We’ll Need Some Guns

Following up on my D&D firearm rules, here’s some guns, and stuff to go with ’em. I’ve already covered your basic pistol and musket, as well as a few more unique items; having decided that those options are not nearly enough, I give you these.

Dragon Pistol: A pistol/blunderbuss combo. Fires whatever you shove down the barrel in a 15-ft cone–make a reflex save or take the damage. Damage: 1d6, exploding dice. Reload: As pistol. Misfire: Depends on mechanism. Picture: From Wikipedia.

Pepperbox: As a standard pistol, except it has more barrels. The entire barrel arrangement can be rotated by hand; as such, the gun can fire as many times as it has barrels before it needs to be reloaded. Bear in mind, however, that you need a hand free to rotate the barrels, and that each barrel must be reloaded individually. Picture from Wikipedia.

Swivel-Gun: Either a small cannon or a large musket, depending on how you look at it. Usually mounted on ships, to sweep the decks of attacking/defending vessels. Damage 3d6 +exploding dice, misfire depends on mechanism. Picture taken by myself, at the Tower of London.

Combo Guns: Over the years, people have found many, many inventive ways to combine firearms with other weapons. For example, the item above is a mace combined with a flintlock pistol (picture taken by me, at the Tower of London). Here are some ideas for combination weapons:

Mace-Gun: See the above picture.

Dagger-Gun

Axe-Gun: Musket with an axe blade where a bayonet would usually go.

Warhammer-Gun: As above, but with a hammer head.

Buckler Gun: As pistol, but the gun is contained in a buckler. You can shoot the gun while wearing the buckler, but you have to take it off to reload.

Modifiers: The following modifiers can be applied to most types of firearm.

Double-Barreled: Can fire the gun twice before reloading. Reloading will take twice as long.

Repeating: A series of trigger mechanisms along the length of the barrel can each be fired individually. The gun can be fired as many times as it has mechanisms before reloading, though it is a minor action to prime the next mechanism for firing. However, the stacked charges that repeating black-powder weapons use tend to be very volatile. As such, the misfire chance for such a weapon increases by 1 each time it is fired, until such a time that it is properly cleaned-out and loaded again.

Shitty: Increase misfire chance by 2, decrease range increment by 10ft.

Masterwork: Decrease misfire chance by 1, increase range increment by 10ft.

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EMBERLOCK

To create a random emberlock weapon–that is, a gun that involves magic or some sort of magi/steam-punk mechanism, roll on the following table of random special attributes 1d4 times. For each attribute there is a 25% chance of the weapon also having some sort of design flaw, suggestions for which are further down the page.

Unless the rolled attribute says otherwise, an emberlock weapon is identical to a flintlock in range, misfire rate and damage. Ignore results that don’t make sense together (Strange Alchemy and Tick-Tock, for example).

Strange Mechanisms

01. Dry Gun: Powder in this gun will never get wet. You could take this thing swimming and still be able to fire it afterwards.

02. High-Powered: Armor is all but useless against this weapon. All attacks made within the first range increment are against touch AC. You must have a strength of at least 14 to safely fire a pistol with this attribute, 16 to fire a musket or rifle, and 18 to fire a large gun (bombard, dragon gun, etc). If you do not meet the strength requirement, firing this weapon will knock you prone, and require a reflex save or knock the gun from your hands. Magical bonuses to armor still apply.

03. Reliable: Reduce misfire chance by 1.

04. Silent: This weapon makes no sound when fired.

05. Rifled: Doubles the weapon’s range increment. If the weapon is already a rifle, then this enhancement is called Far-Shot, and does the same thing.

06. Nonstandard Ammunition: Fires 1-Nails 2-Arrows 3-Vials 4-Something utterly bizarre. This may change the damage dealt.

07. Suppressed: No muzzle flash or burst of smoke is visible when this weapon is fired.

08. Prototype: When this weapon hits on an attack, roll damage twice and take the higher of the two rolls. When this attribute is chosen, also roll twice on the Design Flaws table.

09. Collapsible: This weapon can fold up to be much smaller than it is normally, making it easier to conceal. +4 to concealing the gun, but it takes a standard action to get it back into firing condition.

10. Articulated Grip: The grip of this weapon will sense when the wielder is reaching for it and send out dozens of small mechanical arms to shift the gun into the wielder’s hand. Drawing this weapon becomes a free action.

11. Strange Alchemy: This weapon runs on something other than black powder, such as water, or cheese, or blood.

12. Spark-Lock: Powder is set off by electrical charge. Part of arming the gun involves rubbing a bit of amber against your thumb to build up static. Prone to shocking the user in wet environments (1d4-1 damage whenever fired in rain/exceptionally high humidity). However, misfire chance is reduced by 2, as there is less chance of the priming powder causing a problem.

13. Devil-Lock: Powder is set off by a tiny demon of fire, forever caged in the housing of the gun, forever enraged at its imprisonment. A misfire that destroys the gun also releases the demon, which will try and get revenge on whoever was using it. However, the misfire chance is reduced by 2. The demon will also clean the interior of the barrel. This has no mechanical benefit.

14. Word-Lock: Gun does not have a trigger, is fired by speaking a command word. Will not work if the wielder cannot speak for some reason.

15. Fireproof: If this weapon is thrown into a fire, hit by lightning, enveloped by a fireball, or some other flame/extreme heat situation, the powder inside will not explode and the gun will still be intact.

