Simplified weapons for The Old World RPG

The list of weapons, particularly melee weapons, in The Old World RPG (TOWR) is a little bit strange. Some of them overlap a fair bit in what they do, some are clearly better than others. There is a long list of polearms (including one called "polearm") but only one sword. It's not bad, but it could be better. But there are several ways one might improve it.

Some would probably like more options, or the same number but better balanced - and some groups might want it simpler. This short article will suggest an alternative and much simpler list of weapons for TOWR, which is much shorter and more concise for groups that don't feel like going into details of their characters loadouts. In the future, I might go the opposite way and suggest an expanded list.

In the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), the only normal melee weapons were the Hand Weapon, the Knife/Dagger, the Spear and the Improvised Weapon. Everything else needed special skills to use - there were 14 special weapons. This means the entire list of melee weapons was the same length as in TOWR, but most characters only needed to worry about four of  them.

WFRP 2nd edition was similar: Of 18 melee weapons, only the Dagger, Gauntlet/Knuckleduster, Hand Weapon, Improvised weapon, Quarterstaff, Spear and Unarmed were ordinary (if we ignore the Shield, which was considered a weapon in that edition). That is only seven weapons an average character needs to consider.

Compare TOWR, where all of the 20 melee weapons can be used by any character (though five of them are mostly useful to someone with the Mighty Blow talent). The total amount of weapons are similar, but most players need to go through more to figure out what to use.

Significantly, WFRP tends to use the hand weapon and great weapon categories to group together all normal one- and two-handed weapons. Some players and groups hate this - others love it for the simplicity. The following list will use these groupings.

Do I recommend the lists below? Probably not, unless the entire group all agree they would enjoy something simpler. But the list in the main game isn't that complicated, so I'm considering this article more of a thought experiment than a real suggestion for house rules.

Alternate Melee Weapons for TOWR

If you use these rules, they replace all melee weapons in The Old World Roleplaying Game for your group.

Unarmed

Unarmed works exactly the same as in The Old World Players Guide, except you can attack with Weapon Skill or Brawn, and you can use Defence to oppose other unarmed attacks even when unarmed yourself.

Gauntlets, Knuckledusters, Short knives and Improvised weapons

You count as unarmed when using these weapons, as described above. However, you can deal damage with them. The damage is Strength-2. (One lower than the players handbook) They attack at close range. Gauntlets are included in the plate mail asset.

Hand weapon

Hand weapons are one-handed, deal Strength damage and attack at close range. Hand weapons include one-handed weapons such as daggers, clubs, maces, swords, axes, and warhammers. Spears and staffs are also counted as hand weapons when wielded in one hand.

Spears and staffs

While counting as hand weapons when held in one hand, Spears and staffs can be wielded in both hands instead. If you do, they allow you to attack at Short range, and grant you +1d to Defence against charges. However, spears and staffs count as a two-handed weapon for the purposes of encumbrance.

Great weapon

Great weapons are two-handed, deal Strength+3 damage and attack at close range, but you take -1d to Melee when attacking with them (which can be alleviated with the Mighty Blow) talent. They include cutting and bludgeoning polearms such as halberds and poleaxes, as well as two-handed swords, axes and warhammers. 

All the groups of melee weapons are represented for each social tier. A Brass tier character might use a dagger, club or axe as a hand weapon, while maces, Swords and warhammers are silver tier. Great mallets and axes are Brass tier great weapons, while a finely wrought two-handed sword is a gold tier trapping.

What about ranged and thrown weapons?

I tried making a shorter list of ranged weapons, but you really need quite a few of them to have different rules unless you want to significantly alter the encumbrance rules (one-vs-two-handed), the Blackpowder lore and the reloading rules - so there wasn't much to do.

I'd consider both types of Repeating Crossbows, as well as both types of Repeating gun and the Hochland Long Rifle as Gold tier assets in the same way as Full Plate Armour and Heirloom Wargear.

The other thing to do is really to consolidate the three types of bow: Shortbow, Warbow and Longbow. These can all be represented by the following:

Bow

Min cost: Brass, Optimum range: Medium-Long, Damage: S, Hands: 2H, Traits: This weapon does S damage, but must be constructed to fit your Strength. A Brass bow has its damage capped at 3, and a Silver bow at 5, even if used by a character with higher strength. A Gold bow has no damage cap and always has a damage rating equal to the users Strength.

This change has several benefits:

• Removing the Short Bow makes Throwing a more attractive Skill for those who want to attack at range yet within Short range. As we saw in the Skill Review, I believe Throwing could use a little bit of help.
• The damage rule means physical strength is now useful to Bow users in the same way as it is for Sling users, while maintaining the damage caps per wealth tier. (These caps aren't really necessary though, as the Sling can do the same damage at Brass tier, but there you are. It also serves to make a difference between a Sling and a Bow beyond the optimum range and the number of hands needed.)

Summary

Reducing the number of melee weapons to 5 for most characters seems slightly desirable to me for novice players. However, doing it reduces a lot of the flavor of the in-game list, so I probably wouldn't use it myself. That said, I think perhaps you could use this melee weapon list as a base for making an expanded weapon list that is a bit more consolidated than that in the Players Guide, with specialized versions of each weapon having their own bonuses and possibly requiring Lores. I also wish the melee weapons were more tied to other aspects of a character, like the Ranged Weapons where Reload weapons favor Dexterity-characters and the Blackpowder lore means only some characters qualify for some of the weapons.

The Ranged weapon design of the Players Guide is, in my opinion, better, and less in need of much tweaking. However, I think my consolidation of the Bows could make sense, and I am probably ruling that Repeating guns and crossbows are Assets rather than Trappings.

What do you think? Do you and your players prefer a shorter and more concise list of weapons, or do you want as many options as possible for flavor and variety?