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fandomhigh2010-11-01 12:30 pm
furious-maximus.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2010-11-01 12:30 pm
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Introduction to Personal Weaponry [Monday, second period]
"Okay, people, let's get started," Max said, waving at the desks. "Last week you all got a chance to play around with slings and atlatls. I'm sure you had a lot of fun. This week we're looking at some weapons I assume most of you are familiar with. It's what most people think of when they think of 'low-tech' ranged weapons."
He picked up a longbow from his desk and held it up. "While mechanical weapons like the ones we looked at last week work by providing you better leverage for throwing things, tension weapons are designed to store firing energy and release it very, very quickly. It may, for instance, take you half a second to fully draw a bow, but once you release it it will take far less than half a second to snap back into its natural position. By providing the same amount of force as your draw, but doing so in less time, a tension weapon significantly multiplies the speed and range of its projectiles."
"There are quite a few different types of tension weapons, but for the most part they balance three factors: speed, power, and control." Max put down the bow and lifted a slingshot. "Most of you have probably seen a slingshot before. They're easy to draw, and they're easy to aim, but both of those are due to the fact that most slingshots don't provide all that much resistance. That is, you don't have to strain yourself to draw it back. That means that they don't pack as much power as, say, a bow. Now sometimes speed and control matter more than power. After all, maybe you don't want to kill someone, or maybe you just have really good aim and can hit them in some weak point, or maybe it's at close range."
He grabbed the longbow again. "Bows trade some of the speed and control of a slingshot for power. They're harder to draw, but that's because they impart more force to their shots. That force comes at a price, though, because it's harder to aim properly when you're straining yourself to keep the bow drawn."
"Given the slingshot and the bow, you might assume that extra power always comes at the expense of control, but," he swapped his demonstration weapon for a crossbow, "the crossbow violates that expectation. Crossbows have a lot of power. In fact, they have so much power that it'd be pretty much impossible to aim them if you had to hold the weapon drawn yourself." Max braced the weapon and drew it back with a grunt, the muscles on his arms and neck standing out with the strain. But then the weapon was cocked and he relaxed. "The crossbow uses a clever mechanical system to allow you to store the power from drawing without having to maintain it. This gives you incredible control because the only strain you have to worry about is holding the weapon. Of course it trades a lot of speed for that. A bow can fire ten or twenty times more often than a crossbow, after all."
Max uncocked the crossbow and set it back down. "Today you're going to give some thought to which weapon you'd want for specific situations." He waved toward the back of the room which was suddenly a wide shooting range with dozens ofmoddable target stations. Everything from tin cans on a fence to simple bullseye targets to targets on moving tracks going back and forth in front and behind each other.
"You may form teams, of no more than three, if you wish. As soon as you, or your team, successfully complete all the target stations you are free to go."
He picked up a longbow from his desk and held it up. "While mechanical weapons like the ones we looked at last week work by providing you better leverage for throwing things, tension weapons are designed to store firing energy and release it very, very quickly. It may, for instance, take you half a second to fully draw a bow, but once you release it it will take far less than half a second to snap back into its natural position. By providing the same amount of force as your draw, but doing so in less time, a tension weapon significantly multiplies the speed and range of its projectiles."
"There are quite a few different types of tension weapons, but for the most part they balance three factors: speed, power, and control." Max put down the bow and lifted a slingshot. "Most of you have probably seen a slingshot before. They're easy to draw, and they're easy to aim, but both of those are due to the fact that most slingshots don't provide all that much resistance. That is, you don't have to strain yourself to draw it back. That means that they don't pack as much power as, say, a bow. Now sometimes speed and control matter more than power. After all, maybe you don't want to kill someone, or maybe you just have really good aim and can hit them in some weak point, or maybe it's at close range."
He grabbed the longbow again. "Bows trade some of the speed and control of a slingshot for power. They're harder to draw, but that's because they impart more force to their shots. That force comes at a price, though, because it's harder to aim properly when you're straining yourself to keep the bow drawn."
"Given the slingshot and the bow, you might assume that extra power always comes at the expense of control, but," he swapped his demonstration weapon for a crossbow, "the crossbow violates that expectation. Crossbows have a lot of power. In fact, they have so much power that it'd be pretty much impossible to aim them if you had to hold the weapon drawn yourself." Max braced the weapon and drew it back with a grunt, the muscles on his arms and neck standing out with the strain. But then the weapon was cocked and he relaxed. "The crossbow uses a clever mechanical system to allow you to store the power from drawing without having to maintain it. This gives you incredible control because the only strain you have to worry about is holding the weapon. Of course it trades a lot of speed for that. A bow can fire ten or twenty times more often than a crossbow, after all."
Max uncocked the crossbow and set it back down. "Today you're going to give some thought to which weapon you'd want for specific situations." He waved toward the back of the room which was suddenly a wide shooting range with dozens of
"You may form teams, of no more than three, if you wish. As soon as you, or your team, successfully complete all the target stations you are free to go."
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The lecture
The activity
Re: The activity
And maybe partly because he could show off by drawing it back with practically no effort at all.
Talk to Max
OOC