Welcome to day 5! For the previous entries, see the list below:
The raccoons have been playing with some cheap golden bangles. We let them, but today instead of three pieces they have five of them! Better let someone have a closer look.
Hello again and welcome! Today is day four, and if you missed the previous entries, you can find them here:
After some chaotic chattering and exclamations the raccoons manage to get across the message. There have been sightings of a healthy mother with three cubs at the edge of the estate. The groundskeeper is overjoyed!
Hello, dear readers! Third day of Christmas is upon us!
The raccoons really outdid themselves and brought three of these rare mounts. Lock your granaries!
Hello again and welcome to another entry in my D12 Days of Christmas series.
On today’s card you’ll find something you’d expect in the possession of a ranger rather than a paladin. Not all paladins are armour-clad crusaders, and not all wear capes. The Sabsummatim do, and you can read a bit about those here:
Cheers to everyone!
I’ve been wanting to do this the last two years, and finally got to work. This will be a short series of short playable TTRPG stuff. Every day you’ll get a card with an item, monster, spell, or whatever else I come up with. It will show snippets of my “default” setting that you can easily adapt to yours.
Without further delays, here’s the first one, click the image to download:
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
When you imagine a fantasy setting plastic is probably among the least likely things you have in your mind. Often based on Medieval, Ancient or Victorian Earth, fantasy settings tend to keep away from such modern inventions as plastics. On the other hand many authors gladly fill their creations with lots of other anachronisms.
It’s understandable – who would want their their dwarven barbarian to drink ale from a PET bottle? This is disgusting even in real life. Or have their elven warlock wield a molded PVC staff? For many this would break the immersion they seek from a fantasy novel or game, be it tabletop or videogame. Yet there are plastics in our world that can seamlessly enter your fantasy setting. Especially if you avoid calling them “plastics”.
The beginnings of plastics in our world sound like the exploits of alchemists discovering new formulas in pursuit of superior substances. Early polymers were quite different from the plastics of today, and are coveted as collectibles by some. You can read about the history of plastics in the Sources at the end of the article. To keep it short, chemists strove to create new materials for various reasons, often economical. Many of the early plastics were supposed to substitute expensive and rare resources such as ivory. Some can be made at home using quite basic ingredients and equipment.
Then there are modern plastics we all know. They make up a huge amount of the world we live in. Stuff like PVC and HDPE need no introductions, and it can be guessed that Kevlar also rings a bell. These plastics require a complex understanding of chemistry. They also need access to rather advanced equipment and non-basic resources, and are made in large scale. Many are made of petroleum, another thing not commonly used in fantasy settings.
Now let’s take a look at our fantasy settings. Why would you introduce plastics into a world where there are other interesting materials, often magical? Think about who’s going to be the creator of the newly introduced plastics. Yes, the alchemists! Some will be conservative and stick to a dozen essential creations that they spam all over. But I believe in most settings the alchemists constantly look for new ways to power, knowledge, and destruction. It’s a matter of time before they start stumbling on plastics. It’s also a matter of availability. Sure you can use mammoth ivory, but it would cost you an arm and a leg. Dairying cows are grazing under your window at this very moment, and for a few coppers you can get all the milk you need to make that new component out of casein plastic!
Now you might say that mammoth ivory has certain magical properties that make it not only more valuable but also desirable for certain applications. Why couldn’t your not-Galalith also have properties that would make it stand out in its own way? It could provide different magical advantages, or dampen negative effects. When made from a special milk, let’s say unicorn milk, unique properties could develop. Even with cow milk maybe the new material is the only one that is non-reactive in combination with another. Or perhaps plastics aren’t new but instead old, the remnants of an ancient civilization, and can be found as artifacts from a bygone era. Either these are usable as they are, or the plastics could be only collected and remade into new items. Roman glass was reused in Medieval period in this way, to the extent of scholars writing explicitly that you should dig in old Roman ruins for shards of quality glass to recycle!
