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The first thing I mentioned in my wishlist was a dissatisfaction with weapons in Dungeons & Dragons. Even with the mastery options – which are only usable by those who unlock them, for each specific weapon – there’s very little variance between a 1d8/1d10 damage slashing battleaxe and a 1d8/1d10 damage slashing longsword. And that difference is just as minimal between the longsword and, say, the 1d8/1d10 damage bludgeoning warhammer. Functionally, these weapons are all treated the same in D&D: they can be wielded in one or two hands, they deal 1d8 or 1d10 damage, and they cost 10 – 15 gold.
And while masteries are a step in the right direction, they are the smallest possible step. So I wanted to come up with a system that did more like that, that allowed people to take more control and feel more variance in weapons. In doing so, I realised this also meant a change in how armour and protection work against these weapons; naturally, changing how weapons work affects a lot of other mechanics. That’s the nature of the beast, I suppose. But it means more nuance in how weapons do what they do, and how effective your weapons can be against different opponents. And it gives the referee more tools to deploy to shift the narrative.
So without further ado, let’s look at my aims with weapon mechanics in Rank & File, and how I intend to accomplish them:
How Weapons Work
Stripping Down the Weapons List
My immediate thought with Rank & File was: I want to remove the unnecessary redundancy from the weapons list. There are still a few different varieties of bow, and several swords; but there is one axe, one hammer, one spear, and they all serve many purposes.
One of the first things I did was get rid of the damage dice from weapons, so we don’t need a small axe that does little damage, versus a big axe that does a lot. That drastically reduced the number of weapons I need to account for, but it also meant I needed something else to differentiate them from each other; after all, isn’t my main gripe that the weapons feel bland?
So let’s explore an area where I’ve added some detail: weapon properties.
Weapon Properties
I like a lot of the ideas of D&D, but I’m not enthused by their execution. This is illustrated by their weapon properties: Light, Finesse, Versatile, Two-Handed, plus another half-dozen depending on range, weight, and whether a bow is a crossbow or not. These tend to be minor mechanical differences which end up being unimportant, because they don’t fundamentally alter the feel of the weapon; I’ve tried to avoid that with my weapon properties, only including ones which provide significant difference or advantage. Let’s go through a few of those now.
Versatile: Like D&D, I also have a versatile tag. In Rank & File’s case, this is something which is picked when you select or buy your weapon. For the axe, hammer, spear, and longsword, when you choose one you decide if it’s a one-handed variant, or two-handed. This has significant mechanical consequences for a number of reasons: in the primary, a two-handed weapon can be wielded one-handed… with some difficulty. You don’t get the same leverage, so your strikes are less effective and you are fighting at a disadvantage.
Bludgeon: Rather than separate weapons into damage type, I elected to give certain heavy, blunt weapons a property that allows them to ignore some armour. For most weapons, an armour’s rating will prevent damage unless you can pass that threshold; a weapon with the Bludgeon property, however, is designed to dent steel and break bones, so it cuts through that defence. And it means that different weapons are better at punching through armoured enemies – you won’t send your sabre-toting officer into battle against the armour-clad soldier; you’ll get your shipwright with his two-handed mallet to take a few swings at him!
Pierce: I didn’t want to give blunt weapons all the fun. A rapier can be as effective against a heavily-armoured foe as a hammer – if you know where to hit. The pierce tag is for weapons that are precise – or powerful – enough to bypass armour. The difference is in result – these weapons don’t ignore armour value, but instead they allow you to cause bleeding wounds despite an opponent being armoured. This is vitally important, as one of the most decisive ways to end a battle is to start the other guy bleeding out – they’ll either have to fight to the death, or disengage and go find a surgeon to patch them up.
One-Shot and Heavy Draw: Bows have a number of differences. There are hunting bows, longbows, crossbows, pistol bows, but they all serve different purposes. The longbow, for example, is Heavy Draw: it requires strength to draw back and fire, and it’s slower as a result. The upshot is, you can fire farther, and you can pierce armour; the downside is, you get one shot a round, no matter how good you are.
On the other hand, you’ve got crossbows. They all have the one-shot feature, which sounds similar but works differently: with a one-shot bow, you need to re-cock it and reload it before you can fire again. This takes valuable time, and potentially allows more distant enemies to close the distance some before they need to find cover again…
Improvised: This is a special tag just for the club. The idea is, you can use anything solid and heavy enough as a club; the drawback is, you can’t really use any of your combat actions with these improvised weapons. But provided you’re trained in how to fight with a club, you can hit someone with just about anything.
Wait, Combat Actions?
Okay, this is the biggest change I made to combat. The Battle Master fighter was one of my favourite parts of D&D 5e, mainly because it offered a lot of customisation and hearkened back to the 3.5 era, with various combat feats you could stack and build to make a versatile, interesting warrior. I wanted to bring that back with Rank & File and put it at the forefront, while grounding the combat in more realistic styles.
Enter: the combat schools.
When you choose your weapon, you’re not just choosing a weapon; you’re choosing how you want to fight. Different types of weapon correspond to different schools: those on the lower rungs of society have access to infantry training, street combat, and in some cases martial arts. Poachers learn archery, often illicitly, whilst officers and the nobility learn swordplay, either duelling or full-combat martial arts.
Each combat school focuses on different weapons, granting players specific actions they can use in combat to gain an advantage and overcome stronger, more practised foes. Many of them correspond to historical martial training: there’s a bodyguard school for two-handed swords and spears, focused on area-denial for the wannabe landsknecht; or a clergy school which focuses on staves, hammers, and maces, as the historical bishop had to go to war… but was not allowed to draw blood with a bladed weapon. If you’re nobility you can learn duelling, archery, and jousting, and if you’re a labourer you can learn how to turn the tools of your trade against those very same nobles.
We’ll go through the weapon schools in full in the next essay. For now, I think that’s as good a place as any to leave it.
See you next time!