Author Topic: Tessen / War Fan alt. Critical in The Armory  (Read 1645 times)

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Offline Arenwel

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Tessen / War Fan alt. Critical in The Armory
« on: May 02, 2016, 12:18:23 PM »
Greetings fellows !


I'm making my own version (translation + home rules) of RM, at least for the part that will be handed to my players.
My question is about the War Fan, and I'm pretty sure someone has asked it before. My apologies if it can be found somewhere in these fora, alas, I couldn't get a hold of it.

What is in your opinion the correct alternative crit used for the Tessen ?
The Armory tells us it's a Krush weapon that can do alternative Krush crits...

I remember seeing tessen equiped with spikes protruding from the slates/spokes, maybe in Legend of the Five Rings... It doesn't seem to be historically accurate, maybe only in popular culture.

Would it be Puncture or Slash ? Somethng else ?

Thanks for your time.


Online jdale

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Re: Tessen / War Fan alt. Critical in The Armory
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2016, 12:51:04 PM »
None of the examples in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_fan have spikes or blades. I don't see a reason why such a weapon couldn't exist, but it seems like it would be harder to disguise as a mundane item, which was much of the point of the tessen (that and maybe signaling, which also doesn't benefit from spikes or blades). That said, that's historical, and fiction can diverge. If you have a spiked or bladed war fan, I don't see a reason why it couldn't have puncture or slash alternative crits.
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Offline Arenwel

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Re: Tessen / War Fan alt. Critical in The Armory
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2016, 02:04:43 PM »
Thank you Jdale.

I'm mainly asking because, as I said, in my copy of The Armory, The alternative crit was Krush, the same as the normal crit.
I was wondering if it is a mistake and if so, what could have been this mysterious alternative crit.

Offline OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol

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Re: Tessen / War Fan alt. Critical in The Armory
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2016, 05:48:15 AM »
Going by how one would use a fan in several martial arts, slash criticals sounds right to me.
The world was then consumed by darkness, and mankind was devoured alive and cast into hell, led by a jubilant 紗羽. She rejoiced in being able to continue serving the gods, thus perpetuating her travels across worlds to destroy them. She looked at her doll and, remembering their promises, told her: "You see, my dear, we succeeded! We've become legends! We've become villains! We've become witches!" She then laughed with a joyful, childlike laughter, just as she kept doing for all of eternity.

Offline Arioch

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Re: Tessen / War Fan alt. Critical in The Armory
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2016, 11:06:00 AM »
AFAIK, Tessen were blunt weapons.
They were basically small clubs that could be unfolded to signal the troops, act as small shields or to aid oneself floating.
I think they could have spikes at the ends and therefore act as stabbing weapons, but they were mainly used to parry and/or disarm your opponent, as well as to beat, strangle him, break his arms or help you hold him in a lock.

Of course in manga/anime/videogames you'll find characters wielding war fans of any size and sort (be it spiked, bladed, magical, giant,...), so I guess anything is fine unless you're running a strictly historical campaign.
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Offline Arenwel

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Re: Tessen / War Fan alt. Critical in The Armory
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2016, 08:20:52 AM »
Thank you all for your answers, I'm grateful.

My mind is now made up, and I will use slash criticals @-10 and subdual @-30.