[LT] [HT] How much does it cost to fire my musket?

[Tyneras]

The information on black powder weapons seems to be rather scattered. In Low Tech p. ammo costs $10/lb for metal and $100/lb for stone and powder is $20/lb for corned and $10/lb for serpentine. In High Tech p.163 powder is 40 shots per lb (0.025 lb per shot).

I'd be fine with with this, but give how much the weight of a shot varies between various guns, it does annoy me a bit. Some guns have as little as 0.025 weight per shot (no bullet! D: ) while others have as high as 0.3 (0.275 lb bullet, 0.025 powder) I'd be happier with a proportion of shot to powder that I could just apply to every gun that doesn't used cased ammo.

[Polydamas]

As far as I know, the authors' intent was :

If the weapon is a black powder gun firing lead shot, CPS = $20 x WPS
If the weapon is a black powder gun firing stone shot, CPS = $100 x WPS

See Low Tech p. 87 "Black powder and lead are bought in bulk, by weight, for soldiers to measure out for their guns. It’s accurate enough to treat cost per shot as a simple multiple of weight per shot. "

There is a separate price for powder because gamers often want to buy it separately for bombs or to fill grenadoes. I don't remember what ratio between bullet weight and powder weight the authors took as standard ... it may vary between pistols and longarms, and between stone, iron, and lead shot.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

There is a separate price for powder because gamers often want to buy it separately for bombs or to fill grenadoes. I don't remember what ratio between bullet weight and powder weight the authors took as standard ... it may vary between pistols and longarms, and between stone, iron, and lead shot.

Not to mention between single and double charges of powder: You could provide more propulsive power at a risk of your barrel blowing up in your face. But we felt that keeping detailed track of exact weights and dollar amounts was more bookkeeping than most gamers would want to do. Hence the simplified rule of thumb.

Bill Stoddard

[Polydamas]

After further research, see this thread for data on powder-shot ratios for cannon. The advantage of just noting "3 lbs of ammunition" on a character sheet is that you don't have to track lead, cast shot, coarse powder, fine powder, wadding, cartridge papers, and made cartridges separately; on the other hand, if someone doesn't keep their powder dry they may need to replace the powder, papers, and wadding but not the cheap shot.

[Tyneras]

Mostly I ask because if I change how much powder costs, but not lead, I want to know how much the new ammo costs. But I suppose I could just multiply by the same rate. Might get a bit odd for special ammo like silver or enchanted bullets.

[Polydamas]

The Cost Factor (additive multipliers) system should help with that: +x CF for smokepowder (your world's equivalent of black powder), +y CF for silver, +$z for Razleb's Shot of Fiery Doom. The prices in GURPS books seem to be mostly guesses anyways.