Firearms:

Last Updated: 03/13/2008

A lot of the firearms listed in the rules are historically incorrect. Some never existed, introduction dates are wrong, others have incorrect ammo capacities, and so on. Worse, many of the weapons are given damage ratings that don't match with either reality or the baseline source material found in Western movies.

As an example of a problem matching reality, let's take the .44 Remington Single-Action and the Colt Peacemaker. Both are listed in the game as 3d6 damage.  In point of fact, the Peacemaker fired a bullet weighing around 25% more than the Remington at comparable velocity (even with the later reduced Peacemaker loads)  making it the more damaging round. Other examples are even more marked.

From the perspective of the genre, many of the pistols fail to produce significant wounds on typical hits. Since few western movies required one to fire multiple rounds into the typical cowpoke to take him down, the result is a major mental image break between the game and its source material.

Perhaps the worse effect is seen in the second edition's rate of fire rules. Simply put, they gave double-action revolvers twice the rate of fire of single action weapons. In real life, the difference is far less marked as the weapon is cocked on the recoil flip by a skilled user before you'd even have a chance to fire again. However the real problem in my opinion comes from the fact that the effectiveness of the double action guns under these rules are such that they crowd out both the genre weapons from western movies and Weird West weapons such a Gatling Pistols.

An important historical fact ignored by the game is that many of these weapons were produced in various calibers, some of which were designed to use the same cartridge in both rifle and pistol. A variant of the Peacemaker for example was chambered in .44-40, the same round as the famous Winchester 73 (the rifle produced higher velocities because of the long barrel).

The following rules are intended to correct these (and other) problems, although like all rpg representations they are still vague abstractions. See my page on Realistic Firearms in RPGs for more information.

I'm currently researching and will be adding more weapons as I find additional data (and changing these as I play test them). Right now, I have the classics listed here and until I've added a weapon, it may not be used in the game. If one is using a game date in the 1870s, many older weapons must be purchased used; the prices reflect this (especially cap & ball prices).

Holdouts Notes:

#1: Break-Down Loading: Requires the cylinder to be removed and each shell individually ejected there-after. Requires a break down action/reassembly action up front and then equal time to eject as to load individual rounds.

 

Pistol Notes:

#2: The Colt Walker (when loaded with conical bullets) was the most powerful handgun made until well into the 20th century. However the loading lever had the distressing habit of coming loose under recoil requiring the user  to re-latch the weapon. Make a Reliability check against a value of 18, failure means that the character must spend one action correcting the problem before he can fire again. These are rare guns with only 1100 originally made.

            This weapon already has the lengthened barrel option (9") included.

#3: The Adams lacked a guard to prevent escaping gasses and cap fragments from hitting the firer's hand. Give the weapon a Reliability of 18, failure means the firer takes 1 Wind of damage. A European design, this is a rare weapon in the States.

#4: The Remington New Armies were a solid design using a top strap long before the Colts did, however they were more sensitive to fouling caused jamming. This will rarely have a game impact, however if desired the GM may call for reliability checks for extended shooting.

#5: The Le Mat Revolver is a rather rare French designed revolver with the unusual addition of a second shotgun barrel together with a selector switch to allow the user the choice between it and the normal pistol barrel. Setting the selector takes either its own action card or a Quick Draw roll with a TN of 5 much like cocking. Setting the selector in the same action with cocking or drawing adds 2 to the TN, thus draw, set selector, cock and fire has a TN of 9.

            Most Le Mats had a 18 gauge Shot barrel. However the short barrel reduced its effectiveness notably. Use the 20 gauge cylinder-bore scattergun stats but double the range to determine the damage.

            Lastly, shot would often work loose under the recoil from firing the normal pistol loads. The shot barrel starts with a Reliability Rating of 21, but subtract one for every normal pistol shot fired before the Shot barrel is used. Any malfunction is just a simple misfire; the barrel would need to be reloaded.

#6: A English designed double action revolver already outfitted with a short (3 1/2") barrel. Outside of Europe and the Mounties in Canada, it is a rare weapon. 

#7: Side-Gate Loading. Spent shells must be manually ejected before loading, ejecting takes an equal amount of time as loading

#8: The Colt Peacemakers were first made in 1873, however they weren't produced in any numbers for the public until 1875. Agency Operatives and the US Army have access to the weapon starting in 1873. 

This model was chambered in a larger number of calibers over the years including the .44 Henry (1875, 4d6-2 damage), .44-40 (1878, 4d6 damage), .32-20 (1884, 3d4 damage), and 38-40 (1884, 4d4-1 damage).

#9: Known as a unreliable weapon. Roll a d6 at the start of an gaming session when carrying this weapon. On a 1, the weapon is considered to have a Reliability of 19 for the entire session. If a Reliability check is failed, the weapon breaks and requires a hour's work by a gunsmith (TN 5) to return to function.

#10: Top-Break: Breaks open and auto-ejects the shells. Normal loading speed. 1878 was the first year this model was available in the States in any number.

