Alternate Weapon Skills: Perks Notes on Familiarity

For use with GURPS! By elaxter. Note: This alternate treatment of melee weapon skills assumes you know how the Basic Set categorizes weapons. See p. 208 for details. Alternate Weapon Skills: Balanced Pole: covers staves and spears and any other similar weapons typically wielded in two hands. Spears can be used in one hand! Defaults: DX-5, Two-Handed Unbalanced-4 One-Handed Balanced: Covers swords, batons and anything relatively balanced wielded in one hand. Also covers fencing weapons, jitte/sai, et cetera but you do not receive the defensive bonuses unless you have the appropriate perk! Defaults: DX-5, Two-Handed Balanced-4 One-Handed Unbalanced: Covers hafted weapons, especially those with a prominent striking head, wielded in one hand. Defaults: DX-5, Flail-4, or Two-Handed Unbalanced-3 Two-Handed Balanced: Covers swords, batons and anything relatively balanced wielded in two hands. Defaults: DX-5, One-Handed Balanced-4 Two-Handed Unbalanced: Covers hafted weapons, especially those with a prominent striking head, wielded in two hands. Defaults: DX-5, One-Handed Unbalanced-3, Two-Handed Flail-4 Perks Defensive Training† You’ve learned the techniques involved with fencing, using a staff, etc. You must state that you are in a defensive stance with an appropriate weapon at the start of your turn. You must specialize in one of the following: Jitte/Sai: Covers the use of short, tined swords wielded in the main hand for catching and disarming opponents. See p. 208 of Basic for details on disarming. Main-Guache/Jutte/Sai – A parrying dagger or jutte used in the off-hand for defense. Allows you to ignore the off-hand weapon penalties for defense only. Rapier/Saber – Covers rapiers and sabers. Smallsword – Covers small, balanced swords and sticks. Staff – Covers the wielding of a pole weapon in two hands in a manner to emphasize parrying. Holding a weapon that does not usually receive a +2 to parry (such as a spear or a halberd) is considered a Defensive Grip: -2 damage or -1 damage per die, whichever is worse for their swinging attacks. See Martial Arts pp. 109-111 for more detail. See p. 404 for details on Fencing Weapons and their benefits and drawbacks. Optional rule: Those using One-Handed Balanced may use the defensive benefits of fencing weapons (rapier, smallsword, main-gauche) at -2 to skill without this perk. (Maintains the strange default for Rapier and Broadsword, for instance) Notes on Familiarity: With these alternate skills, it is important to emphasize the familiarity rules (p. 169 of Basic). Martial Arts has an excellent list of all the weapons categorized by their length (see p. 110 of that supplement), so that is a great place to start. Treat familiarity as follows: Grip difference: -2: If there’s a significant difference in how the weapon is held. Biggest example is a two-handed axe versus a halberd. Length difference: -2 for one level of difference, with a further -1 for each additional level. Example: Short to Medium is -2, while Short to Very Long is -4 (-2 for short to medium, -1 for medium to long, and -1 for long to very long). Weight difference: -1 or -2. Example: using a rapier when you’re used to the weight of a broadsword, or a small knife when you’re used to a shortsword. In all cases, the familiarity penalties cannot be worse than default (-5). .

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