Weird & Wonderful Weapon Hack

Picture Reference

This hack is intended as a simple tool to generate simple but interesting weapons/loot for OSR games (although it's so simple that it could probably be applied to other systems as well). Below is the table to manually construct the weapons, and below that are some automatic generators.

This hack takes elements of weapon rules from Cypher System and the Powered by the Apocalypse game Uncharted Worlds. The basic principle is that any kind of simple weapon can be constructed from a base, and a number of qualities. There is a cost associated with those qualities which could be thought of as the weapon level, or converted to a 1point = Xgold system.

If people like this hack and find it useful, I want to expand on it in a whole bunch of ways. I'd like to make a version of this hack with qualities unique to my Phantasmos setting, or to various other specific settings or genres. I would also like to make some additional tables with more advanced / spell-like qualities, or add flavors as additional 0 cost qualities just to add more fun and versatility to the hack and make each piece of equipment feel more special.

I also would like to thank Angus Warman for making publicly available an automatic list to HTML translator for the automatic generator, Lungfungus for additional coding experience, and Saker Tarsos for bringing me into the fold on this and inspiring me with his Saker Summon Hack.

Anyway, here are my recommendations for how to use this hack (with some suggested alternative implementations- this hasn't been playtested at all!):

New character starting weapon

In place of whatever starting weapon your class would start with, you can instead construct a level 0-1 weapon, either randomly or by what would make sense for your character.

For level 0, just pick a base form. For level 1, add one quality with 1 cost.

Despite the fact that this generator was designed so that short-long range has a cost of 1-3 respectively, I don't think it would be unreasonable to let a player take short/medium range for free, or long range at cost 1 (or maybe even make that free as well).

Loot / randomly rolled weapon

Decide on a weapon level or randomly roll for level. Depending on how powerful you want the weapon to be, I would recommend something like level 1d4, 1d4+1, 1d6, 1d6+1, or something like that. I think if you add too many qualities it might get a bit out of hand. You could potentially also make it relative to the HD of the enemy holding it.

As with new character starting weapon, I think range could be handled in an alternative way. By default, the random distribution is uniform so the probability of rolling for even just short range is pretty low, and you'd have to randomly roll range 3 times to get long range. Instead, you could roll 1d4, where 1 in 4 is ranged, and an additional 1d4, where 1 = reach quality, 2 = short range quality, etc., prior to rolling other qualities.

Weird & Wonderful Weapon Hack Tables

D3	Base Form	Base Qualities
1	Light	1d4, +1 AB, One-handed, Concealable as free feature
2	Medium	1d6, One-handed
3	Heavy	1d8, Two-handed

D30	Qualities List	Description	Cost
1	Area of effect	Each upgrade increases area of AoE (close, short, medium, long).	2
2	Attached	Attached to gauntlet or armor, leaving hand free.	1
3	Bonded	Weapon only usable by owner, cannot be removed from person without consent.	2
4	Breaking	Can be used to target and break objects at no disadvantage.	1
5	Concealable	Can be hidden from view.	1
6	Concussive	Creates a burst of sound or light on impact to deafen/blind/temporarily stun.	1
7	Deadly	Each upgrade increase attack die (up to d10).	2
8	Elemental: Air	Has properties related to air (e.g. can subtly manipulate winds, harness electricity).	1
9	Elemental: Earth	Has properties related to earth (e.g. benefits to mining).	1
10	Elemental: Fire	Has properties related to fire (e.g. produces heat/light, can cause burning).	1
11	Elemental: Metal	Has properties related to metal (e.g. benefits to blacksmithing).	1
12	Elemental: Water	Has properties related to water (e.g. can extinguish fires).	1
13	Elemental: Wood	Has properties related to wood/plants (e.g. benefits to gardening, nature traversal).	1
14	Flexible	Whip or whip-like; Range (close), AoE (close), Stunning (binding), Unwieldy (-2 AB).	1
15	Focused Area	AoE can be focused in a line, cone, etc. Each upgrade allows a different option.	1
16	Focused Damage	AoE can be focused to only target specific creatures or objects. Each upgrade allows greater flexibility.	1
17	Impacting	Each upgrade increases range of knockback (close, short, medium, long).	1
18	Magical	Has general magical properties.	1
19	Masterwork	Each upgrade +1 AB.	2
20	Penetrating	Ignore armor. With second upgrade, ignore shields. AC otherwise still applies.	2
21	Poisonous	Can cause poisoning.	1
22	Ranged	Each upgrade increases range starting at short (short, medium, long).	1
23	Reach	Can be used at close range or thrown at no disadvantage.	1
24	Rending	Serration or other features cause sustained wounds and mutilation.	1
25	Siege	Can be used to break open structures.	3
26	Silenced	The weapon produces little to no sound on projection or impact.	1
27	Spellbreaking	Can silence spells/spellcasters on successful attack.	2
28	Stunning	Can be used non-lethally to incapacitate at no disadvantage.	1
29	Suppressing	Creates an obstacle to those in weapon range. -2 AB to anyone in range.	1
30	Unique Appearance	May be a well known item or associated with a well-known person or faction.	1

Generated weapon examples

Here are a few examples of weapons generated using this hack:

1. Assasin's Dagger (Lvl. 1): Light (1d4 dmg, +1 AB, One-handed, Concealable), Poisonous. A simple dagger, easily concealable, coated in poison.
2. Martial Spear (Lvl. 4): Medium (1d6 dmg, One-handed), Reach, AoE (close), Focused (Line), Focused (Cone). A versatile spear which can be used to keep opponents at a distant and control your space when encountering multiple enemies simultaneously.
3. Excalibur (Lvl. 4): Medium (1d6 dmg, One-handed), Masterwork 1, Deadly 1, Magical, Bonded. An unassuming but powerful magical sword. Only the worthy can pull the sword from the stone and wield it. (NOTE that I did not include the Unique quality, since I described it as unassuming in appearance, but one could easily have included that as well).
4. Siege Hammer (Lvl. 4): Heavy (1d8 dmg, Two-handed), Breaking, Impacting, Siege, Concussive. A massive warhammer fit for trolls, capable of sundering weapons and armor, sending enemies flying, powering through walls, and blasting ear drums.
5. Fey-Gun (Lvl. 4): Light (1d4 dmg, +1 AB, One-handed, Concealable), Magical, AoE (short), Ranged (short), Suppressing. A fey wand capable of spraying bursts of magic all around, hindering attacking opponents.
6. War Whip (Lvl. 2): Medium (1d6 dmg, One-handed), Flexible, Rending. A whip covered in flesh-rending thorns capable of injuring all in reach. Can also be used for binding.
7. Mage-Killer Bow (Lvl. 4): Heavy (1d8 dmg, Two-handed), Range (Long), Spellbreaking. A heavy longbow, capable of firing at great distance, which can silence spellcasters hidden behind enemy lines. 

Automatic weapon generator

The below can be used to randomly roll a base form and qualities, one at a time. I eventually want to write an all-inclusive generator where you input weapon level and it'll pick a base form with number of qualities up to weapon level in cost, but I'm hardly an expert HTML coder and it might make more sense to wait until I've decided what to do about flavor qualities or if I want to change how range is treated "officially".


Select a base form:

Select individual qualities:

Anyway, with all of that, let me know what you think of this hack! I think it could be a lot of fun to do those flavor qualities, Phantasmos or other setting qualities, etc., but i want to make sure people actually find this valuable first!