On the Destruction of Armor and Weapons
A conversation started on the NSR Cauldron discord around equipment that turned into questions about armor and weapons. What stuck out to me was how infrequent armor and weapon loss occurs in games.
Of course there are plenty of games that address this, but it is still surprising how a lowly torch or ration has as much or more attention paid.
Wear and Tear
Obviously weapons and armor are going to be cared for by the party and their owner, right? We've all seen the scenes in movies and shows where folks are idling away polishing their gear. This is reasonable for reasonable "Wear and tear."
Serious Use
Every time a character engages in combat it is likely to death. Their leather armor is likely going to be cut or torn, metal armor dented or punctured. Swords will get chipped, dulled, and loosened.
Do we think this is part of normal wear and tear? No. This is the gear doing its job of killing and keeping someone alive. It took the hit.
So after combat, why not have a roll to see if the gear suffered any consequences. Roll a 1d6 and add any modifiers from the gear like enchantment bonuses or unique qualities.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Damaged and roll again |
| 2 | Damaged |
| 3-6 | Normal wear and tear |
When damaged, mark the gear. Each mark corresponds to the following.
| Mark | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dinged, Rusted, Loose: -1 to gear |
| 2 | Damaged: -1 to gear and enemies morale improved |
| 3 | Bent: -2 to gear and morale of enemies improved |
| 4 | Destroyed |
| Each result requires someone with the skills, equipment, and time to fix. Each mark should increase the cost and time to repair. |
Lots of Gear
This little article is only about weapons and armor, but you could easily expand this to cover things like potions breaking, wands cracking, food getting crushed, etc.
Fights are messy and unless players pro-actively take precautions, this would be a concern.
Critical Damage
Many games incorporate the idea of critical success or critical fumbles. The results of these vary from game to game but now we can add the possibility of immediately taking gear damage as well.
This addresses a likely problem of making damage to gear mid-fight very infrequent while also adding the drama of serious events taking place.
Finding and Buying Gear
With this new idea of gear in play we can another layer to the idea of buying gear or finding it on adventures.
Shopkeepers may have gear at cheaper prices because it has a mark of damage. Similarly gear found in dungeons could come marked as well.
| Mark | Market Discount | Scavenged Gear |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Full price | 50% |
| 1 | 10% | 40% |
| 2 | 30% | 30% |
| 3 | 40% | 10% |
Alternatively, we can begin to see the difference in gear crafted by experts. Unique materials or high skill can make gear have a bonus to resist damage.