Desdichado
Hero
You can always sign up for my message board game -- it's not strictly D&D, but it's d20 and fairly steampunk. I'm also still trying to get a few players... 
Gunpowder in your games
- Thread starter Gellion
- Start date
Desdichado
Hero
No, it's an ezboard. E-mail me and I'll send you the URL.
Jolly Giant
First Post
In one of my campaigns a paladin recieved a quest from his lawfull good deity...
An angel came to him in a dream and told him a gnome alchemist had invented a substance that was both inexpensive and fairly easy to make, once you knew how, but also extremely dangerous. If the procedure were to get out to the public, it would mean that anybody would have access to 'fireball-level' destructive power at the cost of gold piece or two.
Naturally, the forces of law dreaded the anarchy and increase of crime this could very easily cause; so the paladin was to stop him with any means possible. Preferably with diplomacy and sound reasoning, but if the gnome refused to see reason the paladin would have to kill him. All notes, paper and alchemical substances in his small tower were to be destroyed of course...
The paladin had a lot of qualms about his quest: The alchemist was not an evil man, and he definitely didn't want to kill him, but he wasn't about to refuse a direct order from his God either! The angel had let him understand this was by no means the first time this invention had had to be stopped and it probably wouldn't be the last. As I said, the procedure wasn't very complicated...
Figuring the deity knew what he was doing, and probably would make sure diplomacy won the day, he set out to find the alchemists tower. If he couldn't convince the gnome to quit his work peacefully, then presumably a sacrifice had to be made for the greater good. Now, the paladin didn't think the murder of an essentially innocent man could be justified by any cause, but if it was God's will than he supposed it wasn't for him to argue.
The paladin and his friends found the gnome's tower easily enough, failed miserably at their attempted diplomacy and eventually killed him.
The party gathered up every scrap of paper and every single jar with even remotely alchemically-looking content and tossed it in a pile in the backgarden with some firewood, doused it with lampoil and set it on fire. Some of the jars exploded with a surprising amount of force...
This is as much gunpowder as I've ever allowed in any of my campaigns, and this was only after one player had been nagging me for a couple of months about why there wasn't any gunpowder in my homebrew.
"It's not a very complicated thing to make, really" he'd say. "Surely some alchemist somewhere must have figured it out..."
He was right of course, but I still didn't want it in my world, so I came up with this. Feel free to swipe it, it's good for an evenings sidetrack from any long-running campaign you might have going.
Edit: Spelling
An angel came to him in a dream and told him a gnome alchemist had invented a substance that was both inexpensive and fairly easy to make, once you knew how, but also extremely dangerous. If the procedure were to get out to the public, it would mean that anybody would have access to 'fireball-level' destructive power at the cost of gold piece or two.
Naturally, the forces of law dreaded the anarchy and increase of crime this could very easily cause; so the paladin was to stop him with any means possible. Preferably with diplomacy and sound reasoning, but if the gnome refused to see reason the paladin would have to kill him. All notes, paper and alchemical substances in his small tower were to be destroyed of course...
The paladin had a lot of qualms about his quest: The alchemist was not an evil man, and he definitely didn't want to kill him, but he wasn't about to refuse a direct order from his God either! The angel had let him understand this was by no means the first time this invention had had to be stopped and it probably wouldn't be the last. As I said, the procedure wasn't very complicated...
Figuring the deity knew what he was doing, and probably would make sure diplomacy won the day, he set out to find the alchemists tower. If he couldn't convince the gnome to quit his work peacefully, then presumably a sacrifice had to be made for the greater good. Now, the paladin didn't think the murder of an essentially innocent man could be justified by any cause, but if it was God's will than he supposed it wasn't for him to argue.
The paladin and his friends found the gnome's tower easily enough, failed miserably at their attempted diplomacy and eventually killed him.
The party gathered up every scrap of paper and every single jar with even remotely alchemically-looking content and tossed it in a pile in the backgarden with some firewood, doused it with lampoil and set it on fire. Some of the jars exploded with a surprising amount of force...
This is as much gunpowder as I've ever allowed in any of my campaigns, and this was only after one player had been nagging me for a couple of months about why there wasn't any gunpowder in my homebrew.
"It's not a very complicated thing to make, really" he'd say. "Surely some alchemist somewhere must have figured it out..."
He was right of course, but I still didn't want it in my world, so I came up with this. Feel free to swipe it, it's good for an evenings sidetrack from any long-running campaign you might have going.
Edit: Spelling
Last edited:
Varianor Abroad
Explorer
Gunpowder in Fantasy? Sure!
It's all about making it different from just black powder. (FYI real cannon were starting to make an appearance in Europe in 1346.)
The last time I introduced a gunpowderlike substance in a game, I called it Hellpowder. The stuff was made from crystals found on dead bodies that you had to exhume from the ground. (Only tiny amounts of the catalyst crystal were needed.) If you had a misfire with a hellpowder weapon, there was a chance of a demon or evil spirit or other strange magical mishap.
There's a couple of other kewl ideas in this thread. The sunpowder idea is excellent! For good reading on a pseudo-fantasy setting with gunpowder, try H. Beam Piper's novella Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, aka Gunpowder God. (Somebody recently wrote a sequel that's said to be decent.)
It's all about making it different from just black powder. (FYI real cannon were starting to make an appearance in Europe in 1346.)
The last time I introduced a gunpowderlike substance in a game, I called it Hellpowder. The stuff was made from crystals found on dead bodies that you had to exhume from the ground. (Only tiny amounts of the catalyst crystal were needed.) If you had a misfire with a hellpowder weapon, there was a chance of a demon or evil spirit or other strange magical mishap.
There's a couple of other kewl ideas in this thread. The sunpowder idea is excellent! For good reading on a pseudo-fantasy setting with gunpowder, try H. Beam Piper's novella Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, aka Gunpowder God. (Somebody recently wrote a sequel that's said to be decent.)
Azure Trance
First Post
I want to Yoink that sun-distilling idea. It's pure genius!
For an interesting twist on gunpowder (and guns) in a fantasy setting, you should read 'The Guardians of the Flame' fantasy series by Joel Rosenberg. It is about a group of college kids who are playing a form of DnD and are magically transported to the DnD world they were playing in (under the form of their characters). They bring some of their Real World knowledge to the Fantasy world. A really good series all things considered. Has anyone else ever read this series?
Witz
Witz
GnomeWorks
Adventurer
Witz said:
I have read it.
However, I didn't like the addition of guns. The setting wasn't made for it. They ruined the flavor.
That's another thing - campaigns that are planning on having guns should be prepared for it and have the right flavor. In LotR, everything would've been ruined if Aragorn had been using a firearm as opposed to a sword and bow.
Firearms only belong in certain settings.
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