Civil War-era firearms in D&D

[Anime Kidd]

How unbalancing would it be to have Civil War-era firearms in a D&D setting? Im thinking each Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat would cover only one type of firearm (flintlock rifle, flintlock pistol, etc).

Second, how would I handle scopes? I was thinking of either the rules found in Star Wars Gamer #10 or in Call of Cthulhu. And exaclty how does the CoC scope rule work anyway?

Third, how would I handle the difference between riffling and smoothbore barrels? A simple bonus to attack with riffled weapons?

And finally, did you understand anything I said?

 

[Will]

I think handling firearms as weapons doing a little more damage than bows, but requiring reload times provides a good balance. Particularly since pistols are going to have really poor range, in addition.

Figure that a super optimized archer might have a +4 Strength longbow, doing 1d8+4 and having a 100' or 110' range.

A pistol doing, oh, 1d8 with a range of 10' seems on par.
A rifle might do 2d6, maybe 2d8 (if you are kind) with a range of 60-100'? The DMG has suggestions, but these seem reasonable to me.

The big drawback to firearms is that they take time to reload. Actions or movement-equivalent actions, I forget the details.

It's putting my leg in the beartrap, but the only win I can think of for firearms is that it was eisier to fire accurately with a low profile, and you could fire straight, rather than in ballistic arcs.

Given that D&D makes bows already amazingly more useful in combat than they would realistically be, I guess you have a lot of leeway to making firearms more potent in comparison. Perhaps give them greater damage, accuracy, or allow them not to invoke AoO when fired within threatened space.

Alternately, you could adjust bows in your game to be much less effective, leaving firearms to fulfill that function in D20.

 

[mmadsen]

How unbalancing would it be to have Civil War-era firearms in a D&D setting? Im thinking each Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat would cover only one type of firearm (flintlock rifle, flintlock pistol, etc).

Why exactly do you want Civil War-era flintlocks in your game instead of earlier Renaissance matchlocks?

Second, how would I handle scopes?

Scopes? On flintlocks?

Third, how would I handle the difference between riffling and smoothbore barrels? A simple bonus to attack with riffled weapons?

A rifle takes longer to load, but should have a greater range increment. The spinning bullet doesn't veer quite as far off course.

 

[mmadsen]

As far as scopes go, you might like to know that the first working scope dates back to 1880, well after the American Civil War. From a History of Kahles web site:

Since it is a fact that aiming over back and front sight produces a sharp image either of the target or of the aiming device but not of both, the first experiments directed to give hunters optical aiming aids go back to the early 17th century (target and aiming aid at the same level). Magnifying glasses and primitive predecessors of telescopic sights were attached to the weapons and even a kind of magnifying diopter was created. But all those attempts remained without success until around 1880, when August Fiedler (Stronsdorf), forestry commissioner of Prince Reuss, managed to build the first telescopic sight that really did work. Thereapon a number of constructions followed, among them some famous ones made by Kahles, an Austrian company located in Vienna.

 

[Anime Kidd]

Why exactly do you want Civil War-era flintlocks in your game instead of earlier Renaissance matchlocks?

Im more intrested in the firearms of that era, not just flinklocks.

Scopes? On flintlocks?

They had scopes back then; though the scopes only maginification of x3 or so, were as long as the rifles themselves, and only a small eye-piece. Or says the History Channel.

 

[mmadsen]

The American Civil War came after the era of the flintlock. The flintlocks still in use were typically old flintlocks converted to caplocks; they used percussion caps to reliably ignite the blackpowder.

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

I haven't used firearms IMC, but here's a suggestion I've trotted out before that was fairly well received...

VARIABLE CRIT MULTIPLIER

Pistol: 18(x2) / 19(x3) / 20(x4)

Rifle: 18(x3) / 19(x4) / 20(x5)

I think this helps to set firearms apart a bit, and allows for their potential lethality--without, hopefully, going overboard.

As to scopes, I haven't thought about it much, but...

---You could have them add X amount to the base range increment, or

---If using the variable crit multiplier, have them increase the crit multipliers by 1 (i.e. x2 -> x3), or

---Extend the threat range by some amount.

I would also require a longer time for aiming in order to enjoy its benefits (or perhaps to fire at all)--perhaps a full round spent aiming?

 

[Anime Kidd]

I never said I was a firearms or history expert, just repeating the History Channel.

Scopes: For each magnification power of the scope (x2, x3, etc), the scope gives an equipment bonus of +1 to an aimed attack and all range penalties are now -1 per increment, instead of -2. The highest power a scope can go is x6.

When I finish teh rules, I'll put a link for all to criticize.

Edit: Did a little search for sniper rifles in the Civil War and they did have scopes back then. Half way down the page shows a rifle with a thin scope.

 

[Kip the Bold]

For a scope, maybe it could reduce the range catagory by 1. (so the second range catagory doesnt count. Probably the easiest way to do it. A scope shouldnt give you a huge bonus, because everyone will have one.

Rifled firearms should probably be masterwork firearms. Thats a fairly simple way of doing it.

One way of making firearms more usefull would be to give it some armor piercing ability, maybe have armor only count for half its normal AC bonus. That would probably make it worth using.

It should probably be only one exotic weapon proficiency for all firearms.

Firearms in a D&D game shouldn't be too complicated, IMO.

 

[Corey II]

I’ve had guns pointed at me by irate people in other parts of the world, but I have not fired one since I was a cub scout. That “I have no clue what I’m talking about” disclaimer aside:

Here are a couple of sets of rules that could be useful in considering how to integrate guns into your campaign:

This is a homebrew set in an alternate revolutionary war America, see his .pdf on combat.
http://www.catspawcomics.com/sept/sept.html

You can also download the 2nd Edition Players Option: Combat and tactic from the Wizards site for a mere $5. Most of the book is useless, but Chapter 7: Arms and Armor has some good stuff to consider:
http://store.yahoo.com/wizardsboutique/downloads-wotc-adnd2erubk.html

I have no idea about scopes.

I’d give the rifled weapons more range.

Corey