Author Topic: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items  (Read 42210 times)

Offline veekie

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #20 on: May 11, 2012, 01:13:17 PM »
Not without personal familiarity with them I suspect. Your research is as thorough as always.

Theres an interesting number of repurposed tools though. Funny how you can beat people up with pretty much every Buddhist meditation aid.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #21 on: May 11, 2012, 03:16:26 PM »
From what I've seen Buddhist Monasteries were closely intertwined with political squabbles, wars, and behind a lot of attempted revolutions. 

WHich prolly means people tried killing them a lot...


Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #23 on: May 12, 2012, 12:09:44 AM »
sweet! thanks much!

you wouldn't happen to know cannon sizes for old japan would you?

Offline Samuraiantiqueworld

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #24 on: May 12, 2012, 01:18:26 AM »
sweet! thanks much!

you wouldn't happen to know cannon sizes for old japan would you?
Do you mean length?

Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #25 on: May 12, 2012, 03:44:37 PM »
sweet! thanks much!

you wouldn't happen to know cannon sizes for old japan would you?
Do you mean length?

Caliber actually.  Or whatever the term is for ammunition size for cannonry.

Offline veekie

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #26 on: May 12, 2012, 04:50:33 PM »
That'd be the bore radius mostly. Length is just a matter of accuracy. Radius is how hard it hits for.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Samuraiantiqueworld

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #27 on: May 13, 2012, 10:42:33 PM »


Caliber actually.  Or whatever the term is for ammunition size for cannonry.
First you have to determine what type of cannon, the samurai made ones or the copied or imported European cannon. Here is an example of samurai ammunition sizes and terms.

http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=firearms&thread=27

Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #28 on: May 13, 2012, 10:49:43 PM »
I'll probably list both

Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #29 on: May 14, 2012, 10:28:48 PM »
Got armor and shields revised.  Surprisingly the Japanese have no equivalent to padded, leather, hide, or splint mail.

Offline veekie

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #30 on: May 15, 2012, 12:43:35 AM »
Got armor and shields revised.  Surprisingly the Japanese have no equivalent to padded, leather, hide, or splint mail.
Huh, pretty sure padded, leather and hide armors were available, just not considered 'really' armor, on the basis that padded is effectively just a thick shirt(not to mention being a component of the heavy armors), while leather and hide armor is pretty much as easy to get.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Samuraiantiqueworld

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #31 on: May 16, 2012, 04:39:02 AM »
Got armor and shields revised.  Surprisingly the Japanese have no equivalent to padded, leather, hide, or splint mail.
Here is a link to some information on the use of shields in Japan.
http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=28

The Japanese did use leather or more accurately "rawhide" (nerigawa) in their armor from a very early period until the end of the samurai era (1868). Since Japanese armor is lacquered it can be very hard to detect whether an armor is constructed from metal or leather. I have had to use a magnet on samurai armor items in order to see if  the material was  metal or leather. Here is a link to some images on Wiki commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nerigawa_gusoku

As for padded armor, if you are referring to heavy clothing with no armor used in its construction I have read accounts of ancient Japanese armor being made from cloth.

I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "splint mail", that can mean several different armor types, do you have a description or a link to an image of what you mean.

Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #32 on: May 16, 2012, 11:00:55 AM »
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splint_armour you'll note it says the japanese only used splints for lower legs/arms

Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #33 on: May 16, 2012, 07:00:31 PM »
lso do you have any position on the possibility of stealth armor for ninjas?

Offline Samuraiantiqueworld

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #34 on: May 16, 2012, 11:06:01 PM »
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splint_armour you'll note it says the japanese only used splints for lower legs/arms
Ok, well used in that context I can say that Japanese armor quite frequently used splint armor strips on the suneate (shin armor) and kote (armored sleeves) and han kote (half kote). They did on occasion use a type of splint armor on different armored items, here is an interesting example. http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gusoku&action=display&thread=21 You have to take into account that many types of Japanese armor were virtually unknown to most historians and authors, some have only recently come to light due the internet sales of armor in Japan.

Also karuta armor which is similar to splint armor was used a lot on the haidate (thigh armor), dou (chest armor) and kabuto (helmet), were flexibility was needed. Splints are generally long and rectangular and karuta are generally smaller squares or rectangles.


Offline veekie

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #35 on: May 17, 2012, 12:35:41 AM »
lso do you have any position on the possibility of stealth armor for ninjas?
It seems unlikely really. Ninja capabilities are primarily disguise based(rather than stealth/mobility based as media suggests, though those are also required capabilities), and any noticeable armor at all compromises that.

The best disguises are servants and commoners, who have no authorization checks, limited background checks(you can expect, if under a long term military disguise to have your family exposed, and due to ninjas not being a honorable profession, this can be hard to pull off) and pass under notice. At best you might see easily concealed pads for arms and legs, not for combat, but to make it easier to pull off stunts without getting injured(which would also ruin cover when people start asking why you have scars appropriate to an action hero)
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Samuraiantiqueworld

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #36 on: May 17, 2012, 01:22:00 AM »
lso do you have any position on the possibility of stealth armor for ninjas?
The Japanese were the largest producers of armor in the world, from very early times right up until the end of the samurai era (1868) and even beyond that. They made an incredible variety of armored clothing and many with the armor defense hidden from view. This included armored pants, vests, shirts, jackets, sleeves, gloves, hoods, foot coverings, and belts. I could not imagine anyone in feudal Japan who was in fear of armed conflict not wearing some sort of armor even if it was just a layer of kusari (chain armor) sewn to a common clothing article. Until very recently images of this type of armor were hard to find but now there is enough evidence to suggest that wearing armored clothing was very common. I can show you period prints that clearly show samurai wearing armored clothing, you just have to know what to look for.

Since for the most part ninja would have to blend into the crowd, wearing traditional armor was not an option, wearing hidden armored clothing is what I would expect ninja to have worn, light weight armored sleeves and a vest, shirt or jacket with a kusari, karuta or kikko lining, these would be undetectable to the average person and would have provided a measure of extra protection both physically and psychologically.

Offline veekie

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #37 on: May 17, 2012, 01:43:58 AM »
Oh right, yes, that, sleeves and pants with metal rods(doubles as a weapon in a pinch). Chains between layers of a shirt, etc are fairly unobstrusive and difficult to find without a search.

I'm not sure if they have to be built like that or if you just need to slot in the rods and chain into pockets of the outfit when you need added defense though.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2012, 01:47:10 AM by veekie »
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline bhu

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #38 on: May 17, 2012, 09:21:55 PM »
I'll add concealed armor as an option then

it'll prolly be restricted to medium armor or less

Offline veekie

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Re: Equipment, Weapons, and Magic Items
« Reply #39 on: May 18, 2012, 04:58:41 PM »
The metal bars reinforced sleeves and pants(a little looking up suggests that they are usually worn as bracers and leggings under regular clothing, or else clothes are made with special inner pockets so you can insert them while appearing to be entirely ordinary when the bars are out) also double as weapons, especially longer loaded sleeves making a pretty painful flail to be hit by.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.