It’s not an easy task finding plastics being used in fantasy. Authors or game designers prefer more “fantasy” materials than something that surrounds us everywhere in real life. There are few exceptions I found and would like to introduce shortly.
The light-hearted 2011 rogue-like introduced plastics as “plastic ore” that can be melted into “plastic ingots”. Most of the craftable items like “pleather armor” or “plastic bolts”are near-useless . There are some high-level weapons though that are crafted using plastic ingots. This is something that can be pointed out as rather useful. Plastics in your scenario don’t have to be common or available. There can instead be specific conditions under which they become a valuable resource.
One of Morrowind’s most iconic materials is bonemold. It is a composite material made from bonemeal (ground bones) and resin. It is similar to real world bakelite, with bonemeal serving as the filling material, and the resin unsurprisingly as the resin. Both components are natural in origin, so easily explained in a fantasy setting. Being used mostly for making armour by the Dunmer armoursmiths, it has nevertheless other uses. In TES: Morrowind we see bonemold longbows, arrows, and crossbow bolts. Later games in the series offer only armour that can be crafted from bonemeal, leather and some iron.
The use of bonemold in The Elder Scrolls (Morrowind in particular) shows how you can get unique and interesting results if you don’t think only in terms of traditional fantasy options. Bonemold feels anything but immersion-breaking. It’s never called a plastic, and fits the strangeness of the Dunmer culture very well.
Only two examples of plastics in fantasy settings? Well, the reason for this article is the scarcity of plastics in fantasy. So yes, it’s quite hard to find some media where it’s been used. Outside of settings where plastics are by default common, naturally. The examples show two different approaches. One using outright “modern” plastics for comic relief (Dungeons of Dredmor), the other deals with “archaic” plastics in a less conspicuous way (The Elder Scrolls). Both have their pros and cons. It depends on the setting and tone of your game which is better suited. It’s quite possible to use both “modern” and “archaic” plastics in a single setting. Just avoid using real world names and descriptions such as PVC, or plastic.
What are your thoughts on plastics outside modern or sci-fi settings? Hate it or love it? Do you recall seeing any sort of plastic in a fantasy setting? In a video game, a novel, a movie? Please feel free to share your views and experiences in the comments section. As always, thanks for reading and sharing!
Do slingshots have place in fantasy settings? In this article I’ll look at all the angles.
A slingshot is a weapon many may have had their hands on, especially as children, when they made one out of a natural fork and some leftover rubber. With many commercial and artisan makers, and whole clubs and competitions dedicated to target slingshot shooting it’s quite easy to get into the hobby even as an adult.
While their history is rather short compared to other weapons, slingshots are sometimes used in various works of fantasy fiction. Mostly they are depicted as a “youngster” weapon, or a makeshift weapon. Are they worth using in your game? Short answer of course would be: if you want to, use them. But read on if you want to see my thoughts about slingshots in fantasy settings. In this first part I will provide some basic information and examples from fiction. In the next one you will get the when, how, and why I would use them in a fantasy setting.
First thing we have to get off the table is this – slings and slingshots are completely different devices, using different laws of physics to propel the projectile, and should not be confused. Often they are, though in a world of ringmail, studded leather armor, and dire flails that can hardly surprise anyone.
A sling is essentially a piece of string with a pouch for a bullet in the middle that you shoot by swinging the whole thing above your head or to your side – no spinning – and releasing one end of the string. A slingshot on the other hand is a rigid frame of wood, metal or other material, usually Y-shaped. The pouch is connected to the ends of the fork by bands of rubber, and you shoot the thing by drawing the pouch with bullet like and letting go. With a sling you need some some space, slingshots should work fine even in tighter places. This of course has implications concerning their usefullness in various situations. You might not be able to use a sling in a long narrow corridor (have to test this), and trying to use a slingshot to shoot someone a hundred metres away is probably inefficient.
