Farm Tools

Well after seeing the wonderful weapon list on Middenmurk, I thought I’d make my own version for fun and drawing practice. I thought it’d be neat to include the stat information right on the page, so everything you’d need would be at hand without look-ups. I think it'd work better if it was more densely packed and the title was left off - pretty sure folks would figure out which one was the farm tools table without it.

I’m intending to do a few more tables for actual weapons, and one or two for armor. This particular table I’m imagining using for the “funnel” of zero-level characters, arming bands of peasants, or equipping humanoids who have recently raided farmsteads. The open pit saw in particular isn’t something a rational human would use (it requires two people due to its size) but it’d fit a creepy band of humanoids well. Kinda amusing until they manage to get in a hit and saw someone up.

One neat thing about tables like the Middenmurk one is that you can do a die drop to randomly equip folks. Use the number on the die for quality, if you’re into that. I guess that might mean a disproportional number of open pit saw users for my table, but every setting has its quirks right? :)

Note: I pretty much only used “A Museum of Early American Tools” as a reference for the tools. Which places the time period 1700-1880 or something, so if you or your players are particular about stuff like that in your medieval games someone might notice I suppose. I suspect most folks won’t.

The weapon descriptor rules I’m using (modified from Middenmurk of course):
Unwieldy: -2 to hit
Penetrating: +2 to hit versus medium or heavy armor
Hook: +4 to trip attempts
Jointed: Ignores shields, hit yourself on natural 1
Light: First strike, -3 to hit versus medium or heavy armor
Ponderous: Strikes last in a round, can't have first strike
Tiny: Usable while grappling
Small: Usable one-handed
Medium: Usable one-handed, but is unwieldy if so
Large: Two-handed
Enourmous [sic]: Needs two people, why are you using this

Some can be applied multiple times - I used the “!” on the maul to denote doubly penetrating for example, or if you used an already unwieldy medium weapon in one hand, it'd stack and be a -4 to hit.

Weapons get first strike versus folks using weapons more than one category lower in size. I thought about all smaller categories, but I think that’d come up too often and slow down play.
First strike, by the way, is getting to hit an attacker first, which uses up your turn if you choose to do it.

Weapon quality (1-10): On a natural one, add a notch to your weapon. Roll a d6. If that number plus the number of notches is greater than weapon quality, it breaks. Fighters can remove the most recent notch on a single weapon by using a whetstone or whatever while in camp for the night. Just the most recent one. Getting notches after the first makes the old ones permanent, they each cost 20% of weapon worth to repair.

I was considering using a d4 for rolling for breakage so you could reduce the number of different quality ratings, but honestly I despise rolling d4s.