Hey guys -

Some time ago, the Melee monster of our group wound up with a set of the Coyn weapons - the pole, the sword and the dagger - from the old WEG book Planets of the Galaxy 3. We've put together some stats, trying to emulate the D6 engine, but I thought I'd post our results and see what you guys thought.

Coyn'skar - Coynite Bladed Pole

Capsule: The Coyn'skar is a pole weapon with a lengthy sharp blade on one end and a hook at the base. The shaft is tooled in such a way as to offer maximum grip. The hook can be used to trip or disarm an opponent.

D6 Version

Difficulty - moderate (blade) very difficult (hook)

Damage: STR+2D (blade) STR+2 (hook)

FFG Version

(blade)

Damage: 3

Crit: 2

Range: Engaged

Encumbrance: 4

Hard Points: ???

Specials: Pierce 2, Vicious 2, Sunder, Anti-Sunder (except lightsabers)

(hook)

Damage: 1

Crit: 2

Range: Engaged

Encumbrance: N/A

Hard Points: N/A

Specials: Pierce 2, Vicious 1, Disarm, knockdown, Anti-Sunder (except lightsabers)

Sat'skar- Coynite Sword

Capsule: A Coynite swroid, it must be used with both hands (if swung one handed, the damage is only STR+1D and the difficulty increases to Very Difficult). The blade has grooves in it that causes terrible wounds

D6 Version

Difficulty - Difficult

Damage:- STR+3D+1

FFG Version

Damage: 4

Crit: 2

Range: Engaged

Encumbrance: 3

Hard Points: ???

Specials: Pierce 2, Vicious 3, Defensive 1, 2-handed, Sunder, Anti-Sunder (except lightsabers)

**melee difficulty - 3 purples instead of 2**

D'skar- Coynite Dagger

Capsule: A Coynite dagger, this is the most common weapon amongst the coynites. These weapons are known for their fine craftmenship and deadly blades.

D6 Version

Difficulty - Moderate

Damage:- STR+1D+1

FFG Version

Damage: 2

Crit: 2

Range: Engaged

Encumbrance: 1

Hard Points: ????

Specials: Pierce 2, Vicious 1, Anti-Sunder (except lightsabers)

Right off the bat, I see a couple of changes that I think I'd like to make - but generally, I think this works well. The only thing I have to figure out would be the hard points for each weapon. Since each weapon is crafted by hand and not stamped from a weapons factory mold, I'm inclined to say that the HPs are 1 or possibly even zero for each weapon. They're already crafted as finely as they're going to be.

Anyway, I thought I'd run the numbers by you guys. What do you think, sirs?

They look fine to me and I agree on the no HPs.

Yeah, zero hard points is probably the best option to take.

On the damage ratings, you should probably update those to read "+X" to make it clear that they add the wielder's Brawn to their damage value, rather than being a flat damage value. The damage on the dagger should probably only be a +1 instead of a +2, and instead have an extra rank of Vicious.

Also, these should have a fairly high Rarity value, to reflect how difficult they are to come by.

The one thing I have an issue with is the Anti-Sunder quality. Instead, I'd just have each weapon note that the attacker has to spend one additional Advantage to trigger the Sunder quality, and for sake of simplicity not even bother making a distinction between lightsabers and other weapons with the Sunder quality.

Couple of thing...

First, I absolutely agree with the no hardpoints-issue. Handcrafter weapons like these are like the Nubian starships from Suns of Fortune - extremely good at their specialized field, but with no room for aftermarket customization.

Second, I'd adjust the stats for the Coyn'skar hook and the Sat'skar sword a little. The hook should, I think, have a higher Critical rating and/or a lower Vicious rating. It lets you do the Disarm and Knockdown thing, which is pretty good in themselves. Having once run a campaign in Elrood sector in the old D6 system I always thought of the hook as more of a utility piece than something meant to do damage. That's what the main blade is for.

The Sat'skar is also good, but I'd dial down both Pierce and Vicious by one. It has loads of special abilities already.

I'm not sure they need the "anti-sunder" capability. I don't have my rulebook here, but doesn't sunder damage equipment as opposed to just destroy them outright? I seem to recall something about three stages of damage to equipment, with corresponding repair difficulties. Of course, if I remember this incorrectly and Sunder does destroy things outright, then by all means include "anti-sunder". It would suck to have rare and exceptional items like these destroyed by a lucky hit.

On the damage ratings, you should probably update those to read "+X" to make it clear that they add the wielder's Brawn to their damage value, rather than being a flat damage value.

Point about the damages - I think that was an artifact of the spreadsheet we were working from - that it was implied to work with brawn. But yeah, for the sake of clarity, we should make the distinction.

And yeah, the rarity should be through the roof (if you're not on Coyn, that is). Since they were not going to come up much in the game beyond this one instance, I wasn't going to worry about making a note about it.

I'm not sure they need the "anti-sunder" capability. I don't have my rulebook here, but doesn't sunder damage equipment as opposed to just destroy them outright? I seem to recall something about three stages of damage to equipment, with corresponding repair difficulties. Of course, if I remember this incorrectly and Sunder does destroy things outright, then by all means include "anti-sunder". It would suck to have rare and exceptional items like these destroyed by a lucky hit.

The Sunder does work in steps - from undamaged to minor to moderate to major to destroyed, so in theory, an attack with a sundering weapon that came up with four advantage could destroy the weapon outright. The chances of that happening in one go is pretty slim - so I think perhaps going with Donovan's idea of extra advantage needed to activate might be a good compromise.

Point about the damages - I think that was an artifact of the spreadsheet we were working from - that it was implied to work with brawn. But yeah, for the sake of clarity, we should make the distinction.

On a side note, if you were trying to enter text that starts with a plus sign into a spreadsheet (either Excel or Google Docs) and you kept getting formula errors, type a single-quote mark first and then the plus sign. In other words, instead of typing this:

+3

Type this:

'+3