TABLE OF CONTENTS CREDITS 2 FOREWORD 4 Chapter 1: General Rules for Firearms 5 Firearms and Eras 6 Chapter 2: Variant Campaigns 24 Potential Plot Hooks 26 Chapter 3: Historical Campaign Types 34 Age of Sail 34 Conquest of the New World 40 The Sengoku Jidai 44 Pike and Shot 48 The Revolutions 50 Rebellions of the Meiji Restoration 57 Wild West 60 Into the Trenches 64 Chapter 4: Player Options 70 Desperado 70 Highwayman 71 Musketeer 73 Spellshot 74 OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a 75 SamplePlease note that some names are marked with APG - this indicates file that they are from the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide. 3 3 FOREWORD The flash of the muzzle and the smell of gunpowder have long been parts of historical fiction, such as Hornblower, The Three Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo, and even the stories of Sherlock Holmes. Each of these stories takes part in a time that’s normally considered to be set after the typical fantasy RPG - which is normally set in a fictional Middle Ages, where sword and armor rule the battlefield - while existing alongside magic. These stories could never have been told without the existence of gunpowder. The Three Musketeers might be all about the swordplay, but the real musketeers used muskets and flintlock pistols. The Count also uses flintlock pistols, and the Hornblower stories would never have been the same without the sound of cannons. In this book, you’ll find the tools to bring these stories to life within thePathfinder Second Edition, including rules for firearms ranging from arquebuses to flintlock muskets to the earliest backloading rifles and pistols. Furthermore, you’ll find rules and guidelines for how to run a campaign set in a world where magic is non- existent or extremely rare - further expanding on things like ships and expanding on the rules for the Medicine skill so that it can stand in further for healing wounds. Finally, you will also find ideas and plot hooks for setting a story in a world similar to the Musketeers, the pirates of the Age of Sail, and even delving into the trenches of World War I warfare - in case you want to set your adventures in the real world or in a setting where the technology level has advanced beyond that of the typical campaign setting. Kim Frandsen Author Sample file 4 4 CHAptER 1: GENERAL RULES FOR FIREARMS Depending on the era, and the type The weapon is then fired using a slow of campaign you wish to run, you’ll burn fuse (which must be dry - in rainy need to consider and implement the or wet conditions, the weapon will not following changes. fire), that is held on to a locking wheel. When the trigger is pressed, the fuse is put into the black powder by the NO GUNS: weapon’s hammer action on the locking If your game has no guns - whether wheel. After a second or two, the through a lack of technology or an weapon fires. abundance of magic, you can simply This particular type of mechanism play the game as written. Bear in mind, survives into later eras, though there it that if this is the case, then it is likely is usually reserved for cannons, rather that many alchemical solutions do than personal weapons. Any weapons not exist either. Certain alchemical in those later eras that still use bombs (not those created by the matchlocks are older weapons, often alchemistAPG) might not work, and some family heirlooms. technological items, like the tindertwigs and smokesticks, might not exist either at the GM’s discretion. EMERGING FIREARMS Firearms are now beginning to appear more regularly, though a lot of people FIREARMS ARE JUST EMERGING have yet to adopt them fully. The weapons you see in this era are crafted OR ARE VERY RARE by small guilds, a master craftsman, For this type of campaign, firearms or (if very lucky) the first nation to are still in their infancy. As such, invent them. Weapons in this era are commoners are unlikely to know of all Uncommon and must be sought out their existence (or consider them to be specifically to get. Some technologically magic) and special training is required minded races, such as most dwarves, for these. might have easier access to these For these campaigns, all firearms weapons than others at the GM’s are Rare. Weapons in this era are discretion. notoriously fickle and unreliable Weapons in this era are typically (represented by the imprecise weapon flintlock weapons, and remain quality - as explained on page 13), frontloading - each user often carries and anyone using them is likely to be not only bullets and wadding required considered a wizard, witch, or even a for their weapon, but also extra flints demon. to be used in the firing mechanism, but These weapons are the earliest front many are grateful to no longer need loading firearms and require that burning fuses near their stores of black the user goes through a meticulous powder. reloading process, which involves ramming black powder, paper, Samplewadding, and a bullet (usually made of file soft lead) into the barrel of the weapon. 