So I was musing at creating a desert fairing swordsman, and thinking about how he'll wear a headscarf and wield a scimitar. Knowing that I have no control about what headdress or type of sword I start with, I thought about having specific types of weapons in specific areas. In a desert area, an adventurer may start with a scimitar and bad guys will all wield scimitars or other such more desert-y weapons.
This led to what certain biomes may have. Now it would be difficult to say which terrains have which weapons, because it isn't like there's a hundred different types of hammers, so I got the idea that chunks of land and cities would all have similar weapons. An area in one place may have a really high amount of halberds and longswords, while another would not have any halberds or longswords but instead mostly have battle axes and two-handed swords. If one found a longsword in the two-handed sword area, it may be made of silver or may be of low quality.
This could lead to a more adventurous type of adventuring, where one could travel around looking for a certain type of weapon. If a historical figure had a silver maul in an area where most people have maces, then one would be able to ask him about his family, and that would point you to where people find mauls. Or, if you like the weapon you have, one could travel around to find the best bowmen or axedwarves by going to the villages and towns where most people have axes or bows (oh god that would be horrible to go up against).
Just a thought, but I kinda like the idea of area based weapons.