Wild West Game Experiences

McAllister · 07-30-2016, 02:04 PM

I don't have any Wild West experience, but let's see...

Even if you restrict firearms to TL5, which would be sensible since you're in the first decades of TL6, there are a variety of repeating rifles that have sizable magazines in High-Tech, so make sure you're aware of that. They suffer from lower Accuracy, but they should be popular anyway. Let's say you put a 4x scope on a Winchester (anything more powerful also increases Bulk): it exists in TL5 and gets common in TL6, according to High-Tech, so that brings the accuracy of the Winchester up to 5. So, add that to a Guns skill of 15 to get 20, and that person will reliably hit targets up to 10 yards away with aimed shots, and have a 50-50 chance at 100 yards. These get better with Weapon Bond, or... actually, I'm not sure there's much else you can do to increase your hit chances, at that point. So that tells you a bit about engagement ranges: if you're more than 100 yards away from someone, they might have a really big scope or get lucky, but for the most part you're safe, since they're doing half damage even if they hit.

And how lethal is this gun? The classic M1873 does 3d+1 pi+. You can get it in a bunch of different calibers, but that seems representative. That averages about 18 points of injury, so an average person is going to have to make HT rolls to remain standing, but they'll need to bleed for a few minutes before they risk death. A headshot is 36 injury, so of course that's more likely to be lethal, but even that seems like something a PC has a good chance of living through.

Of course, nobody likes losing 18 HP. How many HP can a PC regain in a week? Again assuming TL5 medical tech (the frontier probably isn't on the cutting edge here), people under a doctor's care get 10 rolls to recover HP per week, so even with HT 16, it's going to take about two weeks to get back to full HP after that rifle shot. Other than the +1 for having a physician's care, though, I'm not sure how to get bonuses to that roll, so that'll be worth looking into.

So, there you have it. PCs aren't going to get one-shotted from outside LOS under normal circumstances, but bullets suck.

Have you read Tactical Shooting? It's aimed at TL 8, but it's the best gun book there is. Not sure what precise you'd want, but it goes into detail on fanning a revolver's hammer, among other things.

07-30-2016, 02:04 PM	#2
McAllister Join Date: Jun 2013	Re: Wild West Game Experiences I don't have any Wild West experience, but let's see... Even if you restrict firearms to TL5, which would be sensible since you're in the first decades of TL6, there are a variety of repeating rifles that have sizable magazines in High-Tech, so make sure you're aware of that. They suffer from lower Accuracy, but they should be popular anyway. Let's say you put a 4x scope on a Winchester (anything more powerful also increases Bulk): it exists in TL5 and gets common in TL6, according to High-Tech, so that brings the accuracy of the Winchester up to 5. So, add that to a Guns skill of 15 to get 20, and that person will reliably hit targets up to 10 yards away with aimed shots, and have a 50-50 chance at 100 yards. These get better with Weapon Bond, or... actually, I'm not sure there's much else you can do to increase your hit chances, at that point. So that tells you a bit about engagement ranges: if you're more than 100 yards away from someone, they might have a really big scope or get lucky, but for the most part you're safe, since they're doing half damage even if they hit. And how lethal is this gun? The classic M1873 does 3d+1 pi+. You can get it in a bunch of different calibers, but that seems representative. That averages about 18 points of injury, so an average person is going to have to make HT rolls to remain standing, but they'll need to bleed for a few minutes before they risk death. A headshot is 36 injury, so of course that's more likely to be lethal, but even that seems like something a PC has a good chance of living through. Of course, nobody likes losing 18 HP. How many HP can a PC regain in a week? Again assuming TL5 medical tech (the frontier probably isn't on the cutting edge here), people under a doctor's care get 10 rolls to recover HP per week, so even with HT 16, it's going to take about two weeks to get back to full HP after that rifle shot. Other than the +1 for having a physician's care, though, I'm not sure how to get bonuses to that roll, so that'll be worth looking into. So, there you have it. PCs aren't going to get one-shotted from outside LOS under normal circumstances, but bullets suck. Have you read Tactical Shooting? It's aimed at TL 8, but it's the best gun book there is. Not sure what precise you'd want, but it goes into detail on fanning a revolver's hammer, among other things.