5 5 COMMON FIREARMS cartridge-based and carried within Firearms are now becoming the bullet-casing. This means that the increasingly common, and all armies worry of previous times of wet weather regularly use them. Soldiers are now becomes a nuisance rather than a commonly equipped with a firearm life-or-death situation. now, as well as a close-combat weapon, such as a pike. They’re now also used from horseback, where before they FIREARMS AND ERAS were usually reserved for foot-soldiers In the following, the firearms are placed due to their slow firing speed. A quick within the rough time-frame that they cavalry charge could often overrun appeared in, in the real world. This their opponents, giving them only time is to give you an idea of the sort of for the initial volley, so close combat campaign that you could hold with weapons like sabers made more sense. these weapons and to make it easier These weapons are still frontloading, for you to choose which weapons but instead of using a flintlock, they are available with the historical time now use a percussion cap, greatly period that your campaign takes place. increasing loading speeds. Normal Bear in mind that weapons from later people do not generally have access periods MIGHT appear at the GM’s to these weapons, except for duels discretion (representing prototypes and and competitions, though soldiers the first attempts at modernizing the sometimes bring them home from their weaponry involved), where weapons campaigns. Some nobles may have from earlier periods represent family access to them for hunting, but they’re heirlooms, old tradition (such as using still an uncommon sight in polite flintlock pistols for duels during the society. Industrial Revolution Era) and a GM might consider making ammunition hard to come by. Please note that all GUNS GALORE weapons have a RARE trait, indicating Guns are now being mass-produced that you should check with your GM and master-crafted examples are first. rare, outside of specialized gunsmith workshops. All soldiers are equipped with rifles, pistols, or more, and it’s rare for them to carry backup weapons Note: Some weapons have 2 statistics that aren’t some form of gunpowder. listed. This is because the weapon can Some still have bayonets, but it’s rare be used both as a ranged weapon and as for these to see use, even in close a melee weapon. When used as a ranged combat situations. In those situations, weapon, it uses the statistics before the most resort to unarmed combat slash ( / ), and when used as a melee instead. weapon, it uses the statistics listed after All firearms are now considered as the slash ( / ). simpleSample weapons instead of martial, and file they can be found almost everywhere. At this point, most ammunition is 6 6 AMMUNITION Martial Weapons Price Damage Range Reload Bulk Hands Group Weapon Traits 10 Rounds 1 sp ——— L — Pistol/ — Rifle 20 Compressed Air 4 sp ——— L — Rifle — Rifle Rounds Grenade 3 gp Varies 20 ft. — L 1 Bomb — (see text) Rifle Grenade 10 gp See text 40 ft. — L 1 Bomb — EARLY FIREARMS (LATE MIDDLE AGES, PIKE & SHOT CAMPAIGNS) RANGED RARE Martial Weapons Price Damage Range Reload Bulk Hands Group Weapon Traits Arquebus 30 gp 2d6 P 30 ft. 5 2 2 Rifle Imprecise, unreliable Culverin 20 gp 1d8 P 40 ft. 5 6 2 Rifle Imprecise, (hand cannon) unreliable Fire Lance 20 gp 1d12 P 10 ft. — 1 2 — Scatter, unreliable King’s Staff 60 gp 1d10 P / 10 ft. — 2 2 Pistol / Deadly d10, 1d6 B Club imprecise, magazine (3) unreliable / reach, trip Matchlock Pistol 20 gp 1d10 P 30 ft. 3 1 1+ Pistol Brace, deadly d10, pistolwhip, unreliable Matchlock Rifle 40 gp 2d6 P 60 ft. 5 2 2 Rifle Bayonet, deadly d12, unreliable Pepperbox-Pistol 100 gp 1d10 P 20 ft. 6 1 1+ Pistol Brace, (matchlock) deadly d10, magazine (6), Sample fileunreliable 7 7 RENAISSANCE WEAPONS (AGE OF SAIL, NAPOLEONIC, AND SIMILAR CAMPAIGNS) RANGED RARE Martial Weapons Price Damage Range Reload Bulk Hands Group Weapon Traits Blunderbuss 100 gp 2d8 P 15 ft. 3 1 2 Rifle Scatter Compressed Air 80 gp 2d4 P 45 ft. 3 2 Rifle Fatal d8, Rifle magazine (20), sniper Dragon Gun 60 gp 2d6 P 10 ft. 3 1 1 Pistol Scatter Duckfoot Volley 100 gp 2d6 P 10 ft. 3 1 1 Pistol Fatal d8, Gun scatter Flintlock Pistol, 30 gp 1d8 P 20 ft.