Post by araman on Jun 24, 2015 20:45:21 GMT -5
I read through all the posts on the Starting Skills thread and the weapons listed in the rules and have my own thoughts regarding the treatment of firearms. I haven't play tested so these are just raw, untested ideas.
Since this system seems to be set in the "Wild West" I'll base my comments on the following assumptions:
1. A revolver refers to pistol using a metallic cartridge, such a Colt Peacemaker or any number of cap and ball revolvers converted to take metallic cartridges. A cap and ball revolver refers to a Civil War era pistol, like an 1858 Remington. Difference in damage would be negligible, but reloading times would vary tremendously.
2. A smooth-bore musket would be equivalent to a .69 musket used at the beginning of the Civil War. A rifled musket would be equivalent to a .58 caliber rifle (such as an Enfield or Springfield) used during the Civil war or perhaps a .50 or .54 caliber Hawken rifle. (Favored by the early "Mountain Men")
3. A single shot rifle would be equivalent to Trapdoor Springfield or a 45-70 Sharps like that used by Tom Selleck in "Quigley Down Under."
4. A repeating rifle would be equivalent to an 1866 Winchester or maybe a Henry or Spencer carbine.
5. Shotgun is a double barrel coach gun.
I didn't see any provision for number of shots or reloading, so I'll address that as well.
At the ranges likely to take place in this game, any difference in damage due to distance is likely to be negligible. The bigger concern as I see it would be accuracy. It is inherently more difficult to hit a target with a pistol than it is with a rifle. This is due to such factors as shorter sight radius, one hand stabilizing the weapon as opposed to two, (usually) cruder and/or less refined sights, one point of contact as opposed to three. For these reasons, I think it would not be unreasonable to have an optional rule that makes it harder to hit with pistols as the range gets larger. Perhaps a -1 for every five hexes.
Another optional rule might be to give a bonus for aimed fire. Perhaps something like this - a +1 (or more) to hit if you spend a turn doing nothing except aiming.
To account for ammo and reloading, perhaps the following option could be used:
Pistols have a capacity of 6. To reload a standard pistol, it would take two turns per bullet. One turn to eject the spent casing and one turn to replace it with fresh round. A character could do it at a walk, say half movement. To replace a cylinder in a cap and ball revolver would take 5 turns of doing nothing. Perhaps limit the number of spare cylinders to 1 or 2.
A repeating rifle would have a capacity of say 10. (That's the amount I believe that the 1866 Winchester usually had. I think the Spencer had 7 and the Henry had 12.) You could reload it at one round per turn at a walk.
A single shot rifle would take one turn to reload at a walk as well.
For game purposes, say it takes 9 turns (we've seen the movies where the women folk reload the muskets and hand the men a fresh weapon to shoot while defending the ole homestead) to reload a musket and 10 turns to reload a rifled musket. (It's harder to force a Minne ball down a rifled barrel than it is to put a round ball down smooth bore.) In order to balance this out (since the improved range and accuracy won't come into play at this scale) give the rifled musket a +1 damage.
A shotgun has 2 shots that can be used on the same turn. It would take one turn per shot to reload and it could be done at a walk. Shotguns were feared by those in the Old West, and with good reason. If it makes them too powerful for your taste, reduce the amount of damage done by each barrel and/or limit the range to say, 20 hexes. Another option would be to give them a +1 to hit because of the multiple projectiles. And yet another option would be to allow armor to reduce the damage done by 1 PER die rolled, with or without a minimum damage of 1 per die. In other words, a 3d6 shotgun that rolls a 6, 3 and 1 for damage would either do 7 or 8 damage to someone wearing a canvas coat and 5 or 6 damage to someone wearing a leather coat.
And at the risk of bogging down the game, perhaps toss in a single or two shot derringer for those gamblers.
Anyway, those are some rough ideas. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.
Since this system seems to be set in the "Wild West" I'll base my comments on the following assumptions:
1. A revolver refers to pistol using a metallic cartridge, such a Colt Peacemaker or any number of cap and ball revolvers converted to take metallic cartridges. A cap and ball revolver refers to a Civil War era pistol, like an 1858 Remington. Difference in damage would be negligible, but reloading times would vary tremendously.
2. A smooth-bore musket would be equivalent to a .69 musket used at the beginning of the Civil War. A rifled musket would be equivalent to a .58 caliber rifle (such as an Enfield or Springfield) used during the Civil war or perhaps a .50 or .54 caliber Hawken rifle. (Favored by the early "Mountain Men")
3. A single shot rifle would be equivalent to Trapdoor Springfield or a 45-70 Sharps like that used by Tom Selleck in "Quigley Down Under."
4. A repeating rifle would be equivalent to an 1866 Winchester or maybe a Henry or Spencer carbine.
5. Shotgun is a double barrel coach gun.
I didn't see any provision for number of shots or reloading, so I'll address that as well.
At the ranges likely to take place in this game, any difference in damage due to distance is likely to be negligible. The bigger concern as I see it would be accuracy. It is inherently more difficult to hit a target with a pistol than it is with a rifle. This is due to such factors as shorter sight radius, one hand stabilizing the weapon as opposed to two, (usually) cruder and/or less refined sights, one point of contact as opposed to three. For these reasons, I think it would not be unreasonable to have an optional rule that makes it harder to hit with pistols as the range gets larger. Perhaps a -1 for every five hexes.
Another optional rule might be to give a bonus for aimed fire. Perhaps something like this - a +1 (or more) to hit if you spend a turn doing nothing except aiming.
To account for ammo and reloading, perhaps the following option could be used:
Pistols have a capacity of 6. To reload a standard pistol, it would take two turns per bullet. One turn to eject the spent casing and one turn to replace it with fresh round. A character could do it at a walk, say half movement. To replace a cylinder in a cap and ball revolver would take 5 turns of doing nothing. Perhaps limit the number of spare cylinders to 1 or 2.
A repeating rifle would have a capacity of say 10. (That's the amount I believe that the 1866 Winchester usually had. I think the Spencer had 7 and the Henry had 12.) You could reload it at one round per turn at a walk.
A single shot rifle would take one turn to reload at a walk as well.
For game purposes, say it takes 9 turns (we've seen the movies where the women folk reload the muskets and hand the men a fresh weapon to shoot while defending the ole homestead) to reload a musket and 10 turns to reload a rifled musket. (It's harder to force a Minne ball down a rifled barrel than it is to put a round ball down smooth bore.) In order to balance this out (since the improved range and accuracy won't come into play at this scale) give the rifled musket a +1 damage.
A shotgun has 2 shots that can be used on the same turn. It would take one turn per shot to reload and it could be done at a walk. Shotguns were feared by those in the Old West, and with good reason. If it makes them too powerful for your taste, reduce the amount of damage done by each barrel and/or limit the range to say, 20 hexes. Another option would be to give them a +1 to hit because of the multiple projectiles. And yet another option would be to allow armor to reduce the damage done by 1 PER die rolled, with or without a minimum damage of 1 per die. In other words, a 3d6 shotgun that rolls a 6, 3 and 1 for damage would either do 7 or 8 damage to someone wearing a canvas coat and 5 or 6 damage to someone wearing a leather coat.
And at the risk of bogging down the game, perhaps toss in a single or two shot derringer for those gamblers.
Anyway, those are some rough ideas. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.
