Most guns are manufactured in Manforge. The ancient firearms left behind by Man are rarely usable anymore... gunpowder just doesn't stay good long enough (in real life, 50 years is generally enough to ruin it). So, assault rifles and other overpowering weapons are generally unavailable (and dangerous to use, when they do show up).
Manforge is able to make only two kinds of guns... both simple mechanisms that require few special parts and for which the automatic lathes that they've found have patterns already.
Basically, they can make bolt-action, single-shot rifles and old-style, oversized six-shooter pistols. The rifle has better range and accuracy and more stopping power (it uses a larger bullet, too) but the much smaller magazine is a major limitation.
It takes a half-action to load a bullet into either. Speed-loaders exist, but they're crudely made and very rare... and bullets are expensive enough that most Beasts don't have that many extras anyway.
When using a firearm, the effective range starts out one class further away than they really are. Each half-action spent aiming brings it one step closer. The maximum number of times that you can aim with a pistol is one, and the rifle two. With a scope, you can aim the rifle three times. Since the distance determines the difficulty to hit, that's important.
Point Blank or closer: 2d4
Close: 2d6
Medium: 3d8
Long: 3d10
Extreme: 4d12
Impossible: 16+ (GM ruling required on whether it's possible at all)
So if you're at point-blank range, the difficulty of an unaimed shot is 2d6 but if you spend a half-action aiming it drops to 2d4. A scoped rifle can reduce the difficulty from 4d12 down to 3d8 (not 2d6! the range starts at "impossible" unless you spend a half-action aiming). You can't reduce the distance below "point blank", of course.
At actual point blank range, your target can attempt to parry your gun and substitute their Speed & Melee or Speed & Wrestling for the difficulty of 2d4 if they want to. So it's better to use a rifle and shoot them from a bit further away.
Manforge produces two standard types of bullet- rifle and pistol. The rifle round is about the same width, but twice as long as the pistol rounds.
I like the trade-off... a powerful, single-shot rifle vs a six-shooter with crappy range. And who doesn't like the idea of a grizzled Hyena or Jackal warrior carrying twin six-shooters?
Posted by Kiz at July 3, 2004 12:15 AMCommentsPost a comment