Collapsable Boarding Pike

[sleech]

Mornin' All

One 'feature' which I leaned heavily on in the last session of my current Traveller campaign ( Across the Spinward Main) was boarding pike to prevent ship to ship boarding actions. This led the players to question and from that point develop the collapsable boarding pike.

In collapsed form it's a metre long and acts behaves like a club in combat. By pressing a button, extensions shoot out each end and long into place, much like a modern-day springer baton. Press the button again and they retract.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.....

 

[BetterThanLife]

More like a staff then, than a pike? Kind of like the High Guard Forcelance from Andromeda (without the shooty bits).

One problem, especially in a confined space, with the button in the middle is that anyone can push the button if they are near the middle, (Which might not be the weilder.)

The Other problem I see, especially in a confined space, like in a shipboard corridor, is what happens if the button gets pushed and there isn't enough room?

Originally posted by The Sleech:
Mornin' All

One 'feature' which I leaned heavily on in the last session of my current Traveller campaign ( Across the Spinward Main) was boarding pike to prevent ship to ship boarding actions. This led the players to question and from that point develop the collapsable boarding pike.

In collapsed form it's a metre long and acts behaves like a club in combat. By pressing a button, extensions shoot out each end and long into place, much like a modern-day springer baton. Press the button again and they retract.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.....

 

[sleech]

Don't know. We'll see what happens when it gets into combat. It just seemed like a neat ideas and the players geeked on it for ages. This discussion sidetracked the adventure for about an hour.

 

[jasper]

if the button is push in combat say a 1 on to hit (t20) and another 1 then it collapses. If collapsed and struck roll a d6 on 1 hit self on 6 hit bad guy thenroll a d20 with no modifiers to see if you hit.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Sleech!

well met...

if they liked that toy/tool, have 'em meet some cranky Belters sometime with this..
http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=000231

enjoy!
Let us know how they make out..

[Oh, and the above version makes a dandy axe for those narrow hallways too!]

 

[sleech]

One of my players is playing a cranky belter. *He's* actually the one who took the idea of a boarding pike (mine) and turned it into the collapseable do-dad (his).

 

[Valarian]

How about having a fingerprint / thumbprint reader to avoid unfriendlies pressing the button to retract the pike. (TL7?)

 

[jasper]

and if you in your suit at the time? plus could the reader be jammed? Or overridden?

 

[Kaeto]

Sounds like the Minbari Fighting Pike from Babylon 5.

 

[nats]

Sounds like something from Predator to me.

 

[Cryton]

Heh, sounds like fun to me. Club, or, at the press of a button, staff.

Perhaps a high tech version made out of some advanced form of memory metal or plastic, which would do away with the mechanical pieces, and perhaps even allow some third form to be selected as well.

Just a thought.

 

[Selandia]

bardiche

Nice idea, but why limit it to the boarding pike? Battleaxe to halberd or bec de corbin to warhammer anyone? I already love the idea with a bardiche.

The button problem is solved IMHO with an easy relase to deploy ( like a twist of the pummel) and a "complicated" (i.e. unlikely to be accidental, like on a lock knife) unlocking to collapse

Selandia

 

[iron warrior]

Microchip in the suit's thumb/fingers, chip reader in the button.

 

[Lategaming]

Sounds like the extensible katana in the recent Star Trek flick - or the sword with the flick-out pointy bits that the Romulan on the drill had.

Not meaning to derail - but what about other 'mediaeval' defenses? Boiling oil? Caltrops? Venting the toilet storage into the airlock?

 

[jshiggin]

Sounds like the wielder is someone who's going to find himself as a walk-on role in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" next time he tries to use one of these against a guy with a gun.