The Black Powder Armory · Chapter 6
Flintlock Long Guns
Shoulder arms from 1650 to 1840. The smoothbore musket is damage 8 at Medium range, and the chapter is built around it.
Two things separate the entries: whether the barrel is rifled, and what goes down it.
| Range | Reload | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoothbore, ball | Medium | Prepare 2 | Paper cartridges make it Prepare 1 |
| Smoothbore, shot | Short | Prepare 2 | Blast |
| Rifle | Long | Prepare 3 | Accurate; cartridges do not help |
All are Unreliable in the same way as the pistols. All but the Blunderbuss and the Volley Gun take a bayonet (Chapter 10), and a fired musket is a Clubbed Musket at no cost.
Skill: Heavy Ranged throughout.
Trade Gun
Fusil, Northwest gun, Carolina gun, Barbary musket
7 4 Medium 3
Heavy Ranged 120 Common Ballistic Prepare 2, Unreliable
A light, cheap smoothbore made by the thousand for the fur and slave trades and for anyone who could not afford better. It is the gun in most civilian hands.
Musketoon
Sea service carbine, cavalry carbine, short musket
7 3 Medium 3
Heavy Ranged 200 Military Ballistic Prepare 2, Unreliable
A musket with the barrel cut to two feet, for horsemen and for the tops and gangways of a ship, where a full-length gun will not swing. Damage 7 at Medium range, Encumbrance 3.
Musket
Brown Bess, Charleville, Potsdam musket, firelock
8 3 Medium 4
Heavy Ranged 250 Military Ballistic Prepare 2, Unreliable
The infantry weapon of two centuries: a smoothbore firing a ball of three-quarters of an inch. Damage 8, Crit 3, Medium range.
With paper cartridges (Chapter 2) its Prepare 2 becomes 1, and a drilled soldier loads and fires every round. It takes a bayonet (Chapter 10).
Fowling Piece
Fowler, bird gun, long fowler, bucaneer gun
7 3 Medium 4
Heavy Ranged 300 Common Ballistic Prepare 2, Unreliable
A long, slim smoothbore for hunting. The long-barrelled fusil boucanier of Hispaniola gave the buccaneers their name and their reputation as shots.
Loaded with ball it is damage 7 at Medium range. Loaded with shot it is damage 6 at Short range with Blast 3. The choice is made when it is loaded.
Blunderbuss
Musketoon with a bell mouth, coach gun, thunder gun
8 3 Short 3
Heavy Ranged 250 Common Ballistic Blast 4, Knockdown, Prepare 2, Unreliable
A short gun with a flared muzzle, loaded with a handful of pistol balls. The bell mouth does not spread the shot; it makes the gun easy to load on a moving coach or a rolling deck.
Damage 8 at Short range with Blast 4 and Knockdown. It is the boarding gun.
Long Rifle
Kentucky rifle, Pennsylvania rifle, Jäger rifle, Baker rifle
8 3 Long 4
Heavy Ranged 500 Common Ballistic Accurate 1, Prepare 3, Unreliable
A rifled barrel and a tightly patched ball. It reaches Long range with Accurate 1, which no smoothbore does.
The ball must be forced down the grooves: Prepare 3, and paper cartridges do not help.
Volley Gun
Nock gun, seven-barrelled gun
10 3 Short 6
Heavy Ranged 1500 Rare Ballistic Blast 4, Knockdown, Cumbersome 4, Prepare 4, Unreliable
Seven barrels brazed together and fired at once, made for the fighting tops of warships. Damage 10 with Blast 4 and Knockdown.
It needs Might 4. A firer with less is knocked Prone by the recoil on any attack that generates a Bane.
