Weapon Breakage & Carrying Capacity

[arntisdale]

I'm considering a system for weapon breakage, here's what I'm thinking:
Melee/thrown weapons: if # (defender) > # (attacker) AND # must be at least 1 (zero skulls considered miss), then roll 1cd6, if roll , weapon is broken ( for artifacts)
Ranged weapons: if # > # AND no skulls on attack roll, then roll 1cd6, if roll , weapon broke ( for artifact)(and double bs for sling – simple hardy design makes it much harder to break)
Armor: if MAX damage is done on an attack vs hero (monster got all skulls, hero got no shields) AND # is at least half of defense dice rolled, rounded down, then roll 1cd6 – if get ( for artifact), then something broke – roll again – : broke shield/bracer, : broke helmet, : broke body armor

I'm also considering restricting hero carrying capacity - but adding equipment that extends their ability to haul stuff around.
Hero carrying capacity – heroes can equip one item on head/body/2hands held/belt/boots/quiver/about body/whatever makes sense
Other than that, they may only carry 2 potions (or other small item) and NO other piece of equipment
Satchel – heroes may carry up to 10 potions/scrolls (or other small item) - still not sure about a good definition for 'small item'
Equipment belt - may carry 3 unequipped weapons
Backpack – may carry backup set of armor

What do you think Inn patrons? Constructive criticism please.

[lestodante]

Too much roll s for my tastes. I guess it's better to use a system of time.. after certain number of quests the weapons start to ruin and before the next quest the players need to roll dice to see if the weapon is still ok or need to be changed.
But if a weapon start to break after 2 or 3 quests it sucks. At least they should have some longevity. You could perform the test after each questpack is finished and before starting a new one.

[Anderas]

You could simplify by giving the rust spell to every third dungeon boss - that also has this particular "har har har" effect a dice roll could never transport!

[arntisdale]

Too much roll s for my tastes.

I don't think this should be that big of an issue. Keep in mind that the extra roll only occurs if the attack/defend roll meets the criteria (which is pretty rare). Right now I think the greatest weakness in this system is going to be remembering when to make the check for breakage.

But if a weapon start to break after 2 or 3 quests it sucks. At least they should have some longevity.

I'm going to offset weapon loss by including a draw a random equipment card in the treasure deck (limited to match hero level), and also by throwing in equipment as part of hidden treasure a bit more than usual. I'm hoping that this will put more of a variety of tools into the heroes hands. The dice system for breakage keeps it more random, but it also has at least a little bit of thematic probability involved. It's going to be damn near impossible to break your warhammer on a goblin, and more likely that you'll break your dagger on a chaos warrior.
In any case, the chance for breakage is extremely low, especially for the ranged weapons. My stats is a bit rusty, but I calculated the chance of the crossbow breaking on any given shot as 0.15%

You could simplify by giving the rust spell to every third dungeon boss - that also has this particular "har har har" effect a dice roll could never transport!

True true, but when I smite our valiant heroes weapons with a rust spell, I'm going for their biggest best item, it's a purposeful strike. I'm trying to make this a bit more random. I suppose I could always do both!

Thanks for the feedback!

What about the carrying capacity system? Any thoughts?

[lestodante]

What about the carrying capacity system? Any thoughts?

I limit one weapon equipped and a second one hanged to the belt or the back. A Heroe that wish to swap weapon must declare it BEFORE attacking!

Weapon swap is always permitted and doesn't count as an action if there are no monsters.
But if there is at least one monster the player needs to roll a die when he wish to equip the BOW: if a skull is rolled he swap succesfully and fast enough so he can also attack in the same turn.
If a shield is rolled instead he swap weapon anyway but not fast enough so he will miss his action for that turn. He must wait next turn to attack.
No weapon swap is allowed if a monster is adiacent.
I will make the die roll required only when he wish to equip a weapon that requires two hands (crossbow, bow, sword+shield or 2-hand axe) and not when he wish to use the sword because it is faster to unsheathe a sword than to take an arrow from the quill, charge the bow and shot.

[Anderas]

If you have difficult or aggressive players, that har har har moment can easily become stressful, that's true

[Palindala]

I like your ideas about weapon breakage and will suggest them to my group even so I am afraid I will miss chances as master to destoy in the end by forgetting about the rule.

The more complex the rules and number of cards in play the more high the risk to miss chances. And our game is quite complex already.

