Bone Rapiers, Stone swords, and Golden Maces

[bmcdaniel]

Rules from Bronze Age Campaign

My next campaign will be set in Bronze Age Greece and I have some rule changes. Basically, ordinary (metal) weapons are made of bronze. Iron weapons are considered masterwork weapons. Certain weapons can't be made with the poor metalworking techniques available (two-handed sword, glaive, halberd, longsword); certain weapons are available but only in iron (masterwork) versions (scimitar, rapier, khopesh).

I also have the following rule for weapon breakage:

Free Sunder
In order to simulate the relative fragility of bronze age weaponry, we will use a "free sunder" rule. Whenever an attacker using a weapon in melee rolls a natural 1 on an attack, the defender may make an immediate sunder attempt against the attacker's weapon (if the defender has a blunt or slashing weapon) or shield. Doing so does not provoke an attack of opportunity the way a normal sunder attempt does. The free sunder is treated in all ways like an attack of opportunity, including the limit on the number of attacks of opportunity he may make in his turn.


There are also changes to available armor, but I'll leave those for another day.

BMM

 

[CCamfield]

Re: Rules from Bronze Age Campaign

My next campaign will be set in Bronze Age Greece and I have some rule changes. Basically, ordinary (metal) weapons are made of bronze. Iron weapons are considered masterwork weapons. Certain weapons can't be made with the poor metalworking techniques available (two-handed sword, glaive, halberd, longsword); certain weapons are available but only in iron (masterwork) versions (scimitar, rapier, khopesh).

I don't know if that's entirely fair for the longsword. Would the "Naue Type II" cut-and-thrust sword would qualify as long (2' blade?)? I think it was first made in bronze.

An enchantment to make non-iron weapons harder would be popular. I think it's a cool idea, anyhow; maybe a +1 equivalent?

 

[HellHound]

I've always been a fan of changing the baseline instead of penalizing the inferior weapons if they are the standard for the game world.

Even in my old Dark Sun campaign, the bone & stone weapons were not penalized, instead all iron weapons were considered +1 and all steel weapons were considered +2. Made it a LOT easier for everyone involved.

 

[Dave Blewer]

I most will go with Hellhound's (and other) suggestion of making Iron and steel weapons better rather than penalising weapons of other materials. Thanks!