I’m thinking of adding a rifle as a weapon in my game.

I’m thinking of adding a rifle as a weapon in my game.

I’m thinking of adding a rifle as a weapon in my game. So far we have a tropical setting, and I want the rifle to be 16th century-ish. So among other things it should take awhile to reload, is a botch to maintain given situations of having to swim or slog through rain, but should still be appealing somehow.

Offhand, that probablt has the reload tag and maybe piercing or a bonus to damage. Should it also outrange a crossbow?

Hehe help in statting it would be appreciated, guys. Thanks!

17 thoughts on “I’m thinking of adding a rifle as a weapon in my game.”

  1. From my studying of early firearms, a 16th-century rifle is a pretty rare occurrence compared to, say, muskets, but they apparently did exist. As far as range goes, a rifle could fire a pretty long distance, but I’m not sure how accurate it’d be at long ranges. I’d go with 2 piercing and reload, then make sure to emphasize (maybe by creating new tags) that these weapons tend to cause a lot of problems. 

    This is a passage from Wikipedia about 18th-century rifles: The black powder used in early muzzle loading rifles quickly fouled the barrel, making loading slower and more difficult. Their greater range was also considered to be of little practical use, since the smoke from black powder quickly obscured the battlefield and made it almost impossible to target the enemy from a distance. Since musketeers could not afford to take the time to stop and clean their barrels in the middle of a battle, rifles were limited to use by sharpshooters and non-military uses like hunting.

    So you can see how something two centuries earlier would probably not be the most reliable of weapons.

  2. Hmm, I suppose it would make sense in the fiction to turn it into something that’s rare, breaks down fast, and packs a wallop… (still thinking)

  4. I read something from a Lamentations of the Flame Princess scenario the other day that I thought was fairly cool.  Guns are so slow and cumbersome, they can only be fired once per combat.  After that, everything’s moving too quick for you to reload. 

    Maybe to balance that up, the shooter rolls 3xdamage dice and picks the best? Ignores armour? 

  5. I’d say there’s no need to make a “per-combat” distinction, since DW doesn’t really do that, but the general idea of making it clear that reloading is not something you’d do in a high-stress scenario is spot-on.

  7. Matt Stuart: that’s a terrible idea. It adds a lot of complexity for no gain whatsoever, and it’s making basically no use of DW’s system’s advantages.

    BJ Recio: musket (dangerous, reload, far, ignores armor)

    (or piercing 2, if you don’t want to make it quite as fearsome; +2 damage also works as a replacement, and is equivalent to upping the die size twice in terms of average damage).

    That should be more than enough. No near because it’s super cumbersome to aim properly, and so couldn’t be aimed at enemies that close (this isn’t realistic but who cares).

  8. Alex Norris Easy man, just throwing in different stuff from outside our sandbox and seeing if it works 🙂  In this case, probably not.  Your take is neat.

  9. Stats for a realistic 16th-century-ish long gun:

    Near, far; dangerous, ignores armour, reload, valuable-optional.

    Does no damage because it never hits.

    When you fire your guns, roll+number of people firing (max+3). On a hit, you are covered in smoke. Additionally, on a 10+, anyone not familiar with guns is terrorized until they obtain guns themselves at which point they become merely impressed. On a 7-9, they are impressed but not necessarily terrorized.

  10. As an actual game thing, though, give it a fat damage bonus and say you can’t get better than a 7-9 when you volley, so you either have to spend ammo (you packed too much gunpowder) or expose yourself to danger while reloading, or you packed too little gunpowder and you do less damage. No guarantees but that might give you the right “old gun feeling.”

  11. Hello everyone! Nice inputs overall, and I really appreciate the responses.

    Hmm, I suppose it’s my fault for introducing the date. Anyway thia is a fantasy game, so I’m less interested in being historically correct. More to the point, I just want to get the feel right. When the musket/rifle shows up, I want it to be fear-inspiring, lethal, but ultimately unreliable for prolonged engagements. 🙂

    So far I’m liking Alex Norris ‘s idea best, though I may ditch ignores armor over a flat-out +2, that way it should hurt even in the hands of a d4 damage class.

  12. I always attach the LOUD tag if we’re going to use guns. Bows and crossbows make a subtle twang, but you’ll draw attention to yourself with a gun.

  14. Adam Koebel: there’s fictional precedent in Discworld’s gonne and other fantasy sources which tend to depict firearms as fearsome and able to pierce through any armour, which is the point!

    (The idea is obviously to make the armour-ignoring version rare/legendary. Maybe it’s an ancient dragon-killing weapon!)

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