I was just wondering if anyone would like to contribute to a quick question I have.

What is the most weapons you've had one character in possession of at one time?

Thanks in advance for all contributions!

El :)

I can't pin this down very well as I've had characters theoretically in possession of many, many weapons.

Assuming a physical human character from whatever time period and not including battle armor, control of a nation or some such, about a dozen pieces of unique weaponry.

I'm trying to consider how I'd qualify how many weapons were on this specific character. In roleplays with more action/combat stuff, i've had all kinds, from characters who wielded a small number of weapons or were forced to use a single weapon (which is interesting in it's own right, as you have to consider how they'd strategize in situations where a single sword has a bad match-up) and I've had one particular character who was a jack of all trades fighter. I believe he had 7 weapons all at once, but he was a special case; Bloodborne had just been released and I was interested in how "trick weapons" worked. He had a hatchet which could become a halberd for instance when he attached it to a spear. So ultimately he had more "combinations" than an actual arsenal of weapons.

I had one character who basically had access to a "hammerspace" of sorts as well, but he only had 5 or 6 weapons he actually used over time.

It would be interesting to see a character so kitted out with weapons that they are heavily encumbered at all times, however.

I think I've had one character who, theoretically, should have owned 6 or 7 weapons all told. And in some iteration, he should have been able to lay claim to all of them at once when travelling or at his home, but I don't believe he ever actually had all of them at any point of my playing him. He'd always left some behind or lost a few or had one break. But he was a trained guard/potential assassin, plus lived in a place where being able to hunt was considered important, so he had a sword, a bow, some throwing knives and a garotte. So, unless you count the throwing knives individually, I guess it was only 4....

I think I've had one character who, theoretically, should have owned 6 or 7 weapons all told. And in some iteration, he should have been able to lay claim to all of them at once when travelling or at his home, but I don't believe he ever actually had all of them at any point of my playing him. He'd always left some behind or lost a few or had one break. But he was a trained guard/potential assassin, plus lived in a place where being able to hunt was considered important, so he had a sword, a bow, some throwing knives and a garotte. So, unless you count the throwing knives individually, I guess it was only 4....

How many throwing knives did the character have?

Well, this depends on the media.

There's a certain video game called NWN2 I used to play wherein I tend to fall to the good ol' Hammerspace trope, for instance. If you're not familiar with the trope, it's about having the ability to pull various stupid things out of nowhere. In this case? Throwing axes. Like, nigh infinite throwing axes just somehow fitting on the belt, on bandoliers, in the character's backpack... Because he could throw something like seven or eight throwing axes in one combat round people would exasperatedly ask "WHERE DID YOU GET ALL THOSE AXES?!" and he'd just smile, shrug, and yank out several more.

But most of the time I like to be far more serious. There's good videos to be found on the web about how much you can realistically carry. For medieval fantasy adventuring, I go for something like this:

• HANDS: This is where you can carry a large two-handed weapon, such as a polearm, greatsword, crossbow, longbow, or battleaxe. You realistically cannot sheathe these weapons, so either putting them on a cart or carrying them by hand is your only real option. If you forgo a two-handed weapon, perhaps you carry a large shield with your hands.
• HIPS (BELT): You can typically carry a sidearm or two here, such as a longsword, warhammer, or a mace. You can potentially have a quiver of arrows on one hip, or even a quiver of arrows or bolts and a shortbow. Notably, it's quite easy to have a spare dagger or a buckler here with whatever weapons you have, making the buckler a very lightweight and easy extra weapon to bring around. Pouches located on the belt can carry various supplies, and you can always have a couple throwing axes tucked onto it. Just think realistically about how much room is on that belt. A sidearm, a dagger, a couple pouches and a couple throwing axes is reasonable. Ten throwing axes and twelve pouches is not.
• BACK: You can strap certain shields here. You can also have a quiver of arrows or bolts. Javelins can go here, too. But you reasonably can only carry, like, one thing on this spot.
• BANDOLIERS: If you have a bandolier going over your chest it's not a terrible spot for things like daggers or potions or alchemical tools (smoke bombs?) or what-have-you.
• A SPECIAL NOTE ON SLINGS: Slings are a very interesting weapon in that while they're generally crappy, they can be carried really easily because they weigh just about nothing. In the real world they were more useful than early bows for a time, and ancient slingers often wore a lot of them: as armbands, as headbands, as cords around their belt, etc. So if you've got a pouch of lead bullets or stones, you've got lots of places to wear slings.
• A SPECIAL NOTE ON DAGGERS: You can fit knives just about anywhere. Boots? Check. Up your sleeves? Check. On your legs? Check. At some point it can become uncomfortable, excessive, and give your enemy free daggers to shank you with in a grapple, but hey: you can have lots of daggers. If I were being realistic, I would try not to go overboard, especially if you're wearing armor.

