Castle Paradox

[J.A.R.S.]

Ok, I'm not sure if it's been done before, but I guess it did, but since I haven't found it anywhere in the first pages, I thought perhaps we could submit weapon ideas from the fantasy universe that are not the cliche Swords and Staff. Also, by submitting so (and even if the weapons are purely made, hopefully provided with a sketch of the actual design) we should explain by what kind of person one such weapon would be used, aka, the characterization of people who would favor such weapons. I remember one such thread from somewhere about the net where people discussed why their hero favored Colt or Desert Eagle or Glock over other handguns, and it was incredibly successful. So this time around, the theme is fantasy weapon, and hopefully, it might gives ideas to some of the makers out there who didn't consider or figure out good weapons for their hero.
It is just a creative exercise guys, so feel free not to participate, but anyone is welcomed to.

Here is an example that, in no way, should be considered a template of what to do (this is a very open ended thread).

(note: this one is actually a "classical" weapon which should be avoided)
Pole hammer (2 handed)
The pole hammer is a ramarkably blunt arm which purpose is to disregard the enemy's armor or defensive attribute. It is, much like sturdy axes, (but even more) the perfect weapon for a strong warrior, probably a barbarian, with brute strength and little to no appreciation of strategy or parry in battles. The main focus of this man is to strike hard and the hammer delivers the necessary power.

I guess everyone gets the basic idea there? Feel free to include more details or anything

[Newbie_Power]

Because swords are well rounded weapons, and they usually go with well rounded main heroes, and you cannot forget how revered swords are in the first place especially when you consider European legends and myths, especially weapons such as Excalibur.

Weapons such as spears, polearms, or axes are usually given to characters with not as rounded stats, or have a specific purpose. Bulkier and more hot blooded characters with high physical attack power tend to get axes or polearms, Knightly classes or Dragoons tend to get lances, and the legendary hero (tm) gets the sword, and your Ninja or Samurai gets a Katana.

This is the OHRRPGCE community, however. I don't see why you're not trying to break this cliche in the first place. Corporate JRPG makers use this standard scheme (or create totally new weapons such as a Kendama or stuffed toys) because that's how their Japanese audience likes it. I am pretty sure American RPGs could care less what weapon you use since your character is your own anyway (I tend to favor Polearms in games like Diablo II).

[J.A.R.S.]

I know, swords are very noble too (Franks actually forged their blade with a piece of their home inside of the blade to remember their roots) but it is just a creative exercise, it may help people, it certainly would help me seeing as how I'm working on an rpg with a lot of heroes and I don't want two heroes with the same weapon (well except for a pair of them that is).

It is also funny to denote that Excalibur, at the very birth of christianity's new age (about year 1048) was traded for the graal and the holy spear. Strange that people remained with the ideal of Excalibur when in fact, it was meant to be replaced by the myth of Perceval (Chretien de Troyes' book) for the holy spear. Though we could discuss about the sanctity and supremacy of the sword (and I'm sure it could be interesting, feel free to start a thread in the story section as it would seem more adequate perhaps?) but I'm realy interested in other weapons.

So yes, the sword for the "all-purpose" hero, and other weapons for specific stat-oriented heroes.

[Newbie_Power]

[J.A.R.S.]

ah sorry, misunderstood you then.

[Blue Pixel]

i agree, swords are over used by far. personally i like chain weapons, such as harpoons, ancors, grapling hooks, and chains with nothing attached.

another under used weapon are lances. long spear like weapons. well rounged too. can be throw like a javalin, used to cast spell like a staff, or just slice and dice peaple.
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[J.A.R.S.]

I think a part of the reason why lances are underused is because a wall of spearmen is good, but a single spearman isn't very good when a soldier with a sword penetrated his guard. Short weapons tend to gain the upper hand in rpgs mostly because they allow the epic duels to take place. Duel of spears? not so sure... I particularly like chains, they've my uttermost favorite (Hellraiser fan ).
Thrown javelins are a good option to the bow though, a very fine one indeed

[PurpleSquerkle]

Believe it or not, I was just thinking about this today, and decided that an INCREDIBLY underused and very interesting weapon type is the flail, also known as the morning star or chain mace.
Basically a round spiky thing on the end of a chain, but can come in all sorts of different and interesting varieties, often including multiple heads. A character using flails would most likely be a heavily armored type, emphasis on strength and defense stat-wise.
The hero in my next RPG is almost definitely going to use flails...

[J.A.R.S.]

underused indeed. My first ohr game provided a hero with one such weapon, he was, though, going to turn evil, of course the proximity from flail to evil is so thin that its the kind of weapon you must use carefully no?
Is the mace underused? I heard it very present in AD&D environments, but I haven't seen it around rpgs much, probably restricted to "orders" who guard things... It is a parent of the flail (minus the chain) so I don't know...

