Weapons overhaul

I have spent the last 6 months visiting dojos and HEMA clubs, taping accelerometers to swords and measuring the energy released on impact. As a result I have produced the first scientifically verified damage and penetration chart for melee weapons in D&D. A brief overview of the rules, before I give the actual data:

  • Unlike in AD&D/Greyhawk, damage is not modified by target size. All targets take the same damage. (I tested swordstrokes on squirrels, pigs, cows, and giraffes, and found that they all took the same absolute damage, though obviously this damage took a different proportion of their health.)
  • Penetration worsens AC, to a minimum of 10. No penetration leaves the AC value unchanged. Low penetration means +2 AC (-2 in ascending systems), medium means +4 (or -4), and high means +6 (or -6). Again, you cannot make any AC worse than "unarmored", 10 AC in every system.

Without further ado, the fruits of my long labor, the chart.

 

Weapon Penetration Damage
Aklys Medium 1d6
Atl-atl Medium 1d6
Axe, battle Medium 1d6
Axe, hand or throwing Medium 1d6
Bagh nakh Medium 1d6
Bardiche Medium 1d6
Bec de corbin Medium 1d6
Bill-Guisarme Medium 1d6
Bo stick Low 1d4
Brass knuckles Low 1d4
Chain Low 1d6
Club Low 1d6
Dagger Low 1d6
Fang Low 1d6
Fauchard Medium 1d6
Fauchard-Fork Medium 1d6
Fist None 1d4
Flail, footman’s Medium 1d6
Flail, horseman’s Medium 1d6
Fork, military Medium 1d6
Garrot Medium 1d6
Glaive Medium 1d6
Glaive-Guisarme Medium 1d6
Guisarme Medium 1d6
Guisarme-Voulge Medium 1d6
Halberd Medium 1d6
Hammer, lucern Medium 1d6
Hammer Medium 1d6
Harpoon Medium 1d6
Javelin Medium 1d6
Jo Stick Low 1d4
Katana High 2d8
Knife Low 1d6
Lance Medium 1d6
Mace, footman’s Medium 1d6
Mace, horseman’s Medium 1d6
Machete Low 1d6
Maul Medium 1d6
Morning Star Medium 1d6
Partisan Medium 1d6
Pick, Military, footman’s Medium 1d6
Pick, Military, horseman’s Medium 1d6
Pike, Awl Medium 1d6
Ranseur Medium 1d6
Rock Low 1d6
Sap None 1d6
Scimitar Medium 1d6
Spear Medium 1d6
Spetum Medium 1d6
Staff, quarter Medium 1d6
Sword, bastard Medium 1d6
Sword, broad Medium 1d6
Sword, estoc Medium 1d6
Sword, long Medium 1d6
Sword, rapier Medium 1d6
Sword, short Medium 1d6
Sword, two-handed Medium 1d6
Trident Medium 1d6
Voulge Medium 1d6
Whip Low 1d6

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simple downtime maneuvers

 In my Arcade Mode game, players don't take downtime. They freely adjust their resources between sessions. That was the intent, anyway -- most players are unwilling to simply give themselves more resources. So I decided to draft a very simple downtime system. Every real world week, or every session, since your last session with a character, add 1 downtime point. Spend downtime points and (10 * level * points) rupees on downtime actions. (The rupee is your campaign's base currency type, whatever that is. 1 rupee = 1 xp = 1 days' wages for a basic infantryman, roughly.) Here are some simple downtime maneuvers, listed with their costs: 1 point = 1 streetwise check for new hirelings, rumors, rare items, contacts, trainers 1 point = 1 visit to a known sage, library, expert, important contact 1 point = 1 martial art technique learning check 1 point = 1 hireling recruitment roll 2 points = reroll HP, take the higher result 2 points = 1 attribute improvement roll 3 points = train ...
Read more

When do you need a GM?

Image
Traditionally RPGs centralize many responsibilities and authorities in one player, the GM. That's not necessarily bad, but it isn't necessarily good, either, and it's certainly not mandatory. I am going to look at some traditional functions of the GM to see why we put them in one player's hands, and how we might distribute the responsibility for these functions differently. A GM traditionally does a whole bunch of different things: Pitches the game Organizes play sessions, including recruiting players Knows the rules and teaches others Leads creatively Creates the background ("worldbuilding")  Creates the scenario for play Runs dramatic coordination Frames scenes Says "what's going on" generally Plays all side characters Resolves in-game tasks and conflicts Pitches the game, organizes play sessions, knows the rules. If the entire play-group is interested in gaming and excited about games, anybody should be able to do these things. (This or that ...
Read more

Combat overhaul parent post

I'm rewriting the combat procedures from D&D-like games for my fantasy heartbreaker Coup Étrange. Why? I lay out some motivations here. I got a lot of my inspiration from discussions with Eero Tuovinen and the fine folks at the Finnish RPG Theory discord server. I'm playtesting these rules with the fine folks at the Old School Table-Time discord server . Thanks to everybody involved! The overall structure of combat is different in the overhaul. In normal D&D, you roll initiative to see who goes first, then one side goes, and then the other. Rinse and repeat. (Maybe if you're fancy you get alternating phases -- this would be my preference -- or you get to interrupt your opponent's slow actions with your fast actions, as occasionally happens in AD&D 1e.) In my overhaul, melee ebbs and flows, as in a real fight. When you advance into melee, you commit yourself to being tied up in it for a variable amount of time, possibly unable to retreat. The alternating stru...
Read more