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MrNexx
2006-12-30, 10:37 PM
Ok, what qualifies as an improvised club, to your mind?

The first thing that popped into my head was our Dirt Devil Stick Vac. It's got heft, but it's also designed to hinge about 2/3 of the way along, which is going to make it incredibly difficult to use effectively.

I also remember a large number of "really cool" sticks I picked up in the woods as a kid that exploded when I hit someo... thing with them. Those might do non-lethal damage, and force you to find a new stick.

Thomas
2006-12-30, 10:40 PM
I don't see any reason for to apply the penalty to anything that works as a club; it's a free weapon, which I take to mean that you can pretty much pick up anything and use it as a club.

A tankard, chair, or bench is an improvised weapon; a crowbar or a heavy branch is a club.

Shhalahr Windrider
2006-12-30, 10:59 PM
I think that, despite the free aspect, even a standard wooden club requires some whittling down for proper grip and balance. It can be seen as free because folks with clubs probably did that whittling on their own.

urodivoi
2006-12-30, 11:15 PM
In a starwars game my trandoshan soldier used a serving droid as an improvised club... mind you he had to also make continual strength checks to wield him without further penalties as the droid was trying to escape...

That was fun. :smalltongue:



Edit: Seriously I think an iron bar is good, sticks, chairlegs and the like might work very well if they happen to be both easy to grip, relatively balanced, and have a bit of heft, but could just as easily be awkward, light, and relatively ineffective ... depends on how generous a GM wants to be.

RoboticSheeple
2006-12-30, 11:32 PM
A baseball bat.
Basically any piece of sporting equipment that is designed to be swung and strike something else (aside from a racket or paddle).
To make an effective, repeatable use, deadly weapon a club needs to be be both balanced and sturdy enough to not greatly deform on impact.
Because of this even though one could make a club from a table leg, simply breaking off a table leg does not a club make.

urodivoi
2006-12-30, 11:40 PM
A Maglight.

MrNexx
2006-12-31, 01:01 AM
A baseball bat.
Basically any piece of sporting equipment that is designed to be swung and strike something else (aside from a racket or paddle).

I don't know... I think a baseball bat pretty much defines a club.

As for improvised club, urodivoi's story reminds me of when my character, a Dark Sun elf, was used as an improvised club by the party's half-giant gladiator...

RoboticSheeple
2006-12-31, 01:08 AM
I don't know... I think a baseball bat pretty much defines a club.

By no means no. A baseball bat is really far to fragile and long. Go to a musemum and looks at the weapons they have there. Notice that the clubs are stout heavy pieces. A Dried Squash with a rock inside the pit of it makes a much better club than a baseball bat.


As for improvised club, urodivoi's story reminds me of when my character, a Dark Sun elf, was used as an improvised club by the party's half-giant gladiator...

Wouldn't the elf deform too much on impact to make a really good club though?

erewhon
2006-12-31, 01:12 AM
Two feet of #8 rebar. Three feet if you want a greatclub.

Man, that stuff is evil.

reorith
2006-12-31, 01:51 AM
Two feet of #8 rebar. Three feet if you want a greatclub.

Man, that stuff is evil.

just remember, rebar doesn't kill people, blunt force trauma kills people

Skyserpent
2006-12-31, 02:15 AM
So what's the difference between a Club and a Light Mace? Or a Heavy Mace and a slightly larger club? I think Baseball Bat would be a bit more on the Mace side considering it's weight and grip. Especially if it's aluminum.

MrNexx
2006-12-31, 05:20 AM
By no means no. A baseball bat is really far to fragile and long. Go to a musemum and looks at the weapons they have there. Notice that the clubs are stout heavy pieces. A Dried Squash with a rock inside the pit of it makes a much better club than a baseball bat.

I still have to disagree. A baseball bat is designed, really, to not deform when it hits a fairly hard object with a fairly huge amount of kinetic energy. I could see a penalty because someone was using it one-handed when it's meant to be a two-handed weapon (a bastard club? a dwarven war club?), but not because it's not doing what it's designed to do, which is hit things, hard.



Wouldn't the elf deform too much on impact to make a really good club though?

I spent a substantial amount of time screaming that as he beat the templar with me, yes.

Leon
2006-12-31, 05:57 AM
Any form of easy to grip item with a solid mass and a bit of heft

Matthew
2006-12-31, 06:37 AM
Bah! Daggers are the Gold Standard for Damage. I don't see why a Base Ball Bat would be more deadly than a Dagger; even given the Critical Hit aspect, I wouldn't be convinced. A War Club, on the other hand, I could see being 1D6 x2, but a Chair Leg wouldn't be more than 1D4 x2.

