Reopening guns

[Salamander]

Hello everyone. I'm new to TROS, and I'm planning a game in which firearms will be important, so Salamander's post was very useful. I have a couple of questions, though.

Thank you, and err, fire away! ;)

ARQUEBUS:
Firing Type: Match ( + 10 - 20 rounds prep in wet weather)
20 rounds preparation time.
Refresh begins once the Arquebus is leveled.
3MP dice to reduce prep time by one second at Reflex/TN of 8.

Someone already asked: what is the point of spending 3 MPs to reduce preparation time by 1 second?

I was just trying to relay the complexity of the device, an arquebus has a 23 step process (or somewhere there abouts) to ready it for firing and I just wanted to reflect the complexity of readying the weapon for use if somebody wanted to hurry it up.

One thing I think might be good would be to make the Reflex (or some other) roll each round of preparation: if successful, you reduce the remaining time by 1 second.
So, in the first round, you make this roll and succeed: 20 rounds = 40 seconds. You have reduced the time by 2 seconds for the time spent, and an extra second for your fast loading. It might only take you 13 rounds to prepare if you succeed every round, and if you botch, you might drop whatever you're doing and start over.
It would be good to break the preparation down into the different steps, so that you have a better idea of what a botch might mean.
How does an approach like this sound?

...Actually it sounds pretty good! It may be a little more complex and involve more rolls, but it does seem to have the mechaninc of keeping the player involved until his chance to fire comes again.

Effective ST: 4 - 7 (depending upon amount of charge)*
<snip>
*For every additional Effective ST beyond 5 there was a chance the weapon would explode in the user's face. To reflect this, reduce the number of successes by one for every additional Effective ST beyond 5. If a botch occurs the weapon explodes causing 2 + 1 for every additional charge on Puncture Wound Table: Zone XIII. Other wise a Botch indicates the weapon did not fire due to the powder failing to ignite or the match having gone out.

The above rule looks a little odd. There seems to be no advantage to boosting ST above 5, only disadvantage.
ST5: inflict damage equal to 5 +4 + successes.
ST7: inflict damage equal to 7 +4 + successes -2.

Is this right?

I did this to reflect the increased charge would have an adverse effect upon three things, the weapon, the user and the accuracy of the weapon. I cannot explain it in any concrete terms, but there is a reason that every powder using nation went to a standardized charge as soon as the technology was available. The increased charge would decrease your accuracy, deform the projectile or even crack the projectile so that less of it would hit, if it even did hit. This leads us to why lead was the projectile of choice. They found it would not defrom too quickly but was soft enough to keep from cracking or splitting (most of the time) and it was cheap.

Perhaps a better solution would be to either reduce the dice in the attack for each point of ST above 4, or increase the ATN for higher powered loads: this increases the botch chance, and reduces the success chances, but not necessarily on a 1:1 ratio.

This is a good idea, if you want to use this, I say go for it!

The match was not used up so much per shot as it would burn at a certain rate per hour, I read a dissertation by this one fellow a long time ago. Sadly it seems the author has let the domain name go and it is now, sadly a porn site. In this dissertation he premised and proved that the burn rate of a match depends upon the exact procedure used to make it. He did indicate that the average seemed to be about 50cm (20in) per hour if I recall correctly.

Here are some of the other sites I visited to get my data.
Matchlock firing procedure:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/calderon/matchlocks.htm#miscellany
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dispater/handgonnes.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Campground/8551/firearms.html

[Darren Hill]

Here are some of the other sites I visited to get my data.
Matchlock firing procedure:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/calderon/matchlocks.htm#miscellany
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dispater/handgonnes.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Campground/8551/firearms.html

Thanks, I'll check them out.
Darren

[Waiwode]

How much of a match is needed for each shot?

The match was a long cord or wick which burned (well, smoldered) slowly, kind of like the "dynamite fuse" seen in westerns.  It was made of hemp or cotton, and soaked in saltpetre.

It was fastened by a clamp (or serpentine, later a sear), and throughout the battle the gunner had to adjust the match.  Frequently they would light both ends, in case one end went out. (Remember, no Zippos).

While waiting for action gunners would occasionally spin their matches about to keep them burning.

Depending on how they were made, an inch every 2-5 minutes seems appropriate.

Doug.

[contracycle]

Of course you can fire a lot of guns in 2-5 minutes, if they are ready.

I'd be inclined to suggest a more stepped process too, and with more colour so that you know what you are doing when you are (inevitably) ridden down by the cavalry.  Then you could rioll against each stage to diminish its actual required time, which allows the gunner to do less waiting and more rolling.

[thelibrarian]

The correct generic term for a rifle, assault rifle, machine gun, smoothbore musket etc. is "longarm". I learnt this from Blue Planet - who says you don't learn things from roleplaying games?

[Salamander]

Of course you can fire a lot of guns in 2-5 minutes, if they are ready.

I'd be inclined to suggest a more stepped process too, and with more colour so that you know what you are doing when you are (inevitably) ridden down by the cavalry.  Then you could rioll against each stage to diminish its actual required time, which allows the gunner to do less waiting and more rolling.

That would be a cool idea, just remember that there were 23 steps (minimum) to priming, aiming, firing and reloading. So maybe break it into those four steps?