Heya gang. So here's my first contribution to the group. Whoohoo!
Alright, so maybe a question isn't entirely a contribution, but I digress. I suppose this discussion can fit any genre and era you might find guns in, but my main inquiry is this:
When faced with a setting where players are wary of all firearms for their reputation of being overpowered, how does one go about balancing firearms use with fair play? Also when it comes to approaching group leaders, moderators, and players about a character's gun usage, how do we go about the subject without causing ire or immediate accusations and worries of unfair play?
General discussion aside, I'd also like to know if I'm going about my own play with firearms appropriately and fairly, perhaps even TOO fairly as I have a habit of hugely downplaying skills, powers, and weapons out of fear I'll be labeled a powerplayer. Here's what I have thus far in my attempts at playing with firearms:
The Weapon
Flintlock pistols, roughly inspired by firearms from the mid 1600's to the early 1700's? Known for their issues in damp and wet weather, almost constant maintenance, misfiring and accidental firing, volatile firing effects (we're talking about the sparks that go flying when the flint ignites the gunpowder), not entirely easy to repair, and of course long loading and prep.
My character *points finger at Captain Forest* does logical things developed through real-life use to try to minimize these effects, even going so far as to consider magic in the future to fix the problem of damp and wet conditions. He carries multiple guns, some pre-loaded and half-cocked in case he's suddenly in a fight of some sort.
OoC Precautions and Measures to Ensure Fun Play
Their mechanical issues aside, I've taken a few OoC precautions to try to ensure I'm being fair here. I've got two sets of preparation posts* and some dice:
(*preparation posts, or 'preps', are a series of numbered posts where an action is prepared before it can be used. Common examples are casting magic or readying a long-rand weapon)
1d3 to determine how many guns are pre-loaded and half-cocked (3 being the current maximum of pistols owned), 1 prep post to ready and fire the weapon. I might lift it to two, making it roughly equal with a small magical flame in terms of readiness.
1d20 for a distance between firearm and target that goes beyond five feet. The higher the number, the better the accuracy?
If there are no pistols ready to go, the preps jump to 4: half-cock and ready cartridge of black powder (1), fill flash-pan & close fizzen (2), pour remaining powder and cartridge down muzzle and ram the ball down after it (3), put away ramroad, aim and fire (4). I may bump it up to five, but I don't know, this almost sounds unwieldy. To be honest I'd rather do away with preps all together, but they're a requirement 99% of the time because sadly there's a huge lack of trust going on that someone WON'T load a complicated weapon in one go and fire it off perfectly.
A lot of places that do allow firearms in a fantasy/medieval-esque era also decree they have to be very dangerous and unwieldy to the user, making them almost inaccessible as a weapon choice.
Are they really that dangerous though, compared to higher-powered magic spells and close-range swords and thrown knives?
In a world of beefy demonic creatures, powerful wizards, and dragons, they really don't sound that bad. I can take a sword and try to lob your head off, and I can take a gun and try to shoot you between the eyes. They're all dangerous; that's why they were made.
And if a character clearly has a gun, shouldn't a player and their character (provided said character is played to be sound in mind) be logically cautious around the wielder? I actually had that happen to me the other day--the captain pointed his gun at someone, and they tried to reach out and take the gun away almost point-blank. The shot missed due to the captain being a bit tipsy and his aim being off, but still the risk was immense and had me staring at the screen in surprise at the other player. Why would they let their character do that? I'm willing to ask for consent for a more grievous injury, but don't you kind of throw consent out the window when you make your character do something so dumb?
That aside, I'm glad to say I've had enough courage and luck to stumble upon a place that allows the guns in the first place. Nevertheless several years of rules banning guns as unfair has left me with a puzzled, uncertain worry that I'm just not going about this correctly. Help a long-winded dragon out?
Alright, so maybe a question isn't entirely a contribution, but I digress. I suppose this discussion can fit any genre and era you might find guns in, but my main inquiry is this:
When faced with a setting where players are wary of all firearms for their reputation of being overpowered, how does one go about balancing firearms use with fair play? Also when it comes to approaching group leaders, moderators, and players about a character's gun usage, how do we go about the subject without causing ire or immediate accusations and worries of unfair play?
