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Old 03-07-2017, 06:40 AM   #11
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

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Originally Posted by Apollonian View Post
I'm tinkering with a campaign set in 1850, and I'm looking to add some more options for the group's resident gun-bunny. I already have High-Tech: Adventure Guns, which has a few options, but I'm having trouble finding any more weapons suitable for the game. Can anyone provide examples, or sources I can ransack?
I would expect that HT and Adventure guns have everything you need (both of which I own but neither of which do I have time to search through). Aside from the handful of revolvers, most firearms are caplock pistols and muskets which just vary in calibre, dimensions, and number of barrels. In GURPS terms, it should be easy to adjust the stats yourself.

The gun bunny can buy or borrow a book on 19th century British revolvers (or whatever) himself and work up game stats for anything interesting. The only difficult parts are damage (use Doug Cole's spreadsheet) and range (grab the 1/2D from something similar, and does max range for firearms ever come up in your games?)
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Old 03-07-2017, 07:31 AM   #12
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

Thanks for the help, everyone. This should give me enough to work with.
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Old 03-07-2017, 09:19 AM   #13
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

British cavalry carried the Lancers' Pattern Pistol of 1842.A 9 inch barrel in .753 musket bore. The cartridge for this used the same ball as the musket ball with 70 grains of powder.

British sailors carried the Sea Service Pistol. A 6 inch barrel, percussion pistol in the small bore of .567.

An officer, or a gentleman, could carry anything he wanted, in whatever caliber he had it made in. This was a favourite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumo...Adams_revolver
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Old 03-07-2017, 04:22 PM   #14
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

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Originally Posted by Purple Haze View Post
An officer, or a gentleman, could carry anything he wanted, in whatever caliber he had it made in. This was a favourite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumo...Adams_revolver
Judging by the dates in the article, that one won't be available for a few years (1856, became a military service pistol in 1862).
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Old 03-07-2017, 04:33 PM   #15
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

1856 for the DA/SA revolver, the 1851 and 1854 were DA only. Officers equipped themselves, this was the most common carry in Crimea.
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Old 03-07-2017, 05:40 PM   #16
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Default Another option --

Remember that a large number of European armies were changed over from the old flintlock muskets to newer weapons in the 1840s. So used muskets converted to percussion would be quite common and fairly cheap.

Some gunsmiths would rifle the barrels, producing weapons with very heavy recoil. Others would use the weapons with the barrels as made, making them useful as fowling pieces or with a "buck & ball" load.

Some of these weapons were purchased and issued -- by both sides -- in the American Civil War, but they weren't new then.
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Old 03-07-2017, 10:57 PM   #17
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

1850 is an interesting start point for firearms. Most guns will be single shot or multi-barreled like the pepperbox. Exceptions are the early Colts, the small fairly fragile original six-shooter, and the Colt Walker is barely 3 years old; there were only 1000 made. The Dragoons from 1848 would be a good "open carry" gun (they're huge) and the 1849 Colt Pocket pistol would be new and concealable; it was super popular and common in the US at least.

Limiting the starting gun selection will be pretty cool, though; very soon in your campaign you can introduce the 1851 Colt. Euro revolvers follow in subsequent years with the LeMat and London Arms in 1855. It's a cool time for guns, with tons of limited one-offs and experimental forays into tech that didn't catch on (Volcanics!).

Really, I think you've got the best book already: Adventure Guns! The other would be the main High Tech book. Run with what you've got and have fun :)
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Old 03-08-2017, 03:48 AM   #18
Polydamas
 
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

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Originally Posted by Apollonian View Post
Thanks for the help, everyone. This should give me enough to work with.
Good luck, let us know if you have any specific questions. Most handguns will look a lot like the flintlocks in High Tech, just with slight changes to reflect that they have caplocks instead of flintlocks. I think that is why Adventure Guns does not have many non-repeating pistols.
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Old 03-08-2017, 07:10 AM   #19
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

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Didn't the Colts get quite popular during the Indian Rebellion? A bit late for the campaign start, though.
Seven years too late, yes.

According to Wikipedia, one of the issues that kicked off the Rebellion was the supposed use of animal fat in the manufacture of cartridges for the Enfield P-53 rifle, which entered service in 1853 IIRC... so that particular rifle is too new for the OP's campaign.
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Old 03-08-2017, 07:14 PM   #20
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Default Re: Early Victorian guns?

You may want to look at the pinfire handguns. Forgotten weapons covered a few of these. I know that in Europe, pinfire was more used.
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