I thought I had polearms (spears, lances, pikes, etc.) understood a few years ago as it applied to my proprietary roleplaying game system BITS.
I was wrong.
The Problem
Polearms – existing from the titular “pole” – bestow an additional length of reach to the wielder. Whatever is attached to the end (be it heavy, sharp, pointy, whatever) provides its own benefit, but only in addition to the pole’s reach.
Thereby in example, a knife is nice, but a knife on a stick is better.
How does one compensate for that reach? Add additional range?
Negative – when it comes to distance, BITS uses distances of 1-5-10-50-etc. meters or self-room-field-etc. An extra 3-6 feet of pole (1-2 meters) breaks this dynamic (we don’t care about such small margins). Further, polearms are melee weapons – BITS takes the stance that if something is within the same room as a mobile actor (a space ~10×10 meters), any melee equipment of that actor can be brought to target.
So what is left?
+1
A core principle is simplicity (in BITS or in the universe). What is simpler than giving pole items a +1 to their effectiveness?
* flash of insight *
Anything that is a “pole” or “staffed” gets a +1 to whatever it would be otherwise.
Have a tier-1 knife? Stick that onto the end of a pole, you get a spear! Effectively a tier-2 item at a tier-1 cost in purchasing (e.g. spears being the most historically used melee weapon aside from the club) and wielding (a simple spear needs only be held in one hand and can be thrown easily).
Polearms in Effect
| Tier | Melee Weapon Examples | Polearm Equivalents (all get +1) |
| 0 | Stick, Rock | Staff (a long, solid stick) |
| 1 | Knife/Dagger, Hatchet, Club, Hammer | Spear (knife on a pole), Trident |
| 2 | Sword, Battle Axe, Mace, War Hammer | Lance, Pike, Glaive, Naginata |
| 3 | Zweihander, Great Axe, Maul | Halberd (axe, sword, and hook in one) |
| 4 | (reserved for any +1 of tier-3) | |
| 6 | (magical or legendary items) |
I leave off tier-4 here as that is reserved for the excellent halberds and other especially “brutal” or “heavy” melee weapons. Tier-6 is the land of mythical, legendary, or otherwise supreme weapons such as Excalibur or a lightsaber with their own special properties.
Alternate -1, 0, +1 System
This polearm realization has forced me to further refine the tiering system BITS uses. So much so, it fits neatly in an alternate -1, 0, +1 effectiveness chart, e.g:
| -1 | Dagger, Spear, etc. |
| 0 | Sword, Glaive, etc. |
| +1 | Great Sword, Fauchard, etc. |
Now, this cannot work as-is for improvised weapons (think rocks, sticks) – for that, an “improv” tag must be applied, giving disadvantage to the equipment’s use.
Further, we cannot rely on -1, 0, +1 for determining final effect – before, we could look at a tier-2 item and say it has a “2” for effect.
Instead, -1, 0, and +1 must be what applies to the 2D6 roll BITS uses to determine outcome. From there, either straight-up “success” happens (a hit is a hit is a hit; things can only take so many hits), or “degrees of success” matter (a hit is a hit, but get extra “hits” for every about over the 2D6 goal, such as goal being 7, but rolling a 9 gives a total of 3 “hits”).
Tangential musing: Which is better: The 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10 system because it can apply to equipment and creatures, or the -1, 0, +1 alternate for being so simple? I will be exploring this diff in the near future!
Bonus: Reaching & Brutal
While brainstorming on the polearm problem, I came to other conclusions:
Reaching (WIP term) – This tag allows for a piece of equipment to go one extra distance in its range. Sarissa (super-long phalanx spear) moves from melee range into a close range (poke people at a distance). Short bows (50-100 meter range) extend to 100-500+ meters in the “reaching” long bow. Similar equipment lets an actor reach out and touch someone.
Brutal – Or “heavy,” “master-crafted,” or what-have-you. Grants a +1 to the effect of the equipment and looks the part. (Note: any “+1” to a piece of equipment may not increase the total effectiveness of the equipment past 4 to make these items distinct from “heroic” tier-6.)
–
Getting an itch to work on tabletop roleplaying games again. What will be next? Translating MÖRK BORG into a space sci-fi, creating a “downfall of civilization” prequel to the game, or adding the twin-godling Basilisks to Cy-Borg? Playing a premade campaign to test out BITS mechanics from scratch? Making one-pager, system-agnostic faction lists?
I leave those Qs for the September goal list.
For now, know TTRPGs are on my mind! Be well yourself – go forth and enjoy your work and play. Send you more musings next week. Cheers ~
Jimmy Chattin 