Slings
- Thread starter johnsemlak
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Angcuru
First Post
How to use a Sling & Bullet 101:
This is assuming that anyone reading it knows what a sling looks like
1) Place round stone, approximately 1/2 pound into the leather tongue on a sling.
2) Hold the main strap tightly in the palm of your hand, with the other strand being held firmly yet loosely between your thumb and forefinger. Whirl around head or at side at speed enough to allow centripetal force to keep the stone in the sling, but not enough to disorient the slinger as to what position in the 360 degree arc that the sling is moving in.
3) When target it sighted and chosen, and the position of the sling is beind the slinger perpendicular to the spine of the weilder, whip the sling in the direction of the target, releasing the loose strand when the sling is at position approximately 20 degrees past the top of the wielder's spine. It is recommended that the weilder exhale imediately before releasing the stone as to prevent change in the postion of the torso, to increase accuracy(this works with firing arrows as well.)
There ya go. That's just the basics. It takes a while to get good enough with a sling to hit vital spots and deal some real pain and damage, but it is a bit easier to learn than a bow, and ammunition is readily available almost anywhere on the planet.
A skilled slinger can loose more than 10 stones per minute.
by the way, the reason rogues do not have proficiency in slings is that they tend to create this dead-give-away whirring noise, which is not that great or stealth. hence they are not preferred. that's almost like asking why they have no proficiency in shot puts.
by the way, it's not 'lacrosse'. that game was created by a bunch of idiot french who though that the stick looked like the cross carried by bishops, hence 'la crosse'. the game was originally called 'bagatawe', or 'little brother of war'. it was a game in which plains indian tribes would meet and play a game in which the goal was to disable as many opponents as possible(i.e. broken limbs, knockouts, etc, but no killing) and to get a ball into a circle guarded by the Chief the of the opposition tribe, by hitting it with a spoon-like club.
leave it to the french to pussify anything they see.
This is assuming that anyone reading it knows what a sling looks like
1) Place round stone, approximately 1/2 pound into the leather tongue on a sling.
2) Hold the main strap tightly in the palm of your hand, with the other strand being held firmly yet loosely between your thumb and forefinger. Whirl around head or at side at speed enough to allow centripetal force to keep the stone in the sling, but not enough to disorient the slinger as to what position in the 360 degree arc that the sling is moving in.
3) When target it sighted and chosen, and the position of the sling is beind the slinger perpendicular to the spine of the weilder, whip the sling in the direction of the target, releasing the loose strand when the sling is at position approximately 20 degrees past the top of the wielder's spine. It is recommended that the weilder exhale imediately before releasing the stone as to prevent change in the postion of the torso, to increase accuracy(this works with firing arrows as well.)
There ya go. That's just the basics. It takes a while to get good enough with a sling to hit vital spots and deal some real pain and damage, but it is a bit easier to learn than a bow, and ammunition is readily available almost anywhere on the planet.
A skilled slinger can loose more than 10 stones per minute.
by the way, the reason rogues do not have proficiency in slings is that they tend to create this dead-give-away whirring noise, which is not that great or stealth. hence they are not preferred. that's almost like asking why they have no proficiency in shot puts.
by the way, it's not 'lacrosse'. that game was created by a bunch of idiot french who though that the stick looked like the cross carried by bishops, hence 'la crosse'. the game was originally called 'bagatawe', or 'little brother of war'. it was a game in which plains indian tribes would meet and play a game in which the goal was to disable as many opponents as possible(i.e. broken limbs, knockouts, etc, but no killing) and to get a ball into a circle guarded by the Chief the of the opposition tribe, by hitting it with a spoon-like club.
leave it to the french to pussify anything they see.
Silly Orc
First Post
There was a detailed indepth article last year in the "Journal of Asian Martial Arts" about slings. Most of it on the physics behind how it works. It basiclly stated being hit by a sling was as dangerous as being shot by a .38 revolver.
It seems the diffucilty of being able to use one well, the shorter range as well as the fact that it is an impact weapon are the main reasons bows replaced it.
To get a good idea of the kind of damage a shot from a sling would do to you, imagine laying your head on the ground, then haing Tiger Woods drive a steel club into your face.
It seems the diffucilty of being able to use one well, the shorter range as well as the fact that it is an impact weapon are the main reasons bows replaced it.
To get a good idea of the kind of damage a shot from a sling would do to you, imagine laying your head on the ground, then haing Tiger Woods drive a steel club into your face.
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Dungannon said:
Actually, I think this is an improvement. As a previous poster mentioned, they do make a characteristic whirring noise before release (hardly a rogue weapon). What made less sense in 1E was that thieves didn't have crossbow proficiencies. Trading sling for crossbow fits pretty well for me.
DM with a vengence
First Post
One really goor reason for slings in D&D, IIRC, is that you only need one hand to use them. Unlike bows or crossbows, which means that you can use that other hand for carrying a tower shield with 9/10ths cover. A group of halflings well protected by spears and ditches and such with tower shields and slings could defeat a more conventionally armed army.
Painfully said:Anybody seen a modern lacrosse stick? It's a hockey stick with a small "net" at the end of it. I can see them as perfect for throwing round-shaped grenade weapons and such...hmmmm.
No, it's not really a staff sling either. Those things wouldn't have any real range.
Wait'll my players see my new and improved kobold field troops
Ahh the Staff Sling or Fustible. Nasty weapon. You can throw big stuff with em.
mistergone
First Post
johnsemlak said:
D'oh! Yeah, you're right, sort of. I am thinking of the wrong scene. One DID Use a sling, but not in the scene I was thinking of.. and DEAR GOD why I am I even clarifying this?
RangerWickett
Legend
So, what about bolas? In my game back home (which is even sillier than my college game), one of the PCs has mastered Bolojutsu, a martial art that uses bolas as either ranged weapons or up close like nunchaku. I don't really like the Sword & Fist rules for bolas, though.
Half a pound? As I understand it, a lead sling bullet was only, say, an inch by an inch and a half, oblong (a bit like a football), and maybe 50 to 75 grams. (One pound is ~450 g.)
An antique listing for bronze and lead arrowheads and sling bullets lists them as:
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