Basic Information
A line bearing munition is a round of ammunition that carries a line and/or grappling hook (or harpoon). They are generally intended to aid the user in throwing the line across a gap, except in the case of the harpoon, which is designed to aid in the capture of the target.
Line bearing rounds can be used to climb over obstacles, cross gaps or to establish ropeways between ships - although the round itself may only carry a lightweight leader line across which the user then deploys a load bearing rope.
More cinematic applications include firing a line into a helicopter rotor to foul the blades or firing a conducting line into a mains distribution hub to short-out the transformers.
Modern LBMs tend to resemble a rifle grenade, whilst older versions were fired on rockets or from ballistae - opinions vary as to whether they were fired from bows and crossbows.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- PCs will probably want to use these at one stage or another - how effective they are will depend on the campaign: in a cinematic one they are generally small, light and highly effective - in a more realistic one, the PCs may struggle.
- For a historical example, try that of the Ranger assault on Pointe du Hoc on D-day and the troubles they had with their various line launching devices.