Quick equipment creation guide

Games Root
1

Equipment value is an arbitrary measure of power, usefulness, or whatever. Your playbook gives you a total value budget you start with.

You should have a main weapon that’s worth about 5-6 value. Build it like this:

  • Spend 1 value to add a tag for 1 weapon skill you have
  • Optionally, spend 1 value to add a special weapon feature (e.g. Quick)
  • Optionally, reduce value by 1 for a negative tag (e.g. Weighty)
  • Spend the rest of your value budget on Wear

You want either armor, a shield, or a tool after that. Spend your remaining value building those.

Example: I want a crossbow. It’s got one weapon skill tag (trick shot) because my character started with that skill. I spend 1 value to buy Iron Bolts, a special quality that increases damage. I spend 4 more value to buy Wear 4. The total value is 6 and total load is 1.

The special weapon features tend to fall into one of these groups:

  • More damage under some circumstances (e.g. against armored targets)
  • Use a weapon skill tag you don’t have, but at a cost
  • Use a different stat to make your attack

Everything has a Load of 1 unless you take the Weighty negative tag.

2

The sword-cane

Tomo has to infiltrate a secure location, and needs a weapon that won’t give them away. The weapon they come up with is built like this:

  • The Unassuming tag to let it blend in
  • The Eaglecraft tag to deal extra damage
  • The Blindside weapon skill tag
  • The Shoddy tag, making it more difficult to repair
  • Two points of Wear

The result is a sword-cane, a sharp blade inside a mundane-seeming walking stick. It’s fragile and isn’t intended to be used very often, but that’s okay. It has a total value of 4 (2 positive tags + 1 weapon skill tag + 2 wear - 1 negative tag). It would cost 5 value in materials to make ordinarily, but Cid’s Toolbox move can be used as well.

Dandelion

Slayer wants a device that can fire bombs to blow stuff up! The resulting weapon is built like this:

  • The Mighty tag to make it better at wrecking stuff!
  • The Quick Shot weapon skill tag
  • The Bulky tag, because it’s big and unwieldy
  • The Wicked tag, because it’s got spikes and pipes and other scary stuff on it!
  • Three points of Wear

The result is a mini-grenade launcher that, like its namesake, spreads seeds on the wind that blossom into destruction. It has a total value of 3.

3

A couple options for folks:

Alvin starts with 6 value, and has the Parry weapon skill. Based what I know of Alvin so far, I think the Dagger Dave selected is fine, though the Rapier (T&O pg. 86, value 6) might also be a good starting point for a weapon for him as well. Alternatively, a Brace of Throwing Daggers might also be fun.

Brace of Throwing Daggers (3 wear)
Value: 5 | Load: 0 | Range: Close, Intimate
Weapon Skill Tags: Parry, Trick Shot
[+] Hidden: Mark exhaustion when being searched or examined to ensure this item goes unnoticed. Mark wear to attempt the Blindside roguish feat if you don’t have it, or to take a 10+ to Blindside if you do have it.
[-] Incriminating: When any significant individual member of the faction offended by this item first sees you bearing it, mark notoriety with that faction.
[-] Fragile: When you make a weapon move with this weapon, mark wear on it. Mark exhaustion to ignore this effect.

Tomo starts with 11 value, and has both the Improvise and Storm a Group weapon skills.

Twin Swords (3 wear)
Value: 5 | Load: 1 | Range: Close
Weapon Skill Tags: Storm a Group
[+] Impressive: When you storm a group wielding this item, mark wear to inflict 2-morale harm on them, in addition to the consequences of your roll.

Armor from a Far Away Land (3 wear)
Value: 3 | Load: 2
[+] Reinforced: While wearing this armor, you may absorb injury as exhaustion 1-for-1 instead of absorbing it as wear.
[-] Weighty: This item counts as 1 additional load.

Koto (2 wear)
Value: 3 | Load: 1
Inspiring: When you use this item to help another vagabond, you can mark wear instead of exhaustion.

Slayer starts with 8 value, and has the Quick Shot weapon skill. A short bow (pg. 192, 6 value) may be perfect for Slayer. With their remaining value, they could pick up some robes (pg. 192, 2 value) to have a bit of armor and be a bit less noticeable, or they could pick up Corvid Explosives (T&O pg. 89, 2 value).

1 Like
4

While as fun as this sounds, I don’t know if a grenade launcher is wholly appropriate for a setting where the saw mill is a recent invention.

5

It was a goofy comedy option, sorry

1 Like
6

And I took it as such, I just wanted to make sure to level set folks expectations.

7

Had a funny thought, so here’s a joke option for Slayer:

Bag of Rocks (3 wear)
Value: 2 | Load: 2 | Range: Far
[+] Common: When repairing this item, you can repair twice as much wear for the same Value
[+] Inspiring: When you use this item to help another vagabond, you can mark wear instead of exhaustion.
[-] Bulky: This weapon cannot be hidden and is always visible while on your body. Mark exhaustion whenever you attempt a roguish feat or trust fate to sneak, hide, blindside, or perform an act of acrobatics.
[-] Conspicuous: When you target a vulnerable foe at far range, you cannot keep your position hidden, even on a 10+. Mark wear to ignore this effect.
[-] Weighty: This item counts as 1 additional Load.

Help allies by throwing rocks at their enemies to distract them during combat. But also be weighed down because you’re carrying around a sack full of palm-sized rocks.

8

I’ll ponder this. I didn’t check out the T&O book for gear examples; a rapier might be more fun, and certainly has more Wear than a dagger; I keep thinking that a dagger is less in the way than a rapier, but since the latter doesn’t have any particular negative tags, I guess not?
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The brace of throwing daggers is cool – though I’d probably spend an extra value to make them Quick (since Might is not my forté), and I’m struggling to think of how one would parry with a throwing knife :stuck_out_tongue: But something to look at when I get more Value in my pocket, along with some light armor, I suppose, or else a bow.

We need a starter heist. :slight_smile: :wink:

9

My thought with this is most of the time you’d be throwing them (using Target Someone which is already a Finesse roll) instead of using them in melee (using Engage in Melee) but probably not a bad idea to have it as an option.

Not going to lie, my perception of throwing daggers has probably been compromised by rule of cool.

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(From Ben Fleuter’s comic Sword Interval)

Like I don’t already have one in mind. :wink:

10

Well yeah, you could do it that way. :crazy_face:

11

Here’s a quick Google Sheet for making gear, because I can’t sleep. You can make a copy of this yourself if you want.