Ye Olde Inn

While replying in another thread started by Ethica about reloading a Crossbow, I made an off-topic remark that the unbalancing effect of the Crossbow could be addressed by requiring an expendable Quiver of 10 bolts be purchased for 100 gold coins. The issues of tracking and recovering spent ammunition were discussed a bit, and that got me thinking about another ammo rule that doesn't require the same record-keeping. It belongs in the Armory under the Crossbow description:

         Crossbow
        350 Gold Coins
              Weapon
This long-range weapon gives you the
attack strength of 3 combat dice. You
may fire at any monster that you can
"see." However, you cannot fire at
a monster that is adjacent to you. You
have a quiver of arrows that is
expended if you roll two black shields
while attacking with this weapon. A
new quiver may be purchased for 100
gold coins.

Similarly, the Dagger description can be modified:

            Dagger
        50 Gold Coins
             Weapon
This sharp knife gives you the attack
strength of 1 combat die. A dagger can
also be thrown at any monster you can
"see," but if the Attack die rolled is a
black shield then it is lost.

Now on to the hows and whys of these house rule additions.

As things stand without house-ruling, a Crossbow with unlimited shots and 3 Attack dice costs the same as 14 thrown Daggers with just 1 Attack die. 2 extra Attack dice and infinite shots is just too good. I don't feel not allowing adjacent attacks is much of a penalty, as a Hero could simply back up and fire, or instead just punch with 1 Attack die anyway. Even if attacks without weapons are downgraded to say, hitting with a White Shield, there still isn't much difference between a Dagger and an unarmed attack when compared to the difference between a Crossbow and Dagger.

To even up the Dagger to the power of a Crossbow using the premises of the base rules, it should be a one-time purchase with unlimited shots at some increased cost--say 100 Gold Coins. However, I think a lot of people would have problems with this approach. The idea of a Wizard outfitted with bandoleers of Daggers doesn't ring true in my opinion. Maybe others would like it...I don't know.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has yet mentioned that recording thrown Daggers is a problem--probably because throwing them often is cost prohibitive. My own solution is to raise their cost to 50 gold coins and allow thrown Daggers to be recovered--but if a Black Shield was rolled during the attack then it is broken and rendered useless. This breaking of a thrown weapon is an extension of a weapon-damage house rule that I modified from one of Phoenix's threads. In the case one-Attack-die weapons such as a Dagger used adjacently or a Staff, a Black Shield attack result must be rerolled--only if a Black Shield is again rolled is the weapon damaged/destroyed. (This is a new, extended edit of my own original weapon damage rule.)

The Crossbow house rule detailed at the top of this post is derived from the recoverable Daggers rule above, setting Crossbow ammunition as a finite resource that must occasionally be repurchased. If my math is correct, rolling 2 Black Shields with a 3 Attack-dice Crossbow should happen once in 13 or 14 attacks; maybe the roll will happen in just one attack, or maybe it will happen in thirty. Thematically, expending all of the arrows early can be rationalized by an arrow jamming the Crossbow or the arrows being lost or broken during a Quest. A quiver of arrows that is expended long after the average 13.5 uses can be explained by the successful, repeated recovery of fired ammunition. Maybe the true starting number is just six or ten arrows in a quiver--it doesn't exactly matter if you assume a Hero is generally searching for spent arrows with limited or greater success.

I think a 100 gold-coin quiver compares favorably with the 50 gold-coin Dagger which on average is lost in 6 thrown attacks. The extra 2 Attack dice of arrows are balanced out by the additional 350 gold coin cost of the Crossbow (maybe). Pricing Crossbow ammunition addresses the extreme usefulness of the Crossbow, allowing an early purchase while adding a cost that drains the coffers. Daggers already do this, and the more powerful Crossbow should as well.

I like it. I'm going to include this in my own rules.

Food for thought. I shall try it with my group

How about the Hand Axe?

I allow my group to throw them, attacking with 2 combat dice. They can carry a max of 5. I cost them at 50 gold each. I also allow them to recover thrown axes but I also employ the damage/lost roll. The 2 combat dice attack closes the gap on the crossbow but I agree the crowbow is too good

I am all in favor of a quiver of bolts. It is a simple thing to track. They already track Hit Points, and Mind Points. It isn't like the players have very much record keeping to do.

cynthialee wrote:I am all in favor of a quiver of bolts. It is a simple thing to track. They already track Hit Points, and Mind Points. It isn't like the players have very much record keeping to do.

That is also a good point. It requires an additional space on my custom character sheet.

Ethica wrote:That is also a good point. It requires an additional space on my custom character sheet.

As in, an inventory diablo style sheet? could you scan it and post it? sounds interesting.

@Nerrad72-
Using the OP rules, the Hand axe and the Spear from the European Equipment cards work much like the Daggers, but since they already use 2 Attack dice there's no need for an extra reroll of a Black Shield while attacking adjacently (or diagonally with the Spear). Even though they are damaged while thrown if just 1 Black Shield is rolled, the Hand axe and Spear are instead reduced to just 1 Attack die, not automatically destroyed. They may be repaired at half cost once, but if they are damaged again (repaired or not), they are forever ruined. I upgraded the Spear to 200 gold coins, as the diagonal attack ability makes it better than the Hand axe. I kept the Hand axe the same at 150 gold coins.

It occured to me that the Dagger rule should also go in the Armory. It probably goes without saying, but both the Crossbow and Dagger rules would go into the Equipment cards if the European rules are used. The new Dagger entry:

            Dagger
        50 Gold Coins
             Weapon
This sharp knife gives you the attack
strength of 1 combat die. A dagger can
also be thrown at any monster you can
"see," but if the Attack die rolled is a
black shield then it is lost.

I'm adding this to the OP for completeness.

Sjeng wrote:

Ethica wrote:That is also a good point. It requires an additional space on my custom character sheet.

As in, an inventory diablo style sheet? could you scan it and post it? sounds interesting.

Here is my existing one. Still got to ammend for ammo tracking.

I don't allow daggers to be re-used since they're so cheap. Crossbow bolts? Oh, I limit them. It's bad enough my players now have a systematic sweep they do. So... Crossbow's initial purchase - you get 8 bolts. After that - 3 arrows for 90 gold, or 6 arrows for 150 gold.