TIA: Damaged Weapons

[Von Necron]

I made random event rooms in my quests. Only like one or two. I didn't use cards kust made a sheet of ten random events sometimes 6 and had them role a d10 or d6. Damaged weapons or armor was a possible event. It kept it simple for us. I don't remember all the events, I changed them for each quest. Some examples were
Damaged armor loose one defend die
Damaged weapon loose one attack
Wounded monster how do heroes deal with it
Spell caster dropped potion back at stairwell does he go back
Diferent type of wandering monster
Ambush
Monster traitor
Loot monsters
I had others that would fit in with given quests

[Daedalus]

I recently went back to my weapon-damage house rule in another thread about fumbles. Rereading the rule after some time left me with the conclusion that it could be improved with simplification and amended (edits are in italics):

If an attack roll with a weapon results in all Black Shields or 3 Black Shields in any event, then it is damaged; one-combat-die weapons must reroll a second Black Shield if used in melee combat. Note a weapon as "damaged" on your Hero's Character Sheet. The combat die value of the weapon is now reduced by 1 until it is repaired between Quests. Repair cost is half the gold coin value of the weapon to remove this -1 penalty. Should the the weapon be damaged again before it is repaired, then it is destroyed. Weapon artifacts may not be damaged in this way.

If a Hero is protected by armor and a defend roll results in 3 or more Black Shields, or just 3 Black Shields if Chain Mail or Plate Mail is worn, then a piece of non-mail armor is damaged. Note this piece of armor as "damaged" on your Hero's Character Sheet, randomizing if necessary. Should Chain Mail or Plate Mail be worn and 4 or more Black Shields are rolled, then instead note this armor as "damaged." The combat die value of damaged armor is reduced by 1 until it is repaired between Quests. Repair cost is half the gold coin value of the armor to remove this -1 penalty. Should the armor be damaged again before it is repaired, then it is destroyed. Armor artifacts may not be damaged in this way and aren't included in randomizing to determine which piece of armor is damaged.

[Daedalus]

Well, that other thread about fumbles by knightkrawler got bumped again so I decided my houserule needed more clarification and simplification.

If an attack roll with a weapon results in all Black Shields or 3 Black Shields in any event, then it is damaged. For a 1 Attack Die weapon to be damaged in melee, a black shield result must also be rerolled for a second black shield. The Attack Dice of a damaged weapon is reduced by 1--record this on your Hero's Character Sheet.  A damaged weapon may be repaired for half of its cost between Quests. Weapon artifacts may not be damaged in this way.

If an armored Hero rolls 3 or more black shields for defense, then a randomly-determined piece of armor is damaged.  Should chain mail or plate mail be selected, randomize again, keeping this second result. The Defend Dice of damaged armor is reduced by 1; record this on your Character Sheet.  Damaged armor may be repaired for half of its cost between Quests.  Armor artifacts may not be damaged in this way.

The adjustment to the randomization of armor more closely resembles drathe's suggestion, but I put in a do-over for the more expensive chain and plate mail to balance thier costly loss. Instead of a 1-in-2 or 1-in-3 randomization, it would give a 1-in-4 or 1-in-9 chance for damage to chain or plate mail.

Is it apparent that a thrown dagger is damaged with a single black shield result, or do I need to detail that more?

[burglekutt]

the exception being, that these items can take up to '4' damage before they become unrepairable. The more damage they take, the more expensive it becomes to repair them.

I like this idea because each point of dammage done to your weapon requires 25% of its cost to repair, or make it a straight $50.

Perhaps at the end of each quest you roll one CD, WShield= 1 Dam, BShield= 2 Dam. The first point of Dam always goes to your weapon, the rest can go to your armor.

Also this makes Zargons Rust spell less destructive to a hero which i like. It could take off 3points instead.
Of course players will say their Helmet takes the hit because it costs less to repair, so maybe give the Helmet only 2Dam, Shield 3Dam, Chain Mail 4Dam etc..

You'd also be able to make the dwarf a Black Smith who can repair em for even less cost.

[burglekutt]

Posting so I can get back to this.

