Help needed: Firearms in D&D (all editions)

[CleverNickName]

I have started up a Wiki article for firearms in D&D (all editions), and I need your help.

There is plenty of room for improvement on what I have written, and I would like to encourage everyone to take a chainsaw to what I've got here and expand/rewrite/improve upon it. I know that there have been several threads out there about how to use firearms in the game...I'd like to get all of those ideas into a single document, without chasing down dozens of threads and taking credit for other peoples' work.

The article can be found at this link. To edit it, just click on the "edit" tag to the right of the header you wish to edit.

So come on...let's give our pirates their cannonballs back!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

No answers, but you want help?

*bump*



Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Firearms outside of 3E, and even there my knowledge is slim at best. I remember the firearms entry in the DMG and that Forgotten Realms had some, too.

Does d20 Modern count? Then you had a wealth of information...

 

[CleverNickName]

No answers, but you want help?

*bump*



Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Firearms outside of 3E, and even there my knowledge is slim at best. I remember the firearms entry in the DMG and that Forgotten Realms had some, too.

Does d20 Modern count? Then you had a wealth of information...

Hey, thanks for the tip. I followed your idea, and built in a section for d20 Modern...mostly, I just linked the "ranged weapons" section of its SRD to the article. It's the best I could do; I don't really play that game.

It would be nice to get some people in there who like to edit and tweak rules, though. Putting up a link to the SRD is great, but there is so much more we could do with it.

I remember several "firearms" threads for 2E, 3E, and even 4E...some were better than others, but each one of them had good ideas. If we put all of our heads together on one community project, I think we could come up with a really nice (and really useful) product.

Fingers crossed, anyway. "If you build it, they will come..."

 

[Walknot]

in 4E, weapons have +X to hit when trained, so for firearms that +X could be quite high.

in "real life" firearms meant the end of "knights in shining armor" because they more or less ignored armor. (of course, that didn't account for magic armor)

in 2E, weapons had an intrinsic speed, and your old matchlock or flintlock might be kind of slow. which in 4E would mean a (-) modifier to initiative.

if guns are "new tech" in your adventure setting then there could be a chance of a malfunctions such as explosion, hangfire, or misfire.

if you want gunpowder to fill some of the strategic roles of the mage, then you can tune oits effects that way, in terms of range, blast, damage, etc.

 

[Obryn]

If you can find it, d20 Call of Cthulhu has an almost obsessive list of guns.

-O

 

[dougmander]

in "real life" firearms meant the end of "knights in shining armor" because they more or less ignored armor. (of course, that didn't account for magic armor)

Knights in full plate co-existed with firearms for centuries. Bullets did not ignore armor, and armorers certainly did not ignore bullets. Armor was demonstrated to be "proofed" against firearms by shooting a pistol or musket at it, and the resulting dent displayed prominently. Armored cavalry didn't go away until cavalry itself found a new role on the battlefield during the 1600s.

 

[Orius]

Well, the 3e section looks more or less complete. The DMG did have optional rules for Renaisance, Modern and Futuristic firearms, and you seem to have all the relevant information on the first group.

For second edition: The PHB includes one firearm on the equipment tables, the arquebus. I don't remember all the special rules for it, except that it required a magical equivalent of gunpowder called smoke powder. This was ostensibly to give the DM control over how much the gun could be used in a campaign.

Better firearms rules are in Player's Option: Combat and Tactics. There's a whole section on various types of primitive firearms, and the rules use regular gunpowder (IIRC) rather than resorting to that smoke powder crap. (IMO if the DM doesn't want guns, then he or she should just say no, rather than using a magic item to jerk a player around).

There are several other sources for firearms rules in 2e. The A Mighty Fortress (?) historical reference I'm pretty sure has rules, there's probably rules somewhere in Spelljammer, and Red Steel/Savage Coast stuff should have rules. You could check the free Savage Coast material on WotC's site. The Tales of the Lance boxed set had rules for tinker gnome blunderbusses, and I think some kind of tinker gnome cannon. Dragon #232 (August 1996) has an article about magical firearms (with an appropriate tongue-in-cheeck subtitle) which lists all sorts of sources about the use of firearms in (A)D&D, and how appropriate firearms would be in the various campaign settings.

 

[Pbartender]

Knights in full plate co-existed with firearms for centuries. Bullets did not ignore armor, and armorers certainly did not ignore bullets. Armor was demonstrated to be "proofed" against firearms by shooting a pistol or musket at it, and the resulting dent displayed prominently. Armored cavalry didn't go away until cavalry itself found a new role on the battlefield during the 1600s.

Even then, breast and back plate armor with a helmet was still worn by heavy cavalry units through the Napoleanic Wars, and even as late as World War I.

A German WWI breast plate:

Granted, the WWI breastplates weren't designed to stop the bullets from high powered rifles or machine guns in the way that earlier "proofed" armor was designed to stop muskets.

 

[Orius]

Hmm, no one wants to handle the 2e section? I'll start it then if there's no takers, even if the stupid wiki keeps hitting me with the log out error. That and it's been a while since I messed with any wikis in the first place.

Anyway, I'll put it in 3, maybe 4 sections. First section will be core 2e with the rules from the PHB, DMG, and Arms and Equipment Guide. Second section will cover the Player's Option rules from Combat and Tactics. Third section will be about using firearms in the various 2e settings. I can do Dragonlance and Planescape here since I have Tales of the Lance and the PS campaign setting box, but other people will probably have to fill in information on the other settings. If people want, I might cover the stuff from Dragon #232 about magic guns.

I'm not doing it all in one sitting either, so I'll be working on it a bit at a time over the next week or so.

 

[the Jester]

I believe the 1e Unearthed Arcana had the arquebus, but I would not swear to it.

Edit: And iirc the 2e FR Campaign Setting book had mad info on firearms in FR, including wheel locks and 'star pistols' or something like that.

It might be going too far to include the weapons from S3 in your 1e section, but various firearms appeared with Murlynd (iirc) in a module and an issue of Dragon. Couldn't tell ya which of either, though.