Armor and Armaments ******************* This is an attempt to compile a list that will enable us to get a more "fair" system for armor and armaments here at Northern Lights. This list was compiled by Ithor and then edited by Vitastjern (Anna.Eklund@ludd.luth.se) The Weapons =========== In any mud of aber type you will find a great assortment of different weapons. Some weapons are good and some are not quite as good. There are also a number of weapons that are either worse or better than they should be, even if you take magical properties in account. This list is an attempt to ensure some sort of order in the weapon system at Northern Lights. The list is far from complete, but it might be of an help when you are trying to figure out what some type of weapon looks like, and what damage it does. Pole arms +++++++++ A pole arm is basically a blade mounted on a long pole. They are rather skilled weapons, and can offer defense properties too. o The Halbard (sometimes spelled halberd) has three basic types. o The Standard Halbard is a flat axe with a long spike at the front. o The Austrian Halbard has a finer, longer spike and the axe blade is in the shape of the crescent moon. The blade is the concave edge and is curving inward. o The German Halbard has a knife like spike, and the axe is small. This halbard has a concave blade, just like the austrian halbard, but the arc is a half circle. All three have a small hook on the back side of the axe blade. o The Pike is a thrusting weapon only, the blade is a short, sharp spear head on the end of a very long (12-18 feet) pole. The pole is too long for a spear. o The Pole Axe is a small normal shaped axe on a pole that is 5-15 feet long. o The Bardiche has an axe blade shaped as the crescent moon, but the blade is the convex edge. The turkish style bardiche is larger than the german/swiss style. If you imagine the blade being the outer part of a circle, the turkish style bardiche has roughly 3 times the radius of the german/swiss style bardiche. o The Bill has a small light blade, similar to a scythe blade. o The Gisarme is similar to the bill, except it has a small spike at front of the blade. It has the same damages as the bill. o The Glaive is a broad knife blade. Damage as pole axe o The Lochaber Axe is a curved axe, like a butchers cleaver, attached to the underside of the pole, and a small hook stuck on the end of it. Similar use to a halbard. o The Partizan is a double edged knife blade, with two hooked bits sticking out at the base of the blade. They point forward. o The Ranseur has a fork type blade, the centre prong twice the length of the outer two prongs. The outer two prongs curve slightly outwards and are in fact pointy blades. o The Spectum has a trident shaped head. o The Spontoon is a bit strange. It has some sort of short blade with two bits on each side, not hooks though, damages like a spear, but you can't throw it. o The Voulge has a very large, cleaver type blade at the end. Swords ++++++ There are many types of swords. o The Backsword is similar to a sabre, but with a straighter blade. It is single edged but light and made so it can be turned, thus enabling forehand and backhand blows. o The Bastard Sword is much like a long sword, with a large hilt, enabling it to be wielded either single or double handed. It is sometimes called the hand-and-a-half sword. o The Bearing Sword is just for decoration, not very useful at all for a weapon. (Byzantine empire, 7th century) o The Broadsword is a slightly shorter but wide blade, good for cutting. Singled edged and straight blade. The German name for the broadsword is "Katzbalger". o The Claymore is a double handed sword. The name comes from something that means Great sword. :) o The Coronation Sword is yet another pretty sword, it is pretty useless for actually killing anything with o The Cutlass is a short broad sword, often used by the navy. o The Dirk is a highland dagger, though it is sometimes refered to as a sword too, a guess is that it is a quite long dagger, or a short sword o The Double or Two Handed Sword is similar again only larger, heavier and may not be wielded single handed. o The Epee is a sword useful for fencing. It has a long thin blade. (As much as 114 cm long.) o The Gladius was the standard sword of the roman infantry. The gladiators got their name from this sword. (Or if it was the other way around.) o The Kilij is a middle east sword, though it is short, and not as curved as most swords. It is useful for both thrusting and cutting. o The Long Sword is the basic type of sword, with a blade width of two fingers. It is pretty light and single handed. o The Rapier is a long and slender sword good for thrusting, less useful for cutting though. These were swords for civilians, a gentlemans sword :) o The Scimitar is a curved sword, narrowing to a point at the end. It is single edged (the convex side) and only useful for cutting, not thrusting. o The Sabre is a heavy one-edged sword that is slightly curved toward the point. The cavalry used this sort of sword. This is also what MOST people would draw if asked to sketch a sword. Daggers +++++++ o Baselard o Bowie Knife - used for skinning animals. o The Cinquedea is a very wide bladed knife. Very rare too :). The top is 5 fingers wide. o The Stiletto is a dagger that is triangular in the cross section. It is narrow and meant for stabbing. o The Bichwa is a curved, s shaped, indian dagger. Blunt Weapons +++++++++++++ Weapons that do their damage by bashing/crushing the enemy o The Cudgel is a type of staff or club. o The Staff is a piece of wood roughly 2 inches thick and 4 to 6 feet in length. It does damage of the crush/bash type since it can clearly neither cut nor pierce. o The Whip comes in many different forms. Two types are the standard whip, which basically is a long bit of leather, and the "cat of nine tails" which is a shorter whip, but has 9 strands of leather. o The Mace is like a hammer, but with a round/spiked ball instead of the normal head of the hammer. o The Morning Star is similar to a mace except that the ball is attached to the handle via a chain. o A Club or a Torch can be considered the same for hitting people with. Other Weapons +++++++++++++ The Trident could be seen as a kind of fork on a pole. It has three prongs that are barbed. The Bola is a cord with wieghts attached to the ends, sometimes tied in such a way as to have 3 pieces of cord extending from the centre, with a ball attached to each end. It is thrown at the victim and may entangle them. Picks made as weapons can be treated much like hammers. The Blackjack is a small leather pouch filled with either sand or lead shots. It is usually thrown. The Lance is a general name given to a weapon used in joust, such as a spear. But a lance is also a weapon of its own, quite similar to a spear with a long pole which ends with a point. Most gardening tools get either 1-4 or 1-6 for damage. It takes no greater skill to wield a shovel, but they won't make too much damage either. Summary +++++++ The damages listed in the list that follows is what could be considered as reasonable setting for the damage value on the weapon in mud terms and in a zone of low to medium difficulty. The damage range is for normal every day weapons and could be said to account for the skill of the maker and such. Its possible that extremely well made weapons would exceed this, but they would be pretty rare. As far as mud weapons go, I think a damage 20 weapon is a good weapon... If you wish to introduce a weapon with higher damage than 20 you will have to have an reason for it to have that damage. Basic list of weapon damages -------------------------------------- Name |Damage | Hands | Type | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Axe | 5-10 | 1 | Axe | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Bardiche | 9-16 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Bastard Sword| 8-14 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Bastard Sword| 10-16 | 2 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Battle Axe | 9-15 | 2 | Axe | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Bill | 7-12 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Blackjack | 1-2 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Bola | 3-5 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Broadsword | 8-14 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Claymore | 10-17 | 2 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Club (Torch) | 3-8 | 1 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Cudgel | 4-8 | 2 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Cutlass | 8-12 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Dagger | 3-8 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Epee | 6-12 | | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Gisarme | 10-16 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Glaive | 10-16 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Hammer | 5-9 | 1 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Halbard | 10-16 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Javelin | 6-10 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Lance | 8-12 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Lochaber axe | 9-14 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Long sword | 8-13 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Mace | 6-10 | 1 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Morning star | 6-10 | 1 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Pike | 7-12 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Pole Axe | 8-12 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Partizan | 8-12 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Ranseur | 8-13 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Rapier | 6-12 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Sabre | 8-14 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Scimitar | 7-12 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Short sword | 6-9 | 1 | Sword | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Spear | 4-9 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Spetum | 8-12 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Spontoon | 8-12 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Staff | 5-9 | 2 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Stick/Branch | 1-2 | 1 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Trident | 7-12 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Voulge | 11-16 | 2 | P-Arm | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ War hammer | 7-12 | 2 | Blunt | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Whip | 5-10 | 1 | | -------------+-------+-------+-------+ Armors ====== Armor is a bit more simple. Armor can be seen as coming in bits and to me at least most suits of armor have the body armor with arm and leg plates included. Some even include the helmet as well, and they can't be separated. The list below assumes that the armor is complete and does not include helmet, shield or gloves. Basic list of body armors Name AC -------------------------------------------------------------- Leather 9 Scale Mail 11 Using scales (of a dragon say) Chain Mail 13 Chains linked together to form a mesh Ring Mail 15 Finer chains Banded Mail 17 Plates covering vital parts. chest Plate Mail 19 Plates covering body and limbs Plate Armor 22 Pure steel, one piece armor Shield 6 Shields give way too much armor in the mud Note the difference between plate mail and plate armor. Plate mail is the fine mesh armor covered with large steel/iron plates, but the joints are exposed except for the mesh. The mesh allows free movement. Plate Armor comes in complete suits, helmet, gloves the works. Movement is hard, if you fell you would need help to get up. Plate armor were often used for jousting. Also, not anyone could wear plate armor, it's too heavy for your average not-so-well-trained adventurer. Plate mail is more common. Gloves and gauntlets should have values in the mud of 3-4 unless there is something exceptional about them. Helmets can have from 4-8, maybe a little more as the head is so important to protect... The Body armor I would think accounts for about 60% of the armor value, leggings (leg plates) and arm plates about 20% each. Rings of protection... Anywhere from 3-9 :) for more common ones. Last edited April 19, 1994. aber@ludd.luth.se