Black powder firearms

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jferngler
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:17 am

Black powder firearms

Post by jferngler »

I've been kicking around ideas for incorporating muskets and blunderbusses into the rules. In general, I feel like there are penalties associated with these basic weapons, offset by their power.

For example, I'm thinking of a blanket -2 penalty to the use of a firearm in it's intended role. Muskets weren't the most accurate weapons, and blunderbusses were considerably worse. You can use the thing as a club at no penalty, a la "Last of the Mohicans."

For the power of the weapon, on a successful crit, the target saves vs. death, and takes normal damage if saved.

Reloading takes a whole round, and in tight quarters, after firing, hit or miss, smoke fills the immediate area of the firer and provides concealment for one round.

These are preliminary, and more complicated than I'd like. Care to help me refine these ideas?
Galadrin
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Re: Black powder firearms

Post by Galadrin »

It would be neat to have custom fumble and crit charts for these. Maybe missile weapons in general should have their own crit charts?
jferngler
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Re: Black powder firearms

Post by jferngler »

Black Powder Firearms:

General Characteristics:

-Firearms can be used as clubs at no penalty.
-Reloading takes one full round.
-On a critical hit, target saves vs. death (DC 15), save for normal damage.
-In tight quarters, after firing, smoke fills a ten-foot area centered on the firer, providing concealment for one round.



Musket: 1d12, 25/75/150*, 50 gp

Blunderbuss: 1d10, 15/30/50** , 30 gp

Pistol: 1d10 , 10/20/30* , 30 gp

*Listed damage is only for short range. Each increment reduces damage by 1 dice step.
**Listed damage is only for short range. Each increment reduces damage by 2 dice steps.

How does this look?
SYKOJAK
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Re: Black powder firearms

Post by SYKOJAK »

jferngler wrote:Black Powder Firearms:

General Characteristics:

-Firearms can be used as clubs at no penalty.
-Reloading takes one full round.
-On a critical hit, target saves vs. death (DC 15), save for normal damage.
-In tight quarters, after firing, smoke fills a ten-foot area centered on the firer, providing concealment for one round.



Musket: 1d12, 25/75/150*, 50 gp

Blunderbuss: 1d10, 15/30/50** , 30 gp

Pistol: 1d10 , 10/20/30* , 30 gp

*Listed damage is only for short range. Each increment reduces damage by 1 dice step.
**Listed damage is only for short range. Each increment reduces damage by 2 dice steps.

How does this look?
Not a bad start, here are some of my recoomendations:

#1: Make the Blunderbuss ranges the same as the pistol. It is designed to fire multiple projectiles at very close range simular to a pistol. Give it an automatic hit when firing into a melee that you hit all targets. And double its range penalties at medium and long ranges. Allow just about anything metal to be used in loading it.

#2: Since we are talking first generation firearms here, the addition of a fuse has to be mentioned. Now that fuse has to be put into the chamber of the gun, then cut to its desired length of time, (ie. how long does the firer want to wait before the gun goes off?) Please also bear in mind that even with fuse cut from the fuseline that there can be discrepancies in how long it takes, (in inches per second,) for the fuse to burn itself to ignition.

#3: Another fact of primitive firearms to keep in mind, because of the need of fuses and Black power, they both have to stay dry in order to be used!!! I can not stress that enough! If your players think that, thier guns will be ready for firing, when they are treking through the swamps or its pouring rain outside, they are in for a wake-up call. Looks like dinner's on for the lizardmen!

#4: Since we are talking about primitive firearms still and the fact they fire balls of lead, (for the pistol and the musket.) It must be noted that I would double the normal range penalties on top of non-trained useage penalty, until after about a month of familiarity training has taken place. Remember these are brand new technicial modern marvels of science. The bright side is it only takes about a month to properly train anyone in its use. A longbowman takes a year or longer to be proficient.

#5: Since you have to pour your Gunpowder through the shooty-end of the gun, then cram some cotton wadding to compress the Gunpowder then ram-rod the ball to the top of all that. A good DM should have a nasty Misfire table laid out should the players fumble thier missle attack roll. That table should be able to kill the firer, of that gun, on that attempt, reguardless of thier hitpoints/levels.

In summary, I am not trying to disuade you from allowing them into your campaign. But it has been over 500 years of innovation and improvement of the gun. This is the one fact of the reason why we have the Assault Weapons, Mini-Guns, Main Tank Gun, and Self-propelled Artillery of today. Because sometimes Gary the Gun-nut did not come back from his test firing. Or sometimes Mark the Musketeer put a little too much Gunpowder and now has various crippling injures now because of that fact.

First rule of Gun-Handling: Guns and Alcohol don't mix!
There comes a point in time when it all comes down to the roll of a die!
jmucchiello
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Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:28 am

Re: Black powder firearms

Post by jmucchiello »

Don't forget rules for failing saving throws against fire when you are carrying black powder. Black powder and fire breathing dragons mix even worse than guns and alcohol.
SYKOJAK
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Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:15 am

Re: Black powder firearms

Post by SYKOJAK »

jmucchiello wrote:Don't forget rules for failing saving throws against fire when you are carrying black powder. Black powder and fire breathing dragons mix even worse than guns and alcohol.
Unless you are drinking alcohol, while handleing guns and facing a fire-breathing dragon. :lol:
There comes a point in time when it all comes down to the roll of a die!
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