[MUD-Dev] Source data on Crossbow

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Sat, 19 Jul 1997 16:14:29 PST8PDT, Matt Chatterley
<root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> wrote:

>> >>   A band of Orcs runs at you screaming and waving their swords!
>> >>   Bubba throws a small stone at them.
>> >>   The stone turns into a small galleon with all sails set!
>> >>   Crash!  The galleon smashes into the ground!
>> >>   The Orcs are gone.
>> 
>> >LOL! I love that one. Makes my tales of paultry screaming stones,
>> >lightning arrows and explosive blow-darts pale in comparison. :)
>> 
>> It made for rather cluttered battlefield.  Several ships, boats,
>> castles, houses, horses, casks, etc scattered about willy-nilly.
>
>Heh, Heh. This could spark an interesting thread in it's own right..
>amusing, absurd, and devious 'magical' items used as weapons.

I created an AD&D spell once in tabletop gaming which was rather similar
to the 7th level spell "Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion" but created
a physical object rather than an extradimensional space. Ran it by the
DM, no problem. Well... you know, the range of the spell was rather
long, and he hadn't quite thought about that, so we ran an amusing
little trade in creating castles fifteen feet above ground and letting
them fall on enemies. The DM outlawed it after a while, of course, but
we all found it so funny that he let it stand for almost six months. Our
battles tended to leave what looked like ruined cities in their wake...
which was pretty cool, actually, because it changed the rules of battle
as well. What started as an open playing field quickly turned into
guerilla warfare and assassination tactics.

The "Item" spell was also really hilarious in play. It could be cast on
living creatures... like trolls, ogres, basilisks, etc. Wonderful
demoralising tools. I heard at a convention that someone once loaded a
catapult with reduced elephants, fired, and cancelled the spell at the
apex of flight. Those poor elephants. That poor invading army.

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 You see me now, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I've been 
 living on the edge so long, where the winds of limbo roar. And 
 I'm young enough to get involved, too old to see, all the scars 
 are on the inside; I'm not sure that there's anything left of me
               -- Blue Oyster Cult, "Veteran of the Psychic Wars"
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