Pistol Barrel Lengths:

The pistol table assumes a standard barrel length for the above guns, typically around 7 1/2 inches. The Barrel may be shortened (4 3/4" to 5 1/2") for $5 at the lost of -1 to Range but +1 to Quick Draw. They may be lengthen (9" to 12") for $15 giving +1 to Range but -2 to Quick Draw.

Rifle Notes:

#11: This rifle is able to accept a bayonet.

#12: Muzzle Loader, requires 6 actions to load.

#13: Cap and Paper Cartridge Breechloader. Takes two actions to load.

#14: Clumsy loading: Spend one Action up front to cover the opening and closing of the loading port.

#15: This model was very rare (less than 1/10 of 1 percent of all Model 73s produced).

#16: Double-Set Triggers. By pulling the first trigger (either on a separate action or as a free part of a 'take a bead' action), the firer can set the firing trigger to function like a 'Hair Trigger' from Law Dogs. The triggers go back to normal after firing (or lowering of the hammer).

#17: After 1876, 50-90 cartridges were special order only.

#18: This is the same basic weapon seen  in Quigley Down Under although quality make, lengthened barrel (34") giving +3 Range, and improved sights should be added to complete the package. Total Modification Cost: $28

#19: Brutal Recoil. One Wind is inflicted on the firer unless he can make a Vigor check with a 7 TN. This was also a 'special order only' weapon and cartridge, it never appeared in the Sharps catalogs.

#20: These were converted from Sharps 1863 to fire the new .50-70. The above stats assume that it was re-barreled to .50 cal.

Rifle Barrel Lengths:

Barrel lengths provided above are standard for the model list. A number include Carbine (short barrel), Rifle, and Long Range Rifle models (such as the Winchester 73). Carbines are shorten barrel versions while Long Range Models have the lengthened barrel option.

After market modification of barrel lengths on rifles will have different effects depending upon the exact model. Consult with the GM.

#21 Unfired shot in a barrel could work loose under recoil. The first fired barrel has a Reliability Rating of 20, but the second barrel fired uses a Reliability of 19. Any malfunction is just a simple misfire, the barrel would need to be reloaded.

#22: Both Barrels may be cocked with a single action or successful Fast Draw roll.

#23: Scatterguns, also known as whippets, were saw-off shotguns often with a pistol grip instead of a normal stock with the barrel length reduced to 8"-12". Holsters can be made for these weapons (commonly over-the-shoulder models) for $4.

#24: Available from England in 1875. Hammerless Shotguns cock when the action is opened for reloading.

Shotguns- Buckshot

Shotguns come in a wide variety of various sizes called gauges, that determine (along with some other things) the total number of pellets in a shell which in turn has a direct bearing on damage. The most common is 12 gauge although 20 and 10 gauge are also widely used. The rarer gauges (like 28, 16 and 8) aren't reflected in my campaign.

Shotgun chokes were developed (to a practical degree) by W.W. Greener in 1875, until then (and for quite a while after for the most part) shotguns were plain cylinder-bore. Full chokes tighten the spread of pellets resulting in longer effect ranges; they are available after 1875 (on English imports at first) and increase the cost as listed in Law Dogs. Adding a Full Choke to a shotgun costs $3 per barrel.

Barrel length also has a great effect on effective range as shorter barrels will increase the pellet spread. There is a trade-off involved as wider spreads mean shorter ranges in return for an increased hit chance in close. Barrels much longer than 20" don't actually effect range or spread significantly and the typical shotgun is assumed to have 20"-24" barrels. The Shotgun damage Chart below gives the resulting damage by barrel type and range.

The spread of the shotgun pellets provide two benefits to the shooter. First they provide a bonus to the Shootin' roll as listed in the Shotgun Damage Chart below. Second, they counter any Range Modifier up to the weapons effective maximum range as given on the same table.

Shot is made of up numerous round lead balls which lack the mass to be effective against Armor. Double the effect of Armor vs. Buckshot.

Shotgun Damage Chart

*Required Strength measures how much strength is required to handle the weapon properly.  If the firer's strength is less than the listed value,  he suffers a -1 to his shootin' roll to represent his difficulty in handling the weight of the weapon and the force of its recoil.

Shotgun Slugs

Before Wilhelm Brenneke invented the modern arrow like shotgun slug in 1898, these were terribly inaccurate but heavy hitting (at close range) round ball loads. Even after 1898, they never matched the accuracy of rifles except in rifled barrels.

Before 1898, firing slugs results gives the damage shown in the Shotgun Damage table above  (Note: in reality a slug loses energy faster than an rifle, but this is ignored in order in order to keep matters simple). The give a +1 to the required TN to represent their lack of accuracy.

Slugs unlike buckshot do suffer a Range Increment. Cylinder-bore guns have a 6, scatterguns a 3, while those of a Full-Choked gun is reduced to a 4 with Scatterguns having a 2.

Shotguns: Letting them have it with both Barrels

Both barrels of a double can be fired at once. In this case roll only once to hit.

