What is the best way to include a universe of weapons in a setting? I intend for damage to simply be the outcome of a succesful attack roll, rather than designing each wepaon to have its own stats/damage (as that's not really realistic). I don't really want to go the other way and just have them exist in name only: Pistol, Rifle, Sword, Rocket Launcher...seems like a missed opportunity.

Weapons having their own stats and damage is perfectly realistic. A horsebow is going to have a different range and rate of fire than an assault rifle, a twelve gauge solid slug will bring a lot more hurt than a .22 pistol at equivalent ranges, although it might not hold as many bullets. Of course damage needs to be modified by user skill as well.

I set it up such that weapons have a fixed damage, cost in time to use, range where needed, and that's about it, just a list of light pistol, medium pistol, heavy pistol, double barrel shotgun, pump action shotgun, semi automatic shotgun, etc. Then if needed I elaborate on that in the actual equipment list.

Holdout pistol
Lady derringer +1 to hit due to quality
Ruger .22 rimfire +1 to damage due to duality, higher capacity
Beretta 9mm
Glock 10 +1 to hit due to quality
.38 pistol +1 to damage, lower capacity
.45 pistol +1 to damage
.357 magnum revolver
Desert eagle .50 +1 to damage

And so on, applying the brand names over the basic templates of light, medium and heavy pistols to produce the final list of pistols. Then the PCs can get extras like different types of bullets, extended clip magazines, laser sights, even handcrafted weapons on that. They don't see the bonuses and penalties all they see is

Beretta 9mm, 4 damage, 3 actions, 20/50/100 range, clip 14, cost $300
.38 pistol, 5 damage, 3 actions, 20/50/100 range, clip 6, cost $450

Specialised weapons might also come with notes, like something that makes it easier to quickdraw or something similar. There isn't a whole lot of leeway for difference in the weapons, maybe a +1 or +2, before you start to overlap with more powerful weapons, so you have to really crank up the cost to produce a balanced list and prevent one weapon becoming the logical choice for ass kickers. Tradeoffs on all sides really.

For some games the players are happy enough with the generic list by the way, but I find it adds a lot of flavour to name the types of guns and their effects.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;652045What is the best way to include a universe of weapons in a setting? I intend for damage to simply be the outcome of a succesful attack roll, rather than designing each wepaon to have its own stats/damage (as that's not really realistic). I don't really want to go the other way and just have them exist in name only: Pistol, Rifle, Sword, Rocket Launcher...seems like a missed opportunity.

So you don't want generic weapons, and you don't want to differentiate them mechanically?

You could go the OD&D (everything does 1d6) or WFRP route (all hand weapons are the same), where the choice of gladius or partisan or boar spear or sabre or flanged mace is simply color. So the character would take .38 special or Glock 9mm or Luger or Webley, but the stats would just be "pistol".

You could also differentiate them in other ways. Reliable, long ranged, status effects (desert eagle and katana get reaction bonuses from geeks), etc.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;652045I intend for damage to simply be the outcome of a succesful attack roll, rather than designing each wepaon to have its own stats/damage (as that's not really realistic)

Bwah ?

Quote from: apparition13;652058So you don't want generic weapons, and you don't want to differentiate them mechanically?

You could go the OD&D (everything does 1d6) or WFRP route (all hand weapons are the same), where the choice of gladius or partisan or boar spear or sabre or flanged mace is simply color. So the character would take .38 special or Glock 9mm or Luger or Webley, but the stats would just be "pistol".

I think this is what he meant by "I don't really want to go the other way and just have them exist in name only". That is, he wants them to be more than just "color", but he doesn't want a list of different damage ranges or "to-hit" modifiers.

Quote from: apparition13;652058You could also differentiate them in other ways. Reliable, long ranged, status effects (desert eagle and katana get reaction bonuses from geeks), etc.

I think weapon length (for hand weapons) or range (for bows and firearms) is going to be the primary way to distinguish weapons. Of course, for hand weapons, you have to make a decision about how weapon length affects combat: Does it just affect order of actions? Can combatants with long weapons hold opponents with shorter weapons at bay?

Special effects, such as flails ignoring shields and being able to disarm opponents, are another potential distinguishing factor. Weapons with edges can be used to cut ropes; axes can be used to chop through wood. These weren't specifically named in OD&D, but were assumed to be true; a GM could disallow "I break through the door with my dagger" as being nonsense, even if all weapons do 1d6 damage.

Weight versus length/range matters for both hand weapons and guns. Even in OD&D, there are distinctions in weight between a dagger, a short sword, and a two-handed sword. For guns, you can have basic guns with a simple linear relationship between size/weight and range, plus cheaper guns that don't yield the same range for the same weight. The size of the clip or magazine would be another weight/utility trade-off.

For more modern guns, you could include rate of fire, although again you have to define what the effects of a higher rate of fire will actually mean in your system: do you roll a separate attack for each bullet fired? Do you roll one die of damage per bullet? Or do you add a bonus to the attack for firing more than one bullet?

For reliability, you could have three levels:
 - reliable (no malfunction roll necessary under most circumstances)
 - normal (maybe one malfunction roll per combat?)
 - unreliable (malfunction roll for every attack made)

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;652130Bwah ?

Does a smith and wesson really do more damage than a colt pistol?

The notion that every single weapon, not just type, does more damage seems errant.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;652190Does a smith and wesson really do more damage than a colt pistol?

The notion that every single weapon, not just type, does more damage seems errant.

OK, well its fine to ditch damage if you don't want to worry about the extra complication, but I don't think doing that is *more* realistic, at least unless the weapon damages in question were going to be badly designed. Saying you want the to-hit roll to be as or more important than the actual weapon is reasonable. Firearms are something I'm not very knowledgeable about, though.

For other things like melee weapons 'Damage' will vary a lot depending on where it hits the target, but impact force as such will definitely vary between weapons and probably means more damage, all else being equal. For melee weapons a longer weapon is essentially a lever and a swung (rather than thrust) weapon will hit with more force, a heavier weapon will have more mass behind it, and a hafted weapon has a longer weapon length between the 'sweet spot' - the point of maximum kinetic energy transfer and the user - as well as this being more likely to be the point of impact. You also have different amounts of force per area based on the contact area (a single point, an edge, a larger area for blunt weapons).

Digging a hole for myself, but I will say that there is a problem with different weapon damage in that 'hit points' are something that aren't realistic in most systems. In most games, a player character will reach for the biggest weapon because it will probably take down a bad guy with a lot of hit points faster. In the real world that isn't as much of a problem since humans are squishy and a fist or knife can kill one - so there are all sorts of reasons that become more of a factor in picking a weapon beyond just likely damage such as : ease of use, concealability, armour penetration, accuracy, reach, firing rate, range, legality, and whatever.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;652190Does a smith and wesson really do more damage than a colt pistol?

There's some debate on the matter. Really though, would you rather be shot (all else being equal) by a .22 derringer or a .357 magnum? A flamethrower is going to perform very differently to a slingshot.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;652190The notion that every single weapon, not just type, does more damage seems errant.

If you wanted to do soft focus realism you could classify all pistols under the one heading, all rifles under one heading, etc., but if you need meaningful differentiation beyond names and prices some statting is neccessary. Personally I like me some statted up guns, as long as there are orgulous horrors in the game to use them on.