About Carrying Capacity here are the rules of my group:
Body armor must "fit" together.
You may only use one amulet and two magic rings (one per hand) at one time so the magic of one item does not "disturb" the magic of another.
Backpacks may be combined with other bags but not with weapon belt or quiver. Those two may only be combined with bumbag and / or money bag.
The weapon belt allows the carrige of two weapons and a shield at a time.
The money bag ist thanks to Mentor magical, too. There is no limit how much gold it can carry. But if you lose it, you can carry a maximum of 300 gold coins counting as one item in your bagpack.

Finally you got two hands you can use to carry whatever. Most heroes prefer to carry weapon and shield or a two handed weapon to running around carrying a glas of beer in one hand and a mirror in the other hand.

[arntisdale]

I am afraid I will miss chances as master to destoy in the end by forgetting about the rule.

Every instance of a break is going to be an instance of a lot of black shields, as Zargon, I'm a big fan of black shields . Keeping that bit in mind, instead of trying to keep track of the various instance rules helps a lot.
Thanks for sharing the way you run carrying capacity! I'm still playing with the rules on this one, and every bit if advice/feedback gives me more to consider.

[Showdown35]

Just want to chime in with a thought regarding your rules for armour breaking. Having armour only break when the defense roll is a whiff (no white shields) doesn't seem right to me. That means the more armour you have the less likely it is that something breaks. For me, it should be the opposite.

I'll share my equipment damage system for comparison. I am considering tweaking it so I like hearing ideas from others:

Melee Weapons: An attack roll of all black shields damages the weapon, reducing its attack by -1 combat die. It can still be used, but if damaged again, it is destroyed. This makes small weapons much more likely to break. Weapons that only attack with one combat die will not break on one black shield, unless they are thrown (daggers). If a hero is buffed (potion of strength, courage, etc.) the weapon still breaks on black shields equal to its normal attack, so the extra strength of the attack makes it more likely to break.

Ranged Weapons: I have arrows and bolts as a purchasable item, and whenever 2 black shields are rolled in an attack, this represents either the quiver running out, or the bow/string breaking, and a new quiver must be used to restock/repair the weapon.

Armour: When a monster attacks with a roll of at least 3 skulls, and the defender rolls at least one white shield, a piece of armour is damaged. Shield first if carried, bracers if no shield is carried, helmet if no shield/bracers, body armour if no shield/bracers/helmet is equipped.
Note if the defender rolls enough white shields to completely avoid damage, their defensive skill has allowed them to dodge the attack, and no damage is done.

[mitchiemasha]

I thought I already had this simplified the best possible way.

The original breakage mod I stumbled upon was "Roll all In combat, discard an equipped weapon" so simple, I liked it, I used it. It had many problems, mainly less breakage chance of multiple weapons in defence, potions, spells etc. Then it clicked. "Roll equal to the weapons strength".

A weapon doesn't have "strength" i hear you say, well... it's combat dice value is it's strength, a +1 Defence is actually a 3, as a heroes base is 2, +1. If 1 or multiple +1's, 1 will breaks on .

Now, if a hero drinks a potion or has a spell cast on them, a weapon is more likely to break, thematic. Expensive, strong weapons are less likely to break. 1Cd6 daggers rolling isn't so much an issue damaging it, normally it would be lost anyway, in my mods "Lost weapons are found if searching the area they were thrown in" (see how the wording their doesn't change the original rule, it adds on to it) so the damage works here too, adding more value, reason to buy the dagger, they can last longer... but, still easily lost (damaged) to not OP them.

Once a weapon is damaged, the hero reverts to their start weapon value (unless they have another weapon), which can be considered them using the damaged weapon or still having their start weapon (which way you see it really doesn't matter). Break a 2d6 short sword and you revert back to 2d6 . Short swords are for dual wield, 2 attacks, quite powerful vs lots of little monster, so you want these to break easily but, you'll always have 1. It's worth noting that we see the Barbarians 3 Attack start as a +1 Attack (his skill is strength) and every hero is base 2, a normal sword, when he buys a broadsword, this would be 3 +1, keeping him inline later game once the other Heroes level up (buy more equipment) otherwise he loses his edge as being super strong, making him quite a weak character after the first few quests, and as the mod is "Roll equal to the weapons strength" he's more likely to break a weapon, very thematic (but no issue of the 2 easily breaking, remember it would revert to a 2, to which he gets his +1, so always a minimum 3). A dual wielding Barbarian is going to burn through gold to keep that extra Short Sword and will fast want to revert to his role of slaying stronger monsters, 1 strong attack not 2 average ones, leaving the weaker hordes for the Elf or Dwarf (or countless other character types we can come up with). It would be fun learning curve for a young player learning to quest.

The mod simply works in so many ways, I could go on explaining why, but it makes it seem complicated, when it can't be any simpler.