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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5557179" data-attributes="member: 6669384">The law required every able bodied man over the age of 14 to own a longbow and to practice at least 6 hours a week.  And no, there wasn't a government official who supervised the practice sessions.  The local pastor could call the men of the village together to practice, but that was about it.A pastor in England discovered last year that the law was still on the books, and decided to use it.  She called the men of the town together under that law as part of a church picnic.The way practice was "enforced" was archery tournaments, with cash prizes.  Think of the famous scene from Robin Hood, if you will.  In a land that was essentially under military occupation (Normans lording it over the Saxons), nobody thought it at all odd that pretty much everyone in sight owned a weapon.  Think about that.As for the number of arrows used:  There was a cycle referred to as "end to end", where archers gathered the arrows their enemies had fired at them and reused them.  The same arrows flew in both directions.And the average archer in time of war carried a lot more than the 20 arrows a D&D quiver carries.  At the battle of Agincourt, 5,000 British archers faced 60,000 French knights and infantry.  Outnumbered 12 to 1, the archers pretty much kicked the infantry's ass.  They were the artillery of the age.There is a Korean archery trick that I saw demonstrated to defeat the "End to end" cycle.  Using a long grooved rod as a guide for the arrow, they can shoot a dart-sized arrow as short as six inches from a standard Korean horse bow.  The rod acts as a guide, and the lightweight projectile takes off at a much higher velocity than the normal arrow, and carries for a much greater range.  They get to plink at enemy forces when the enemy thinks they are safely beyond bowshot, and leave the enemy with arrows they can't fire back.</blockquote>

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