Weapon vs. Armour Matrix

[drsamsara]

I want to fiddle with the Matrix. I love the idea of it, because it addresses one of my pet peeves with D&D: without it, the sword become the uber-weapon.

However, I'm not quite content with the actual numbers. I believe that Jason basically translated the chart from Men & Magic from d20 to 2d6 (is that right?), but I could never quite find the logic to a lot of that matrix.

Anybody else thought about this?

Ideally, I want something that has the clarity of Pendragon , which, IMO, does the best job at this sort of thing.

[Jason Vey]

No, there's no matrix in M&M, to my knowledge. I modified the chart from Chainmail's Man Combat system, adjusting for what I felt was more realism and common sense.

That being said, I'm more than happy to see discussion about adjustments. Who knows what might end up altered in an eventual second edition as a result of popular fan opinion?

Indeed; I'm thinking about putting S&S into actual distribution so you can buy it at your FLGS off the shelf. If I do I'll want to do some cleanup, clarification and expansion before I print.

[drsamsara]

I meant Attack Matrix 1, p.19, in M&M.

[Jason Vey]

Ah, you mean the "alternate combat system" matrix! I was confused, having not seen weapon vs. armor charts in OD&D

No, I didn't translate that. In fact, I used very little--if any--of OD&D's combat rules. S&S is almost entirely adapted and built using Chainmail as inspiration. OD&D was used as inspiration for character classes and filling in holes. I had to make extensive alterations, tweaks, and adjustments to make it all a cohesive whole, which is why I consider S&S its own game, albeit one that can be used with certain other old-school-styled works. It's not a retro-clone, though it resembles and feels like one.

[vitruvian]

I am curious, with regard both to the original Chainmail table and the one developed for S&S, why it's easier to hit (or rather, land a telling blow) with a dagger or a fist against an unarmored target than with a long sword or battle axe. In the absence of rules ala Chainmail for modifying initiative order by weapon length, it seems that knife-wielding thugs will be at an advantage over swashbuckling bravos (barring a big difference in fighter levels or attribute bonuses), when thought experiments lead me to believe I would rather have the sword than the dagger in hand, and certainly would not consider dropping the sword in favor of the dagger, as the rules suggest would be advisable...