As a firearms enthusiast and a role-playing game fan, I have always tried to bring the two together in a reasonable way. Besides simple errors of fact, the main problem I see is one of getting too detailed in the differences of the forearms world. Firearms publications and fans love to argue over tiny differences between calibers, guns and other weapon details. Game creators see this in their research and empathize it in all the wrong ways. I’m going to try and clear up the confusion for game designers, game runners and players. I’m also going to try and outline various detail levels for guns in case a designer or game runner wants it integrate more detail into their game without it being a mire of opinion and statistically insignificant differences. Today I’ll be posting the most basic generic information, what I consider the bare minimum of detail.
The first question you have to ask yourself is what other rules with these guns interface with. In most games a firearm will have three defining statistics to interface with the combat rules; range, damage, accuracy. Range is how far away can someone hit a target and still cause damage. Damage is how much hitting the target will break it. Accuracy is simply the chance to hit. Range and accuracy can be related, many systems have a “step” system that increases the difficulty to hit as range increases.
There are also other non-combat rules that may interact with guns. Intimidation or reputation may be changed by obviously armed characters. Characters may wish to conceal firearms to prevent their detection by other characters. Guns may cause characters to interact with the games legal system in a different way. Firearms and ammunition certainly encumber a character and they will definitely have some sort of economic value. These differences and their impact on your game will depend on your campaign and ruleset.
Damage and Range should be decided by the ammunition. A 9mm pistol round is going to do about as much damage from a pistol as an submachinegun as a rifle. From any of these platforms it’s external ballistics are going to be nearly the same. If you want to have a slight difference for pistol calibers from a long barrel or rifle calibers from a short barrel, that would be reasonable, but the difference should be a modifier on the firearm and it should be no less then a +/-1 to a maximum of adding or subtracting a die from the damage. Personally I would just make the change in Accuracy, which is already a feature of the gun, not the ammo.
Accuracy and Concealability are features of the gun, not the ammunition. Accuracy ties into range of course, but it should only make it easier (or harder) to hit at any particular range, not extend the range or range steps. Concealability will be a stat with lots of difference between guns. Guns with longer barrels shooting pistol ammo may get an accuracy bonus, guns shooting rifle rounds out of shorter barrels may have a damage penalty. You could also apply a damage bonus for pistol rounds out of a longer barrel and an accuracy penalty for rifle rounds from a shorter barrel.
Intimidation and reputation are a rules adjustment I leave entirely to your interpretation of the rules set and scenario you are playing. Legality and price are going to affect both guns and ammunition, as well as accessories. These two factors are going to be connected, as settings where guns are illegal or highly restricted will mean that prices will be higher and availability will be reduced. The availability of firearms will also inform your NPCs and their reactions.
Encumbrance may be the most straightforward part of rules regarding firearms. Larger guns will encumber like 2 handed swords or heavy axes and mauls, pistols will encumber like daggers or small clubs and submachineguns encumber like short swords. Ammunition magazines encumber like daggers for rifles or pocket knives for pistols.
At the most basic, modern ammunition and firearms break into 3 classes. Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun. These classes are divided primarily by the ammunition. Pistol ammunition is smaller, does less damage and has less range. Its advantage is that the guns are more concealable and less encumbering than rifles or shotguns. Rifle ammunition is larger, does more damage and has the longest range. The disadvantage is that guns that use it to it’s full potential are larger, less concealable, and encumber a character more. Shotgun ammunition is like a hybrid, it has range like a pistol, damage like a rifle and the guns are generally the same size as a rifle. Shotgun ammunition also has either the more realistic slightly increased hit probability or the more fantastic ability to hit adjacent targets. Either way there is more variety available in “special” types of ammunition for shotguns then any other type of weapon.
The three ammo types all can have firearms of any size designed around them. Larger firearms built around small (pistol) ammo will tend to be a little less encumbering and/or concealable then they are when build around Rifle and Shotgun ammunition. Conversely, Pistols built around Rifle or Shotgun ammo will tend to be large and less concealable. Pistols generally have barrels of 6” or less (~150mm) submachineguns/carbines typically have barrels between 6 and 12” (~152-300mm) Rifles and shotguns generally have barrels between 12-24” long (300mm-600mm). The overall lengths tend to be less than 8” for pistols, 8-24” for SMGs and carbines and 24-40” for rifles and shotguns. Guns tend to weigh 1-3 pounds for pistols, 4-6 lbs for SMGs and carbines and 6-12 for rifles and shotguns.
Modern firearms may be single shot, requiring a reload action after every shot; revolvers or fixed magazine guns, requiring a reload every 5 or 6 shots; or magazine fed, having a faster reload than either other type and holding between 5 and 30 shots. They may accept accessories such as flashlights, laser sights, scopes, bipods, suppressors (commonly called silencers), grips or even grenade launchers. Earlier cartridge firing guns from the Civil War through the WWII eras may not have as many accessories available, but are generally the same guns with different ammo.
Some firearms may fire automatically as long as the trigger is held down. These are typically illegal or restricted to the police and military, and deserve a special rule regarding “Burst” or fully automatic fire. Generally a short burst on a target should double damage on a successful hit and a long burst shout triple it. Short bursts lose any accuracy bonuses supplied by the gun or accessories, long bursts should have a minor penalty to hit. Spraying fully automatic fire at multiple targets should have a single roll that the targets all try to oppose for purposes of dodging or armor, at a negative modifier similar to the long burst above. A hit from a spray is calculated normally, as if it was a single lucky shot.
Black powder muzzleloaders come in three varieties. Single barrel, where the shooter has a single shot before reloading, multibarrel, where the character has 2-5 shots before reloading and revolving, where the character has 5-6 shots before reloading. Reloading a black powder shot takes 30 seconds to a minute with no other actions, including dodging or parrying possible.
Black powder rifles and shotguns have ranges similar to modern pistols, black powder pistols generally have half as much range. Black powder shotguns generally do as much damage as modern shotguns, but black powder rifles do as much damage as modern pistols and black powder pistols do half of that. Black powder guns tend to be on the longer side of the size ranges, and often right in the middle of the weight ranges.
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