Weapon Lists

In the world of Prodigy, I intentionally use both weapons from the standard medieval fantasy list and a host of weapons from lesser-known cultures, since I focus a great deal on the cultural differences between the disparate groups in my world.  Weapon choices are a part of that.

Category	Weapons Included
Axes	Hatchet, tomahawk
Blades, Light	Dagger, rapier, kukri, katar, xiphos, knife
Blades, Heavy	Longsword, cutlass, khopesh, khanda
Clubs	Mace, sap, baston, cudgel, ball club
Soft Weapons	Heavy chain, rope dart
Large Arms	Tulwar, maul, claymore, boarding axe, glaive, halberd
Spears	Javelin, sibat, spear, shortspear
Staves	Quarterstaff, eiku

Category	Weapons Included
Strong bow	Longbow, recurved bow
Arbalest	Crossbow
Small bow	Shortbow
Sling	Sling, atlatl
Throwing Iron	Throwing knife, hurlbat, dart, bolas
Throwing Spear	Javelin, shortspear, sibat

In this version of the text, I group like weapons together and they share the same mechanical properties, but someone trained with a khanda fights less well with a longsword or khopesh than with their preferred weapon.  While this approach seemed well-suited for the game I was making, it is less and less appealing to me now - I have seen many times that failing to make a mechanical distinction between items significantly lessens the players' appreciation of any other form of distinction.