r/WarhammerOldWorldRPG • u/sigmumar • 20d ago

Melee weapon deepdive

https://gloriousportents.blogspot.com/2025/08/melee-weapons-in-old-world-rpg.html

I did an analysis of the various melee weapons in TOWR, what strengths and problems they have, and in some cases how I would tweak their rules to make them better. Check it out and let me know if you disagree or not!

23 Upvotes

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u/ImpressionSerious674 20d ago

I feel like Athletics as a skill is overloaded. Iā€™m thinking of changing Throwing (an almost useless skill) to Evasion as a ranged defense skill. Iā€™d also run it so that you have to pick the correct skill to use, otherwise you take a penalty:

Against a weapon - Defense

Against a projectile - Evasion

Against a monster - Athletics or Defense

Against a big monster - Athletics

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u/Ori_Sacabaf 19d ago edited 19d ago

Yeah, Athletics is busted. They should have made some weapons, like the dagger and the rapier, that give -1d to Athletics test used as Defense. Burdened should also impose a malus to Agility tests.

As for Knuckledusters, I'll probably give them a -1 damage against armored targets, it should be enough.

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u/sigmumar 19d ago

That could work, but it's a bit too much for a house rule for me - it starts turning into a variant system. And while I agree Athletics is maybe a little too good, but I don't find it a very big problem. Indeed, I think it is good that it is good, because it lets more "non-combat characters" not completely suck at combat - which, while not realistic, is good for the game being fun.

I'm not entirely sure Throwing is useless either - I did think that at first, but I'm working on a similar rating of the ranged weapons, and I can't find myself giving thrown weapons as low scores as I was sure I would. What's really needed there is a few better rules on how thrown weapons might be used in melee, and something to make sure you can always pick them up or something. The abstraction of ammunition for ranged weapons is the only big problem they have.

When it comes to useless skills, Toil is my biggest concern right now. Everything else seems like it could be useful on an adventure sometimes, but Toil... I just don't see it being used outside downtime, and rarely enough then. And when you DO use it in downtime, you're just getting better at that downtime activity and not something else, so you really want to avoid using it even then...

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u/ImpressionSerious674 19d ago

My Problem with shooting and throwing is that it splits the ranged combat in halve. It seems to be a symptome of the 2 skills for each Characteristic and nothing more. Its similar to splitting Weapon Skill into Melee and Polearms. Slings for example use shooting even through its just throwing with extra steps especially if you descripe it as a shepards sling.

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u/sigmumar 18d ago

Hm. Yeah, I don't necessarily disagree here. I think there is a value to keeping that traditional Ballistic Skill though, and I find the 2-skills-a-stat system _really_ helps my brain remember all the skills. I have some thoughts on this in my ranged weapon review, so check that out - and let me know if you agree on my suggested "fix" there or have a better suggestion! :-) https://gloriousportents.blogspot.com/2025/08/ranged-weapons-in-old-world-rpg.html

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u/ImpressionSerious674 20d ago

Nice read and good insight on the weapons. Could you make a Homebrew weapon table with your changes, or would that be too much work? I suggest giving the Glaive +2 Defense, as if you had a shield, but without the ability to defend against ranged attacks.

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u/sigmumar 19d ago

I'm thinking about making a full compilation of all my house rules for equipment, including the concoctions from the Apothecary Career Guide ( https://gloriousportents.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-guide-to-apothecary-career.html ) and some other ideas I have. But it'll take some time before I get around to it.

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u/another_sad_dude 20d ago

Very good read šŸ‘

Very disappointing from a balance/design point of view tho šŸ˜•

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u/sigmumar 19d ago

To be honest, I think it's quite good compared to most RPGs? I usually find there's only one or two really viable options in a base RPG book with detailed weapons.

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u/another_sad_dude 19d ago

The dagger, an all time classic who stood the test of time, being completely outclassed by the a knuckleduster, makes me sad man.

and the outlook at an dodge and punch meta is just silly, knuckleduster gotta be the worst possible weapon for defeating armor irl right ? šŸ¤”

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u/sigmumar 19d ago

Sure. But that is one single weapon a bit out of whack, hardly a broken system imho. :)