One of the core ideas behind writing The McHack was to make a simple, fast-moving, and exciting game. I therefore wanted to keep weapons and armor simple, while adding in just a few flavorful tweaks. I decided to simplify by creating four Weapon Types, and four Armor Types. I also decided to add in a “shields that splinter” rule, where a shield could be sacrificed by soaking up a few HPs of damage, and a rule for allowing helmets to allow protection to head wounds on the Critical Wounds table.

Weapons

There are four Weapon Types: Improvised, Light, Medium, and Heavy. Each type shares a damage dice, making it super easy to remember how much damage a weapon does (D3 for Improvised, D4 for Light, D6 for Medium, D8 for Heavy). Each character class is proficient up to a certain type, so Mages are only proficient in Improvised and light weapons, while Fighters are proficient in all four types. With the exception of Dwarven steel, these are bronze and iron weapons that, while dangerous, would not stand up against medieval armor. Non-proficiency affects an Attack Rolls, and Damage Rolls.

One of the interesting tweaks I was able to make is the minimum Strength requirement for using Medium or Heavy weapons. Weapons are used at Disadvantage to Attack and Damage if the wielder has a strength below the required minimum (9 for Medium, 11 for using normal Heavy weapons with two-hands (so no shield allowed), 15 for using normal Heavy weapons with one hand, 15 also for Heavy (whirlwind) attack weapons with two hands, and 19 for using whirlwind Heavy weapons with one hand (a whirlwind heavy weapon is one that allows a single attack to impact multiple medium or smaller foes in a 5’ arc of the wielded. The Morningstar, Great Axe, and Great Sword fall into this category.)

Armor

There are also four Armor Types (sort of): None, Light, Medium, and Heavy. None has an AC of 10: Light is 12, Medium is 14, and Heavy is AC 16. Keep in mind that, with the exception of Dwarven steel armor, this is Iron-age armor – boiled leather with varying amounts of bronze or iron studs, strips, rings, or chain, or great plate.

Like weapons, each class is proficient up to a certain Armor Type, so Mages can use Light armor (making them a little less squishy than BX games), Thieves are proficient in Light armor, Explorers are proficient in Medium armor, and of course Dwarves are proficient in Heavy armor. Non-proficiency has real consequences as pretty much all rolls are made at Disadvantage while wearing the too-heavy armor.

Shields & Helmets

There are two types of shield: Full Shield, and Buckler. A Full shield gives +1 to AC for obvious reasons, but can also be sacrificed (splintered) to soak up to 6 HP of damage from one hit. The shield must of course be discarded and the AC bonus is lost. Bucklers are small (10-12” diameter) shields. They are too small to increase AC but they can be sacrificed to soak up to 4 HP of damage from one hit.

There are two types of helmet: Full Helmet, and Half-Helmet (or Cap). A full helmet offers considerable head and face protection, and provides +1 to AC. Additionally a full helmet adds benefits on the Critical Wounds table – the wearer gets a Physical Save (SVP:8) to avoid serious head wounds. The half-helmet is a metal or padded cap that does not add a bonus to AC but does add the SVP against head wounds.

Dwarven Steel

Dwarves are the only species to possess the knowledge of steel. As a result Dwarven weapons have a non-magical +1 Attack Bonus, and armor has a non-magical +1 to AC (shields and helmets do not provide this bonus.) Dwarven weapons and armor cost ten times as much as their human-made counterparts.

Elven Magic

Elven weapons have a magical +1 Attack Bonus, and armor has a magical +1 to AC (shields and helmets do not provide this bonus.) Elven weapons and armor are not normally available for sale, but if they were they would fetch at least one hundred times as much as their human-made counterparts.

I think these rules a fairly simple (having weapons and armor fall into a small number of types really helps to portion out proficiency, and makes the relevant damage dice and AC very easy to remember. I’m quite happy with the simple flavor of shields that splinter and helmets that carry benefits onto the Critical Hit table.