Firearms

All Firearms requirements as stated in Weapon Requirements are the same and depend on the lock type:

Weapon Traits

Firearms share the following special traits:

• Firearms suffer double the usual range penalties: -4 to hit at Medium Range and -8 to hit at Long Range.

• Most of the common firearms can be used as melee weapons, their equivalents listed in the table. Such weapon use applies -1 penalty to usual weapon defense characteristic. Muskets and Long Rifles can be equipped with a bayonet, allowing them to be used as a Spear. Bayonets are manufactured for individual weapon, count as a Minor Weapon by itself and require 1 Round to be plugged into the barrel.

• All Firearms ignore 5 Armor Rating when fired at Short Range. Muskets and Long Rifles gain this benefit at any range.

• Discharge of a Firearm causes an immediate Morale Check for all enemy characters and creatures with a Morale of 7 or less.

• All Firearms have a base chance of Misfire, depending on a lock type. Any misfire requires three rounds to clean before attempting to fire again.

• Some weapons, such as a Duck Foot Pistol or a Pepperbox, have variable number of barrels. Base number of barrels is 3, with a new one added at half the cost of a firearm.

Lock Types

Matchlock

Matchlocks are considered the default gun type, and other firearm types are considered modifications and upgrades of the matchlock for rules purposes.

Matchlocks use the following rules:

• Reloading a matchlock requires 10 rounds minus the Character's BS and Agility modifier. Character’s Encumbrance value is added to the reload time. Any round in which the character moves or defends themselves (using their regular AC when attacked) does not count towards the reload time.

• They have a 2 in 10 chance of misfiring.

• A lit match burns 10cm per turn (from each end it burns!), and the light and smell that the burning match gives off makes stealth impossible.

• Damp conditions (most dungeons count as being damp) double the chances of misfiring (which in this case means the powder is too wet to ignite).

• Wet conditions (rain, etc.) quadruples the chances of misfiring (powder too wet to ignite).

• Wet cord or powder cannot be used until it dries.

Wheellock

Wheellock modification to the firearms rules:

• Have no additional misfire chances due to environmental conditions.

• Increase the base cost of a gun sevenfold.

• Have a 1 in 4 chance of having the firing mechanism break if used as a club.

• Does not require a burning match, allowing for stealth movement.

Flintlock

Flintlock modification to the firearms rules:

• Only a 1 in 10 chance of a misfire.

• Double the base cost of a gun.

• Halve reload times after accounting for the BS and Agility modifier.

• Does not require a burning match, allowing for stealth movement

Rifled Barrel

Rifled guns are slower to load as the same thing that controls a bullet leaving the barrel makes it impossible to quickly jam shot, powder, and wadding down the barrel in the first place. Rifling:

• Eliminates the increased range penalties of firearms.

• Doubles the base cost of a gun.

• Reloading time of a gun increases by half after BS and Agility modifiers have been applied.