D&D 5E (2014) Let's Talk About Guns in 5E

[LuisCarlos17f]

And what if any spellcaster or artificer created a motor or artificial muscles to reload crossbows?

Usually we imagine PCs with guns shooting against animals, gladiators and some archer but nobody stops to think what happens when the campaing is about PCs from lower-tech-level civilitation being invaded by aliens with firearms or ray cannons, or a "reverse isekai" where PCs travel from a fantasy world to a modern postapocalypse style "Gamma World".

If a side can use gunpowder then the other will invent magic countermeasures.

And adventurers are willing to spend more money for magitek ray guns to avoid possible malfunctions due to improper maintenance.

 

[James Gasik]

And what if any spellcaster or artificer created a motor or artificial muscles to reload crossbows?

Usually we imagine PCs with guns shooting against animals, gladiators and some archer but nobody stops to think what happens when the campaing is about PCs from lower-tech-level civilitation being invaded by aliens with firearms or ray cannons, or a "reverse isekai" where PCs travel from a fantasy world to a modern postapocalypse style "Gamma World".

If a side can use gunpowder then the other will invent magic countermeasures.

And adventurers are willing to spend more money for magitek ray guns to avoid possible malfunctions due to improper maintenance.

Animated crossbow. Loads itself, fires itself, never complains or gets tired. Sounds great!

 

[AlViking]

I'd actually argue the opposite is true at the baseline; it's been pointed out earlier in this thread, magic isn't typically equally available and equally distributed across a given setting's population. Not everyone is a Wizard, even though being a Wizard is generally useful. So those without magic have to close the relative gap via other means.

Why make the assumption that magic is not equally available unless you want to force a specific result? Only a few people may be wizards but for centuries in our world only a few people wielded firearms on the battlefield. Assume that a fair number of people can use cantrips (all elves apparently can) and things change.

I don't assume everyone can cast spells from the PHB in my campaign. But I do assume that magic is used in many ways because to me it's not logical that there's only battle magic. The magic most people use is subtle and not very flashy, they likely don't even realize they are using magic. But crops grow a little better because the people do special festivals, healing poultices really do speed recovery or at least give people a fighting chance and so on.

Why would people know they could close the gap? It's not like someone was tinkering around and one day they invented a fully functional flintlock rifle.

If you want a world that looks like how D&D is presented in almost all fiction and played at every table I've ever played at there has to be a reason for the idiosyncrasies we have or you just ignore them. I prefer having a reason.