DCC Weapon Chart (plus a bonus chart!)

I've really been wanting to run a game of DCC but I tell you what, that damn weapon chart drives me nuts. What's the point of having a mace and a longsword both do 1d6 damage but with different costs? Who would buy a two-handed sword when a battleaxe is just as good?

One of the greatest strengths of old-school games is that there aren't many systems getting in the way of your gaming.

In that spirit, I was thinking of a weapon chart that looks something like this:

DUNGEON CRAWL CLASSICS WEAPON CHART

All weapons add their strength to damage. [1]

Melee weapons

Stealth*: 1/3d4 or 1d3/3d6 or 1d4/1d10, 3 coins
Light Weapon: 1d4, 3 coins
One Handed Weapon: 1d6, 7 coins
Two Handed Weapon†: 1d10, 14 coins

Stealth weapons can be easily hidden on a persons' body and have extra use in the hands of a trained thief.
Light weapons can be thrown 20/40/60 feet for their normal damage. They are also not obvious.
One-handed weapons can be thrown 10/20/30 feet for their normal damage. [2] They are generally obvious to the casual observer.
Two-handed weapons cannot be thrown and are immediately obvious to anybody that cares to look.

Ranged Weapons [3]

Blowgun: 1d3/1d5*, 20/40/60, 6 coins
Bow†: 1d6, 60/120/180, 30 coins


*The first value is the normal attack for the weapon. Use the second value for a thief's backstab attempt.
 †: This weapon is two-handed. Use a d16 for initiative.

Weapon Qualities

A crude weapon's damage uses a reduced die and costs half normal price.
A superior weapon's damage uses an improved die and costs twice as many as many coin. [6]

BOOM, done. Handaxes, longswords, maces, flails, they all do 1d6, just like the good lord Gygax intended. Bigger weapons are more expensive and also have crap initiative. You can't throw them, either.

If you want to keep mounted weapons deadly, just have mounted characters do double damage in melee to non-mounted characters. Feel free to let your characters "set" two-handed weapons against mounted characters, if horsemen get out of hand.

Speaking of horses:

Rules for Pack Animals [4]

Pack animals are flighty and difficult to control. If you get into combat while pack animals are around, try and keept them from getting spooked. Animals can be spooked by bad weather, weird creatures, or by fighting getting too close. Warhorses and other animals trained to be ridden into combat never get spooked by combat.
If animals are getting spooked, roll 1d20 and consult the chart. Add the personality or luck modifier of any handler, if any.
Pack animals attempt to flee automatically if they are struck or attacked. If they cannot escape, they will attack with their hooves or teeth (+1 to attack, 1d4 damage).
If any animals are spooked, roll again next round!

Pack Animal Response

1-9: All pack animals attempt to flee
8-11: Small pack animals, like ponies, attempt to flee.
12: Horses attempt to flee.
13: Donkeys attempt to flee.
14+: The animals are spooked until the situation ends or changes, but remain more or less in place.

BOOM! Now sometimes pack animals run, and sometimes they don't.  Easy peasy. This is just a rejiggered morale roll, so if you want to add or subtract up to 4 for situation, go for it. Maybe horses are extra scared of griffons and dragons and giants, but camels have a dislike for djinn and giant vermin and sandworms. It's up to you!





 [1] In real life, a strong warrior has a bow with a higher pull weight made for them. I was considering adding this historical wrinkle to the game before I realized that I could not possibly care less, and I don't know if anybody else is going to pick up a shortbow and think to themselves "ah, but my strength bonus shouldn't apply to this!"
[2] This means that you can throw your warhammers and swords for normal damage, if you want. I think it's a nice Conan vibe if you can occasionally hurl your blade into the eyeball of a frogman, or whatever. It also means that "throwing axes" and "javelins" are really just spears and axes that you can throw if you want, and there's no real penalty to carrying a couple of them.
[3] Bows include shortbows, longbows, and crossbows. They just had different ranges in DCC and I'm not interested in any sort of historical discussion about the penetration or usefulness of bows versus crossbows or English longbows versus Turkish flatbows or any of that. I will have this discussion if you like, but I don't want to play DCC like that.
[4] When will I need rules on when animals are spooked, you ask? Hey dude, you never know. Besides, I like the idea that the best way to haul your treasure back to town is getting lots of donkeys, then getting ambushed in the middle of the night and having the horses haul ass with your swag while you're battling some raiders. ALL THAT EFFORT FOR NOTHING??? Yeah well maybe somebody should have watched the horses, you buncha danguses.
[5] This one's a bonus.

[6]EDIT: I forgot the "superior/crude" distinction, so I'm adding it in now, where probably nobody will see it. Anyways, using this you can get to the 1d8 hand weapons and 1d12 two-handed weapons, which I think are fun. It also lets you save some cash in a pinch and buy a busted up sword that everybody will laugh at. This uses the DCC reduced dice, so the d5 hand weapon is almost as good, sort of, but you'd really be better off spending your 14 coins to pick up a d8 weapon... but at that point, why not go for a d10 two-handed weapon? Decisions, decisions... (and that's the point of the game, right?)