Defensive weapons, It won't cause any damage, but... Options

[hyzmarca]

SR melee rules are designed for confrontationsbetween people with deadly weapons and a fighter wihout his weapon of choice is pretty much fraged. But, what about improvised weapons that wouldn't normally cause damage?

Brian, ubber-initiate whip adept, is caught lounging by Razors, street punk. Instead of defaulting to his 3 strength, Brian rips the belt off his bathrobe and uses it and his 28 whip dice to fend off Razors' handblades fangs.

How would the experienced GMs out there rule this? Would the laughibly soft terri-cloth belt do no damage, or would it be givem a low damage code like (str-4)L stun?

For that matter, would a str-based attack with subzero power even cause damage?

[toturi]

There can't be a sub-zero power. No matter how low the power that the opponent resists is 2. So it may cause damage, as long as the damage is not staged down.

[Mercer]

Which means a Phys Ad (or anyone really) with 28 dice on his bathrobe belt attack should be able to stage it high enough that your average combatant is going to be taking wounds no matter how well he rolls. It strains credibility a little bit to have a guy running down the steet loping off peoples' heads with shoelaces. I'd be tempted, given the example provided to treat the bathrobe belt as a non-damaging weapon and let the adept gain the benefit for using it defensively but be unable to cause damage with it.

Or, my second idea which I just thought of and like better would be to assign the improvised weapon a +1 or a +2 modifier based on if its more improvisation than weaponry, and let the character use it normally. A cotton belt (I'm assuming damp, since that would hurt more) might be worth (Str-2)L Stun and a blanket +2 modifier. If the character was able to take some time to improve the weapon (say, lock himself in his bathroom long enough to wrap a bar of soap in one end of the belt, or maybe a cue ball) then the modifiers and damage would improve. (You say you don't keep pool balls in your bathroom? What kind of a runner are you?)

[Sandoval Smith]

I wouldn't say he was lopping heads off with those shoelaces, I'd say he was getting people by the throat, and whip snap breaking their necks. That is, if you allowed it to do damage. If you wanted it to have a damage code, I'd imagine the result would look like some sort of hard core Jackie-chan fight. Razors tries to slash Brian up, and Brian, throwing 28 dice of mad skill, wraps the belt around Razors' wrist and makes him stab himself in the face.

I'd say that they wouldn't be able to do any damage with a weapon life that, but would be able to use all their dice for fighting defensively (making it even more like a Jackie-chan sequence than the previous example with face stabbing).

[Tarantula]

Well, honestly, the majority of the damage from a whip comes from either a heavy weight being swung (think chains), or from a small end moving extremely fast (bullwhip). I'd say the belt would work similar to a bullwhip, but not as well, maybe require he call shots to get a base damage of L? (To represent whipping things like eyes, and other vulnerable places).

[KarmaInferno]

There is this little technique known as Steel Cloth.

Granted, it probably wasn't intended to be performed with a terrycloth bathrobe belt, but still...


-karma

[Kagetenshi]

I might take a cue from SR1 and have the bathrobe belt take four successes to stage up (but stick with two to stage down). Possibly even start it at STR-2(null) damage and require four net successes to hit L stun.

~J

[mfb]

anybody who things a length of cloth can't do damage hasn't been in a towel fight.

seriously, though. i could see the Whipmaster using a terrycloth bathrobe belt to do things like toss Kutmasta Root into walls, break/hyperextend limbs and fingers by getting ahold of 'em with the makeshift whip and yanking, etcetera. giving the belt a damage code of (Str-4)L, or even (Str-6)L, seems equitable to me.

[Kremlin KOA]

Give me a bathrobe belt, give you a carving knife and I'll still probably come out on top... why Because a length of rope (which is what this thing effectively is) is damn effective as a weapon

[Fortune]

[Kagetenshi]

But very similarly to one of the ways you use a manriki-gusari, which uses the Whips skill.

~J

[Mercer]

I think the balance to be struck is between not totally screwing the character over while at the same time not letting anything he picks up (including shoelaces) function perfectly so that he is never at a disadvantage.

[Wounded Ronin]

Jackie Chan indeed.