Gunpowder in D&D

[Sanackranib]

I may be playing in a "pirates" theamed game, and I was wondering how many of you use or have used the rules for black powder weapons in your game? and how well using said weapons worked out?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

They are present but seen as archaic weapons in the face of fire magic.

 

[Desdichado]

Used 'em plenty. I don't know why there's a reluctance or nervousness vibe I get from folks a lot on using them, for that matter. I've used the DMG rules (too blah) the Privateer Press rules (a bit on the powerful side for my taste, but not bad per se) and the Freeport rules (my favorite so far) and I also like so far the rules as presented in Sorcery & Steam, although I've only glanced at them so far. In fact, I think I like them because they seem similar to the Freeport rules...

 

[Dash Dannigan]

Curious, where can I find the freeport rules? Somehwere in the Freeport adventure series I presume?

 

[Wombat]

I have tried a couple of different systems.

The first was a flop. I used "real time" load and fire rules for matchlocks -- this means, AT BEST, three rounds a minute. Thus you can fire and then about 3 rounds later you can fire again. Needless to say, this didn't excite people. After that we went to firing every other round.

Realistically it is difficult to model firearms in D&D. Consider -- armour started fading away due to the combination of high cost and armour's general (but not total) uselessness against firearms. OTOH, many infantry were still wearing cuirasses and the like well into the 17th century (a few even in the 18th). But D&D is built around AC = armour. This means that either firearms are overpowered (ignore armour entirely) or underpowered (get heavy enough armour and you can ignore guns).

There are several interesting sets of rules out there, but personally I am waiting to see what Green Ronin comes up with for their piratical game

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I have tried a couple of different systems.

The first was a flop. I used "real time" load and fire rules for matchlocks -- this means, AT BEST, three rounds a minute. Thus you can fire and then about 3 rounds later you can fire again. Needless to say, this didn't excite people.

Scary as it may seem, one of the reasons that guns displaced crossbows is that guns are actually faster to reload! If it is taking 3 rounds to reload a gun then a heavy crossbow should take even longer. (Cranquins are ssllooww...) I am not sure of the speed of a light crossbow spanned with a goatsfoot, I have never used one.

And 3 rounds a minute is being awfully generous for real time RoF. Even with prepacked powder and shot the very best a colonial soldier might get was a lot closer to 1 and a half to 2 a minute.

Of course I also think that longbows should be an exotic weapon. 'If you are going to train a longbowman, start with his grandfather...' The chief advantage of a crossbow was that you could hand it to a levy and still have a hope of his actually hitting his target. The armor piercing aspect was also quite a chilling expeience to a knight in mail, enough so that the church banned the crossbow from the field of battle.

Just in case your wondering I am a big fan of guns and gunpowder (especially cannon) in D&D, but if your going to have long reload times for them don't forget to modify the other weapons as well.

The Auld Grump

 

[Hand of Evil]

Scary as it may seem, one of the reasons that guns displaced crossbows is that guns are actually faster to reload! If it is taking 3 rounds to reload a gun then a heavy crossbow should take even longer. (Cranquins are ssllooww...) I am not sure of the speed of a light crossbow spanned with a goatsfoot, I have never used one.
The Auld Grump

Also the training factor, guns required little training or skill, which meant you could field a larger unskilled cheap ground force.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have some issues still with fire arms in the game, while I like the idea I hate the balance issues. To me early weapons only had one range to be effective and that was blank range (which is very short) and no skill. I just don't think a person using a early fire arm gets better with it.

 

[Aaron2]

This means that either firearms are overpowered (ignore armour entirely) or underpowered (get heavy enough armour and you can ignore guns).

I've seen plenty of gun systems that let guns ignore only a certain amount of armor bonus. I doesn't have to be all or nothing.


Aaron

 

[Desdichado]

Freeport rules are available in the Freeport:City of Adventure book, or in the 2002 Dragon Annual.