Archaic weapons.
 

Does anyone have an archaic weapons list and stats? I'm thinking for old musket type weapons, black powder weapons, bows and melee weapons, as well as old black powder type artillery. In my campaign such weapons are becoming more popular and common because they are easier to make and supply than more modern weapons.

Tim had a lot of blackpowder firearms on his site; a few months ago I posted an address to the PDF I made of his site shortly before he died.

http://www.pmulcahy.com/special_pages/Wapahani.pdf

I'll warn you, it's a pretty big PDF (about 87MB).

some BP guns here
 

A few black powder guns

http://thebigbookofwar.50megs.com/DOX/Guns/Blackpowder/

I uprated the bow/crossbow damage (relative to type/pull) for my 1st edition rules game. I have an English Yew longbow which I used to shoot regularly with a local archery club and, whilst it wouldnt have the sheer stopping power of a modern firearm, a bolt/arrow from a reasonably powerful pull/draw bow would do significant damage.

Check out the oversized crossbow in the attached for an alternative defensive weapon.
Attachment 556

When does an oversized crossbow become big enough to be considered a ballista?

I'm guessing the moment it becomes so large it requires several people to carry or operate it?

A crossbow big enough to be mounted on a wall or a monopod while still being able to be loaded and fired by one person is called an arbalist.

nice crossbow
 

Cool site! And, bookmarked!

Stumbleupon
 

you should try stumble upon

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

I found 100s of excellent sites...

It works kinda like this, you pick categories of interests and u stumble upon them by pressing a "STUMBLE" button (a new toolbar ) and then you rate it with thumbs up or down.

Interesting categories

weapons,geography,role playing games,history and Bizarre

but there are dusins of others aswell....

I have offcourse rated a lot of sites and recommend everone who try this to Rate every friendly RPG site you know of. - This will generate more members at this forum for example...I think there is still a lot of T2K-rs out there in the Internet mist.

IIRC, small catapults were used in WWI to fling hand grenades from trenches (at longer ranges they could be hurled by hand).

Although long out of print, The World Tamer's Handbook (for Traveller: New Era) had complete rules for designing black powder weapons (small arms and cannons) and bows, as well as a dozen sample weapons.

In a way, the PIAT was sort of a ballista -- it was a sort of a spigot mortar, that flung it's HEAT round out there by the force of a huge spring. And it was a real bitch to load because of that huge spring.

Apparently only the first round was all that difficult. Subsequent shots gained the benefit of the previous rounds recoil partially recocking the weapon.

Of course sometimes this system failed requiring the operator to fully recock it - usually while under fire and in a position not at all condusive to applying one's full strength.

:S

Martini-Henry/Martini-Enfield
 

Long time nobody posted anything on this but I came across something interesting. I was looking for an old british army rifle I used once when I was young (about 14-15) and finally found it: it was a Martini-Henry. A .451 inch version that was own by my cousin who still had some ammo for it.

Then I had the surprise to find out that this weapon (actually copies made on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border) are still in use today.

I also found interesting various articles on weapons copied by gunsmith of the Khyber Pass. Plenty of inspiration for T2K, I think.

http://www.martinihenry.com/khyberpage.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyber_Pass_Copy