So here's a few examples of reasonable adventuring kits:

Wulfric is an old, grizzled mercenary that fights in the thick of the melee. He wears a gambeson with a breastplate over it, and his weapon of choice is a halberd. He likes the halberd because he can use it as a walking stick while traveling, and it's a very versatile weapon. He has a dagger in his left boot and a mace as a sidearm, and he keeps a buckler on his belt as well. His only other weapon is a hand crossbow, a weapon he chose because it's easy to carry on his belt, but he doesn't use it very much.

In contrast, his traveling companion Edgar loves crossbows. Edgar carries a rather large, high draw crossbow as his primary weapon, so he carries it everywhere, and he wears brigandine armor because it's easy to repair. Besides his crossbow, he has two daggers: one on his belt and one in his boot. He also keeps his quarrels of bolts on his belt, a small shield strapped to his back, and a falchion at his side.

The third member of this entourage wears a simple shirt of mail with a tunic and pants. His name is Arthur, and he was a shepherd before he was an adventurer, and so he knows how to use a sling very well. He prefers to travel light, so he carries nothing in his hands when traveling, but he has a buckler at his side and three slings: one used as a headband, one dangling from his belt, and another wrapped around his right wrist. He has two pouches of ammunition at his belt: one of lead bullets and one of stones he gathers while traveling. He also keeps a knife handy at all times and he's gotten pretty good with the longsword he uses in conjunction with his buckler. He carries a backpack and is in charge of keeping most of the group's camping gear. He tends to drop the pack before a fight.

The above three characters all have pretty reasonable loadouts of equipment. Like... You COULD have more, but if you're shooting for realism you can quickly depart from it. The more weapons you add, the more inconvenience you get.

I forgot to mention:

If you've got a horse or a cart or packmule, what you can carry goes up by a LOT. Now, in actual war scenarios, medieval knights and well-equipped footsoldiers would have squires and carts to hold things like lances, halberds, and etc.

An adventurer doesn't always have those luxuries, but if you do, don't forget to consider that.

And one big note: BACK. SHEATHES. DON'T. WORK. You can't really keep a sword sheathed on your back. Don't try it. It's bad for you. And on that note, you can't sheathe claymores! Or anything that would probably qualify as a 'greatsword!' You might have a scabbard for them, but you certainly aren't going to be able to wear it while walking around in your daily life. You'll hit every door you try to get through and it'll drag on the ground and etc. Not good. Just carry the greatsword in your hands.

I had an idea for a character that had the following load, 1 knife in each boot, a small knife for eating in a pouch on one gauntlet and a pouch with a spare bow-string on the other gauntlet, a single edged elven sword and a quarrel of bolts on his belt, each with additional leg holsters to keep them in place, a crossbow on his back and two small throwing axes tucked in to the back of belt. He wore thick leather armour. My argument for all these weapons, he's a lone survivor and one man walking army.

My character was half dwarven so the load wasn't too heavy... thoughts?

I had an idea for a character that had the following load, 1 knife in each boot, a small knife for eating in a pouch on one gauntlet and a pouch with a spare bow-string on the other gauntlet, a single edged elven sword and a quarrel of bolts on his belt, each with additional leg holsters to keep them in place, a crossbow on his back and two small throwing axes tucked in to the back of belt. He wore thick leather armour. My argument for all these weapons, he's a lone survivor and one man walking army.

My character was half dwarven so the load wasn't too heavy... thoughts?

It's not necessarily about the weight so much as it is about inconvenience.

When you say a knife on a gauntlet, for instance, I'm imagining the dagger is either stuffed into the gauntlet or strapped to it. If it's in a pouch strapped to it, using that hand in certain situations could see it fall off or get knocked off. If the pouch is inside the gauntlet, might it not have some risk of cutting him?

A crossbow on his back doesn't really work the same way as, say, having a bow taut about your chest and back (which isn't the best of ideas by the way). For one, how is it connected to his back? Is it strapped on? Is it attached with a cord? Does he have a holster of sorts for it on his back? Also consider the shape of a crossbow: if he does have a holster, it surely gets in his way when he stoops down to do stuff, etc.

Again: weight isn't really the problem. People can carry a surprising amount of weight when it's well distributed (see: real life soldiers in the U.S. army carrying fucking heavy backpacks). However, the gear we're discussing can get in the way of movement, make it difficult to bend, bang against things, get caught on trees, etc.

Instead of having that crossbow on his back, just have him carry it. It's a lot more realistic, I'd say. If you're going to have it on his back, think of some fantasy method that makes it snap into a more convenient shape, and be able to explain why this doesn't weaken the usefulness/strength of the crossbow if prompted. ("IT'S DWARVEN ENGINEERING!") As for the dagger, I'd nix the gauntlet idea; since you're wearing leather armor, just have it strapped to the upper arm, I say, or have it in a spring-loaded wrist sheathe on his gauntlet rather than a pouch.

