Equipment Maintenance and limits

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Sorry I'm still fixated on your 2x 1-handed weapons or 1x 2-handed weapon limit. What happens if a Hero opts to go into a Dungeon armed with a Crossbow (presumably this would max them out from a 1x 2-handed weapon limit) and as the crossbow cannot be used on adjacent opponents ... how does that work?

I think that for me there are two important points to note here.

1) Whilst it takes both hands to effectively wield a battle axe in combat, nothing would stop me from carrying it in one hand
2) If I have a sword in a scabbard at my hip or an axe hanging from my belt (health and safety!) why couldn't I be using a crossbow in my hands?

To be fair I have increased costs of some kit too, but I won't post the whole lot here as it is in table format and I can't face making it into BB code!

Weapons Summary table

Dagger 50
Club 50
Shield 100
Staff 150
Hand axe 200
Short sword 350
Battle axe 750
Broadsword 800
Longsword 1200
Short Bow 200
Bow 400
Crossbow 400

Note: Characters may be armed with a weapon represented on their miniature such as a Long Knife or Hammer but is functionally identical to a Hand axe if wielded in one hand or a Battle axe if wielded in both hands.

23.2 Armour Summary table

Note: Body Armour is stacked i.e. plate & mail must be worn over leather, plate can be worn over mail

Leather armour 100
Helmet 150
Bracers 250
Cloak of Protection 350
Chain Mail 800
Chest Plate 400
Back Plate 450

Equipment Summary Table

Tool kit 250
Bandages 20
Healing Salve 30
Antidote Vial 30
Bundle of Arrows 50

As part of the discussion around preventing Heroes from maxing out so early I wanted to discuss Quest rewards but perhaps this isn't the thread, I'll have a search later for a more suitable thread.

[arntisdale]

Sorry I'm still fixated on your 2x 1-handed weapons or 1x 2-handed weapon limit. What happens if a Hero opts to go into a Dungeon armed with a Crossbow (presumably this would max them out from a 1x 2-handed weapon limit) and as the crossbow cannot be used on adjacent opponents ... how does that work?

I think that for me there are two important points to note here.

1) Whilst it takes both hands to effectively wield a battle axe in combat, nothing would stop me from carrying it in one hand
2) If I have a sword in a scabbard at my hip or an axe hanging from my belt (health and safety!) why couldn't I be using a crossbow in my hands?

Your assessment is correct. Going into the dungeon equipped only with only a crossbow (and bolts) does make things tricky.
It does take both hands, and since they can't attack into any of their surrounding 8 squares, that means that they would have to rely of move/shoot actions if they got caught next to a monster.
It does, however, encourage players to stick together and strategize, that way you can have someone distracting the monsters up front, while the crossbow guy maneuvers to take the best shot from the back ranks. It's also fun (for me) when a hero with such a setup splits off from the group and encounters a pile of bad guys. They keep moving back and shooting, sometimes if they're not careful, they can get cornered. In which case they can drop their crossbow and engage the monsters in fisticuffs whilst yelling for help!
It's also worth noting here that if they have an equipment belt, they can carry 3 additional equipment items, and can swap out as needed using the equipment swap out rules.

Not all of my rules will make perfect sense from a realism point of view, but my mechanics (generally) do what I want them to.

[Stig]

Hero example.png

My system has icons on the custom cards that integrates all of this:

http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=5328

The players add the equipment to the appropriate colour coded dock, and they cannot exceed the number. For example, arms are on the left, are coloured yellow, and typically have a limit of 2, shown inside the yellow gem.

Players are only allowed one TYPE of each item. So one weapon, one ranged weapon, one shield etc.

Items have a load icon (a rucksack) at the bottom, showing how heavy they are. Different heroes can carry different amounts.

That way, this whole encumberance thing is organised with a few simple icons on the hero character and weapon cards.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

arntisdale

I think you are correct, when you take into account your 'accessories', especially the Equipment Belt and the Satchel then our rulesets are broadly equivalent. Good to know we have reached the same place but using different paths!

Stig

I like the icons and colour coding to simplify encumbrance further but I'm not a fan of the rule below;

Players are only allowed one TYPE of each item. So one weapon, one ranged weapon, one shield etc.

If I can carry a shield, crossbow and a battleaxe, all of which are significant pieces of kit, why couldn't I have a short sword on one hip and a hand axe on the other?

[Stig]

Thanks - I should have been more clear; in my system a hero can only be *equipped* with one type of weapon, so they can't hold two shields, two bows etc. They can *carry* as many as they like in their pack up to their hero limit.

So when they find the Spirit Blade, they can chuck their old weapon on their back, but not fight with both

[Bareheaded Warrior]

When I am considering adding a 'house rule' I try (as a general rule) to work out what problem I am trying to solve by adding/modifying the rule, using the principle that less is more when it comes to rules so if I can remove a rule with breaking anything that I'll do so.

Thanks - I should have been more clear; in my system a hero can only be *equipped* with one type of weapon, so they can't hold two shields, two bows etc. They can *carry* as many as they like in their pack up to their hero limit

If you are ruling that a Hero can only be *equipped* with one type of weapon that would prevent a Hero from wielding two hand axes, a perfectly valid option I think especially as under your restriction they could wield a short sword and hand axe I presume (two bows is different as I consider them double handed weapons), consider what problem are you trying to resolve with this restriction, what would break if you remove it?