Simple Weapon Lists
I love equipment lists. After rolling through weapons in all the various editions I have come to a (not so startling) conclusion: they’re all the same. Sure there are some number differences (the sprawling lists of polearms in 2nd edition come to mind), but in the end, it all winds up the same. The player will pick the optimal weapon and dive in.
In short, your list doesn’t matter. No one cares about your sickle, quarterstaff, or bec de corbin. Instead let's provide simple, meaningful choices.
For Melee Weapons, you get a chart that looks like this.
That’s it. It’s plain and simple. You can understand what each weapon does at a glance instead of running through an alphabetized list with a series of footnotes. Throwable weapons can be thrown. Both Throwable and Light can be used with Strength and Dexterity. Medium, Light, and Throwables can be used with one hand. Heavy requires two. Every weapon has a defined purpose. If you need something different, just pick the closest weapon size and call it that. It's not a sword, it's a khopesh. Its not halberd, it’s a bec de corbin. You get the idea.
From here, we can make actual choices for a player. For each weapon type, you have a special rule. Instead of dozens of special rules, you have 4. Here they are:
Axes have exploding dice. Risky and violent. Axes used to be a tool, before pressed into the service of killing: They are not elegant. If the user chooses, the medium and heavy versions can use the double dice equivalent (e.g., 2d4 for 8).
Swords get a +1 to attack. Swords have a certain boring elegance about them: They were made to kill people and they get the job done.
Maces lower the target AC by 2, to a hard minimum of 14. Platemail is useful because it deflects arrows and other pointy weapons. Maces, however, will dent armor and consequently the person underneath. Less useful against softer or padded armor.
Spears are long. Once a round, the wielder can attack an approaching creature.
This system fills the needs of characters with simple rules. Need more damage? Big Axes. Need a higher attack? Swords. Defensive minded? Spears.
I am not huge on class weapons restrictions. If your muscle wizard wants to use a great axe, who am I to say “no”? Gandalf used a longsword. Theoretically, restrictions are niche protection for fighters, but +1 average damage doesn’t seem like a niche. Give your martials useful skills instead. But if you need restrictions:
straight magic users can use throwables,
thieves and rogues can use throwables and lights,
clerics can use medium, light, and throwables, and
fighters can use everything.
Ranged weapons can be reduced in the same way.
Short bows and longbows require at least some strength to use properly. They don’t have any other special qualities. If you aren’t strong, you can settle for the crossbow.
Crossbows are easy to use and don’t have strength requirements, but take a long time to load. A character gains +1 to hit but has to sacrifice their movement or action to load the weapon.
I plan to use and adapt this to Shadowdark but it will work with most standard elf game systems with a few tweaks.
Simple. Elegant. Choices. It fits on two half pages. It’s easy to understand. If you use, hack, or change this, let me know. Download it here.
Inspiration:
Wolves on the Coast by Luke Gearing
Shadowdark by Kelsey Dionne
Probably something else I can’t remember
