Firearms and super science laser pistols.

[imperialus]

Just wanted to share a system that I've been using to simulate firearms in DCC. One of the issues I've always had with firearms in D&D of any edition is that the weapons of varying tech levels feel very 'samey'... I mean when a flintlock rifle works effectively the same as a crossbow, which works effectively the same as an assault rifle, which works effectively the same as a super science blaster gun it's kinda boring. Either that or the more powerful weapons just turn into save or die deals. Even in Crawl's fantastic writeup they are really only ever differentiated in terms of rate of fire otherwise. Now I can't claim full credit for this. I remember originally getting the idea from a forum post years ago, but I've tweaked it somewhat, and have been using it for quite some time now and it seems to work fairly well.

At any rate, here's how I run things. Just to use 'pistols' as an example.

Flintlock pistol 1d8 damage. Holds one round, takes a full turn to reload, uses thrown weapon ranges.
Automatic pistol or revolver (20th ca. type stuff) 2d4 damage. Holds X rounds, takes a full round for revolvers, 1 action for magazine fed.
Laser Pistol 3d3 damage. Holds X rounds, takes 1 action to reload.
Super Science Pistol 4d2 damage. Holds X rounds, takes 1 action to reload.

But WAIT! I hear you say. How does that make the weapons different? With the exception of the laser pistol, all I'm doing is making a bell curve with about the same range of damage. Well here's the thing. Any damage dice rolled for a firearm explode when they roll max damage. This means that if you roll an 8 on that flintlock pistol then you reroll that 8 and add it to damage. Get another 8, reroll that too. This also applies to any dice rolled as a result of critical hits.

This means that you have the potential to do astronomical amounts of damage if the dice gods favor you, and that the higher tech weapons are going to be rerolling a lot more dice and watching the damage pile up.

Here's the same idea just for rifles.

Musket 1d12
'modern' rifle 2d6
laser rifle 3d4
blaster rifle 4d3

[BanjoJohn]

I would have a decreased minimum roll for critical hits, with special critical hit tables.

Maybe a flintlock criticals on a 15+ , automatic criticals on a 10+, laser and up criticals on a 5+

The damage from the bullet/laser/whatever might not kill the target but it could break an arm/leg/rib/whatever pretty easily.


Edit: or of course another differentiation is firing multiple rounds per action. Flintlock fires 1 shot per action, Assault pistol fires 3 shots per action, laser and blaster pistols fire 6 shots per action.

[imperialus]

See the issue that I have with expanding the crit range is twofold. First critical hits are frigging nasty in DCC, especially once you get to higher levels I mean there are a fair number of 'target dies' results on the higher end of pretty much all the tables. If you're pulling off crits on a 5+... well battles are basically going to come down to initiative rolls. Second, expanding the crit range is also going to kinda step on the fighters toes. Special crit tables also tie into the same problem. I mean a fighter's big thing (other than mighty deeds) is his badass crit tables. If a wizard can suddenly pick up a laser pistol and crit three times as often and on a better table then what's the point?

Multiple attacks works OK I guess but DCC already simulates that with the multiple action dice per round... It also serves to further complicate matters. If you are allowing multiple shots per action then what about supressive fire? If you allow supressive fire then how does recoil factor in? Before you know it you're playing Shadowrun.

I guess the thing I really like about the rules I use is that it makes guns feel different than other weapons, but keeps them within the same overall power level of other stuff PC's can do in DCC. It also creates some very dramatic situations when a player is on a hot streak and rerolling die after die totaling up damage as he does so until he blows a hole in a demons chest. Then the next time he shoots he squibs the roll and does like 6 damage.

For example, my group is currently fighting... well basically evil space elves from mars. These space elves have energy crossbows that fire bolts of energy rather than... well bolts. They work like light crossbows, but do 2d4 damage exploding. On average I'd say that their energy bows probably do about 8 damage on a hit, which seeing as how my players are between 2nd and 3rd level makes them exotic, but still keeps the damage reasonable for their expected hit points. It also means that when the players get their hands on them, they aren't inevitably more powerful than the other weapons and spells at their disposal.

[BanjoJohn]

Well custom crit tables would be a 'firearm only' crit table. Like maybe it breaks a bone in the leg or arm or a rib or something, causes a bleeding effect, that sort of thing. You wouldn't use the same crit tables that are in the game.

And multiple attacks only makes sense to me because it seems like it would take much less skill to pull the trigger on a gun multiple times than it would to attack the same number of times with a sword or something. But its just suggestions. Maybe the crit range doesnt need to be so high.

18+ for flintlocks, 15+ for automatic, 13+ for lasers, or whatever feels right. Critting more often wouldn't mean much if the gun criticals are less deadly but more gun-like than the normal crit tables.

Edit: or some to-hit modifier to reflect it penetrating armor, or some armor ignore bonus. Who knows. I just think they're too different from normal weapons to be used exactly like everythign else. Exploding damage dice is a good idea, though it might not be the only thing that you can do.