Gear: Melee Weapons


	Gear: Melee Weapons

Melee Weapon Descriptions

Description: The name or description of the weapon.
Use: The general mode in which the weapon is employed – swung, thrusted, or thrown; and one- or two-handed. The note 1H means the weapon can be used one-handed, and the other hand can do other things like block with a shield, carry an object, or wield another weapon. 2H means the user must use both hands.
Type: A basic description of the kind of damage the weapon causes.
Pen: The Penetration value of an attack by the weapon. If the Pen indicates RS (Row Shift), then this is an additional row shift to your unarmed combat damage. Rarely, you might find a melee weapon that deals fixed damage, in which case the Pen is just a straight number, or damage that does not depend on your strength, in which case it is listed as 2d6 + a Row Shift. Grappling weapons have a value listed in square braces, indicating not their Penetration, but rather the additional RS they give to your Control roll.
The listed Pen is for when the weapon is wielded by a user of a given Size (indicated in the table header). If you are not that Size, refer to the section on Melee Weapons for Different Sizes.
Wound: The Wound Score of the attack, applied as a Row Shift to any Penetration delivered to the target to convert it to damage points and determine the injury severity. Grappling weapons have a value listed in square braces, which gives a RS to your Control roll – but this extra Control does not cause penalties nor does it assist with techniques. When attempting to escape, this extra Control must be removed first.
AP: The Armor Piercing score – add the AP to the relevant Armor Score (almost always the Mech Armor Score) to find the Row Shift for the armor roll.
Sharp: A score representing how sharp and pointy the weapon is. This row shifts the base Pen of the weapon – but it is already included in the Pen stat listed in the table. Do not include it again! Instead, if for any reason the sharpness of the weapon should not apply, subtract the Sharp score from the listed Pen RS, change the Wound Score to the listed Blunt Wound, and change the damage type to Smash.
Blunt Wound: If the weapon does not get the benefit of its sharpness, change the Wound Score to the Blunt Wound.
Def: The Defense score of the weapon. The difference between your weapon's Defense score and that of your opponent is added to your defense roll to avoid being hit.
If your Size is different from the Size listed in the table, the Def of the weapon when you wield it may be different. Refer to the section on Melee Weapons for Different Sizes.
Bulk: The Bulk score minus your Size is a penalty to use a weapon in cramped conditions or to conceal a weapon on your person.
Length: The distance the weapon extends your reach.
Mass: The mass of the weapon in kg.
Price: The cost of the weapon in Republic dollars ($).
Imbal, WSize, WLen: These are only used if your Size is not the Size assumed in the table. They are used to find the Pen and Def for you when you use the weapon. Imbal is a measure of the weapon's lack of balance – how heavy it is toward the head. WSize is a score related to the weapon's mass. WLen is a score related to the weapon's length.

Melee weapons for different sizes
Not everyone is the same Size. If you are not Size +0, you can get melee weapons made for your Size. Add your Size score to Wound, Blunt Wound, Bulk, WSize, and WLen, row shift length by your Size score, and Mass by three times your Size score.
You can still use melee weapons made for people of different sizes, but the bonus to your unarmed Penetration and the Defense Score will change. A shortsword to an average-sized man might be as a longsword to a dwarf or a knife to a giant.
For Penetration, use the tables below. Either find the difference in the Pen Bonus for the change in Size and adjust Pen accordingly, or add up Pen Bonus + Sharp - Blunt Wound to find the increase to your Unarmed Pen when using the weapon.

Melee Attacks

2×(WSize - Size) + Imbal Pen Bonus
-1½ or less no change
-1 to -½ +½ RS
0 to ½ +1 RS
1 to 1½ +1½ RS
2 to 3½ +2 RS
4+ +2½ RS

Thrown Attacks

2×(WSize - Size) + Imbal Pen Bonus
-2½ or less (WSize - Size) RS
-2 to -1½ no change
-1 to -½ +½ RS
0 to ½ +1 RS
1 to 1½ +1½ RS
2 to 2½ +2 RS
3+ +2½ RS

For Def, use the following table, where U = ½ if any of a weapon's attacks have an Imbal score of 2 or more, and is 0 otherwise. If U is not 0, the Def score can never be more than 3. If the weapon is wielded one-handed, Def can never be more than 4.

