Old Game Notebook: Ice Axe (AD&D)

December 21, 2016 Michael Varhola

Following is a fairly detailed 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons/AD&D writeup I did for the Ice Axe, which I interpreted as both a weapon and a piece of equipment. I believe I wrote this up a few months after I moved to Denver, probably in December 1984, and drew upon my first experiences with an item of this sort from three years earlier, when I scaled the glacier Blaueis in the Berchtesgaden Alps of Germany. In the course of the expedition I used an ice axe successively as an aid while climbing the glacier, to help guide my descent while body-sledding down it, and the next day — after I shattered two bones in my right foot while bouldering — as a crutch while painfully hobbling off the mountain.

Following is a fairly detailed 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons/AD&D writeup I did for the Ice Axe, which I interpreted as both a weapon and a piece of equipment. I discovered it on two sheets of yellow 8.5 x 14 legal pad paper in with a bunch of other old game material. I believe I wrote this up a few months after I moved to Denver, probably in December 1984, and drew upon my first experiences with an item of this sort from three years earlier, when I scaled the glacier Blaueis in the Berchtesgaden Alps of Germany. In the course of that expedition I used an ice axe successively as an aid while climbing the glacier, to help guide my descent while body-sledding down it, and the next day — after I shattered two bones in my right foot while bouldering — as a crutch while painfully hobbling off the mountain.

ICE AXE

Will typically have one adze or axe-type head, and on the opposite side a pick head. A hammer head my sometimes replace either then pick or axe/adze head.

Use as a weapon: Cannot be effectively thrown. AC adjustments "to hit" as per applicable weapon. Damage as per applicable weapon. Proficiency in given weapon desirable, as a non-proficiency penalty will accrue to someone who uses an unfamiliar weapon function of the ice axe. A spike is usually placed on the butt of the haft. Damage is 1-3/1-2 and AC adjustments "to hit" are as per a spear.

Weight: 60 gp

Length: c. 4'

Space: 4' (any weapon function other than the butt spike, which is 1')

Speed Factor: 7 (any weapon function)

Descent from a glacier or ice field may be attempted with the use of an ice axe. This can be initiated by sitting down on the ice and bending the knees so that the heels rest on the ice. The head of the tool is then grasped in the primary hand and the haft held in the middle by teh secondary hand and the tool held across the body, the spike resting on the ice on the secondary-hand side of the body. The character may then slide down, steering with [the] axe (to avoid rocks), and slowing descent using his heels and by traversing from side-to-side.

On the back side of the first sheet was the following list:

Arctic Equipment (Encumbrance)

Mittens (15)

Gloves (10)

Parka (100)

Fur Boots (20)

Wool Cap, Knit (10)

Skis, Alpine

Skis, Nordic

Snowshoes (100)

Ice Axe (60)

Boot claws (50)

Camp Stove

Down Sleeping Bag

Tent

Gaiters