Chainsaw Chucking

By graver2, in Dark Heresy Rules Questions

So, one of my players made an assassin today to replace is scum who decided to take an opportunity and bugger the hell out of Imperial Space. While he was going over and selecting his skills and talents, he noticed the talent: Thrown Weapon Training (Chain) and had to ask for clarification on what exactly that was. After a bit of page thumbing, I concluded that it had to, indeed, be training in chucking chainsaws at folks. He looked at me incredulously and asked "So... how the hell dose that work?" to which I could only reply "Er... poorly."

So, am i correct in my assumption, is that really a talent to throw chainsaws at folks and, if so, how the hell dose that work? I can't imagine a chain weapon not having a deadman's switch and if it didn't, spinning blades on an unbalanced object doesn't lead to a very accurate anything, never mind the fact that it won't stay still once thrown and usually requires some consistent force to get the teeth to bite into what ever it is that you want them to cut into and not have the teeth simply act as a tank-tread propelling the weapon off and away from what ever it touches...

In the end, i told him it works 'cause throwing chainsaws at thing has got to be one of the top ten reasons the Rule of Cool exists, but, really, an actual talent to throw chain blades?

Maybe they're saving it up for some kind of s00per weapon. Think Xena-style throwing discs, but made out of chainsaw.

Pretty much. There's Thrown (Primitive), which doesn't let you throw claymores, but throwing knives, so Thrown (Chain) would likely apply to chainweaponry that is meant for throwing - stuff weighing 10+ kg isn't really well-suited for being hurled around.

Well give the Chain Knife from IH some range and tadaa..

There's also a chain scalpel statted out in Edge of Darkness for the haemonculi. Those would work fine too.

How about this:

Chain Harpoon
Range: 10m
Class: Chain (thrown and melee)
Damage: 2d5+5R
Pen: 4
Special: Tearing, Special
Weight: 8kg
Cost: 570


This bulky but heavy spear has two chain blades mounted behind its tip to ensure that they further pull the spear into its victim.
If the harpoon inflicts more than twice the victims toughness bonus in damage it is imbedded in the victim causing another 1d5+5R Tearing damage each following round.
Removal the spear take a Very Hard (-30) Medicae test, if such a test is failed the victim takes 1d5+5R + twice the degrees of failure in damage.



Yes this is very nasty weapon....how about attaching a wire to it...nice harpoon...

Oh ya, I know about the chain knife and the chain scalpel from EoD and certain skulls. Still, I'd have a hard time playing this talent strait.

Looking at it strait, you'd probably be better off hurling the heavy chain weapons as opposed to the small light ones. With the small ones, there'd be absolutely no force that would hold the blade down or on target long and hard enough to allow the teeth to chew into the target nice and deep. As soon as the teeth hit a surface, they'd act as a wheel carrying the weapon skittering off in some random direction hopping about like a mouse on crack and thats assuming there's no deadman switch on the weapon or it has been disabled so some dim nutter could chuck it at folks.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for some kind of chain weapon to come out in the future that might actually benefit from being thrown, tough I can't imagine how that would be done and still have it classed as a chain weapon.

Edit before posting even!

Ya, like the harpoon Santiago posted. Thanks for that! I guess my imagination just sucks... and I'll be taking that harpoon now! Vicious and quite nice... and workable!

the TechPriests have all kind of throwing talents. I like throwing weapon (power) the best. Why not throw a 2000 thrones weapon at your enemy?aplauso.gif