Firearms and super science laser pistols.
Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:14 am
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
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