[MUD-Dev] Source data on Crossbow

[Marian Griffith]

On Sat 19 Jul, Matt Chatterley wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

|    at 12:37 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:
| >On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

| >Weapons which
| >immobilise the opponent temporarily are often overlooked in mud
| >combat (perhaps because it doesnt fit the romantic
| >one-on-one-with-swords-clashing notion?)

> It's definitely worth throwing the more romantic notions out the window
> and considering things from another perspective - for instance, in group
> fights with unmounted troops against mounted knights, surrounding him, and
> dismounting him however you can, to bash him to death on the ground.

Of course the very last thing  an ordinary soldier would want to do is
-kill- that knight.  Soldiers were poor  and knights typically owned a
significant piece of real estate,  including the people living on that
Knights were worth a lot in ransom, enough to ensure a soldier that he
never had to fight for a living again. The very unromantic truth about
medieval combat is that not many people got killed in it, and that not
many people actually took part in it.

> The idea of a cloak as an entanglement weapon is certainly valid, and
> quite a nice 'streetfighting' trick so to term it, amongst other things a
> safer way to disarm an opponent with a sharp weapon such as a knife, or at
> least to distract him from his weapon for the time it takes you to take
> action.

The problem with muds is  that it is far too powerfull to do this, or it
is impractical. In a way the bash command on the typical mud does exact-
ly this. Except that it hardly affects the ordinary fight, it only makes
it impossible for spellcasters  to do anything.  Fighters do not rely on
commands so they are not much affected by being unable to have a command
executed for one or two rounds. Were bash to affect ordinary combat also
then it would be too powerfull a command by far.

> Definitely, and it falls nicely into this category of 'slightly mucky
> tricks and tactics'. Other things often overlooked.. hmm.. the use of the
> pommel on a large (two-handed?) sword? Nothing really comes to mind right
> now.

Throwing sand. Shiny objects on your armour to blind the opponent.
Stepping down hard on a foot  with your iron plated boots probably
counts as devious trick too.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey