03-06-2020, 07:38 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2020
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Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
I've got the "Two Complete Games in One Box" version of Melee. The very last sentence of the Melee booklet data "Since his sword will do at least 1 damage, Wulf is a goner". Flavius was using a gladius (shortsword), which is listed as 2d-1. I suppose this would always do one damage, as the minimum you can roll on two dice is two. But I'd like to know if there is a general assumption that a weapon will always do one damage on a hit (not counting for armour). So Dagger, Main Gauche, Javelin, Thrown rock, Sling, and Small bow all have the potential of zero (or negative) damage. Is this the intention of the rules - that such weapons sometimes do no damage, or is there an assumed 1 damage per successful hit?
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03-06-2020, 08:27 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: New England
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
Yes, any weapon with a subtractive modifier equal to or more than its dice damage has the potential to deal zero damage on a hit--even a double or triple damage hit.
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03-06-2020, 09:28 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
It's important that zero mean zero, not 1. Otherwise there are a bunch of 1-die attacks that should be significantly different in average value but end up being closely similar.
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03-07-2020, 02:21 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Mar 2020
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
Ok, thank you for your replies. About doubling / tripling @Shostak, so I take it the results of rolls are doubled/tripled (or halved etc), not the number of dice and modifiers?
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03-07-2020, 03:33 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: London Uk, but originally from Scotland
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
Yes it's the total rolled that is doubled etc. So if your rolled total is zero, it's still zero on a double or triple.
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03-07-2020, 10:47 AM | #6 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
We used to double and triple the number of dice instead. We enjoyed the feel, drama, and sound of rolling more dice.
There is a game effect of doing that, of course, on the possible and likely numbers you tend to get. (Multiplying the number of dice is less likely to get a very low or very high result, and it also means it's possible to get amounts that aren't multiples of 2 or 3.) |
03-17-2020, 10:29 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
I've seen one house rule that double damage simply adds a d6, triple adds 2d6. Makes things slightly less lethal, and negates the "Critical Zero!" scenario.
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04-09-2020, 04:02 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Cali
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
I always liked the More Dice approach. watching 6d6 get rolled on a broadsword crit...is sheer entertainment!
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04-10-2020, 11:18 AM | #9 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Minimum of 1 damage for all weapons?
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