Armand’s Emporium of Armor and Weapons

“The Alley of Steel is a loud place. The constant clang of the forges and the shouts of salesmen hawking their wares forms a wall of cacophony, enough to confuse anyone not used to the City.

But at a hidden dead-end stands a quiet shop, with no shingle marking the establishment. It is there for those in the know, and indeed, needs no advertisement: Armand has everything, from the curved blades of delicate steel forged by the veiled smith-eunuchs of the eastern deserts, to the crude heavy flails used by the crazed wildling hordes in the far north.

Some even say that Armand has a hidden back room of fabled items, made from mysterious materials and metals unknown to most smiths, but this might as well be a fable, for your meager take from the last dungeon certainly isn’t enough to trade for such treasures.”

For better or for worse, I like having a bunch of variety in the weapons available to my players. I find that picking a cool, signature weapon adds a nice pinch of flavour to any reaver, sneak-thief or delver of dark places. The list in the rulebook is a little limited for my taste, so I expanded it.

Additionally, there are a lot of references to various weapon materials and such in the rulebook and dungeon modules, but the mechanical implications and pricing system of this content isn’t covered all that extensively.

So, I made an extended list for use in our games, along with a price table for some materials. Everything can be found below in the PDF.

Cheers,

AMP

Extended weapon, armor and material lists for DCC

DOWNLOAD PDF

8 thoughts on “Armand’s Emporium of Armor and Weapons”

  1. I have a couple of questions regarding the list if you wouldn’t mind.

    The Katana, Rapier, and Shuriken have an expanded threat range of 19-20.
    How do you imagine this interacts with a Warrior’s class ability?
    This ability of the weapon seems considerably stronger than many of the others for weapons (IMO). Have you experienced any noticeable effect within your own games? At any point did you consider a bonus on critical rolls rather than an expanded range?

    The Shields list includes a Buckler. Do you have your own rules for Buckler use, or perhaps are using CRAWL! #2’s rules? With no other guiding rules, it seems like a strictly better version of the normal shield.

    The area for materials lists Mastercrafted as a possibility. Does this suggest that one could have Mastercrafted Adamantine and regular Adamantine? If you can couple the effects, would the increases be cumulative or multiplicative (x1020 or x20000)?

    Octaron is also listed as a material, but despite my best efforts, I can find nothing about it. Is this a homebrewed material? I’d love to know more about it.

    Thanks. :)

    1. Excellent! I love questions! Now for some answers:

      – I’d imagine that the increased crit range on the katana, rapier and shuriken would add to the Warrior’s class ability, making them able to crit even more (increasing range for 1st level warriors to 18-20, for example). That’s how I’d run it, but I can easily see an argument for the Warrior ability simply overriding the weapon effect, which would essentially make these weapons super useful for Thieves played as aspiring ninjas or swashbucklers. I like big, swingy things, and what is simply a 5% increase in crit chance doesn’t seem too bad to me.

      – I’ve handed out one katana in my games (in module #79: Frozen in Time), and I actually came up with this kludge ruling on the spot to make it stand out a little more. The effect has not been tested extensively, as apparently katanas are not cool enough for my group after all.

      – I did actually consider a bonus to critical die rolls, but decided against it for some reason. It’s definitely an option for further development.

      – You’re completely right about the buckler. I amended the rules, and I’ll upload a new version of the document once I finish these comments. The ruleset I put in is a combination of the CRAWL! #2 rules and the musings in this fine video.

      – I’d say this is entirely up to the Judge presiding. I would probably allow it, and count the value on a multiplicative scale. In the case of a mastercrafted adamantine item I’d rule that such a treasure could only be gained after going on a quest to find the adamantine and the one master smith who holds the secret to improve upon the natural attributes of the fabled material, and that the resulting item would be valuable beyond measure. Which I guess it would be, with a x20000 value increase. :D

      – Octaron is actually a sort of a bastardization of ‘octiron’, found on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Much like the original, octaron is a metal that is naturally imbued with thaumic radiation, and is thus very susceptible to enchantment and blessing. It’s also known as Wizard’s Gold, and has a vibrant, unearthly orange sheen. I actually added it since I was running out of ideas and wanted to round out the list to a die-size used in the game. And because I think Pratchett’s stuff is often weird enough to warrant reference in my DCC games.

      And thanks for reading! You’re actually the first person to comment on an article, so I applaud you doubly! If there are any other inquiries please don’t hesitate, and let me know how these things run so I can upgrade and improve!

  2. Jason Abdin

    Thanks for the list. The materials are especially fun. I’m curious if there are any effects of wood materials other than perhaps breaking more easily?

    1. Hey, thanks for reading! And good question! I actually amended some of the stuff there and uploaded an updated version based on your comment.

      – Ebony: Basically, real ebony is ridiculously tough but heavy. As a Judge I’ll rule that it can be used to replace wooden parts in weapons for good effect (which seems to be true based on a little research), and I think ebony platemail sounds fun (if not particularly useful). On bladed weapons and such I’d say it’s just a decorative effect.

      – Iron Oak: This is just a wonky fantasy material. Like the name claims, it’s oak that is as tough as iron. I think Pathfinder has a similar thing, although in that system it’s used mostly to circumvent class restrictions on equipment. I just like the idea of feral elves with wooden swords and green knights in wooden breastplates.

      1. Perhaps my thinking is far too crunchy and not nearly enough fluffy enough, but I imagine a party wanting to wield nothing more than mastercrafted, ebony staves. Naturally, the restriction is always the availability of the material and the master craftsman to make the things, but the cost would end up very low regardless of how you multiply it.

  3. Jesse, that is pretty crunchy! Sure, the cost would be low on a bundle of mastercrafted ebony staves, but as you mention, the availability of the craftsmen and the material, combined with the time it’d take to make a bunch of them should mitigate the issue enough to make things pretty easy to control for any Judge worth their salt.

    And if things somehow end up getting out of hand, just have an opposing Wizard cast Snake Trick on the weapons!

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