All weapons have certain traits in common. They are listed here to avoid bloating out each individual weapon's description with repetitive rules. If an individual weapon has a trait or feature that contradicts a universal weapon rule, the individual weapon's rule takes precedence.
| Attacking | minus-circleAction Economy: Attacking requires one of your two actions each round. If you use a weapon archetype to make attacks with both actions during a round, this is known as “double-attacking”. Double-attacks cause you to lose 1 point of Energy. Single attacks (spending one action making a weapon attack and the other action doing literally anything else) have no Energy costs. Attacks made as free actions do not count as attacks for purposes of double-attack calculation. minus-circleTargeting: You can only choose to attack targets that are within range. Melee weapons tend to have very short range, and Remote weapons tend to have much longer ranges. Whelm weapons have more variable ranges but often are capable of hitting multiple targets with a single attack action. |
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| Damage | plus-circleStandard Formula: The damage you deal with a weapon is equal to the current Escalation plus your relevant combat rating. For example, if you're using a Melee weapon and your Melee combat rating is 3, you deal 3+Escalation damage with it. plus-circleEscalation: At the beginning of every conflict, Escalation is 1. It increases by +1 point at the end of each enemy turn (so right before the player adventurers get to go). Escalation affects everybody's weapon damage equally (friends and foes alike). minus-circleDefense: When a target takes damage, they subtract their relevant combat rating from the total damage taken. For example, if your Melee combat rating is 3 then you take 3 less damage from all Melee-type attacks made against you. Enemies with very high combat ratings in one area might require you to switch weapon types to effectively combat them. |
| Trigger Effects | plus-circleTrigger Die: Every time you use the weapon to attack somebody, roll a trigger die. Good effects happen when the trigger die number is high and bad effects (if any) happen when it is low. plus-circleCritical Hits: When the trigger die is 12, the attack deals +5 bonus damage. plus-circleConditions: When the trigger die is 10+ (meaning 10, 11, or 12) then the weapon also inflicts one of three conditions to its target of the wielder's choice. Each weapon has a different selection of three drawn from the list of 12 standard conditions. minus-circleNon-Stackable: Conditions exist in a binary state: a target either has a certain condition, or doesn't. If a target already has a condition, giving it to them again accomplishes nothing. minus-circleAttack Failure: Certain situations might cause an attack to fail (miss). Attack failure is expressed as a number. If you roll the attack's failure number or lower on the trigger die, the attack simply has no effect at all. Multiple different sources of attack failure stack with each other (make the number higher). plus-circleLucky Hit: No matter how high the failure chance currently is, all attacks succeed on a trigger die roll of 12. minus-circleLuck's Price: If failure chance is 12 or higher, then trigger die results of 12 do not critically hit or inflict a condition as they normally would. The hit deals its regular damage and that's it. |
| Failure | minus-circleSize Failure: Smaller creatures are harder to hit with weapons, and larger ones are harder to meaningfully damage. For every size category different than your own a target is, your attacks have a failure chance of 3. minus-circleConcealment Failure: If your target is in partial concealment (dim light, thin fog, etc) your attack has a failure chance of 3. If your target is in total concealment (total darkness, thick fog, etc) your attack has a failure chance of 6. minus-circleCover Failure: If there are creatures or solid objects partially obstructing your view of the target, your attack has a failure chance of 6. If creatures or solid objects are totally obstructing your view of the target, you cannot attack them at all. minus-circleWater Blocked: Weapons cannot be used to attack while underwater or against targets that are underwater. |
| Skullduggery | plus-circleBackstab: When attacking a target that cannot see you, you deal +2 damage. plus-circleAssassinate: If you successfully attack a creature of your own level or lower that wasn't expecting to be attacked, it instantly dies. Creatures that are higher-level than you are immune to assassination and your attack is resolved normally against them. minus-circleType-Restricted: Melee weapons can both backstab and assassinate. Remote weapons can backstab but not assassinate. Whelm weapons cannot do either. |