TheLe said:
Thanks a lot! I have to ask though, what are your honest opinions on the gun rules in Unorthodox Pirates?
One person said that the gun mechanics were a bit weak and didn't give people a good reason to use guns at all. However, I was going for a more realistic set of rules -- load the gun well ahead of time and use it one-time in combat (in the midst of melee combat you won't have much time to reload).
`Le
I have to agree that the gun rules are the weakest point, I looked at them, then decided to run with my current rules - a quick run through of the major problems that I had:
A feat to create a pepperbox revolver rather than just giving a Craft (firearms) DC was not all that efficient. There were also several variations on the theme, with 'Duck's foot' pistols being popular for boarding actions. Unlike a pepperbox or 'Dublin revolver' all the barrels could be fired at once - nasty at close range, but a poor choice for any other range. (For some reason this bothered me more than the other problems, maybe because I have seen most of the other problems too many times in the past....)
The given prices are far too expensive - guns were relatively cheap and easy to make, especially compared with the longbow. (I actually run with Longbow as being a better candidate for exotic weapon, if you want to train a longbowman then start with the grandfather.
) Is a pistol really worth three times as much as a longbow? Five times as much as a heavy crossbow?
Guns are too slow to load, though only in comparison to the crossbow - I have no problem with a bowman being able to load and fire faster than a handgonner, but the reason that the gun replaced the crossbow was that it is faster to load, and nearly as easy to use. I actually changed the rate of fire for heavy crossbows, but they are so ingrained in typical D&D settings.... The cranequin based heavy crossbow took about a minute to reload, while the Brown Bess (British firearm of the early 1700s) fired between three and five shots in the same amount of time. An advantage of both guns and crossbows over longbows was the ability to 'hold your fire' until you had a decent shot.
It is way too dangerous to craft gunpowder, and way too many feats and skills required. Gunpowder is made by the
barrel, if it were likely to explode even one out of twenty attempts then no one would use it. And, like the guns themselves, gunpowder should be cheap.
Guns are too likely to disastrously misfire - the Brown Bess, standard firearm for the British forces for a very long time, misfired once out of sixteen shots under battlefield conditions. Most misfires were merely fizzles, where the charge either did not ignite, or burned too slowly. More dangerous were (and are, for those who still use blackpowder weapons
) hangfires, where the primer charge burned slowly, but the main charge did not, so, if you went to clean out the unspent shot you were likely to catch a bullet between the eyes from your own gun.
Some of these problems derive from tying to integrate the classic pistol armed pirate with the D&D 'firearms are exotic weapons' paradigms. There was a reason that the gun replaced bows and crossbows so quickly, it was easier to train a handgonner than a bowman, and a gun fired faster than a crossbow. (Though crossbows, with their steel headed bolts, were actually better at penetrating armor than the large soft musket ball.)
I have a bit of a problem with the way gunpowder is handled in D&D games in general - I am an early firearms buff, and have experience with weapons dating back to the 'Golden Age of Piracy'. (Though a lot more experience with weapons from the period of the American Revolution, particularly the Brown Bess.) By the age of piracy a gun would be a marshal, if not a simple, weapon, rather than exotic.
Sorry for the diatribe, but I like guns.
The Auld Grump
In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes and brocade
Brown Bess was a partner whom none could despise -
An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade,
With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes -
At Blenheim and Ramillies fops would confess
They were pierced to the heart by the charms of Brown Bess.
Though her sight was not long and her weight was not small,
Yet her actions were winning, her language was clear;
And everyone bowed when she opened the ball
On the arm of some high-gaitered, grim grenadier.
Half Europe admitted the striking success
Of the dances and routs that were given by Brown Bess.
When ruffles were turned into stiff leather stocks,
And people wore pigtails instead of perukes,
Brown Bess never altered her iron-grey locks.
She knew she was valued for more than her looks.
"Oh, powder and patches was always my dress,
And I think I am killing enough," said Brown Bess.
So she followed her red-coats, whatever they did,
From the heights of Quebec to the plains of Assaye,
From Gibraltar to Acre, Cape Town and Madrid,
And nothing about her was changed on the way;
(But most of the Empire which now we possess
Was won through those years by old-fashioned Brown Bess.)
In stubborn retreat or stately advance,
From the Portugal coast to the cork-woods of Spain,
She had puzzled some excellent Marshals of France
Till none of them wanted to meet her again:
But later, near Brussels, Napoleon - no less -
Arranged for a Waterloo ball with Brown Bess.
She had danced till the dawn of that terrible day -
She danced till the dusk of more terrible night,
And before her linked squares his battalions gave way,
And her long fierce quadrilles put his lancers to flight:
And when his gilt carriage drove off in the press,
"I have danced my last dance with the world!" said Brown Bess.
If you go to Museums - there's one in Whitehall -
Where old weapons are shown with their names writ beneath,
You will find her upstanding, her back to the wall,
As stiff as a ramrod, her flint in her teeth.
And if ever we English had reason to bless
Any arm save our mothers', that arm is Brown Bess.
Rudyard Kipling
I am writing up a review in my non-existent free time. Some related supplements might be worth a thought. (The BBEG for the campaign is a Ghostly Buccaneer. His chief companions are a trio of assorted classes from Unorthodox Witches.)
