A Long Guide To Bows

[hellspoodles 33]

A word on bows

 

This is a guide on bows. Despite many people arguing about how powerful a bow is, how much damage it does and other annoying tidbits on what a bow does, not many people take the time to figure out how a bow actually works. It’s often believed that you train a bit by shooting a bow a few times or just slap “trained with a bow since they were little” into the backstory and suddenly your char can shoot any bow they pick up from the local dungeon ruin or whatever.

 

Basically what this guide is about those little things which don’t effect role-play all too much but are seriously annoying when someone gets it wrong.

 

If you want a guide on how to actually do archery in RP, Check this out then. Cool fella called Oblivionsbane made it.

 

TL;DR

 

I know I tend to rant on about things and this guide will end up getting very long. So here are some basic points I want to get across to all the unfortunate souls who stumble upon this product of a sleepless mind:

 

 - The majority of time taken between shots for a bow lies in nocking an arrow rather than pulling the bow back, firing, and aiming.

 

 - Wood is an organic material. Every single bow is different even if mass produced, same goes for arrows. An elf training a thousand years with a bow will still not be able to perfectly shoot some random bow and arrow they just pulled up off the ground. Unless magic, because magic.

 

 - An addition to the point above. Since wood is organic, it rots and stuff. Got to keep the bow in upkeep or else it is going to not work as well. Same of course, goes with arrows.

 

 - Bows can’t be fired without an arrow. Even the height of modern tech hasn’t been able to really get around this problem. Basically internal stresses cause the bow to go bang.

 

 - A warbow has a draw weight of around a hundred pounds or more. So you can’t really aim anything that does reasonable damage for any length of time.

 

 - Bow's for the most part, weren't strung all the time. Keeping a bow under tension would permanently bend the bow over time but most importantly it would cause the string to stretch. (Thanks to AGiantPie for reminding me of this)

 

Section 1 - Different types of bow

Spoiler

The bow was one of the earliest weapons developed by man and has been seemingly adopted or been invented by basically every culture on the planet. Even the Eskimo’s made them, Eskimos!

 

So what is a good bow? A bow is in the simplest terms a projectile launcher. Therefore the best bow launches the biggest arrow the fastest and most reliably. The easiest bow to conceptualize is a bent stick with a rope attached to both ends. You pull the rope back and that bends the stick like a spring, you let go of the rope and then the bow snaps back into place pushing whatever is on the string forwards. But why does a stick become a spring?

If we see in the gloriously rendered image above when a stick is bent, one side is stretched while the other side is compressed. Since wood acts as a bi-driectional spring it means that it will apply force in the other direction. This concept is important to bowery since there is a certain thickness which a stick can get before the distance which one side is stretched compared to the distance compressed by the other is so different that it eventually results in the stick breaking. Basically it means that a normal stick being turned into a bow can only get to a certain draw weight before the materials simply wouldn’t allow a higher weight. Also if you have a really giant stick it would get really awkward to hold and aim all the time. So bows use this concept to make higher draw weights and also shave down on how much wood or whatever material is used.

 

Now let’s start listing off the different special types of bow shape you may see people use and what makes them so special.

A) Longbow.

Spoiler

 

Everyone knows this iconic bow. It was used by the english and is highly regarded as a pretty damn good bow. But why did it take so long for mankind to just use a real long stick to make a bow? Well the longbow isn’t that simple as you may have already guessed. When selecting the wood for a longbow it is cut in a very specific way as to have the front of the bow to be sapwood while the back is heartwood. Sapwood doesn’t stretch that much while heartwood is a great spring. This results in the bow being a much more efficient spring than if the bow was made all of the same type of wood. Sapwood is the outside of the tree while the heartwood is the insides of the tree.

 

Longbows were also real tall so that they would have a long draw length. Usually about as tall or taller than the archer. The amount of energy and thus speed given to an arrow is given by P=F*D. This means that the bang relies on the distance the arrow is pushed multiplied by the force. Keep this idea in mind as it will be used later on.

 

Overall, if you have an archer character go ahead and use a longbow. I’ts a pretty standard bow if a bit big.

 

 

 

 

B) Recurve Bow.

Spoiler

 

A recurve bow simply means a bow in which the tips are pointed forwards on the bow when it is not strung. This means it stores more energy and delivers more energy when it is shot. This is quite useful since it allows a shorter bow compared to longbows. 

 

So why does anyone use a longbow then? Recurve bows are harder to make since the materials need to take extra stresses from the design. This means they are harder to make. Since the string slaps the bow itself when fired it ends up being louder than the longbow. Finally, these bows tend to also be unstable especially with extreme recurves. Having your bow invert upon itself when it feels like is not really all that fun.

 

 

 

 

C) Yumi.

