Adding some concepts from Pathfinder to BRP

[RosenMcStern]

Honestly I'm not sure where I heard this, but it made sense to me. 

But not to me. I have read it ONLY in wikipedia, and this casts a shadow on this piece of information. That you can use sheer impact to damage an opponent whose armour you cannot penetrate with a sharp weapon is basically true. The problem is that in this case it is soft armour that is more vulnerable to this "bypass" effect, because 1) it cannot spread the impact over a wider area as rigid armour does, 2) it is much easier to drive into the victim's flesh (padding was worn under chain exactly to avoid this) and 3) it does not prevent the deformation of limb bones that may lead to them breaking - which instead plate does. Sure, a mace blow can stun you or numb a limb even if you wear plate, but an equally strong blow inflicted on a chainmail wearer would crush the skull or break the limb - a much severer wound. Please note that almost ALL soldiers wore a helmet over a chain mail coif: being hit on the skull while wearing only chain provides zero protection against cranial bones breaking.

 

Most advocates of this "mace is the ultimate weapon vs. plate" instead seem to think that rigid armour is instead more liable to be bypassed by impact weapon. This is completely wrong and totally unrealistic. The Savage World rules even state that chain mail is better vs. mace than plate - totally absurd, In RuneQuest and GURPS instead (which are a bit more realistic and reality-checked than SW) it is chain that suffers a penaty vs. mace, not plate. As it should be.

[Baragei]

Rosen makes a good point. That said, one should never underestimate the eminent versatilty of concussive force.

[10baseT]

Well, to keep things a bit more realistic, i would probably do something like this;

 

Use These

*Fatigue Rules - skills diminish over time due to fatigue which affects attacks and parries.

*Special Hits or Crits - increase or max the damage in some way (some already mentioned this).

*An extra Armor Penetration die (an AP die) of damage - This is a concept i played with and is easily incorporated. As mentioned before, to get thru the heavier armors, you need to do more damage, so get an appropriate weapon. Or, use a weapon that is more efficient at damaging those in armor. This AP die is like extra damage that only affects armor. 

 

For example, a mace does d8+2 damage. Give it an AP die of a d3 or d3+1. Now anytime a PC hits with a mace and you roll damage, also roll the AP die, and use a differently color die. So for the mace roll a d8+2 and a d3. But, the d3 is only applied against armor for the purpose to aid in penetrating the armor. The AP die result may be totally used up,  like when attacking someone in plate or chain. Or, it may have left over points when used against someone in hard or soft leather. Unused AP die points are lost.

 

Next, assign an AP die to various weapons (the below is a quick example)

Cudgel - 1 point

Light Mace - d3

Heavy Mace - d3+1

War Hammer - d3+1

War Maul, Great or Sledge Hammer - d6

 

This is quick and easy but you can make it more detailed if you like. Or dont use it. It's something i used with my group and they liked it.

[MatteoN]

Most advocates of this "mace is the ultimate weapon vs. plate" instead seem to think that rigid armour is instead more liable to be bypassed by impact weapon. This is completely wrong and totally unrealistic. The Savage World rules even state that chain mail is better vs. mace than plate - totally absurd, In RuneQuest and GURPS instead (which are a bit more realistic and reality-checked than SW) it is chain that suffers a penaty vs. mace, not plate. As it should be.

 

I'm far from knowledgeable on this subject, and not very interested in its minutiae. However I cited wikipedia (my main font of information on the matter  ) mentioning fighters in "heavy armor" precisely because I had in mind the difference between rigid and flexible armor. I don't know GURPS's special rules on weapons and armor, but as far as I remember the main difference between concussive weapons and slashing/piercing weapons in that game is that the latter do nastier wounds (as the amount of damage that bypasses armor is multiplied) while the former do on average more damage, so are a bit more likely to bypass armor. Then firearms do a lot more damage, being "armor piercing" weapons par excellence. In fact, if I'm not wrong, in making firearms particularly good against low tech armor the game precisely treats them as very powerful concussive weapons!