One handed or Two?

[Thraxious]

Hi,

Sorry for asking what I am sure is a really basic question.. but I cannot find a definite answer for it.

There are many weapon skills like 1H sword and 2H sword, where the clear difference is if they are one-handed or two-handed to use. And they require different skills because of that. Fair enough.

But what about spears? Javelin, Shortspear and even Lance I can see being all One-Handed. But wouldn't a Longspear be Two-Handed? So why do we have "Spear" as a skill and not 1H/2H Spear skills?

Also, what is up with "Staff" being a skill? Presumably a Quarterstaff should be Two-Handed (I thought) but I hear it being argued by others that it can be used One-Handed as well if you needed to. So wouldn't it be better served as a 1H/2H Hammer weapon? Like clubs, maces and most other weapons you bludgeon someone with?

Most of this stuff I guess may be viewed as common sense.. so maybe they did not feel the need to specify One vs Two Handed. But, I sure would not mind some opinions or explanations on it, all the same.

 

[Deleriad]

The spear and quarterstaff skills cover both 1 and 2-handed use in the rules. The spear skill can also be used to throw a javelin.

Deciding on the scope of a skill is always a matter of debate; e.g. it seems relatively unlikely that an expert with a mounted lance would be particularly good at throwing a javelin. Mongoose have taken a general decision to make skills as broad as possible. Older versions of RQ (as well as current BRP) have tended to keep weapon skills relatively narrow.