I've been recently
mulling over the concept of “weapons” and the advancement of
weapons. More specifically; vague weapons that aren't really real, or
rather, how they can be described without going into detail. These
“weapons” are essentially a retrofuturistic vision of what
ancient or fantasy people imagined weapons of the future being life,
but without relying on actual real world technology and with as
little magical or supernatural context as possible. Also in this
write up I'm going to use the term “weapon” for 99% of it but
armor, equipment, or even vehicles could be substituted based on what
you're looking for.
Imagine it like
this; a club is the most basic and primitive weapon a person could
use. Then it advances to a spear. Then the spear becomes the short
sword, made of bronze, and then later the swerd in an iron age sense.
Of course at this point we can't say objectively a poleaxe is
superior to a sword, obviously in real life weapons are used for
different purposes. Now in real life, we know that from this point we
could roughly (very generally) say that weapons advanced to muskets,
then guns, and then will advance to laser guns or robot drones (more
then likely the drones in real life). But in a fantasy setting, these
are using types of technology and such that didn't exist in the day.
Naturally neither did metalworking exist that could make the
fullplate and polearms of the day exist in the bronze ages, but
hopefully you get a concept of what I'm going for here.
This rather vague
concept for weapons and “weapons” as superior and advanced things
in a fantasy context (more on that weapon) comes from three main
sources that I can think of at this time. I'm sure there are more
that vaguely fit this, and I'm sure I've seen more that I can't list
now (probably something from Dominions), but these are the ones I
thought of while writing this “vague post”.
The first is from
“Conan of the Isles”, the only Conan book I have read at the time
of this writing. My Appendix N is shameful, I know. In this book,
Conan has a vision of being taken to a black hall which shows an
endless battle between good and evil; man and chaos. In this battle,
Conan sees men in animal skins battling with clubs; primitives
fighting with primitive weapons. People of his day fighting with more
contemporary weapons, and then people fighting with weapons he
doesn't recognize. These are obviously implied to by guns and laser
weapons and the like, but in our context they could be anything. They
are intentionally left vague, which I think is great.
The second is from
a little game called “Defenders of the Oasis”, which is one of my
secret favorite games. It's a casual game that would have been a
phone game if it was released anywhere close to 10 years ago.
Basically you play as a Pharaoh and have to find an obelisk to obtain
a glyph of power- the whole while connecting cities on the map with
roads, mining for ancient technology, and growing in power to fight
barbarians that attack at the end of each stage. I really, really
like this game partially for its story and in-universe elements;
mostly for divorcing magic and the supernatural from the western
fantasy Wizard archetype that is so prevalent and that I complain
about all the time. In this fantasy setting, which is literally just
Egypt, the Pharaoh IS magic and he is powerful.
In one of the
campaigns, you actually play as a female priestess. You don't get a
new sprite or anything (it's a shitty old game remember), but in the
first level you steal the glyph from the sacred isle of the Gods,
which angers them. The first god who sends their wrath at you is
Thoth, who brings down “scrolls of wisdom” which the barbarians
use to make mighty weapons and armor. I love this passage because of
how vague it is. In game, we get to see what weapons and armor they
are more or less (just gives the barbarians technology bonuses in
fights, which usually only you get), but in lore it could mean
anything, which is why I like it. Thoth's knowledge of weapons, you
could easily imagine, would include things like muskets and modern
guns and catapults and stuff. But this doesn't really fit the imagine
of an Egyptian supernatural technology alternate history; I'd much
prefer to see this as something like a giant mechanical scarab, the
kopesh designed in such a way it can cut through almost anything,
weaving the hot desert sands into cloaks that let you blend into the
dunes, that kind of thing. It's almost magic and a bit mystical
without being a “spell”, you know? It's “knowledge”, which
fits better in a mythological setting anyway. Many of the powers of
the Gods could just be secret knowledge, and magic is often fluffed
as secret knowledge, not something separate.
The third and
final example I have for this concept is from a great Chinese wuxia
movie, this one called the “Dragon Gate Inn”. I love this movie
and it's shitty translation. It's chalk full of Chinese fantasy
tropes, which I love. There's an evil Eunuch who wants to take over
the legitimate government, tons of people on wires battling with
decent choreography and sword fights with decent special effects- all
practical for this day and age which has a charm to itself. However
right in the opening scenes of this movie we can see how cruel and
evil the Ennuch's splinter government is; they are testing “new
weapons” on prisoners. All of these are arrowheads; the “Plum
Blossom” arrow, the “Dog Teeth” arrow, and the “Phoenix Tail”
arrow. The Plum Blossom and Dog Teeth just seem to be deadly
effective, where as the Phoenix Tail arrow is fired and dramatically
curves to strike down the last prisoner, implying it has some kind of
homing or tracking ability.
