We return this week with a look at longer weapons from the guisarme to the glave, with staves and spears in between. These weapons offer wielders amazing striking power, at the cost of range. Polearms were pivotal for defensive lines, but should that line be broken, soldiers would need to adapt to closer combat styles. Spears are excellent at keeping foes at bay, and can be thrown, but then the spear must be recovered. Staves, well, okay, staves may be a bit of an outlier in this article as they are used quite differently from polearms, but still have maneuverability issues in tight quarters. Also I’m not sure I could do a full article on just staves.
Mechanics
Polearms bring a unique challenge to Metahumans Rising in that they challenge the idea of the Close Range Increment which is defined as around 15 meters depending on the terrain. At even a quarter of that range, polearms remain effective. This was done to give players narrative freedom to describe movement and positioning as they set up their next action.
- Polearms: All polearms possess the following Drawback: Limited: Danger Close: After an opponent scores a Successful melee attack, the wielder suffers a -20 Penalty to all actions until moving to a different Range Increment, stops using the polearm, or performs a successful Active Defense with the -20 Penalty.
- Spears: To account for spears being thrown, we are introducing the Drawback Limited Uses: Recovery Required: When attacking outside of Close Range, the character must move to the Range Increment of the Target and spend an Action to recover / reload the weapon. This counts as 2 Drawbacks.
- Staves: As staves are intended to be used both offensively and defensively, they possess Secondary Role: Defense (Full Role).
Gear By Power Level
The following section provides examples of weapons appropriate for a given Power Level. As the Power Level increases the example Gear typically becomes more specialized as we move further away from real world counterparts.
Exceptional
Bō / Quarterstaff 6
- Parent Attribute: Constitution or Wisdom
- Primary Role: Offense
Devastating MA
Secondary Role: Defense (Full Role) MA2
Extra Stamina MA
Cost: 8 + 6 + 12 + 6 = 32 / Gear (8) = MA4
A staple of karate dojos around the world, the bō is a staff typically between 160 and 180 cm, made of strong wood, or more rarely metal. The quarterstaff, or short staff, isa weapon of similar design, albeit slightly longer, the largest as long as 280 cm, that was common in 1400s England. They are intended for use in striking and defending with the wielder pivoting seamlessly between these functions by simple hand placement.
Long Spear / Pike 6
- Parent Attribute: Constitution or Senses
- Primary Role: Offense
Ranged TY
Devastating (Boost Devastation) MA2
Secondary Role: Defense MA
(S) Interrupting Actions 4
(S) Countering Movement Actions 4
Limited: Danger Close
Limited Uses: Recovery Required
Cost: 8 + 3 + 12 + 6 + 6 + 6 – 3 – 6 = 32 / Gear (8) = MA4
While many picture spears are the length of a soldier’s body, long spears date millenia. Typically between 2.5 and 2.8 meters, long spears excel at preventing foes from moving into a controlled area, but can be thrown for added versatility. The arrow-like head allows defenders to brace themselves using the momentum of those coming at them to inflict grievous harm. As a long spear, once an attacker has slipped past the wielder’s guard, there is added difficulty when using this weapon.
Throwing Spear 6
- Parent Attribute: Dexterity or Senses
- Primary Role: Offense
Ranged MA
Devastating (Boost Devastation) MA2
Secondary Role: Defense MA
(S) Medium Range 4
Limited Uses: Recovery Required
Cost: 8 + 6 + 12 + 6 + 6 – 6 = 32 / Gear (8) = MA4
Similar in shape to the pike, the shorter haft allows for greater versatility at close range along with improved effectiveness when thrown. This tradeoff has made variations of the throwing spear popular across multiple cultures, and time periods.
Low Powered
Expanding Staff 8
- Parent Attribute: Dexterity or Intelligence
- Primary Role: Offense
Reduced Detection MA
Devastating MA
Secondary Role: Defense (Full Role) MA2
Extra Stamina MA
(S) First Turn Reveal 6
Cost: 10 + 6 + 6 + 12 + 6 + 8 = 48 / Gear (8) = MA6
Advanced metals and memory lattices allow this staff to be compacted while retaining structural integrity when used. When collapsed the staff fits in one’s hand like a roll of quarters slipping into a pocket easily. Expanding in an instant, the staff can catch foes off guard, striking with blinding speed as it is first extended.
Glaive / Naginata 8
- Parent Attribute: Strength or Constitution
- Primary Role: Offense
Devastating (Boost Devastation, Total Devastation) MA3
Secondary Role: Defense MA
(S) Countering Movement Actions 5
(S) Mounted Opponents 8
Limited: Danger Close
Cost: 10 + 18 + 6 + 7 + 10 – 3 = 48 / Gear (8) = MA6
In the world of polearms, the glaive and naginata take up the same design space of “sword-on-a-stick.” These blades excel at preventing charges, especially against mounted foes. The glaive can be brutally effective, mixing deep slices with powerful thrusts when attacking.
