Other Ranged Weapons

World of Darkness - Armory

Firearms aren’t the only implements that humans use to kill each other at range. Firearms are just the most recent developments. This section presents a selection of other options.

Archaic Ranged Weapons

The first ranged weapons were thrown directly from the hand. Later innovations included several simple mechanical devices to amplify the power of the thrower’s arm. Unless otherwise noted, a Dexterity + Athletics dice pool applies to attacks with all of the following weapons. All thrown weapons are one-handed weapons, and all propelled weapons are two-handed.

Modern Ranged Weapons

Modern science hasn’t confined itself to guns. Many other ranged weapons exist, from the useful and non-lethal to the dangerously ridiculous. Unless otherwise noted, all of the following weapons rely on the Firearms Skill.

Flinging Things

With sufficient strength, anyone can throw a solid object with the intent of causing injury. The World of Darkness Rulebook presents the basics of throwing on p. 67.
Using melee weapons as improvised thrown weapons is difficult because swords and axes aren’t balanced for throwing. If a character throws a melee weapon, the attack suffers a –2 penalty.

Arrows

The Damage traits of bows assume that the wielder is using standard target arrows: wooden or fiberglass shafts tipped with simple metal cones. Such projectiles are not designed for combat and inflict minimal injury. Standard target arrows have Cost •.
Broadhead hunting arrows are tipped with an Xshaped razor-edged point designed to drive deep into flesh and sever arteries. A bow firing such an arrow gains +1 Damage and Armor Piercing 2 against a target with no or soft ballistic armor. Against a solid target or a character with rigid armor, the arrow instead suffers a –2 penalty to Damage. Broadhead arrows have Cost •.
Archaic flint or obsidian arrowheads gain +1 Damage against a target with no armor but a –2 penalty against a hard or armored target. A character may make archaic arrows with six hours’ work and a successful Dexterity + Survival roll: each success yields one arrow.
Bodkin points appeared in the Middle Ages in response to the proliferation of metal armor among archers’ intended targets. These were needle-pointed arrowheads with square cross-sections that could drive through plate armor or six inches of oak. A bow firing a bodkin arrow gains Armor Piercing 4 and its Ranges are increased by half again. Bodkin points disappeared with the obsolescence of the bow as a primary battlefield weapon, and all surviving examples are museum pieces today. A character who wants bodkin points must buy them on the antiquities market (Cost ••• for a dozen) or have them custom- made by a blacksmith (Intelligence + Crafts roll, each success yields one bodkin point).

Holy Water Paintballs!

Inevitably, players will see the potential in refilling tranquilizer darts or paintballs with hazardous substances. This is technically feasible, but probably a waste of resources, as neither of these projectiles is designed to be emptied of its original contents and filled with something else while remaining usable. Refilling a single dart or paintball projectile takes 15 minutes and requires a successful Dexterity + Crafts roll with a –2 penalty for the fine detail work. With failure, the substance and the projectile are ruined. Use of a filler material that is actively dangerous in a workbench environment — white phosphorus, nitric acid, the refined ichors of a spirit of corruption — increases the penalty to –5, and a dramatic failure leads to even bigger problems.