When you create a character who will get into trouble, it seems like a good idea to give them some kind of weapon to protect themselves with. Which one, though? That’s the big question.
Generally speaking, the setting of your story will already limit what kind of weapon your protagonist can have. In a sci-fi setting, they will hardly walk around with some medieval sword, but in a medieval setting, they’ll also hardly use a laser weapon.
When I came up with Jane Browne in my first Knight Agency novel, I stayed relatively conservative with her weapons. As a secret agent in a modern setting, she has a semi-automatic pistol (Sig Sauer P250, to be more precise), but as an assassin and burglar, who might need to kill silently, she also carries throwing knives which can, if need be, double as regular knives in a close-quarter fight. Other weapons she has used include her hands and feet (the full body, really) and a sniper rifle - which trained assassin can’t do a kill on a distance, after all?
Jane Doe, Jane Browne’s alter ego for the Black Knight Agency series, uses very similar weapons. She prefers another gun manufacturer (Heckler & Koch instead of Sig Sauer), but she also uses guns and knives. She also likes using a baseball bat, though. Both characters can find weapons in their surroundings and improvise, if necessary.
Inez Crowe, the main character of “One for Sorrow” and other stories to come, doesn’t use any weapons. She’s a cat burglar and she doesn’t take people out or kill them. Her instincts, reflexes, and quick mind help her to find hiding places and stay out of reach.
John Stanton has a few weapons when he needs them, but he’s mostly an investigator, not a fighter. He has a small pistol (later on also a rifle that can be taken apart and hidden piece for piece) and he knows quite a bit about unarmed combat. He knows and uses tricks to get the upper hand. John’s best weapon is that he looks harmless, though, so he doesn’t have to fight too often. He will fight when he has to, but it’s the last possible option.
Alex Dorsey’s enemies are zombies, revenants, and vampires, so her weaponry has to reflect that. Aside from guns to take out zombies (destroy the brain and the zombie is finished), she needs stakes, holy water, and her very own daggers which she wields in close-quarter combat. In addition to the daggers, she also learned to use the Captain’s Sabre, a weapon that has been in the family for a long time and is a symbol for the leader of the order. Alex doesn’t fight to be heroic, but to kill those monsters which are a danger to mankind - even if one of those is her own brother.
Benjamin Farrens uses no weapons, but then, he doesn’t get into many fights, either. His big fight at the end of the last novella is fought without any weaponry (I originally planned on a katana for him, given to him by his fiancé Minako, but decided against it). Apart from that, he has others to rely on, such as Minako and Inspector Wilsborough. He can fight, no doubt, having been on his own when travelling Asia, but he isn’t called upon to do a lot of it.
Now for some new characters you will get to meet during the next couple of months.
Gabrielle Munson of “Theoretical Necromancy” fights rarely, preferring to run and hide, but as a necromancer (who never asked for her powers), she can draw the life energy out of an enemy she touches to kill them. She doesn’t shy away from using other weapons and kills if she has to, but prefers not to. Like John Stanton, she lives in a Steampunk world where technology isn’t quite on our level, but then, she also has supernatural powers at her disposal.
Maddie Dempsey, aka “The Eye”, usually brings the police down on the criminals she has investigated and gathered material against, but she can use a gun and she can fight in close-quarter combat if necessary. As the daughter of a soldier, she has been taught some useful tricks for a young lady to draw even with an attacker in a tight situation and she’s pretty tall for a woman. She lives in a pulp-ish 1930s reality where she has to dress up as a guy to get her work as a vigilante done.
Finally, there’s Isadora Goode, another necromancer, this one working happily on the side of evil (or, at any rate, on the side of the villains). Her reality is filled with superheroes and supervillains, her own family is made up of two heroes (her father and brother) and one former damsel (her mother, whom Isadora was supposed to succeed). Isadora uses her powers, but also a telescopic staff I put in after seeing something similar on a video and thinking it was a fitting weapon (before, I had her down for a telescopic baton). Isadora is stronger than the average woman, having inherited some additional strength from her super-strong father, but she’s also clever and rather rallies an army of undead creatures - why fight by hand, if you have an army available, after all? She knows some hand-to-hand combat, but that’s for emergencies.
So, those are my weapon choices, but what about yours? Keep in mind how your character lives, what they will do during the story. A huge, visible weapon is fine for a warrior of any kind - they’re supposed to be armed. A rogue will rather like to hide their weaponry, no matter whether it’s medieval, modern, or futuristic. A character with magical or psychic powers might not need any physical weapons at all.
Some characters might be well off when improvising - that can add a touch of tension to the story, given they will have to improvise some new weapon in every dangerous situation. Others might have a signature weapon which lets everyone know who they are the moment they walk into town.
Look at your plot and at your protagonist. What skill sets are necessary to get through the plot, what skill sets might your protagonist have in addition? What kind of weapon will serve them best? Do they need the weapon a lot? Then make them a professional fighter with their own set of weapons. Do they need to appear more harmless? Give them weapons which are easy to hide, such as knives or technology (if the setting allows for it) and give them a diplomatic skill set to talk people out of attacking them. Are they drawn into the situation against their will? Then give them skill sets which allow for them to use regular objects as weapons or which will make it easy for them to disappear from view.
The choice of weapon for your characters has a deep impact on your story, because you decided how and why they will fight and what way they will tackle dangers on their way through. Give it some thought and try to make it fit with their overall traits and their past, too.
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