\N wrote:...My point was that the weapons themselves aren't too important unless they hold some significance....
... In Predator 2, the leader of the Clan offers Harrigan a flintlock pistol as a reward, which is obviously a weapon....
Here is one of the most interesting things, N. - I will get into details that may be interesting for some players.
For the Yautjas, weapons and armour are a typical gift for giving to the others.
Usually it's done as part of a rite of passage, as a gift to a honourable and skilled hunter (even if it's actually a foe) or simply as a provision to other clan member/fellow hunter/ally.
And there's an escalation here, where they reward greater feats with better gifts.
But not all of them will see all the weapons the same way.
That flintlock pistol from Predator 2 film?
Was given to that Predator Elder ("GreyBack") by the Captain Raphael Adolini when lethally wounded by gunfire.
(The captain actually had the predator as a unexpected ally when facing a mutiny on part of his crew.)
->
http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Raphael_Adolini_1715
And the predator then gave his retractable sword to Adolini, placing it by his body as a "posthumous gift" (it's a common funeral rite).
The pistol wasn't a trophy for this Yautja, but a gift that he received and certainly interpreted as "another hunter recognizing his combat skills and honour in battle".
And by giving an important item of this sort to Harrigan he in fact recognized him as an extremely honourable and skilled hunter.
Mind that Harrigan was a human that defeated the other predator while unarmoured, using the smartdisk as a melee weapon and was covered in bruises, cuts and still bleeding...
- For the Yautja, themselves are the "best hunters in the universe", so it was really incredible for the elder to watch!
It's really interesting to notice, on the scene, that the predator deeply meditates about Harrigan's feat for a while.
->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwqWe0wz0fY
Feel a lot like he's really calculating by himself "What of extreme value I can give to this amazing soft meat hunter?", and to this he concludes that a rare weapon - with a lot of importance to him - is the adequated gift.
In contrast? Some scenes from Aliens versus Predator film.
On this one, Alexa Woods receive a combistick from the Clan Elder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh4GYHtq2hY
BUt here it's an almost automatic gesture on his part.
Feels a lot like an "Whoops... I was expecting a recently bloodied Yautja to have it, but it's yours, bloodied human." - Where we see the same act of rewarding a honourable and skilled hunter, but not the same "tension" on his gestures.
(As an elder, he knows much more about humans and xenomorphs, had previous experience with them, certainly witnessed another instance where a human bested a xenomorph and isn't actually that amazed.)
But before that, we have this scene, where the recently blooded yautja ("Scar") makes some weaponry to Alexa, and marks her as blooded, after witnessing her killing the xenomorph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyoBu9DHCF8
And he is visibly unsure about what to do at first. (Is a novice...)
Was even going away, but changes his mind once she manifest herself.
And creates a weapon to a fellow hunter while teaching her about it's properties.
(He kinda decided to take her as his apprentice.)
On this all, it's easy to figure out that different Yautjas will have distinct significances for their weapons, where sometimes an weapon of "alien origin" - even an innefective one - might be more valuable to them than a normal one depending on the facts involving those.
And that the perception on all of this changes a lot between individuals or even clans.
Predators actually are really interesting characters archetypes with a lot of complexity and variety to be explored in roleplay. ^^
May I also ask about healing, can Pred heal himself? dos he has some sort of healing device like in AvP games or in a movie?