WSize + U - Size
WLen - Size ≤ -5¼ -5 to -1½ -1¼ to -½ -¼ to +¼ +½ to +¾ +1 to +1½ +1¾ to +2 +2¼ to +2¾ ≥ +3;
-5½ or less 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
-5 to -4½ 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
-4 to -3½ 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
-3 to -2½ 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
-2 to -1½ 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
-1 to -½ 4 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0
+0 to +½ 4 4 4 3 2 1 0 0 0
+1 to +1½ 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 0 0
+2 or more 5 5 5 4 4 3 2 1 0

Basic Melee Weapons

People have been hitting and stabbing each other with things since long before recorded history, and that's not going to change just because we ventured to the stars. While ranged weapons are much deadlier, sometimes you just don't have access to a gun or laser. Or maybe you want to put the smackdown on someone without necessarily killing them. Or you just want some good steel as backup. In any event, there are a number of tools that are commonly used as primary melee weapons in the Verge.

Description Use Type Pen
(size +0) Wound AP Sharp Blunt
Wound Def
(size +0) Bulk
Length Mass Price Imbal WSize WLen
Combat Knife thrust, 1H Pierce +4½ RS +1½ +0 +2 +½ +1 +0 0.3 0.35 2 +0 -1¾ -4
swing, 1H Slash +2½ RS +4½ +0 +0 +½ +1 +1
throw, 1H Pierce +3 RS +1½ +0 +2 +½ n/a +0
Nightstick swing, 1H Smash +3 RS +1 +0 +0 +1 +3 +3 0.7 1.2 3 +1 -½ -1
swing, 2H Smash +4 RS +1 +0 +0 +1 +3 +1
Baseball Bat swing, 1H Smash +2 RS +3 +0 +0 +3 +2 +4 1 2 4 +2 +0 +0
swing, 2H Smash +3 RS +3 +0 +0 +3 +2 +2
Pistol Whip swing, 1H Smash +3½ RS +1 +0 +0 +1 +0 +0 0.3 1.2 0 +2 -½ -4
Rifle, butt stroke swing, 2H Smash +5 RS +1 +0 +0 +1 +2 +5 1.5 3.5 0 +2 +½ +1
barrel smash thrust, 2H Smash +4½ RS +1 +0 +0 +1 +2 +0
bayonette thrust, 2H Pierce +7 RS +1½ +0 +2 +½ +2 +0

Combat Knife: A basic fighting knife, with a blade long enough to reach vital organs and broad enough to make them stop working.
Nightstick: A club, often carried by police.
Baseball Bat: Usually used for sports, but can be easily turned into an effective melee weapon.
Pistol Whip: Sometimes, people smack other people with their pistol. Maybe they are out of ammo, or maybe they don't want to kill the other guy but do want to lay him out.
Rifle: The ends of a rifle can be used to smash adversaries if, for some reason, you are unwilling or unable to just shoot them. If you have attached a bayonette to the barrel, you can use the rifle as a sort of crude spear. Bayonettes have the same price and mass as a combat knife, and can be used as a combat knife when not mounted to the rifle. A mounted bayoneete precludes you from also mounting an underbarrel grenade launcher, underbarrel stunner, tactical flashlight, or other such device.

Electroshock Melee Weapons

Electroshock melee weapons deliver electric shocks to their victims that act in the same way as stunner beams – they make muscles spasm and cramp up, causing the victim to fall down and preventing voluntary motion. The stun effect is blocked by any conductive armor or suit that makes the activation roll, even a thin layer of conductive foil will prevent stunning. The stun effect is handled in the same way as a ranged stunner.

Stun discharges use very little energy. It is not usually necessary to track energy expenditure of electroshock stunners.

Description Pen Dose Mass Price Notes
Stunstick 7 +5 1.2 200 Kinetic damage as a nightstick.

Stunstick: A nightstick that delivers a stunning shock to whomever it touches. It has an insulated handle that allows the wielder to grip it safely.

