Stone Age Weapons (and Defenses) for Star Frontiers®

In regard to weapons, all roleplaying games can be divided into two categories: "lumpers" and "splitters". Splitters try to give every possible weapon a different set of statistics (as in the Rolemaster® or Palladium® RPGs), while lumpers group many weapons into a few broad categories (such as early versions of D&D®/AD&D®). Star Frontiers, like most science-fiction games, splits its high-tech weapons (lasers, rafflurs, and proton guns might be lumped into "ray guns" in a simpler game), but lumps its archaic weapons (the "sword" description includes several dozen types of real-world blades). For most situations, that’s fine — there aren’t many swordfighters in the Frontier, after all.

It can be a problem, however, when the referee wants PCs to
encounter a new "Stone Age" alien society in the campaign. The Archaic Weapons list in the Alpha Dawn Expanded Campaign Rules is limited, especially for ranged attacks (where Stone-Age aliens are pretty much limited to spears and arrows). After a while, that becomes repetitive, and the native warriors become interchangable. That’s never good.

The More Archaic Weapons Table lists some new weapons for use by indigenous aliens. Except for the atlatl, these are not derived from the existing categories; they’re all real-world hunting weapons that aren’t covered by the official weapons classifications. These "new archaic weapons" are Stone Age in the anthropological (not historical) sense — none of them require metalworking skills to produce.

Now that referees have several archaic weapons to arm low-tech aliens with, s/he has to decide which weapons each society uses. (It would be unusual if one society used all these weapons — pre-industrial hunters tend to stick with what works best for what they hunt.) One rule of thumb is to match the society’s preferred weapons to its preferred prey:

1. Societies that hunt small animals will tend towards non-pointed weapons, such as the bola, net, or
   sling.
   
2. Societies that depend on hunting larger prey will usually hunts with javelins or spears, although boomerangs, nets, and discuses may be used (especially in areas where there aren’t a lot of trees for making spears).
3. Societies that fish in rivers (not lakes or oceans) probably use spears.
4. Societies that don’t practice organized warfare probably don’t use the bow and arrow. (Which societies don’t make war? The ones with nothing to fight over. Generally speaking, nonterritorial archaic cultures don’t fight wars.)
   
5. Societies that do make war may have developed shields as well.
   

Several of these weapons have special effects instead of (or in addition to) physical damage, and require an extra dice roll to use. (That’s probably why they were left out of the official rules, come to think of it.) It’s that "playibility versus realism" thing, again.

The slipsuit is a defensive suit described in "For a Fistful of Credits" (Dragon Magazine #112) by David Cook.

Weapons Descriptions

Atlatl

An atlatl (or spear-thrower) is short stick with a hook or pouch on the end. The user holds the atlatl with his throwing arm, places a javelin in the hook, swings the atlatl back over his shoulder, then swings it forward to launch the javelin. (The atlatl is effectively extending the length of the thrower’s arm, allowing him to launch the javelin with more force.) In game terms, using an atlatl doesn’t increase the damage caused by the javelin, but improves its range one category.

Blowgun

Stone Age blowguns are made from long, naturally hollow tubes (on Earth, plants such as bamboo, although more exotic sources may be available to aliens), so they’re only available to natives living near such a resource. Blowgun darts cause little damage (and are automatically blocked by skein suits, just as needler darts), but are usually poisoned. (Yes, given the proper choice of poison, animals can be poisoned and still be edible. Stone Age societies usually reserve poison for animals that are very dangerous and/or too fast to chase on foot.)

Bola

A bola consists of two (or three) weights attached by cords. When thrown at a character, the bola’s weights cause normal damage, but the cords entangle the target. Unless the referee already has a hit location system in effect, assume that 50% of successful bola attacks entangle the character’s arms (preventing the character from attacking), and 50% hit the character’s legs (preventing movement). It takes 2d10 turns to untangle oneself from a bola (reduced to 1d10 for characters wearing slipsuits) or a STR check to break the bola cords. (Another character can cut the cords off the trapped character in one turn.)

Boomerang

Boomerangs are thrown weapons that travel in an arc towards a target. Boomerangs are the only weapon here not covered by the traditional Thrown Weapons skill. The "Returning Weapons" skill applies only to boomerangs and Yazirian zamras (see William Tracy’s article "The Zamra: A Traditional Yazirian Weapon" in Ares Magazine
#17).

A boomerang that misses its target usually arcs back and returns to its point of origin. Characters without the Returning Weapons skill must make an RS check to catch the returning boomerang. (On a "to hit" roll of 96-00, a non-skilled character has thrown the boomerang so badly that it doesn’t return at all.)

Targets stuck on the head by a boomerang may be stunned. Unless the referee is already using a hit-location/critical-hit system, assume a Cobalt result on Action Resolution Table is a head strike. Characters struck on the head must make a STA check or pass out for 1d10 minutes.

Discus

A discus is a disk-shaped wood or stone weapon thrown at a target. As with the boomerang, a strike to a character’s head may stun the target.

Net

Nets are the Stone Age predecessor to the tangler grenade. A character hit with a net is entangled for 3d10 turns (reduced 50% if the character is wearing a slipsuit) unless they break out of the net with a successful STR check (which renders the net unusable until repaired). Another character can cut the net off the captured character in 3 turns. Nets are normally two-handed weapons, but nets designed to capture larger-than-man-sized creatures actually require 2 or more characters to throw.

Sling

A sling is essentially a pouch (which holds a stone) with a long strap on each side. The user holds both straps in one hand and uses them to swing the pouch, launching the missile. Slings are often used to hunt small animals (including birds) whose carcasses would be destroyed by spears and arrows.

Using Shields in Star Frontiers

Although traditional Star Frontiers defensive technology is beyond them, some pre-industrial cultures produce simple shields (usually by weaving them from plants — yes, wicker shields). Characters using shields in melee are allowed to defend themselves (giving their opponent a -15% to hit; AD:26) without sacrificing an attack that turn, as long as they’re attacking the character they used the shield against. Characters using shields are limited to one attack per turn, even if fighting bare-handed.

[Is it my imagination, or does the Zebulon’s Guide combat system not provide for characters defending themselves in melee?]

A "small shield" is a disk about 40 cm wide, weighing only 1 kilogram. A "large shield" is a rectangle 50 cm wide and 1.5 meters high, weighting 3 kg, and large enough to duck behind — a character who hides behind a large shield has soft cover against archaic and thrown weapons (excepting grenades), but cannot attack on turns s/he uses a shield.