Houserules for Weapon Breakage

I’ve been thinking about how to make weapons breaking a thing in my game to spice things up. I think Logan Knight from Last Gasp perfectly describes my motivation here:

“I find it really boring for characters to be able to pick a weapon when they start out and then hold onto it forever unless they find something magic or wake up naked in a pit. I mean sure, it’s nice to have a weapon with history, but don’t you want that history to actually mean something? I also want some kind of indication that all this murdering necessitates equipment maintenance, but I don’t want that to be a gaping pain in the arse.”

The breakage rules from the GLOG are pretty close to what I’m aiming, but also I really, really like the ideas in Last Gasp’s (namely, notches and weapon quality).

My goals

• Weapons take damage on a critical fail.
• Weapons take get progressively worse as they take damage (they don’t break immediately).
• Keep it as simple and system-neutral as possible.
• Dice rolls should only have one > or < check.
• Add as few additional rolls as possible.
• Add as few variables as possible.

Thematically related Yu-Gi-Oh! card: Shattered Axe

Weapon Breakage

Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack or do something that would obviously damage it (like stabbing a stone golem with a dagger), roll a d6. If the result is equal to or under your weapon's quality, it withstands the hit. Otherwise, it’s damage die is reduced one step (1d10>1d8>1d6>1d4). If it can’t go any lower, the weapon snaps in two. The standard rate for repair is 50% of the item's full cost per die.

Every weapon has a quality rating that depends on material and craftsmanship. Higher quality weapons are less likely to break but also more expensive.

Quality	Cost	Example
1	0.5x	Improvised weapons; corroded or rusted metal.
2	0.75x	Poorly made; soft metal like gold or silver.
3	1x	Average craftsmanship; average quality steel.
4	1.5x	Well made; high-quality material.
5	2x	Superb craftsmanship, rare material (something like mithril).
6	-	Rare artifacts; the stuff of legends.

Holy Relic Generator for Rabenstadt

A couple weeks ago I joined Chris McDowall’s OSR Discord server and finally started interacting with the OSR community. I have found it exceptionally welcoming and full of interesting discussion.

Among my favorite things in the Discord is Rabenstadt, a community project to write a vampire hunter sandbox set in 19th century Europe, inspired by the likes of Helsing, Bloodborne and Castlevania. The project is exciting and the sub-community is knowledgeable and supportive (thank you Sigve, Anton, Perttu, Tarsos, TacoSundae and anyone else I might have missed).

During the last few days we have been working on a table of relics. Real world relics are weird enough, so making them in-game magical artifacts seemed natural. Here is a table to generate random holy relics and a one-button generator to make relics on demand (thanks to Angus Warman, whose generator code I copied and tinkered with to make this).

Holy Relics

Relics are the physical remains of a saint or an important item that once belonged to them. Through them saints can perform miracles, which makes them invaluable for adventurers fighting the forces of darkness.

Relic Generator

Random Relic Table

	The...	of Saint...	which...
1	skull	Aurelius	glows in the proximity of undead.
2	body	Constantina	makes the bearer untouchable by the undead.
3	femur	Elric	can store sunlight and then release it when sprinkled with holy water.
4	preserved heart	Gertrude	makes the bearer immune to disease.
5	hand	Junipero	heals anyone who touches it a number of hit points equal to a roll of one of their hit die 1/day.
6	blood	Justina	can cure any disease from a person 1/week.
7	whip	Stanislaus	makes the bearer immune to mind-affecting effects.
8	chains	Theoclia	allows the bearer to re-roll a saving throw 1/day.
9	cloak	Vincent	enables the bearer to detect any lie they hear.
10	crown of thorns	Vornheimia	imbues the bearer with holy might. Gives a +2 bonus to attack rolls and damage 1 for minute/ day.
11	rosary	Wenceslaus	allows the bearer to call 1d6 forth pillars of holy fire from the sky 1/ day. They are shaped like cylinders with 100’ height and 10’ diameter, and deal 1d6 damage per character level.
12	sword	Xenia	can automatically destroy every and any undead within 30 ft once (ever).
13	rib	Belisarius	allows the bearer to see through illusions.
14	tongue	Theodosia	allows the bearer to last five times as long without food, water or rest.
15	eye	Frederick	allows the bearer to survive lethal blows 1/ day. If an attack would bring them to 0 HP they instead remain at 1 HP.
16	sword	Bernardette	allows the bearer to speak with animals.
17	grail	Beric	can return a recently dead person to life once (ever). The target must have been dead for no longer than one week.
18	rope	Therese	grants the bearer divine visions. They ask a yes or no question to the GM 1/ session, and they must answer to the best of their ability.
19	spear	Ludwig	makes stigmata appear on the bearer’s hands and feet (allies within 30’ who share the bearer’s faith gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls and saves).
20	journal	Saturnina	gives the bearer understanding of all languages.