Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
Does anyone have any thoughts regarding how powerful a smokepowder weapn made from dragonbone could be? The powder is REF 0.5 and the weapon could tolerate more 'chamber' pressure than TL8 weapons.
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Assuming an arbitrarily strong material, I believe the constraints will actually be on how big the weapon is, to determine how much charge you can squeeze in and how much barrel length you can handle to ensure the projectile can achieve maximum acceleration before leaving the barrel and the propelling gasses start dissipating in three dimensions.
So for a man portable weapon, you're looking at something probably equivalent to "the biggest blunderbuss ever hauled by man". If the dragonbone is lighter than bronze or steel, possibly a little bigger than the biggest blunderbuss ever hauled by man :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
How much recoil can a ST 12 human cope with? How much damage would that be?
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Nitro Express .700 elephant gun seems to be the (slightly im)practical upper end for sheer "kick", and has a reputation for sending firers spinning around, or for knocking hunters flat on their butts. High Tech page 113, 5dx2 pi++, RCL 9, 19.3 lbs for two barrels (and only two shots).
The .600 isn't really much more practical, but has a history that extends back closer to the original gunpowder era. The .600 Nitro Express double rifles weighed in at 5dx2 pi++ 16.4 lbs, RCL 7. I'm not sure why, but it has the same damage and better range than the .700 - I'm going to go ask if that's errata or not.
These are ST 15 and 14 guns (respectively), so a ST 12 wielder could sort of manage them a little bit, and are I think an excellent benchmark for the upper end of the "OH MY GOD" range.
The Nitro Express .470 is considered actually practical, and does 8d+2 pi+, is 14.2 lbs, ST 12, RCL 5
These weapons are using cordite, so REF 0.8 compared to your REF 0.5 - I'm not sure what replacing the Cordite with your smokepowder would do to the statistics.