In the Apex Spire setting, most drekkers (surface dwellers) utilize simple or crudely made weaponry that are simply not as durable as professionally made gear.
For example, my humble glass shiv mounted on a pair of thin sheet metal grips, wrapped in cloth is not as good as powder-steel made knives carried by professional security teams. Subsequently, they break far more easily, often inside the target you're trying to shank silly.
So for my own "philosophy" thread, I thought I'd see how you guys handle it, if you bother with that bit of book keeping at all.
I am thinking it will work this way. A weapon will get a single stat termed "reliability". It is a integer representing a percent. When you use this weapon, you roll the d100 to see if the weapon fails. This is rolled along side your to-hit, and if the weapon "fails" at the same time it hits, it simply breaks off inside of or breaks after exiting the target. You still do damage accordingly. The number represents the maximum result on the d100 you can roll without breaking it.
Example for the above two weapons:
Shiv
Simple Light Melee Weapon
Damage: 1d4
Critical: x2
Range Increment: N/A (will intrinsically fail at being a throwing weapon)
Reliability: 45%
Weight: 1/2 pound
Combat Knife
Simple Light Melee Weapon
Damage: 1d4
Critical: 19-20 x2
Range Increment: 10'
Reliability: 95%
Weight: 1 pound
So if you roll 1-45 on a d100, your shiv is ok. If you roll anything higher, it breaks. Same goes with the knife, except it's good up to 95%.
This system is also applicable to low tech settings like stone age, where your equipment could break on occasion (and it matters).
How would you handle it? Weapon HP? d20 roll? The same way?
Let's share!
M.
You can save yourself the % roll and just have the weapon break based on the natural d20 roll. In your example, the Shiv would break on a natural roll of 9 or lower and the Combat Knife would break on a natural roll of 1.
Quote from: EladrisYou can save yourself the % roll and just have the weapon break based on the natural d20 roll. In your example, the Shiv would break on a natural roll of 9 or lower and the Combat Knife would break on a natural roll of 1.
I was going to suggest the same--it's more elegant to do it all in the same roll, since directly correlating the two can explain why you missed or why it shattered on a not-so-solid blow.
I'll dig out my old Dark Sun books tonight, see if they have a good take on weapon breakage, and post anything worthwhile from them.
EDIT: Looks like they go with a flat 5% chance; basically, it breaks if you crit fumble. Nothing too impressive, I'm afraid.