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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kurotowa" data-source="post: 3636363" data-attributes="member: 27957">Let's also not forget that necessity is the mother in invention.  Gunpowder is, after all, not a simple or obvious invention.  We need to look at when tactical needs there are and what the possible solutions are before we just assume that guns are inevitable.In the real world, the Chinese had crude gunpowder for centuries.  There were various attempts to weaponize it, mostly explosive pots hurled from catapults or tied to oxen stampedes, though IIRC there were a few stabs at projectile weapons as well.  But they didn't serve enough of a tactical niche to warrant further development.  Besides, peace was breaking out in the area.  It was when gunpowder hit brutal war torn Europe, with lots of heavily fortified stone castles all over the place, that it suddenly was worth the effort.  And it did take effort, decades of refinement to improve the quality in a dozen ways before it became even close to practical.  You know "hoist by his own petard"?  A petard was an iron pot full of explosives on a long pole, and the idea was the light the fuse and then use it to blow open the enemy gate.  The phrase comes from the inexactness of the fuses and their distressing tendency to explode early.My point, somewhat round about as it is, is that guns don't just spring out of nowhere.  They're the end result of a fairly long and very messy technological evolution.  There's less drive for petards and cannons when you have siege golems and wizards to help break heavy fortifications, not to mention when there's fewer heavy stone castles cluttering up the place.  If there's a need for simple and deadly ranged weapons you can hand to peasant armies, you're more likely to invent a specialized crossbow that can fire capsules containing the already existing alchemical mixtures.  Who needs a gun when you can combine the range of a crossbow with the damage and touch attack of Alchemist's Fire?  That's a logical outgrowth of the existing technology, with minimal disruption to the game.</blockquote>

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