Weapons Without Metal

[WyrdMystic]

Whips made from leather - cat of 9 if you sharpen finger bones or animal teeth. You could strap an elephants tusk to a plank or to your arm....or could rip off a zombies arm and beat someone to death with the soggy end.

 

[Mary C. Moore]

Rope comes to mind, for hanging, gagging, tie upping etc...

 

[wordwalker]

Whips made from leather - cat of 9 if you sharpen finger bones or animal teeth. You could strap an elephants tusk to a plank or to your arm....or could rip off a zombies arm and beat someone to death with the soggy end.

Rope comes to mind, for hanging, gagging, tie upping etc...

Good points, about flexible materials having their uses. Slings too.

Another missile weapon (not really a new material, but we're talking about options) is the atlatl. It's a wooden "arm extender" that holds a javelin as you throw it, greatly increasing range and power.

(While I'm on leverage, if characters want to make a "grenade" of natural poisons or such, tests found that the German "potato-masher" design can be thrown more than twice as far as the US model, just from leverage. Build your grenades around a "stick"!)

 

[mbartelsm]

I don't kno if it has been mentioned, but you could use a lot of fire-hardened wood, AFAIK it's better than bones

 

[Cheezyb10]

Well I'll give you two answers.

~If I had unlimited resources
-Diamond everything as it is the hardest most durable material (swords, bows, spears everything)
-Balloon + Vanilla extract + Fire = Explosion

~If I had limited resources
-Spear with a stone tip
-Sword with wood handle and stone blade, sharpened with a rock.

 

[Being Darbo]

Hi,

Thinking practically, it's got to be wooden spears and staves for me. Both can be made easily and quickly, and require little skill to use at a basic level while giving a huge advantage in terms of reach. Good for your frontier militia or marooned travellers. You can even whittle down wood into stakes and use them are a defence against riders or large animals.

I like the idea of traps, too, if that counts. Pits, deadfall traps, trip wires; all handy to have at choke points.

Ranged weapons-wise, slings and blowpipes are cool, but involve either skill to use or are fiddly to make. Depending on the situation, you're probably just as well off with some high ground, some cover and a pile of rocks to throw.

Anyway, that's what I'd go with, assuming no or little skill on the part of the fighters and the need to gear up efficiently and effectively.

 

[mbartelsm]

Well I'll give you two answers.

~If I had unlimited resources
-Diamond everything as it is the hardest most durable material (swords, bows, spears everything)
-Balloon + Vanilla extract + Fire = Explosion

~If I had limited resources
-Spear with a stone tip
-Sword with wood handle and stone blade, sharpened with a rock.

Diamond would break relatively easy if it's the size of a sword (granted, it would be amazingly sharp and it's edge would not wear easily as long as you do not smash it against something too hard), and that is assuming you find a single crystal that big

 

[The Tourist]

I'm a newer member here, but has anyone ever proffered the use of "frozen weapons"? That is, ice formed into knives, axes or arrow heads, used to do damage and then melt to cover the identity of the assassin?

 

[Nihal]

Just to stay out of the bladed weapons: Whips, rope darts and meteor hammers.
Those are good because they don't kill instantly and a fight would have a lot of movement.

You could also exaggerate a bit and combine two weapons in one. I've played an RPG with a slight pyromaniac character who used a bow and often explosive/incendiary arrows. I've even came up with different concepts of hollow arrows, some ignited on time, others on impact. That was fun!