Goodman Games

A bow is reloaded as a free action, a cross bow as a move... but what about steam guns? Steam cannons?

I know a steam gun (without an additional boiler) can only fire once every second round, but what about the actual loading of the shell? And are there any feats that could speed this up? I'm a little confused as to how reloading steam-weaponry works, especially the larger mech-mounted cannons that require multiple people to operate.

Thanks for any clarifcation you're able to bring!

The core book has no information on reloading that I can find, so I'm going to make up some stuff on the spot.

Steam guns and steam cannons are technologically advanced enough that I'd guess most designs come with some sort of ammo clip or other self-reloading mechanism (even if it's just gravity moving another ball into place after one is fired). In my campaigns I've never made the players keep track of ammo for these weapons. I've just assumed that they've got enough ammo to get them through one fight easily enough, and can refill at their leisure once the battle is over.

If you wanted these weapons to be single shot in your game, I'd suggest a full round action to reload a steam cannon (though most mechs would probably have separate people loading and firing the weapons so it wouldn't make much difference), and a move action to reload a steam gun (manipulating little balls of steel requires more manual dexterity than arrows, plus they're probably not quite as easily reachable as arrows in a quiver).