Breaking Items

[Phoenix]

While talking with one of my players, I had a sudden thought. "The Heroes are valiantly questing in the dungeon when a group of Goblins strikes!! The Barbarian takes a massive swing the tiny goblin." The player rolls all Black Shields!! "As the Barbarian's sword comes whipping around, the Goblin raises his weapon to block and suddenly, the Barbarian's sword breaks in half!!"


So here's my thought.

1 - If the Hero rolls all BLACK SHIELDS when ATTACKING, his weapon will break becoming totally useless and will have to find a new weapon in the dungeon or wait until he can get back to the Armory.

2 - If the Hero rolls all BLACK SHIELDS when DEFENDING, his Helmet/Armor/Shield will be destroyed (randomly select which item it will be) and become totally useless.

3 - Magical Items WILL NOT BREAK!

4 - Broken itmes CANNOT be sold back to the Armory!

[drathe]

While reading your post, I too, had a sudden thought! Which expands on your idea which I think is an interesting one.

A.) If a fails to roll any Skulls whilst attacking, the weapon becomes less effective (-1 Combat Die). Requiring a Hero to have their weapon tempered/repaired between Quests for a fee, or purchase some sort of sharpening stone/repair kit which has a limited number of uses. Once a weapon is reduced to zero dice, it becomes useless and unrepairable.

B.) If a Hero rolls all Skulls while defending, the armour becomes less effective by (-1 Defence Die). Requiring a Hero to have their armour repaired between Quests for a fee, or purchase some sort of patch/repair kit which has a limited number of uses. Once a piece of armour is reduced to zero dice, it becomes useless and unrepairable.

C.) Damaged Equipment may be sold for 50% less their value (rounded down) for each reduction in its strength. Example, a Battle Axe has a resale value of 225 (half of 450). One damage (combat strength of 3 dice) would equal a resale price of 112 (50% of 225). Two damage (combat strength of 2 dice) would be 56 gold in resale value (50% of 56) and a combat strength of 1 would equal a resale value of 28 gold (50% of 56). Equipment with their combat strength reduced to zero is worthless and cannot be sold back to the armoury.


Overall, your idea is nice and simple, fitting well into the spirit of HeroQuest. My addition makes things more complex, but may fit well into an Advanced HeroQuest ruleset.

The only question with both ideas is what happens with weapons with a combat strength of 1 die? Also, the weaker the weapon, the higher the odds of rolling all Black Shields, no Skulls or all Skulls.

[Milk]

Hmm, it appears that no-skulls-equals-minus-one-to-attack/defend-per-weapon/armour-weakening could happen a bit to frequent for desired effect thus possibly making a group of harrowing warriors feel rather frustrated and grumpy. It could just be me, and i do know it has been a while since i played hq (at least a year) but i vaguely recall rolling quite a few of these no-skull rolls whilst playing as a hero (possibly only remember cause it seemed so out of the ordinary).

A possible compromise to both the weakening and weapon break rule - though adding probably more complexity than desired - is to allow weapons/armour three chances at all-black-shield rolls and breaking on the third with each prior weakening it by 1. However, those items with less then 3 dice would only receive as many chances as beginning dice allowed - ie, the Staff would get one chance (which makes sense, it being made out of wood and all). Another would be to allow for as many chances as there are dice alloted to that item - thus a Battle Axe would get 4 chances.

Just my thoughts on the subject, but overall, i do like the idea that weapons/armour can break. Also, the damaged weaponry/armour not fetching near as much gold when sold and the price continues to decrease is great as well.