Goodman Games

My players are debating the differences between 1-handed and 2-handed weapons in ERP:

Looking at the melee weapons (table on pg 60-61) they have noticed that while most 2H weapons usually cause more damage (on average they have a +1 better Harm bonus), they are slower (usually 1 less initiative bonus) with less Max Split (usually 1 less). Fair enough.

However, losing an entire Defensive Pool (Deflect) if they elect to carry a 2H weapon instead of a shield, seems pretty substantial.

Are we missing something?

That's right, but the 2h weapon isn't working out during a combat, a character can switch to a 1H weapon and grab his shield!

Do you feel some 2H weapons ought to deliver extra damage? I'm always collecting ideas for optional and supplemental rules.

You can deliver more damage using 2H mode, and have a stronger parry but probably are not as quick. Max split should probably drop by 1 as well as initiative bonus. Mastery of longsword in 2H mode anyone?

We are experimenting with giving 2H weapon users (or those weilding a 1H weapon with 2 hands) a +1 upgrade to the entire Ability Dice Chain of the applicable weapon (e.g. upgrade your Melee d6 > Swords d8 > Longsword d4 to: d8 > d10 > d6, etc).

One average, this works out to +1 to +3 threat/attack (depending on if they have specialization or Mastery dice). We'll let you know how this turns out.

The players thought the above solution was too weak, and made the following suggestion:

For 2H weapons (or 1H weapons weilded in two hands) - add 50% (before weapon harm bonus) to the final threat.
They also suggested a person weilding two weapons should: roll the ability chain of the 2nd weapon and add it to the first weapon's threat.

This has the advantage (over the previous solution) of extra threat increasing proportionately as your skill increases (it is not static).

Our group agrees that gaining a huge increase in offence (threat) is a viable alternative to giving up an entire Defence Pool (deflect). It makes for interesting player choices in weapons.

Doesn't duel wielding suffer the same issue then? What real offensive benefit is there compared to losing an entire DP (Deflect)? Or are we missing something?

Don't get me wrong, i love the idea that that using 2-H weapons or Duel Wielding cost you that Deflect DP, it makes complete sense! I just don't think the benefits offensively are proportionate to the loss defensively.

As suggested in my previous post:


Again, we will be testing this out to see if it is balanced.

Banesfinger wrote:
For 2H weapons (or 1H weapons weilded in two hands) - add 50% (before weapon harm bonus) to the final threat.
They also suggested a person weilding two weapons should: roll the ability chain of the 2nd weapon and add it to the first weapon's threat.

For a person with two weapons, is that instead of a second roll at the end of the round?

Yes. We are ruling that weilding two weapons is different than making a 2nd attack with a single weapon.

Of coarse, nothing is stopping the dual weilder from taking the appropriate advantages and making a 2nd attack (at the end of the round) in addition to having the 2-weapon bonus I have described above.