Simple Weapon Adjustments

As many of you probably know, I prefer the "all melée attacks do 1d6 damage" approach. This is linked to my interpretation of "1 hit point of damage" as "damage that could kill a typical man". Using 1d6 for both the base hit die for a typical man and the standard damage means you add a little variety into the combat: sometimes, you land a blow you know should kill, but your opponent manages to escape his fate. The attack roll is thus not a roll to see if you hit, it's to see if you could potentially kill a typical man.

A side effect of this is that I prefer increasing the attack bonus over increasing the damage dice rolled. I did this in one of my old ruminations on gunpowder weapons. But now I have an idea: what if I applied this to melée weapons, too? Like this:

• The rough length of a melée weapon, rounded to the nearest foot, is the attack bonus. Dagger has +1 to hit, broadsword has +4.
• The length of a polearm is the max attack bonus, but the actual attack bonus used is the opponent's distance, in feet. If you have room to hold a polearm, you can use it in melée, but not to its full effect.
• Unarmed attacks or tiny weapons like brass knuckles or switchblades get no attack bonus for weapon length.
• Long weapons get the first strike in the first round, but afterwards the shortest weapons strike first. Surprise or being a mindless zombie/ooze can affect this.
• Missile weapons get no attack bonus for length, but do get a bonus for short or medium range. Weapon length does determine range for bows; weight determines range for crossbows.