Radical Alternatives: How SHOULD Size and Speed/Range Affect Chance to Hit?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Another issue is Inherent Accuracy, especially when dealing with lower TL weapons at longer ranges. For example, a TL5 smoothbore musket is going to have a target grouping which exceeds the area covered by a man-sized target at much more than 50 yards/ meters of range. (One military writer of the time wrote that you had as much chance of hitting the man on the moon with a musket shot as hitting a man standing at 100 paces.)

GURPS 3E made a clumsy attempt to model this by ruling that Acc bonuses didn't apply beyond 1/2D range, but a simpler rule might be to rule that your maximum modified skill with any ranged weapon not specifically designed for accurate long-ranged shooting can't exceed the weapon's TL + 10.

That's a bizarrely sweeping move to make to address the problem of smooth-bore shot instability. Considering that smooth-bore muskets and rifles are contemporary at certain tech levels, and rifles do not have at all the same problem (though they do have their own problems), it really doesn't make any sense.

If you want a special rule for muskets (and maybe unrifled cannon) give them a special rule.