The hand gun and arquebus are two-handed weapons, as is any matchlock-style firearm. A wheel-lock firearm could be used one-handed, although rifle-sized weapons would still require two hands to steady. Firearms require a supply of gunpowder, which must be kept dry. Early firearms also require a match to light the gunpowder, and matchlocks have this match built in. The match must also be kept dry.
Gunpowder: Gunpowder is a powdered, explosive mixture made from 75% sulfur, 15% charcoal, and 10% saltpeter. Sulfur is generally found as brimstone in volcanic areas, or mined from underground deposits. Saltpeter is usually recovered from urine and manure, in a time-consuming and unpleasant manner. The best charcoal comes from softwoods such as willow, soft pine, redwood, and cedar. Each ingredient must be powdered separately: grinding them together is a mistake usually not made more than once. When dry, gunpowder is easily set off even by the friction of grinding together.
Hand Gun: The simplest form of firearm and the earliest. The earliest firearms were simply tubes with a handle, and required that the powder be lit through a “touchhole” with a lit match cord also held in the hand. The rate of fire of a hand gun could be increased to once per three rounds with the use of an assistant.
Arquebus: While it eventually came to mean a gun of fine workmanship, originally the arquebus was simply a heavy matchlock. The Arquebus was first heard of in the late fourteenth century, though were much more common in the seventeenth century. The “matchlock” style of firearm continued to use a match cord to light the powder, but the cord was attached to a mechanism which could lower the lit match to the pan to light the powder. With an assistant to refill the pan and reload, the arquebus rate of fire can be increased to once per two rounds. The Arquebus tends to be about the size of what is today a rifle, although the barrels were not rifled and were thus not nearly as accurate.
Wheel Lock: A “wheel lock” firearm uses flint or pyrite which rubs against a rough-edged wheel to create a spark to light the gunpowder in the pan. The wheel lock pistol was generally about eighteen inches to two feet long and could be fired with one hand, though more accurately than the hand gun.
Match Cord: Early firearms required that their powder be lit by a match in the pan. The match cord would be made of slow-burning material and could be carried in the hat or from the belt. Care must be taken to keep the match dry in moist or rainy weather.
Match Pipe: Those who carried firearms which required a burning match would also often carry a “tube” or “pipe” in which to carry the burning match. The box would be about a foot long, pierced with holes, and designed in such a way that the lighted matches would not betray the whereabouts of the bearer.
Where the longbow was the weapon of the yeomanry, the crossbow could be used by anyone. Much like the firearm today, it leveled the military playing field between commoner and knight or other trained soldier. The larger crossbows were more powerful than the longbow, although (at least for hand-carried crossbows) the arrow (called a “bolt” or “quarrel”) was much shorter and did not have the range of the longbow. Crossbows also could not be fired as rapidly. Lighter crossbows had to be pulled back and locked by hand, then aimed and fired. Larger crossbows had to be pulled back by foot as well as hand, using a special stirrup attached to the front of the crossbow. Crossbows were more difficult than bows to protect from dampness as well.
Crossbows were developed throughout the world, from Europe to China and Japan, to Africa, Burma, and even the Pacific islands.
One advantage of crossbows is that they are easy to use as unmanned traps. Also, an assistant can double the rate of fire of a normal or heavy crossbow if the assistant is also skilled in the crossbow’s use and two crossbows are available, by readying one crossbow while the shooter is firing the other.
“Martial Arts” can be any form of unarmed combat requiring heavy training, with a little bit of mystique on the side. Kung fu, Karate, Ju-Jitsu, and Tai Chi are classic Asian examples. African Capoeira is a perhaps less well-known example.
Attacks with Martial Arts are handled as any other weapon attack. Strength bonuses apply. Damage is d4.
The spear is one of the earliest bladed weapons. At its simplest, it is a blade attached to a long shaft of wood. Spears tend to be eight to ten feet long, although they may be as short as six feet and as long as twelve feet. Spears can be used in melee combat and as a thrown weapon.
Spears do not offer as much opportunity for ornamentation as swords, but both blades and shaft have been known to be embellished. The blade is most commonly metal, but can be bone, stone, or shell.
The javelin is a smaller form of spear, about four feet long, and lighter to carry. One of the more useful features of the javelin (although outside of game rules) was its tendency to stick to an enemy’s shield, making the shield too difficult to use.
The sword is the quintessential arm. Until the invention of the firearm, “sword” was the word that meant “powerful weapon”, and still appears in many of our sayings. “The pen is mightier than the sword.” “Lay down your sword and follow me.” The sword’s victory as penultimate weapon comes from its relative ease of carry, relative ease of use, effectiveness, and the fact that it can be made to look cool.
While the ‘sword’ is a fairly generic bladed weapon with no clear delineation from knives on one end and glaive on the other, for our game purposes there are three kinds of swords: the ‘long sword’, the ‘short sword’, and the ‘great sword’. These swords are designed both for cutting and for thrusting. They are double-edged. The great sword requires two hands to use effectively. It may be used one-handed, with a penalty of 2 to attack and damage.
The blade of a long sword ranges from about three feet to four feet. The short sword is about two to three feet long (any shorter is a dagger). The short sword (gladius) was used with devastating effectiveness by the Roman armies.
The scimitar is a variation on the sword. It is curved, with a single edge. The blade ranges from 30 to 40 inches long. It is designed mostly for cutting.
