WhatThePhysics
First Post
Before I get to the request, here's the fluff.
In my low-fantasy campaign, elves are less like the nature-loving hippies they tend to be in the SRD, and more like cunning, long-lived conquerors. In fact, over the past 800 or so years, they've managed to create this large, pseudo-East Asian kingdom on the mid-eastern/eastern regions of the setting's supercontinent. Pure-blooded elves tend to be highest on the social ladder, by virtue of their longevity and experience, but the kingdom isn't quite discriminate against half-bloods/non-elves. This semi-openness, combined with both their centuries' long experience and control of key trading regions, has allowed their culture to adapt much faster than others'. Weaponized gunpowder is one of their most recent (and highly useful) adaptations.
Flavor aside, I need to give these elves some crude gunpowder weapons. I'm not going to try and limit your imaginations, but I'd like there to be no weapons whose real-world analogues were invented after 1300 CE. This should limit the weapons to the Song/Yuan/Mongolian varieties, and prevent things like cannons, muskets, and flint-lock pistols from cropping up; which is exactly the style I'm aiming for here.
Before you say, "look at p. 145 of the DMG", I'll just say that the only thing I find appropriate on that page is the smoke bomb. The rest just doesn't seem fitting.
So, what do you say to helping out a DM in arming his elven hordes?
NOTE: I'd like posters to refrain from discussions on how realistic or genre-breaking gunpowder weapons and/or rules are. Many DMs and players have differing views on such things, and we all know things as fundamental as hit points and damage aren't anywhere close to being accurate simulations of how reality operates. So, please keep this about game mechanics.
In my low-fantasy campaign, elves are less like the nature-loving hippies they tend to be in the SRD, and more like cunning, long-lived conquerors. In fact, over the past 800 or so years, they've managed to create this large, pseudo-East Asian kingdom on the mid-eastern/eastern regions of the setting's supercontinent. Pure-blooded elves tend to be highest on the social ladder, by virtue of their longevity and experience, but the kingdom isn't quite discriminate against half-bloods/non-elves. This semi-openness, combined with both their centuries' long experience and control of key trading regions, has allowed their culture to adapt much faster than others'. Weaponized gunpowder is one of their most recent (and highly useful) adaptations.
Flavor aside, I need to give these elves some crude gunpowder weapons. I'm not going to try and limit your imaginations, but I'd like there to be no weapons whose real-world analogues were invented after 1300 CE. This should limit the weapons to the Song/Yuan/Mongolian varieties, and prevent things like cannons, muskets, and flint-lock pistols from cropping up; which is exactly the style I'm aiming for here.
Before you say, "look at p. 145 of the DMG", I'll just say that the only thing I find appropriate on that page is the smoke bomb. The rest just doesn't seem fitting.
So, what do you say to helping out a DM in arming his elven hordes?
NOTE: I'd like posters to refrain from discussions on how realistic or genre-breaking gunpowder weapons and/or rules are. Many DMs and players have differing views on such things, and we all know things as fundamental as hit points and damage aren't anywhere close to being accurate simulations of how reality operates. So, please keep this about game mechanics.
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