Fixing the Guns of Savage Worlds

(compiled from blog posts into a single entry for the RPG section)

I've revamped the cartridge firearms stats (the shooting rules are fine). This replaces the relevant tables in the book for andy game I run and please feel free to use these for your games. Permission is granted to republish this information as desired. All rights reserved by the publisher, yadda yadda...

To my mind the rules for guns were nonsensical with some calibers being merged together while others that are similar having different stats and a complete lack of definition of difference for SMGs and pistol caliber longarms. Using these rules i've modified, players and GMs should be able to develop pretty much any gun of the Wild West and later eras. I've also created an even further simplified version listed below.

Classification of Firearms Technology Levels:

I first had to divide the eras of firearms to make space for a later addition I'll want to make with Accessories and to provide for the development of ammunition over time.

Ammunition:

I've created a better and more simplified ammunition chart, keeping with the ideas of Savage Worlds. A gun’s damage (and armor penetration) relies entirely on its ammunition, not the firearm itself. A weapon's effective range is mostly a factor of it's ammunition, but is practically influenced by the type of gun as well. It is easier to shoot a longarm accurately than a handgun. For pistol ammo, this means that effective range is increased when fired from a rifle or SMG as opposed to a revolver or pistol. While gun enthusiasts will brawl to the flaming internet death over the different damage, ranges and penetration of various calibers, they generally can be boiled down to a couple of categories. These categories may even be too narrow and the simplified rules coming in a future post may be even more realistic.

The Savage Worlds rules are not granular enough to distinguish different sub-types of ammunition like hollowpoint, armor piercing or others, so I’ve not written about them. Older ammunition didn’t have the penetrating power that modern ammo has. Thus Classic period ammunition has less armor piercing capability then Mid-Century and later ammunition. The higher pressures required for magnum handguns and ammo require technology that wasn’t available until the Mid-Century period.

GMs should still feel free to specify the actual caliber of a firearm or found ammunition, especially if they are trying to impress upon the characters that they can't loot bodies to replenish their stockpile. These rules should not be taken to mean that a character can reload their Thomson SMG with 45 Colt rounds from a Single Action Army revolver. But all of that is merely description and fluff. I've written these rules to help GMs and players who may not be gun enthusiasts to have a simple set of numbers to apply fairly. And to allow gun enthusiasts playing characters with custom firearms to build (with GM approval) unique and interesting guns in the pulp style.

Handguns have no stocks and short barrels. Longarms have stocks and longer barrels and includes SMGs. With rare exception, carbine and rifle ammo are only found in longarms. I've listed range tables for the odd handguns like the T/C Encore and Contender and stockless rifles that fire Carbine and Rifle ammo. The handgun chart would also apply to Classic firearms at the GMs option as these were lower velocity and harder to shoot well.

Rate of Fire Modifications.

Rate of fire is going to be a feature of the firearm. The system has a side rule for semi-auto guns to “Doubletap” to increase damage against a single target, but the trained use of a semi-auto can easily support attacking 2 targets inside of 6 seconds without a penalty. The obvious exclusion of guns with an ROF of 2 and the rules defining ROF 3 as full auto show to me that this was a consideration when they were designing the game. If a character uses both ROF against a single target, use the Doubletap rule. If they split them between targets, use the ROF rules.



Savage Worlds Additional Gun Rules

Further notes and clarification that I have for how Savage Worlds handles guns in the game and GM notes for firearms, especially in the modern era. This is a collection of notes not long enough to be their own posts.

New Edges:

Rate-Of-Fire Edge:

(Seasoned, Shooting D8+)

You are so fast on the gun you can increase the ROF of any unmodified manual or semiauto firearm by 1 without additional modification or customization.

Improved Rate-Of-Fire Edge:

(Veteran, Rate-Of-Fire, Shooting D10+)

You can shoot unmodified manual and semiauto guns at a +2 to their ROF.

Notes on Machineguns and Full Auto Guns:

In games, characters will often want to get access to ROF3+ firearms. These are machine pistols, SMGs, automatic rifles and belt-fed machineguns. Fully automatic weapons are only commonly available to military, police and select other special users. With rare exception, civilian possession of a full auto firearm is punishable with a felony jail term. Civilian or criminal use of full auto will affect public perception of the user negatively. If you are running a modern campaign with civilian characters, the story and narrative should make it clear that these are not guns that are widely available. These guns should be hard to get and NPCs armed with ROF3(+) guns should have some motivation to be taking the risk and greater expense of full-auto.

Civilian collectors may own full auto at exorbitant cost and great government oversight. There are many arbitrary and strange rules that are designed to limit the number of machineguns in public hands. Terrorists and criminals may have them with uncommon to rare availability. In lawless areas or warzones, full auto is relatively common to all in a modern setting.

In settings post WWI but before the 1980s, the cost, but not difficulty, of accessing machineguns was lower. However, they are still the guns of soldiers, gangsters and dedicated collectors. It may make more narrative sense to have Tommy guns (and such) be easily available in a Roaring 20's setting. But do think of how others will interact with characters armed to the teeth. Consider the peers of that armament.

Customizing Firearms:

Gunsmithing can change various stats of a firearm, but at a high cost in time, effort and money. Customizing firearms involves cutting, installing new parts tuning basic functions and optimizing the action. Customized guns should be very rare as loot, and should cost multiples the firearm's base cost and weeks or months to acquire. Customized firearms gain new modfiers that production guns don't have.

Notes on repairs and quality

The march of the Industrial Revolution has led to greater standarization and eaiser modification. Black Powder and Classic guns can only be repaired by a Gunsmith, regular parts are incompatible without fitting. Mid-Century guns are a mix or requiring fitting or having off-the-shelf replacement parts available (roll Wild die, odd means fitting is required, Even means parts replacement is possible). with Modern guns, many fixes that required a gunsmith in the past can be taken care of in the Modern era by simply purchasing and replacing parts.

Guns of lesser quality are more likely to need hand fitting or gunsmith installation. A gunsmith can remove the "Low Quality" modifier with any Customization for no additional cost.

Firearm Modifiers

Low Quality

Perhaps this gun was cheaply made, or has had a hard life, but it has either the "Handfitted" (Even) or "Finicky" (Odd) modifier.

Hand-Fitted

These guns are hand-fitted and hard use (abuse, neglect, being in a crash etc at GM discretion) will cause them to lose their bonus (3), and cause them to jam on a 2, break on a 1, (2) or break entirely (1, hard abuse). Roll Wild die, TN 4. Hand fitted guns can only be repaired by a Gunsmith, regular parts are now incompatible without fitting.

Finicky

The gun will jam on a shooting roll of 1.

Customization Options

Gun Accessories:

Less labor intensive than customization, Accessories modify some firearms features and abilities withouth revbuilding the entire gun. Mounting a scope, extending the magazine, adding other parts to improve the gun.

Any Classic-era Gun Accessories required Gunsmith installation. As with repairs, it's a toss-up for Mid-Century guns and most Modern guns can have Accessories installed by the end user with a Firearms roll.

Previous era modifications are available in later eras. Modern and Future settings are able to install accessories that were listed under Classic and Mid-Century.

Classic/Mid-Century:

Modern Accessories:

Future Accessories:



Simplified Version of Gun Rules:

Perhaps the previous regularization still has too many caveats. The rules can be simplified further to a simple list. Simplification tends to favor the firearm and make guns more powerful, but reduces addendum rules.

Unchanged Rules:

Rate Of Fire:

Damage and Range:


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