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Help create cultural weapon


Christougher

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On 2/19/2019 at 7:30 PM, Christougher said:

Flora tends to be very limited, Fauna is mostly lizard like, and most are some degree of toxic or poisonous.

 

On 2/19/2019 at 8:33 PM, Christopher said:

I would have to look at teh Tier Zoo to see how Reptiles defend themself/how the hunters overcome the defenses.

According to this Episode of Tier Zoo, Reptiles tend to have - due to a lack of a better term - gimicky builds. They all have 1-3 wierd gimicks, with Venoms just being a more often thought about (only exception being the monitor Lizard):

 

While those Gimicks work on a evolutionary level, they will not hold up against a tool and magic wielding intelligent species. But it could inform you about clothing. The "shoot blood out of your eyes" thing might get culture to like facemasks that block that.

 

Also there have been some pretty broken Reptiles in the past, for environmental reasons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6yY9HKVmfA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vny05XYFpT0

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Also: What kind of fantasy is this? At one extreme, a setting could be soaked in gods, spirits and magic, like (say) the setting of White Wolf's game Exalted. Or at the other extreme it could be very naturalistic, with magic quite rare, as in Middle-Earth. Knowing more about the world will help us make suggestions you can use.

 

Dean Shomshak

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On 2/19/2019 at 10:30 AM, Christougher said:

In most fantasy, dwarves love axes and elves love bows.  I'm creating a new fantasy race and need a little help choosing an appropriate cultural weapon.

 

They prefer hot and dry climates, homeland is a large desert with volcanoes at one edge.  Cultural magic is fire-based.

Flora tends to be very limited, Fauna is mostly lizard like, and most are some degree of toxic or poisonous.  Materials are likely bone, shell/scale, obsidian and glass, plus anything refined from desert sand.

Culturally, they tend to be self serving and manipulative.  Probably small or concealable, but being able to strike the opponent from behind is good.

What is the new race?  Are they humans in a rubber mask ( i.e. Dwarves, Elves, etc.) or something else. 

 

If they were a kind of lizardman then their vicious and deadly "tail sword" with its needle sharp stabbing point a vicious slashing edge. 

 

The deadly tribal desert warriors engage with their hide sheild and assagai, dazzling the inexperienced foe with their fast and fluid probing attacks. Only to strike suddenly with their long whip like tail with its deadly tail sword.  Many an unsuspecting warrior has died with torn throat or by being disembowled from below their sight line.

 

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On 2/22/2019 at 3:46 AM, assault said:

Incidentally, while (pre-modern) Tuaregs had bows and javelins, their main military weapons were lances and swords. 

The lances we think off usually (for knights) and general Heavy Cavalry are a rather modern development. It required the Stirrup. Before it, the only cavalry we had was light.

 

And there could be huge quality differences between Roman or average Greek Cavalry and stuff like Numidian or Macedonia cavalry. Battle and war deciding differences.

 

On 2/22/2019 at 9:32 PM, Spence said:

What is the new race?  Are they humans in a rubber mask ( i.e. Dwarves, Elves, etc.) or something else.  

 

If they were a kind of lizardman then their vicious and deadly "tail sword" with its needle sharp stabbing point a vicious slashing edge. 

 

The deadly tribal desert warriors engage with their hide sheild and assagai, dazzling the inexperienced foe with their fast and fluid probing attacks. Only to strike suddenly with their long whip like tail with its deadly tail sword.  Many an unsuspecting warrior has died with torn throat or by being disembowled from below their sight line.

 

Two factors in this era of warfare are often ignored:

Stealth/Scouting (wich includes communications) and Logistcs.

 

Trible Warriors tend towards winning more on the Stealth/Scouting game.

Meanwhile roman and greek armies were comparatively not as good at those games. But their logistics was leagues above the Tribals.

 

Both of those heavily affect how warriors are clothed, both during marching and combat.

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5 hours ago, Christopher said:

 

Two factors in this era of warfare are often ignored:

Stealth/Scouting (wich includes communications) and Logistcs.

