Improved Armory: Part One- Know Your Weapon
I have already covered weapons in RPGs a good number of times, but always in a very narrowed topic, such as two-weapon fighting, swordplay, combat, but I have never stopped to address weapons themselves. With the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, people are most familiar with the 5e method of implementing weapons into their roleplaying game. Though we have a general problem that over the course of this week, before we get back to our Overwatch theme, we'll offer up some alternative systems and implementations to the mess called weapons. First we have to investigate weapons themselves. For today we'll stick, predominantly to melee weapons.
(Domingo Montoya's Sword, The Princess Bride, 20th Century Fox)
Remember that tabletop roleplaying games are based on abstractions of physical or metaphysical beings, objects, forces, phenomena, and processes. Essentially, in order to play a roleplaying game, the roleplaying game must have particular guidelines for these pieces of the whole picture. Weapons are part of this. However, weapons have so many physical properties that we can't hope to find a way to include each property in an abstracted form. By incorporating each element in combination with all the others, the system will inevitably be bogged down, but it is important to understand the qualities of weaponry before we can abstract them to their necessary parts.
Live Steel
Every melee weapon is generally made of the following qualities: length, weight, balance, shape, main striking edge/implement, secondary striking edges/implements, and special design features. This may be a gross simplification, but our very issue is that weapons in 5e may be over simplified. Let's analyze a longsword.
(Italian Longsword, Cold Steel)
If you have come this far, you probably know what a longsword is. Longswords are rougly between an overall average length of 100 to 130 centimeters (39 to 50 inches). The blade consisted of, on average 90 to 110 centimeters (35-43 inches). Leaving enough room for use of two hands with the remaining length for the hilt. . Generally, 16 to 28 cm (6 to 11inches) was occupied by the hilt. However, I am aware these figures don't line up perfectly, these are the averages for a collection of these weapons, not the same weapon overall. Regardless of deviation, that is still a pretty sizable weapon to put a good bit of distance between the wielder and an opponent. Longswords weighed/weigh on average 1.1 to 1.8 kg (2.4-4.0 lbs). They aren't tremendously heavy, however the length and the distribution of that weight along the length of the weapon will determine the balance. Balance is generally in what direction the sword's weight rests. If the balance of a longsword is more towards the blade, holding the weapon pointed away from you will be more tiring as the weight will be further from your body. If the balance rests more towards the handle towards the pommel, the sword will be easier to hold upright for longer with weight pointed down. Depending on the balance of the sword, it will be easier to hold, swing, avoid being disarmed, block with, etc. This doesn't mean that having the former configuration is a bad thing. More weight behind the blade adds to cutting power.
This may seem obvious but shape of the sword and the striking edges/implements and special design features are very closely related. The longsword comes to a sharp point, with cutting edges on the side of its broad blade. It has pronounced quillons made to protect the hand as well as offer close-quarters striking options. Lastly, a large weighted pommel for balance and blunt strikes rests at the end of the weapon. The sharpened edges, occupying the good majority sword's dimensions, provide the main function of the longsword as a cutting weapon, however, variations in the blade shape, being more tapered, for example. In situations where the blade is busy, away from the opponent, or unavailable, the pommel and quillons are also available as secondary striking implements. A sci-fi example of this would be Kylo Ren's longsword-style lightsaber.
(Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lucas Film/Disney)
If you haven't seen The Force Awakens, how the hell did you even get this far on my blog? Jokes aside, in this part of their lightsaber fight, Kylo Ren uses the laser quillon of his lightsaber to inflict pain/damage his opponent, Finn as they are in a blade lock. Albeit in D&D we don't get lightsabers, but this still serves as an example that those steel prominences can be used to bash, or, in the right situations, gouge. The pommel (that big round bit at the end) serves as a great bludgeoning weapon. If the opportunity called for it, a slash may have turned into a pommel strike. On a helmet, it would be loud and disorienting, on a bare face... more so.
Now let's look at a battleaxe:
Based on what we have explored with longswords, we can make a few assumptions based on battleaxes. If we assume that this battleaxe is about as long as a longsword, we can immediately guess where the balance on a sword is going to be, towards the end. Defending with a battle axe is going to a much greater challenge, without a separation from the "business" end of the weapon like a longsword has, hand placement, and positioning will be key. An axe can be held at any point along the shaft of the weapon, meaning awareness of your hands on the weapon will keep you from losing fingers or a hand. In this particular example, the head of the axe has both a bladed wedge for chopping, and a spike on the other side made for piercing. I would wager that in the hands of the right person, that spike could probably get through plate armor in the right conditions. The battleaxe is undoubtedly a very different but still dangerous weapon.
Getting Them on Paper
Here is where we hit a huge snag in D&D 5e. The longsword and battleaxe are very different, however, these are the stats for a longsword:
Here are the stats for a battleaxe:
Despite their forms, a battleaxe and longsword are exactly the same, they both do a d8 of damage, or a d10 whether being swung one-handed or two-handed. The only difference is their cost, and weight. Despite their difference in weight, it holds no bearing on the mechanics aside from the often ignored encumbrance rules. Though we can take a look at previous editions and other games to get an idea of how they have been abstracted into tabletop game form.
