Skip to main content

Weapons

Beyond the Wall has a lovely, simple weapons mechanic. The only mechanical distinction between weapons is melee or ranged, and the amount of damage. Weapons can do 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, or 1d10, and all weapons within a given damage range cost the same. You can call your 1d6 melee weapon a short sword or a cutlass or a bearded axe or a mace—it's all the same.

Wound Man
I much prefer this to AD&D style weapons charts with all sorts of granular damage rates, which seem primarily derived from arguments over why a claymore is better than a carp's tongue and oh my god how can you not know what a carp's tongue is? 

But I still felt the urge for some mechanical distinction between weapons. So, this.

The Critical effects of each weapon are for natural 20's and 1's only, and are only suggestions. Always go with what is situationally most appropriate.

Dagger, Knife
D4, 4 Coppers
Can use either the STR or DEX bonus to hit in melee. Can be thrown; Range: short.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Dropped Weapon. Requires 1 round to retrieve. Contested DEX rolls if someone else wants it first.

Sling
D4, 4 Coppers
A character is at -2 AC against melee when using a sling. Slings use stones for ammo, which are free. Range: medium
Critical Success: Stunning Blow. Target is stunned for one round.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken Weapon. Can be repaired when making camp.

Club, Hammer
D4, 4 Coppers
+1 against small or prone creatures (anything positioned at half the wielder’s height).
Critical Success: Stunning Blow. Target is stunned for one round.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Dropped Weapon. Requires 1 round to retrieve. Contested DEX rolls if someone else wants it first.

Bolas
D4, 4 Coppers
A character is at -2 AC against melee when using bolas. On a successful hit, the target is entangled, requiring 1d4 rounds to free themselves.
Range: medium.
Critical Success: Stunning Blow. Target is stunned for one round, as well as entangled.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken Weapon. Can be repaired when making camp.

Wooden Practice Sword, Baton, Most Improvised Weapons
D4, 4 Coppers
Critical Success: Stunning Blow. Target is stunned for one round.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken Weapon.

Spear
D6, 8 Silvers
Two-handed. +1 to Initiative, as long as there is sufficient room (not close quarters).
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken Weapon. Can be repaired when making camp.


Throwing Spear, Javelin
D6, 8 Silvers
Range: medium;  -2 for long.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken Weapon. Can be repaired when making camp.

Staff
D6, 8 Silvers
Two-handed. Gives an extra +1 to AC when used in the Defensive Stance.
Critical Success: Broken Bone. Movement halved; -1 to actions until healed.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken Weapon. Whittle a new one when making camp.

Mace
D6, 8 Silvers
+1 against small or prone creatures (anything positioned at half the wielder’s height).
Critical Success: Broken Bone. Movement halved; -1 to actions until healed.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Damaged Weapon. Will break on next critical failure, unless repaired.

Flail
D6, 8 Silvers
Ignore the AC bonus from shields.
Critical Success: Stunning Blow + Bleeding Damage. Target is stunned for one round, and then loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Damaged Weapon. Will break on next critical failure, unless repaired.

Bow
D6, 8 Silvers
Two-handed. A character is at -2 AC against melee when shooting a bow. Arrows cost 20 for 1 sp. Range: medium;  -2 for long.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken String. Can be replaced in one round.

Short Sword
D6, 8 Silvers
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Damaged Weapon. Will break on next critical failure, unless repaired.

Rapier
D6, 8 Silvers
Uses the DEX bonus instead of STR.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Dropped Weapon. Requires 1 round to retrieve. Contested DEX rolls if someone else wants it first.

Hand Axe
D6, 8 Silvers
Can be thrown. Range: short.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Dropped Weapon. Requires 1 round to retrieve. Contested DEX rolls if someone else wants it first. If thrown, lost.

Pistol
D6, 16 Silvers
Holds six shots. Firing more than one bullet per round gives +1 to hit and +1 damage per additional bullet fired. Bullets cost 1 copper each. Range: medium;  -2 for long.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Jammed Weapon. Takes one round to clear. 50% chance of exploding on next jam (1d4 damage to bearer) until repaired.