Spoiler

 

This is a bow for all of those weeabo’s out there… yeah you know who you are, I may or may not be one, you will never know. Anyways this was the monstrosity of a bow made by the Japanese. It is by far the biggest type of bow out there. While a longbow may be a bit taller than the shooter a Yumi is over 2 meteres tall.

 

It also has a real wierd shape.

Look at that wierd bugger.

 

Anyways, the asymmetric shame actually allowed it to be used on horseback since the bottom of the bow wouldn’t be that much of a pain to move across the back of the horse. The reason why this wouldn’t be the best bow would mainly be it’s massive size, however it is also a bit temperamental to care for and uses a different posture for shooting compared to the other bows since it was developed across the world from the longbows and things.

 

If you plan for some reason to use this tool of overcompensation then you can read about how to shoot it yourself as I have no experience using these and would probably just go on a rant about how plain weird it looks instead of giving actual advice… Seriously that is a weird looking bow…

 

 

 

 

Anyways those are the basic ways in which a bow can look. Now let’s look at the construction. Here we have two main schools of thought. We have composite and self bows. Composite bows are made of more than one material and self bows are a single piece of wood.

 

As mentioned before there were two different things happening with a bow when it gets sprung. One part stretches and the other compresses. Some materials are better at one thing than the other so if you stick them together it results in some much improved performance.

 

A well known pairing is hide and horn used mainly by the terrifying and legendary mongol horse arches. There are a lot of misconceptions about the archers themselves but that is neither here nor there. These bows had hide on the outside for the tensile force and horn on the inside for compressive force. They were held together by animal glue which was slightly problematic when it gets wet as the glue has a tendency to dissolve.

 

The inuit did a similar thing by simply tying cables of sinew rope down the front face of the bow. they held the sinew in place by just tying it there with more sinew.  This concept can be replicated with any kind of non-stretchy material. The problem with sinew is that it tends to stretch when it gets wet. So that’s a problem.

 

The last important bow thing I want to talk about is the takedown bow. This essentially means a bow which can be split into smaller pieces which allow it to be stored in smaller places. The problem with that is that you need to be able to attach all the different parts securely together. Is not completely un-feasable to do with the technology available however to have a strong enough connection for a decent bow would result in heavy and bulky connectors.

 

For completeness sake I will cover compound bows which are likely not allowed on the server as they require “high tech” stuff which is only really able to be produced using modern manufacturing tools and also aluminum which is hella rare in the waybacks.

 

A compound bow used cams to reduce the force on the arrow when it is at full draw and also provide more consistent force on the arrow at all other part of the drawing process. This allows the archer to aim while at full draw since a hundred pound bow may only be pulling twenty pounds or so at full draw. The problem with this is that it require cams to be placed on the ends of the bow which is somewhat problematic as any materials available to a craftsman in LOTC which can handle the strain would be much too heavy to make the bow work.

Section 2 : Actually making a bow

Spoiler

This is the best part of bowery. It's why a person who is fantastic at making chairs somehow can build the perfect bow despite not having done it before. Off with the gripes on the skill system and onwards with my gripes on people making bows. As mentioned above there are a lot of different types of bow. Trying to give even the briefest explanation as to how to make each kind of bow would be a ridiculous endeavor which would probably take an incredible amount of time. The best way to learn how is to just google it. I know it sounds a bit lazy on my part but it is the best way.

 

Here are some links for you in case google is tough to use:

 

Longbows:

Linko Uno

Linko Duo

 

Recurve bows:

Linko Uno

Linko Duo

 

Mongol horsebows:

Linko Uno <<Ikea Style

 

Flatbows:

Linko Uno

 

Arrows(not a bow but real useful to know stuff on it):

Linko Uno

Section 3 : Arrows

Spoiler

 

Now, i’m sure any archer character has noticed the arrows given by the server. Flint arrows, Ferrum Arrows, Barbed Arrows, Dismouting Arrows, Armor penetrating arrows. Now if you know anything about me so far it’s that I am a stickler for details and thus find these descriptions abhorrent. Alas, being understandable and being accurate are two different things. See silencers in videogames. Now let’s get right into the types of arrows used in European medeval warfare.

 

For simplicity, we will look at two arrows an five arrowheads. Arrows used for war and for people were different than ones used for hunting. 

 

Hunting arrows were thinner than war arrows and used broadhead tips since deer usually don’t wear mail. The point of a broadhead is to cause as much damage against an unarmored target as possible, it has a large blade on it’s tip and often has a wicked barb. As it goes into the target it will cut it’s interior to all forms of hell. This is fantastic for hunting since you want to kill your target asap and not lose any arrows since you got to make a living somehow.

 

We also have a blunting. This is a weird arrowhead as it actually is a big weight, no pointyness at all. For hunting it would be used against rabbits and other small game where shooting a broadhead at it would likely cause enough damage to render the animal useless.