Now in any kind of realistic setting or sense, these would have a lot of problems or be downright impossible. They'd be far less effective then real, simple, straight arrows. But something about this I really like. Like you found a way to sculpt the metal or bind it up just right; these special arrows cause horrible injuries that are hard to heal, making these arrows very good for injuring and capturing enemy soldiers. They may even fly faster or straighter then regular arrows, despite it having no sensible basis in reality. They're just “more advanced”. We don't really get a good idea of what these do in Dragon Pass Inn other then the grievous injuries that the Dog Teeth arrows make when they are used later in the story, but I still like them.
Now in any kind of realistic setting or sense, these would have a lot of problems or be downright impossible. They'd be far less effective then real, simple, straight arrows. But something about this I really like. Like you found a way to sculpt the metal or bind it up just right; these special arrows cause horrible injuries that are hard to heal, making these arrows very good for injuring and capturing enemy soldiers. They may even fly faster or straighter then regular arrows, despite it having no sensible basis in reality. They're just “more advanced”. We don't really get a good idea of what these do in Dragon Pass Inn other then the grievous injuries that the Dog Teeth arrows make when they are used later in the story, but I still like them.
Finally- ask
yourself this. How can we port this over and use this
organically?
Well firstly, the one big advantage of written media (and by extension, tabletop games) is that this vagueness can abound. You can stretch over long periods of time with a single sentence, or imply a ton of stuff without detailing any of it. Something as simple as “then he brought forth many advanced weapons, and used them to defeat the tribes and bring peace to the land” implies a huge amount without needing to actually show any of it as opposed to a movie or bit of animation which is visual, or a video game which is more tactile. You could easily play a tabletop game and grant a player an “advanced weapon”, never actually describe it, but mention how it isn't necessarily magical or doesn't use technology as we understand it. Of course, this is a bit of a cop out. We wanted to have this cake and eat it too, so some description is both desired and necessary.
Well firstly, the one big advantage of written media (and by extension, tabletop games) is that this vagueness can abound. You can stretch over long periods of time with a single sentence, or imply a ton of stuff without detailing any of it. Something as simple as “then he brought forth many advanced weapons, and used them to defeat the tribes and bring peace to the land” implies a huge amount without needing to actually show any of it as opposed to a movie or bit of animation which is visual, or a video game which is more tactile. You could easily play a tabletop game and grant a player an “advanced weapon”, never actually describe it, but mention how it isn't necessarily magical or doesn't use technology as we understand it. Of course, this is a bit of a cop out. We wanted to have this cake and eat it too, so some description is both desired and necessary.
Secondly;
technology. In many tabletop games with the usual high fantasy
setting, technology tends to be in a roughly medieval or renaissance
stasis. Of course along with this comes the unrealism- many fantasy
settings include things like airships or steampunk elements,
clockwork robots, and/or magitech that we could explore to be the
creative force behind our “advanced” weapons. In some of these
cases this is enough, but in others we might just argue that you can
add a few mechanical elements to a weapon that normally wouldn't have
them (or just wouldn't work at all) to make it more advanced.
Similar to the
Dragone Gate Inn example- we can just not be specific. I like the
idea of weapons being tested or made of materials that are just
extremely good; unique shapes or construction. Maybe a strangely
shaped axe head is just better then a regular axe head, but is hard
to make and is therefore a more advanced or rare weapon. It probably
has a name to signify it, like Crescent Moon Slicing-Axe. It's an Axe
that can perform draw cuts as well as a sword, shaped like a crescent
moon, and can still chop wood just as well.
Another example
involves things from a campaign a friend of mine ran for me many
years ago. In that my character (who I think used polearms or a
naginata or something) got a new weapon. Basically it was a polearm
with a rotating blade which could be flicked out; it was disguised as
a walking stick. My DM declared that this weapon could be used to
make sneak attacks too; by flicking the end of the staff the blade
could spin out and perform a cut the same as an attack. I was dubious
and told him it wouldn't work like that; the spinning blade wouldn't
have the same force as a blade on the end of a long lever, but he
said not to worry about the realism of it and just accept it. I
realize now of course I was in the wrong over this, but like I said,
there is a leap to accept a fictional universe with different rules.
Now I think the concept is pretty interesting; spring loaded or
double edged weapons with twice the effectiveness of a normal weapon,
or with bonus features like sneak attacks or bonus to-hit from being
accurate and capable of hitting many times in a few seconds.
These weapons are
created not by magic users or by specific arcane practices, but
instead by practiced weapons smiths and ancient warrior philospher
kings. It could be the ancient empire who was against evil magic in
the setting used these weapons to cut a swathe in the world; a nice
backdrop for a Conan-esque barbarian distrustful of magic but still
capable of rising above “mundane” equipment through their superior "technology".
[1]
Long iron poles with no ornamentation. Can be squeezed while pointing
at something; destroys it. Could be implied to be laser technology in
a fantasy world (ala many modules that have crashed spaceships and
stuff) or could be some kind of vague “ultra destructive force”
that the metal just “has” and can emit through being crafted and
handled in some special way.