The slingshot consists of three main parts – the body, bands and pouch. While competitive shooters would probably disagree, the pouch doesn’t matter from our point of view. Leather is ok and easily obtainable in probably every setting. What matters are body and bands. The body can be of any material strong enough to withstand the stresses put on it by flexing the bands. This can be the most traditional wood, but also metal, bone, or various plastics (with or without a metal core). So the body is also quite clear and easy to find in any setting. What makes it difficult are the bands.
Slingshot bands are made of rubber. That’s it. That’s why slingshots didn’t exist in our world until rubber was invented and widespread enough. It’s also why slingshots in a world without rubber or a passable substitute look out of place. Catgut is not a good substitute, as it’s not flexible enough. Try using violin strings for your first slingshot. Though it probably could be used in a sling.
But we are in fantasy and there might either be another material with qualities similar to rubber, or rubber itself might be available via the wonders of alchemy (more on this in an upcoming post). For example the body parts of some monster might be flexible enough to substitute rubber. Maybe even whole bodies of some worm species could serve as bands. It’s fantasy, so it shouldn’t be hard to come up with something, but I believe you should have that something thought through, so when someone comes asking, you have an explanation ready.
Let’s take a look at some characters using a slingshot as their preferred weapon. I’m not trying to count every one of them, since folks over at TV Tropes have already done this quite extensively. I’m picking a few that come up to my mind when I think of slingshot-wielding characters, and only in fantasy (-ish) settings. So no Bart Simpson, sorry.
There was a time when platformers enjoyed a much greater popularity even among PC gamers. One of those is Evil Twin by In Utero. The main character is the titular Cyprien, an orphan who has to visit a grotesquely fantastic world to save his friends. It has a very Alice in Wonderland feel, and from what I remember it had cool level design, if somewhat less original story. I’ve been trying to get my old copy to work, but to no avail. Once I’m able to replay the game, I might write a post about it.
However the reason I’m mentioning the game is that Cyprien uses slingshot as his primary weapon. This goes well with the “youngster” image of slingshots in media. Throughout the game special ammunition can be found, including bubblegum and paper planes. That doesn’t make much sense, but since the game setting is some kind of nightmare dreamworld, I guess it doesn’t matter.
I have never read a Dragonlance novel, nor have I read either the old or the recently issued setting supplements. I know next to nothing about the setting other than that it has dragons and kender. Based on what I learned on various sites I probably couldn’t appreciate the kender in a game (or novel). Maybe if I read the novels they could grow on me, who knows?
Anyway they use a number of signature weapons and two of these employ slingshots in their design. They are the hoopak, essentially a staff with a slingshot on one end and a spear tip on the other, and the chapak, which is a hand axe with the back of the axe head extending into a slingshot. Both supposedly also serve as musical instruments – the hoopak as a bull-roarer, and the chapak handle is hollowed with finger holes, so you can remove the axe head and plugs in the finger holes and use it as a flute. And those two belong to the more sensible weapons in the kender arsenal.
The hoopak is referred to as a staff sling, which it obviously isn’t. It’s a slingshot on a staff and that’s not a terrible idea. Joerg Sprave even reviewed his rendition of a weapon like this from the One Piece manga (see below). The descriptions of hoopak I found vary but it seems it is supposed to be working both as a slingshot when planted in the ground by the spike, or as a staff sling. I think this goes with the general theme of kender weapons – trying to slap as many diverse uses on them until they become unusable or silly. If we keep it as a staff/spear with a sling on one end, it’s ok. If we change the sling into a slingshot and find rubber somewhere, it could work as well. Just stay away from catgut, please.
The other one, chapak, is supposed to be a handaxe with a slingshot on prongs extending from the back of the axe. The slingshot uses catgut, of course. I imagine this setup would provide a very uncomfortable and weak grip when shooting the slingshot, and the bands and pouch would get in the way of hacking with the hatchet. That the haft is hollow with drilled fingerholes (plugged when not in use), so it can be used as a flute, blowgun, and snorkel is just a cherry on top of this unpalatable pie. Again there seems to be a desire to cram every possible utility into one weapon. And it would not work well.
