Low Tech cannons mortars and shells

[Varyon]

A bit of online searching indicates explosive cannon shells date to the 14th century, or late TL 3; apparently the earliest ones were cast from bronze. They were typically used by mortars* rather than the longer cannons, and had a lot of issues - they could get jammed, explode prematurely, fail to explode, etc, and you had to light them prior to shooting them out of the mortar. For simplicity, I'd probably just use the LE guidelines from High Tech, using the Malf typical of TL 3 (or TL 4, if later - or just use TL 4 stats outright, and assume the first ones that showed up were just a case of TL 4 gear showing up a bit early). Actually, given they were notoriously finicky, I'd probably apply a -1 to Malf, both for the mortar firing it and for the shell itself (they aren't as reliable as typical iron bombs). Or maybe have that first -1 only apply to cannons, with the shorter-barreled mortars not having much issue launching them.

*I honestly can't recall of mortars actually show up in LT - it might have only been longer cannon. ISTR at least one of the ridiculously-large weapons in LTC2 making a note that it would technically qualify as a mortar (the barrel was only a few calibers long, but it was one heck of a caliber), but I don't remember more appropriately-sized mortars actually being in LT.