Abusing the Cutlery: Roman Era Weapons

Eschewing edged weapons is all very well in the late-Victorian era or the Modern Day (one might almost say that it’s the lazy way around things), but there are some canon Call of Cthulhu time periods where melee weapons are de rigueur. In Cthulhu Invictus or Dark Ages, you really need to know your tang from your fuller, so here’s a list of cutlery which should give you some food for thought.

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Axes:

The Romans tended to borrow things from the farther reaches of their empire and the axes used by the legions are a clear instance of this type of adoption. In early times, the Romans used a kind of axe that more closely resembled a pickaxe, which they referred to as a “dolabra”. Obviously, in a regimented military setting, this style of weapon was more useful that a straight axe, because it could be turned to a number of different uses as the situation dictated, from chopping wood to digging trenches. Basically, it was the entrenching tool of the Roman era. Although a ‘workhorse-y’ type of implement, some of them became very elaborate, even incorporating specialised scabbards which allowed them to be slung from the owner’s belt.

After incorporating the Celtiberians and the Gauls into the Empire, the legions made room for some of the more effective weapons of the conquered peoples. The great axe, a mainstay of the Germanic peoples, was an instant hit and soon found a home in Rome’s armies (besides, how would you like to be the centurion forced to tell his new Germanic recruits that “no, you can’t bring your barbarian toothpick along with you”? Exactly). These weapons were typically long-hafted and could be either single-bladed, or double-edged (called a ‘bipennis’ axe). They have an advantage in that they can be thrown using the wielder’s Throw Skill, but they do 1D6 less damage, lose the damage bonus due to STR, and are only effective up to Medium range (5 metres, or 15 feet).

Cestus

The Gladiators were the Kardashians of their day, and generally, whatever looked funky and cool in the arena, soon found its way into the armoury of the Empire, especially if it got results. The cesti were basically studded gloves that made a Punch more effective. Think: Jean-Claude van Damme in “Kickboxer”.

Some cesti were simply lengths of studded leather wrapped around the fists of the pugilist; others were more elaborate and expensive, even prefiguring the mailed gauntlets of medieval knights. In essence they were simply flashy knuckledusters, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t incredibly effective.

Daggers

As in most schools of martial training, the dagger is often considered the ‘holdout’ weapon, or the one you turn to if everything else fails. So it was with the Legions and this line of last resistance was often represented by the pugio. This was a short, stubby knife, with a metal scabbard, that could be hitched to the owner’s belt, either alongside their standard side-arm or in the small of their back, where it was less obvious. In a shield wall, when shields get jammed together and swinging a sword or spear becomes problematic, the sharp, pointed testimony of the pugio can well make all the difference to the day’s outcome...

Occasionally though, you don’t want to get that close to the enemy. Sometimes you want to take a leaf out of Crocodile Dundee’s book and say “that’s not a knife – this is a knife” and flash something that will give your opposition pause. The sica is your best friend here. Another import from the conquered Empire, the main benefit of this weapon is that, if your enemy calls your bluff, you can always throw it at them and beat cheeks out of there while they deal with the aftermath.

The boomerang-like profile of the sica means that it cuts most effectively when used with a downwards chopping motion; however, this same shape makes it very good for chucking, too (although, unlike a boomerang, once chucked it stays chucked). When used in this fashion, it adds +5% to the wielder’s Throw skill to use, but loses its damage bonus due to the user’s STR stat. Like the Great Axe above, it has a useful targeting range of 5 metres (15 feet).

Falcata

Those Celtiberians from the Spanish Peninsular were tough buggers to bring to heel and this weapon was the prime reason for that. Consequently, it became an irregular, but nevertheless much used, side-arm in the Roman armies. The falcata is a one-handed chopping sword with a forward-curving single edge that is deadly in the hands of someone who knows what they’re about. In many ways, it’s the forerunner of the Gurkha knife, and just as fearsome. When used on horseback against unmounted opponents, it confers a +5% bonus to the rider and, if you really must, it can be thrown using the Throw Skill, but it loses its damage bonus in this mode. The presence of this weapon in the Legions’ arsenals is directly responsible for the appearance of the next implement...

