Atlatl

Preamble & Real Life History

This information is not to be used in-game, but is instead to help you, the player, understand what your character is weilding

Pronunced "ott-lottle", an Atlatl is a weapon renowned for its use, in the real world, against the Spanish conquistadors, accompanying Cortez in Mexico, in roughly 1500 AD. Essentially, the dart is an oversized, flexible arrow (roughly siz feet long), and the atlatl itself is a hand-held launching apparatus, about two feet long. The dart is placed on the atlatl, and then using the leverage of the atlatl, launched into the air.

Trained use can result in accurate shots of up to 100 feet, with a force which could penetrate the conquistadors' armour. Furthermore, barbs along the dart's length would make removal near impossible: the dart would have to be pulled all the way through the impaled victim. Instead, the conquistadors often died a slow, painful death, impaled and stuck inside their own armour...

(Source: SECRETS OF THE ATLATL - Wyatt R. Knapp)

Mechanics and Pictures

Click Here for photos and a visual explanation of how the atlatl works.