RPM:Rules/Firearms

Firearms

In Fate there are many different ways that we can model things such as firearms. This is how we will be handling them in the Royal Pride of Musketeers.

Muskets are common in the army and pistols can be found among the wealthy or connected. This is to say that they’ll be fairly common in the game but not available to all the NPCs.

Any character with ranks in Shoot is assumed to have the appropriate firearms. Each character should denote if they have a musket (or two) or a series of pistols (up to six) or both, or maybe a blunderbuss. (Musketeers often kept up to six pistols loaded at a time due to the slow reloading time.)

For each shot from a firearm that a character has, which is usually one per firearm, the character gets a box in a Firearm track for the purposes of tracking shots. This box has no other purpose or benefit. Every shot taken checks a box on this track.

Firearms are sensitive to wet conditions. Some aspects, such as "Downpour of Rain", may prevent firing a weapon.

Weapon:1

All firearms are Weapon:1, adding one point of stress when dealing stress.

Misfire

When being attacked by someone with a firearm, if the defender succeeds with style they may forgo the boost and instead choose to have the firearm misfire, causing the attacker 2 physical stress and making the firearm unusable until repaired.

Reloading

Reloading a firearm happens when a character has the time and opportunity to do so, which is usually between scenes. When reloading between scenes uncheck all checkboxes in the Firearms track. Remember that you get one box per musket or pistol you have.

For reloading during a scene, you may make a Shoot Overcome roll at +2 to reload your weapon. You regain one box in the Firearm track and if you succeed with style you regain two boxes.

Making Firearms More Interesting

Using a Stunt

Personal Hardware

Ankur decides that he’d like his character, a double-pistol wielding Musketeer, to take a feat to represent the double pistols that he uses. He decides to create a Personal Hardware stunt called Double Pistol Shot. For this stunt he chooses Weapon:2 to represent the extra damage from double-handed shooting. Since you get to pick two items from the list in Personal Hardware, Ankur adds a +1 to Shoot when he is outnumbered. Now when Ankur uses his Double Pistol Shot stunt he makes a single Shoot roll that is considered Weapon:3 by checking off two Firearm boxes.

Becky, on the other hand, wants her character to be an excellent sniper with her muskets. She decides to create two stunts, Long Range Sniper and Calm Shot. Long Range Sniper allows her to use her Stealth for attacks with her musket as long as the target is more than one zone away from her and she is hidden from notice. Calm Shot gives her a +2 to Will rolls to Create Advantage when creating an aspect related to sniping, e.g. “You’re in my Crosshairs” or “Lining up a headshot”.

Spend Refresh on Gear

Gadgets and Gear. This method is like creating a mini-character in the form of a piece of gear. It will have a Function aspect and a Flaw aspect. You then add a number of stunts to the gear with each stunt costing one point of refresh. The minimum cost for a piece of gear is one refresh.

Christina decides that she wants to create “Her Father’s Musketeer’s Pistol” that has been passed down to her. She creates a Function aspect, “True Aim for the Realm” to represent that when push comes to shove for the realm this pistol pulls through. For a Flaw aspect she decides that her brother isn’t pleased that she was gifted the gun and thus it is “Coveted by my brother, Dean” to represent that her brother is constantly trying to steal it, my hook or by crook. She needs a stunt for her pistol and decides that since her father was known as a merciful man she'll have the pistol will give her +2 to Overcome rolls with Rapport to convince opponents to surrender, provided the opponents know of her father’s renown. She talks with the GM and they agree that more often than not opponents will likely have heard of her father.

Derek decides that he want to have a fine quality set of pistols that he calls The Lion's Paw and decides that he will do this by creating it as gear. First, he creates the Function aspect, "Best Pistols Money Can Buy" to represent the quality of the craftsmanship. Next, he creates the Flaw aspect, "Expensive to Maintain" to show that he has to continually see to their repair with the finest of materials. Now when it comes time to figure out the stunt, he has two ideas—more shots and quick shooting. For more shots he writes the stunt "Extra Shot: When reloading the Lion's Paw, add one extra box to your Firearms track to represent being able to reload a pistol while on the run". For quick shooting he writes "Quick shot: Once per session you may make a second pistol attack with a pistol from the Lion's Paw on your turn". Derek is happy with this and spends the two stunts on this gear.