Firearms in Skull and Shackles

My "Very Early" firearms rules for Skull and Shackles. Enjoy listening to "Pirates" by Bullets and Octane while reading (video below, of course).

One Hand	Damage (small)	Damage (medium)	Critical	Range	Misfire	Type	Price
Dragoon Pistol	D6	D8	X4	20 ft.	1 (5 ft.)	B and P	1,000gp

Two Hand	Damage (small)	Damage (medium)	Critical	Range	Misfire	Type	Price
Musket	D10	D12	X4	40ft.	1-2 (5 ft.)	B and P	1,500gp

Item	Cost
Bullet	1 gp
Dose of Black Powder (each dose is one shot)	10gp
Silver bullet	25gp
Gunsmith’s Kit	15gp
Powder Flask or Horn (+5 to dryness rolls, holds 5 doses)	30gp

Amazing dragoon pistol done by the cool artists at Johnson Arms

Proficiency: Using a firearm well requires training, but many decide to use them anyways. When using a firearm, users suffer a -2 to hit and misfire ranges are doubled (so 1-2 for the dragoon pistol and 1-4 for the musket). Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) removes these penalties.

Armor Penetration and Range: Classical armor is of little use against a firearm. When firing, the attack resolves against the target's touch AC when the target is within the first range increment of the weapon. This type of attack is not consider a touch for purposes of feats and abilities such as Deadly Aim. Outside of that range, use AC as normal and apply range increment penalties. Also note that maximum range for a firearm is five increments. 

Misfires and Very Early Firearms: If the dice result on the attack roll with the weapon is within the numbers of the misfire result, the firearm explodes. Pick a corner of your square to be the origin of the burst explosion, with the size listed in parenthesis after the misfire value. Any creature inside this burst (including the wielder of the firearm) takes damage as if they had been hit by the weapon—a DC 12 Reflex save halves this damage.

Reloading:  From what I’ve read about the era, preparation takes about 30 seconds from an experienced shooter for a flintlock pistol or musket. In game terms, that’s five rounds. To be a little more dynamic, we’ll say that the reload time for a firearm is six full rounds—three full rounds if you have the Rapid Reload feat for that weapon.

After Shooting: Given the “shoot once then club” nature of early firearms, note that each counts as a partially improvised club when used in melee. The Dragoon Pistol inflicts a d4, the musket a d6. There is a -2 penalty to using them in this way, but they do not provoke attacks of opportunity like other improvised weapons. Use the same misfire numbers, if a misfire is rolled the weapon’s firing is permanently ruined (bent barrel, smashed mechanism, etc.).

Dryness: Water is an early marksman’s worst foe, and pirate ships are surrounded by water. Each time that water would contaminate a weapon’s powder, you must do a dryness check. The check is DC is 10 for incidental contact, DC 15 for getting doused, and DC 20 for being submerged. The check is a straight D20 roll, with modifiers for circumstance and a powder flask/horn. 

Much of this is taken directly for the Pathfinder SRD ruleset and adjusted to my own game. Seems like fair use via the Open Game License.

Avast Ye!

So the gaming group is finally finishing the Kingmaker series, and the next thing we’ll be running is the Skull and Shackles adventure path, a story of piracy on the high seas. There are a few things to clarify in starting this path.

Will you be as infamous as Edward Teach?

Campaign Info:
First, it’s slightly slower progression than we’ve had. The whole path will run from level one to level twelve. The focus is equally on skills and roleplaying as much as combat.

To get a sense of the campaign, you should download the free Skull and Shackles PDF from the Paizo website and read it over. You can get it here. Note that it's free, but you still have to checkout--it doesn't cost anything tho!

As you will see, the module begins with each of you shanghaied in a port city where you just arrived and were considering trying your fortune as part of a sailing crew. Characters should be interested in piracy but without real ship experience. So at first level, I ask that no one take Profession (Sailor). You may take a campaign trait that gives you a bonus to this skill—representing growing up near the sea, and you may even take Skill Focus Profession (Sailor) at first level if you really wish (appropriate for a character who has lots of book learning about the profession). But you cannot have any ranks, as your characters have never actually sailed.

Or a colorful rogue like Calico Jack?

I may be substituting a different ship-to-ship combat system than the one presented in the player’s guide. If you would all give those rules a read-thru at your leisure and let me know your thoughts. The only real complaints about this module path I have read have revolved around those, so we might swap to something else (like Wooden Ships Iron Men). Note that we will be using the scars and peg legs optional rules for character wounds. 

Characters, Races, and Classes:

Character races can be any from the player's handbook. Characters use a 20-point buy system for their ability scores. Hit points are max at first level, and then half-plus-one for all subsequent levels. Starting gold is the average as listed for the character class. As for classes, I think they fall into some general categories, which I have broken into these categories. As always we will be using only the main rulebook and the advanced character guide. 

Best Options:

Barbarian, Bard, Cleric of Besmara (goddess of pirates), Cleric of Gozreh (goddess of nature and ocean), Druid*, Fighter, Ranger, Sorcerer, Rogue

Okay Options:

Cleric of Desna (goddess of freedom and luck), Wizard*, Oracle (not ideal, but they’ll certainly work)

Poor Options:

Clerics of other non-lawful Gods, Monk, Alchemist, Summoner (these all face serious handicaps in the game)

Terrible Options:

Clerics of Lawful Gods, Paladin, Cavalier, Inquisitor, Witch* (just please don’t play these)

*Note that druids, witches, and wizards must acquire their animal companions or familiars through play, so you will not start with them.

Become queen of the seas like Anne Bonny?

Skills, Feats, and Traits:

So a few skills come up more often than others in this one. Strongly consider having at least one social skill (Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate). Other good skills: Knowledge (engineering), Climb, Craft (cloth), Craft (ships), Craft (siege engine), Knowledge(local), Knowledge (geography), Profession (cook), Survival, and Swim. As for feats, ones that enhance these skills could be especially useful (Skill Focus and Athletic). The player’s guide lists some others, but we won’t be using Ultimate Combat, so don’t fret those. Finally, every character starts with one campaign trait from the guide and one character trait of their choice.

Items:

You can check out the new pirate weapons in the player's guide, and while you probably won’t start with any they would be very characterful (and you’re far more likely to find magic versions of those types of weapons than others). You might also think twice before becoming a heavy armor wearer—as a ship is not always safe for such a garb. There will also be firearms, though they will be highly rudimentary. I will be making a set of house rules for the available guns, and you will see that they conform to the very start of blackpowder. In short, reloading in combat will be a slow, almost never, situation. Instead, characters might carry a brace of pistols to fire as they close on foes. The guns will be comparable to crossbows and the like, and a trained crossbowman will likely outshine a gunman every time.

Or a noble-ish privateer with proper letter of marque like Sir Henry Morgan?

Putting the Scale in Scallywag:

Finally, there is the matter of alignment and attitude. This module series requires your character to be a pirate, no doubt about it. You don't have to be out-and-out bloodthirsty, but you do have to be ready to sail the seas for plunder. This means sacking ships and killing sailors. I don't want a group of stone cold killers though. Rather, I think that Long John Silver in Treasure Island is a good example. He's bad and nasty, but he does care about the people he has a bond with such as Jim Hawkins. So work with your friends, but make foes walk the plank.

Blog

I'll be using this blog to do general announcements so that we can keep things in one spot. I will also use it to track status of friends and foes, as well as the characters' infamy throughout the campaign. Plus, I'll be painting up a few pirate crews to challenge the heroes--and displaying them plus the heroes' own miniatures and characters here.