What cool non-standard weapons would you like to see in your fantasy games? When I was a kid my uncle had a bunch of traditional filipino weapons mounted on his wall. As a kid they looked really cool to me - very fantasy... brutal fantasy. I actually didn't believe they were real.

So I saw this Skallagrim video (where he reviews lots of weapons among other things) - and his video on the Filipino Igorot headhunting axe (also called kalinga) caught my attention. And it got me examining a lot of traditional filipino weapons... some are directly evolved from Spanish weaponry. Some of these were on my uncle's wall. Others are regional.

Depending on your game-system of choice, they probably just fall into a broad category of weaponry. But they look awesome nonetheless.

Igorot Headhunting Axe <-video in the link on the weapon
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3396[/ATTACH]

Some other interesting weapons -

Ginuting
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3397[/ATTACH]
Perfect for close quarter attacks, the Ginuntings are shaped like a beak as the tip of these swords are curved downward, similar to Kukris of the Gurkhas.  Ginuntings are the official swords of the Philippine Marines. The Ginunting is easier to use as a utility tool, as jungle bolos, for clearing brush, slaughter tools for hunting, chopping small pieces of wood for fire and a perfect weapon to carry. It is common to see a Ginunting along with M16s and the other firearms used for war in the jungles of the Philippines.

Panabas
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3398[/ATTACH]
The Panabas is a chopping weapon favored by the Moro tribes of Mindanao, which soon gained its place as a weapon of war similar to the western battle axe. This single-edged sword, which takes on the appearance looking like a long handled Kukri, can deliver a dreadfully deep meat cleaver like cut. Due to its clean cutting capabilities it was also sometimes used as an execution weapon.  It is said that the warriors wielding the Panabas would follow the main group of warriors up front and would immediately without discussion or attention to formalities, go in mopping up any survivors of the first wave of attack.

Sansibar
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3399[/ATTACH]
The name Sansibar was first called "pang sibak", which "pang" means "for" and "sibak" means "chop" in Filipino term. So pang sibak means "for chopping," later the term evolved into "pang sibar" which means the same in Tagalog. Other explanations are "san sibak," meaning "one" (san or isan or isang) and "chop" (sibak) so to put them two words together "san-sibak" means "one chop".

Dahon Palay
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3400[/ATTACH]
Favored sword by those who lived near the seas in the province of Batangas, all the way to the island of Mindoro. The Dahong Palay is a dreaded poisonous snake that resembles the 'leaf of a rice plant. The deadly sword also named after it's shape as the leaf of a rice stalk, is a tool used by farmers who works in the rice fields.

Who's got some cool obscure weapons out there?

I love exotic looking weapons...even if they all do D6.
https://www.lolwot.com/10-extremely-unusual-weapons-from-ancient-history/

I give you...the Whip Sword!!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3401[/ATTACH]

Although they may not be terribly unusual, one weapon combination I'd love to see in more of my games is net + trident.

In a similar vein, I very rarely see people use harpoons.

The khopesh doesn't seem to get much love either unless I'm running an Africa/Egypt-inspired campaign.

Lantern shields.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3402[/ATTACH]

Dress uniform weapons. Relic weapons.

Quote from: tenbones;1087986What cool non-standard weapons would you like to see in your fantasy games? When I was a kid my uncle had a bunch of traditional filipino weapons mounted on his wall. As a kid they looked really cool to me - very fantasy... brutal fantasy. I actually didn't believe they were real.

So I saw this Skallagrim video (where he reviews lots of weapons among other things) - and his video on the Filipino Igorot headhunting axe (also called kalinga) caught my attention. And it got me examining a lot of traditional filipino weapons... some are directly evolved from Spanish weaponry. Some of these were on my uncle's wall. Others are regional.

Depending on your game-system of choice, they probably just fall into a broad category of weaponry. But they look awesome nonetheless.

Igorot Headhunting Axe <-video in the link on the weapon
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3396[/ATTACH]

Some other interesting weapons -

Ginuting
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3397[/ATTACH]
Perfect for close quarter attacks, the Ginuntings are shaped like a beak as the tip of these swords are curved downward, similar to Kukris of the Gurkhas.  Ginuntings are the official swords of the Philippine Marines. The Ginunting is easier to use as a utility tool, as jungle bolos, for clearing brush, slaughter tools for hunting, chopping small pieces of wood for fire and a perfect weapon to carry. It is common to see a Ginunting along with M16s and the other firearms used for war in the jungles of the Philippines.

Panabas
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3398[/ATTACH]
The Panabas is a chopping weapon favored by the Moro tribes of Mindanao, which soon gained its place as a weapon of war similar to the western battle axe. This single-edged sword, which takes on the appearance looking like a long handled Kukri, can deliver a dreadfully deep meat cleaver like cut. Due to its clean cutting capabilities it was also sometimes used as an execution weapon.  It is said that the warriors wielding the Panabas would follow the main group of warriors up front and would immediately without discussion or attention to formalities, go in mopping up any survivors of the first wave of attack.

Sansibar
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3399[/ATTACH]
The name Sansibar was first called "pang sibak", which "pang" means "for" and "sibak" means "chop" in Filipino term. So pang sibak means "for chopping," later the term evolved into "pang sibar" which means the same in Tagalog. Other explanations are "san sibak," meaning "one" (san or isan or isang) and "chop" (sibak) so to put them two words together "san-sibak" means "one chop".

