I
have been asked a few times about how players should arm the
characters of their warband, if they could equip them with as many
weapons as they wanted or if there was a limit, and even if they had
to start without weapons.
It
is true that it is an issue that I left up to the players themselves,
assuming that people would equip their characters in a proportional
or balanced way, but I forgot to give a guide in case of not being
clear how to do it.
Errare
human est, so I write these lines to soLve this issue and correct my
mistake.
Our
characters´ world is a tough world. They are ordinary people who are
involved in strange stories surrounded by dangers and their life
expectancy is short.
That
is why, despite being ordinary people, they will try to arm
themselves the best they can in order to fight the dangers that
threaten them.
How
will we equip our warband?
Well,
the rule is simple:
We
count the number of characters in our side and we subtract one. The
resulting number is the number of points we have to spend on
equipping them with weapons. The cost of the weapons is given as
follows:
two-handed
sword / ax 1
pistol
/ revolver 1
shotgun
2
rifle
2
submachine
gun 3
sniper
rifle 3
Let's
look at it with a couple of examples to make it clear:
Example
1.
Our
warband is integrated by a Hero and two Allies (3 characters), so we
have 2 points (3 characters-1) to equip them with weapons. I decide
to buy 2 pistols and give them to the characters I want.
Example
2.
Our
warband is integrated by a Hero, an Ally and three extras, so we have
4 points (5 characters-1) to invest in acquiring weapons. So I decide
to buy a shotgun and two pistols for the five characters that I have.
Example
3.
Our
warband is integrated by a Hero and six Extras, so we have 6 points
(7 characters-1) to buy weapons for them. I decide to get a
submachine gun for my hero, and two pistols and a two-handed ax to
distribute among the six extras.
But
what about the rest of the melee weapons?
Well,
normal melee weapons are free. You can equip any character who does
not carry firearms with normal melee weapons.
What
do we consider normal melee weapons?
One-handed
melee weapons: Knives, clubs, baseball bats, clubs, axes, and even a
sword. Two-handed weapons are excluded.
And with these rules it is clear how we can equip our warband, but some doubts have arisen about combat with weapons:
How
many weapons can a character carry?
A
character can only use ONE weapon per turn, so even if he carries two
pistols, he can only use one of them.
But
apart from that, a character can carry the equivalent of two hands,
that is, he could carry two pistols or a two-handed weapon, according
to the following classification:
One-Handed
Weapons:
pistol
revolver
knife
ax
sword
stick
baseball
bat
short
spear
Two-Handed
Weapons:
shotgun
rifle
submachine
gun
two-handed
sword
two-handed
ax
According
to this classification, a character could carry a pistol and an ax
(although he could only use one of them), or two knives, or a
shotgun, or a revolver and a stick, or a two-handed ax...
Does
it cost any action to change from using one weapon to another?
If
a character has an ax and a pistol he can switch from one to the
other at no cost in terms of actions.
Can
guns jam or run out of ammo?
That
option is out of our games to seek simplicity in this ruleset. The
scenes are fast and it is considered that the weapons do not jam and
that the characters carry enough ammunition.
Can
I exchange a weapon from one character to another?
If
you decide it BEFORE the scene you can do it without problem, but if
you decide it DURING a scene, the characters will have to get closer
to 1" or less and exchange the weapon with a cost of one action
as explained in the ruleset.
If
a character is KO'd in a scene, can another character pick up his
weapon?
Yes,
he can, although he will have to approach the character that is KO'd
and spend an action to pick up the weapon, the same as if he were
exchanging the weapon.
If
a character is KO'd in one scene, can I assign their weapon to
another character in the next scene?
Only
if this other character picked up the weapon DURING the scene from
the character that was KOed. If he did not do that because the scene
ended before, the weapon cannot be assigned to this other character.
You can download this rules as a PDF in the following links:
HOW TO EQUIP YOUR WARBAND
COMO ARMAR A TU BANDO
