The Dark Sun Weapon Breakage Rule - How do you feel about it?

[WanderingMonster]

There's a lot of DMs weighing in this rule. What about the players? Which would they find more fun. For one, it strikes me as odd that a DM would make a change to a rule before play-testing the original rule. Secondly DMing is authority by consensus, house rules should be something everyone agrees with, not just because one player doesn't like it (even if the one person is the DM).

I guess I don't know why I care so much, it just seems like a lot of folks are trying to fix what ain't broken (pun intended). The mechanic seems pretty solid. Personally, I'd give the game a dozen encounters before I decided on rules changes. From what I've seen personally and heard anecdotally, the rule works well. You don't want to punish players for poor rolling or a simple flavor mechanic.

 

[Mengu]

As long as you are using inherent bonuses (no magic), have quickdraw, and have a reasonable supply of daggers, does a rogue ever have a reason not to re-roll a 1? I mean it's not like your daggers are going to be returning to you any way if you're throwing them. And they're pretty cheap. You really don't care if your dagger is made of bone, or stone, or metal either.

 

[Herschel]

The question of how monk unarmed strikes are handled by this rule is an interesting one.

It would be fun to say "Oops, your arm fell off."

 

[Solvarn]

There's a lot of DMs weighing in this rule. What about the players? Which would they find more fun. For one, it strikes me as odd that a DM would make a change to a rule before play-testing the original rule. Secondly DMing is authority by consensus, house rules should be something everyone agrees with, not just because one player doesn't like it (even if the one person is the DM).

Agreed, it's really hard to say how it works in context with information in the campaign guide. From what I've gathered from playing Encounters, it is a lot tougher than other campaigns. I think they will probably have rules to scale monsters or something.

I'm going to play as intended and make adjustments as necessary if I run a campaign.

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

I'm DMing Encounters and I've ruled that this rule only impacts powers that have the weapon keyword. So the sorcerer can't break his implement, a monk wouldn't break his ki focus, etc. They also would not be able to take advantage of the reroll.

It's going to be key that the DM make weapons readily available and that players have their expectations adjusted appropriately. I have had a player break his weapon to try to get a hit. It helped that I had placed some weapons in the beginning caravan that they could pick up along with "survival days". There was an opportunity to take weapons from the lizardmen in the first encounter and while last week was a fight against giant bugs,

Spoiler

there will be another opportunity to take some weapons tonight

.

I like the rule as a DM, and they players are warming to it as they gain experience in the world of Athas.

 

[Wormwood]

We just played the Free RPG Day Dark Sun Adventure (Bloodsand Arena).

Two players rolled 1 on attacks, but neither took advantage of the breakage rule.

I asked why, and they both said that they didn't want to lose their weapon.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

 

[med stud]

Well, it can make for some nice drama. When breaking a weapon with a daily attack, it will in game be a devastating attack that is so hard that it breaks the weapon used, maybe even leaving a stump or a broken blade in the body of the enemy you fight. That's nice.

For some weapons it's also not a very permanent setback. If you have a metal axe, it's the haft that breaks and not the blade. Get a new haft -> axe is back in business.

You would have to carry back up weapons, but that really was common practice during the days of melee... I come from a soldier family (from 17th century) and my ancestors in the 19th century (they were town watch then) wore a halberd, a sword, a musket and a dagger when patroling.

 

[TheClone]

As far as the rule says, the weapon is considered "broken" after breaking it (comes naturally). But any broken weapon, as far as I know, may be repaired. in 3e ist was half the item cost, I think and surely is there is a similar rule in 4e. So the weapon is never lost forever. But for this encounter and maybe some more.

 

[OchreJelly]

I think part of it is we don't know the full rules since encounters is providing a rules-lite version? I could be wrong. The full rules may very well be explicit on things like weapon keyword, repair costs etc.

And I agree that as a DM, you need to incorporate lots of weapons to scavenge in encounters. Frankly, for some reason I get excited about improvised weapons when it comes to Dark Sun.

 

[Zaran]

As far as the rule says, the weapon is considered "broken" after breaking it (comes naturally). But any broken weapon, as far as I know, may be repaired. in 3e ist was half the item cost, I think and surely is there is a similar rule in 4e. So the weapon is never lost forever. But for this encounter and maybe some more.

The Make Whole ritual will have a use!