Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Firearms For AD&D1E

Since the Middle Sea/Terra Ultima game includes firearms, and since I'll be using the AD&D 1E rules nearly RAW (I'll write up some of my modifications soon), I figured I should come up with some statistics for handguns. These started off with the Ed Greenwood article "A Second Volley: Taking another shot at firearms, AD&D style" in Dragon Magazine #70, but Mr. Greenwood neglected to include the AC adjustments for the weapons, and had no solid rule for firearm malfunctions. So, I reworked the weapons a bit and came up with this:

Weapon Type Approximate Weight in Gold Pieces
Damage vs. Opponent
NOTES Cost
in GP
Size S or M Size L
Caliver (matchlock musket) 110 2-9 1-8

45
Dragon (“Dagg” or “horse pistol”) (wheel-lock pistol) 45 1-6 1-3 +2 on saves against weapon explosion 60
Flintlock pistol 20 1-6 1-4

55
Flintlock musket 100 3-12 1-10

80
Blunderbuss 80 1-10 1-10

50

Weapon Type Fire
Rate
Range
Armor Class Adjustment
S
M
L
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Caliver (matchlock musket) 1/2 4 8 14
+3
+2
+1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
Dragon (“Dagg” or “horse pistol”)
(wheel-lock pistol)
1 1 4
+2
+2
+2
+1
+1
0
0
-1
-1
Flintlock pistol 1 2 3 5
+2
+2
+1
+1
0
-1
-1
-2
-2
Flintlock musket 1 10 20 30
+5
+4
+3
+2
+1
0
-1
-2
-3
Blunderbuss 1/2 1 2 3
+2
+2
+2
+2
+1
+1
+1
0
+1

Cost of Powder and Ball:

Caliver: 1gp
Dragon: 10sp
Flintlock pistol: 10sp
Flintlock musket: 1gp
Blunderbuss: 1gp

Powder and ball come in pre-packaged paper cartridges, which are broken apart to make use of the pre-measured powder, the paper used as wadding. The cartridges are water-resistant, though full immersion will ruin them. For simplicity, each paper cartridge weighs 1 gold piece equivalent (1/10 lb).

It is possible to buy unpackaged powder and cast your own balls. This reduces the cost by 80% (to 2 or 4sp per shot), but explosion checks happen on a natural 1 or 2 on the “to hit” roll (see below).

On a “to hit” roll of 1 on the dice, before modification, the firing character must roll a save vs. Breath Weapon, modified by Non-proficiency penalty if applicable, or take 2d6 damage from an exploding pistol, 3d6 from an exploding musket or blunderbuss, which also ruins the weapon. In addition, anyone within 1” of the firing character must roll a similar save or take 1d6 damage. If the save is made, the weapon merely misses the target.

Any class other than Monks, Psionicists, Witches, Magic-Users, or Illusionists may take proficiency in firearms. The proficiency categories are: Musket (including Blunderbuss) and Pistol. Fighters (including Paladins and Rangers), Outdoorsmen (new class for Middle Sea/Terra Ultima), Thieves, and Spies (Assassins) may, if they have proficiency in some type of firearm, take the additional proficiency Gunner, which gives a +5 on saves against exploding firearms.

I may work up statistics for a flintlock revolver at some point, but mainly it would be like a flintlock pistol with a higher Fire Rate until it ran out of chambers, plus a penalty to the weapon explosion save and potentially worse damage if it does explode. I've already converted some of the artillery pieces from Mr. Greenwood's first article on gunpowder in AD&D (in Dragon #60), but I need to format them for the blog.

(edited on 6/11/2014 to change exploding weapon damage and alter loose powder costs)
(edited on 6/22/2014 to change the weapon costs, because come on, what were you thinking, Mr. Greenwood?)

9 comments:

  1. In so far as I'm working on some fire-arms rules to use in our own game, these are pretty darn straight forward. Well done sir. Are you going to include any of the odd-ball combination fire-arms (spear-gun, fork-gun, shield-gun, etc.)?

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    Replies
    1. Right now, the most unusual gun I am planning to include is the flintlock revolver I mentioned. If the players want to find some other, rare, firearm type, I'll worry about it then. Most of the combination weapons should be fairly straightforward, though.

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    2. I think that I might make one change: reducing the damage from an exploding weapon by half (except for the burst damage). 2d6/3d6 seems like it might be a better choice.

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    3. That sounds decent. I've been playing around with a version of Prof. Barker's 'exploding dice' mechanic from EPT for handling explosives; every time a 6 is rolled, roll again and add the result. It adds a level of uncertainty to things without adding too many damage dice outright A really bad roll could get messy, a really good roll could let you off the hook. Haven't tried the opposite, subtracting a roll after getting a 1, but that might be useful for certain types of bombs/mines/explosives that can get touchy or temperamental...

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    4. TSR chose the exploding dice concept for their firearms in AD&D 2E with A Mighty Fortress. I considered the idea, but ultimately decided that staying true to 1E's methods for missile weapons and artillery was a better choice. That is, if I give firearms exploding dice, why don't I do the same for crossbows or bows? It might be especially appropriate for slings, considering the influence of Biblical combat stories on sword & sorcery. In the end, I figured that the origin of hit points in Hollywood dramatic convention was better to stay true to. It also allows me to ignore many of the fiddly rules that plague more realistically-based games (GURPS, Top Secret, etc) in favor of just considering hit points to be "plot points" of a sort.

      One of my proposed house rules, changing from RAW, for AD&D is changing the rate of recovery of hit points to better reflect their status as plot points (or fatigue points, for those who are desperately in need of a realistic analog). Another is to switch from "negative hit points" to a version of the "death & dismemberment" rule, where damage that would take a character below zero is rolled on a sort of "critical hit" chart that can result in death or lasting injury. But I'll get to the proposed house rule changes soon, probably my next post.

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    5. Thanks for pointing out the 2E exploding dice thing, I never went near 2E at the time, might have to look for this item, if only to give it a look-see. You make a good point in respect to the other missile weapons. I appreciate the explanation behind your thinking--your approach seems to make good sense. I like changing the recovery rate of hit points as well. It opens up some interesting possibilities.

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    6. Hey, thanks for commenting. I like to discuss the rationale and such behind the mechanics - it makes me think about why I am doing what I am doing in more detail.

      (As an aside, if you care, I am going to rewrite the "mortal wound" table in my house rules. I want to organize it by Light, Serious, and Critical wounds, to match the healing spells, instead of the nearly random effects I currently have.)

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    7. You know...I did something like that back when I was playing 1st ed, and it worked really well for our group. The more one integrates the spells, weapons, and such with the basic mechanics like that, the more things flow and the easier it it to focus on the game and not the gaming. You've got me wanting to go dig through my old AD&D stuff again...

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    8. It was coming across the OSR that had me wanting to take another look at AD&D. When I did, with my more experienced eyes and new perspective from the OSR, I saw that the game was quite a lot better than I had remembered it being. I also discovered that a number of things that had happened incrementally over a decade or two were significant problems for my basic idea of how gaming works (or should work).

      Which is not to say that I have or want to abandon "modern" games (I do still like GURPS, for instance), just that these days I look at them with a fresh appreciation for the roots of the hobby.

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