Advanced Material Melee Weapons

The very best blades are made of a carboplast-tungsten composite covered in a surface layer of ultra-hard carboplast. This makes for a weapon that is thinner than steel yet packs the same punch when swung and is much sharper, never dulls, and is much more resistant to chipping and breaking. Any bladed melee weapon can be made using this technology for double cost, giving an additional +½ to Sharp, +½ RS to Pen, +½ to AP for attacks causing Pierce damage, and +½ to Wound for attacks causing Slash or Hack damage.

Price: double that of a standard weapon of the same design.

Affector Supported Melee Weapons

Any standard melee weapon can be protected by making it out of carboplast (see above) and energizing it with an affector field. This makes the weapon very difficult to damage, even to the point of allowing contact with live disruptor screens.

Power: 10 kW × weapon mass
Price: $50 × weapon mass

Disruptor Blades

A disruptor melee weapon produces a "blade" of vibrating affectors emerging from the emitter as a narrow rod of immaterial destruction. The affector field at the core of the blade is intense enough to produce a glowing white-hot streak showing the extent of the blade – a halo of vibrating destruction surrounds this core, enveloping it with a glowing nimbus, and you can feel the tingling of the rapidly oscillating fields from many centimeters away. The vibrations make the blade sing like a choir of angels, overlaid with buzzing and hissing discharges; they smell of ozone when active. Any matter caught up in the affector blade is ripped and shredded to pieces, allowing the disruptor blade to act as a powerful cutting and drilling tool and delivering devastating injuries.

A disruptor blade acts much like a rigid object. It maintains its integrity and will not pass through solid material objects except by destroying them (which might take a while for carboplast, carboweave, or shatterplate). One disruptor blade can block or parry another.

If a disruptor blade strikes at a foe and that foe defends himself with a melee weapon that is not a disruptor blade, a disruptor augmented melee weapon, or made of deflector-supported carboplast, then if the Def scores make the difference to whether the attack succeeds or fails, the disruptor blade will strike and damage the weapon. For practical purposes, this will simply break the defending weapon. The same effect occurs if you are attacked with a normal melee weapon and you successfully defend with your disruptor blade, this will also destroy the weapon that launched the incoming blow. If your defense succeeds by more than the Def score of the attacking weapon, you damage the arm of the attacker instead.

Disruptors do not get their AP score against deflector screens, energized armor, or deflector-supported matter.

The structure, support, and casing of disruptor blade emitters are made of carboplast that is reinforced with affector screens, as this is the only practical way for matter to resist the destruction of the disruptor. For game purposes, a disruptor blade will only damage deflector-supported carboplast if the carboplast is directly attacked with the intent to damage it.

Description Use Type Pen
(size +0) Wound AP Sharp Blunt
Wound Def
(size +0) Bulk
Length Mass Price Imbal WSize WLen
Disruptor Knife thrust, 1H Pierce +8½ RS +1½ -5 +6 +½ +1 +0 0.3 0.35 35 +0 -1¾ -4
swing, 1H Slash +6½ RS +4½ -5 +4 +½ +1 +1
throw, 1H Pierce +7 RS +1½ -5 +6 +½ n/a +0
Disruptor Sword thrust, 1H Pierce +8 RS +2 -5 +6 +1 +3 +3 0.7 0.7 70 +0 -1 -1
swing, 1H Slash +6½ RS +5 -5 +4 +1 +3 +1
Disr. Long Sword thrust, 1H Pierce +8½ RS +2 -5 +6 +1 +4 +4 1 1.2 120 +0 -½ +0
swing, 1H Slash +7 RS +5 -5 +4 +1 +4 +1
thrust, 2H Pierce +9½ RS +2 -5 +6 +1 +4 +0
swing, 2H Slash +8 RS +5 -5 +4 +1 +4 +1
Disruptor Glaive swing, 2H Slash +8½ RS +5 -5 +4 +1 +4 +6 2 2 200 +1 +0 +2
thrust, 2H Pierce +10 RS +2 -5 +6 +1 +4 +0

