OK, this has confused me.

The Corellian Compound Bow in SoF, is a Ranged (Heavy) weapon.

Yet its ammunition is Ranged (Light)

This seems like an error? Why would the ammo have a Skill associated with it?

Should I simply ignore this, and use the bows Skill, as that is what you will be using to actually FIRE the arrows?

Seems odd that you can be REALLY good with a Box.. but RUBBISH with a certain arrow?

I think the Ranged (Light) with the ammunition is if you were throwing it by hand, as thrown weapons use Ranged (Light). I could be wrong, of course. . .

Yeah, either what LibrariaNPC said, or a misprint. Take your pick.

My guess is it's a misprint. Thrown arrows exist, but they tend to be larger and heavier for longer throws (since much of these arrows power would be determined in the downward half of their arc) or smaller than a normal arrow, made for short distance throwing, like an oversized dart.

Edited to remove further (and possibly faulty) speculation.

I never considered the 'Throwing arrows' approach... probably because I am a former archer, and an arrow lacks the weight to carry any penetrating power when thrown by hand, so it never occured to me.

Things like javelins have the weight to carry kinetic energy from a throwing arm, while an arrow require much greater force.

To me, it makes sense to simply drop that skill from arrows, and assume they are using the skill from the bows they are fired from. Which currently is a single entity, and more a fluff entity at that, the Bow concept seems abit out of place in Star Wars, so I dont see it coming up very often. But still.... thanks for the input guys!

RD

This is a great question for the Order 66 podcast thread that is about to have Sam Stewart on it (the guy who edited Suns). The thread is calling for all Suns questions, this one has come up often enough that I'm shocked it's not already in the thread.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/104072-dev-questions-about-suns-of-fortune-sam-stewart-joins-the-order-66-podcast-on-may-11/

I'd go with a misprint as well. The ammo itself doesn't have a skill. The three listings are for three different profiles using different ammo, but the same bow. I would stick with Ranged (Heavy) for all three.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw that weapon table was that someone had copy-pasted one of the lines above and then simply forgotten to edit the box that said which skill to use. That's a mistake I've made myself on more than one occasion.

I want to say that this already got an answer from Sam during an earlier appearance on the Order 66 podcast, or via an e-mail response that somebody else sent.

The answer was that the listing of Ranged (Light) for the specific arrows was deemed correct, with the justification that the special arrowheads required more precision to hit their target than the general-purpose arrowheads.

Personally, I think that's a load of bull, as the type of arrowhead isn't really going to have that drastic of an impact on how the bow operates. So if/when they come up in any games I run, I'll treat them as operating under the Ranged (Heavy) skill just the same as the bow itself does.

I was the one who asked him about the Compound bow in this thread.

The response I received was as follows:

Thanks for your question, and I apologize for the confusion. As it turns out, this is not an error, but reflects the very different ammunition types (and skills required to use them) in this unique weapon.

Firing a regular arrow from a bow relies a great deal on the user's physical strength, both to draw the bow and to keeping the draw taut while aiming and firing. Thus damage and accuracy are related to the user's strength, hence the Ranged Heavy skill and Cumbersome rating.

However, both explosive-tipped and stun arrows are very different from "regular" arrows. Each of these arrows replaces the low-tech broadhead tip of the arrow with a sophisticated payload. In the case of the explosive-tipped arrow, this payload is essentially a small frag grenade. In the case of the stun arrow, it is a stun-discharge "pad." Neither has the same aerodynamics as a regular arrow, and neither relies on the user's strength in the same way (in essence, as long as the arrow can be drawn enough to be fired, it doesn't matter how hard it hits the target; the explosive damage or stun discharge does all the work).

To reflect this, we used two different skills.

Of course, if you have a character who wants to make a habit out of using a Corellian compound bow, you could always invent a custom skill that covers both aspects of bow-use. Ranged (Bow) is certainly unorthodox, but fits into the reason custom skills exist in the first place. In this case, all three payloads for the bow would change to Ranged (Bow) for that character, and you and your GM could work together to determine which Ranged (Light) or Ranged (Heavy) talents would apply to your new skill. I'm certain that, given the other ranged options available, inventing this skill would not prove to be overly powerful.

Hope this helps!

Basically, For the special arrows, strength isn't as important as long as you can hit the target, after all, the archer isn't trying to pierce flesh or armor with the special arrows. So to reflect this, they decided to use a different skill set. But of course, neither Ranged (Light) nor Ranged (Heavy) use strength so it's really confusing.

It's not the most ideal solution, but as with all rules, the GM has the power to change things to what is better with their style of game.

That... doesn't make any sense! The strength needed to draw a given bow is going to be the same no matter what arrows you use. Are they suggesting maybe you only draw back half as far is you're using "payload" arrows?

I think what he is trying to get it, is a standard arrow to be effective is reliant on it hitting its target with enough force to penetrate and kill.

While an Explosive arrow and Stun arrows do damage on impact, they do not need to penetrate.... so you technically wouldn't need to draw the bow as far, because it requires less energy.

(You would get the same effect from a lower powered bow with an explosive tip, as you would with a stronger bow.. if you hit your target. You simply wouldn't get the range).

I understand where he is coming from, I don't think it is a big enough deal to cause problems whichever way you go.

If that's the case, then you should also reduce the range on payload arrows, as the draw strength of a bow can seriously affect how far the arrow flies.

Since Range is subjective, this might be the case (And a GM call).

Maybe the payloads fire just beyond Short (And just inside the Medium band), while the Standard Arrows fall just short of Long (and still inside Medium).

Its not ideal, but then this system is must more abstract and flexible. I'm happy to deal with it the above way, or ignore the skill required for the ammo entirely, and just use the bows.

For me its now a non-issue.

From a gaming perspective, it's a non-issue for me. I'll handwave it so that using bows is always Ranged (Heavy) (or perhaps a custom skill like he suggests, say... Ranged (Archaic)), because of the draw weight of the bow, largely because no matter how far you have to draw a bow back, the same skill is necessary to aim and it, and that's more important, in my book, than whether you need to be stronger.

This is only a case of cognitive dissonance for me. If I argue against it, it isn't because of an in-game issue; it's because I'm a somewhat experienced archer, and it just doesn't all click for me.

The way I rationalize it to myself is that the specialty payloads have micro thrusters in them so you don't need to pull back the bow as hard. But yeah, it was an interesting design choice to have the specialty arrows use a different skill.

No, it doesnt click for me, as I am also an archer.... but for the game mechanics, its not an issue for me now. Since there is no major mechanic that is broken by ignoring the differing skills, and that the reason given for that difference is easily ignored without effecting anything else, I am happy to ignore it.

I know it doesnt make any sense, draw weight is draw weight, and only varies from bow to bow, not arrows used. But *shrug* easily worked round

If one of my player wanted bows to be his mains shtick, a la Green Arrow or Hawkeye, I think I would use a custom skill like Sam Stewart suggested.

I can see two different skills for the same weapon if you're using the weapon in two entirely different ways. For instance, a knife could be both Melee and Ranged (Light), depending on whether you're stabbing with it or throwing it.

But two different skills for the same weapon, used in entirely the same way, only using different arrows? And the only excuse they can come up with is that you pull the bow back less? That sounds totally nonsensical to me.

I'm still treating it as a typo

Aye. It's a typo.