Kukri, Ghurka, Whatever

[foxandwarlock]

Okay, all you Burning Wheel veterans and weapon aficionados, I need a little help with my primary weapon.

Obviously, the Kukri comes in a variety of sizes and shapes ranging from huge ceremonial versions all the way down to the size of a combat knife. For BW, I had originally gone with stats for a Knife/Dagger (Power 1, Add 1, VA 0, Fast) but in flipping through the book discovered a listing for the Machete under Slow.

So my question is, what's the feeling on the kukri? Should it be treated like a dagger or more like a machete? Having held one in my hand previously, I lean towards machete but don't know if that justifies adjusting any of the weapon stats or just taking the hit and losing the weapon speed. Is a knife a knife in this case? I would be okay with that answer to if that's the case. However, it seems like there should be some kind of tradeoff for the speed reduction.

[LordSmerf]

Well, a Knife/Dagger can be used to thrust or slash. A Kukri is clearly not a thrusting weapon. I'd tend to treat it as a machete (all of the machete stats). You're going to have a higher add and slower speed than a knife. A Kukri would also have no more than (maybe) 1 VA (because it's dang heavy, but not all that sharp).

Thomas

[luke]

probably ye olde: Power 2, Add 2, VA 1, Slow.

[Viper]

actually, kukris can be used to stab, but generally, they are used more like axes than swords, i.e, wide slashes. They are brutal weapons, especailly effective at decapitations, and amputating limbs. The reason is the shape of the blade- when you slash with a standard, straight bladed sword, it will slice along whatever you impact with over the course of your swing- the forward swept blade on the kukri directs the power of your swing through whatever you're cutting. making it in effect more like a hatchet than a sword. When the gurkhas use their knives in close combat, they are famous for this, just getting in there quickly, and lopping off heads and arms like it's nobody's business.


Not quite sure how you'd represent this in the rules, but here's a quick stab at it:

If a kukri wielder succeeds in making a called shot on a target's limb, roll a DOF - if he rolls a 6, the limb or head is severed (yes this means insta-death for a headshot)- he can add +1 to the roll for every success above the obstacle. Otherwise, determine wound as normal.

[foxandwarlock]

Excellent Abzu. I was thinking along those exact same lines, less power then a sword but the ability to operate Inside without penalty (due to size).

Viper, thanks for the usage info but that rule is way out of whack for our campaign and I certainly wouldn't want to face a kukri-wielding goblin if he could cut my forearm off with a Ob 1 (Inside = no called shot penalty) and a lucky 6 on his DOF.

*shudder*