How do characters carry bows when not in use?

[MrHemlocks]

How do you players have their characters carry their bows when they are not in use? Like when the character walks within a tunnel and holding torch in one hand with sword in the other. How do they attach the bow to their bodies? Is there some sort of special hook or technique to secure a bow to the body when not being used...besides sealed up within a harness?

Do character need to have some sort of open bow sling like the one depicted below?

[JediOre]

We don't get into details like that in our gaming. It's assumed they have it on them and ready to pull when needed.

What say others?

[Skyscraper]

We don't get into details like that in our gaming. It's assumed they have it on them and ready to pull when needed.

What say others?

Likewise.

Carrying stuff, more generally, is not something we want to address. My players are fairly reasonable when it comes to that, no hoarders in our group. We simply assume it's "somewhere" on the PC.

[Semi-Retired Gamer]

It's a non-issue in our games also.

[jozxyqk]

They need the handy dandy Bowtote (TM)! (apparently an actual thing -- http://www.bowtote.com/index.html)

But seriously, we don't deal with it either. That said, I have a couple of players I wish weren't so ridiculous about having any given weapon instantly ready in any situation. Surprise a coven of cultists across the room? "I pelt them with arrows!" Then the statues next to you animate and attack? All of a sudden the swords are instantly at the ready and the bows seem to have disappeared. One of the cultists runs to warn the abbot? Even in the midst of melee the knocked and fully strung bows are back in hand and arrows fly to knock him down.

I don't really want to "regulate" this issue, or have to harry my players about it. I just sort of wish they would think a little bit and be reasonable on their own about (1) how much their PC can reasonably carry and stilly shimmy up ropes and down chimneys, and (2) where all these weapons actually go when not in use and how difficult it is to rapidly cycle "inventory". Even if they just came up with a reasonable explanation (or better yet, used a MDoA to do these things) I would be tremendously happy.

[cjoepar]

...That said, I have a couple of players I wish weren't so ridiculous about having any given weapon instantly ready in any situation...

I take the simple road when this happens: I have the character make a LUCK check to see if they can get the desired item (it's not always a weapon) out without getting tangled up or dropping something. If they fail, the number they fail by is the number of Actions it takes to complete the swap. I count movement as an Action in this case, so characters get 2 or 3 Actions per round, depending on their level. So if they have a LUCK score of 12 and they fail their check with a result of 15, it takes them 3 Actions to get the desired item out. They can keep moving if they like, but it will take them longer than if they stop to do it.

If they attempt it multiple times in an encounter, they make each subsequent check with a cumulative +2 modify to their roll.

I would also point out that you normally wouldn't travel with a bow strung, unless you are very likely to run into danger, because it's very easy to snag your bow on something when it's strung, and it also degrades the tension in the bow over the long term. Even walking around a city it would get caught on things all the time. So normally, bows are unstrung at night during an adventure except in rare cases. I figure it takes a round to string a bow (I assume a certain level of expertise on the part of the owner).

[MrHemlocks]

I still think it would be nice to know how bows were secured to people when not is use...medieval style. Never know, if in a game, that knowledge might come useful.

[jozxyqk]

I still think it would be nice to know how bows were secured to people when not is use...medieval style. Never know, if in a game, that knowledge might come useful.

My relatively uninformed guess is that bows not in use would more or less always be unstrung and carried around as sticks. You're either using it to hunt or (rarely) you're shooting arrows across a battlefield. I doubt people treated them as "sidearms" the way PCs do (i.e., for clearing rooms in dungeons and ever at your side ready to plunk an orc howling out of the darkness). But as I say, relatively uninformed. Happy to be corrected.

[Skyscraper]

I still think it would be nice to know how bows were secured to people when not is use...medieval style. Never know, if in a game, that knowledge might come useful.

My relatively uninformed guess is that bows not in use would more or less always be unstrung and carried around as sticks. You're either using it to hunt or (rarely) you're shooting arrows across a battlefield. I doubt people treated them as "sidearms" the way PCs do (i.e., for clearing rooms in dungeons and ever at your side ready to plunk an orc howling out of the darkness). But as I say, relatively uninformed. Happy to be corrected.

This is also my uninformed understanding.