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Quiz Description: Creative Anachronism #1


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#1 Leo

Posted 27 May 2003 - 02:14 AM

/Images/Button.gif Intermission
/Images/Button.gif Leo's Introduction
/Images/Button.gif D'Jinni's Introduction
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Creative Anachronism #1


From Bows to Buttons?



The following sentence may be used in several future quizzes. What level of creativity would you allow 20th century players to have, considering the levels of hindsight they have?

Bows in general have been around since the Paleolithic period. The compound, or composite bow came into use around 1500 B.C. in Central Asia. The Asian bow was designed for use from horseback. The Asian bow was shorter and lighter than the English longbow. It could be more speedily fired and did not take as much strength to use, though it lacked the range of the longbow.

The Romans seem to have had crossbows, but they were difficult to use, requiring a great deal of strength to cock them for firing. Even the later form of the crossbow, the arbalest, was clumsy and slow.

The Chinese had crossbows about the same time Europe developed them in the Middle Ages. For the Chinese, they were a major development in the art of war. The clever Chinese later developed the repeating crossbow.

When crossbows were introduced in Europe they were considered devastating, though slow to fire and they needed a strong person to rewind and cock them. In 1139 the Pope attempted to ban crossbows, as they could pierce heavy plate armor.

Gunpowder was around for centuries before it was used in combat, though it took a while for guns to replace bows. The origin of gunpowder was probably Chinese, for it seems to have been known in China at least as early as the 9th century. The Chinese used it initially for making firecrackers. There is evidence that gunpowder was introduced to Europe through the Arabs.

Guns were at first difficult to manufacture, very clumsy to load and then reload between firings, and often failed, or misfired. Now add that the variations on the bow made the bow highly versatile. It was also fairly easy and cheap to manufacture most bows, as well as their being relatively easy to train peasants to use.

Considering that RPG's using so-called medieval settings have spells that make explosions, is gunpowder a true fantasy in a medieval setting? Keeping the above information in mind, can you / would you, as a PC, construct a cannon, field or otherwise, for use in a "medieval setting"? Why or why not? How would you convince a discriminating DM to allow such a cannon? How do you come up with damage rolls for that cannon if you and/or your DM would allow it in the game?

Roleplay where possible, comment in essay form if you would rather do so, or combine roleplaying and essay form.

Jeanie D'Jinni




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