Improvised Melee Weapons

"I once saw him kill three men in a bar... with a pencil, with a f@#$% pencil." -- Viggo Tarasov, John Wick (2014)Characters sometimes must fight with objects which were not designed as weapons, and do not have stats in the melee weapons tables. Per Basic Set p. 404, the GM can assign stats to improvised weapons by finding a similar weapon (for instance, a heavy hammer working as a small mace) but with a penalty to skill and/or damage. 
== Perks ==
Characters who are proficient in using improvised weapons can take Improvised Weapons as a leveled perk, with each level lowering the penalty to using an unusual item as a weapon.Low-Tech, p.9
== Premade Improvised Melee Weapon Entries ==
=== Low-Tech Examples ===
Item 	Weapon 	Skill 	Damage
Pen or StylusLow-Tech, p.63 	Dagger 	Knife-1 	thr-4 imp
Arrow or Bolt*Fragile -- breaks half the time on an attack or parry. Unusual arrowheads do their own special effects.	Dagger 	Knife+0 	max 1d-4 imp
Bottle, Intact 	Knobbed Club	Axe/Mace-2	-2 cr
Bottle, Broken 	Small Knife 	Knife-2 	0 thr imp (0.5)Fractional Armor Divisor -- this means enemy's DR is multiplied by 2!
 	 	 	
=== Examples (to be added) ===
* GURPS High-Tech, p.25, p.199 (just a reference to entries in other books)
** Most hardware store items--hammers, wrenches, etc--have their own associated entries.
* GURPS Martial Arts, p. 224 has a table of how to assign statistics to common objects used as improvised weapons
* GURPS Low-Tech, p.63 has a table of how to assign statistics to common objects used as improvised weapons
*GURPS Horror, p.49-51 has another table of improvised weapons
== Fire Extinguishers ==
Fire extinguishers are used in several action movie setpieces as improvised weapons, but they're more than just clubs! The spray from a fire extinguisher can blind and stun opponents (HT-3) when sprayed at the face! Fire extinguishers typically have a range of about three yards. Ultra-Tech describes fire extinguishers using Jet,Ultra-Tech, p.87 but High-Tech uses Cone.High-Tech, p.29
== See Also ==
* Improvised Shields
* Garrote (lots of improvised garrotes) 
* Cloak skill
*Improvised Weapons perk (Low-Tech p.9; GURPS Martial Arts p. 50; Power Ups 2: Perks)
== Notes ==
== References ==
Category:Melee Weapons