General discussion aside, I'd also like to know if I'm going about my own play with firearms appropriately and fairly, perhaps even TOO fairly as I have a habit of hugely downplaying skills, powers, and weapons out of fear I'll be labeled a powerplayer. Here's what I have thus far in my attempts at playing with firearms:
The Weapon
Flintlock pistols, roughly inspired by firearms from the mid 1600's to the early 1700's? Known for their issues in damp and wet weather, almost constant maintenance, misfiring and accidental firing, volatile firing effects (we're talking about the sparks that go flying when the flint ignites the gunpowder), not entirely easy to repair, and of course long loading and prep.
My character *points finger at Captain Forest* does logical things developed through real-life use to try to minimize these effects, even going so far as to consider magic in the future to fix the problem of damp and wet conditions. He carries multiple guns, some pre-loaded and half-cocked in case he's suddenly in a fight of some sort.
OoC Precautions and Measures to Ensure Fun Play
Their mechanical issues aside, I've taken a few OoC precautions to try to ensure I'm being fair here. I've got two sets of preparation posts* and some dice:
(*preparation posts, or 'preps', are a series of numbered posts where an action is prepared before it can be used. Common examples are casting magic or readying a long-rand weapon)
1d3 to determine how many guns are pre-loaded and half-cocked (3 being the current maximum of pistols owned), 1 prep post to ready and fire the weapon. I might lift it to two, making it roughly equal with a small magical flame in terms of readiness.
1d20 for a distance between firearm and target that goes beyond five feet. The higher the number, the better the accuracy?
If there are no pistols ready to go, the preps jump to 4: half-cock and ready cartridge of black powder (1), fill flash-pan & close fizzen (2), pour remaining powder and cartridge down muzzle and ram the ball down after it (3), put away ramroad, aim and fire (4). I may bump it up to five, but I don't know, this almost sounds unwieldy. To be honest I'd rather do away with preps all together, but they're a requirement 99% of the time because sadly there's a huge lack of trust going on that someone WON'T load a complicated weapon in one go and fire it off perfectly.
A lot of places that do allow firearms in a fantasy/medieval-esque era also decree they have to be very dangerous and unwieldy to the user, making them almost inaccessible as a weapon choice.
Are they really that dangerous though, compared to higher-powered magic spells and close-range swords and thrown knives?
In a world of beefy demonic creatures, powerful wizards, and dragons, they really don't sound that bad. I can take a sword and try to lob your head off, and I can take a gun and try to shoot you between the eyes. They're all dangerous; that's why they were made.
And if a character clearly has a gun, shouldn't a player and their character (provided said character is played to be sound in mind) be logically cautious around the wielder? I actually had that happen to me the other day--the captain pointed his gun at someone, and they tried to reach out and take the gun away almost point-blank. The shot missed due to the captain being a bit tipsy and his aim being off, but still the risk was immense and had me staring at the screen in surprise at the other player. Why would they let their character do that? I'm willing to ask for consent for a more grievous injury, but don't you kind of throw consent out the window when you make your character do something so dumb?
That aside, I'm glad to say I've had enough courage and luck to stumble upon a place that allows the guns in the first place. Nevertheless several years of rules banning guns as unfair has left me with a puzzled, uncertain worry that I'm just not going about this correctly. Help a long-winded dragon out?
With characters who have modern guns, I go to dice. If they're not in any position to prevent a shot, then I'll roll a d6 to see if they hit. If they do hit, then I roll again to see where and how badly. Usually I talk to the other player so that we can agree on who is getting shot, and the extent of damage before any shot has been fired. So far I have not run into any problems with this, but then my characters haven't been shooting willy-nilly either at another character.
Oh yeah, there is definitely dice involved here (though not too much--I enjoy chance in an RP, but I don't want to work with another complicated dice system like the one my paladin uses).
I did a little talking with someone else a while ago, discussing the potential over-poweredness of flintlocks, and we both ended up coming to the conclusion that in a world of spell casters and dragons, one-shot-per-use-potential-misfiring firearms that take a long time to load really aren't that powerful. If a gun needs to be loaded, I have to go through about four preps. Then I have to roll up to two times a post every time I try to take a shot--once for misfire, and once again for long-distance accuracy. If I have to load each gun multiple times, we're talking about 12 posts. Yikes, what a bog-down for the user.
On that note I decided to do away with the pre-loaded-guns dice, because logically a man with a rough life as Murdoch's will try to keep as many weapons loaded at one time as he can manage when a fight starts. So unless he's caught in one fight, escapes, and immediately is forced into another fight the next scene on the same IC day, he's going to have time to load his weapons up again day-to-day. He's more likely to go to the readily available sword instead.
Now though he's just got a 1d4 dice for misfire (25% chance) and a 1d# where # = the distance beyond five feet. For example, a six foot distance is 1d6. Ten would be 1d10. Higher the number, the better the accuracy. Something like that.