Dahon Palay
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3400[/ATTACH]
Favored sword by those who lived near the seas in the province of Batangas, all the way to the island of Mindoro. The Dahong Palay is a dreaded poisonous snake that resembles the 'leaf of a rice plant. The deadly sword also named after it's shape as the leaf of a rice stalk, is a tool used by farmers who works in the rice fields.

Who's got some cool obscure weapons out there?

Greetings!

Fucking Banana! Tenbones, these weapons are awesome, my friend! I love them all.

I suppose there is a gamist desire to make everything simplified. There is obviously some merit to this approach in the game, as having dozens of weapons with merely tiny differences or even no discernible difference in performance seems to be embracing minutia with no significant payoff.

However, it is also interesting to note that historically, such different weapons developed for different reasons, and it is also true that over time, especially within advanced kingdoms with highly developed metallurgy traditions, they did in fact discern a variety of differences between a large number of weapons, detailing and embracing a subtle suite of both advantages and disadvantages for various weapons, due to climate, supply and expense of materials and craftsmanship, as well as the types of enemies and opponents such forces faced off against, and various tactical doctrines and traditions of training.

I personally embrace a somewhat two-pronged approach; one that holds onto a robust variety in weapon performance, while also having numerous weapon traditions within the same type of weapon, that while no large game-difference is apparent, such differences in style and craftsmanship prevail in different cultural regions, which generally reflects real-world history and weapons traditions. Many weapons may all have the basic performance equivalent in common, though they certainly look very different, and are distinctive!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

This reminds me, I HAVE had players take and use Macuahuitl (as primary weapons, even!). That was a pretty interesting campaign.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3404[/ATTACH]

Meteor Hammer: A personal favourite.

Sharpened wooden blades: These pop up in several cultures and can be quite deadly.

Chakram: Either the smaller ones which function like shuriken do, or the larger ones which can be really dangerous in the right hands.

African throwing blades: A player from Africa showed me one of these at a convention. Something like a cross between a large shuriken and a throwing axe.

For me, I want weapons to reflect the setting. I'm less interested in them being mechanically detailed because that's usually just weapon dice and now we're back to picking the biggest die weapon you can wield one handed.

When I was in the navy museum in Auckland in NZ, I saw a hand-held whaling gun. Fantastic "weird" weapon for Cthulhu. Might even slightly injure something from beyond sanity if you want to be eaten by a slightly annoyed thing from beyond sanity rather than a normal, well-adjusted thing from beyond sanity!

With GURPS, melee weapons all fall in broad categories defined by generic terms. For a weapon to be truly different, it would need to have some special game mechanics. These might easily be secondary, and amount to a specialization with an advantage - but also some drawback.

The really uncommon things that come to my mind were conceived by the players on the occasion of an urban campaign. The city's authorities allowed staves, sticks, and knives, but you'd need to be high Status to be allowed to carry a true sword. So the players came up with concealed and/or disguised shortswords, swordsticks (hiding a thin long blade), staves that could be turned into short-tipped spears, and whatnot. Given that military-grade bows and all crossbows were reserved, too, one of the characters became a true menace with throwing knives.

Quote from: Antiquation!;1088008Although they may not be terribly unusual, one weapon combination I'd love to see in more of my games is net + trident.

In a similar vein, I very rarely see people use harpoons.

The khopesh doesn't seem to get much love either unless I'm running an Africa/Egypt-inspired campaign.

I'm ALWAYS trying to use Trident + net in my games!

Quote from: Omega;1088114Meteor Hammer: A personal favourite.

Sharpened wooden blades: These pop up in several cultures and can be quite deadly.

Chakram: Either the smaller ones which function like shuriken do, or the larger ones which can be really dangerous in the right hands.

African throwing blades: A player from Africa showed me one of these at a convention. Something like a cross between a large shuriken and a throwing axe.

I've always wanted to use one of those African throwing blades - the ones that look like flattened antlers right? They looks awesome!

Edit: Here you go [ATTACH=CONFIG]3406[/ATTACH]
Amazing!

The Indian Pata
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3407[/ATTACH]
The patta or pata was an Indian sword type which did not align the grip with the blade. It's got a straight blade, unlike most other "Eastern" blade weapon types.

The weapon is interesting both mechanically and regarding training:

Mechanically it does not allow to use wrist movements, which should reduce its speed and thus power of impact in slashing movements. On the other hand, it allows for a much stronger parry, and it transfers the (not very great) kinetic energy of the moving forearm during a slashing attack.

The negligible role of the wrist in the use of this weapon allows someone with an untrained (weak) or simply wounded or stiff wrist to use this weapon much easier and likely more effectively than a more typical blade weapon. A quickly trainer soldier would typically have been equipped with a shorter and cheaper weapon such as a falchion or cutlass, though.

Quote from: tenbones;1088180I've always wanted to use one of those African throwing blades - the ones that look like flattened antlers right? They looks awesome!

Edit: Here you go [ATTACH=CONFIG]3406[/ATTACH]
Amazing!

That's cool as shit! Can't believe I haven't seen one of these before!