But yeah, realistically he should carry the crossbow.

As an aside, leather armor didn't get used much IRL, though examples of it surely existed. The issue with leather is simple padded cloth (gambesons) function better, and cloth with metal rivets inside is even better than that (such as brigandine or a coat of plates). Nevertheless, it's a very traditional fantasy aesthetic, and I cannot begrudge you wanting to use leather armor. It's got a cool aesthetic!

Also, to really capture the 'badass one-man-army' aesthetic, what if he had spikes on the knuckles of one of his gauntlets instead of a dagger on that hand? A gauntlet is already fantastic for breaking faces (see: it's metal). A spiked metal gauntlet? That's probably painful.

The knife in the gauntlet is more for skinning animals and eating with but yes, it would be strapped to his gauntlet rather than in a pouch *that was a poor choice of words on my part, apologies)

I also like the idea of the spiked gauntlets! :P

It doesn't matter so much anymore as this character was rejected for various reasons but the main problem seemed to be too many weapons :/ I was just looking to see if I had maybe over-stepped in terms of number of weapons on one person or whether the GM was just being picky with the characters :) I hold no judgement against said GM, it's just disappointing not to be able to use the character :(

<Snipped quote by Nemaisare>

How many throwing knives did the character have?

I think the count was 3 or 4 depending on whether I also had him using long knives... Which I forgot about until just now. Obviously, it was smart of me to make him lose stuff cuz I can't even remember what everything he should have had. Pffffft, well done me.

It doesn't matter so much anymore as this character was rejected for various reasons but the main problem seemed to be too many weapons :/ I was just looking to see if I had maybe over-stepped in terms of number of weapons on one person or whether the GM was just being picky with the characters :) I hold no judgement against said GM, it's just disappointing not to be able to use the character :(

One probable reason why too many weapons might be an issue, barring weight restrictions and cumbersome ones, could be that a lot of them require some training to use, maybe? Or well, use efficiently, if one doesn't go by the whole, stick em with the pointy end schtick. :P

I was just wondering if anyone would like to contribute to a quick question I have.

What is the most weapons you've had one character in possession of at one time?

Thanks in advance for all contributions!

El :)

Nuclear backpack, exoskeletal load bearing kit, a few thermobaric demolition-charges, and an automatic grenade launcher.

And a flare gun, that when used, calls in for a gunship to deliver all its ordnance "danger close".

At the end of that page, a group of 5 blew up a sky-battleship (grenades, thermobaric + flare), stole a nuclear submarine (exo-suit), crashed it, blew it up (nuclear), then invaded Skynet (ongoing).

But most of that was caused by one girl. Who... originally was supposed to be capable of defending an entire country by herself... somehow... using remote-controled mechas... Her original concept was intentionally flawed for plot-reasons.

This is why you don't bring a taser to a thermonuclear war.

I tend to limit "weapons" since I consider the time it takes to reload/clear a weapon to be precisely the same as dropping it and picking up a different one... with a smaller ammunition-capacity.

The only time that'd make sense is if I deemed it unsuitable to use a rocket-launcher for room-clearing.

Niche 'tools' I consider equipment, plot/mission specific... but often getting 'repurposed' the moment I start derailling the plot.
-Otherwise I'd have to count weaponized girlfriends and AIs.

Most of my characters averages around 3-5 weapons, depending on size. Mainly swords or spears/polearms. Never really bothered with maces or axes.

If we're talking about my Exalted characters, however... define weapon in a world where a demigod can parry a literal mountain being thrown at them alongside other wacky stuff.

Let's see...

Paired short powered swords, pistol , rifle, combat knife, plus a more specialist pistol like compact plasma weapon. Med kit, and etc.

Rare, powerful family sword, pistol, rifle, combat knife. Med kit, ammo etx.

Lqrge super human with powered axe, pistol up sized, rifle up sized, twin human scale short swords as knives.

Access to heavier armour use heavy double headed axe one handed, optinal range in extra heavier weapons.

That was me covering all bases, I did have a generous IC weaponry allowance..

Though due to layouts, all could carry there amounts within reason, even the top one. Hips, outside leg. Boot, back etc. Add home armoury, though this expanded to 4-5 min extra options at least, including anti tank, and more. But they took up slots and needed swap outs etc.

My characters will seldom have more than 2 weapons if they are combat orientated. They will have their primary weapon that they've been training with, and a side arm of sorts in the event they lose their weapon. What few times they have any more weapons than that, it's usually in the form of grenades, knives, smaller items that are easier to carry. I never really got the appeal of having FPS inventory, but I seem to be in the minority in that regard.

Zombie apocalypse/SHTF set-up: Rifle, Pistol, Back-up Pistol, Folding knife, fixed blade knife, short sword.

If I had the choice, I'd throw two-to-three grenades in there. Maybe even a grenade launcher, but I hate how unwieldy they can be.