Kalthoff Repeater [TL4]

[Pursuivant]

I've worked up some GURPS Stats for TL4/5 firearms in the past, including some attempts to stat out BP repeaters like the Lorenzoni.

I'd suggest Malf 16 for a repeater BP firearm kept in perfect repair. Reduce Malf to 15 for any breechloading mechanism which delivers loose powder to the firing chamber. Reduce Malf to 14 for any breechloader mechanism which delivers both powder and shot. Malf quickly drops with use, due to black powder fouling.

Without meticulous cleaning and maintenance, Malf and overall Quality quickly drop, since black powder played hell with the steel of the time and machining tolerances weren't good enough to get good seals between metal parts (even screws). Hot corrosive powder particles would gradually erode the seals, eventually causing loss of chamber pressure, blowback from escaping powder, or even catastrophic failure.

Critical Miss with any BP breechloader or repeater is likely to cause blowback, delivering 1d-3 HP of burn damage to the shooter's face. A bad Critical Miss might cause the weapon to explode, delivering half the weapon's bullet damage as explosive burn damage with 1d-3 HP of cutting shrapnel.

Other than that, the stats look good.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Other than that, the stats look good.

Except the price. The listed figure wouldn't be enough for even hypothetcal "mass produced" varieties. Only a gunsmith whose normal work would be Fine or even Very Fine could even attempt repeater work.

That's something you can see in the video link. The guns were beautifully made.

So price should have a 4x or even 19x CF. Probably soem more for Decorated too.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Except the price. The listed figure wouldn't be enough for even hypothetcal "mass produced" varieties. Only a gunsmith whose normal work would be Fine or even Very Fine could even attempt repeater work.

You're right.

I just looked at the combat stats, since GURPS 3E Vehicles prices are notional.

With few exceptions, any pre-1800 repeater or breechloader would be a custom job by a bespoke gunsmith, hence "if you have to ask you can't afford it" prices, and probably lots of decoration to make it obvious to everyone that it was made by a master.

So, 4x or 19x price would be more in line with historical reality, with Good- or Fine-Quality being assumed in the base design. (That is, the gun's already as good as it's going to get. No further quality improvement is possible, at least with TL4-5 machining and materials.) Maybe a further 2x to 5x cost increase for being a custom job and then a further 4x or 19x for decoration.

That said, the Kalthoff Repeater was designed as working gun rather than as a wallhanger and they were as close to mass-produced as you could get for 17th c. weapons. A gun in 0.40 caliber would be a reasonable weapon for small game or target shooting and the guns in the photos are often undecorated. So, no decoration, but required Good-quality workmanship for +4x cost = ~$3,500.

Taking a second look at combat stats, 2d damage is a bit generous, especially for a small game gun. Powder load was probably kept on the low side to reduce strain on the parts. Relatively low quality powder* typically available in the 17-18th centuries might also reduce effective muzzle velocity, hence range and damage. 1d+1 or 1d+2 might be more realistic, with perhaps a 5% or 10% drop in Max range.

A battlefield version would use ~.60 to .80 caliber balls and would do damage and have range roughly equivalent to the Brown Bess or Charleville muskets listed in High Tech.

*It didn't necessarily start off as low quality, but black powder is anything but shelf stable and variances in the ingredients and manufacturing process could make individual batches more or less powerful.

[StevenH]

Forgotten Weapons has just released a video on the Kalthoff repeating rifle itself. Caliber is 0.54, and 30 or 31 balls could be loaded into the under-barrel magazine. The rifle shown (and disassembled to show the action) was one that was actually used by the Danish Royal Guard; only elite units could really use them because you needed a staff of specially trained armorers to take care of them and keep them in combat-ready shape. It had a clever but complicated mechanism that precluded it from being very effective in the standard infantry.