I’m sure that this has been asked before, somewhere, but I cant seem to find anything on it specifically. What happens if the Fighter loses their Signature Weapon, even temporarily? The Playbook says: “Your weapon, without you, is useless. Without your weapon, you are useless. You must wield your weapon true.”
Assuming that they’ve been separated from their Signature Weapon in a manner that befits the fiction (and I have no problem separating a Fighter with Fists for a Signature Weapon from them), what are the narrative and mechanical consequences of and event? How have people reinforced that the Fighter must reclaim their Signature Weapon? What does this look like in the narrative?
Or perhaps more plausibly, what happens when a fist fight breaks out in the tavern and the Fighter decides to brawl it out, rather than laying waste to civilians with the Signature Weapon? Are they useless in that circumstance?
Don’t trust the class’ flavor text. It’s there to communicate atmosphere, but it could just as easily mean nothing if the player throws it out and describes their character’s place in the world differently.
The fighter is always deadly.
You can play this two ways. Either guide the fiction so that they never actually do lose their Signature Weapon, or you can Take Their Stuff as a hard move and set up a session or two where they have to try and get it back. Or get another one forged.
I think the example in the book for Use up their resources fits this nicely.
” Surviving in a dungeon, or anywhere dangerous, often comes down to supplies. With this move, something happens to use up some resource: weapons, armor, healing, ongoing spells. You don’t always have to use it up permanently. A sword might just be flung to the other side of the room, not shattered”
You should never permanently deprive a fighter of their signature weapon. I think a good rule of thumb might be make sure they have it back by the middle of next session. Of course I’m gonna just say if this is likely to cause drama IRL just avoid it altogether. There are other moves to make and no bit of fiction is worth upsetting the players.
I’d go with the fairly straightforward “you cannot use your signature weapon” (so forget all those sweet enhancements, both the basic ones and the extra one you can get with the “improved Weapon” 2-5 move) and “you cannot use the moves requiring your signature weapon” (basically only the “Heirloom” 2-5 move). The fighter is always deadly, be it by swinging a broken chair or a fine blade, but his signature weapon is a badass from badassland.
But I would not remove the Signature Weapon from the Fighter in anything but a very temporary way (dropping it on the floor is nice) without the player’s approval. It’s basically removing the core of the class, almost on par with the spellcasting ability of the Cleric. If the PC choose to let it go more “permanently” (say for more than a couple minutes of play time), that’s their choice and
can be niceshould be an absolutely awesome pivotal moment! 🙂You, uh…
You do know that the flavor text on Signature Weapon is pretty much The Rifleman’s Creed, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifleman's_Creed
So, uh, how useless is a Marine without their rifle?
Remember weapons don’t kill people, adventurers do. That’s why your class determines damage die, not weapon type. If a fighter is separated from their sig. weapon, I wouldn’t let them use the fancy enhancements that they get from it with other weapons, but they can still crack skulls. As far as getting it back, I would follow the fiction. If someone steals it, you damn well hunt them down and get it back. If it’s broken (which would take some doing, probably even some magic), I would maybe suspend the move until their next level up and then along the way help build the fiction behind them bonding with a new one.