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Equipment

Italicized items are considered Non-Encumbering items for encumbrance purposes, although the Referee can rule that quantities of the items do count towards encumbrance. Items listed in both italics and bold are considered to be Oversized.

Firearms

Firearm Cost City Cost Rural Cost Damage Melee Short Medium* Long
Matchlock Pistol 25gp 50gp 1d8 1d4 < 25' < 50' < 100'
Matchlock Arquebus 30gp 50gp 1d8 1d6 < 50' < 100' < 600'
Matchlock Musket 40gp 80gp 1d8 1d6 < 50' < 100' < 600'
Wheellock Pistol 175gp 350gp 1d8 1d4 < 25' < 50' < 100'
Wheellock Arquebus 210gp 350gp 1d8 1d6 < 50' < 100' < 600'
Wheellock Musket 280gp 800gp 1d8 1d6 < 50' < 100' < 600'
Flintlock Pistol 50gp 100gp 1d8 1d4 < 25' < 50' < 100'
Flintlock Arquebus 60gp 100gp 1d8 1d6 < 50' < 100' < 600'
Flintlock Musket 80gp 160gp 1d8 1d6 < 50' < 100' < 600'

* Targets at Medium range are –4 to hit, –8 to hit at Long range. Rifled barrels halve the range penalties, but cost twice as much.

Pistols

Pistols are about the size of a man’s forearm. One pistol counts as an item for encumbrance purposes, but two pistols, called a brace, only counts as one item for encumbrance purposes. A pistol requires one hand to fire. Pistols never use the matchlock firing mechanism.

A pistol can be used as a mêlée weapon, inflicting 1d4 points of damage.

Arquebus

Period firearms terminology defied strict definition, but for our purposes here, the arquebus is a handheld long gun which does not require a fork rest in order to fire properly. An arquebus requires two hands to use.

An arquebus can be used as a mêlée weapon. This requires two hands and inflicts 1d6 points of damage.

Musket

For our purposes, the musket is a large handheld long gun which requires a fork rest in order to fire; not having the rest levies a –2 penalty to hit. Muskets count as oversized items for encumbrance purposes. Muskets require two hands to use.

A musket can be used as a mêlée weapon. This requires two hands and inflicts 1d6 points of damage.

Matchlock

Matchlocks are considered the default gun type in Weird Fantasy Role-Playing. Other firearm types are considered modifications and upgrades of the matchlock for rules purposes.

The matchlock firing mechanism is a lit match (a long match cord is standard, often lit at both ends) secured in a clamp. When the trigger is pulled, the clamp drops the match into the priming pan, which is filled with a small amount of fine gunpowder. The ignition of this powder travels through a small hole (“touch hole”) to ignite the coarser powder in the base of the barrel, firing the gun.

All firearms of this period are muzzle-loaders, which means that the gun is reloaded by jamming the bullet (a round ball), powder, and wadding to secure it all, down the barrel. A ramrod is very often included in the stock below the barrel to aid in this. The powder in the priming pan must also be replaced, which means the match (hopefully still lit!) must be removed from the firing mechanism. Coordinating all of this in an orderly manner which keeps the lit matchcord away from the gunpowder is a 28 step process and takes a great deal of time and attention.

Because the match must be lit before the gun can be fired, matchlock firearms are often only useful when combat is anticipated. A lit match burns 10 cm per turn (from each end it burns!), and the light and smell that the burning match gives off makes stealth impossible.

Matchlocks use the following rules:

* Given how combats in Weird Fantasy Role-Playing are usually small-scale skirmishes, it is probably easier to just say firearms have a rate of fire of once per combat. Early Modern drills were all about making the reloading process as safe and organized as possible within large units in open field warfare, and that is where the rate of fire becomes relevant.

** Note that this misfire roll adds a complication to combat. An easy way to handle it when a player character is targeted by someone wielding a matchlock is to declare that the player controlling the target must roll the misfire die at the time that the attack roll is made. If the player forgets, then there is no chance to misfire, but everyone will have an interest in remembering to make the misfire roll without the attacker needing to worry about it.

*** “Armor” for this purpose is any external protection. Armor bonuses due to Dexterity are not affected. Referees should apply common sense when deciding if a non-human creature’s Armor Class is due to speed or the toughness of its hide.

Wheellock

Wheellocks were invented in the real world around 1500. They use an internal mechanism which allows the gun to be ready to fire with no outside source of ignition while also protecting the firing mechanism and priming pan from the elements. Reloading is safer with wheellocks than with matchlocks because the match’s flame, necessary to ignite the powder and so discharge the gun, is not present. It is no less complicated because the wheellock’s moving parts still need to be reset. Each wheellock mechanism must be handcrafted by a skilled gunsmith, making the cost of equipping rank-and-file troops with this superior technology prohibitive.

Wheellock modification to the firearms rules:

Flintlock

Flintlocks were invented around 1610. This basically replaces the lit match with a small piece of flint which, when the trigger is pulled, strikes a piece of steel called the frizzen to cause a spark that ignites the powder in the priming pan, discharging the gun. The benefits of not needing to carry, or reload while holding, a lit match to use firearms are obvious.

Flintlocks did not become widespread until the 1630s and would not dominate the battlefield until the 1660s.

Flintlock modification to the firearms rules:

Rifled

The vast majority of firearms are smoothbore, meaning that the inside of the barrels are smooth. This is the primary reason why firearms of the period are so inaccurate at range. Rifling, the addition of spiraling grooves inside the barrel to better guide the bullet and improve accuracy, is an expensive process because it must be done by hand by experienced craftsmen. 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:

Equipment

Misc. Equipment City Cost Rural Cost Notes
12 Apostles 5gp 8gp Bandolier with 12 shots worth of powder in pre-measured containers
Artillery 250gp* -
Fire Bomb 5gp 7gp 1d4 damage, ignites flammables; misfire blows up
Gunpowder 3sp 5sp One shot of powder
Gunpowder, Barrel 150gp - 2500 shots of powder
Match Cord 1gp 1gp Per meter of cord; cord burns 10 cm/turn
Powder Horn 1gp 1gp Holds 50 shots of powder
Scattershot 1gp 1gp Ranges halved, no armor cancellation, 45° area effect doing 1d6 damage, save versus Breath Weapon for half damage
Shot Bag 2gp 2gp Bag of 100 round shot

* Per size category.

Armor

Armor City Cost Rural Cost Armor Class Notes
Buff Coat 15gp 30gp +1
Pikeman’s Armor 50gp 100gp 14
Tassets 25gp 50gp +1
Full Armor 1500gp - 18
Helm, Lobster Tail Pot 25gp 50gp +1 +2 to physical damage saving throws
Helm, Morion 15gp 30gp +1 +1 to physical damage saving throws
Helm, Secrete 5gp 10gp - +1 to physical damage saving throws