The Black Powder Armory · Chapter 2

Reading an Entry

Belt Pistol

Holster pistol, officer's pistol, trade pistol

The Fields

Damage is a flat number for anything fired or thrown. Add 1 for each uncancelled Success, then subtract the target's Resistance. Hand weapons print a bonus (+2) added to the wielder's Might.

Crit is the number of net Boons spent to inflict a Critical Injury. A dash means the weapon cannot inflict one.

Range is the farthest band at which the weapon attacks. Placed means it is set in position and fired later.

Enc is Encumbrance. A dash means the weapon is mounted and is not carried.

Skill is Light Ranged, Heavy Ranged, Gunnery, or Melee. At a table using the core rules' single Ranged skill, use Ranged for the first three.

Type is the damage type. Every firearm is Ballistic. Chapter 11 says what armour does about it.

Qualities are defined in Chapter 3.

One Shot, Then Reload

A muzzle-loading firearm holds one charge. It is carried loaded. After it fires, it is empty until it is reloaded.

Prepare X is the reload: the wielder spends X maneuvers, and the gun is loaded again. The maneuvers need not be in one turn. A character has one free maneuver a turn and may take a second for 2 Strain.

Lock	In use	Reload	Weakness
Hand-held match	1400 on	Prepare 4	Slow Match, Unreliable, Inaccurate
Matchlock	1400 to 1700	Prepare 3	Slow Match, Unreliable
Wheellock	1500 to 1650	Prepare 3	Price
Flintlock	1650 to 1840	Prepare 2	Unreliable
Flintlock rifle	1700 to 1840	Prepare 3	Unreliable
Percussion cap	1820 to 1870	Prepare 2	None
Breechloader	1850 to 1890	Prepare 1	None
Revolver, repeater	1836 on	Fires six, or runs dry	See its entry

A flintlock musketeer who spends both maneuvers reloading, at a cost of 2 Strain, fires every turn. A matchlock musketeer fires every second turn at best. That difference won battles.

Loading Aids

Item	Effect	Price
Bandolier of charges	Twelve wooden flasks, each one measured charge. A matchlock or wheellock's Prepare is 1 lower. Twelve reloads	20
Paper cartridges	Powder and ball in a paper tube, twenty to a box. A smoothbore flintlock, a percussion muzzle-loader, or a Rifle-Musket has Prepare 1 lower, to a minimum of 1. No effect on the Long Rifle	15
Spare cylinder	A loaded cylinder for a Cap-and-Ball or Dragoon Revolver. Swapping it takes two maneuvers	60
Powder horn and shot bag	What everyone else uses. Thirty reloads	10

A Brace of Pistols

Drawing a loaded pistol is a maneuver. From a sash, a baldric, or a ribbon round the neck, the first draw each turn is free.

Dropping a fired pistol is free. A pistol on a ribbon or lanyard is not lost.

Loaded pistols count their full Encumbrance. Six of them is a real weight.

Misfires, Rain, and Damp

Unreliable. If an attack with an Unreliable weapon generates 2 or more Bane or a Calamity, it misfires: the priming flashes, or the match has gone out. The weapon is still loaded. It cannot be fired until an action is spent clearing and re-priming it.

Slow Match. The weapon fires only while its match is burning. Lighting a match is a maneuver with a flame to hand, and an action with flint and steel. A lit match is visible at night out to Long range and adds 2 Bane Dice to its carrier's Stealth checks.

Conditions	Matchlock	Flintlock, wheellock	Percussion, cartridge
Wind or spray	Add 1 Bane Die	Add 1 Bane Die	No effect
Rain	Cannot fire	Add 2 Bane Dice	No effect
Soaked or submerged	Charge ruined; reload	Charge ruined; reload	Cap-and-ball: charge ruined. Cartridges: no effect

Bane Dice from weather count toward a misfire like any others.

Smoke and Noise

Every shot gives away the shooter. Black powder makes a white cloud and a flat boom. No check is needed to know where a shot came from, by day or night.

Smoke builds. In still air, below decks, or in a room, after three or more black powder shots in the same place in one round, add 1 Bane Die to ranged attacks into, out of, or through it until the end of the next round. A swivel gun or a grenado counts as three shots.

The smokeless weapons of Chapter 12 make no cloud.

Price, Money, and Availability

Price is in the same units as the other armories. It is not a price in period money. As a rough guide:

Setting	Divide prices by	To get
1650 to 1800, the Atlantic world	50	Spanish dollars (pieces of eight)
1650 to 1800, Britain	200	Pounds sterling
1850 to 1900, the United States	20	US dollars

A Universe with its own coinage picks one divisor and applies it to the whole book.

Tag	Meaning
Common	Sold to anyone with the money, in any port or market town
Restricted	A gentleman's or an officer's weapon; a commoner carrying one is asked questions
Military	Made for a crown, a company, or a navy. Bought from a quartermaster, a prize court, or a thief
Rare	Made by a few craftsmen, or newly invented

Period

Every entry is marked with the first period in which it is found: 1400 (1400 to 1650), 1650 (1650 to 1840), or 1840 (1840 to 1938). Old weapons stay in use. A matchlock is still a militia gun in 1700, and a flintlock is still a trade gun in 1870, at half the listed price.