Weapon

Something you hurt monsters with. Types include melee weapons such as swords and ranged weapons such as crossbows. Weapons are usually divided into different types, like “axes” or “maces&flails”. There is often a skill for each weapon type.

Weapons usually carry an enchantment, called a “plus”, which modifies a weapon’s damage and/or accuracy. Some games (like Crawl) have two different pluses, one for accuracy and one for damage. There are almost always ways of magically increasing a weapon’s plus.

Some games have artifact weapons that carry magical powers.

Qualities weapons may have include (as usual, this list carries a caution against using all items on the list at once):

• damage done
  • amount
  • type
• ease of use
  • modifier to skill check
  • modifier to learning cost/rate
  • modifier to chance of weapon fumble
  • different stat requirements to use properly
• chance of critical hit
• type of critical hit
• parrying modifier
• armor-damaging modifier
• penetrate/ignore armor modifier
• range or reach
• attack speed (time taken by attack)
• recovery time (time before next attack is possible, usually short/nil, but crossbows require long recovery) - “recover weapon” as action?
• readying time (time to deploy weapon from unready state, long for stringing bow, short for drawing sword, can be reduced with skill)
• exhaustion modifier
• recoil (penalty to next shot if not recovered?)
• breakage/jamming/fumbling stats
• minimal strength/agility
• required height to use
• required space to use
• one or two handed
• market value
• cultural availability (including arms control laws)
• cultural significance
• ammunition type used
• ammunition capacity
• weight
• balance (quality as thrown weapon)
• appearance (plain, fancy, strange designs)
• tech level
• material(s)
• special features
  • enchantments
  • “smart” weapons
  • scopes
  • silencer
• concealability