Falx

When a fellow in a tin-plate tuxedo bears down on you on horseback swinging a shiny cleaver, you really want to be able to respond in kind. That’s what the falx is all about.

Like the falcata, the falx is a long chopping blade with a single edge; unlike the falcata, the falx is longer and requires two hands to use properly, which makes it perfect for hooking a horse’s rider and dragging him out of the saddle. When used by a foot-soldier against a mounted opponent, the falx adds +5% to the wielder’s chance to hit; an Impaling strike requires that the rider make a DEX Roll (D20 under their DEX) or fall off their horse, with all the excess damage which that implies.

Javelin

Javelins are a lighter version of the hasta and designed only to be thrown unlike the other spear weapons which can serve both as missiles and as melee weapons. They generally show up in bundles of three – any more than this and they become unwieldy on the battlefield.

Plumbata

Remember way back in the dim past when you decided to play a Magic-User in D&D for the first time? Right, you thought: robes, pointy hat, spell book – let see what kind of weapons I can rustle up. What you got was a choice of dagger, staff or – darts. This instantly conjured up images of fat blokes with a beer in one hand chucking tiny pointed missiles at a round board, so inevitably you’d just decide to stick with the knife...

What the rule books didn’t point out was that, by “darts”, they meant these things, which are a whole other kettle of mean. The plumbata were usually carried in bunches of six, and the legionnaires would lob them at onrushing enemy troops, causing confusion and dismay as they rained down out of the sky. They have lead-weighted, barbed heads and leather vanes, which allowed them to be hurled with a fair degree of accuracy and to strike with brutal force. There’s no way that they’d let you wield one of these down at the pub!

Plumbata can also be fired using a bow (arcus) in which case their range increases from 25 metres (75 feet) to 60 metres (180 feet).

Rhomphaia

This weapon is a distant cousin of the falcata, and forms a bridge between that weapon and the falx. This single-edged, two-handed sword was developed in Thrace and was designed to be used against mounted opponents, or from the walls of besieged fortifications, where its hooked profile came in handy in opposing ladders, ropes and climbing combatants. It is lighter than either the falcata or falx and designed for slicing and jabbing rather than chopping. No matter how you slice it though, it’s a scary-looking piece of business!

Spears

The pilum is standard issue for the Roman military. It’s the main ingredient for a shield wall, or similar defensive manoeuvre, because its length helps keep the enemy at bay. Across the legions’ history, the length of the pilum stretched out to stupid dimensions before retracting once more to a reasonable length; but whatever its measurement, in the hands of the legionnaires, it means business.

As a side note, the pilum was constructed so that, after it was thrown, whatever it got stuck in would be weighed down by it. The weight of the spear is in the middle at the base of a thin metal shaft just behind the business end; this metal bar was made to bend once lodged, causing the target to become entangled in the length of the weapon. A charging Celt with a few of these stuck in his shield would soon be forced to ditch it... 

The other main polearm of the Roman troops was the hasta. This is simply a more aerodynamic and trickily-weighted pilum made to be thrown if the situation calls for it. The legionnaires used javelins as well, but the hasta is the halfway house between them and the pilum, able to be used in a shield formation as well as being thrown (using the wielder’s Throw Skill). If you’re the kind of forgetful soldier of Rome who – metaphorically – always “brings a knife to a gun fight”, forego the other pigstickers and keep a bunch of these handy: you’ll never be inappropriately armed again! Also, be wary about how you pronounce the name of this thing. Just sayin’...

Swords

Along with armour, shield and pilum, as a raw recruit of Rome, you were issued with a sword called a gladius. This is a meat-and-potatoes weapon – nothin’ fancy; just the business. Its main virtue is that it can be used one-handed from within a shield formation, without weakening the defence; being a short, straight, two-edged blade with a no-frills handguard, it tends not to get caught on things in its vicinity. Don’t leave Rome without it...

The Egyptians stuck around for thousands of years, before succumbing first to the Ptolemies and then to the yoke of the Roman Empire. Arguably, their best days were well done and dusted before Rome turned its gaze to the “breadbasket of the Mediterranean”, but the artefacts of their culture lingered on well past their ‘use-by’ date. One of those artefacts was the khopesh.

