Bludgeoning Weapon
rating: 0+x

Basic Information

Also called 'mass weapons' a bludgeoning weapon is a "hitting thing" pure and simple, using a combination of mass and leverage to deliver blunt impact damage to the target.

Used against a living creature, they crush flesh and shatter bones - and unlike more refined weapons they do not necessarily need to penetrate your armour to do it. Flexible armours provide only as much protection as they have padding - rigid types are more effective unless the stroke has enough force to dent them. Blunt damage is particularly insidious in historical and low-magic settings because some of the injuries that it creates - internal bleeding and crushed bones for example - are nearly untreatable, however unless it triggers a major bleed, ruptures a vital organ or shatters a bone, blunt damage can appear fairly ineffective and kills quite slowly. For those concerned about the letter, rather than the spirit of such things1 these weapons can be alleged not to shed blood. Anyone who has actually seen them in use would tend to disagree.

Against inanimate objects, the fact that these weapons are massive and fairly resilient makes them reasonably effective and a passable choice for taking on furniture, doors, containers and, in appropriate settings, animate objects.

An indicative list of bludgeoning weapons includes:

Bludgeoning weapons are generally cheap and easy to manufacture - and some may not even appear to be weapons at first glance.

Sources

Bibliography
1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License