Weapon Breakage In Darksun

 

 Really still unsure how to reintegrate this blog back into the Things That Get Done.

I've got a few different ideas for how to change what I do with it so it becomes relevant for me again.
Possible when I start running d&d again (aiming for January in the new year) I'll use it as way of codifying dm prep?

Anyway I have a back log of post drafts, so the current version of this blog might just me hastily doing the bare minimum with a draft post? I can't get over how trying to do anything more will take hours.

 So was talking about Dark Sun and its weapon breakage system got mentioned.

Basically it had a weapon breakage system that was terrible and I'm not sure if anyone used it.

The idea was to encourage players to be improvising or scavenging more. Or make them really feel like they were using bone and wood? Trouble is a lot of campaigns have the dm feel obligated to provide decent magical weapons, and in Dark Sun that often means steel weapons , and then bam the whole weapon breakage system goes out the door.

So what are some ways to push the campaign in that direction of players breaking and improvising weapons?

One:

Player facing rule:

Any damage roll with a weapon of "breakable material" can have the dice flipped to its opposite side, in exchange for breaking the weapon. So 1 on a d6 can be turned into a 6, a 3 on a 12 into a 10.

(could also let players sacrifice a piece of armour to flip a die rolled on them? Light armour is one piece provides +2 ac, medium armour +4 ac is two piece, heavy armour is +6 ac and is three pieces. Losing a piece of armour moves it down a category.  

Let monster parts or other scavenged bits be repurposed as armour  , like hollowing out a kank head gives a helmet (1 piece) etc. )

Two

Sort of dm facing but then is also player facing?

so replace most magical items being found in creature lairs instead with various creature parts functioning as limited use weapons and armour with special properties

So you kill an agony beetle, its antenna can used for a whip that does 1d10 psychic damage, but drops a die size for each successful hit or fumble.

Encourage players to experiment and creative with what they find by letting it giving various temporary or 1 off effects.

Anyway that's the idea, I normally expand upon my rule ideas too much and add too much gradients or whatever, and these posts take up too much time. So trying to stay more efficient = more posts?