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New Weapon Tables Copyright Norman Schaschke and Raymond Ward ©2001 Edited by Rich Kirkland for The Guild Companion Clubs are the simplest to produce of all weapons and are consequently very common and readily available. Primitive tribesmen often relied on clubs in warfare, using larger ones for melee and smaller ones for throwing. More sophisticated warriors may frown on using clubs in combat however they often trained with wooden versions of their weapons to avoid serious injury, and these may be included in the category of clubs. Worshippers of nature and those that are bound by religion or honour not to shed blood would naturally employ a club. The "Club" combat table in Arms Law has been limited to a weapon that is about 4' long, weighs about 5 lb and is generally used two-handed. The new weapon table presented here is a smaller club and is called the Cudgel. Please note that the non-standard statistics found on the combat table are explained in the article titled "Rolemaster Weapon Attributes" from the November, 1999, issue of the Guild Companion and additional clarification of Speed can be found in "Continuous Tactical Resolution" from the March, 1999, issue of the Guild Companion. CUDGEL Apparently the term cudgel was used to describe a practice wooden broadsword. Here it incorporates any stick about 3 feet long. Of course if the stick was not made with the intention of fighting then some sort of penalty should be levied but it would still use this table. So a wooden practice sword or a shillelagh would not suffer a penalty, but a sceptre or a table leg would. Primitive people would use clubs of this size as thrown weapons and, for slight people, as melee weapons. Martial artists often employed weapons of this type singly or in pairs. A makeshift weapon of this type can often be found in an emergency: a fence post, a table leg, a branch, a sceptre, and so on. Druids often relied on this weapon and frequently enhanced it with magic. Other names for weapons that would use this table are: hanbo, shillelagh. Click here to see the Cudgel Weapon Chart. |