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3-handed sword

If you’re going to include four-armed Green Martians in your game, I reckon they ought to benefit from being able to wield 3- and 4-handed weapons. The trouble is, it’s not so easy to imagine them – I mean sure, you could provide a sword with a really, really long handle, but does it make any sort of sense? Would it actually be cool?

Here’s what I’ve got so far – can you do better?

1. four-handed pentadent: a long stick with a bizarre and ridiculously violent-looking forest of blades on the end, wide enough to hold back a whole column of infantry if you have no regard for your own life.
2. battle-sprange of Kapleurk: a weird metal abortion full of spiky bits and handles, clearly infringing on the Klingons’ copyright – combining aspects of halberd, punch dagger and shield, it works rather like a swiss-army knife, which is to say not very well at all.
3. Radium gatling gun. Big and unwieldy, it requires two hands to hold and another to crank the handle. The fourth is needed for flashing big thumbs ups to all your envious Thark mates.
4. whirling voulge-tree: these really only require two hands, but for full effectiveness you have to use two at a time, interlocking the points for a spinning wheel of steel deathspikes. Not recommended for children under 9 feet tall.
5. Wajestic War Wurlitzer: not technically a weapon, this gigantic pipe organ will nevertheless make you the envy of any operatically-minded enemies you encounter. Exerts an irresistible fascination on vampires, and its gas-powered version is capable of burning them right out of the sky.
6. Cannon. Strictly this is also not a 4-handed weapon, but you can laugh and laugh at those puny red men trying to heave it off their crushed thoats after you’ve bowled them down with it.

  1. March 19, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    and for exploration …. 40 foot poles …

  2. March 19, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    Something of an aside, but your post got me thinking about handeness in Green Men. Do they have one dominant hand and three nondominants or a dominant hand for each arm pair? If the latter, is it on the same side? Are their secondary arms as strong and dexterous as their primary arms?

  3. 1d30
    March 20, 2012 at 2:28 am

    I think the way to go here would be four single-handed things: small weapons or shields.

    It would be cool to see them paired up like Shield-Maidens, where the male has four weapons (two spears and two shortswords?) and the female has four shields. She covers him, he stabs out around her with the spears, and if anybody closes to short range he has two swords to chop chop.

    As for missiles, multiple slings get in the way of each other so it would probably have to be guns or crossbows. Although a specialized fighting style involving four slings at once would be pretty badass. Load all four by juggling your stuff for one round, then spin them up and sling four shots on the next round.

    • richardjohnguy
      March 20, 2012 at 3:14 am

      juggle-loading’s a lovely thought: I see two ranks of circus-trained Tharks – slingers in the front rank supported by jongleur-pikemen in the rear.

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