I’m going to try and take part
in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every
day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are
a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one
every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar
for this year.
I
thought about this topic for a while. I’ve had a lot of discussions over the
years with friends about the different weapons my characters have used in role
play games. I’ve been accused of playing sub optimally based on weapon choices.
My mage in Shadowrun used a Remington Roomsweeper, in Rift’s I used dual
pistols, and in Legend of the Five Rings I sent the enchanted sword home to my
family and kept my Katana. In all of these cases someone didn’t like my choice
and felt I wasn’t playing the game to its highest level. I probably could have
written about any of these choices.
However,
I decided to talk about the weapon I had the most conversations about; a sledgehammer.
In 4th edition D&D Adventure League one of the charters I played
most often was Brac, a wood elf barbarian with sledgehammer. Adventure League
was a set of rules that allowed you to play the same character at conventions,
gaming clubs, and private events all over the world. It gave a set of guide
lines that formed what you could and couldn’t do to your character. It made it
easy to have characters ready to play in different places and have characters
ready for when you go to a con.
With
Brac there were many conversations about his weapon. I used a sledgehammer, or
maul to use the games official name for the weapon. It was a 2-handed hammer; you
know, exactly like a sledgehammer. The idea for Brac was it would be fun to
play a wood elf barbarian with a sledge hammer. The disconnect for most people
wasn’t that I was using a sledgehammer, It was that I wasn’t using a
Mordenkrad.
A
Mordenkrad is a dwarven 2-handed hammer designed for war. The reason most
people argued that I should be using it was because it was a better weapon. The
sledgehammer dealt 1D10 damage the Mordenkrad did 1D12. The Mordenkrad also had
a rule that let you reroll every 1 and 2 you rolled for damage to get higher
numbers. Since I was a barbarian there would be times I’d roll six and seven
dice so getting to reroll those 1 and 2’s would have been a big deal. The only
drawback was you needed to use a feat to use a Mordenkrad. You only ever go so
many feats but most people felt it was worth it to use one of them to get their
hands on the Mordenkrad. Objectively they were right. The Mordenkrad was a
better weapon. Even giving up one feat to use this one specific weapon would
have been a small price to pay. The only problem, it wasn’t a sledgehammer.
The
entire basis for Brac was that it would be fun and funny to play a wood elf
barbarian with a sledgehammer and it was. Brac cut a striking image, a muscular
wood elf barreling across the field screaming at the top of his lungs and
swinging a sledgehammer. This was layered out by me using all of Brac’s feat to
take anything that improved his movement and charge attacks. Brac sprinted into
battle; usually far ahead of the rest of the party. I like to quote Donald
Suttherland from Kelly’s Heroes when asked about Brac’s speed. “He liked to get
out of trouble as quickly as he got in.” Giving up any of that for the use of a
Mordenkrad felt wrong.
But
the main reason for the sledgehammer and this article on weapon is based on the
nature of sledgehammers; their tools. Sledgehammers have a specific purpose,
they exist to destroy. You don’t build or create with sledgehammers, you tear
things down. That’s all they’re good for.
A
Mordenkrad on the other hand was a weapon of war. It was designed to be used in
combat by warriors. A Mordenkrad was meant to be used my tactical thinking
soldiers. People who went into battle and judged which foe would be the best
target.
Brac
was a sledgehammer. His entire job was to go into battle, sprint at the biggest
thing on the field, and wreck it until he couldn’t swing any more. Brac wielding
a sledgehammer became a deliberate choice. Again, it started as it would be fun
and funny to use a sledgehammer. In the end, the idea that a wood elf used a
sledgehammer meant something. It wasn’t an axe or sword which were more typical
weapons for barbarians. It wasn’t a club which would have been closer to what a
wood elf might use being most often made of natural materials like wood or
bone. A sledgehammer was a manufactured tool. It was something Brac had to go
and find. It was a weapon that wouldn’t have been readily available in the
forest where he grew up. That Brac used a sledgehammer was as much a part of
his personality as was his need to protect his friends, eventually kill a
dragon, or launch himself at the biggest thing on the battlefield.
I
never minded having the conversation about Brac using a Mordenkrad. I
understood why people brought it up. But it never felt like the thing Brac
would do. Still it was fun to hear their reasons for it.
To
this day I remember few of the characters I played with in Adventure League. I
can point to a warden who set me on fire several times, a dwarf cleric who
managed to keep Brac from going unconscious for an entire fight, and one or two
others. Most of the characters blended together. They were all some version of
the best way to roll up character X. I sometimes wonder if any of them remember
Brac and his sledgehammer.
Maybe
they did, or maybe it’s just me hoping he was unique enough to remember.
Tomorrow,
Throne. How the hell am I going to talk about that?
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