Starting Characters - Weapons

Conan: Adventures In an Age Undreamed Of
1

Hi All! Question about what weapons are available to starting characters (could not find this one asked before):

  • Many archetypes include equipment such as “melee weapon of choice”, “two weapons of choice”, etc.
  • At the end of character creation, players can select/roll for an additional weapon from the table on page 45.

Do the “weapons of choice” include any weapon in the book, or only those available on page 45 (which do not include any ranged weapons)? I checked the pre-made characters from the quick start guide, which do have daggers (not listed on page 45) but also include “war bows”, which are not included as weapons anywhere in the Core rule book (and I assume are holdovers from an earlier version or similar).

Further, acquiring new (and better) weapons seems to be part of the Upkeep/Carousing portion of the game and requires a Society or Thieving test to find gear - in particular, gear with higher Availability scores. Seemed a bit odd to me that a new character could start with, say, a Bossonian Longbow, which has Availability of 4 and would therefore be particularly hard to come by after character creation. However I could not find any limitation in the rules (sorry if I missed something). I suppose there is always the risk of losing your weapon permanently due to Complications but that feels like a very heavy penalty indeed in the example of the Bossonian Bow.

Anyway, how have folks handled new characters selecting “weapons of choice” during character creation in their games? I am thinking of limiting the selection to any weapon of availability 1 or 0, but players do like to be pointed to the rule that says so. :slight_smile:

Thanks for your input!

2

I let my players choose any weapon they wish so long as it makes sense that their character might have come across it.

2 Likes
3

Same here.

2 Likes
4

Thanks! Sounds like we will be doing a one-shot, at least to begin with, so that will make sense. Appreciate your input!

5

Same here. And don’t let your players get too attached to their weapons, they’ll be breaking or getting lost soon enough. So it doesn’t matter all that much. Complications set this game apart from D&D and other traditional systems so don’t worry if you have allowed a PC something more powerful than intended.