Some Basic Doubts

[Dimirag]

If its to troublesome then decide on a unified arrow mechanic, set a cost and weight for a common arrow and a silvered one, and let the damage be set by the bow. That's the way I play it on D&D

[Hywaywolf]

I don't understand your confusion with the arrows. Perhaps you just don't understand the difference between a short bow and a long bow and how an arrow of one size is pretty much pointless with the other size bow.



If you took a shortbow arrow and put it on a longbow string you couldn't pull the longbow to full draw. Or anything close to full draw.

[teaman]

Also, don't forget that the full rules are available in .odt format (which MSWord can read as well).

Anyone can download them, hack them to their hearts content, and print them if needed. Not that you can't raise points, just pointing out the the open source nature of BFRPG makes it ultimately customizable. Play the game that YOU want.

[Rommmm]

Ok, thanks! =)

[chiisu81]

I'll have to echo what Solo needs to say to every one of these kind of threads: start out and play by-the-book, and then if you feel something needs to be tweaked or changed then go for it.

For all the criticisms with classes, abilities, etc. I don't think BFRPG/D&D/etc. is what you'll want to play.

[Hywaywolf]

I don't think the guy was criticising the classes. I think he was just asking for clarification. When I first saw the title I thought he was doubting the viability of BFRPG, but after reading the post I realized he was just doubting his own understanding of the rules.

[Dimirag]

I agree with Hyway, he was posting some doubts about specific by the book mechanics, the only one that suggested making a rule change was me, and it wasn't a game changing thing.

[Rommmm]

Yes, I'm just trying to understand the system better and clarifying some issues that I might have lost when first reading the rules. And I noticed that everytime people post something like this, other think they're complaining. After all this system is very open so this kind of thread, in my view, will be very usual. And in anyway, I think every critics should be welcome.
Again, thanks for your answers.

[Delver]

I've gotta weigh in on this one.

There's some confusion about arrow length and size of a bow. Arrow length is determined by several things and none of them really relate to the bow. Obviously an arrow needs to be long enough for the person who is using it to reach his full draw, but this can be done with either a shortbow or a longbow.

Various types of bows are each designed differently for application, ie horseback, tight-quarters, distance, etc. The length of an arrow is determined by the size of the archer and the length of his draw. It doesn't matter how "long" the bow is. The longest possible arrow should be used, with a few caveats regarding arrowhead weight and the weight of the foreshaft and the arrowshaft itself, as the longer the arrow, the more accurate it is.

A halfling is going to use much smaller arrows than, say, a half-orc, because his arms are much smaller. If the bow were sufficiently flexible, a half-orc could shoot the same smaller bow as the halfling, but would need longer arrows. In game terms, arrow length is not applicable unless a GM is giving a bonus for accuracy (longer arrows) or damage (increased weight) compared to "standard" arrows.

A bow/arrow combination isn't like a shotgun and shells, it is a very individual concept, and each archer must have a proper fit. A halfling cannot shoot a "longbow" because he's too short! If he sat on his butt and drew the bow sideways using his feet, he could shoot it though.

So in-game, there could be a situation where a party comes across a cache of halfling-sized arrows, which would be too short for the party's half-orc archer, but they wouldn't come across a cache of "shortbow arrows".

Does this make sense? As a bowhunter, when I order new arrows, I take in the bow I'm using and the fletcher measures my draw length as I hold it. I also tell him what grain of arrowhead and style I'll be using and he'll recommend an arrow length based on those factors: draw-length and weight.

Archers in the Amazon use very long arrows, 8'+... with very "short" bows that have very flexible arms. They still draw fully.

The traditional english longbow was a great weapon, but took a tall man with long arms to get full advantage from it. That's the reason it could shoot farther and have potentially more lethality, the draw length was greater (big man) and the arrow was longer and heavier.

Ok, so to sum up all of these random thoughts. The way some of you are looking at arrows is just wrong. If the arrows are short, they're not necessarily short because of the bow they are shot from, but rather the shortness of the archer they were made for... A shorter arrow is less accurate and less lethal (does less damage).

How each of you work that out as a GM is up to you, but I felt like I had to bring up a few of these points for the sake of realism because they make the game rules make sense...

[Hywaywolf]

There are two types of bows in BFRPG (normal bows and crossbows) and and two sizes for each. Gaming rules aren't real life so all that you said about bows doesn't really matter since you can't give rules that say, "the damage per bow is dependent on many different factors so here's a algebraic function to determine damage." To get around that you could houserule an equipment list that offers all those other bows you mentioned.

So if you are playing BFRPG BTB then in gamerules all shortbows are the same size and pull, and all longbows are the same size and pull. To get the full pull you need a certain length arrow. Shortbow arrows are too short to get full pull on a longbow. You could get full pull on a shortbow with a longbow arrow but it wouldn't do any more damage than a shortbow arrow.