Whew! Dear lord this takes a lot of thinking.
I did a little talking with someone else a while ago, discussing the potential over-poweredness of flintlocks, and we both ended up coming to the conclusion that in a world of spell casters and dragons, one-shot-per-use-potential-misfiring firearms that take a long time to load really aren't that powerful. If a gun needs to be loaded, I have to go through about four preps. Then I have to roll up to two times a post every time I try to take a shot--once for misfire, and once again for long-distance accuracy. If I have to load each gun multiple times, we're talking about 12 posts. Yikes, what a bog-down for the user.
On that note I decided to do away with the pre-loaded-guns dice, because logically a man with a rough life as Murdoch's will try to keep as many weapons loaded at one time as he can manage when a fight starts. So unless he's caught in one fight, escapes, and immediately is forced into another fight the next scene on the same IC day, he's going to have time to load his weapons up again day-to-day. He's more likely to go to the readily available sword instead.
Now though he's just got a 1d4 dice for misfire (25% chance) and a 1d# where # = the distance beyond five feet. For example, a six foot distance is 1d6. Ten would be 1d10. Higher the number, the better the accuracy. Something like that.
Whew! Dear lord this takes a lot of thinking.
I'm super impressed by all that. I don't have half that patience to calculate and roll for all those things--but I might start. 
Plus, dice are notorious for hating me. Although they, ironically enough, love my character who uses a gun. He's been shot at countless times, but somehow manages to walk away (mostly) unscathed, because of the dice.
I'd imagine too that flint-lock pistols would take a lot more work anyway than the 'average' firearm. Same with any black-powder or muzzle-loading weapon. I tend to deal with modern handguns instead (revolvers don't jam, unlike semi-automatics). You might shoot Rynh a PM asking how he did it, I think his character "Bender of Iron Will" has a flint-lock (or similar) firearm. And I forget how he rolled to use it. But it worked really well for the RP we were in.
..and that pun was unintentional. "Puns don't hurt people..."
Plus, dice are notorious for hating me. Although they, ironically enough, love my character who uses a gun. He's been shot at countless times, but somehow manages to walk away (mostly) unscathed, because of the dice.I'd imagine too that flint-lock pistols would take a lot more work anyway than the 'average' firearm. Same with any black-powder or muzzle-loading weapon. I tend to deal with modern handguns instead (revolvers don't jam, unlike semi-automatics). You might shoot Rynh a PM asking how he did it, I think his character "Bender of Iron Will" has a flint-lock (or similar) firearm. And I forget how he rolled to use it. But it worked really well for the RP we were in.
..and that pun was unintentional. "Puns don't hurt people..."
Honestly all I did was roll out some quick numbers after an equally-quick crash course on the flintlock mechanism and guns of the period I had in mind. That's kind of how I do all my dice, by picking a number that sounds solid.
They also do take more time, yeah; there's quite the process in loading the pan with powder, locking the flint into place, stuffing more powder & the ball down and stuffing the ramrod in after it, aiming it, pulling trigger. Somewhere in there is a safety mechanism too, but I suddenly don't remember where that comes in. My number of preps being 4 might be off, as I haven't actually tried loading one in a scene yet. Much like in real life where someone might try to keep multiple guns loaded and half-cocked to avoid prep time, accidental firing, and still have more than one shot ready to go, all I've dealt with are preloaded weapons. I might do a test run to see how loading the gun would actually work, but it's kind of playing out like real life would; if it's too much effort and risk to load the gun and use it again, go for a sword.
Anyway, if this doesn't work out for me, I might go through good ol' Rynh a PM! Sounds like a grand idea.
They also do take more time, yeah; there's quite the process in loading the pan with powder, locking the flint into place, stuffing more powder & the ball down and stuffing the ramrod in after it, aiming it, pulling trigger. Somewhere in there is a safety mechanism too, but I suddenly don't remember where that comes in. My number of preps being 4 might be off, as I haven't actually tried loading one in a scene yet. Much like in real life where someone might try to keep multiple guns loaded and half-cocked to avoid prep time, accidental firing, and still have more than one shot ready to go, all I've dealt with are preloaded weapons. I might do a test run to see how loading the gun would actually work, but it's kind of playing out like real life would; if it's too much effort and risk to load the gun and use it again, go for a sword.
Anyway, if this doesn't work out for me, I might go through good ol' Rynh a PM! Sounds like a grand idea.