Throughout history and across cultures there have been many different kinds of armor. The armor types presented in the rules are a vast simplification. They provide an interesting choice of protective clothing without too much confusion. Within any game world, however, Adventure Guides may make more types of armor available.
Like other kinds of armor, shields and helmets come in a bewildering number of styles. For game purposes, shields can be divided into three basic types: normal, small, and large.
The normal shield is the one that will be used most often. It is not too bulky, but provides good protection against multiple foes.
The small shield, such as some of the smaller bucklers, requires more skill than other shields because it is so small. It weighs very little and provides no agility penalty. It can, however, only be used against a single opponent at a time. It is often used in ceremonial combat or single combat, where the warrior knows that they will only be facing a single opponent.
Because they are most often used in ceremonial combat, small shields are often more heavily stylized and decorated than other shields.
The large shield is commonly around four feet tall, semi-cylindrical, and about two feet wide. They can weigh upwards of 20 pounds but provide the skilled warrior with significant protection. The large shield is large enough that, when many warriors get together they can form a shield wall and hide behind it for strong cover.
The full helmet is usually metal, and covers the entire head. It provides significant protection but at the expense of a constricted visual range and a commensurate loss of hearing.
Most armor is in the form of shirts, leggings, and long sleeves all of similar material. Leather armor usually includes simple leather headgear, and chain mail usually includes chain mail headgear.
Cloth armor consists of padded and hardened cloth. While not particularly protective, it was better than nothing, was inexpensive, and did not significantly inhibit other types of movement.
Leather armor is made from leathered hides: tanned and hardened animal skins. Very effective, not particularly bulky, leather armor is the most common armor used by non-warriors.
“Banded” leather armor is a softer leather interwoven with metal (usually iron) plates in bands across the front and over the shoulder and laced at the back. Banded leather is probably the most common armor worn by veterans in mobile armies, as it provides a solid balance between expense, maintenance costs, maneuverability, comfort, and protective capability. This was the typical armor used by the Roman legions. It weighs about twenty pounds. Roman armor of this type is called “lorica segmentata”.
Chain mail is perhaps the most highly advanced of all armor types, and one of the more expensive. It is difficult and time-consuming to manufacture, but it is very protective and the most easily maneuvered of the true metal armors. Use of chain mail is generally limited to the upper classes and those with the economic resources to commission it and maintain it.
Scale mail is given its name from the appearance of small scales: the metal scales or rings are sewn onto a leather backing and often overlap each other, much like scales. It is less expensive than chain mail but also less maneuverable. Scale mail can look extremely impressive when polished, but requires more maintenance lest the wearer end up like Tolkien’s dragon. It could also be extremely hot. To the Romans, the wearer of such armor was nicknamed “clibanarius,” or “oven man”. Scale mail weighs around 60 pounds.
The “scales” of scale armor are sometimes actual scales of metal, and are sometimes metal rings. They are always sewn onto a hardened cloth or leather backing. Some more decorative scale armor used scales embossed with symbols, and some even used coins.
Scale armor is a very early form of armor and is likely to be present in any warring culture that has both tanning and metalworking skills.
Splint armor is an early form of plate mail. Metal plates were riveted together, or to a backing of cloth and leather. Similar to banded leather splint armor provided more complete protection but was usually abandoned when plate mail became available.
Plate armor is an advanced form of armor that is not always available. While more maneuverable than it looks, plate armor is still heavy, hot, and difficult to get around in. More than the technical skill required to make it, plate armor is unlikely to be used unless there are advanced weapons or weapon techniques that need to be defended against in such a fashion. Plate armor is less likely to be available before the invention of the stirrup, for example, as it was the stirrup that allowed for heavier lances to be used on horseback.
Plate mail comes in three basic types: normal plate mail, full plate, and ceremonial plate. Normal plate mail is a combination of chain mail with plates protecting the more important locations such as the chest, shoulders, outer arms, hamstrings, and knees. Places that need maneuverability, such as hands, midriff, and neck, were often protected only by chain mail. Normal plate armor is sometimes called “transitional” plate.
Full plate requires higher quality construction. It is designed for full coverage and for maneuverability in chaotic combat conditions. Because of the greater care that goes into its design, field plate can place plate armor on parts of the body that would normally have only been covered in chain mail.
Ceremonial plate mail was usually reserved for ceremonial combat, as it was extremely expensive to create and maintain and limited the ability of the wearer to respond to chaotic combat conditions. Ceremonial plate mail is specialized to protect against the particular concerns of ceremonial combat, such as jousting.
Plate armor is well suited to decoration, with plates being painted and embossed, and with extra metal parts added to provide a good show or an intimidating appearance.
Besides the following books, web searches for museum displays on any particular piece of equipment were often useful, but too numerous to list here.
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology: Andrew Sherratt, editor.
Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: George Cameron Stone. This is a fascinating and comprehensive work, though annoyingly lacking in some of the more mundane details such as weights.
History and Conquests of Ancient Rome: Nigel Rodgers. This is an incredible selection of a wide array of topics regarding the history of Rome. Each topic generally takes two or four pages to describe, which provides a breadth of coverage; the format provides a surprising depth of detail as well. It is focused on the military aspects of Rome.
Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe: George Holmes, editor.
Treasury of the Gun: Harold L. Peterson.