I do love my 1911A1, but I find my USP .45 to be the more beauteous piece.

Yeah, having junk for iron tends to make your smiths have to really master making the best of things. Also noteworthy: the Celts used essentially the same technique Japanese master smiths used to make the finest katanas a thousand years before the Japanese figured out how to do it. Katanas just aren't that special, really.

Then I give a slight apology, as I did not intend to offend, but rather to amuse. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

~Umi

The difference, I think, is that the Celts were subjugated, but the Japanese never were. They retained their swords and their self-rule well into the modern era, and I think that is a big part of their mystique.

~Umi

I want to like the USP but I have kinda short, fat fingers and the grip is just too fat to be comfortable for me. That and for the most part I don't care for the trigger. A very, very, nice looking gun though. Can't say how many times I've held them and wished they fit better so I could justify the price.

Sadly if I'm going European I'm going Sig Sauer for the most part (well, my Hi-Power MKIII is made in Belgium, but who's counting).

Or the techniques date back even further, to another age if you will, and was rediscovered or introduced by certain parties. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

My favorite sword, the wakizashi my granddad brought back from the war (he was a Sea Bee, and died before I was born).

I never even touch the thing, but man, they are pretty to look at for sure.

There's a thread for that too ...

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...bear+conspiracy

Depends on what you mean by "subjugate." Sure, on paper, they haven't been conquered and the Imperial line runs unbroken for two and a half thousand years, give or take... but in practice, they've been forced to bend to the will of Western powers more than once.

Personally, I think the mystique has a lot more to do with their ports being closed to the west for a few hundred years until Commodore Perry decided he wasn't going to put up with that crap anymore and forced them open combined with their sudden leap from the 16th to the 20th century in a few decades than with their swords. Sure, they were spectacularly late to the game in sword tech, so they were still hauling them around decades after pretty much everyone else had relegated them entirely to ceremonial duties... ok, I guess that's actually two sides of the same coin. Modernizing that fast left a lot of throwback cultural stuff lingering and people find that mixture fascinating, I guess.

Katana (n) - a useless curio with fantastic PR.

As far as beautiful swords go, a quality jian can be pretty awesome.

At some point i'm going to have to break out my copy of Weapon or the Atlas of warfare and pick some more pretty weapons for people to get gooey over.

I'm still a fan of the ZF-1.

~Umi

The next Ares weapon should feature a replay button.

Don't forget the "... all new Ice Cube System." Would love to see this again in Shadowrun. Hopefully in a guns splat book.

So when you first get it do you have to make a Willpower(3) test not to "press the red button"?

Aren't those like the evil cousins of the care bears?

Your slight apology is well received. Hug?

<looks around> I haven't been on-topic ever in this thread. I'll just show myself out...

Because... Katana.

What do you think the Excaliber was supposed to be? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

~Umi

I can't argue with that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jjN-H62U64

(Sorry for the remix, but the original's down.)

Its called smartlink, chummer.

Also even before Comadore Perry decided to use cannons to open up Japan's ports, they had on and off been a pawn in a power strugle between Spain and Portagle. I can't remember wich the Pope said owned Japan. But it was one of those countries.

Hardly.

A smartlink is just a way of projecting your firing arc into your field of vision. The Replay Feature is like some bizarre guided micro gyrojet system, or something. The closest thing in the Sixth World would be the Deathdealer Ammunition from Gun Haven 2.

Oddly enough, the thing I like most about Deathdealer ammunition was that it specified that it only worked in certain types of firearms. I wish there was granularity like that in certain rules.

~Umi

Oh you mean on the bullet it's self? Yeah smartlink does't do that, but it does have a camera on the gun.

Bunch of bros running around poking their bellies out at folks? Dear Lord, please no!

As much as I think the Katana is overrated I think people are taking it to far by acing like its just a sword. Its a incredibly well crafted sword. Could and were swords of ts quality made in Europe and other parts of the world? Sure, but 99% of the swords made weren't. Most swords are not made to that standard. Swords made by talented smiths for important people probably hit that level of craftsmanship, but the vast majority of swords not even close.