This is a decidedly odd weapon. Made from bronze it doesn’t really stand up to a fight against the typical Roman armaments, but, that being said, it’s easy to underestimate the khopesh in the hands of an expert fighter. The edge of the khopesh runs along the convex arc of the big curve at the business end; this means that a downwards chop has more cutting power than a straight-edged sword. Some of these swords are double-edged, which confers upon them all the benefits that a falx has against a mounted opponent. Generally though, the inside edge of the khopesh is blunt and is used for disarming or entangling the opposition, by “getting all up in their business”. Think of it as simply a big hook, like those used to drag bad comedians off stage in the vaudeville days. In order to avail themselves of this capability, the wielder must announce that they are going to entangle their adversary and then attack with the khopesh but using their Grappling skill rather than their Sword: Khopesh Skill. If the Grapple succeeds the opponent loses their attack that round; if the roll is under both the user’s Grapple and Sword: Khopesh skill, then the opponent needs to make a DEX Roll or lose/break their weapon. Cool beans!

Unfortunately, the khopesh needs to be sharpened after every encounter; if not, it loses a point of damage for every successive fight in which it is used until it inflicts a mere 1D4+db damage – about the same as beating on someone with a bronze bar. And lastly, in a fight with a steel weapon, a critically failed Roll means that it has snapped. Ouch!

Meanwhile, back in Rome, the infantrymen of the Legions were getting sick and tired of being worked over by jocks on horseback, so they decided to get sneaky. To compensate for the height advantage, the foot-soldiers took their gladii and doubled their length – voila! No more benefits from being mounted in battle! The spatha is simply a longer gladius and has all the advantages of that other useful war-tool, but with the nice benefit of extending further out in front of the shield wall than the shorter gladius.

Of course, the situation returned to normal when the guys on horseback figured out that they could use a spatha too. In fact, when used while riding a horse, the spatha confers an extra +5% to the wielder’s sword skill against un-mounted opponents. Bummer!

Trident

Those flashy gladiators are responsible for this weapon, too. Oftentimes accompanied with a weighted net, the legionnaires generally preferred to use the trident on its own, since they were more interested in despatching foes quickly rather than entertaining onlookers. The purpose of the trident is to keep the opponent at a distance and immobile by pinning limbs or equipment, or deflecting attacks.

The benefit of the trident is that it can attack and parry in the same round, like a Fencing Foil. A parry does no damage to the parried target, however the damage from a successfully parried attack is absorbed by the weapon, possibly causing it to break.

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Weapon	Base Chance	Damage	Range	Attacks / Round	HPs	Malfunction
Axe (Dolabra)*	15%	1D6+db	touch	1	15	00%
Axe, Great*	15%	2D6+db	touch	1	25	00%
Cestus	50%	1D6+db	touch	1	n/a	00%
Dagger (Pugio)*	15%	1D6+db	touch	1	20	00%
Dagger (Sica)*	15%	1D6+1+db	touch	1	20	00%
Falcata*	15%	1D8+db	touch	1	20	00%
Falx*	20%	1D8+db	touch	1	20	00%
Javelin*	10%	1D8	long	1	20	00%
Plumbata*	10%	1D6	long	1	10	95%
Rhomphaia*	15%	1D8+db	touch	1	20	00%
Spear (Pilum)*	15%	1D8+db	touch	1	20	00%
Spear (Hasta)*	15%	1D10+db	touch	1	15	00%
Sword (Gladius)*	15%	1D6+1+db	touch	1	20	00%
Sword (Khopesh)*	15%	1D8+db	touch	1	15	95%
Sword (Spatha)*	20%	1D8+db	touch	1	20	00%
Trident*	10%	1D6+db	touch	1	20	00%

*This weapon can Impale

Of course, all of these details are rendered moot when you run up against the forces of the Mythos. You’re unlikely to go about trying to poke Has-, er, “He Who Should Not Be Named”, with your hasta, but any of its human cultists and other followers are fair game. Hopefully, your players will enjoy trying out some of the more unusual weapons, if only for a change of pace!