NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ProfessorCirno" data-source="post: 5380641" data-attributes="member: 65637">You can easily have firearms in a Dark Ages or Conan or LotR style game.  Just don't give them to everyone.  It's not like the entire world suddenly had firearms as soon as they were discovered.I don't get it.  We accept that a small number of people can learn magic but most don't.  A small number of people can learn alchemy but most don't.  A small number of people can become PCs but most don't.But everyone must have firearms once they exist.In fact, as a freebie, I'll give four great fluffy reasons you can have firearms in such a game that not only doesn't "kill the fluff" but gives you even more and greater plot hooks.  Not even black powder weapons, but modern cap and rifling.1) The Alkenstar Reason: Alkenstar is an area on the Pathfinder setting of Golarion that is located in a huge mana-dead zone.  As a result, they've developed technologically and, hey, they have guns - rifles and revolvers at that.  Of course, they make guns and sell them...but since they control the entire production, they don't sell a lot, and what they do sell is their crap models that were made cheaply, leading to rifles non-Alkenstar folks get aren't used for actual firing, and are kept as a status symbol.  Your gun-toting character comes from Alkenstar and has a distinctively non-crap version of their firearms, along with the knowledge on how to clean and repair it as well as make their own bullets from common alchemical materials.2) The Suikoden Reason: In the setting of Suikoden, one of the major political power players is the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia.  One of their more vicious and feared groups inside of Harmonia is the Howling Voice Guild, a secretive cabal of assassins who, you guessed it, use guns.  And only they use guns.  If they ever hear of someone else developing it, or if an agent with a firearm is ever lost and the firearm isn't returned, then a hunt begins - ensuring that they, and only they, have access.  Your gun-toting character is one such agent - perhaps sent to join the party for outside reasons, perhaps working on his own, perhaps he has an outside goal and believes the party will help him achieve it, or perhaps he's even on the run.3) The Exotic ReasonFirearms are a strange weapon from another land.  Europe never had repeating crossbows despite repeating crossbows being horrifying weapons of death.  Heck, China had crude flamethrowers and a style of pump vastly superior to European ones.  It's not exactly uncommon for countries to have weapons that don't really spread outside of the country.  Your gun-toting character is a wanderer from another land, carrying a weapon others don't really get.4) The Gunslinger ReasonPeople know what firearms are.  Or what they were, at least.  This could be a continuation of any of the above.  Firearms used to be known to the world but, for one reason or another, that knowledge was lost outside of a select few.  Your gun-toting character is one of those few.  The world around doesn't get how gun-forging works, much less how to properly use one.Boom, there you go.  Four distinct fluff reasons to have guns in your Dark Ages setting without suddenly "Oh man everyone has a gun now!"</blockquote>

Verification