I accidentally sent this as a private email, instead of to the list.

JAPartridge@... wrote:
> On Jul 6, 2009 2:15am, Peter Knutsen <list@...> wrote:
> > The *really* important question is, how impure can a silver sword be,
> > before it stops being doing full damage to were-creatures?
>
> The easiest solution would be to make the damage proportional to the
> purity. ;-)

A typical rule in many RPGs would be that weres take half damage from
weapons that aren't one of magical or made of silver, so a weapon with
its "functional bit" made of pure silver would cause full damage, and a
silvered steel weapon would cause only half damage.

A few creatures might take *no* damage from non-magical non-silver
weapons. In that case, a silvered weapon might cause 1/10 damage, which
isn't a lot but still better than nothing.

> I seem to remember some games allowing players to apply some sort of
> silver plating to ordinary weapons for use against were-creatures with
> the understanding that the effectiveness of the silver would degrade
> with use. This would allow for a weapon that would actually function as
> a weapon yet still have that magical quality of deadly to were-creatures.

ISTR that Quest FRP v2.0/2.1 had one DoM for the weapon crafting skill
that let the character make silvered weapons, or apply silver coating to
weapons, but I do not recall any rule about how the silver coating would
degrade.


As for Sagatafl, and the metal density issue, I don't think bronze is
sufficiently denser than steel to warrant any kind of penalty, but
silver is, so where an iron/steel broadsword gets a -1 Fleetness
penalty, one made of silver would get -2, and even with weapons where
the iron version gives no Fleetness penalty, such as a shortsword,
there's be a -1 penalty for the silver version (which can, as all other
Fleetness penalties, be reduced or even removed with Enchantments).

I'm not sure how big the Fleetness penalty, or Fleetness penalty
multiplier, should be for a massive gold weapon, but I'm not sure it'll
ever be relevant either. Weapons of silver makes sense, because of
metaphysics, but weapons of gold don't.


Someone mentioned pattern-welded iron. Pattern-welding isn't actually an
alloy or metal, but rather a method of making swords (and also other
blades - Quest FRP v2.0/2.1 allowed pattern-welded axe heads, spear
heads and so forth) where one mixes rods of different types of iron,
twisting them together, in order to compensate for poor metallurgy.

"GURPS Middle Ages 1" mentions that around (very roughly) 1000 AD,
pattern-welding stopped being used, because blacksmiths had gained
sufficient control of the carbon content of their iron, so that they no
longer needed it.

Quest FRP v2.0/2.1 has Advanced Forging Technique, AFT, as a catch-all
term for pattern-welding, and Japanese blade-folding, and similar
techniques.

I'm using the same term in Sagatafl, but with somewhat changed rules.
Instead of AFT being something that can be applied to any weapon making
process, it is specifically done only when the smith is using "iron",
and lets him work as if he was working with (higher-quality) "steel". It
requires the smith to have a specific binary skill, and also takes more
time, relative to if working with proper "steel".

I think that matches reality fairly well. At least much better than in
Quest FRP, where you could AFT any weapon, even one made of high-quality
steel, or some kind of titanium alloy of which I've forgotten the
specifics (Quest FRP also had tungsten carbide as a weapon material for
really skilled smiths).

--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org