Advanced Close Combat Blades for

by Neil de Carteret

Tired of having to make do with the selection of close combat blades in the Waste World core book? Well, here are some simple ideas to make sure your character gets the weapon he wants.

Four Steps to Success

1. Decide what basic shape of weapon you want.
2. Pick a material for your weapon to be made of.
3. Choose any "power" options you want it to have.
4. Polish the design with custom features.

You can always use your own story. The different features included here are given names and descriptions, but if you want to use your own cool sounding names and descriptions to explain the statistical changes, go for it.

1) The Basic Shape

Punching Dagger: A short bladed weapon with the grip mounted at 90 degrees to the blade. This weapon is used to deliver quick jabs rather than swipes.

Dagger: A small (15-30 cm) blade, fairly concealable but of limited use in fights against larger weapons.

Gladius (Shortsword): Blade lengths between 30-60 cm. a readily portable weapon.

Longsword: A more impressive weapon, with blades ranging from 60-120 cm. The longsword category covers sabres, katanas and a variety of other similarly sized weapons.

Klaighmore (Greatsword): A huge two-handed sword, with a blade between 1.2 meters and, in extreme cases, 2.4 meters.

Handaxe: A small, double-bladed axe with a short handle.

Battleaxe: A scary looking two-headed axe, designed for one handed use.

Two-handed axe: A larger, heavier weapon, usually built with only one blade.

Poleaxe: The mother of all axes. A huge cutting blade mounted on a long shaft which requires two hands for use.

Razorwheel: A fearsome weapon, consisting of a circular saw mounted inline with a long grip. When the trigger is held down, the wheel spins at incredible speeds, emitting a terrifying screaming noise. These weapons are not subtle, but they are impressive. Because of the power of the weel, two hands are needed for this weapon.

Your choice of basic layout determines the starting characteristics of the weapon:

Weapon	Damage	Parry	Type	Weight	Min. ST	Cost	Availability
Punching Dagger	1M	-1	C	1	-	30	8
Dagger	1M	-1	C	1	-	30	9
Gladius	1M	-	C	2	-	60	9
Longsword	1M+1	-	C	4	0	100	7
Klaighmore	2M	-	C	8	+2	150	5
Handaxe	1M	-1	C	1	-	30	9
Battleaxe	1M+1	-1	C	2	0	60	9
Two-handed Axe	1M+2	-1	C	4	+1	100	7
Poleaxe	2M+1	-1	C	8	+2	150	7
Razorwheel	1M+3	-	C	6	-	500	5

All the values in this table are the same as in the Waste World core book, with the exception of "Parry". This is a negative modifier applied when this weapon is used to block incoming attacks, and reflects the fact that long blades are better than wide blades in defence. Parry modifiers are applied to blocking rolls in combat.

2) Building Material

Wrought Steel/Chitin: This is the default building material: wrought steel in most parts of Waste World, chitin in Hydra.

Duralloy: An alloy of various artifically created metals which gives a weapon greater tensile strength and edge retention than normal wrought steel. It looks like a particularly shiny white gold.

DenseFibre Ceramic ("DFC"): A complex polymer which includes duralloy and ceramic (as in ceramic armour) with a natural grain which strengthens the weapon and improves its "biting" quality when it hits a target. DFC appears a dull blue-grey.

Shellak: A very rare material produced from the chitinous shells of aparticular beetle which inhabits the wastes. Knowledge of its production is a closely guarded secret, and so far none of the metrozones have discovered it. It is pitch black in colour, and Shellak weapons are highly prized becasue the texture bites into and disrupts whatever it hits even better than DFC.

The material of a weapon affects its damage, cost and availability:

The price increase includes the cost of a weapon maintenance kit and sheath for the material.

For example, a DFC battle axe would have a damage rating of 1M+3, cost 400 credits and have an availability of 2.

3) Power Options

Self-shaprening: These weapons feature a memory system tied into a constant low drain current which continually draws the molecules at the edge of the blade back into position for maximum sharpness. This system cannot correct major damage such as nicks and notches or broken blades, but will keep the weapon at absolute sharpness all the time. Shellak weapons cannot be made self-sharpening.

Oscilator: Oscillator blades use a current to keep the molecules of the blade in constant motion, like tiny chainsaw teeth. The weapon will cut into it's target easily. Shellak weapons cannot be made into oscillators.

Chain: Built like a chainsaw. A belt travels the length of the blades, carrying numerous sharp teeth. When the trigger is held down, the belt slices around, giving one of the most fearsome cutting edges knows. Chain weapons can be found made of Shellak, although they are staggringly rare. However, chain razorwheels don't exist because powered teeth is already part of the razorwheel design.

