The Fantasy Armory · Chapter 6

Swords

Swords are the generalists. Four entries carry two damage types, which is the largest part of what their price buys, and no entry in the family has a severe weakness to trade for a lower cost.

They are correspondingly expensive. An arming sword costs roughly four times a dagger and does nothing the dagger cannot, except do all of it adequately and all the time.

Most of the family's specialists, the entries that give up a damage type, are cheaper than the generalists at the same weight. The two entries that buy something no other sword has, the shotel's Wrapping and the hook swords' control package, are not. A player buying a sword is usually paying for flexibility rather than for any single number on the stat line.

Skill: Light Melee throughout, except the Estoc, Longsword, and Greatsword, which use Heavy Melee. At tables using a single undifferentiated Melee skill, use Melee throughout.

Shortsword

Gladius, Xiphos, Wakizashi, Langseax, Short Jian

A gladius, a xiphos, a broad-bladed side arm. Light enough to carry all day and short enough to use in a press where a longer blade has nowhere to go. The soldier's sword, bought in quantity.

Hook Swords

Hu Shou Gou, Twin Hooks, Hook Blades, Tiger Head Hooks

A matched pair, each with a hooked point, a sharpened crescent guard at the hand, and a spike at the pommel. They are used together and they occupy both hands, so a shield is not an option and neither is anything else.

Hook swords do not out-damage a sword half their price. What they do is take the fight away from the other person: Disarming 1 cheapens stripping a weapon, Ensnare 1 holds an arm or a haft once the point is over it, and Guarded 1 covers the wielder afterwards. Unwieldy 4 is the price and it is not a soft one. Below Agility 4 these are worse than a stick.

Arming Sword

Broadsword, Knightly Sword, Jian, Spatha, Viking Sword

The baseline sword: a straight double-edged blade, a cross guard, a hand and a half of reach. It has no trick. It is simply competent at everything a sword is asked to do, which is more than most weapons in this book can say.

Falchion

Machete, Cutlass, Khopesh, Kukri, Dao

Heavy at the tip, single-edged, closer to a cleaver than to a blade. It has given up thrusting entirely in exchange for the weight behind a chop. Cheap, common, and murderous against anyone who is not wearing metal.

Shotel

Sickle Sword, Crescent Blade, Abyssinian Hook, Reaping Blade

A blade curved so far toward a half circle that the point comes back around at the wielder's own hand. It is difficult to draw, difficult to sheathe, and cannot thrust at all.

It is also the only sword in the book that carries Wrapping. The arc travels around the face of a raised shield and arrives behind it, and that is the entire argument for owning one. Against an opponent with no shield it is a mediocre cutting sword at a high price. Against a shield wall it is the reason the shield wall stopped working.

Sabre

Scimitar, Shamshir, Talwar, Kilij, Cavalry Sabre

Curved, single-edged, and weighted forward so the cut lands with the rider's momentum behind it. Momentum 2 rewards closing the distance in the same turn you attack, and the sabre gains nothing from standing still.

Estoc

Tuck, Panzerstecher, Koncerz

A sword with no edge: a long, rigid, diamond-section spike meant to be gripped by the blade and driven into the gaps of a harness. Useless for anything a sword is normally for, and the best answer to mail that a swordsman can carry.

Rapier

Épée, Smallsword, Espada Ropera, Duelling Sword

A long, light, needle-pointed civilian blade with a swept guard. Built for the duel and for the street, not the battlefield: it is precise, it defends its wielder, and it will not cut through a coat. Pairs conventionally with a main-gauche.

Longsword

Bastard Sword, Hand-and-a-Half Sword, Katana, Tachi, Langschwert

A hand-and-a-half blade, long enough for two hands and balanced for one. The most capable weapon in the family and the most expensive object most characters will own. Every turn it asks the same question and it is a real one: guard up, or damage up.

Greatsword

Zweihänder, Claymore, Montante, Ōdachi, Flamberge

Two-handed, long in the blade, with a ricasso for half-swording. It was carried to break up formations of polearms, and it still does that job: it is the only sword that meaningfully threatens more than one person at a time, and it needs a strong arm and open ground to do it.