Weapons and Damage

[Rosisha]

Oh well aware, and AD&D 2nd Ed did something similar by having all kinds of rules around weapons - and grizzly crit tables with the PO series. Which I absolutely loved. It's a great system. But while I know how to use an epee, a foil, and a saber and know how each is different from the other - I'm not sure that level of detail is what a BFRPG player would be looking for. So I want something that is simple but yet opens up more options. Does that make sense?

Or I am super neurotic and it's starting to show?

[Rosisha]

Okay, so I think I went insane:

* Lead off with the fact that we have one damage die (1d6)
* Small weapons get -1 to damage (minimum 1)
* Large weapons get a +2 to damage
* Small weapons get a +1 to init, while large weapons get a -1
* I have notes on weapon names, prices, and weights
* Ammunition is also included, including which weapons can be thrown.
* I included rules on manufacturing weapons
* I included rules on special materials

[Solomoriah]

Let me hurt your brain here...

A large weapon (long, anyway) should get a bonus to initiative when characters are "closing" due to its reach. But, in close quarters the lighter weapon gets a bonus. Now, can a combatant with a long weapon hold a combatant with a short weapon "at bay" and maintain his or her bonus? It happens in real life, so...

[Dimirag]

I recall some games (although not their names, damn selective memory) where fighters where on "circles" or "areas", close quarters, medium and reach or something like that, based on the distance between fighters.
Characters get modifiers when attacking based on weapon and area and positioning was a mayor thing.

[mtodd]

We tried a silly system for a short series of games last spring before the coof. I had Players earn "weapon mastery" points per level based on their class. They could put these points into a class of weapons (swords, bows, daggers, etc)
FTR earned about 1 per level, Mages 1 per 4, for example.
Everyone started with 1 weapon mastery pt. to allocate on their favored weapon type.

0 pts Untrained d4 DAM
1 pt Novice d6 DAM
2 pt Skilled d8 DAM
3 pt Expert d10 DAM
4 pt Master d12 DAM
5 pt Grandmaster d20 DAM (hehe)

It was actually pretty fun. We maxed levels at 12 so in theory a 12th level thief could be a grandmaster with a dagger class weapon. 1d20 damage! (And don't forget the backstab!)
But if he was wielding a magic sword he found....1d4 base DAM + maj bonus, as he had zilch expertise with swords.

We thought it'd be fun for a rogue to pull off a deathblow, for example.
It was silly, fun, and an all around hoot!
Sadly, the party only got to about 5th level when we had to quit gaming in person. We tried doing some Roll20, with mixed results. But if you're bored for a one off or a kids game it is a fun lil change of pace. At first I thought it was zero realism, but it grew on us in a weird way.

Edit, I think FTR started with 2pts, the scaling favored FTRS(1/lvl), then CLR/THF(1/2 lvs), last mages (1pt per 4 levels). It seemed to work out and actually make sense, lol!

It made players choose between diversity or expertise. In theory a Mage could focus on staves and do d12 at high level. But if a mage wanted to grab a sword and wade into melee, sure, knock yerself out, but roll d4 damage...hehe.

It did make FTRs OP. by 5th level a grandmaster swordsman rolled d20 dam. Which is , well, a bit much.....
But it made fighters "uber kewl" and had we played longer i think it may have balanced a bit better against uber powerful mages. Still, what 5th level Ftr wouldn't love to roll a d20 damage when taking on the Big Baddie?

[Rosisha]

I really like all these ideas but now I have to make them super easy to do

[Seven]

In terms of accuracy, well trained slingers could take a bird on the wing. So they can be VERY accurate. Ranged weapons tend to be "OP" though, which is why they dominated battle fields.

It depends which particular era you're trying to recreate.
Firearms were OP and became the dominant weapon but it took some time.
Before that it was mostly longbows, crossbows, polearms and cavalry.
In a siege, when you ran out of arrows, you threw rocks.
Very few combatants were career soldiers and it's hard to find some of those who were sling users. Just like a lot of the polearms were tools attached to the end of a pole; scythes, knives, axes, plows, etc. A thrown rock has a ballistic trajectory. A sling requires some elbow room. A sling is a lot like a catapult. Staff slings had the greatest range. Darts were also in use. Javelins, too. Shields were very effective against range weapons. There's a lot of adaptation possible and it can get really complicated.

As kids, we used wooden swords and shields, flails and thrown rocks.
The OP weapon was a small rock thrown with a tennis racket.
That was banned quickly.

[Seven]

Also, David versus Goliath is much less a story if a sling is an accurate weapon.

[Rosisha]

Oh it's much less of a story for a number of reasons - including the fact that the sling was an accurate weapon

https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladw ... nd_goliath

Basically we see the story of David and Goliath as this underdog story, but really, it's more like the scene from Indiana Jones when Indiana shoots the swordsmen.

[Rosisha]

Oh and this.