[Newbie_Power]

A certain modern game lets you use a "ball and chain" as a secondary weapon, and it is very useful in some situations compared to the sword.

Really though. As necessary as this topic might seem, I don't think there's going to be anyone that's actually going to disagree with the idea of not using a sword, so there isn't much to debate and we'll just end up talking about how different weapons work.

[J.A.R.S.]

and thats the point. Ideas. As i stated, it is meant to be a creative thread. There's a very interesting list on google about medieval weapons (some of which I obviously didn't know about) but I'm willing to hear from what everybody's fantasy lore is made of weapon-wise. I think ti can give several people good ideas, thats all. It isn't a debate about the use of swords, its a creative collective work to be looked at by people who need an idea, or for people to show off what original ideas they came up with... ranging from things as simple as making an offensive shield to... well I don't have examples obviously

[msw188]

Let us not forget the magic users. Breath of Fire 2 used magic rings as weapons for the wizards in the game (both female) that shot out little blasts of magic energy. I've also played a fan translation of a pretty interesting RPG called Tales of Phantasia, where the wizard of the group equipped books, and if he ever had to physically attack, he essentially just whapped the enemy over the head with his book!

There are hosts of other weapons that have been used in various RPGs. I haven't played too many, but I can easily mention whips, claws, bows&arrows, boomerangs, knives, darts (I was always kind of amused by this one, enough to use it in my own game), nun-chucks (I'm sorry, but I really have no idea how to spell that, I'm talking about the two handles connected by a chain, used in the original Final Fantasy at least), ...

Well, I'm sure that there are plenty more. The problem with this is that in the vast majority of RPGs, the actual reality of using the weapon is ignored in favor of damage dealing. There are small exceptions, like certain skills only available with certain weapons, but I can't imagine anyone playing an RPG and wanting to take into account the physical capabilities of how a weapon works. That seems more for fighting games.

I'm not sure about 'weapon personalities'. They do exist to be sure, mostly based off of common fairy tale characters it would seem. But I don't feel that I can add much to this that hasn't already been said and/or feels obvious. Sorry.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[J.A.R.S.]

Indeed I think we had sort of ignored the fantasy/magic weapons thus far. I played that version took, spellbooks and rings are very interesting weaponry. The book associates with a scholar of some sort, someone wize, and preferably old (although not in that game). This is also the typical background of a strong mage though, so this doesn't add much indeed. It is like every cliche character has his own set of weapons (some which are cliches too)

[Newbie_Power]

FFIII (DS version) Scholars use books and tomes as physical weapons, even if the books themselves do not increase magic attack ability.

msw hits the nail on the head. Most J-RPGs don't care for the physical reality of a weapon because it doesn't matter in the gameplay most of the time. If Cloud had a smaller sword, it would do just as much damage as a big sword because that is how FFVII was balanced.

I have noticed an increasing trend in creating radical weapons that characters use instead of realistic ones in RPGs, because they know their audience would rather see something cool or unique instead of basking in medieval geekiness like we are doing in this thread.

Still, I can't help but sense an air of rebellion in this thread, as if it is becoming mandatory to make sure the character is wielding a mace or a sling. I'm sorry if I am making any kind of assumption, but I would rather not jump the "It's not cool to use swords because its cliche" bandwagon, especially since I can have a multi-weapon character reminiscent of NES RPGs anyway (with more non-sword weapons that have special properties).

[J.A.R.S.]

Yes, I see your point. I wasn't particularly focusing on one-weapon driven characters, but their main one. Though everyone could probably use the sword, few can claim to use say, a gun. The opposite exercise could be done too, say, everyone has their own sword, unique. Defining all possible blades matching character's traits... I was just assuming everyone is more proeficient with a weapon of choice... say, everyone can use nearly everything except weapons specific to one or two heroes, or, they just get bonuses because they like axes and favor them over swords. The idea was not as much defining the combat strategies of the player with locked ideas but just finding interesting weapon classes. Non-medieval weaponry is perhaps even better as it brings far more flavor than actual logic and rpgs are built around strong lore of flavor and usually, poor logic (starting with the level up attribute which, instead of being a constant leveling, is arbitrarily initiated). Critics regarding this aspect exist, but I think (maybe I am wrong?) that it is commonly accepted not to expect logic out of a game that we want to be epic in some ways.
Of course, Setzer's cards in FFVI is a weapon with no actual physical value in the real world, but it does mark a marvellous flavor point. I'm not totally fond of Setzer's weapon per say, nor even the lil gal who's a painter, in fact, I think they are the two heroes who suck the most but that's probably because I'm a little too much on the realist side. So, without going into the "this character uses brushes only" kinda thing, I think we can get into the the relative specificity of heroes?