wackiest historical weapons?

[BiggusGeekus]

King Henry VIII was said to have had his guard's shield's outfitted with pistols.

There was a lot of this kind of thing in the early days of guns. People didn't have a solid idea of how best to use them, so they slapped a gun barrel on anything that was already a weapon. Kind of like what we do with digital clocks.

 

[Harlock]

King Henry VIII was said to have had his guard's shield's outfitted with pistols.

There was a lot of this kind of thing in the early days of guns. People didn't have a solid idea of how best to use them, so they slapped a gun barrel on anything that was already a weapon. Kind of like what we do with digital clocks.

He's right you know, I have a digital clock on the butt of my Chinese SKS.

 

[olethros]

The chinese sword is usally called a 9 ring broadsword.
Other unique chinese weapons:

Monk spade- Basically a shovel with a half moon blade on the other end

Iron Pipe- A 2-3 foot long iron pipe

Iron Toad- A big metal toad, seriously

Back crossbow- A crossbow mounted on the abck made to shoot if the user leans forward

Emei Piercers- Long narrow spikes with a ring in the center that goes around the middle finger like a ring. Originally made to be used while swimming (rings prevent it from being dropped while paddling)

Buddha Palm staff- Basically a big metal hand on the end of a stick. Talk about "smackdown".

 

[The_Universe]

King Henry VIII was said to have had his guard's shield's outfitted with pistols.

There was a lot of this kind of thing in the early days of guns. People didn't have a solid idea of how best to use them, so they slapped a gun barrel on anything that was already a weapon. Kind of like what we do with digital clocks.

I've seen the shield-guns. There's a VERY LARGE display of them in the Tower of London in....London. A great place to visit for game ideas, anyway, but I actually brought the shield guns into my last campaign after I saw those things.

 

[Hygric]

Can anyone find a historical basis for a sword-axe? Looks like a sword, hilt and all, except also with an axehead (top heavy) at the point.

THe Egyptians had a sword-axe, but the sword 'blade' was more of a flattened rod. They also had the mace-axe, a ruddy great big ball of bronze with an axe head jutting out of it. Those Pharoes really enjoyed smitting their foes.

 

[Tewligan]

I always heard about the KGB assasination tool as an umbrella, not a cane, because it was much easier to poke someone inconspicuously with an umbrella than a cane.

No no no, AntiSummit. You're thinking of the Penguin.

 

[Steverooo]

I have been wondering something for about 20 years and this seems like as good a place as any to ask it: what is a Bohemian Ear-Spoon? I realize this is a non-silly weapon with a silly name, as opposed to a silly weapon but what the hell.

Basically, a Spetum. A central Partisan-like blade, with two other "tines" which curve up and out towards the longer, central blade, from where the pole is mounted to the metal weapon head. Hold up your hand, with your thumb holding the little finger down, and look at the back of your hand... Now imagine your middle finger longer, and the index- and ring-fingers curved back towards it. Something like that.

 

[Steverooo]

weirdest looking real historical weapon i know of is the African throwing knife, detailed in Monkeygod's From Stone to Steel:

the description doesn't really do these weird things justice... i'll see if i can track down a picture.

[edit]
i managed to google up a few pics...

this site has a couple of pics of them.

is that Buffy with an African throwing knife?

The one on the top right is the oft-mentioned-but-little-known "Hunga-munga".

 

[rbingham2000]

No no no, AntiSummit. You're thinking of the Penguin.

The KGB assassination tool would indeed be an umbrella. Came across a cross-section of the thing in one of the books in the library in high school (I was really big into espionage back then), and apparently, the inner workings of the weapon were hidden by the fabric of the umbrella. Mega-cool, and does indeed bring up the image of the Penguin and his vast array of weapon-laden umbrellas.

And speaking of wacky spy gadgets, both sides of the Cold War produced lots of them. I believe someone tried to kill Castro once with an exploding cigar, to give you a brief example.

 

[tarchon]

It was well known among the Ancient Greeks that several tribes in West Asia and Asia Minor fought with lassoes. The usual account is that warriors from those tribes (Sagartians, Sauromatae, among others) would entangle opponents from horseback, pull them down, and then stab them to death. Xerxes is said to have invaded Greece with a contingent of 8000 of them among his forces.
Herodotus reports the regional peculiarities of various peoples' weapons with almost obsessive detail, and that was generally a topic of deep popular interest throughout Greek and Roman history. It really culminated in Roman gladiatorial styles, which were initially modeled on various national panoplies, though they rapidly developed into pure fantasy, with stuff like two-weapon fighting.