 

War arrows were much thicker than hunting arrows and tended to come with 3 different tips. The arrows had larger fletchings and the arrow tips sometimes were loosely fitted onto the arrows so that the arrow heads would be stuck inside their targets meaning they are going to die horribly or at least get stopped every single time before they get on the airplane. All the types of arrowhead I am about to list are technically all bodkin arrowheads but they look so different they may as well be different types.

 

The first arrowhead is long and thin, this was intended to deal with targets wearing mail armor as the point would go through the links in the armor and poke your enemy. The best case would allow the arrow to break some links and poke the enemy even better.

 

On the opposite end of the spectrum was a square headed an more chisel shaped arrowhead made to deal with plate armored opponents. The head would punch through the armor and reach the enemy underneath. Of course this required a direct hit and the padding or even chain beneath the plate would probably stop the arrow anyways. Plate armored knights are no ******* joke.

 

In the middle we have another arrowhead. It would be used if there were a lot of people wearing all kinds of armor. While it wasn’t the best at penetrating armor and wasn’t the best against mail, it would still kill you.

 

Now arrows themselves had to be made of straight wood and also are like all bows, different in their own ways. Most notably each arrow has it’s own stiffness. When an arrow flies in the air it flexes as it leaves the bow. This changes it’s flight path slightly. For hitting something like a barn door or a person at medium range this doesn’t actually cause enough deviation to really matter. In order to hit a specific location from any range however, it must be taken into account. Knowing this is the difference between a good archer and a master archer.

 

 

 

 

Section 4 : Shooting a bow

 

Spoiler

 

Wow, two thousand or more words in and I am just getting to the fun parts. By Billy Bob I am boring. Well, time to bore you some more then! Onto shooting a bow.

 

Since bows in the way-backs didn’t have accurate sights like us lucky ducks in the modern day get. It was all about doing everything exactly the same every single time. If you did everything the exact same you could expect the exact same thing to happen. So to do this archers made sure their pose was always the same.

 

I could go and explain every detail but I’ll let this picture do most of the hard work and take a thousand words away from my tired fingers from typing.

 

(I didn't make this picture, some other fella did. It was for this website)

Let’s study this guy shall we? Here are some things he’s going which are good.

 

He puts the hand pulling the string under his chin. His nose and mouth barely touch the string. You can use your cheek though it is harder to get the exact right place each time.

The arm holding the bow is slightly relaxed, this gives you more control over the bow.

His arm is fairly flat and in line with the bow. An easy mistake when first shooting a bow is to have your arm pointed way up. Not really apparent in RP but if you want to have a char learn this is a cool thing to add in so your teacher can correct it!

Hard or impossible to see, but instead of pulling the bow with his arm muscles he uses his back muscles instead. This is easier to do and results in naturally better pose

His legs are spaced widely to stabilize himself and he angles himself sideways to the target. Generally helps with pose and stuff. Not much to say really.

 

Now a note when drawing a bow. You can’t hold it back if it’s a powerful war bow. it is easiest to pull the whole thing back in one smooth motion. Good RP for beginners if you have trouble since you are pulling slowly. When drawing the bow, focus your eyes on the target and don’t move your head, point the bow to your eyes not your eyes to the  bow. Draw the bow from pointing downwards to upwards. If you prematurely release the arrow then you don’t brain someone a mile off.

 

 

 

 

 

Section 5 : Bow maintainace

Spoiler

After you buy your bow the fun doesn't stop there. Like you have to oil a sword and sharpen it, you must do similar things to your bow. As mentioned above, water is the bane of bows. It causes the string to stretch and reeks havoc on the fine tuning from the bower. To counteract this you have to apply waterproofing every now and again to the bow and the string. It is also advisable to keep the bow out of the rain whenever possible. Waterproofing is often beeswax, if that is not available animal fat or any kind of oil will do in a pinch. getting a slippery bow is not as bad as a warped and twisty one with a damp string.

 

Another thing which people didn't do in the waybacks was keep the bow strung at all times. Wood likes to adapt to it's surroundings in a sense and it would cause the bow to slowly bend towards a strung state over time. Since dacron and other polymer rope wasn't invented back then, the strings would also stretch given time. Making a bowstring was a bit annoying to do so making the ones you had last was high on the priority list. Stringing a bow doesn't really take all that long if you are used to it. thirty seconds or even less if an angry orc is charging at you wanting to get a taste of pinkie flesh.

 

(Thanks again to AGiantPie for reminding me of adding this bittle)

Summary:

 

God that took ages to write and I missed so many things. Actually, I probably missed a bunch of things and had terrible grammar while doing it. I just hope you can get some info about archery from this and lead to some more detailed and accurate RP.

 

Please message me if you think something above is wrong or something should be added!

 

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Rev #5

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

Cool and good!