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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 6397622" data-attributes="member: 6777454">I know the knee-jerk reaction is to make them unique and special and different because they are not the same weapon and have different mechanical processes, but you know what?One doesn't lose any realism and maintains the balance if one simply makes crossbows and guns equal.Light Crossbow = Basic RifleHand Crossbow = PistolHeavy Crossbow = Long RifleNow... a short-ranged one like a shotgun? Well... huh... Okay. let's say its effective range is the same as a thrown weapon (30/60) or the blowgun if you don't want to be quite that drastic (50/100) and does d12 damage but is otherwise identical to a heavy crossbow. If you want to make it a simple weapon, then it deals d10 damage instead.Everything else you do is just going to over-complicate things, make them imbalanced and frankly reduce the realism and accuracy of it anyway. There really isn't enough difference between a crossbow and an early rifle as it is anyway.Now, any additions to them such as scopes or whatever-- those aren't separate weapons. Those are the masterwork versions! Assuming that the DMG has rules for masterwork weapons.Again, I know your knee-jerk reaction is to say they HAVE to have different rules than Crossbows, but I want you to fight that and stop and really consider how little effective difference there is between the loading times, damage, range and so on between early firearms and crossbows anyhow. Surely you can look at other weapons on the list and realize they have effectively identical stats in the game yet are very, very different weapons in practical use.We want to boil away all the nit-picky, fussy details that will detract from the fun and boil it down to something as easy and simple to use as possible while being as well-balanced with the other options as possible. You make something that is just flat out better but costs more money, then it isn't balanced because at a certain level PCs will almost certainly have more money than they know what to do with anyway. So gold cost really only keeps them out of the hands of level 1s. If you make the rules complicated and effectively make them really powerful for use on the first round and then best never used for the rest of combat, then everyone will just keep them available for the first shot before switching weapons which costs no actions or time.I don't know what to tell you... as much as I know there is this feeling that they deserve their own special rules, just making them identical to the crossbows really is by far both the simplest and the best option.</blockquote>

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