D&D (2024) Make firearms "magic items"

[Yaarel]

For my bronze age setting, steel weapons aren't default. They should be magic items.

In the Bronze Age, iron weapons exist sporadically from meteorites "from the heavens". They would be technological marvels and probably understood as miraculous and ominous. These are prized treasures of prominent leaders. In other words, magic items.

 

[Yaarel]

Maybe rather than magic items a new category of Technological Items could be added for Firearms, Kwalish devices, Skyships, Automotons,Prosthetics and Googles of Nightvision etc.

Embrace the whole Clock/Steampunk and Swords and Planets gonzo of MtG- and put out a Masters of the Universe setting

Yeah, in my mind, a list of "Martial magic items" is moreorless the same as this list of Technological marvels.

Firearms should be in the Variant Rules section of the PHB. Firearms are not magic weapons, they are additional options.

• Firearms
  • Musket
  • Pistol
• Exotic Weapons
  • Chakram
  • Double Axe
  • Spiked Chain
  • Shuriken
  • Two Bladed sword
• Exotic Armors
  • Banded
  • Gambeson
  • Tower Shield
• Partial Armor
  • Gladiator belt
  • Quarter Plate

Heh, I would add renaissance Rapier and Full Plate Armor to the variant lists. Also metal-scarcity Ring Armor. Maybe change "Studded Leather Armor" to "Full Leather Armor" covering limbs.



I am thinking the 2024 Players Handbook should have every rule that is necessary to play a game of D&D. But avoid variant rules to minimize overwhelming new players. Variants are part of setting decisions and probably belong in the DMs Guide. Meanwhile the default setting can be as setting-neutral as possible: "generic medievalesque", say 500 to 1500 CE with the assumption that magic exists. Then the DMs Guide can assist the DM with different ways to spice the setting in different ways.

 

[Minigiant]

Heh, I would add renaissance Rapier and Full Plate Armor to the variant lists. Also metal-scarcity Ring Armor. Maybe change "Studded Leather Armor" to "Full Leather Armor" covering limbs.



I am thinking the 2024 Players Handbook should have every rule that is necessary to play a game of D&D. But avoid variant rules to minimize overwhelming new players. Variants are part of setting decisions and probably belong in the DMs Guide. Meanwhile the default setting can be as setting-neutral as possible: "generic medievalesque", say 500 to 1500 CE with the assumption that magic exists. Then the DMs Guide can assist the DM with different ways to spice the setting in different ways

I think D&D how it is played has a default of Late Medieval to Early Renaissance Era.

The fighter and the cleric are built around Late Medieval Plate Armor.

There would be firearms but as siege and war machines. Not for dungeons delving.

 

[aco175]

I can see having them in both the PHB or the DMG. First I was thinking the DMG to have the DM be in control of having them in his campaign, but then they can by fiat, but having them in the PHB means that the players can see them and the stats better instead of asking the DM all the time.

Is having guns in the first place (for 1D&D) a Matt Mercer effect. Is it his game that has a pistol wielding PC?

 

[tetrasodium]

I can see having them in both the PHB or the DMG. First I was thinking the DMG to have the DM be in control of having them in his campaign, but then they can by fiat, but having them in the PHB means that the players can see them and the stats better instead of asking the DM all the time.

Is having guns in the first place (for 1D&D) a Matt Mercer effect. Is it his game that has a pistol wielding PC?

Rarity levels, restriction levels, tech level, etc has been a thing in ttrpgs for ages. It would be trivial to have an asterisk next to them & little "*Per DM approval. Thisweapon may not be available in all worlds or cities" at the bottom

 

[aco175]

Rarity levels, restriction levels, tech level, etc has been a thing in ttrpgs for ages. It would be trivial to have an asterisk next to them & little "*Per DM approval. Thisweapon may not be available in all worlds or cities" at the bottom

Same as everything else I gather. I have never had them in my games or others I have gamed with for a time, but some might like them. There are also other threads here that talk about the DM's world and restricting things like certain races or classes.

 

[tetrasodium]

Same as everything else I gather. I have never had them in my games or others I have gamed with for a time, but some might like them. There are also other threads here that talk about the DM's world and restricting things like certain races or classes.

No I think in this case it's probably justified to be extra explicit simply because they are so violently in conflict with certain settings.

 

[Blue Orange]

This is super controversial (I'm old enough to not consider that a bad word). Firearms ended the Middle Ages and the era of knights in armor. You're now playing a different game. Not necessarily a bad one, but enough you have to change everything. I definitely think you could make a great game revolving around mages developing anti-artillery spells and infantry squares spread out to avoid literal enemy fire, but it would require a lot of thought and I bet most GMs wouldn't bother.

 

[Minigiant]

This is super controversial (I'm old enough to not consider that a bad word). Firearms ended the Middle Ages and the era of knights in armor. You're now playing a different game. Not necessarily a bad one, but enough you have to change everything. I definitely think you could make a great game revolving around mages developing anti-artillery spells and infantry squares spread out to avoid literal enemy fire, but it would require a lot of thought and I bet most GMs wouldn't bother.

It seems they are going the "Firearms are too expensive and too weak to mass produce and create gunpowder troops" route.

My home setting does this but harsher. A pistol is a rich person's weapoan as you have to fire the gunsmith's family as well.

 

[Mecheon]

In the Bronze Age, iron weapons exist sporadically from meteorites "from the heavens". They would be technological marvels and probably understood as miraculous and ominous. These are prized treasures of prominent leaders. In other words, magic items.

Honestly, from a realism perspective, iron weapons would exist but, as low quality weapons. Not technological marvels, not miraculous. Just low quality stuff that's way better than it has any right to be

Bronze was the preferred stuff at the time because it was easy to get a hold of, easy to work, and reliable. Iron was known and regarded as bad because, the stuff they had wasn't good, required significant work to get it in any good condition, was incredibly easy to get too brittle or too soft depending on carbon (which the folks at the time wouldn't have known about as ironworking was in its infancy and all smithing would have been focused on reliable bronze), all of the systems required to get good quality iron didn't exist, and if you didn't treat it perfectly it'd just rust. Iron only came into play because the trade routes that allowed for bronze to be widely circulated all collapsed, so people had to make do with inferior iron, leading to developments in ironworking that eventually allowed for it to be comparable, and then better than bronze