Long Sword, Battle Axe
D8, 16 Silvers
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Damaged Weapon. Will break on next critical failure, unless repaired.

Long Bow
D8, 16 Silvers
Two-handed. A character is at -2 AC against melee when shooting a bow. Arrows cost 20 for 1 sp. Range: long;  -2 for very long.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken String. Can be replaced in one round.

Great Sword, Great Axe
D10, 32 Silvers
Two-handed. Requires STR 13 or greater to wield.
Critical Success: Stunning Blow + Bleeding Damage. Target is stunned for one round, and then loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Damaged Weapon. Will break on next critical failure, unless repaired.

Halberd, Lance
D10, 32 Silvers
Two-handed. +1 to Initiative, as long as there is sufficient room (not close quarters).
Critical Success: Stunning Blow + Bleeding Damage. Target is stunned for one round, and then loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Broken Weapon.

Rifle
D10, 32 Silvers
Breach-loader. Fires one bullet per round. A character is at -2 AC against melee when shooting a rifle. Bullets cost 1 copper each. Range: long;  -2 for very long.
Critical Success: Bleeding Damage. Target loses 1 hp per round until medical attention.
Critical Failure: Reflex Save or Jammed Weapon. Takes one round to clear. 50% chance of exploding on subsequent jams (1d4 damage to bearer) until repaired.


Cop-to: There's some Goblin Punch DNA in there.
Feedback/corrections/alternatives are welcome!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reviewing Rules for Play-by-Post Optimization

I’ve played a lot of PbP games: all your favorite flavors of OD&D, AD&D, and their retroclones, Call of Cthulhu, Marvel Superheroes, Traveller, Dungeon World, etc. ad nauseam. In almost every instance, I forgot what ruleset we were using at some point. Which is a good thing. Once chargen is over, you spend a lot more time describing your characters actions and poring over the GM’s descriptions than you spend interacting with rules. When you do roll, it’s usually a combat to-hit roll, which you’ve probably programmed into the online dice-roller as a macro. Pretty much any game will work for PbP. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t points of possible optimization. Point 1: Resolution. Anything that can keep the action moving is a boon to PbP. A game that requires a back-and-forth exchange of information to resolve an action is going to progress very slowly. A good rule of thumb is that it’ll take 2 or 3 days to get a response from any given player. At that pace, an exch...

Knaves, fancypants

I've prepared a new layout document of Ben Milton's Knaves . Knaves is a great, light rules set that has an extremely elegant core mechanic while retaining total compatibility with OSR material. It's pretty much the rpg of my dreams. This document contains the complete rules, plus a bunch of useful hacks from the community, plus a few of my invention, plus some useful resources from Ben Milton's previous effort, Maze Rats . EDIT: I've updated the layout to fix errata and make a few tweaks. Further, I've made 3 variations: KNAVES TABLET LAYOUT The Tablet Layout is meant for scrolling on screens, and contains hyperlinks. KNAVES SPREAD LAYOUT The Spread Layout is set up to print on Letter-sized paper. KNAVES A4 LAYOUT The A4 Layout is set up to print on A4 paper, and is probably the most elegant of the three versions. This is presented with generous permission from Ben Milton, and should in no way be an excuse for not purchasing a copy of Knav...

Maze Rats by Post

In my previous post , I reviewed a bunch of my favorite rulesets for optimization for Play-by-Post. It occurred to me almost immediately that I hadn't really thought about Maze Rats enough. In fact, I'd mis-remembered and mischaracterized it. Upon reflection, one of the mechanics I took issue with is actually a big strength. Re-reading the rules, it seems like just a few very simple hacks could make it a highly-optimized PbP game. As follows: Danger Rolls are rolled by the GM. Danger rolls usually fail, so it is in the player’s interest to describe their actions plausibly and mitigate as many risks as they can, in the hopes that they don’t trigger a danger roll. 2d6 + ability bonus ≥ 10 If you have taken enough precautions to have a distinct advantage in an action, but not enough to have eliminated the distinct possibility of danger, the GM will give you a roll with advantage. 3d6 keep 2 + ability bonus ≥ 10 Because each character only has 3 ability scores (S...