Resolving Combat

The damage inflicted by a successful close or missile combat hit depends in part upon the weapon type. Each weapon has a set of numerical characteristics for game purposes. At the GM’s discretion weapons may exist of superior quality with enhanced characteristics.

The tables that follow give typical characteristics for standard weapons.

Hand-to-Hand Weapon Table

The characteristics of close combat weapons are as follows;

Combat Range

a range of numbers representing the maximum and minimum distance from the combatant’s body in feet that the weapon may be used.

Defence Modifier

is a modifier to the combatant’s base skill with the weapon when it is used in defence. The combination of the character’s weapon skill and the defence modifier determines the Defence skill. Missile weapons do not have a Defence Modifier.

Damage profile

each weapon causes characteristic damage. Damage from weapons is of three basic types Slash, Crush and Pierce (note: some magical, modern and SF weapons may cause burn damage this must be specified by the GM). Each type of damage is specified in terms of a number. The numbers corresponding to the types of damage caused are compared to the defence profile of any armour on the body part being attacked. The damage profile is deducted from the defence profile in each category. The lowest remaining number in any category is then added to the Difficulty rating when attacking. Note that some weapons may cause more than one kind of damage from a single hit and some have alternative damage for different kinds of hit.

e.g. A battle axe used two-handed has a damage profile of Slash 3 Crush 2 (so long as the defence used against the attack is not Dodge). It is used against a character wearing mail with padding. The defence profile is Slash 3 and Crush 0 for the mail and Slash 1 Crush 1 for the padding, giving a total defence profile of Slash 4 and Crush 1. Deducting the damage profile of the weapon leaves 1 and –1. The lowest number is –1. So –1 is added to the Feat Level for the attacking character i.e. effectively lowering the Feat level because the weapon is more likely to cause significant crush damage than the armour is to resist it, whereas the armour is more likely to successfully resist slash type damage than the weapon is to cause it. If any damage occurs the most serious effect of the wound will be of a crush type.

Damage Rating/Weapon Strength

if a defending weapon blocks an attack the blocking weapon may be broken by the attack. An attacking weapon’s potential to cause damage in this situation is its Damage Rating. The defending weapon’s resistance to breaking is its Weapon Strength. A weapon’s Damage Rating is deducted from the defender’s Weapon Strength to give a Feat level for the attacker to break the defender’s weapon. Success indicates that the defending weapon has broken or, in the case of pierce damage to a shield, the shield has been penetrated.

(*) when used two-handed (c) charging laces with stirrups (e) eye only (p) pierce hits will penetrate shields but not break other weapons +If Dodge is used as a defence the damage value is reduced by 1. Weapons with range over 6 may only be used in facing direction, i.e. not in flank attacks or defences.

Missile Weapons Table

The characteristics of missile weapons are different in that the range indicates the minimum and maximum distance that a projectile may be launched. Weapon strength is unnecessary for weapons not used in direct close combat attacks and defences however missiles may still damage shields used in defence. If a shield is used in defence against a missile attack and a miss is rolled within one Feat level of the roll required to hit and damage roll is made of missile damage rating against weapon strength to see if the missile penetrates the shield.

Missile weapons have various ranges and cause varying amounts of damage. The damage potential of missile weapons may vary with range.

*sling bullets only no pierce for stones p pierce hits will penetrate shields but not break other weapons against rigid armour only otherwise 2. +Franciscas always do crush damage and do slash damage only if an additional initial Feat roll is made of 3 – skill + range factors. Daggers do crush damage instead of pierce if an initial 3 – skill + range factors roll is failed.

Success in hitting and damaging a target with a missile weapon is decided by a Feat roll where the Feat level is determined by the character’s Accuracy with that particular weapon subtracted from a Difficulty rating combining range and tactical factors the damage rating of the weapon used and the armour type of the target.

The damage rating of weapons and the use of slash, crush and pierce damage is explained below.

Range factors

The following table gives the range factors for a group of two or more human-sized targets at various ranges, shaded areas are long-range:

Tactical factors

Missile attaches can be adjusted cumulatively using the following table of tactical factors.