Hmm. I’ve got a bit of a problem, and I was wondering if anybody else had tried this.
I’m running a Dungeon World campaign (we’re at about session 7 or so), and the group is about to arrive in the Capitol City of the setting, which is going to be the big location for much of the rest of the campaign.
Without getting too granular, the technology setting is basically intended to be the dawn of firearms. To this point, everything the group has encountered has all been sword and board, but I intend for the first matchlocks to be in the hands of the enemy in the capital…and there are no rules for matchlocks. I’m figuring the range for them would be near, as pretty much anything prior to the rifled musket was wildly inaccurate, but I’m trying to get a feel about what damage die to assign to a small group of musketeers. Do I stick with the d8 as default for a group?
Thoughts?
Truncheon World has some firearms listed in it’s equipment section. The PDF is PWYW. On P. 67 it lists the following firearms:
Musket near, reload, 50 coins, 3 weight
Powder and Shot 4 ammo, 2 coins, 1 weight
Rifle near, far, 100 coins, 3 weight
d8 seems fair for a group of enemies, remember they won’t be able to fire constantly, the musket has the reload tag so it’ll have to reload after every shot.
You should be able to use the monster creation rules even for firearms. This sounds like it hunts/acts in small groups (base damage die: d8), and perhaps the musketeers are known for their skill with their weapons (damage moves to b[2d8]).
I’d also consider messy and inaccurate. If your really gung ho you could include new tags like prototype, flash in the pan, thunder with no lightning, etc
alternatively, the muskets are “vicious and obvious”, and give the NPC musketeers +2 damage.
I would think seriously about giving arquebuses a Piercing bonus, too. In addition to having good range and making scary noises, that is one of the key things that made the clumsy things so useful once they got rolling in Europe. Giving your players the sense that they can’t hide behind shields and armor very well against these things is probably a good idea; they aren’t just noisy ragged bows.
You might also want to buck the conventional wisdom on the matter and have guns do less damage.
Definitely stat up NPCs-with-guns like you would any other monster, using the monster-making questionnaire. I’d personally lean towards d8, near, 3 piercing, messy, reload.
If you want them to be prone to misfires and explosions, add a custom move: When someone rolls damage for a matchlock, on a roll of 1, the gun blows up in the wielder’s hand.
You can then take those tags and that custom move and apply them directly to the PCs, should they get their hands on one. And I bet they will.
I like Jeremy’s answer. I might go with “Ignores Armor” or a more gentle “Ignores Physical Armor”.
But…If I was one of your players, I’d be wondering where these ultra-futuristic weapons had sprung from*. The dawn of firearms is bombards, not matchlocks.
*Dwarves, probably.
Thanks for all the advice.
At least I’ve got some ideas to go with. I have Truncheon World, I just hadn’t looked at it in a while.
I’d go with D8, AP-2 mechanically. As a GM I’d start hitting debilities HEAVILY when a PC gets shot though, in addition to damage.
Another vote for ignoring armor. I would also add “loud” as a tag to firearms. The unreliability of primitive firearms, as suggested by Jeremy Strandberg is a good call too.
I wouldn’t make them ignore armor, it sounds like enemy musketeers are going to be a major part of your game, and that takes away a huge advantage from the fighter (who is already a little short on advantages) I’d make them Messy, Loud, Obvious, and Unreliable, and pierce 2. I’d give them a D8 +2 and range close.
Also — Look up Serpentine lock guns. That was the standard for early guns for kind of a long time. ( long before flintlocks)