Disruptor Knife: A hilt that emits a disruptor blade with a length adjustable up to 30 cm long. Power: 3.5 kW, Duration: 200 seconds (3.5 minutes) on two standard lantern SMESs.
Disruptor Sword: A one-handed disruptor hilt with a blade up to 70 cm long. Power: 7 kW, Duration: 150 seconds (2.5 minutes) on three standard lantern SMESs.
Disruptor Long Sword: A one- or two-handed disruptor hilt with a blade up to a meter long. Power: 12 kW, Duration: 150 seconds (2.5 minutes) on five standard lantern SMESs.
Disruptor Glaive: A two-meter generator pole made of deflector-reinforced carboplast emits a disruptor blade up to half a meter long from one end. The reinforced shaft allows the glaive to parry other disruptor blades without breaking. The shaft can also strike as a staff. Power: 4.5 kW, Duration: 800 seconds (15 minutes) on ten standard lantern SMESs.

Disruptor Augmented Melee Weapons

Any standard melee weapon can be augmented by sheathing its active surface in a disruptor screen. The weapon must be made from or coated in carboplast, and reinforced with deflector screens in order to resist the disruptor fields flickering around it. Any weapon so augmented will have -5 to its AP, and Sharp and the Pen RS will both increase by 4 (this includes the benefit for making the weapon out of carboplast - if used without the disruptor screen, it gets the normal benefit of a carboplast weapon). Damage type remains the same (so a disruptor mace will inflict Smash damage, and a disruptor axe will inflict Hack damage. Note, however, that the disruptor screen will have no effect on any electroshock properties of the weapon, only its mechanical damage). A disruptor augmented weapon can block or parry disruptor blades and other disruptor augmented melee weapons. Disruptor-augmented weapons that parry or are parried by a normal melee weapon will break the opposing weapon in the same way as a disruptor blade.

Against deflector screens and energized armor, a disruptor augmented blade will lose the bonus to AP it gets for the disruptor effect. It still has any AP inherent to the weapon design and for its carboplast construction.

A disruptor augmented melee weapon will flicker and glow with a violet aura when activated, accompanied by humming and hissing and crackling and singing and the smell of ozone. Skin will tingle like an electric shock if it gets too close.

Power: 10 kW × weapon mass
Price: $100 × weapon mass

Advanced Primitive Melee Weapons

Melee weapons from more primitive ages can often be found, either as reproductions or in the hands of the natives of regressed worlds. Reproductions can benefit from being made of advanced materials, being affector supported, or affector augmented.

Nerve Disruptors

A disruptor screen can be adjusted to enhance its effects on the nervous system while minimizing the damage it causes. Weapons designed in this fashion are called nerve disruptors. The disruptor screen effect will cause no actual injury although impacts with the weapons material substance can cause damage in the normal fashion; contact with the energized portion of the weapon will cause neural stun with the a Dose of the figured Injury Score from the screen. Like all disruptors, they lose their AP score against deflector screens but the stun "injury" they cause does count toward knocking the screen down. Nerve disruptors are made of affector-supported carboplast, allowing them to parry other disruptor-based melee weapons.

Description Pen Wound AP Mass Price Notes
Nerve Gloves 5 +0 -7 0.3 120 Kinetic damage as a punch.
Nerve Baton 7 +2 -7 0.7 200 Kinetic damage as a nightstick.
Nerve Staff 10 +3 -7 2 300 Kinetic damage as a staff.
Nerve Lash 6 +2 -7 0.5 200 Kinetic and control damage as a medium whip.

Nerve Gloves: Gloves that deliver a nerve stun to anything touched, grabbed, or punched.
Nerve Baton: A club surrounded with the flickering aura of a nerve disruptor screen. Its handle is not energized, allowing its wielder to grip it safely
Nerve Staff: This quarterstaff has an end energized by a nerve disruptor screen.
Nerve Lash: A whip with an energized thong, delivering disruptor-stun to anyone it touches.

Gummi Melee Weapons

The Gummi's remarkable resilliance to physical damage, and the similar abilities of other life-forms on their planet, led them to develop unique weapons. These are usually based on fast-acting and potent venoms.

