Creating Equipment

Though the lists given in Chapter 6 are meant to be comprehensive, GMs may find themselves needing hard numbers for equipment types and options that just aren’t covered in this book. As with races, the easiest way to do this is to use the nearest comparable piece of ‘official’ equipment as a starting point and run with the numbers. A Qu Battle Fork can treated as roughly equivalent to a Polearm; a War Fan to a Ninja Knife. With Armor, only the names change; with Weapons, you just need to adjust the Weapon type, the individual names, and the Skill needed to wield it.

For GMs interested in creating completely new equipment, this section contain the rules needed to whip up an original list or augment an existing one. Note that the system presented here is not the same as the one described in Appendix I—these steps here are meant exclusively for ‘behind the scenes’ work, and produce slightly different numbers than player-crafted items.

Creating Weapons

To create a Weapon, you must decide four things: the Weapon’s damage die, the Attribute used in the Weapon’s damage code, the Skill used to wield it, and whether or not the Weapon takes up the Shield Slot. In general, d12 Weapons take up both Slots for balance reasons—it is better to carry this rule of thumb over to any ‘homemade’ Weapons created with this system.

Damage Die

The Weapon’s damage die—d6, d8, d10, d12—determines how much damage the weapon will do as well as how much it costs. The size of the Weapon tends to be reflected in the choice of damage die—smaller Weapons like Knives use d6s, while larger weapons like Polearms use d12s.

Attribute

The Attribute used in damage calculations are also defined by the Weapon’s type. STR is used for cutting or slashing Weapons, as well as missile Weapons that depend on muscle power to do damage, like Bows. AGI is used for piercing Weapons where dexterity has more effect than brute force, as well as ballistic Weapons that do not depend on strength, like Rifles and Crossbows. Finally, MAG is used for Weapons that focus the wielder’s own magical power to do damage. Choosing an Attribute other than STR will reduce the Weapon’s Availability by 1 and increase its base cost by ×1.1 on top of any other price modifiers the Weapon is subject to. Regardless of which Attribute is chosen, the Weapon continues to deal Physical damage unless it is given the Magical Attack property.

Equipment Tier

Once the basic details of the Weapon have been settled on, the next thing to figure out is what Tier the Weapon is. For complete equipment tables, you will want to create two Weapons for each Tier from 1 through 10—one with Equipment Abilities, one without. It is also possible to create individual Weapons within those Tiers.

Slots

In order to determine the cost of Equipment Abilities as well as make sure that a Weapon’s Abilities remain appropriate to its Tier, adding special properties to a Weapon is handled with a simple system based on Slots. Every Equipment Ability takes up a certain number of Slots on a Weapon, and each Tier only has room for a certain number of Slots. If an Equipment Ability takes up more Slots than a Weapon of that Tier can support, it cannot be added. The exact breakdown of Slots per Tier can be seen below.

To find out a new Weapon’s cost and Availability, determine how many Slots its Ability occupies—checking en route whether the Ability can actually be supported by a Weapon of that Tier—and check the result against Tables 10-8 to 10-11.

Note that the tables on the following pages only go up to Tier 8—as Artifact and Legendary Weapons have no price attached to them, creating Weapons like these is just a matter of assigning appropriate Equipment Abilities and tracking down the corresponding damage code on the tables.

These options and Slot costs are also used in creating Armor, though not every option will apply in that case.

Pricing Special Weapon Properties

Some Weapons have innate properties that apply to all Weapons of a given class. These properties may also be given to other Weapons, though this will usually change the price listed in Tables 10-8 to 10-11 by a certain amount. A Weapon’s properties may never reduce its Availability by more than 3.

Ammunition

Effect: Characters equipped with this Weapon may elect to use specialized ammunition instead of the basic ammunition used by default. Ammunition must be purchased beforehand, and can be used to add additional Equipment Abilities to the Weapon being used to make the Attack; the Weapon itself will have no Equipment Abilities. Ammunition can only be used with Ranged Weapons. This innate property is found on Bows, Crossbows, and Rifles.

Cost Modifier: ×1.0 Availability Modifier: 0

Double Cut

Effect: When equipped with this Weapon, the character may use the Two Weapons Skill to make two Attack Actions as if he had equipped two separate Weapons. This innate property is found on Gloves and Claws, and must be combined with the Two-Handed property.

Cost Modifier: ×1.1 Availability Modifier: -1

Double Strike

Effect: Any Attack Action made with this Weapon may roll to hit twice, applying the better result of the two. This innate property is found on Swallows.

Cost Modifier: ×1.2 Availability Modifier: -2

Entangle

Effect: Any Attack Action made with this Weapon will inflict the Status Condition Immobilize (2) on a successful Critical Hit. This innate property is found on Flails.

Cost Modifier: ×1.2 Availability Modifier: -2

Looping Strike

Effect: Any Attack Action made with this Weapon may roll to hit a second time if the first attack misses. This innate property is found on Boomerangs.

Cost Modifier: ×1.1 Availability Modifier: -1

Magical Attack

Effect: Damage inflicted by this Weapon’s attacks is treated as Magical rather than Physical, and will be reduced by M. ARM rather than ARM.

Cost Modifier: ×1.0 Availability Modifier: 0

Mana Channel

Effect: When calculating damage inflicted by this Weapon, the wielder’s STR or MAG score can be used to determine the final damage. This innate property is found on Staves.

Cost Modifier: ×1.2 Availability Modifier: -2

Quicksilver

Effect: When calculating damage inflicted by this Weapon, the wielder’s STR or AGI score can be used to determine the final damage. This innate property is found on Knives.

Cost Modifier: ×1.2 Availability Modifier: -2

Ranged

Effect: The Weapon’s attacks are treated as being Ranged. This innate property is found on Boomerangs, Bows, Crossbows, Instruments, and Rifles.

Cost Modifier: ×1.1 Availability Modifier: -1

Two-Handed

Effect: The Weapon takes up both Shield and Weapon Slots. Must be taken by all d12 Weapons. This innate property is found on Axes, Claws, Gloves, Polearms, Greatswords, Rifles, and Swallows.

Cost Modifier: ×1.0 Availability Modifier: 0

Weapon Cost/Availability Tables

Creating Armor

Creating a piece of Armor follows the same steps as creating Weapons, using the Slots system to determine the price and Availability Rating of the final item. The number of Slots consumed by Equipment Abilities remain the same as those given for Weapons earlier. The one key difference is the breakdown in categories—rather than determine pricing and Availability by the damage die, the actual type of Armor is used. This somewhat limits the system’s ability to create entirely new kinds of Armor, though the existing categories are vague enough to allow most possibilities.

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