Thursday, November 30, 2006

Weapons and Equipment

I have a few theories on weapons and equipment I would like some feedback on.

The first is regarding weapons. I never liked the idea of classifying a weapon in only one category. Not only does it remove weapons differenciation (A scimitar cuts a lot more than a two-handed sword, but the latter will still hurt more), but it does not accurately represent weapons in the real world. I have devised a simple system for weapon damage; each weapon has a number of points of each basic type of damage (blunt, slashing and piercing) associated with it. For example, a knife would do a small amount of piercing damage while a poignard would do small piercing and small slashing. A short sword would be partly slashing and partly piercing, while a bastard sword would be partly slashing and partly blunt. This way, you can accurately represent any kind of damage imaginable; and if this is not enough, you can always make weapons with more than one contact points (say, a spear does piercing on its point and blunt on its lenght).


The second theory is similar to the first, in that not all armor defend the same amount against all weapons. A chain mail armor is great against slashing and piercing, but does next to nothing against blunt weapons. Similarly to the weapons' theory, I believe armors should have different defences to different types of damage. Again, if this is not enough, feel free to add damage reduction by body parts.


A theory I came up with, which I believe to be quite interesting, would be regarding the functioning of magically enchanted items. One could envision a world where permanently enchanting items is impossible. Items, to keep functioning, would require the magic power of their wearer. While wearing magic items, adventurers would see their magic potential diminished by the power of the items worn or wielded. While a warrior would not care much about losing magic power, he would not have much to spare to begin with, and wouldn't benefit from greater magical items unless he found a way to improve his reserves. A mage, on the other hand, could wear a great number of magical items at once, but would have to think carefully before putting any of them, lest his powers are too diminished to fight.
While not perfect, this system would add a little more spice to simply chosing the most powerful items available.

If you have anything to say about these theories, feel free to leave a comment. And don't forget to tune in tomorrow for my thoughts about crafting.

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