because ironically you will get more public scrutiny and pressure on the seeming over-use of tasers than you will if you just shot a guy who had a knife. My cop friend has personally used a taser on someone actively trying to commit suicide/slash up his son (who was trying to take his dad's knife away), and pointed out that the only other alternative would have been to just shoot the guy. So they DO save lives, though people who are out of shape/in a state of excited delerium (more common than you'd think- they exhibit borderline superhuman strength and energy, and then suddenly drop like a rock when the reserve runs out) could react badly and die from them.

My Taser uses Strength OR Fortitude as a resistance, rather than Fortitude, namely because said cop friend and I once got into a debate over whether or not Zombies can be tasered . I was about to say "but Zombies don't have a Fortitude Save" until I realized that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THAT in real life, and he pointed out that if a Zombie can move, then it has muscles, and therefore can be Tasered. Though if its running on some kind of animating force rather than muscles, it could still be un-Taserable. But essentially, in my world Zombies can be Tasered . Tasers also use a tiny hook/needle thingie to relate the charge, and so anything with even rudimentary protection or thick skin will be immune.

[Batgirl III]

Tasers are not “non-lethal” and any law enforcement officer, military serviceman, or armed security personnel who should be so unfortunate as to call them such within earshot of me will regret it. They are less-lethal weapons.

A conductive energy device (Taser is a brand-name) is designed to be less likely to kill a living target than conventional weapons such as firearms, explosives, or bayonets/knives. But make no mistake they can kill. Deaths caused by electroshock weapons are rare, but they do happen. Anyone training people in the use of these weapons who does not stress that is doing a serious disservice to the people they are training.

(Law enforcement agencies and militaries are moving away from the former common practice of having trainees “take a ride” before being authorized to carry a CED. I can see the merits and flaws of both sides. However, as someone who has gotten to “ride the lightning” twice in my career, I reserve the right to make fun of anyone else in the bar who hasn’t. Semper paratus.)

However, in the world of comic books, tasers are completely non-lethal in the hands of a superhero or heroic cop. They also always work in one “hit” and the target never cracks their skull when they hit the pavement. That’s why comics are escapism.

[Ares]

This non-lethal weapons chat reminds me of Toni Ho from USAvengers. It seemed like every other word balloon from her was talking about how her weapons are all non-lethal, how she's opposed to guns, etc. And then for most of the run she's wearing the Iron Patriot armor.

Now, I actually liked the character, she was a way to introduce a new character that didn't feel forced or preachy, and her attitude towards Tony Stark was never really portrayed as justified. It was clear she had issues she needed to deal with.

But her girlfriend would always get on her case about the weapons she designed, and at one point was enraged about Toni using energy blasts on a human being. Toni's response was "They're concussive force blasts, like Cyclops' eye beams! They're non-lethal!"

And I just facepalmed so hard. Concussive force blasts are KINETIC WEAPONS. They're the ray gun version of the oldest methods humans have been using to kill each other.

The lethality of weapons in superhero comics is completely relative given the durability some people have. You can set a force blast to "stun", but a blast that can punch a hole in a tank is still going to be non-lethal to the Wrecking Crew. She's on a team with a guy who literally punched a flying island out of existence. With ONE PUNCH.

Now, her being a Force Field expert was pretty cool and a better fit for her. They honestly should have given her an updated version of the Force Armor and let her play around with it.

[Jabroniville]

Keep in mind that in comics, anything that isn't a sharp blade or an actual bullet counts as "non-lethal", and that even Lightning or fire are shrugged off as if they were punches .

[Jabroniville]

LASERS:
-Lasers are basically treated like Guns, but generally even MORE non-fatal. Some can have a “Stun” setting (Ranged Affliction- Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) as well. Oftentimes, their Multiattack setting isn’t Inaccurate. They make a lot of noise, light and kickback despite being made of weightless energy as well- some fictional settings make note of this, stating that soldiers claimed the weapons “don’t feel right” without said attributes, and they were artificially-added.

[catsi563]

yeah comics is the world where Hawkgirl of the JLA/U can swing a mace around with enough force to knock superman on his rear end and smash giant vehicles due to her being low end superhuman in strength but she decks a mook and hes just out instead of a road smear.

though I grant they subverted that with an old yeller moment in the episode Wake the Dead

[Batgirl III]

The CW’s Arrow is especially annoying with their ‘Ollie doesn’t kill people anymore and doesn’t approve of vigilantes who do.’

Dude, even ignoring the fact that you were literally a serial killer for most of the first season, you’re still shooting people with a #125+ draw weight bow, at point blank, using broadheads. Even if your superhero-level marksmanship lets you avoid any vital organs and the bad guy avoids bleeding out and receives expert medical attention... You’re still looking at potentially major nerve damage.

Also, Spartan is standing right next to you with a Glock 17 in hand and Wild Dog is spraying wildly with his dual full-auto Beretta 93F... So, y’know, maybe send Huntress an apology note.

[Jabroniville]

Reminds me of that JLU scene where the team is trying to keep Huntress from executing Tobias Whale- they bludgeon him, hit him with explosives, and launch a sonic attack strong enough to level buildings... to prevent her from shooting him with a tiny crossbow bolt.

And then, when she decides to spare him... she fires her crossbow into the air and drops a goddamn GIANT STACK OF CRATES onto him! All of this is less fatal than her bow.

[Jabroniville]

SUPER-SIZED WEAPONS:
-The firearms you'd see attached to vehicles and tanks are a whole different ball game, and can be upgraded to basically be at nearly any level. Many do Penetrating damage, while others are Multiattacked and have Area Effects tacked on. Something like a Tank could have separate guns that fire separately from the main ones, and a Battleship will have dozens of guns firing independently, at different targets if need be.

-In comics, artillery tends to be just inaccurate enough to miss fragile characters, and just weak enough to bounce off of durable ones- no other combination of traits is known.