Melee Weapons

Melee Weapons

Melee weapons are hand-held weapons used for close-range, personal combat.

Melee weapons are further divided into three sub-categories based on length:

• A non-martial weapon is any melee weapon under 35 inches (88.9cm) in length.
• A martial weapon is any melee weapon at least 35 inches (88.9cm) in length but no longer than 45 inches (114.3cm) in length.
• A great weapon is any melee weapon over 45 inches (114.3cm) in length.

Carrying a melee weapon in each hand is referred to as "dual wielding" or "two weapon fighting". Players may not carry a melee weapon in each hand at any time unless they have the appropriate skills needed to dual wield.

The damage a character deals with any melee weapon starts at 1. This can be increased by skills, consumables, spells and other similar effects that increase melee weapon damage. Melee weapons have a natural limit on how much damage they can deal.

When wielded by themselves melee weapons have a cap of 4 damage

While dual wielding your melee damage is capped at 2.

Wielding a shield in combat limits your melee damage to a cap of 2. Note that passive bucklers do not have this cap.

Related Rules

Legal Melee Weapon Hits

Melee strikes need to be heavy enough to be felt but not so heavy that they inflict real injuries. If a player feels that an attack connected but was significantly too light (such as grazing a cloak) they can call "Light" to indicate this and disregard taking the wound. This should not be abused for tactical advantage (that's cheating and will be dealt with accordingly). Likewise strikes represent attacks with real weapons, and no melee strike should be a series of repeated taps. Players should call "Too Fast" when this happens to indicate the rapid hits. Again this should not be abused for tactical advantage. When hit too hard a call of "Hard" can serve to notify the attacker of the hard swing. As a general rule hits should be just as hard as is needed for the player to feel the hit connected.

Related Prop Guidelines

Mundane Melee Weapons

These are the requirements to bring a melee weapon prop into the game.

All striking surfaces should have a minimum of 5/8 inch (1.59cm) of closed-cell foam.

All non-handle surfaces of a weapon should have a minimum of 3/8 inch (.96cm) of closed-cell foam.

All melee weapon props must have a rigid core. Cores of wood or metal are forbidden. Acceptable core materials include but are not limited to: plastic, PVC, fiberglass, and carbon fiber. The core of the weapons should be securely held within the padding by glue, tape, or some other adhesive. Padding that slides or twists on the weapons core will be rejected. Cores that rattle or bounce within the padding will be rejected.

All pommels, crossguards, quillions, basket hilts, and other hilt fittings (not to include the grip iteself) must be composed of a flexible material.

The minimum length for any melee weapon is 16 inches (40.64cm). Non-handle pommels do not count towards the overall length measurement of a weapon.

Weapons that flex more than 45 degrees will be rejected.

No swung weapon may have more than 1/3 of its length unpadded for striking. The total unpadded section of a swung weapon may not be more than 30 unpadded inches (76.2cm) total.

Illegal weapons include but are not limited to: flails, punch daggers, slings, ball & chain weapons, and blowguns. Any weapon with a flexible component or which strikes primarily with a punching motion of the arm rather than a swinging motion is forbidden.

Categories: Weapon Rules | Item Rules | Combat Rules | Terminology | Game Limits