Arms and Armour
As a chef needs his knife, so too does a warrior need her own. While combat can be performed in a purely hand-to-hand manner, many people enjoy bringing large metal implements to their fights. Below are the descriptions of various tools of the trade. Not everything is covered here, so if you want something unique, feel free to lecture the Director on your specific weapon of choice.
Weapons
Axe
Meant for chopping wood, but also effective at chopping limbs. A small hatchet or firefighter axe can be easily carried in one hand, dealing 3 x Strength damage, or thrown for 2 x Strength damage. A large two-handed, tree-felling, and possibly two-headed, axe deals 5 x Strength damage, but cannot be thrown.
Bat
Blunt instruments for hitting balls or keeping order. A small baton is small and held in one hand, dealing 3 x Strength damage. A baseball bat or similar object held in two hands increases your effective strength by 1 for damage purposes.
Bow
Traditional tool for hunting game and humans. The stronger the user is, the more power they can put into the arrow (yes, we're ignoring draw strength of the bow). An arrow deals 4 x Strength, with a maximum strength of 5. Special stronger arrows may be possible, but putting too much pressure can shatter the arrow outright.
Crossbow
The cross version of a bow. Deals a flat 15 damage, though it must be reloaded after every shot.
Knife
Switchblades, cooking knives, or other small and easily-concealed implements of stabbing deal 2 x Strength damage. Ye olde dagger, known also as a ohmygodthatsaknife, or occasionally "short sword" or "wakizashi" deals 3 x Strength a damage.
Mace
Solid metal ball on a stick. Ouch. Small hammers or one-handed maces deal 4 x Strength damage, while two-handed maces, mauls, or other such heavy implements deal 5 x Strength. Flails are also included here, for all you Angmar fans, dealing equal damage.
Pistol
Your simple revolver. Holds six shots before it needs to be reloaded, so make sure you count 'em. Deals 10 damage per bullet, and the bullets ignore half of the target's armour (rounded down). Can be used multiple times in a turn, but the recoil gives a cummulative -1 penalty on each shot after the first (in addition to the normal penalties).
Rifle
When one bullet isn't enough, try using a dozen. A standard assault rifle magazine holds 29 bullets (technically up to 30, but in practice only 29 at a time) dealing 10 damage each, and supports three modes of fire: manual, semi-automatic, and automatic. Manual fire uses the same rules as a pistol, recoil and all. When using semi-automatic fire, choose how many bullets you want to shoot in your burst; every Success Level on the attack means 1 bullet connected, up to the number of bullets shot. Each burst gives a -3 recoil penalty. When using automatic fire, empty your magazine and make 1 roll for every 10 bullets fired for each target in the covered area. Each Success Level indicates 1 hit. Defending against fully automatic fire has a -2 penalty.
Shotgun
Semi-useful fow hunting wabbits. Holds a cartridge containing many small pellets, dealing 15 damage to anyone within 5 meters, or 5 damage to anyone between 5 and 20 meters. The large spread of the bullets means people (and anthropomorphic rabbits) have a -2 on defence tests against shotgun fire (in addition to any other penalties they may have).
Sniper Rifle
Your standard rifle for deer-hunting or sniping. Stores a single bullet that deals 20 damage and ignores half of the target's armour (rounded down). If you take a turn to Aim (see Combat Maneuvers), you may forgo the normal bonus on the attack roll - instead, make a Perception and Bow-fu test with a penalty equal to the target's Armour. On a Success, you may hit a weak spote, thus ignoring all of the target's armour. The director may decide that certain creatures have too thick armour over all their bodies, making this impossible.
Spear
A pointy piece of rock, metal, or fork on a stick. This covers most reachy polearms or other long weapons, including pikes, halberds, lances, glaives, guisarmes, glaive-guisarmes, guisarme-glaives, glaive-guisarme-glaives, and many many others. When used two-handed, deals 3 x (Strength + 1) damage. A thrown spear or javelin deals 3 x Strength damage.
Staff
The polearm's blunt cousin, using a staff, quarterstaff, shortstaff, or other kind of staff is a almost always a two-handed close-range ordeal. This deals 3 x (Strentgh +1) damage.
Sword
The quintessential sidearm, swords are a staple tool of many a mythological badass. Rapiers, broadswords, and the like can be used one-handed for 4 x Strength damage, or two-handed for 5 x Strength damage. The bigger swords, including Zweihänders, claymores, and katanas must be used two-handed, and deal 5 x (Strength + 1) damage. While katanas don't grant a bonus for parrying bullets, such attempts are more than welcome.
Armour
If you don't trust your ability to dodge or parry attacks, you can try carrying around a heavy sheet of metal to stand in the way. Every armour has an Armour Rating, which represents the amount you deduct from the damage dealt before applying it to your Life Points.
Cloth or Leather Armour
This armour is comfortable, light, and relatively cheap, providing an Armour Rating of 3. This armour doesn't interfere much with magic, though its still imposes a -1 penalty on all Sorcery rolls, it makes the precise movements slightly more difficult. This covers leather, gambeson, and similar non-metalic materials.
Metal Armor
Plate, scale, chain, or otherwise coating yourself in metal grants you an Armour Rating of 5. This armour interferes with movement to a certain degree, granting you a -2 penalty on all rolls using the Acrobatics skill, as well as using Crime to sneak or Sports to jump, climb, or swim.
Coating yourself with metal also limits the flow of Essence, imposing a -2 penalty on all Sorcery, Spirit Magic, and Sight rolls, as well as lowering your Essence Channeling by 1 (if any, and to a minimum of 0).
Shield
A small shield (usually some kind of round-shield) grants a +1 bonus on all Parry rolls, and allows you to bypass the usual penalty on parrying most projectiles, and bullets may be parried at a reduced -2 penalty. The hand used to hold a shield can't be used to wield a weapon, and imposes a -2 penalty on all Sorcery rolls.
Large Shield
A shield covering the entire size of the wielder, such as a kite shield or tower shield, grants a +3 bonus on all parry rolls. As with smaller shields, you may ignore the usual penalty on parrying projectiles, and bullets may be parried with a -2 penalty. The hand using the shield cannot be used to wield a weapon, and imposes a -4 penalty on all Sorcery rolls.
Additionally, as an action you may set your large shield on the ground, creating a wall of cover. Make one roll using Strength and Constitution with the above +3 bonus. Any projectile coming your way from that direction must score at least the amount you rolled, or else the attack harmlessly hits the shield. Bullets get a +5 bonus on attacks against a steadied shield. You cannot move or use one hand while holding the shield in this way, but it doesn't require any actions once set.