Re: (TFT) Gun talents

[srydzews@ix.netcom.com]

On 10/06/99 23:25:40 grabowski wrote:
>
>Stan stated,
>
>  <<<The talent is weird.  It lets you fire guns at +4 to hit, and
>  serve as a crewman on a cannon.  I broke it into two talents:
>
>  Gunner: a one point IQ8 talent that lets you fire guns at
>  normal chances to hit.
>
>  Master Gunner: a one point IQ9 talent that lets you fire guns
>  at +4 to hit, and serve as a cannon crewman.>>>
>
>I don't understand this either smoothbore weapons, which both the arquebus
>and blunderbuss are are very inaccurate, as I have mentioned in an earlier
>list.  Why +4DX??  SJ may know medieval but certainly does not understand
>age of reason warfare...

Well...true.  I'm not entirely sure what he was thinking.  Of course, if
SJ's "arquebus" was, hem, rifled, that would explain the long loading time...
Hey, it's not impossible!  (Improbable, I'll grant you.)  While arequebi
of course were smoothbores, rifled weapons for hunting do go back some ways.
And then the smoothbore weapon with the fast loading times could have double 
the normal missile weapon range penalties.

The +4DX doesn't apply to the blunderbuss, so that one's not an issue.

>At least in 1979!  As far as your talents, I would just separate them.  
>Call Gunner, Musketeer, and Master Gunner, Gunner.  The use of cannon 
>and muskets should be placed under two different catagories as
>the skills behind their firing are totally different.

I considered that, but didn't want to increase the total number of talent
slots needed to cover what the original talent did.  I just broke it in two
to get a cheap talent so that anyone could get basic gun proficiency easily.
(And to avoid the odd situation of going from -4 to +4 with nothing in between.)

>As for actions for firing, remember I stated a soldier should be able to
>fire in the British army four times a minute.  This was under training
>conditions and not combat.  It was stated in the Prussian army under
>Frederick the Great, that their soldiers could fire six times a minute
>(Germanic lie????).  Your estimates for reloading are fine add +1turn to aim
>and fire, your flintlock fires once every 20 seconds (four turns).
>Excellent!!!

Cool.

>As for the wheellock, I believe you may either make it equal to the
>matchlock in firing or add on turn to the reload.  I have never timed the
>firing of this weapon, but the specialist at Jamestown Settlement has stated
>it takes about the same amount of time to load and fire a wheellock as it
>does a matchlock.

Okay.  It's main advantage, then, is that you don't need the slowmatch and
can carry it around ready to fire.

>FYI:  the first mass produced flintlock was the snaphaunce invented sometime
>between the years of 1590 and 1610.

In the matter of gunlocks I think it's entirely reasonable for a GM to either 
say "flintlocks exist" (in which case the matchlocks and wheellocks are quaint
antiques) or "flintlocks don't exist".  Given all the dwarves and mechanicians
and miscellaneous psychopaths running around on Cidri, flintlocks could easily
have been around for some time.  Or not.  So may as well let the GM decide 
based on how inconvenient he wants gunpowder weapons to be.  



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