RP Help Compendium

Weapons are, for simplicity sake, classified into a few separate groups. Each group has distinctive advantages, deal specific types of damage to the body, have varying reaches, require a minimum strength to use, vary in speeds and how many hands are needed to use them.


~ Damage types vary between Cutting, Impaling, Crushing and Piercing.

• Cutting damage is the most common, and is seen primarily in the after effects of bladed weapons like swords, axes, knives and polearm blades.
  
• Impaling/ Piercing damage is seen in injuries resulting from polearms, blades and pick weapons.
  
• Crushing damage is the result of heavy blows from whips, bare hand strikes, heavy swords, staves, hammers and flail like weapons.

~ The reach of a weapon is based on the weapons size. The longer the weapon, the longer the reach.
~ Minimum strength to wield is based on how much physical torque the body is required to exert in order to swing the weapon. Long weapons like polearms and heavy weapons like bastard swords require more strength to wield due to balance and weight differences.
~ Speed of a weapon is obviously based on how quick one can bring the weapon to bare in defense or offense. Smaller weapons will be faster, larger weapons slower.
~ Hands to use is common sense. Unless you're built to wield a bastard sword in one hand, it is a two handed weapon. Hands to use is based on the overall size or weight of the weapon. A polearm requires two hands while a short sword requires one.


Polearms

Polearms are two handed weapons used primarily for the disarming of cavalry units. Weapons like the Fauchard, Guisarme and Voulge implemented the use of a reversed hook to snag Knights off their mounts.
Polearm injuries resulted in cutting and impaling injuries that often resulted in deep lacerations, damaged muscles and tendons and often heavy bleeding.



Flails, Hammers and Picks

This weapon family, all forms of bludgeoning weapons, was used primarily to break armor and bone. Their use was not so much intended to break skin but to cause internal damage that was far more difficult to repair in renaissance times.

Maces, hammers and flails induced crushing damage. Picks induced impaling and cutting, and were often the primary choice when trying to break through armor and shield.

Examples of weapons within this family include:

Maces: Any weapon with a fixed metal head to a long shaft. Often the head was decorated with spikes.
Flails: Weapons that have a shaft the wielder gripped attached to a secondary shaft by a chain or rope.

Hammers: Weapons with large flat heads. Often these weapons are also labeled as a form of pick due to the reverse head.
Picks: Weapons that have tipped, often curved blades that were used to break into armor.



Staves & Bludgeons

Simple wooden shafts, either with blunt or tapered ends. Weapons in this family on average range between 3 and 10 feet (Often the weapon is about 2 feet taller than the user). Examples of bludgeoning weapons can include cudgels and shillelaghs. Staves induce crushing damage to an opponent, and are primarily used to strike at an enemy while still keeping distance. Staves and bludgeoning weapons implement one major rule of physics: Torque. The twisting of the body at the hips, the movement of the shoulders, the rotation of the wrist all add force to the swing of a stave or bludgeoning weapon.



Two Handed Swords and Axes

Two handed blades are used to create crushing damage. Blades that fall into this category often don't have sharpened edges, their use made more for, quite literally, letting gravity do most of the work. Their overall weight is often more than enough to cause significant damage to an opponent. It is often for this reason that weapons of this type where often used in executions: Little physical force was required to behead someone. The same principle is the driving force behind the guillotine.

Axes induce crushing and cutting injuries. Axes are designed with a long handled shaft with either a double bladed head or a single bladed head.

Examples of Two handed swords are Zweilhanders, Claymores, Flambergs, Bastard Swords and Katanas.


Long and Short Bladed Swords

Long and short blades are used to induce cutting and piercing injuries. Long blades can be used with two hands for more stability, though it is more common for long blades to be wielded with a single hand much like short blades.

Examples of long blades include Longswords, Scimitars, Estol's, Rapiers and Chinese Broadswords amongst others.

Examples of short blades include Arming swords (what people classically call the Short Sword), Falchions, Gladius, Wakizashi, Tanto, Knives, Daggers, Katars, Sai, Main Gauche and Kukri, amongst others.

