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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5442992" data-attributes="member: 6957">My means of handling guns has been to make them Martial (not Exotic, but they are harder to use than a crossbow) give them good damage (D10 for pistol, D12 for carbine, 2d6 for musket), a 20/X3 Crit modifier, but a 50' range increment (30' for pistols). Like a heavy crossbow they take a round to load. The high damage and crit multiplier are because those big, fat, soft, slow lead balls are excellent at transmitting energy - bone does not so much break as shatter.If I am using critical failure rules then a gun fails on 1-2, confirmed by a second failed to hit roll, much like the reverse of a critical hit. This is double the chance of most weapons. To make up for the increased fumbling I have been tempted to increase the X3 crit damage to X4, but only when using the chance of critical failure.I have never had a gun explode on me, though I have had them fail to fire. And I have put several hundred rounds through archaic firearms. Keeping the guns clean goes a long way to avoiding the failure. The guns I have fired most often have been Land Pattern (Brown Bess) - a friend of mine has one that saw a full century of service, first in the British army, then the British navy (where the barrel was shortened to carbine length and the muzzle flared), then to the Spanish navy, then the Spanish auxiliaries in Mexico. In play they don't feel much like a crossbow or a bow, most often the players take the pistol as a close range weapon and use a crossbow at range. A six foot long musket is just plain awkward, though with the invention of the plug bayonet this will become an advantage, allowing the use of the gun as a spear. And since the bayonet was invented ca. 1611 and my game takes place ca. 1630.... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />They don't need special rules, any more than a crossbow needs special rules. However, looking at the Pathfinder rules for firearms I am tempted to add a similar rule to the Broken quality to my own game - call it Fouled. If a Fouled weapon is fired without cleaning then it gains Broken if it misfires. If you are silly enough to fire it again without Repairing the gun and get another misfire, well... you had two warnings, eh? *BOOM!* (After a misfire I have always cleaned the gun thoroughly. You are an idiot if you don't.)I might even allow the 'Touch Attack' rule as a special ability for pistols - close range and aiming at things like the visor are a lot easier with a pistol than any other weapon. With a musket on the other hand... bleah. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />That said... I like some of what I see, but feel that all three classes should be in setting books rather than a more general book on combat. I say this in spite of the fact that I am thinking about adding gunslinger right away. I really like that class, even if I disagree with the attending rules for firearms.The Auld Grump, who freely admits that he has not yet looked at either the Samurai or the Ninja.... He likes guns. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> But taking a quick glance at Samurai... weren't the Samurai primarily horse archers?*EDIT* The most serious self inflicted injury that I have ever had with an archaic firearm was tearing the webbing of my left thumb with a flintlock. Ye gods, that hurt, not life threatening, but damn....*EDIT 2* Looking at the webbing, I still have the scar, some thirty years later.</blockquote>

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