Waylaying with a bow

[Stitch]

Since this was a topic of discussion at the one-day and I promised to post the question...here it is...

Is it possible to waylay with a bow?

[Kellian]

I'm not staff so this is not an official answer, but as I understand the waylay rules, you must strike within 6 inches of your hand. Since the grip for a bow is in the middle and the minimum length for a bow is beyond a foot, then I would assume that you cannot waylay with a bow. That being said, though, I think Atlanta chapter made a local ruling at one time requiring waylay with a latex sword to be only legal at the base of the blade by the crossguard since the latex weapon had no legal waylay tip (being latex). But that was a local ruling only. Personally, since the purpose of a waylay tip is for greater safety than just the insulation foam padding on blades, i would say no to bow waylay, even though I use a bow a lot.

[dsaluga]

Here ya go,

Pg. 41 of the NERO Rulebook:
"You do not need a weapon skill to perform a Waylay, but must have a foam phys rep of a rock or bludgeon. This phys rep must be built to the specifications
of a small weapon (see the chapter on Weapons for more information)."

Pg. 83 of the NERO Rulebook:
"The NERO Bow (referred to hereafter as Bow) must be curved and formed in the shape of a bow. Overall length in a straight line from tip to tip must be between 34 and 58 inches. Thrusting tips must be on both ends."
AND
"You can use the bow in combat for blocking, but you may not attack with it. Once it blocks an attack, the bowstring is considered cut or unstrung by combat."

Looking through the Official 8th Edition Errata, as well as our playtests, I cannot see anything that states differently.

Since it has to be built with the specifications to Small Weapon, then you can only assume that you can only use a Phys Rep with the specifications of a Small Weapon to waylay. Archery allows you to use a bow and a bow's minimum length is bigger than that of a small weapon. Not to mention, you are not allowed to attack with the bows.

The official ruling would be, no, you cannot waylay with a bow.

Hope that helps,
Derek

[Zenos]

thus is why ya get a dagger or something of that nature
sorry the smart ass in me had to rear it's sarcastic head

[Rowena Bryardie]

but... you can waylay with a staff and that's WAAAY longer than a bow from tip to handgrip.

and you can't attack with the pommel of a sword, which is what's used to waylay, so I don't see how it's any different than the end of a bow. I'd be willing to say it unstrung it, though.

*sigh* this totally makes my epic first-day move illegal...

lol, although I also "cut myself free" from a physical web with my bow, and then had somebody point out the impossibility of this... lol. Everyone else was doing it, I just didn't think!

[Arienna]

I think the idea is like this: You sneak up behind someone and club them upside the head to knock them out... You can club someone with the pommel of your dagger or sword - we see that in movies all the time. xD Or a rock.. You don't club someone with the hilt of a sword but that's a change in method used specifically because latex swords don't ahve waylay tips... aren't safe to whack someone with.

But a both is supposed to be a length of wood - right? So if you sneak up behind someone and whack them with it... the bow will break, right? Whereas, I could see whacking someone upside the back o the head and knocking them senseless. It's not so much the construction of our weapons, but what they're supposed to be representing. ^_^

[jester]

Honestly real bows are strong - I own a wooden long bow and if you whacked someone upside the head with it - like baseball batting them - my bow would probably not break... and it will probably feel like you got hit with a baseball bat... it'll probably knock them out too if you hit the right spot.
I agree with Derek's ruling though.

The arrow is the actual weapon, does that mean you can waylay someone with an arrow packet?

[Rowena Bryardie]

Ooh, that's a good idea. I remember discussing once if you could do a killing blow by holding an arrow packet above someones face, to physrep sticking it in their eye.

I too have practiced archery... and thwacking something with a bow is NOT enough to break it. Unstring it, possibly, but that has more to do with the enormous tension on the string, causing the string to break under duress. Bows are categorized by weights. I used a 30, which is about as light as they make them. This means that when pulled, the string is exerting 30 POUNDS OF PRESSURE on the wood of the bow. To hunt with a bow, it usually has to be at least 100 pounds! (I knew someone who got away with a 60, but he was hunting turkeys, which are fairly thin-skinned in the right places.) So yeah, hitting something is NOT going to break it. They're made from extremely strong and flexible wood that takes a minimum of 6 years to properly form, treat, and then make a bow out of.

*shrugs*

Remember that part in the Oddysey where nobody could string Oddyseus's bow? Yeah. Think about huge, full-grown warriors leaning on this bow with all their might to bend it. I think Oddyseus's bow would have been qualified as "rendered," lol.