From:	RAY MACEY <r.macey@*******.qut.edu.au>
Subject:	Re: Shuriken and Throwing Knifes
Date:	Fri, 24 May 1996 09:55:23 +1000 (EST)

On Wed, 22 May 1996, Georg Greve wrote:


> Interesting. But if they mean these bigger ones why do they only do
> this little damage ? If they ARE this heavy and sharp and good for
> killing: Why only L damage ?

Because otherwise, depending on the thrower, they could have the same
BASE damage as some pistols.

> Hmmm... POISON ! *EVIL GRIN* ;-) Unfortunately there is no deadly,
> fast working poison in the SR Universe.

There is no example of a deadly fast working poison. That doesn't mean
they don't exist. Hang on, isn't cyanide or something listed in
Shadowtech. It has a base damage of ?D.

> You got to aim for vulnerable places - I agree with that, but they ARE
> pretty sharp and the rotation makes the edge move REALLY fast. If it
> is thrown by someone who's skilled in this it should well be able to
> kill someone. O.k. - I just convinced myself that maybe the damage
> code for the smaller ones isn't that bad, but the bigger ones (and the
> knife) should have a bit more.

I don't really think they should, or, as I said, they could end up doing
the same BASE damage as some pistols. This is particularly realistic. I'm
sure there are plenty of people who could make them much more deadly than
a pistol, but that's the thrower, not the weapon that is responsible. If
you did make the larger knives more powerful, it should raise the power
level by 1 or maybe 2, or you could raise the damage level and decrease
the power level.

> By the way:
> The missile mastery skill lets you use everthing as a throwing weapon
> (credit cards and so on), but in my eyes knifes would have to do more
> damage than credit cards. So what about making a little tabular for
> this ?
>
> My ideas would be:
>
> Item * Damage
> ****************************************
> credit card * (Str/2)L
> knifes&forks * Str L
> plates * Str L stun
> pens/pencils * (Str/2)L
> racket/billard balls * Str M stun

I tend to work similar to this. I just ad-hoc the damage code depending
on how deadly the 'weapon' they pick up is. The shadowrun (Str/2)L does
seem a bit tame.

Ray.