Description Use Type Pen
(size +0) Wound AP Sharp Blunt
Wound Def
(size +0) Bulk
Length Mass Price Imbal WSize WLen
Stinger thrust, 1H Pierce +4½ RS +½ -½ +2 +½ +1 +0 0.3 0.35 5 +0 -1¾ -4
Spear-Stinger thrust, 1H Pierce +4½ RS +1 -½ +2 +1 +4 +6 2 1.2 1.5 +0 -½ +2
thrust, 2H Pierce +5½ RS +1 -½ +2 +1 +5 +0
Spit-Stinger throw, 1H Pierce +3 RS +½ -½ +2 +½ n/a +0 0.3 0.35 5 +0 -1¾ -4

Stinger: A stiff, sharp spike attached to a venom bladder via a flexible tube. The Gummi thrusts into its opponent and squeezes the bladder, injecting venom into its victim. Stingers of this design are small and easily concealable within the Gummi's body, roughly the size of a Human dagger. The bladder typically contains 3 doses of venom.
Spear-Stinger: A stinger-on-a-stick, to give the Gummi extra reach when fighting dangerous opponents. The venom bladder typically contains 7 doses.
Spit-Stinger: A stinger with an internal venom reservoir, set within an aerodynamic plug to allow the Gummi to spit it at its opponents. The reservoir contains one dose.

Gummi Venoms

The descriptions below describe the effects of one dose. If multiple doses are injected at once (or while under the effect of a previous injection), increase the number of cycles lasting less than a day by the number of doses. For example, if you are injected with three doses of paralysis venom, you take three cycles of one combat turn period and three cycles of one minute period at the listed Dose Score of 6. Periods of a day or longer have the effects occur together.

Paralysis Venom: A venom that causes rapid paralysis. Signs of exposure start with tingling and numbness of the face and extremities, progressing down the limbs to the body. Drooling, weakness, and loss of coordination and balance follow until the body is completely unresponsive. A deeply paralyzed individual no longer has obvious vital signs and may be mistaken for dead. To detect life in a paralysis venom victim in Severe Shock, roll a task of Heal with a DC of 9. A medscanner gives +6 to this task. Oddly, victims of paralysis venom remain conscious and aware even when apparently dead.
- Dose: 6
- Potency: 10.
- Delay: 1 combat turn.
- Period: one combat turn (first cycle), 1 minute (last cycle).
- Cycles: 2.
- Symptoms: -1 to Coordination, with an additional -1 penalty per Fatigue increment. Total paralysis at Mild Shock or worse. At the Severe Shock level, the body goes into a state of suspended animation – all Vigor checks to remain alive succeed automatically.
- Healing: Value of [4-Vigor] kiloseconds (Value of [-Vigor] hours).
Cost: $0.5/dose
Neurotoxic Venom: A very potent and fast-acting neurotoxin, derived from the venoms of some of the predators on Gummiland.
- Dose: 3
- Potency: 10.
- Delay: 1 combat turn.
- Period: one combat turn (first two cycles), 1 minute (third cycle), 4 kiloseconds (hour, fourth cycle), 100 kiloseconds (day, last two cycles).
- Cycles: 6.
- Symptoms: -1 to Coordination, with an additional -1 penalty to Coordination per Fatigue increment. Total paralysis at Mild Shock or worse. Death, if indicated, occurs by paralysis of the muscles used to breathe and subsequent asphyxiation. If given artificial respiration, the victim will survive.
- Healing: Value of [2-Vigor] diurnals (days).
Cost: $0.3/dose
Squirmicide Venom: A neurotoxin engineered to only affect Squirm. Use the stats for basic neurotoxin, except that it does not affect any creature other than Squirm (presumably it would also affect animals closely related to Squirm, but none of these are known).
A given formulation of squirmicide is usually only effective against current and past strains of Squirm. New encounters are typically with novel Squirm strains that will be resistant to previously developed types of squirmicide. After encountering new strains, if samples can be delivered to a major research lab new formulations can be developed that are effective against the new strains.
Phototoxic Venom: A venom that shuts down the biological fiber optics that Gummis and related beings use for long-range signalling between their zooids. Phototoxic venom only affects Squirm, Gummis and related animals from Gummiland. Those affected by the venom will feel hot to the touch, experience dulled senses, become distracted, confused, and sleepy, and ultimately fall unconscious. Gummis will turn greenish-blue. Squirm will be unable to communicate with their infrared light-based "speech".
- Dose: 3
- Potency: 9.
- Delay: 1 combat turn.
- Period: one combat turn (first two cycles), 1 minute (third cycle), 4 kiloseconds (hour, fourth cycle).
- Cycles: 3.
- Symptoms: -1 to Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit, with an additional -1 penalty to Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit per Fatigue increment. Unconsciousness at Mild Shock or worse. At the first Fatigue increment, Squirm will be unable to "talk".
- Healing: Value of [9-Vigor] kiloseconds (Value of [5-Vigor] hours).
Cost: $0.2/dose
Dissolver Venom: This venom disrupts the mechanism that allows the zooids of Gummis and Squirm to attach together. Gummis, Squirm, and other related animals native to Gummiland will begin to fall apart, with the individual zooids dropping off. The zooids remail alive (unless killed while separated) and once they recover from the venom can re-assemble to form a Gummi or Squirm again – although if the injury was sufficient to "kill" the individual the mind that emerges will not be that of the original.
Dissolver venom has no effect on beings not made up of zooids. All other sapient beings of the Verge except for Gummis and Squirm are not affected.
- Dose: 7
- Potency: 8.
- Delay: 1 combat turn.
- Period: one combat turn (first two cycles), 1 minute (next three cycles), 4 kiloseconds (hour, next two cycles).
- Cycles: 7.
- Symptoms: No actual Fatigue is taken, Instead, the victim suffers Injury Score equal to the Dose modified for Size and the Potency check.
- Healing: Value of [11-Vigor] kiloseconds (Value of [7-Vigor] hours). If the Gummi "dies", when it re-assembles itself it will be at -5 to Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit for 100 kiloseconds (about a day), with the penalty reduced by 1 every 100 kiloseconds.
Cost: $0.2/dose