AtomicKitKat
2006-12-31, 08:10 AM
A Pringles can. Empty squashed Brewskis in a pillowcase. A Sword Blank(Anyone who's played Ultima 7 should know what I'm talking about). A tree branch that you tear off the tree(any you pick up tend to already be rotting away). A Feather Duster(The kind with a hooked bamboo/wood handle). A Broom/Mop/Dustpan stick. A Bamboo clothes holder. The latter 2 are more like quarterstaves though.

Leon
2006-12-31, 10:56 AM
A Sword Blank(Anyone who's played Ultima 7 should know what I'm talking about).
Equally a Scabbard



A tree branch that you tear off the tree(any you pick up tend to already be rotting away).
Hehe, done that once - the Fey we had be fighting were immune to slashing damage so i walked outside and cut a branch off a tree and kept it with me for the rest of the campagin

Spartan_Samuel
2006-12-31, 01:56 PM
A severed limb.

clarkvalentine
2006-12-31, 03:25 PM
Ok, what qualifies as an improvised club, to your mind?

At my table, a non-improvised club is a good club - a baseball bat, a chair leg with a good handlhold lathed into it, an intentionally whittled club, etc. Anything with a good handhold, balanced, and weighty enough to clock you a good one. An improvised club is, well, a crap club: a big stick, a tankard, a crowbar, a frying pan (sorry, Tika :smallwink: ), a candlestick, a smooth chair leg without a good handle. Maybe it's fragile, maybe it doesn't have a good place to hold it, or any of a number of things that make it non-ideal for thumping people.

- Clark

erewhon
2006-12-31, 03:39 PM
A severed limb.


If you cut it off a troll, does it get Dancing for free? :D

Beleriphon
2006-12-31, 11:52 PM
If you cut it off a troll, does it get Dancing for free? :D

Only the polka. Only the polka.

Spasticteapot
2007-01-01, 03:56 PM
Only the polka. Only the polka.

..so does it get a free fear effect?

I would second the Maglight. Other excellent clubs include:

1. Heavy-gauge copper pipe. Makes a glorious "dinging" sound.

2. Large wrenches.

3. Heavily armored kobolds.

urodivoi
2007-01-01, 05:06 PM
..so does it get a free fear effect?

I would second the Maglight. Other excellent clubs include:

1. Heavy-gauge copper pipe. Makes a glorious "dinging" sound.

2. Large wrenches.

3. Heavily armored kobolds.

But not dwarves, dwarves are ranged weapons.

Fhaolan
2007-01-01, 05:34 PM
So what's the difference between a Club and a Light Mace? Or a Heavy Mace and a slightly larger club? I think Baseball Bat would be a bit more on the Mace side considering it's weight and grip. Especially if it's aluminum.

In RL, all a mace is, is a club made with a metal head. Some were all metal.

In fact, iirc, the term 'mace' actually refers to the head of the club. If a flail has a large striking head, that part is also called a 'mace'. That's one of the possible reasons why the 'morning star' sometimes refers to a spiked mace and sometimes to a spiked flail, because both have spiked 'maces'.

Diggorian
2007-01-01, 05:44 PM
In Modern a fellow player used an alarm clock as an improvised flail. It was still plugged in so the station changed with each hit, until he killed him.

Anything you could club something with is an improvised club ... if it aint a club.

Archonic Energy
2007-01-01, 05:45 PM
Ayour own severed limb.

Fixed....

(begin the torment quote)

Spartan_Samuel
2007-01-01, 05:51 PM
YES!!!! Microsoft Wars in Silicone Valley> Jason X!!!

AtomicKitKat
2007-01-02, 03:07 AM
2. Large wenches.

Fixed!:smallbiggrin:

TheOOB
2007-01-02, 07:38 PM
A baseball bat would not be an improvised club(just a normal non-improvised club), it is designed to be both a)properly balanced for powerful swings, and b) transfer the kinetic energy from a swing into a concentraited spot. Hitting a baseball out of the park is really no different from cracking someones head in. An item like a monkey wrench for instance is an improvised because it's not properly balanced and its not designed to attack something.

Jack Mann
2007-01-02, 07:49 PM
I think you folks are on the wrong track here. An improvised club still does just as much damage as a normal club. By the rules, a monkey wrench or what have you does just as much damage as a regular club would. But a monkey wrench (or a tree branch or what have you) isn't made for swinging like that. It doesn't have the balance or the grip for combat. That's what the -4 represents. You can still do damage with whatever the heck you're using. But you're going to have a bit more trouble making the connection, especially when they're moving around trying to stop you.