The Fantasy Armory · Chapter 8

Impact Weapons

Impact weapons move the target, stun it, or transmit force through armour rather than trying to open it. Every entry is Crushing apart from the two that carry a spike.

Knockdown, Disorient, and Concussive are the family signature, and all three act on what the target can do next round rather than on its wound total. This is also the only family with a serious non-lethal option: Stun Damage sends a weapon's damage to strain instead of wounds.

Damage runs from 2 to 9, the widest spread of any family, and Pierce appears on most of the heavier entries.

Skill: Light Melee for the one-handed entries, Heavy Melee for the last three. At tables using a single undifferentiated Melee skill, use Melee throughout.

War Fan

Tessen, Iron Fan, Gunsen, Court Fan

Iron ribs, an iron guard plate, and just enough paper to make it look like the thing a courtier carries in summer. Closed it is a short bar of metal. Opened it will turn a blade.

It does almost no damage and is not trying to. Defensive 1 is the same melee protection an arming sword gives, and Concealable 2 is why the fan is in this book at all: it is the only weapon in the family a character can carry into an audience chamber, a temple, or a negotiation and set on the table in front of them.

Sap

Blackjack, Cosh, Slapjack, Sandbag

A leather sock of lead shot or sand. It deals its damage to strain rather than wounds, so a target dropped by a sap wakes up later with a headache and a story. The only weapon in this book designed to leave someone available for questioning.

Cudgel

Club, Truncheon, Baton, Shillelagh, Billy Club

A club, a truncheon, a table leg. It has no qualities worth the name and it is available absolutely everywhere, including inside buildings where weapons are not.

Quarterstaff

Bō, Jō, Gùn, Long Staff, Walking Staff

Six feet of ash, gripped in two hands and used as much to bind and redirect as to strike. Defensive 1 and Guarded 1 together give the best melee protection in the family, and Disarming 1 lowers the cost of stripping a weapon. Crit 5 is the worst in the book: the staff controls a fight rather than ending one.

Tonfa

Tuifa, Nightstick, Side-Handle Club, Mill Handle

A length of hardwood with a peg handle set at right angles a third of the way along. Held at the peg, the shaft lies flat against the forearm and the striking end comes out on the turn of the wrist.

Along the arm it covers, which is Guarded 1. Stun Damage sends everything it deals to strain, so a watch armed with tonfa fills cells rather than graves. Crit 5 is the design rather than a flaw: this is a weapon for people whose work continues after the fight ends.

Mace

Flanged Mace, Morning Star, Gada, Shestoper

Flanged head, short haft, no edge to maintain. The baseline armour-beater and the weapon a sergeant hands out when the enemy is expected to be wearing metal.

Horseman's Hammer

Martel-de-Fer, Pick Hammer, Bec-de-Faucon Hammer

A hammer on one side, a curved spike on the other, switched by turning the wrist. The face staggers a man in harness; the spike goes into the gaps once he has stopped moving. The cheapest weapon in the book that can change damage type mid-fight.

Flail

Military Flail, Ball-and-Chain, Nunchaku, Chain Mace

A head on a short chain. The chain is the entire argument: it carries the head around a raised shield instead of into it. It is correspondingly difficult to place, and a poor choice against anyone who is not hiding behind something.

Great Club

Greatclub, Bludgeon, Ironwood Club, Warclub

A tree limb, a fence post, a shaped length of ironwood with the bark still on one side. Priced as Simple construction, because it is a stick, and it is the cheapest 7 damage anywhere in this book.

Everything else about it is bad. Cumbersome 4 puts Bane on every swing made by a wielder below Might 4, Crit 4 means it rarely does anything clever, and there is no edge, no point, and no armour answer anywhere on the line. What there is is mass and Knockdown, available in any forest for the cost of cutting it down.

Maul

Great Hammer, War Maul, Kanabō, Tetsubō, Sledge

An iron-headed sledge on a four-foot haft, built for breaking gates, walls, and armoured men. At 9 it deals the highest damage in the book, and Pierce 2 with Knockdown makes it the most direct answer to heavy armour.

The cost is everywhere else on the line: Crit 4, Enc 6, and Cumbersome 5, which requires Might 5 to wield without penalty.

War Pick

Bec de Corbin, Crow's Beak, Horseman's Pick, Zaghnal

A bec de corbin: a narrow beak backed by a hammer, driven through armour by a two-handed swing. Pierce 3 is the highest in the book. It also buries itself in whatever it hits, and getting it back out is the Prepare cost.