Old-fashioned slings are an alternative to pistols for those who can’t use firearms. The rules for them in Armory (page 90) are a bit too lenient, so these tweaks make slings more realistic.
| Type | Damage | Range | Capacity | Strength | Size | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sling | 2L | Thrown x3 | 3+1 | 2 | 0/P | • |
| Staff Sling | 3L | Thrown x5 | 3+1 | 2 | 4/N | • |
Slings have no magazine, but the off-hand can hold 3 stones or other ammunition. Once all 3 shots in the hand are used up, another 3 must be drawn from a pouch or other container. Drawing more ammunition works similarly to drawing a thrown weapon, and benefits the same from the Quick Draw merit.
Reloading a regular sling can be done once per round as a Reflexive action. A staff sling requires a Movement action to reload, since it’s more awkward.
Proper use of a sling is a unique skill which requires the Sling specialization in Athletics. Without it, all sling attacks are reduced to a chance die. The rationale for this is that swinging something in a big circle over your head and then releasing a string so the object goes in the right direction is very hard, and bears no resemblance to anything else humans do with our bodies.
First, sling bullets have a very hard time penetrating anything, because their damage comes from blunt trauma. Armor is very good at mitigating blunt trauma, to the point that any ballistic armor greater than 1 downgrades all damage from sling attacks from Lethal to Bashing. Additionally, hard armor like metal or ceramic always downgrades a sling’s damage, regardless of its rating.
Second, slings are entirely unusable in close-quarters melee. They are too unwieldy to use against a target within arm’s reach. Instead, a sling becomes an improvised club with a 0B damage code (requiring the Weaponry skill to use). There just isn’t enough room to swing them around.
Slings use cheap and unassuming ammo which can easily be passed off as harmless.
| Ammo | Damage | Cost | Special |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bullets | base | • | - |
| Lead Shot | +1 | • | AP 1 |
| Stones | -1 | - | - |
Normal sling ammunition (called bullets, but with no relation to modern firearm ammunition) consists of a half-inch steel ball or a one inch glass shooter marble. Both are very easy to find and cost very little (Resources • for a box of 200). The stats in Armory are for this kind of ammunition.
Lead bullets are sometimes used by serious sling hunters who need extra punch for big game. Their malleability and high density grant Armor Piercing 1 and provide a +1 bonus on attack rolls. The AP means that soft armor must be rating 3 or higher to downgrade the attack’s damage. Since it’s a toxic metal, lead has largely disappeared from common use and the only way to get it is through specialty retailers. It’s still cheap, though (Resources • for a box of 100).
Stones are the traditional choice when you have no other option. Most rocks aren’t shaped for proper sling use and suffer a -1 penalty. In the right areas, a successful Wits + Investigation or Wits + Survival check could allow you to find better stones that have no penalty, yielding one stone per success (10 min/roll; streams grant +1).