Re: (TFT) Polyhedral Weapon Heresy

[Denis DesHarnais <denisdesharnais@gmail.com>]

This seems like a reasonable, well thought-out adaptation.


On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 11:06 AM, Sgt Hulka <hulkasgt@yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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)
> =====
> Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
> Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
> "unsubscribe tft"
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"