What This Page Is
Iron and hide are the vocabulary every other system speaks. A creature's threat names the damage type it deals; a spell's Exchange names what it is made of; an item is what a maker owes the world in return. Iron and Hide is the catalog — the weapons, the armor, and the price bands — so that when a page says long sword it means one thing, and when it says masterwork it means a story event.
The damage vocabulary is fixed: blunt · slashing · piercing · bite · venom · fire · ice · lightning · poison · shadow · sound · mind · mixed. A weapon has exactly one; a being may have several, but the threat row names the one it most often kills with.
The Three Bands
Sidearm (one hand, the hand that is always free)
- Dagger — piercing. The gap-finder; the second strike when the first has opened the line. Cheap, fast, and the only blade that fits in a coat.
- Short sword — slashing. The town guard's argument. Honest, short, and everywhere.
- Thrown blade — piercing. The last word of the Vantari when they are not on their bow.
Arm (the weapon the body commits to)
- Long sword — slashing. The default of the world. Two hands or one, and the hand that is free is the hand that holds the shield.
- Battle axe — slashing. The ogre's preference over the blade — it wins the parry by weight, not by hand.
- Warhammer — blunt. The answer to plate; the only thing that argues with a wall and wins.
- Mace — blunt. The short argument, one hand, for the fighter who keeps the other free.
- Flail — blunt. The parry-killer — the head does not go where the parry expects it.
- Spear / polearm — piercing. The line's whole reason for existing. Two hands, one long reach, and the distance where the other man is a rumor.
Ranged (the fight from where the ground is still yours)
- Longbow — piercing. The Vantari's voice. Slow to draw, fast to land, and the only arrow that flies true at a gallop — because the Vantari are the only ones who shoot from one.
- Crossbow — piercing. The patient shot. Slower to load, harder to miss, and the sound it makes is the sound of a decision.
- Thrown — see sidearm. A stone, a spear-head, a vial of something the serpent-folk distilled — the ranged band is the band where what you throw matters more than how.
The Armor Ladder
| tier | coverage | speed cost (AGI) | who actually wears it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hide | torso and arms | none | the default; the beast-folk, the marsh, the poor |
| Leather | torso | −10 | the town guard, the rider, the man who expects a cut |
| Scale | torso and shoulders | −20 | the professional; the guild fighter |
| Chain | everything but the neck | −30 | the siege; the line; the man who is paid to stand |
| Plate | everything | −40, and it moves like a thought | named, and few. The only plate that moves is dwarven — the anvil-singers' masterwork, and it does not come off the anvil cheap. |
Plate is not a tier you buy; it is a tier you are given, or a tier you make, or a tier that is already dead and you are wearing it.
Cost Bands (the crafting ladder)
An item's price is its tier on the maker's ladder:
- Apprentice — it works. A sidearm, a hide coat, a pot. The price of a week's labor.
- Journeyman — it is made right. The guild mark, the honest edge. The price of a season.
- Master — it is made well. The name of the maker is on it, and the name is worth something. The price of a year.
- Masterwork — it is a story event. There are a dozen in the world, most of them already owned: Rumzuck Umbatsch's shield, the dragons' own making, the anvil-singers' plate that moves. A masterwork does not get found; it gets remembered.
The Item Pages
The catalog's anchors are the item pages themselves — each one names its damage type, its band, its tier, and the one thing a fighter knows about it that the rest of the world does not. Start with the Long Sword, the Warhammer, the Kite Shield, the Longbow, and the Masterwork Blade.