Firearms and alternatives to gunpowder

[Samloyal23]

The campaign I am working on is going to be one with technology circa 1500 AD, which will mean guns of some kind. I'm thinking they should be uncommon, not a Simple weapon, and wondering if I should use some alternative to gunpowder. The main group with access is a dwarven subrace that is too resistant to magic to excel at casting spells, forcing them to develop technology other races would not bother with. Suggestions?

 

[Morrus]

"Blackpowder". It's like gunpowder, but not.

 

[Samloyal23]

"Blackpowder". It's like gunpowder, but not.

Sure, but how is it not like gunpowder? Should it be expensive or cheap? Should it be readily available? What types of guns should I allow? What's manageable in a game?

 

[Morrus]

Sure, but how is it not like gunpowder? Should it be expensive or cheap? Should it be readily available? What types of guns should I allow? What's manageable in a game?

It depends on what vibe you're after. There are dozens of workable answers to that question. Do you want all the players using them? Only those that specialise to do so? None of them, just NPCs? Do you want them common or not? Do you want your game filled with gunfights? Do you want you players to be shocked by guns? Do you want them to be established or an emergent technology?

It's really a case of tweaking the rules to suit your vision.

For one - and it's just one - approach, check out what we did with ZEITGEIST. Or check out what Pathfinder did with the Gunslinger class and firearms in the APG.

 

[Herobizkit]

Slime.

The guns are powered by a ooze/slime/jelly of your choice. Or perhaps blending two slimes together causes a chemical reaction that powers the slug-throwers.

I just came up with this, and am now finding ways to use it.

 

[Greenfield]

They had a class on black powder fire arms at the Renaissance Fiare, and it was fairly enlightening.

Loading a gun using a powder horn was sort of haphazard, as the measure of powder was irregular. You were going by feel.

A later development, which we saw in the 1500s, were "cartridges". These weren't the brass cased bullets we see today, but pre-measured portions of powder in individual containers. These gave better consistency to the powder charge used, but posed a separate problem: They were vulnerable, individually, to sparks and fire. And, of course, firing the weapon tended to spray hot sparks over the shooter from the primer pan.

So if you had a bandolier of power cartridges over your shoulder, you'd tend to hold the weapon away from your body to keep them from exploding in your face. That made aiming difficult.

Also note that the weapons of the 1500s were smooth bore. The old saying, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes", made famous during the American Revolution, was actually good advice. You at least had a chance to hit your target if they were under 10 yards away. Otherwise the weapons were useless, except in massed fire at a massed enemy.

A gunner of the time was considered an expert if he could fire three times in a minute. That means two full-round actions plus a move action to reload.

You'd be dealing with matchlocks or wheel locks rather than flintlocks, of course.

A match-lock used a smouldering piece of rope or punk ("slow match") to ignite the powder. There wasn't a hammer, per se, but instead the trigger would rotate the match arm around to touch the primer pan.

Another important piece of advice for gunners was "Keep your powder dry". Black powder is ruined if it gets wet. You can't even dry it out, it's gone. That means that weather effects become a lot more important for the game (There's a table in the DMG.)

You may note that the heroes in Andre' Dumas famous tale, "The Three Musketeers", were famous for their swordplay, not their skill with the musket. In fact, I'm not sure if the tale even mentions them firing a musket, even once. The weapons weren't very reliable. They had impressive stopping power, which was why they were used, and a slug from massed fire could carry much father than any arrow, but it was impossible to actually hit a man-sized target at any range.

Pistol duels used to be fought at 20 paces (each man took 10 paces away from a start point). They frequently ended with neither man being hit.

 

[xigbar]

The Oriental Adventures book had some explosives of some kind. I'm sure you could use those rules for making guns of some kind.

 

[Tovec]

Slime.

The guns are powered by a ooze/slime/jelly of your choice. Or perhaps blending two slimes together causes a chemical reaction that powers the slug-throwers.

I just came up with this, and am now finding ways to use it.

I did something like this, except I used alchemy instead of slime.

The general idea was simple.

Guns = Crossbows but not (same general cost, range, stats, dmg)
Reload times = crossbows but not (same feat benefits: rapid reload)
Ammunition = alchemical but otherwise crossbow bolt damage (depends on the size of the shot)
Differences? Cost of gun, cheap. Cost of alchemical shots, not cheap. At least that's how I ran it.
Also, alchemical shots come in fruit flavours - red=fire, green=acid. That was as far as our my game got but I'm sure it can be expanded.

I never revealed to the players how to make more shots, it never came up, and I was the one who regulated where they came from.
Just like gunpowder and flintlock, the shot is useless when wet.

I figured it was a good idea around the whole "guns are big bad killing things" problem that people often encounter.

 

[Morrus]

They had a class on black powder fire arms at the Renaissance Fiare, and it was fairly enlightening.

Loading a gun using a powder horn was sort of haphazard, as the measure of powder was irregular. You were going by feel.

A later development, which we saw in the 1500s, were "cartridges". These weren't the brass cased bullets we see today, but pre-measured portions of powder in individual containers. These gave better consistency to the powder charge used, but posed a separate problem: They were vulnerable, individually, to sparks and fire. And, of course, firing the weapon tended to spray hot sparks over the shooter from the primer pan.

So if you had a bandolier of power cartridges over your shoulder, you'd tend to hold the weapon away from your body to keep them from exploding in your face. That made aiming difficult.

Also note that the weapons of the 1500s were smooth bore. The old saying, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes", made famous during the American Revolution, was actually good advice. You at least had a chance to hit your target if they were under 10 yards away. Otherwise the weapons were useless, except in massed fire at a massed enemy.

A gunner of the time was considered an expert if he could fire three times in a minute. That means two full-round actions plus a move action to reload.

You'd be dealing with matchlocks or wheel locks rather than flintlocks, of course.

A match-lock used a smouldering piece of rope or punk ("slow match") to ignite the powder. There wasn't a hammer, per se, but instead the trigger would rotate the match arm around to touch the primer pan.

Another important piece of advice for gunners was "Keep your powder dry". Black powder is ruined if it gets wet. You can't even dry it out, it's gone. That means that weather effects become a lot more important for the game (There's a table in the DMG.)

You may note that the heroes in Andre' Dumas famous tale, "The Three Musketeers", were famous for their swordplay, not their skill with the musket. In fact, I'm not sure if the tale even mentions them firing a musket, even once. The weapons weren't very reliable. They had impressive stopping power, which was why they were used, and a slug from massed fire could carry much father than any arrow, but it was impossible to actually hit a man-sized target at any range.

Pistol duels used to be fought at 20 paces (each man took 10 paces away from a start point). They frequently ended with neither man being hit.

Keep your realism away from my D&D!

 

[Greenfield]

I'm pretty sure that there are actual rules for guns in D&D. Look in the DMG, around page 140 or 150, if I recall correctly.