Advanced Dungeons Amp; Dragons Slayer

[Bartie Spalitto]

Thebeauty of the original dungeons and dragons products was the ease of compatibility between the two products. There really was little difference between the essence of the two games, other than the fact that advanced d&d added a thick layer of content and complexity over the quintessential basic system. In almost every case between basic and advanced, the underlying rules are the same, only the advanced version goes into more detail. Weapons are one of those areas where the rules are the same, though the AD&D PHB goes into vastly more detail. In the original basic edition, ALL weapons did 1d6 damage. An optional rule grouped them into categories of d4, d6, and d8 damage dice types.

Length and space required are obvious but interesting data, and the space required came up recently in a game I was playing. The player characters were caught in a confined space, and most had to resort to their bare hands due to this rule. Weapon length and space required give a large dose of realism to the game, since they force players to really think about how they are going to try and fight with their weapons.

The other use of speed factor came when determining an attack against a spell caster. If the weapons speed factor was lower than the amount of time it took to cast a spell (in segments, with a really confusing formula that involved subtracting initiative rolls) and if the weapon hit, it would disrupt the spell. Another really flavorful thing that only came up occasionally, but was incredibly fun. It is why wizards rightfully fear rogues over warriors.

For reasons which would be tedious to explain, I was trying to find the pages and pages of pole arm pictures that I vaguely recalled seeing in an AD&D book from my misspent youth, and you have done me a great service by reminding me WHICH book and WHICH appendix I needed to go to in order to be really clear on the difference between a Fauchard and a Fauchard-fork. ?

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