LotFP vs BX - weapons & armor

Merry Christmas!  In the spirit of the season here's a post all about murder technology.

Weapons

The biggest change in weapons rules in LotFP is that melee weapons have been more abstracted.

There are four categories, Great weapon, Medium weapon, Small weapon, and Minor weapon. If your melee implement requires no special rules, you buy one of these and designate it a sword or axe or whatever. This makes it easy to customize melee weapons to your campaign and your PC. I could see some people in some games going hogwild with these rules and decide they are using chainsaws or heavy books or a bar of soap in a sock.

Anyway, here's a chart comparing the BX weapons to their LotFP equivalents. Note that LotFP equipment tables include two columns for prices, the cost in the city and the cost in the country. Some items are not available in one of the other. Starting PCs use the cheaper cost of the two, which I have done here.

Basic weapon	Price (GP)	Damage*	LotFP equiv.	Price (SP)	Damage	Notes
Battle axe	7	d8	Great weapon	50	d10	Medium version 1 handed, 20sp, d8 dmg
Hand axe	4	d6	Small weapon	10	d6
Crossbow	30	d6	Light crossbow	25	d6	Ignores 2 AC points; heavy xbow does d8, costs 30sp, ignore 4 AC points
Long bow	40	d6	Long bow	45	d6
Short bow	25	d6	Short bow	25	d6
Silver arrow	5	d6	Silver arrow	5	d6	Any weapon can be silvered for 10x cost but 1 in 10 chance of breaking each time used
Dagger	3	d4	Minor weapon	5	d4	-2 to-hit Ac 15 or better (chain & shield or plate)
Silver dagger	30	d4	Minor weapon	50	d4	Any weapon can be silvered for 10x cost but 1 in 10 chance of breaking each time used
Short sword	7	d6	Small weapon	10	d6
Sword	10	d8	Medium weapon	20	d8
2-h Sword	15	d10	Great weapon	50	d10
Mace	5	d6	Medium weapon	20	d8	No reason why you couldn’t have a Great or Small version
Club	3	d4	Minor weapon	5	d4	-2 to-hit Ac 15 or better (chain & shield or plate)
Pole Arm	7	d10	Polearm	30	d8	Attack from 2nd rank, receive charge, +1 to hit Ac 16 or better (i.e. plate)
Sling	2	d4	Sling	1/2	d4	Bullets cost 2cp, stones are half range
Spear	3	d6	Spear	3	d6	Attack from 2nd rank, receive charge
Warhammer	5	d6	Small weapon	10	d6	No reason why you couldn’t have a Great or Medium version
Staff	2	d4	Staff	3	d4
Javelin	1	d4	none	none	none	LotFP does have darts though
Lance	5	d6	Lance	30	d10	BX lance damage double on charge, per LotFP a lance counts as a spear when on foot

*I should note for accuracy that variable weapon damage is optional in BX.  The default is all weapons do d6.

Other weapons available in LotFP that do not appear in BX: cestus, garotte, mancatcher, rapier, whip, blowgun, thrown rock, dart.  These all seem serviceable in terms of the rules that govern them and useful additions. Except the rapier. I don't get the rapier. It's a d8 sword that is -2 to hit heavily armored foes. It's only obvious advantage over a normal Medium weapon sword is that it is 5sp cheaper. There's no equivalent of 3e's weapon finess allowing nimble characters to use their Dex mods to attack with them. Unless the referee gives a campaign reason (rapiers are fashionable, other swords are illegal in major cities, etc), there's precious little reason for them to exist.

Early modern guns (and armor) appear in an appendix. The gun rules are realistic enough to be a big ol' pain in the ass, but I could see some PCs carrying a brace of pistols.

Armor

TYPE	BX cost	BX AC	LotFP cost	LotFP AC	Notes
leather	20	7	25	14
chain	40	5	100	16
plate	60	3	1,000	18
shield	10	(-1)	10	+1	LotFP shields are +2 versus missile attacks
barding	150	5	500	16	LotFP also has leather barding (250sp) and plate barding (1,000sp)

When fight time comes around leather, chain, and plate in the two systems offer equivalent protection.  Each upgrade of armor is a 10% shift in attack rolls against the wearer.

The big story of armor is economics.  In BX most newly minted fighters can afford platemail right out of the starting gate.  In LotFP chain is barely within reach at 1st level and platemail is a distant dream.  Magical plus items are basically non-existant, so making it take a bit of play to get the best mundane armor makes a lot of sense.  Also, I like that normal guards and soldiers all probably wear leather or no armor.  Knights and such probably wear chain and only bona fide Important People can afford platemail.

One other difference between BX and LotFP armor is found in the encumbrance rules.  If you keep the number of other items down to 5 or less (ten or less for dwarves) a character in chain can move the same rate as an unarmored man.