Differentiating Weapon Types

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by phiwum

The main-gauche is already limited to blocking a hit from one-handed weapons, so it has the "light weapon" limitation built in.

However this sword defence works, main-gauche should work the same way.

But if you add a defensive bonus to swords and no bonus to Ax/Mace, then the problem for Ax/Mace is exacerbated.

In this system axe damage is the same as ITL but sword damage is reduced.

Already, there's a benefit to Sword, namely the Knife talent for free.

Which is silly, because the sword should be harder to learn than the axe/mace. As a draft I have Knife (1), Sword (1, requires Knife), Spear (1), Axe/Mace (1), to use a complex polearm (e.g. halberd) requires both Spear and Axe/Mace. But this is a whole different idea from giving swords a defence and can be considered separately.

none of the PCs in my game have seen fit to use Ax/Mace at all.

There's also a perverse benefit in that you can have a starting character with Axe/Mace expertise but not with Sword Expertise.

Still, I agree that simplicity is a key feature of this game, so perhaps best to leave well enough alone.

I feel we should be able to do something worthwhile, if we can just resist turning a paragraph into a page.