RPG Rant: Weapon Weights

This is a rant, plain and simple. If you have no interest in fantasy role-playing games you might not want to waste your time.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• role-playing
• games
• roleplaying
• role
• playing
• gaming
• fantasy
• sword
• sorcery
• d&d
• dungeons
• dragons
• 3e
• 3.5
• ogl
• opening
• game
• license
• d20
• weapons
• weapon
• swords

[SyrupMabel]

Oblivion's weapon weights. Twenty-pound longsword. Fifty-pound mace. Something is wrong here... hm...

[tetsubo57]

@SyrupMabel They're just *bulky*.

[butterflyfurball]

You have problems with "unrealistic fantasy weapons" and yet I don't see you calling for the banning of fireballs. When you can literally suck out a man's soul from 30 feet away realism has kinda already flown the coup don't you think? Banning spiked chains won't solve that.

[tetsubo57]

@butterflyfurball I want the real world elements of a game to reflect the real world. The fantasy elements I don't worry about so long as they are internally consistent. I don't want cows that climb trees or normal dogs that fly nor do I want spiked chains.

[apanapane]

Is there some game mechanic that would explain why the weights are a bit off? For instance (I am just making this up now, I'm not stating that this is the case) if a two-handed sword is situationally extremely useful to such an extent that it would be silly to not carry one around even if it is not the main weapon of choice for the character, it would be - from a game mechanic point of view - logical to make it heavier in order to deter such behaviour. Any ideas?

[tetsubo57]

@apanapane I don't like that method of balance. If a character wants to carry around an absurdly large selection of weapons, I would let them. I would also make sure they *knew* they were carrying them around. I would make their life difficult. Balance it out with role-playing rather than mechanics.

[CptQuakers]

I understand your complaints and you are right. But I'd be more worried that your not bothered that a game lets you carry a bounty of weapons because let's be honest the average human could carry 3 tops without them becoming a HUGE pain in the ass. That always bothered me because I can't help thinking" where am I keeping them"....

[blackbarnz]

Average human heights, weights and max ages always bothered me in fantasy games. To me they reflect average human of today not of the time period from which they are inspired.

[MattABryant]

Thank you so much for covering this topic. As a student of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) I can confirm what you said. In fact, your example of a 7 pound sword is on the extreme end of things. I was able to handle a 4 foot bastard sword made circa 1500 and it felt like there was next to nothing in my hands. The balance was better than the best modern replica I've held.

Once again, thank you for this. It bothers the crap out of me too.

Oh & polearm/staff/spear damage isn't high enough.

[7j8i9m]

Zwee-lander. lol. Isn't that a Ben Stiller movie? Zweihander = "Tsvei-hander". As in, german two-hander, ein zwei drei = zweihander.