16. Articulated Barrel: After every shot, a mechanism in the barrel of this weapon cleans the interior of the gun and assists in loading the next one. Reload time is reduced by one round; if it would have taken the wielder one round to reload the weapon anyway, reload time is reduced to a move action. However, this mechanism takes up space in the barrel, which slows down the speed of the bullet and gives this weapon -2 to damage.

17. Spellgun: This weapon does not shoot bullets. Rather, when the trigger is pulled, it will “fire” whatever spell was last cast into it. There is a gem on the butt of the gun that magic-users can cast spells into to recharge it.

18. Misdirecting: Persons shot by this gun will appear to have been shot from the opposite direction that the shot actually came from. No mechanical effect.

19. Experimental Barrel: When firing this weapon, roll twice and take the higher roll. If either roll falls within the misfire range, however, the weapon misfires.

20. Extradimensional: The barrel of this gun contains a tiny pocket dimension, or something like that. Point is, you can load it twice in the same barrel and then fire it twice.

21. Tick-Tock: This gun does not require powder. Instead, you need to wind a clockwork mechanism for approximately the same amount of time you would normally spend loading the gun.

Design Flaws

01. Absurd Recoil: Make a strength check, DC 15, or fall over when firing this weapon.

02. High Misfire: Exactly what it says on the tin. Double the misfire range for this weapon.

03. Dangerously Volatile: Whenever this weapon misfires, add 1d4 to the usual die rolled. If the number thus rolled is larger than 10, treat it as a 10.

04. Unpredictable Spread: When firing this weapon, roll a d6. 1-2 make an attack roll against a target to the left of what was being aimed at, 3-4 make an attack roll against the target you’re shooting at, 5-6 roll an attack against a target to the right of what was being aimed at.

05. Backblast: Whenever this weapon is fired, its wielder takes damage (1d4 pistol, 1d6 musket, 1d8 large gun).

06. Fragile: Every time this weapon is fired, roll d6. On a 1, the weapon has broken and will not work again until repaired (2d4+10gp or an engineering check DC20).

07. Possession:  Gun is possessed by a demon that is actively trying to kill you.

08. Brutally Loud: Everyone within 20ft radius loses sense of hearing for 1d4-1 hours after this weapon is fired.

09. Oddly Specific Ammunition: Will only fire something prohibitively expensive, such as rubies. If it is used to fire normal bullets, will misfire on anything less than 15.

10. Favored Enemy: This weapon will only shoot at a specific group of people (orcs, humans, elves, automatons, whatever). If you try to shoot someone else with it, it will automatically misfire.

11. Ceremonial: Highly ornate, but deals 1d6 exploding instead of 2d6.

12. Overly-Complicated: You must pass a DC 15 Int check before reloading or firing this weapon.

13. High-Maintenance: You must spend an extra round cleaning out this weapon after firing before reloading. If you do not, the misfire chance goes up by 4.

14. Incendiary Component: If this weapon misfires, it also burst into flame. The wielder takes 1d6 fire damage, and the gun cannot be used again until it is put out.

15. Insert Coin: This gun fires money, and will not accept any other type of ammunition. Damage is based on the type of coinage you use: Copper 1d6, silver 2d6, gold 3d6, platinum 4d6.

16. Dirty: Firing this weapon fills a 10ft radius with choking black smoke. Everyone in the smoke is at half-visibility.

17. Aggressive Grip: A malfunctioning version of the articulated grip from the Strange Mechanisms table. It does not assist in drawing the weapon, but it will cling tightly to your hand once you have drawn it. Prying it out of your hand is a Strength or Escape Artist check, DC 15.

18. One-Shot: This weapon must be disassembled completely in order to reload it. Cannot be reloaded in combat.

19. Unfortunate Aim: If this weapon misfires, in addition to rolling on the misfire table, roll damage as though the wielder had shot him/herself.

20. Unstable: Every round, roll on this table. The gun has the flaw you rolled for this round.

Specialized Ammunition

Normal Bullets: Round, lead balls. Deal 2d6 damage with exploding dice.

Boar-Shot: Deals 3d6 damage with exploding dice.

Precision Bullets: Have a point and a base. Can only be used in rifles. Give a +1 accuracy bonus, otherwise the same as normal bullets.

Tracer Bullets: These are the same as normal bullets, except they’re coated in an alchemical compound that burns in flight. Has a chance of igniting anything exceptionally flammable that it hits, otherwise treat the same as normal bullets.

Exploding Bullets: Hollow lead spheres packed with unstable chemicals. Explodes upon some hard impact, such as a target’s bones, or armor. Deals normal damage to the target, everyone in a 5′ radius takes 2d4 damage.

New Spells

Suppress Misfire: Level 2. Enchantment. For 1d4 rounds+caster level, if the enchanted gun rolls within its misfire range, roll again. The gun only misfires if the second roll is also within the misfire range. Once this spell has affected the gun once (either by preventing or failing to prevent a misfire) the effect ends, even if normally there would be time left.

Force Misfire: Level 3. Enchantment. If the enchanted gun is fired in the next 1d4+caster level rounds, it will misfire automatically.

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If anyone has any suggestions for more additions to any of these sections (Strange Mechanisms, Design Flaws, Special Ammunition or Spells), please let me know. I was trying to make Strange Mechanisms and Design Flaws into d100 tables, and couldn’t come up with enough ideas, even with the help of several other people. I’ll probably add to these lists as time goes on.