During Joerg Sprave’s slingshot era he made a reconstruction of a staff slingshot used by the character Usopp. Apparently it’s one of the character’s three different slingshots. I’m not familiar with either the manga or anime One Piece past “it’s got some wacky pirates”, but it seems using a slingshot isn’t the strangest thing and it probably doesn’t look out of place. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, if you’re a fan.
Link uses a slingshot in several of the titles. My firsthand experience with the series is quite limited, having played only Ocarina of Time for a short while. From what I’ve gathered online, the slingshot is not a particularly powerful weapon in the games, and often it is used to solve puzzles rather than fight enemies. Sometimes it may stun them, which is always nice. In some of the games Link only uses the slingshot while he’s a kid, so again it goes with the “youngster” themes. Not much is told about the materials used for the slingshot construction, but we know that Deku seeds are used as ammunition. As a side note, for shooting stuff like seeds, nuts, etc. a slingshot seems to be a better choice than a sling. Slingshots don’t rely that much on the weight of the projectile.
The Peter Jackson adaptation of The Hobbit is very good overall (though nowhere near the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and mostly makes sense. There are comedic elements interwoven into the narrative and each successive movie strays further from the books.
Our interest this time is one of the dwarves, Ori. He is portrayed as a young scribe using a slingshot for a weapon. It is only a minor detail in the scope of the movie, but it suffers from the same problems as other slingshots in fantasy. There should be no rubber available to make the bands, and it doesn’t fit the setting. I understand that the creators wanted to make each dwarf unique a tried to give Ori the unarmed youngster image, but this wasn’t a good choice. Slingshots don’t really belong in Tolkien’s Arda. It is however interesting that during the dwarves’ flight through the goblin warrens Ori uses a sizeable warhammer. So he’s not limited to the slingshot.
Not so long ago (well, a few seasons I guess) several new characters appeared in the Walking Dead and two of them, the sisters Connie and Kelly, were using slingshots.
Somehow this felt out of place even though Jörg Sprave based a great portion of his Youtube channel on zombie-killing slingshots. Maybe this has something to do with the slowly deteriorating quality of the show in general, with new characters being a lot less likeable than the original survivors or even the ones we got a bunch of seasons in. Anyway it’s an example that ticks the “youngster” archetype (at least with Kelly) and actually doesn’t need any handwaving, because there would be a lot of usable slingshots available after the walker apocalypse.
I have left this one for the end of the article. It could be seen in the trailer, but I wanted to watch the full movie before finishing this article. The young tiefling druid Doric uses a slingshot mounted sideways on her forearm. She uses it for flinging stones at her enemies, but more like a distraction or stun than for doing serious damage. For that she’s got her Wild Shape. Near the end of the movie Doric also shoots a small sachet from the slingshot, so here it’s used as a delivery system.
Once again no explanation for the slingshot’s existence is given, so it’s probably a case of fantasy handwaving. Since Forgotten Realms is a more colorful setting than Arda, it didn’t look out of place. And if you don’t need it explained, this is the way you can do it in your fantasy setting. Just stay away from catgut.
In this first article of two I have provided a very basic description of a slingshot, hopefully distinguished it from a sling, and listed a few examples of fantasy fiction featuring slingshots. As I said in the introduction, part II will be about using slingshots in your game.
The examples from fiction are quite arbitrarily picked and I’m sure you could find a lot more even without consulting TVTropes. I might seem a bit harsh on the kender weapons, but those things are really bad. Any handwaving is better than totally missing the mark, as with using catgut for slingshot bands. In The Hobbit the slingshot Ori uses is unnecessary and feels out of place for no good reason. On the other hand, the Dungeons and Dragons movie handles its slingshot quite well. The creators probably relied on the fact that it’s a high-magic fantasy setting and it works.
What about you? How do you feel about slingshots being used as weapons or tools in fantasy? Do you care whether it makes sense or don’t need any explanations as long as it’s cool and/or the slingshot has good stats? Leave a comment and follow the blog or our social media so you don’t miss the second part!
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