v1.1 by Jacob Rex
Deadly Weapons is a TTRPG module that gives all weapons a chance at dealing lethal damage. Even a dagger could end your life!
Deadly Weapons is best suited for grimdark or OSR games where hit points are low, armor provides damage reduction and combat is fast and dangerous. Use or modify this in your next game by adding the text "Warning: this game contains Deadly Weapons" somewhere in your doc. Enjoy!
Choose a damage die. Here we will use d6 but this could be d6, d8, d10 or whatever best fits your game or play style. Instead of weapons having different damage die, weapon damage is the highest of XdY! where X is the weapons Attack, Y is your damage die and ! means the resulting die explodes. An exploding die adds another die to the total whenever that die's max number is rolled. This means there is a small chance of doing lots of damage, and that every weapon can ultimately deal the same amount of damage.
During combat, a roll should be made to determine if an attack is successful and whether the defender can use their active defenses. Then the combatants should roll for damage & defenses at the same time to resolve the exchange. The damage received will be Attack - Defense - Armor.
Choose a defense die smaller than your damage die. We will use d4's. The damage prevented by Defense is the highest result of XdY!, where X is the Defense of the item, Y is your defense die and ! means the resulting die explodes.
Armor provides passive protection against all incoming attacks. The damage prevented is equal to the corresponding die for that armor type, which ranges from 1d4 to 1d8. Armor dice do not reroll on their max number, since a direct hit to Armor can only absorb so much.
Poise represents how much incoming damage is required for you to be staggered or knocked down. Even if you prevent some or all of the damage, you will be affected if the incoming damage matched or exceeded your Poise.
Your base poise is 6.
Whenever an incoming attack deals damage equal to or greater than your Poise, you are Staggered. While Staggered, you begin your turn by making a Check to see if you recover from being Staggered. If you don't, you lose some portion of your action or are disadvantaged in some way until your next turn.
If you are Staggered and get Staggered again, you are Knocked Down.
If an incoming attack deals damage equal to or greater than double your Poise, you are Knocked Down. While Knocked Down, you are only able to utilize half of your Defense and Armor (rounded down).
Melee weapons can be used in lieu of Shields to defend against melee attacks. Melee weapons cannot be used to block attacks from ranged weapons.
| Blades | Attack | Defense |
|---|---|---|
| Dagger | 1 | 1 |
| Rapier | 1 | 1 |
| Sword | 2 | 2 |
| Long Sword | 3 | 3 |
| Bastard Sword | 4 | 2 |
| Zweihander | 5 | 1 |
| Axes | Attack | Defense |
|---|---|---|
| Axe | 2 | 1 |
| Battle Axe | 3 | 1 |
| Greataxe | 5 | 2 |
| Hammers | Attack | Defense |
|---|---|---|
| Club | 1 | 1 |
| Spiked Club | 2 | 1 |
| Mace | 3 | 1 |
| Morning Star | 3 | 1 |
| Flail | 3 | 0 |
| Warhammer | 3 | 1 |
| Great Mace | 4 | 1 |
| Polearms | Attack | Defense |
|---|---|---|
| Spear | 1 | 2 |
| Pike | 2 | 3 |
| Lucerne | 3 | 3 |
| Poleaxe | 3 | 3 |
Crossbows should have fewer requirements to use than bows, but need to be reloaded. Range is an approximation of how far the weapon can fire before penalties should be applied.
| Ranged | Attack | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Crossbow | 1 | Nearby |
| Heavy Crossbow | 1 | Far |
| Longbow | 1 | Farther |
| Shortbow | 1 | Nearby |
Shields are able to block attacks from all weapons, and grant some amount of Poise.
| Shields | Defense | Poise |
|---|---|---|
| Buckler | 1 | 0 |
| Round Shield | 2 | 1 |
| Heater Shield | 2 | 2 |
| Kite Shield | 3 | 2 |
Armor provides passive protection against all incoming damage as well as Poise.
| Armor | Armor | Poise |
|---|---|---|
| Gambeson | d4 | 0 |
| Leather | d4 | 0 |
| Chain | d6 | 1 |
| Brigandine | d8 | 2 |
| Plate | d10 | 3 |
Use this chart as a starting point to convert weapon damage from your game into ATK.
| Damage | ATK |
|---|---|
| d4 | 1 |
| d6 | 2 |
| 2d4 | 3 |
| d8 | 3 |
| d10 | 4 |
| 2d6 | 5 |
| d12 | 5 |