Poweredge: The outside edge of the blade is built as a fibrethermal conductor, which means that it gets very hot indeed when the trigger is held down. This modification does an extra point of daage against living flesh but has no extra effect on armour (including carapace).

Shock: The blade of the weapon is built as a conductor for the DPC. When the weapon strikes, a shock is released which can have quite a bad effect on the target. The basic damage rating of the weapon is reduced by 2 (so a shock handaxe would have a rating of 1M-2) but if the attack hits with 5 or more successes, after accounting for defence and modifiers, the target must make a ST based saving throw or be stunned for one round (no attack or defence).

Fireburst: These highly advanced weapons have blades which coat themselves in plasma when in combat. Although it evaporates quickly, it can have a devastating effect on armour and flesh. Against armour (including carapace) damage is calculated normally, but if the attack hits with 10 or more successes the AR of the armour is reduced by one. Against flesh, the weapon does an extra d10 of damage. Ouch.

Power options can affect the damage, weight, cost and availability of weapons. DPC ratings are not required for these weapons, because a single cell will last for many fights.

4) Custom Features

Paintwork: Commonly used to make a weapon match its bearer's armour. Custom paintjobs can be done for 50 credits.

Styling: The hilt and grip can make a weapon appear exotic and frightening, and improve the wielder's appearance. Styling costs 50 credits.

Unusual Blades: Add to the mystery of a weapon, although they rearely improve its combat performance. An axe might be made with a "fleur-de-lys" head, or a sword made in a wide, sweeping teardrop shape. Blades conferring no statistical change cost an extra 10% of the weapon's price. some unusual blades add +1 to the damagerating while giving the user a -1 penalty on attacks. These double the price of the weapon.

Intelligence: Incorporated in some weapons in the form of AI chips or stolen karmachips. Both are highly illegal in most metrozones. The intelligence may be tied into a voice system and any number of arcane systems, such as lev fields, to improve the owner's chances in combat. This is not something which can be shopped for, and should only be found in rare circumstances.

Oversizing: Characters with the Giant special power or Growth at initiate level or better may want weapons which are built larger than normal. These cost ten times as much as normal and double the damage rating. They can only be used by oversized charracters.

Supersizing: Weapons of this category should never ever find their way into the hands of PCs. They are monstrous, titantic versions of the normal types and can only be used by similarly enormous NCs. Cost and damage are left to the narrator's immagination, but they should be ridiculously huge.

Examples

I've just generated a new character, a transformed female Hydran brute who, I have decided, will be ambidextrous and use an axe in each hand. From the list of possibilities, I decide that the battleaxe is about the right size. These are normally only 60 credits each, so I decide that she can afford to improve it a bit. Power features aren't really her style, so an improved building material is called for. DFC makes the cost per axe 240 credits, but makes them nicely devastating, so that's what I go for. Checkin with the narrator, he says he's happy for my character to start play with this weapon. She buys two, at a total price of 480 credits. The final stats are:

Weapon	Damage	Parry	Type	Weight	Min. ST	cost	Availability
DFC Battleaxe	1M+3	-1	C	2	0	240	6

Wearing my narrator's hat, I need to design a weapon to be wielded by the archvillain at the end of a scenario. He's an ancient golem created by Hydran genesculptors. I picture him holding a flaming two-handed chainsword. I start with the stats for the Klaighmore. I reckon it ought to be made of at least Duralloy, so I factor that in. Next I add chain and fireburst modifications. The total cost multipliers are x2 (duralloy), x10 (chain), x10 (fireburst), so the weapon costs 200 times more than normal - 30 megacredits! But it's coo, I'm the narrator and what I say goes. Just to stop any of the players getting their hands on it, I decide that when its owner dies, it will erupt in a ball of flame.

Weapon	Damage	Parry	Weight	Min. ST	Cost	Availability
Ancient Fiery Chainsword	2M+3 + special	-	C	16	+2	30M	9

Note to Narrators

Particularly unusual weapons, such as forceblades and neurolashes are not covered here because they constitute special concepts which can't be covered by normal rules. Blunt instruments (hammers, maces, etc.) will be covered in a seperate paper.

Also, the rules here won't generate the same stats as the official books. They will generate stats which I consider more representative of the weapons in fquestion. For example, the larger weapons are listed in the books as weighing at most 3.5 kg, which is about the weight of thre large hardback books. I've put this up to 8 kg, which is still lower than most real world close combat weapons, but more like a realistic value.

Anyway, have fun, and remember
Waste 'em.
Neil de Carteret.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Homepage