Tweechi Melee Weapons

Description Use Type Pen
(size -1½) Wound AP Sharp Blunt
Wound Def
(size -1½) Bulk
Length Mass Price Imbal WSize WLen
Head-Dagger thrust, 1H Pierce +4½ RS +0 +0 +2 -1 +1 -1½ 0.18 0.08 1.2 +0 -3¼ -5½
swing, 1H Slash +2½ RS +3 +0 +0 -1 +1 +1
Spear thrust, 1H Pierce +4½ RS +½ +0 +2 -½ +4 +4½ 1.2 0.3 0.35 +0 -2 +½
throw, 1H Pierce +4½ RS +½ +0 +2 -½ n/a +0
Dart thrust, 1H Pierce +3½ RS +½ +0 +2 -½ +4 +4½ 1.2 0.18 0.2 +0 -2½ +½
throw, 1H Pierce +4 RS +½ +0 +2 -½ n/a +0
Net throw Control [+0 RS] [+0] +0 +0 +1 n/a +6 2 2 3 +0 +0 +2
swing Control [+0 RS] [+0] +0 +0 +1 +4 +0

Head-Dagger: A blade gripped in a Tweechi's palps, to deliver attacks with a striking action of the Tweechi's snake-like neck.
Spear: A spear sized for a Tweechi. Tweechi traditionally fought and hunted by dropping spears on their targets. They would grip the spear in their rear graspers, dive at their quarry, and flick their abdomen forward to fling the projectile. Alternately, they would use the spear as a lance, gripping the shaft as they struck in a fly-by attack. Pre-Gummi contact, spear points would have been made from chipped stone for -½ to Pen RS and Sharp. In the current Verge, however, they use steel or carboplast-lined tungsten composite like everyone else.
Dart: A smaller spear, mostly used for dropping and fly-by flinging.
Net: Another common hunting and fighting weapon for the pre-contact Tweechi, and still popular today. The Tweechi would drop or fling the net on their target. A common tactic in warfare was to throw the net over another Tweechi, entangling its wings so it fell to its doom.
This net is 2 meters in diameter, giving it an effective Size score of +0. It uses the rules for nets given in the section on grappling weapons.

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