The vast selection of obscure medieval polearms, none of which did anything meaningfully different from any of the others and none of which were accompanied by any illustration or explanation, was a pretty notorious feature of the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook:

Yes, there are four different things on here with "guisarme" in their names. Yes, they all do
identical damage to the vast majority of creatures PCs are going to try to use them on. Yes,
you are meant to figure out for yourself that 2d4 is the dice combo you need to roll for that
damage range. AD&D did not believe in coddling its players. Or even really helping them
very much at all.

The fact that TSR later wasted even more of everyone's time trying to explicate this instead of just deleting it in favor of a single entry for "halberd, or whatever halberd-alike you think fits your character's vibe best" makes it even more take-the-piss-out-of-worthy. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.