Trident 8
- Parent Attribute: Dexterity or Senses
- Primary Role: Offense
Ranged MA
Devastating (Boost Devastation) MA2
Trapping MA
Secondary Role: Defense (Full Role) MA2
(S) Disarming 6
Extra Stamina MA
Limited: Requires a surface to trap a foe, the trident cannot be used as long as a foe is trapped.
Limited: Tridents are not as effective as thrown weapons on land. Treat their range as short.
Limited Uses: Recovery Required
Cost: 10 + 6 + 12 + 6 + 12 + 8 + 6 – 3 – 3 – 6 = 48 / Gear (8) = MA6
The weapon of Poseidon, tridents may be seen as much as a fisting tool as they are weapons on gladiators. These versatile impalers can be used to trap or disable weapons, block strikes, all in addition to delivering lethal strikes. While the trident can be thrown, the weight makes this more difficult on land, but can act in the welder’s favor in water.
Classic
Attuned Crystal Voulge 12
- Parent Attribute: Strength or Constitution
- Primary Role: Offense
Lingering MA
Devastating (Boost Devastation, Total Devastation) MA4
Secondary Role: Defense MA
(S) Countering Movement Actions 8
(S) Power Strike 8
Extra Stamina TY
Limited: Danger Close
Cost: 14 + 24 + 6 + 10 + 10 + 3 – 3 = 64 / Gear (8) = MA8
While not in active production, the Attuned Crystal Voulge was developed as a thought experiment by GEO while working on options for ablative armor. Despite its new age title the Attuned Crystal Voulge is a deadly striking weapon developed by GEO using a crystalline matrix that reforms cracks and breaks. The shape of the weapon is to keep the axe-like head at length from the wielder to avoid shrapnel.
Lightning Spear 14
- Parent Attribute: Fortune or Mental
- Primary Role: Offense
Alternative Source: Electrical / Lightning MA
Line (Boost Range) MA2
Ranged MA
Devastating (Boost Devastation, Cosmic Being Stopper) MA3
Secondary Role: Defense MA
Cost: 16 + 6 + 12 + 6 + 18 + 6 = 64 / Gear (8) = MA8
During the Long Night of Madness nine bolts of lighting struck the caldera at Kerid, in the Golden Circle of Thingvellir. The following day one of these bolts remained suspended in the center of the lake. In the aftermath, a pair of nearby tourists came up to the lake to examine the phenomena and were the first to see the strange frozen bolt of energy. As people began to gather one onlooker tested the waters, literally and figuratively, swimming out to touch the bolt. As their hand touched the electrical phenomena it shifted to a shaft of petrified wood sinking to the bottom of the crater lake. The anomaly was unable to be located when local officials sent diving teams to recover the piece. The spear is as hard as stone and sharp as diamond. The wielder can command the spear to become lighting when thrown and once it lands it will reappear in the wielder’s hand.
The Walking Stick 12
- Parent Attribute: Sense or Wisdom
- Primary Role: Offense
Devastating (Boost Devastation) MA2
Secondary Role: Defense (Full Role) MA2
Passive Defense TY
- Unique Drawback: Activation Required
Extra Stamina MA2
(S) Bypass Armor 9
Cost: 14 + 12 + 12 + 3 + 12 + 11 = 64 / Gear (8) = MA8
This unassuming staff worn with age and wrapped with bandages and string looks like little more than a humble and well worn hiking stick. Held within is a fraction of the man who carved the staff’s spirit. Believed to be an Okinawan merchant, the walking stick protected along the road for decades. How and why the staff retains some fraction of his skill remains a mystery.
High Powered
Moon Spear Jumonji Yari 15
- Parent Attribute: Dexterity or Senses
- Primary Role: Offense
Ranged MA
Devastating (Boost Devastation) MA2
Secondary Role: Defense (Full Role) MA2
Secondary Role: Support: Dexterity MA
New Movement: Flight (Boost Speed, Rapid Acceleration) MA3
(S) Combo: Lunge: Move – Attack 4
(S) Moon Might 4
(S) Willpower Actions 4
Extra Stamina TY
Limited: Danger Close
Limited: No use of Secondary Role Support During the Day.
Limited Uses: Recovery Required
Cost: 17 + 6 + 12 + 12 + 6 + 18 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 3 – 3 – 3 – 6 = 80 / Gear (8) = MA10
This long yari is tipped with a crescent blade along with its central point. The shaft is engraved with a cloud pattern except where it meets the blades in a circle-in-circle design made from a milky white gem, possibly representing the moon god Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto. The Moon Spear Jumonji Yari was last used by the Twilight Lancer, Atsuko Tsukino in 1965. She used the jumonji yari to prevent inclusions from what she and a band of heroes referred to as the void dimension. However, there are tales of other heroes using the Moon Spear and title Twilight Knight dating back to Asuka period, which actually predates the broader usage of the yuri as a weapon. The Moon Spear is said to empower the wielder, granting them enhanced speed, the ability to fly, and greater prowess so long as the light of the moon shines.
