Five by Five Weapons, Armor and Damage Alternate Rules

I am working on a Fantasy Supplement for Five by Five. In working on this I have decided that I would like a broader range of variables for weapons and armor than those given in the standard rules.

Here are my:

Five by Five Weapons, Armor and Damage Alternate Rules

The "Roll for Critical" rule for inflicting damage doesn't reward players who wish to focus on their weapons and armor. Below is an experimental new Weapon / Armor chart. Now instead of rolling for "Critcal" you roll for Damage to see if your attack penetrated the target's Armor.

It is possible with this new system to successfully hit but to fail to do any damage. If your weapon is not strong enough it may not penetrate your target's armor. To offset this, I have added a new Critical Success rule.

CRITICAL SUCCESS RULE

When you are using a Trait to perform an action and your Trait Rank Target Number is greater than 0, if you roll exactly what you need to succeed (without using Karma,) you have achieved critcal success!

CRITICAL SUCCESS IN COMBAT

If you score Critical Success with your Attack Roll or your Damage Roll, your attack inflicts +1 Wound of Damage. It is possible (but unlikely) to roll Critical Success on both your Attack and Damage Rolls earning a total +2 Wound bonus.

Using this optional expanded weapons/armor/damage system, attacks have a damage potential from 0 wounds to 4 wounds depending on the weapon and armor involved, and including the possibility of rolling critical success on attack and damage rolls.

If you score Critical Success with your Defense Roll, you are able to act during your turn just as if you were using the Sword and Board Combat Style option.

If your character is already using the Sword and Board option, then you gain a free Defense Roll for this turn. (Usually characters can only defend against one attack each turn, but if your character is using the Sword and Board combat option and they roll a critical Success with their Defense Roll they gain a free Defense Roll enabling them to defend against an additional attack that turn.) It is possible (but unlikely) to roll Critical Success on multiple Defense Rolls in the same turn, each time gaining the ability to Defend against another attack.


NEW WEAPON AND ARMOR RULES

Weapons and Armor are now measured using the same scale as any other Trait. It is no longer necessary to keep track of special numeric values for Weapons or Armor (no special TN's for Weapons or Rank Penalties for Armor.) From now on all we care about is the Armor or Weapon's Rank Descriptor.

For the sake of simplicity Armor and Weapons use the same Rank Descriptors as any other Character Trait. Although it might sound silly to say, "I hit the Orc with my Apprentice Billy Club."  So we just use the Rank Abbreviation. 

In addition, the text follows the abbreviation with an "A" for Armor or a "W" for Weapon. So, if you see the text: Billy Club (ApW) ... you know that the Billy Club has a Weapon Rank of Apprentice.  

Weapon vs. Armor – Roll for Damage!

( XxW = Weapon Rank / XxA = Armor Rank )

	UnA	NoA	ApA	JoA	AdA	ExA	MaA	GrA	ElA	WoA	LeA
UnW	0*	20	15	12	10	8	6	5	4	3	2
NoW	2*	0*	20	15	12	10	8	6	5	4	3
ApW	3*	2*	0*	20	15	12	10	8	6	5	4
JoW	4*	3*	2*	0*	20	15	12	10	8	6	5
AdW	5*	4*	3*	2*	0*	20	15	12	10	8	6
ExW	6*	5*	4*	3*	2*	0*	20	15	12	10	8
MaW	8*	6*	5*	4*	3*	2*	0*	20	15	12	10
GrW	10*	8*	6*	5*	4*	3*	2*	0*	20	15	12
ElW	12*	10*	8*	6*	5*	4*	3*	2*	0*	20	15
WoW	15*	12*	10*	8*	6*	5*	4*	3*	2*	0*	20
LeW	20*	15*	12*	10*	8*	6*	5*	4*	3*	2*	0*

* Powerful weapons automatically penetrate weaker armor. The Target of this attack suffers One Wound automatically. Roll this number or less to inflict a Second Wound with your Roll for Damage!  

The chart above shows the Roll for Damage! needed in order for a weapon to successfully penetrate Armor and inflict One Wound of Damage on the Target. This information can be included for each weapon on the character sheet with a 13 column Weapon chart replacing the 8 column chart currently on the character sheet. 

In the Five by Five core book on page 24 I talk about Using Weapons and Armor. I show you how to find your "Critical" target by using the Target Number Table. Under the new system, the text would look something like this:

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Simple Damage Rule

If you are playing in a setting where you don't care to keep track of the different weapons and armor in the game, use the Simple Damage rule:

Your Attack inflicts 1 Wound Level of Damage. Make a Damage Roll. If you roll 0, you inflict an additional Wound Level of Damage.

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Advanced Damage Rules

If you want to use Weapon and Armor rules that recognize the impact that this equipment has on combat use the Advanced Damage rules:

WEAPON RANK IS EQUAL TO ARMOR RANK
If your Weapon Rank is equal to the Armor Rank of your opponent you inflict 1 Wound Level of damage. Make a Damage Roll. If you roll 0, you inflict an additional Wound Level of damage. (Notice that this is the same as the Simple Damage Rule.)

WEAPON RANK IS LESSER THAN ARMOR RANK
If your Weapon Rank is lesser than the Armor Rank of your opponent, you inflict 0 Wound Levels of damage. For each step your Weapon Rank is lesser than < your opponent's Armor Rank, find 0 on the Target Number Table and move one step to the left. (The first step to the left of 0 is 20.) This shows the Target number that you will need to inflict 1 Wound Level of damage.

WEAPON RANK IS GREATER THAN ARMOR RANK
If your Weapon Rank is greater than the Armor Rank of your opponent, you inflict 1 Wound Level of damage. For each step that your Weapon Rank is greater than > your opponent's Armor Rank, find 0 on the Target Number Table and move one step to the right. (The first step to the right of 0 is 2.) This shows the Target number that you will need to inflict +1 additional Wound Level of damage.

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At first glance this might look more complicated than the existing Weapons/Armor/Damage rules, but I believe that in practice these rules will prove to be easier to work with.

With these rules you begin by asking if Weapon Rank and Armor Rank are equal and always begin from the origin point of "0." That's going to be much easier to remember and it eliminates the need for tracking special target numbers and penalty numbers for Weapons and Armor.


Jeff