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(TFT) How often should TFT swords Break



I was reminded of this discussion at my last gaming session when the party broke 2 weapons.  The first one was an ordinary quality weapon, and its breaking added to the color of the combat (IMO).  As I've said, I am OK with this level of breakage, most weapons (like life) are cheap in TFT.

But the second weapon that broke was a "black Iron" sword of dwarvish make that the party got as a reward for a service to the dwarves.  In TFT terms it is made of better metal and gets a +1 damage.  When the 18 got rolled, we followed the rules in tft and roled one more die with a 50/50 chance of breakage, and the sword broke.  For a cool weapon to break like that did seem somewhat anti-climactic.

So I am thinking of adjusting the SECOND roll for breaking a weapon, and was inspired by Erol's roll 3 dice again example below.  

Rather than rolling 1 more die with different chances of breaking for different categories of masterly crafted swords, I thought I'd use more dice and only 6's that matter.  And leave the 50/50 to regular "better crafted" swords that offer no combat bonus but are just a little sturdier.

For the better metal + damage swords, I think an additional die requiring a 6 would do the trick.  
So for the +1 sword last session after the 18, an additional die roll of a 6 would result in a break.
For a +2 version, roll 2 more dice requiring a 12.
For a stunningly well made weapon of +1 dx and +2 dam, roll 3dice with an 18 meaning breakage.
Similarly a well made blade that gets the +1 dex would be an extra die and break on a six.

That way, regular (Disposable to Erol)weapons break 1 in 216
+1 weapons are 1 in 1,300
+2 are better than 1 in 7,500
And with 3 total pluses better than 1 in 45,000 - truly masterful craftsmenship in the TFT setting.

The weapons will break less frequently, but the break-check roll will come up often enough that the benefit of a better sword is obvious, and it sort-of fits in with the dice conventions in the game.

As for my players, the sword that broke is broken, they can take it as a RP challenge to address with the dwarvish king if they want to.  But I think I'll float the variant second break roll rule next session to see how they react.

In the mean time, how do you guys react?  


John


------------  Thus spaketh Erol K. Bayburt ---------------
Or consider mining tools. How many hours do those last? If the rule is 
changed from "break on a roll of 18" to "break only on an 18 confirmed by another 18" - i.e. 1/216th the "official" breakage rate - 

[snip]

Weapon breakage is something that has to be deduced via indirect methods, and I'm sure we could argue over whether the accurate rate is one in ten-thousand, one in one-hundred thousand, or one in one million (or even higher). But a little though ought to make it clear that one in 216 is way too low, except for "disposable" weapons. 
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