We'll take a step back into 4e. In 4e being proficient with a weapon granted you a bonus to wielding it, so if you were proficient with a dagger, and wielded one, you'd get a +3 on your attack roll, representing the ease of wielding one. In this edition, a versatile weapon added an extra +1 to damage when wielded in two hands. Other than that the information isn't as important, weapon groups existed but that changes little for us right now. So a battleaxe looked like this:
While a longsword looked like this:
So, one edition ago, battleaxes or (battleaxes), were a little more unwieldy than a longsword, but did more damage. However, as much as the idea of a different proficiency bonus might bother us, it makes a lot of sense. Axes are much more unwieldy than a sword in real life, but they hurt more. That is a fine distinction, but I can see why it was not designed this way in 5e.
In 3.5, a battleaxe and longsword did not vary in damage dice, however they differed in their critical hit damage and crit range. For those of you who don't know, in 3.5 each weapon had a crit multiplier which would be either, depending on your group, the number of damage dice you rolled on a critical hit, or the number you multiplied the result on the damage dice on a hit. The crit range was the number you needed to roll to score a critical hit. If you potentially rolled a critical hit, you had to roll again to confirm it. It was a mess. But in 3.5 a battleaxe deal 3x damage on a crit, and a longsword scored a crit on a 19-20, and had a 2x multiplier. I probably liked this model for weapons the best. This edition was bogged down by a lot, but I don't think that weapons were the most cumbersome part, however when it came to combining your character's stats with the rules for maneuvers like two-weapon fighting, it began to become more of a challenge to manage. As much as I'd like to talk about AD&D, I can't really, because I don't know it well enough, but I can give examples from other games such as Dungeon World and Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPG.
I think if we are to solve the problem of abstracting weapons but maintaining discernible differences between them other than damage dice lie in games like Dungeon World and Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars roleplaying system. Both Dungeon World and FFG's roleplaying system use "weapon tags" to add characteristics to weapons aside from critical ratings or damage dice. In Dungeon World, weapons don't have damage dice, character classes provide your weapon dice. In FFG's system, weapons have set damage, and critical ratings vary, but they are set apart by these tags. You can bet your Terrasque that I would be furious if a lightsaber was the same damn thing as a vibro-axe. Dungeons and Dragons 5e and 4e both danced around but didn't entirely master.
In 5e we have the following weapon tags: Ammunition Finesse Heavy Light Loading Range Reach Thrown Two-Handed Versatile Ammunition, Heavy, Loading, Range, and Two-Handed all have a common theme, these tags are not so much focused on enabling the weapons but restricting them. Heavy is one of my pet peeves as it refuses to acknowledge that smaller races couldn't just make their own "heavy" weapons sized for them. Finesse, Light, Reach, Thrown, and Versatile alternatively enable the weapons, but in almost no way that adds an interesting feature to the weapon. Finesse, Light, and Versatile are all concerned with damage. Finesse allows Dexterity to be used. Light allows Two-Weapon Fighting, and Versatile allows the damage dice to be upgraded. Thrown and Reach further modify the range of the weapon in a positive manner. While Ranged is focused on limits and given to ranged weapons, Thrown and Reach improve what is otherwise a weapon with a range of 5 feet. Though, even though they are necessary distinction, they are still boring. Only two weapons have special rules- lances and nets. 4e had one tag that 5e doesn't: high crit, which did an extra damage dice on a critical hit. I think this tag is a fantastic mechanic given how hard it is to land a critical hit in 5e. I've often heard it said of the Champion Fighter that if you aren't playing a Half-Orc Champion, you're playing it wrong. Perhaps if weapons with the high crit tag existed, this wouldn't be such an issue. Of course, Half-Orc Champions would be MORE powerful, but why not? Do i need to go into the math of any Rogue vs Champion Fighter? I don't think so.
Dungeon World uses a few interesting tags that add a little more flavor to the weapons they are attached to. Remember, Dungeon World is a rules light system, so don't expect many numbers. Such tags include:
Forceful: It can knock someone back a pace, maybe even off their feet.
Messy: It does damage in a particularly destructive way, ripping people and things apart.
Because Dungeons and Dragons is a game more based in numeric manipulation, and specific effects, we could take these tags and change them into having actual effects in the game. Forceful could mean, that when you hit a creature with the weapon and it takes damage, it is moved 5 feet in the direction you choose. Messy could be changed into Sundering, which may mean you deal maximum damage to objects. The Tal'Dorei campaign setting calls this the siege property, but messy, sundering, and high crit all follow the same idea. Adding this tags could change weapons for the better. Maybe someone should do that....
Looking Ahead
Starting this week, now that summer has ended, I have decided to make Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays post days, as this allows me two full days to work on an article amidst work and life, etc. This Thursday we begin looking at tags in more depth, and how we can apply them and make them accessible to the players by taking a few hints from the Star Wars RPG in Part Two: Reforging Weapons.