damage of spears and javelins

[jean]

When the question of how to handle volley fire was asked, I read with better attention the weapon tables.

I noticed that a thrown javelin does the same damage as a thrown dart, a hand held javelin does the same damage as a hand held short spear.

I think that it should be

thrown dart (spiculum) 1d6

thrown javelin 1d8

thrown short spear 1d10

and

hand held dart (spiculum) 1d4+1

hand held javelin 1d6+1

hand held short spear 1d8+1

hand held long spear 1d10+1

hand held pike 2d6+1

It is more in line with the previous edition.

Does anyone agree with me?

I miss the atlatl .

Jean

[ORtrail]

I've never been afraid to adjust damage capabilities in any BRP game, and especially with the BRP book which deals more with some weapons in "general" terms (a muzzle loader for example).

I've also thought that smaller weapons tend to be much less lethal then they are in real life. No one will laugh at having a small knife pulled on them by an average guy, but in a game it's no great danger to even lightly armored characters.

YMMV of course.

[soltakss]

A small knife will do 1D3 damage, on an impale it does 1D3+3, doing a maximum of 6 for a weedy person with no damage bonus. Using the Location subrules against an unarmed character with 5 hit points in the abdomen this can knock them down and kill them if they do not receive medical help. With a damage bonus it can even kill them outright in a single blow.

Armour tends to help a bit, but even knives are still dangerous.

On the point of damages for javelins etc, I still use RQ3 damage for most ancient weapons simply because they seem to be fairly balanced and reasonable. This applies both to Mongoose RQ and BRP.

Not using locations means that damage is less effective, but using such substandard subrules means you get substandard effects.

But, I am a RQ-Head and my biais is now showing.

[Mechashef]

For a long time I've condered why a short spear (2 handed mode), long spear and pike do different damage .

I just can't see how that makes sense.

Sure there should be a SR difference, but why a damage difference?

[soltakss]

I think the rationale was that a 2H Short Spear has less leverage than a 2H Long Spear and a Pike, so you get less force behind the blow. They also have smaller heads and thus make smaller holes. Certainly, a 2H Short Spear does more damage than a 1H Short Spear because you can get more purchase/leverage with two hands than one.

Have you seen a pike? Nasty looking things they are.

[Guest Vile Traveller]

There was an interesting article on alternative weapons damages in one of the old Wyrms Footprints (or was that Footnotes? I can never remember which) magazines, albeit for RQII. The damage for bastard swords and greatswords was downgraded somewhat, is all I can remember.

[Nightshade]

There was an interesting article on alternative weapons damages in one of the old Wyrms Footprints (or was that Footnotes? I can never remember which) magazines, albeit for RQII. The damage for bastard swords and greatswords was downgraded somewhat, is all I can remember.

If you downgraded the damage on bastardswords, there'd be little reason to carry one over a broadsword. Of course you can make an argument that when used one handed, the distinction is negligible.