[2]
Deadly Jacks. Little spiked orbs or caltrops that can be thrown.
Somehow fly extremely well, perhaps homing in on living things to get
their spikes in, link their hooks together to become spiked chains,
and totally nullify any motion or actions to escape their grasp.
Maybe less of a “weapon” and more of a cruel torture and capture
device. Might be designed in such a way that they always land upwards
or just conveniently bounce off walls and terrain and flop into the
path of oncoming people so they step on them or get hit by them,
because you know, you can just forge the angles that way.
[3]
Death Butterfly. Better then the Deadly Jacks. Basically imagine an
evil weapons made of sharpened super metal and glass; perhaps an elf
super weapon. You throw it and it always returns to the user; even if
totally unrealistic it just curves around and comes back to your
hands unless trapped in a sack of some material it can't cut through.
When you throw it cuts off people's heads and stuff, or just punches
through their chest even if your throw really shouldn't have the
strength to do that with its weight and leverage and stuff; it just
“catches the wind” and punches through people.
[4] Thingamajig-Tier gadget device like from Ed, Edd, & Eddy.
Basically a cube, sphere, briefcase, etc. that contains a million
weapons. By handling the weapon a certain way, it can activate the
different weapons and bring them to bare against your enemies. Also; see a Swiss Army Knife but bigger and with weapons; or the like Cube Style.
[5]
Da Vinci-tier machines. Also see the game "Besiege" where you build murder weapons. Mostly things like the carts with spinning
blades on them or flying machines. These aren't technically hand-held
weapons in the ways the others are but in a lot of ways fit the
definition better; a weapon the user is protected while using by
riding inside and such. But if you like Fighters more heroic then this isn't exactly what you'd use for their ultimate weapons.
[6]
Kill glow. Some kind of powered light as a weapon. Not necessarily
shot out of things like a laser beam, but moreso a trained form of
light or maybe heat/energy/electricity that flies around and kill
things from the users hand. It's a weapon, not a spell. Deal with it.
[7]
Pop-Out Spear head. Some sort of spear which has a standard looking
spearhead, except it has a lot of very fine holes over it. When
shoved into someone, the holes erupt out spikes inside, then quickly
draw them back in; causing huge internal damage and causing much
worse injuries then first assumed. Having the spikes retract adds to
believablity of the spear being able to penetrate into people and
then be pulled back out without all the spikes catching in their
body.
[8]
Super Flail. Just a flail with some super heavy element build into
the head, or the head+chain being made in some kind of way where it
just becomes inherently super powerful. Can bowl into objects with
much more force then possible, like knocking through bricks, busting
through steel shields, basically being a bit physically unstoppable.
[9]
Gas Blower. Could be something like a forge bellows if you want to
make it look more genuine to a fantasy world as opposed to a more
modern flamethrower looking thing. These weapons use gas sucked up
from the earth and soils of mines. You could see flammable gas,
freezing gas, confusion/knockout gas, corrosive gas,
lightning-attracting gas and so forth. Fantasy version of natural
gasses, but put into a weapon for useful fighting. Also could be put
into a hollow flask or whatever and thrown as a bomb, but that tends to be a bit different from a "weapon".
[10]
Super Duper Sword. Made of super metals, and curved and refined in
the special perfect way. It has a specific shape, edge, and was
folded over one million times to produce the finest blade possible.
Still not magical, or may have some kind of supernatural power based
on how it was made, but isn't girly “wizard” magic. Basically
it's just a super powerful sword that due to its angles and
construction it can cut straight through lesser metals, block blows
easily, slide around enemy armors and stuff, is perfectly balanced
and just the right weight and speed, etc.
[x] Liquid
metal weapon. Kind of cheating and doesn't fit; since these already
exist as other magic items. But basically; a lump or metal or handle
which morphs the metal of itself into any weapon when it is needed.
[♫] Musical
weapons. Lutes or harps that can play music that hurts people. Almost
counts as this concept but is a bit too thematic and has some cross
over with bards, bardic magic, and so on. Some Wuxia or Chinese
Fantasy stuff already has some of this though it isn't really a more
“advanced” form of normal weaponry, just a thematic take on
people being so good at music they fight with it.
[g] Just Guns. This isn't really an answer- as I mentioned earlier. We're
trying not to advance weapons in a real world historical sense- but even people in the day had advanced weapons like repeating crossbows and hand-gunnes that would shape the future of warfare. Fighters could still get a bonus with these despite not fitting a martial theme, because they are weapons.
[?] Hand
to Hand. Once again, not really an advanced weapon. But the idea of a
fighting school or technique getting so good over time that it starts
to be better then physical weapons. Your hand to hand kung fu gets so
good that any weapon would just be a detriment in a fight- your
special technique can rock anybody way better then a sword or axe
could.
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