The MorningStar in HeroQuest
by Hound (hound@ambient.on.ca)

Ugly Skull

What is a morning star?

There are three schools of thought on the matter:
1) A morning star is an elongated mace
2) A morning star is a spiked ball, no matter what it's attached to
3) A morning star is a special type of flail, or "chain-mace"

The first description is supported by most literature on the subject, including the Oxford English Dictionary, Encyclopedia Britannica, and most major works on European Arms and Armour. The second description seems to be a recent compromise between the other two.

The third description seems to have it's roots in the mid 19th Century, in mistranslated texts on medieval weaponry. But the description stuck and is the most predominant in RPGs, and therefore will be used here.

The Morning Star in HeroQuest

The morning star is a risky weapon, unlike most other weapons wielded in combat, the morning star has been known to swing around and wound it's own user. But it's also incredibly effective as a weapon, as it will often wrap past a shield or blocking weapon and strike the defender regardless.

For game play, we've decided on two sizes of Morning Stars. A small morning star is useable in one hand, with a shield in the other. A large morning star is quite the two-handed weapon, with the same restrictions as the Battle Axe.

Morning Stars can attack on diagonals, like the staff and long sword. But they are also somewhat uncontrollable - if used on a diagonal to strike past a friendly character, every black shield rolled on the attack roll counts as a hit against the friendly character (while skulls still count as hits against the target). On ANY attack where the number of black shields is greater than the number of skulls, those black shields count as damage against the wielder.

Small morning stars give the wielder 3 attack dice, cannot be wielded by Wizards, can attack on diagonals, and cost 300 gold coins

Large morning stars give the wielder 4 attack dice, cannot be wielded by Wizards, can attack on diagonals, cannot be used with shields, and cost 400 gold coins