 

Trible Warriors tend towards winning more on the Stealth/Scouting game.

Meanwhile roman and greek armies were comparatively not as good at those games. But their logistics was leagues above the Tribals.

 

Both of those heavily affect how warriors are clothed, both during marching and combat.

 

OK.....

 

But we are still no where near the central question.  The primary question that needs to be answered before anything else is "what is the race"?

 

There are many types of deserts.  Instead of vast dunes or flat hard pack, maybe the desert is a shattered and broken area of ravines and sudden upthrusts that may look flat, but aren't.  A parched and dry version of the badlands. 

 

Bad enough and missle weapons would have their utility vastly reduced as a weapon of warfare.  Hunters and scouts yes, military units not so much. 

 

If the race is none human, a prehensile tail would also change the possibilities. 

 

I just went with a fast nimble lizardman with tail because it was more interesting than a meandering conversation with no discernable target. ?

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Yes, the more we know about the race, what it looks like, what it’s capabi are, the better we can develop the mechanics of what weapons are possible. If they have a prehensile tail, four arms, or flip cars like Humans flip tables, that will have far more importance, than their cultural overlay. 

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3 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Yes, the more we know about the race, what it looks like, what it’s capabi are, the better we can develop the mechanics of what weapons are possible. If they have a prehensile tail, four arms, or flip cars like Humans flip tables, that will have far more importance, than their cultural overlay. 

trying this on my phone...

 

Yep.  Now on missle weapons and staying with the idea of lizardmen with a prehensile tail.  One of Michael Moorcock's Elric books they had a enemy that used obsidian discs throw using a wooden throwing stick I think was modelled from the atl-atl. 

 

So...

The terrain is extremely rugged broken rocky desert with many ravines that prohibit traditional formation fighting.  Hunters rarely have a second shot whwn hunting prey animals so cunning and accuracy are the key traits of the successful hunter.  This carries over to warfare.  Warriors prefer stout narrow sheilds built of hide centered on a warclub two or three feet in length and a short spear/sword (think the shorter version of the assagai), with both usually carried slung on the back leaving all four limbs free to climb and run.  Their prehensile tail carries the deadly Thch-Tock, the obsidian disc thrower or the tail sword.  Body armor us usually avoided as mobility is prized over protection.  Though in a war, leather armor is known, to include a light leather sleeve for the tail. 

 

Some more primitive tribes, or tribes that stay with traditional methods or otherwise want to avoid outside influences may still use painstakingly carved warclubs edged with obsidian as an edge. 

 

The lizardman naturally blends into the desert terrain and is well practiced in using that advantage. An attack will usually consist of a sudden series of whiplike snaps followed immediately by the impact of obsidian throwing discs slashing into the surprised defenders and howling warrior's boiling out of nooks and crannies to overrun their enemies.

 

If surprised themselves, they will generally simply scatter in all directions trusting that any pursuers will not be able to scale the terrain as easily or quickly as they can. 

 

Any "columns" that dare enter their territory will also be constantly harassed by warriors flinging obsidian discs and immediately repositioning. 

 

 

 

 

 

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I deliberately avoided describing the race for two reasons.  First being the name of the race carries some connotations that aren't relevant to the discussion, and second, the race is still a work in progress itself.  I'm open to stealing from the suggested ideas, though they will remain humanoid and a PC-playable race, so the four arms and whiptailsword probably won't make it, I can save those details for an appropriate monster.

 

Thrown obsidian disks are being added to the armory.

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13 hours ago, Christougher said:

I deliberately avoided describing the race for two reasons.  First being the name of the race carries some connotations that aren't relevant to the discussion, and second, the race is still a work in progress itself.  I'm open to stealing from the suggested ideas, though they will remain humanoid and a PC-playable race, so the four arms and whiptailsword probably won't make it, I can save those details for an appropriate monster. 

Knowing that they are "Rubber Forehead aliens" does help a lot and was the one thing we really needed to know.

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