At ranges of 2x the Range Increment or lees, roll once for location. Since some of the shot is doubling up on 'dead meat', only increase the number of damage dice by 50% rounded down. Example: Both barrels of cylinder-bore 20 gauge shotgun at a range of 12 will do 6d6 damage.

At ranges of 3x the Range Increment or greater, roll for two separate locations since each barrels of these weapons tend to have slightly different points of impact and split the damage (round down) between them. 

Rate of Fire (RoF)

In the above tables, each weapon has a Rate of Fire that is measured in the number of shots per Action. This is in effect, very similar to how 1st edition Deadlands treated the subject with their Speed stat, however the term 'RoF' is used so that unmodified character sheets can be used in our campaign with these house rules.

Speed (SPD)

I've added a column for Quick Draw modifiers (Spd), based upon weapon size, balance and ease of pointing. Note that such things are rather subjective in real life and as such vary from person to person.

This modifier is applied to Fast Draw whenever the weapon is drawn or otherwise rapidly brought to bear from an unprepared position. It is not applied to any Fast Draw rolls for cocking the weapon.

Carrying loaded Weapons

Weapons of the period did not have modern safety mechanisms. Thus experienced people avoided carrying a weapon with a loaded cylinder under the hammer. While this made the weapon much safer, it reduced the ammo capacity by one.

For some reason, the Western movie genre seems to make (un-cocked) weapons immune to this reality. These house rules bow to the wisdom of the genre and makes the same ruling.

Restrictions on Spare Cylinders

Under the current rules, character may carry spare cylinders and swap them out, thereby reloading weapons quickly. This concept came from the practice of carrying spare cap and ball cylinders in order to avoid the lengthy loading process they required.

For cartridge arms, the concept just doesn't work. First there is nothing holding the shells in the cylinder (with cap and ball, an oversized ball was jammed into the cylinder creating an air-tight pressure fit that would hold the round in place) and secondly the weapons weren't designed for this with screws and multiple lose parts standing in the way of pulling the swap off.

As a result, I don't allow speed cylinders for for cartridge arms. 

The method may still be used for certain types of C&B revolvers. This allows one to avoid  having to deal with powder and ball, however the caps were rarely placed on the spare cylinder until loaded into the pistol. Ignoring this it is possible in some cases (The Remington 1858 revolver was one of the few models who's construction would allow it), taking three actions, 2 with a successful Speed Load. 

Cap & Ball

Loading a muzzle loader is more time consuming than the rules state. The number of actions required to load is increased to 6.

The above firearm tables assume that conical bullets are being fired from cap & ball weapons. If round balls are being used, subtract 2 from the damage.

Reliability

The rules have Cap & Ball weapons blowing up about once every 200 shots. A concept that would likely surprise people who have fired thousands of rounds safely though these weapons. Problems with exploding weapons are more due to the shooter's knowledge  (or lack thereof) than the design. Even the lesser malfunctions are more affected by skill than design. One example of this is that C&B revolvers should be cocked when held vertically to allow expended caps to fall free, rather than into the mechanism.

Roll malfunction as normal except that the  'Catastrophe' result is treated as 'Minor'  unless the character loading the weapon is inexperienced  (i.e., has only 2 levels or less in Shootin'). The involvement of a Gremlin, the Bad Luck Hindrance, or similar influences will also enable Catastrophe malfunctions as per the original table.

Reliability of all C&B unless otherwise noted is a 19.

Rare Weapons

Rare weapons are, not surprisingly, rare and difficult to get a hold of. The character must take a 1 point Belongings edge in order to purchase any  firearms noted above as rare (for the normal cost including any modifications).

After Market Modification

Weapons may be modified after market by skilled gunsmiths. Sometimes this modification is actually done at the factory in post-production in order to meet a special requirement or custom order. The following are allowed modifications and they replace the list given in Law Dogs in its entirety (i.e. modifications not listed here are not allowed):

High Quality $10

The weapon's action and trigger are finely tune providing a +1 modifier to the Shootin' roll.

Rifle Bayonet $5

As per Law Dogs. Add $3 if the weapon is not already fitted for a bayonet.

Improved Sights $3

Tang sights and other models are available for rifles. Such sights provide a +1 modifier to the Shootin' roll at ranges of 50 yards or greater.

Pistol Shoulder Stock $3

Detachable stock adds +2 to Range, +2 to Concealment, and -2 to Spd.

Hair Trigger $5

As per Law Dogs, +1 modifier to Shootin' rolls. Accidental fire Reliability of 18.

Lengthening/Shorting the Barrel

Can be performed on Pistols and Rifles. Rules given above under those listings.

Engraving, Gold Inlay, Nickel or Silver Plating, Pearl or Ivory Handles

As per Law Dogs.

References:

Cartridges of the World 

(9th Edition, Revised and Expanded.)

Frank C. Barnes/Edited by M.L. McPherson. 

2000.

ISBN 0-87341-909-X

The Guns that Won the West

(Firearms on the American Frontier, 1848-1998)

John Walter

1999

ISBN 1-85367-351-X