I love the idea of simply rolling a CombatDie at the end of a quest to see if you did damage to your weapon.
Skull: No damage..
WhiteShield: 1Damage.
BlackShield: 2Damage. The first point always going to your weapon & the second point can go to your armor or weapon.

Say you have a Long Sword, Helm & Chain Mail. 3Att/ 4Def & you roll a BShield at the end of the quest. If you don't repair it, your LSword now rolls 2Att. For armor 1pt damage results in a Defend die being cut in half. Roll a 1 on a 1d6 to defend. You roll this 1d6 along with your defense dice.

You can repair these before the quest for 10% of the LSwords value & the Helms value.

Items such as tool kits can also break. Whenever an attempt to use the kit fails by rolling a black shield, such as when disarming a trap or picking a lock, roll another combat die. On a black shield the item has snapped and cannot be used further Because how many lockpicks do you go through picking locks in video games? But seriously, you can damage your tools, that's the harsh nature of the dungeon.

I like this alot. You could go further and say that every time you fail a roll with your lock picks that it breaks and just lower the price to $10 - $20 per Picks & he can buy as many as he wants.

[Daedalus]

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. . . . . .NECRO MAGIC. . . . . .

A post in another topic got me thinking about weapon damage again.
I ran through probabilities for rolling 3 Black Shieds rolling 3, 4, 5, and 6 dice. This new house rule over many Quests will force a Hero to spend about half of his Gold Coins on repairs. I wouldn't implement this house rule until after the MGS, but at least until the Heroes have bought new weapons. Remember that a Hero can revert to his starting weapon.

Here's the latest simplification:

If rolling Attack Dice in combat results in 3 or more Black Shields, the Hero's weapon is damaged. Rolling 3 or more Black Shields with Defend Dice similarly damages a piece of armor chosen by the player. Damaged equipment is rendered temporarily useless. Between Quests, an item may be repaired at the Armory for half of its cost. An Artifact is repaired at half the cost of its Armory equivalent.

The Wizard is spared the trouble of weapon damage, which is just as well. The Instruction Booklet singled him out for saving his Gold Coins, which he can pour into Daggers and potions.

This house rule has more bite if Morcar/Zargon prohibits Heroes from carrying spare weapons and armor. Let the Hero feel the pain of one less Combat Die for a bit.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Sorry to be blunt, but I'm not really a fan of this.

For me Gold in HQ is to be spent on Equipment that upgrades your abilities so it is effectively the Advancement system (not perfectly implemented in the expansions especially granted, but a great idea all the same). Having to use gold to repair equipment, or similar such "realistic" ideas, like costs for food & drink in settlements, horse hire, healing costs, bard rental and similar expenses feels like turning HQ into an accounting package, dull!

If the motivation for introducing this is to solve the problem of too much gold aquired and too little equipment to spend it on, then throttle back on gold aquisition (treasure search once per room and in room only) and introduce more equipment to purchase especially one shot items.

[Daedalus]

Your collection of treasure and equipment additions show a lot of care, and I can see why you favor their availability. It's a positive solution that I can appreciate. All that added stuff will prove very useful in the difficult expansions ahead.

My house rule, while not as fun as getting more treasure, is intended to be easy to remember and automatically implemented, something for those who don't want the fuss of thoughtful control. Reducing treasure searches is easy to implement, but I'm not comfortable doing away with the NA mechanic that the Heroes need at the start of their careers to quicken early advancement. I also am reluctant to dismiss all of those extra hazards, Wandering Monsters, and potions that come with multiple searches of a room.

Like you, I also wouldn't want to combine this with other bookkeeping "realism". The intent is to provide a bleed-off for the gold coin bloat the Heroes accumulate in the published expansions. I imagine many players wouldn't even bother to scratch a favored weapon on their Character Sheet. Rather, they would play with the combat-die penalty for the Quest and pay the cost immediately. Yes, it's occasionally involves record keeping, but writing down treasure found in a search is also record keeping, and that is done routinely. To me, tracking a gold coin loss every 2 or so Quests is inconsequential; it's the worrying Combat Die nerf and long term game balance that matters most.