It is a common misconception that when battling with bladed weapons, the edges are used for defense (Hollywood is a good example of why this opinion is so widespread). Using the sharpened edge to defend with is a good way to simply ding the hell out of the blade and make it useless. The flat of a sword is the best method of defense outside of redirection or dodging.

There are many ongoing arguments on this topic, however period manuals often educate 3 rules:

• Dodge
  
• Deflect (Parry)
  
• Receive or stifle with the flat of the blade

Whips

Weapons made of a small bit of leather cord attached to a long flexible handle. Used to inflict pain to humans as corporal punishment or to train animals. Whips induce crushing damage with minor cutting injuries as well.

Examples of whips include Bullwhips, Cat O' Nine Tails, Riding Crops, Stockwhips, or, in simplest of terms, Switches. Switches, however, where made from cut lengths of tree branch or scrub.

Bare Hand

Bare hand tactics induce crushing damage to an opponent. While attacks can quite literally be implemented bare handed, special tools can be used as well, like Brass Knuckles and Cestus'. Riveted gloves or boots can also be put to use. There are a great myriad of martial arts styles that focus on the honing of the body into a weapon, and each respective style will teach their own principles and philosophy. Punches, backhands, kicks, elbows, knees inflict crushing blows to an enemy.

Specialized strikes, like trigger fingers and spear hand pokes, can inflict a sort of piercing injury. This isn't to say they pierce the body, but the damage from such strikes are designed to be precise and localized rather than trying to do as much damage as possible. It's the difference between bruising the ribs (crushing/ bashing) and taking out an eye or the throat (Piercing).

There are no right nor wrong 'style'. Let that be stressed. Training and philosophy may differ, but that does not make someone who practices style 'X' a lesser individual than someone who studies style 'Y'. Martial arts can range from simple Karate, a Japanese style, to the elegant animal styles like Snake and Crane, Kung Fu/ Gung Fu and Wing Chun. Further examples are Brazilian styles like Capoeira to Jewish Krav Maga and Taiwanese Muay Tai. They all have their purpose, boons and disadvantages.



Much like martial weapons, ranged weapons deal different types of damage, have varying accuracies, strength requirements, varying speeds and hands to use.

~ Damage from ranged weapons is often impaling, though some deal cutting and crushing injuries.
~ Damage from ranged weapons decreases as the distance increases. Keep that in mind when playing archers.
~ Accuracy in terms of ranged weapons is not referring to how often it hits a target but refers to how the act of aiming the weapon affects successful attacks. The more time one takes to aim, the better chances of hitting ones opponent. Shooting from the hip with a bow doesn't result in effective use, for example.
~ Strength refers to how hard one must throw or pull on the weapon to ensure successful strike. Guns require a strength rating due to the recoil of the weapon.
~ Speed does not refer to loading time but to how fast the projectile reaches the target. A rifle hits a target faster than a crossbow bolt, for example.

Game hunting arrows vary. Modern day, you're looking at rubber or hard plastic shells or very specific tips when it comes to small game.

Blunt tips did exist, which stunned small game without damaging the pelt. But that was as much because of arrowhead design as it was the fletching. Small game hunters often used a different style of fletching to deliberately increase drag on the arrow to slow it down. An example is the 'Flu-Flu'.




Blunt heads still cause significant trauma, and depending on where they hit, can lead to death.

There are three types of arrow head:

Target



Target arrows are narrow tipped, and thus are good for target practice and learning as they pull free of a target easily. They can still cause grievous injury and death.

Blunt



Less likely to rip flesh and more likely to cause stunning pain and bruising or broken bones (in small game), these tips can still cause injury to humans, especially of an internal variety that can vary in intensity depending on location.

Broadhead



Broadheads are specifically for hunting, and are extremely sharp, which make them excellent for penetration. Broadheads have barbed tips to prevent the arrow from falling out of the target, and cause a great amount of bleeding.