[Icelander]

So far, I haven't calculated exactly what firearms the industrial base the PCs can call upon have been making for the last six months. I've guesstimated that it was enough to supply a given number of pistols, blunderbusses, wall pieces, swivel-guns and rifles for the PCs' navy and calivers for their land-based caliver corps, as well as their marines.

In addition, I've stipulated that efforts were ongoing to recruit, train and equip more smokepowder-armed troops. Until they were deployed, however, it wasn't important to establish exactly how many and what kind of guns they would have. It could just be boiled down to an ongoing expenditure*, as well serving to occupy Allies, Contacts and hirelings with appropriate skills and requiring the occasional Administration, Diplomacy, Finance, Freight Handling, Leadership, Merchant and Politics checks by PCs.

The training of the troops is one issue, but I already have a fairly good idea of how that will go. I'll play out some political intrigue with the PCs as they try to get reluctant allies to accept policies that will inevitably mean that some of their best armed retainers will seek to desert and take service with the PCs, successful and famous foreign mercenaries who pay their men on time**, as well as organising their enterprise impeccably, equipping, transporting, feeding and housing them reliably.***

Being willing to ignore local status requirements for 'proper' warriors, the PCs will at least be able to recruit as many healthy, willing women, former slaves and other persons who were not previously considerated suitable for military service as they want. People like that who have spent several years as camp followers in a warzone should have the appropraite Hiking, Scrounging and fieldcraft skills, as well as a base of knowledge quickly expanded into decent Soldier skill, especially for recruits with highly above-average willpower, drive and adaptability, not to mention decent genes for health.

But what guns would there be for them to take up once they are recruited, trained and drilled?

The local economy has been disrupted by war, but before the war, there was a strong TL2+1 metallurgy industry in Messemprar, the largest city of the PCs side. There was a surplus of hoarded bronze available, as there was limited fuel for foundries or armories, as well as a lack of buyers who could pay for bronze armour.

Several hundred brownsmiths and brassfounders, as well as several dozen blacksmiths, whitesmiths and goldsmiths were, if not unemployed, at least employed only in a limited capacity in very unpopular forced labour by a weak central authority which could not effectively compel them to reveal stockpiles of materiel nor supply them with sufficient fuel. A wide range of other artisans were in the same situation, of course, with the local finecarvers, weavers, glassblowers and potters perhaps most notable for their number and the fame of their wares.

The PCs have a very good working relationship with the Hegemony of Artisans, the guild-like confederation of middle-class skilled workers that has taken on a quasi-governmental, para-military role in the Artisan Quarter of Messemprar since the collapse of the regime of the former God-King of Unther.

They've also brought some masters familiar with TL4 gunsmithing to the city; two bronzesmiths, two locksmiths, two alchemists, a jeweller and a jack-of-all-trades tinkerer/inventor. Most of them are gnomes, from a community that lies at the end of a trade route to the Far East (where smokepowder has been trickling in for a generation or two), and all of them know how to make firearms, with some of them having refined the TL4 designs that were current 15 years ago considerably.

They can easily make very intricate wheelock firearms, but I get the feeling that the wheellock is time-consuming to make. The setting also has alchemical 'Lucifer' matches that are fairly widely available and rarely cost more than $10, even in small towns, which suggests that a lock-design that incorporates the alchemical substance in question might be a good idea.

What are some factors that I ought to bear in mind in designing the firearm they'll make?

When you have an abundance of labour that is skilled at brassfounding and bronzemaking (and an effectively infinite supply of willing assistants ready to learn), but only a dozen people familiar with the ins-and-outs of gunsmithing, what are good designs to focus on?

Are there certain lengths of barrel that take longer to cast than others?

Would there be appreciable time**** savings in casting nine hundred 24" bronze barrels rather than nine hundred 39" barrels?

How much extra work is involved in making three hundred 24" barrels, three hundred 39" barrels and three hundred 42" barrels?

How long does it take for a TL4 master gunsmith to train a TL2+1 master bronzesmith to be able to supervise apprentices of his own in making a single design of firearm, say a TL4 caliver or fusil? How about TL2+1 journeymen, how long does it take to train them for the same purpose?

In all cases, assume that two TL4 wizards and their apprentices are standing by ready to cast the Measurement spell or other Information or Making and Breaking spells during the casting process and on finished products, to ensure no subpar alloys are poured or gun barrels with hidden flaws are accepted.

One wizard has Alchemy at a high level and the other has Metallurgy/TL5. At least one has any one of the following skills: Armoury (Smallarms), Blacksmith, Bronzesmith, Engineering (Smallarm), Jeweller, Locksmithing, Mathematics (Applied) and Metallurgy at 14+. Apprentices have Alchemy 12+, Metallugy 12+ and at least Dabbler or a point or two in some of the above skills, for skill 8-10+.

There are two designers available for new types of weapons, who have TL5 skills in Armoury (Smallarms) and Engineering (Smallarms). One is a gunner with skill around 18 in Armoury and 15 in Engineering, but that's mostly default in Engineer and he's improving his theoretical knowledge rapidly with the aid of the other, an invoker wizard who started with Engineering (Combat)/TL5 and Metallurgy/TL5 at 16 and has been adding Armoury and Engineering for Heavy Weapons and Smallarms.

I realise that some firearms are better made from cast iron, wrought iron or steel and there is a concurrent effort in that direction as well. I'll address that better in a later post, but suffice it to say that in addition to two gnome blacksmiths who have become gunsmiths, a gnome clockmaker and a young gnome master who was the first in his community to be certified as a master gunsmith without having previously trained in another profession, the PCs have been buying from various human communities where the metallurgy and smithing is solidly TL4 and guns have been known for some years. They also have access to a dragon's lair where the dragon in question was an avid metallurgist and had built a contraption for melting and casting metals with his fire breath and mastery of the element of fire. With summoned fire elementals and a powerful enough fire mage, the PCs can use this contraption to melt any metal down easily and make cast iron or steel with the ease of a much higher TL.

*A fairly minor one compared to building a navy capable of taking on an empire while aiding the development of the local economy to make it not only self-sustaining, but profitable, and finding a way to employ enough of an estimated million refugees (as well as another million or so either underemployed or connected to one of a dozen armed factions, none of which was contributing much to the war effort while occupied with internecine rivalries) to forestall a further famine and crisis.
**Not to mention paying three times the extremely low local market value for the lowest ranks and at least 25% over it for the highest.
***If PCs want to dabble in empire-building, it helps to have multiple characters with one or more of Accounting, Administration, Economics, Finance, Leadership, Market Analysis, Merchant, Politics, Propaganda, Public Speaking, Teaching and Writing at 20+.
****As opposed to just materials.