I may or may not have mentioned this before, but one thing that played a major role in my renewed interest of slinging was the game Dungeons and Dragons.  And now I am about to reveal what a complete dork I am

A while back my brother and I decided that it would be fun to write out what we would look like as d&d characters.  My brother found out quickly that english proffesors don't translate well into an adventure game, but I did alright.  Anyway, I was drawing up a picture of what I would look like and how I would carry my gear, using things that I actually own, and I had drawn myself with a bow.  Now, I don't own a bow, but I'm ok with one.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought that I should limit myself to things I actually had, or could afford (or make).  And that's when slings popped into my head.  I went to the internet and looked up slings, and now here I am... but enough of the backstory.

What prompted my post today was something myself and the other supervisor here (who I have converted to slinging) were doing saturday morning while waiting on all our peons to show up for work.  We had a foam practice golf ball, and we were slinging it back and forth at each other.  On impulse, I tried slinging at him while I was running, and to my suprise, I hit him.  I tried it again several times with good results.  He being also a d&d fan, joked that I had taken the "shot on the run" feat.  If you're not a d&d fan, that probably doesn't make much sense... sorry, if you really want to know about it I can explain.

Which brings me to this morning, and the real point of all this.  I was back in the warehouse practising my slinging with a raquet ball, and I decided to try my shot on the run again.  My target was a 1qt canteen sitting on the rungs of a ladder at about 12 yards.  I managed to hit it 75% (15 out of 20) of the time, which is better than I do standing still.  I'm wondering if by running and not really thinking about my shot much, I'm actually improving my chances, or if I'm just finally getting better.

Incedintally, that drawing I did of all my gear played a role in me changing my slinging style as well.  I love my figure 8, and I still use it for distance or fun, but I've changed to the byzantine style for accuracy... mainly because the pouch would get caught on my sword during a fig-8

I could see a definite advantage to using the moment already used in walking/running to slinging, as opposed to having to gather momentum from a 'stopped' state.

it'd remove one variable of focus, and leave you simply the act of throwing, but I'd wonder about the power of it?

I had a look at the 4th edition rules recently and I dont think they modelled the sling well. They should boost the power and range way up and throw in some balances like needing plenty of room and lots of skill.

I was doing some speed shooting at the weekend and got 9 to 10 shots per minute in sustained fire, reloading with the throwing hand  from an ammo bag at my right. I tried to get a faster burst by keeping a second stone in my throwing hand but I got mixed up and failed to release the sling during the throw. I now have a nice deep bruise on my leg where I whacked myself

I haven't played in a couple years, but D&D used to be what my life was about. I even house-ruled slings into a more realistic weapon (range and damage-wise) and many of my characters were slingers (like myself.)
I haven't had a look at 4th edition yet, but I'm willing to bet I don't like it. I was pleased with 3.5, so why they went and "updated" already is a mystery to me. Even from a business standpoint, 3.5 was going to keep selling for several more years.
Oh well.

I remember slinging while running towards my target once... I tried various styles, but had the best success with a basic underhand, until I caught myself in the back of my leg.
That left a mark. 

Actually it's an interesting idea.
Trying to model my skillset according to d&d rules.

I think I'd need a new character class
Do they have anything for someone who's fairly expert in things as diverse as pyrotechnics, cookery, slinging, heavy lifting, philosophy and half a dozen minor skills: things as diverse as mycology and wu chi.
I tend to think of myself as a poor mans polymath (so not  a modest character then).

Been a long time since I've looked at a d&d book.

JTK wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2008 at 8:24pm:


You might even be able to play a slinging-peasant-nomad-otter

sweet!

I'm all for it, I'll get my stuff together tomorrow morning and post it (gotta run out the door right now)