Blasphemous Polyhedral Weapons Table

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by Jim Kane

Ty - you might want to re-think your feeling on the idea for a minute. Remember all the times in movies or TV when the little guy attempts to punch the big bruiser in the gut, and the big bruiser just smiles,... right before he picks up the little guy in an upside down bear-hug and crushes little guy like a soda can? It's very Cinematic.

Also, it is MY PERSONAL SUSPICION that most of that "zero damage" makes up for the fact that your opponent gets "no defense roll", and the "zero damage result" may be trying to compensate/simulate a detailed situation where you landed a blow, BUT it was a glancing blow after all,... OR, perhaps the opponent twisted away as a reaction, OR, your sword handle "turned" in your hand at impact, OR, your footing slipped, so no leverage to your swing, OR.. whatever. It's too fine a level of detail for TFT to present in-play, but perhaps it was simply factored into the unseen parts of the game-design - but not pointed to in print - and nonetheless REPRESENTS AN AGGREGATE SUM RESULTING IN NET: ZERO which includes unstated combat variables, which then results in "zero damage".

Anyway, that's how I rationalize the existence of "zero damage" in TFT; maybe that might work for you too; maybe not.

You might want to directly ask SJ himself about how "zero damage" is possible; or what it really simulates, etc.

Oh, I think the answer is clear - with only six sided dice, you’re gonna have to fudge some things. If you want 5 points of average damage, and 3 dice or less, you have to roll 2d-2. If you want a maximum damage of 4, then with one d6 it has to be 1d-2. That creates some odd effects. For example, a longbow and cutlass do about the same average damage. But the longbow will always do at least 3 points and never more than 8 points of normal damage, with the same probability of rolling any given number. The cutless can do as little as 0 and at most 10, with a bell shaped probability curve. Is there any particular reason that some weapons (longbow, dagger, javelin, spear, quarterstaff, rapier, hammer, small ax) use a linear progression, while others use a bell curve, other than “using d6’s required it”?

And as a lawyer, I’m professionally trained to rationalize ANYTHING. But that doesn’t get it for me. The differing damage approaches bothers me at a reptilian brain stem level. It’s almost certainly irrational.