Thread: No Value on Knife and Dagger damage?

I have noticed some strange stuff in the BRP book I figured I'll take up here. First one I actually noticed today while preparing for our new Fantasy campaign is that the knife from the Primitive Weapon list misses a value. I assume this is an error and the actual value is Cheap as most of the other Primitive weapons are.

The other thing I noticed actually came up from Classic Fantasy where Daggers have 1D4+2 in damage while the it is listed as 1D4 only in the BRP book. I always assumed the 1D4+2 was just an error. But later on I noticed that all of the Creatures and NPCs from the Creatures chapter in the BRP book that have daggers have damage 1D4+2 listed and probably the reason for the damage in Classic Fantasy. One source is incorrect. And errata is required there. I think 1D4+2 for a dagger feels a bit high and will continue to use 1D4 as the Dagger damage.

Feedback and thoughts are welcome.

RQ Daggers always used to have 1D4+2, so I assume that this came from the same source.

1D3/1D4 for a knife is OK, for a dagger is a bit low. I never had a problem with 1D4+2 for a dagger.

Since as long as I can remember dagger has been 1d4+2 which has struck me as a little out of sync as a dagger is just the shortest sword there is and swords get +1 not +2. I can't say that it'd stop me playing in someone else's game if they stuck to Dagger/Dirk 1d4+2 and Shortsword 1d6+1 though.

I guess a dagger is a very good at perforing because of its long thin sharp size, better than a short sword: it is easier to inflict damage, even if the broader shortsword can potentialy make more damage. Therefore a better minimum damage for the dagger (3 vs. 2), but a smaller maximum damage than the short sword (6 vs.7).
Just a guess.
Anyway a dagger seems more efficient than a raw knife to me. Making one requires a more advanced metallurgy.

You guys do have a point there!
Checked my old copy of the swedish game Drakar och Demoner (which is basically a translation of the Worlds of Wonder and the Magic World booklet) and there Daggers are listed as 1D4+1 which makes sense compared to Knife. I agree that the dmg should be slightly better than a knife. So 1D4+1 or 1D4+2 is more reasonable I guess. Later on an expansion to that game listed Daggers as 1D4+1 and added Dirk with 1D4+2 as damage.

As Al. said. 1D4+1 somehow do feel more in sync with the other Swords and Knifes but 1D4+2 is no huge difference. Guess I have a decision to make for the upcoming game. It is slightly annoying though since I would rather have small things like this cleared up in the BRP Book so I can focus on other things.

Edit: Another thing I noticed when checking up this issue even further is that the NPCs and Creatures listed with Knifes also have 1D4+2 as damage. This doesn't help the issue.