(TFT) Polyhedral Weapon Heresy

[Sgt Hulka <hulkasgt@yahoo.com>]

Different weapons get used for different reasons, and they effect armor differently. In medeival manuscripts, sometimes knights were advised to use their swords as clubs instead of blades against heavily armed opponents. That's what AD&D tried to get at with its complicated weapon versus armor matrixes. 

It has occurred to me you could accomplish the same thing, in a much less complicated manner, by adjusting the damage dice. And -- here's the crazy thought for TFT -- using polyhedral dice. One of TFT's strengths is the use of the bell curve for rolling to hit. So why not use that same bell curve for weapon damage in order to give each weapon a distinctive feel against certain armors?

Here's the first assumption. A ST 9 weapon does an average of 4 damage. Average damage increases by 1 point for every strength thereafter. 

The second assumption is that a blunt weapon does very consistent damage. No matter where you hammer someone with a club or mace, no matter which peace of armor deflects it, you're still gonna ring their bell. Basically, if you get it past their shield and land a solid blow with a big enough weapon, you're going to hurt them. For this reason blunt weapons do 1d3 damage plus a fixed integer. The integer basically represents the typical armor the blunt weapon can damage. I.e., a threshing flail with an interger of 3 will always hit hard enough to hurt someone wearing chainmail. The 1d3 represents the chance of missing the shield. But that same threshing flail is unlikely to hurt someone wearing Plate Armor.

The third assumption is that hefted bladed weapons (axes) will do tremendous damage with a solid blow against vulnerable spots, but will deflect very easily. For this reason they are the "swingiest" weapons. They don't use a bell curve; every possible point of damage is equally likely as every other one. They use a single polyhedral die. Since they use a single die, their average is 0.5 higher than any other weapon in their ST class. But they also have a strong probility of doing less damage than any other weapon in their ST class. So a throwing axe does 1D10 damage. That's 5.5 average damage, which is better average damage than the threshing flail. It can hurt someone wearing Plate Armor if it rolls a 10. But it can be deflected by a small shield if it rolls a 1.

The fourth assumption is that swords are the bread and butter of fantasy adventure games. They should be the comprimise between the swingy probabilities of the axe and the steady probabilities of the clubs. These stay where they are in the Fantasy Trip already. 

Combining all those assumptions, I would propose the following alternative weapon damage progression for TFT:

ST 9 (Average damage 4)
Club 1D3+2
Rapier 1d6 (same as by the book, a weak weapon since its average damage is actually only 3.5)
Hatchet 1D8

ST 10 (Average damage 5)
Threshing Flail 1D3+3 
Cutlass (Backsword, Machete, Seax) 2D6-2 (same as by the book, but 0 damage should be possible)
Throwing Axe 1D10

ST 11 (Average damage 6)
Mace 1D3+4
Shortsword (Gladius, Knight's Arming Sword) 2D6-1 (same as by the book)
Small Axe 1D12

Now we can start adding weapons that can be used one- or two- handed. Using a weapon two-handed gives you a 1-point defensive disadvantage, since it precludes the use of a shield. For that reason, you should gain a 1-point offensive advantage. If you use a weapon two-handed, your average damage should increase by one for that Strength category. So keeping that in mind...

ST 12 (Average damage 7)
Warhammer (2-handed) 1D3+6 (this is the long medieval, pick-like warhamer, not Thor's maul, it does 1 damage above average at this ST because it's two-handed)
Bastard Sword (2-handed) 2D+1 (at this ST level, the Bastard Sword has to be used two-handed, also called a hand and a half or longsword)
Broadsword 2D (same as by the book, a heavy-bladed viking or crusader style sword)
Battle Axe 1D12+1 (we've reached the end of our Polyhedral dice progression, so we have to start adding integers, this is a one-handed knight's/horseman's axe)
Dane Axe (2-handed) 1D12+2 (this is the long-handled viking axe that can be one- or two- handed, but at this strength it requires two hands)

ST 13 (Average damage 8)
Warhammer 1D3+6 (this does the same damage as at Strength 12, but at 13 it can be used one-handed)
Bastard Sword 2D6+1 (same as by the book; this does the same damage as at Strength 12, but at 13 it can be used one-handed)
Dane Axe 1D12+2 (this does the same damage as at Strength 12, but at 13 it can be used one-handed)

ST 14 (Average damage 9)
2-Handed Sword 3D6-1 (same as by the book; averages 9.5 instead of 9 because it's two-handed)

ST 16 (Average damage 11)
2-Handed Great Sword 3D6+1 (same as by the book; averages 11.5 instead of 11 because it's two-handed)
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