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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matthias" data-source="post: 6091138" data-attributes="member: 3625">I want to run a Pathfinder game using firearms rules but I want to have in-game explanations for why they have not completely dominated international warfare, made fortifications and heavy armor useless, etc. While also allowing advanced firearms more or less as readily available as low- to mid-level magic items. (I have players who like to bring up issues like these, and I want the game world to make sense enough to them while still feeling like traditional "high fantasy").Here's how I was thinking of handling it in my homebrew game.The metallurgical and alchemical secrets that make firearms possible are fiercely guarded by those few who know how to build them. Most kingdoms are far from the point where artillery can be deployed on a scale that would make heavy armor or fortifications obsolete. Additionally, many kingdoms have outlawed firearm ownership for common citizens, with exemptions for members of the royal court, royal guardsmen, elite military units, foreign ambassadors and bodyguards, and anyone who can get a dispensation from the monarch to own one. (We will assume any PC who starts the game with at least one level in Gunslinger will have received a royal dispensation to carry firearms or has obtained permission to own one by some other means).Would you say this will be enough to answer any reasonable questions of believability, or is something more needed?Other questions:1) Who would probably control the secrets of making firearms and black powder, but wouldn't flaunt it or think it was worth it try to take advantage of their monopoly to rule the world? A single race, an organization, a guild, or powerful nation-state? The dwarves are the obvious first choice for mastering the art because they are not who you think of when world domination comes to mind, but dwarves with technology is a rather common trope. Is there a less common race (anything from Advanced Race Guide) that you wouldn't immediately think, "It's those guys!" when it was rumored, but once you had undeniable truth, you couldn't help but think, "Wow, yeah that makes a lot of sense." (Again, pretty rich and influential, but not imperialistic.)2) How much should the enforced "non-proliferation" of firearms change market prices? There would be a black market of course and--if you had the right connections--a cheaper white market to shop at, but prices overall probably do not match the standard values from Ult. Combat or Ult. Equipment.3) How long until knowledge of making firearms (especially when obtained through divination or other magical means) becomes so widespread as to cause a paradigm shift in personal combat and mass warfare? Where "everyone" has guns and knows how to use them? (Because that is what logically happens when magic is first discovered, only you don't need to have a special connection to the divine or be really smart to know how to shoot, reload, and maintain your weapon.)</blockquote>

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