Miscellaneous House Rules

Thrust Damage

According to HEMA practitioners and history, thrusting is generally better than swinging when trying to get through armor.
However, this is not represented well in GURPS, which, due to leverage and velocity, favors swing damage. And this makes a certain amount of sense, given physics. However, when trying to get through armor, thrusting was more effective. You could plant the weapon and push, negating the movement of the foe that might make the tip glance off.
So, I'm going to try something. When thrusting with a melee weapon, reduce enemy DR by 1. Hopefully, this will shift things in favor of the thrust just enough. This way, it sort of acts as a weak armor piercing attack.
An alternative way to model this might be as a two-stage attack. The first round, plant the tip on the armor. The second round, push, putting your weight into it. This might actually be better, actually. In this case, reduce the DR by 2, and it will only really work in Close Combat, where one combatant is braced with the other.
I have yet to actually test this in play.

Defending Against Thrusts

Matt Easton just put out a video about defensive daggers. In it, he explains why it's easier to defend against thrusting attacks (basically, they are a bit more predictable and take a bit longer to execute than slashes, so it's easier to intercept their attack). So, another house rule: If an opponent makes a thrusting attack, the defender gets a +1 to their Parry or Block.
I suspect this will make combats a bit more tactical, as the attacker now has to weigh a thrusting attack which can do impaling damage, vs making a swinging attack, which only does cutting, and can't attack vitals. Since the most common armor is gambeson, cutting attacks are also less effective than thrusting (DR 3/1) damage wise. But sometimes, even a lesser hit is better than having your attack completely thwarted.

Parry Modifiers

A person could always decide that more weapons need a Parry stat different from 0. It probably wouldn't be that painful to track. You could decide the modifier is the sum of, say, these factors:

Reach: 0 for Reach C; +1 for Reach 1; +2 for Reach 2; and +3 for Reach 3+.

[More surface area means it's easier to intercept a blow.]


Balance: -1 if the weapon is unbalanced ("U" on its current Parry stat 0 if balanced (no "U").

[Better balance means faster response to attacks.]


Hand-Guard: -1 if the weapon lacks one; 0 if it has one of any style (basket, cross, tsuba, whatever).

[Hand protection means close calls count as saves.]


Surface: -1 if limited (blows must be received on a strong point, on or near the hilt, on or near the head, or whatever 0 if unlimited (blows can be received anywhere on the weapon except where the hands are).

[Using more of the surface area gives more options to defend.]


Support: 0 if one-handed; +1 if two-handed. This works even on a one-handed weapon: you just cover one hand with the other, giving the weapon more stability.

[A solidly grasped weapon is harder to push aside. This is 0/+1 instead of -1/0 because it's intended to balance against weapon-and-shield, where shields give a bonus.]


Flexibility: -1 if non-rigid; 0 if rigid.

[A rigid weapon is harder to push aside.]


The results would look like this:


Unbalanced one-handed flails such as the morningstar and nunchaku (reach 1, unbalanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, non-rigid): -2.
Most knives (reach C, balanced, hand-guard, limited surface, one-handed, rigid): -1.
Unbalanced one-handed impact weapons such as the axe, mace, and pick (reach 1, unbalanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, rigid): -1.
Unbalanced one-handed swords such as the dao, khopesh, and large falchion (reach 1, unbalanced, hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, rigid): 0.
Balanced one-handed sticks such as the baton, jo, short staff, and short spear (reach 1, balanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, rigid): 0.
Balanced one-handed swords such as the saber, shortsword, smallsword, and broadsword (reach 1, balanced, hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, rigid): +1.
Bastard sword in one hand (reach 2, unbalanced, hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, rigid): +1.
Hatchet and knobbed club (reach 1, balanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, rigid): +1.
Two-handed flail (reach 2, unbalanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, two-handed, non-rigid): 0.
Kusari (reach 3+, unbalanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, two-handed, non-rigid): +1.
Rapiers and the longsword in one hand (reach 2, balanced, hand-guard, unlimited surface, one-handed, rigid): +2.
Unbalanced two-handed impact weapons such as the great axe, dueling polearm, maul, and warhammer (reach 2, unbalanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, two-handed, rigid): +1.
Balanced two-handed swords such as the bastard sword, greatsword, katana, and longsword (reach 2, balanced, hand-guard, unlimited surface, two-handed, rigid): +3.
Heavy spear (reach 3+, unbalanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, two-handed, rigid): +2.
Most full-length pikes and polearms (reach 3+, unbalanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, two-handed, rigid): +2. (Note that Maggie is +3 because she is Balanced)
Quarterstaffs and spears of typical length (reach 2, balanced, no hand-guard, unlimited surface, two-handed, rigid): +2.

I'm sure there would be "broken" weapons using this method, but it's a start. However, parry bonuses of +1 or +2 for two-handed weapons probably aren't broken; they're saying "you have +1 or +2 only to parry" where a shield-user has "you have +1 to +3 to dodge, parry, or block."