Malazan FATE/Weapon Rules

Weapon, Shield and Armour Rules

Weapon rules

Weapons have aspect assigned to them.

• Light weapons are all types of knives up to the long knife.
• Medium weapons range from the shortsword and up to the bastardsword wielded one-handed.
• Heavy weapons are all two-handed weapons and the bastardsword wielded two-handed.
• Pole arms are heavy weapons but also have the “reach” aspect.

Twice a session you may make a special invocation when you successfully land an attack. It costs a fate point as usual, but provides neither a +2 nor a reroll. Instead, you can force your opponent to take a consequence instead of stress. The size of the weapon determines the type of consequence:

• Light weapons forces the target to take a mild consequence.
• Medium weapons force the target to take a moderate consequence.
• Heavy weapons forces the target to take a severe consequence.

If you succeed with style, move the consequence up by one level of severity—minor to moderate, moderate to severe, severe to either taken out or an extreme consequence (victim’s defender’s choice). If the appropriate consequence slot is already in use, move the new consequence up by one level of severity.

This special invocation also acts a little bit like a compel. When you invoke a weapon aspect in this way, you offer the fate point to your target. If he takes the fate point, you deal the consequence. He can refuse the fate point and pay you one of his own to not take the consequence, but then he takes the stress he would have taken normally anyway.

Invoking and compelling these aspects outside of the rules described here may lead to overuse/abuse. If that becomes a problem limit their use to only as described above.

Shield rules

Shields are primarily defensive – you put them in between you and harm and hope for the best. Using a shield defensively has these effects:

• You can use either Melee Combat or Physique to defend.
• You get an additional +2 shifts when using Full Defense (see Fate Core, page 159).
• Light shields are bucklers and target shields. They add +1 to your defense roll and can absorb one minor consequence.
• Medium shields are kite, round and heater shields. They add +2 to your defense roll and can absorb one moderate or two minor consequences.
• Large shields are wall and pavis shields. They add +3 to your defense roll and can absorb one severe or one moderate and two minor consequences

Additionally, you can buy a new Melee Combat stunt that allows you to get a bonus when your fight with a favored weapon while defending with a shield. For example:

• Sword and Shield: while fighting with a sword and shield, you get +2 when rolling to defend.

This stunt could also be Axe and Shield, or Spear and Shield, or the like. This stunt represents that your character has trained using her favored weapon and shield together in a fight.

• Shields as Weapons: you can also bash with a shield. In that case, it is a blunt object and has Weapon: 1. You may use either Melee Combat or Physique to attack with a shield.

• Sundering Shields: given that weapons smacking into it is its purpose, your shield will not last forever. If your shield is forced to absorb one more consequence then it is designed for it is considered sundered. An attacker can choose to attack the shield. All damage will go directly to the shield. The attacker must inflict enough stress to force a consequence in order to damage the shield.

Example: an attacker succeeds and inflicts one point of stress against a light shield: no effect
Example: an attacker succeeds and inflicts two points of stress against a light shield: a minor consequence is inflicted to the shield. The defender can still use the shield, but one more consequence will sunder the shield.
Example: an attacker succeeds and inflicts a moderate consequence to a light shield: the shield is sundered.

• Repairing a shield requires a Craft (Smithing) roll at passive opposition +1 (average opposition). However, a sundered shield will never be as good as it once was and so the repaired shield loses its highest consequence unless you roll a success with style on your repair roll. If your shield looses the last consequence box it will still function until it is sundered.