Sorcerous Six-Shooters

Mark Nelson Artist

By Roger E. Moore

Magical firearms in the AD&D® game?

A Dungeon Master who cringes at the thought of a simple arquebus in the campaign will probably have a fit at the thought of putting a flintlock musket of sharpshooting +3 in a treasure pile. Nonetheless, there are several official AD&D campaigns in which firearms are found, and magical guns are a logical outgrowth there. This article, then, is for the daring DM who is willing to give the concept a try. A good rule of thumb for allowing magical firearms into a campaign is to find a comparable magical wand or device that can be used by any class of character, such as a wand of magic missiles, and determining which is more powerful, the wand or the gun. If magic is to be the most powerful element in the campaign, keep magical firearms at a low level of power.

Firearms are described in many places in the AD&D rules. For the purposes of this article, all game information on firearms is taken from the AD&D rulebook, PLAYER.S OPTION.: Combat & Tactics, in Chapter Seven, “Weapons & Armor”; for weapon details, see the table on pages 130-133 and notes on pages 136-137. However, this article may be used with any campaign’s description of local firearms, which vary considerably from realm to realm. In any event, the DM must be aware of both the extraordinary power of firearms in the game system — and their failings, too. It is strongly recommended that the DM pick up the PLAYER’S OPTION: Combat & Tactics book and read the following sections: “The Renaissance,” pages 123-126; “Firearms,” pages 126-127; and, most importantly, “Weapon Descriptions: Firearms,” pages 136-137. The latter section emphasizes the characteristics of misfiring, armor negation, and causing open-ended damage.

Firearms in TSR Worlds

Any original, unofficial AD&D campaign using the basic rule books can be granted the use of firearms. Only the hand match arquebus and possibly the hand match handgunne would be available in fantasy campaigns using the most primitive firearms.1 Some of these weapons could be enchanted, if the DM so wishes.

Among official campaign worlds, a FORGOTTEN REALMS® campaign set in Faerun in the years following the Time of Troubles (1358 DR) can easily incorporate firearms, as Lantanna priests of Gond the Wondermaker are making and spreading them throughout the Realms. The Lantanna have mastered hand match and matchlock weaponsmaking, and can regularly produce high-quality hand match handgunnes, hand match arquebuses, matchlock arquebuses, matchlock calivers, and matchlock muskets (with gun rests). They can also produce hand match ribalds for armies, and hand match or matchlock blunderbusses. (Normally, blunderbusses are flintlocks or snaplocks, but we’ll assume these are primitive blunderbusses.) Very large, crude bombards are made and used by the Red Wizards of Thay, and some of these siege guns are in the Pirate Isles.2 The presence of magical firearms is almost a certainty here, but ribalds, blunderbusses, and bombards are very unlikely to be magical, given their extreme size or crudeness.

Firearms do not appear in the GREYHAWK® campaign, as local laws of physics and magic (and possibly a lack of necessary materials) prohibit the manufacture of either gunpowder or smoke powder there; the BIRTHRIGHT® campaign initially lacks smokepowder and gunpowder, though recent developments in that world may change that.3 The MYSTARA® campaign’s Known World region, including Karameikos and Glantri, generally has no firearms within it, but the Savage Coast region to the far west (i.e., the RED STEEL® campaign) manufactures its own firearms and smoke powder, and some of these items might find their way across the sea to the Known World lands.4 Firearms seem to be unknown in the HOLLOW WORLD® setting within Mystara.

Though primitive firearms were manufactured at the end of the DRAGONLANCE® campaign’s Fourth Age by the minoi, the tinker gnomes of Mount Nevermind, the gnomes were not interested in having them enchanted. (“Magic? Rubbish!”) Additionally, no wizard or priest of Krynn ever dared to enchant one for fear of the extreme danger involved in getting near any explosive device created by gnomes. (Spellcasters of Krynn might also regard the addition of magic to any tinkergnome device as a criminal act endangering all civilization.) No firearms are known to have been made by the gnomoi, the gnomes of Taladas, but if they were none would be enchanted.5

Firearms can be imported into the outer planes of the PLANESCAPE™ and RAVENLOFT® campaigns, but materials for making gunpowder, smoke powder, or other explosive substances are not normally found here.

One other place where firearms are reasonably common and magical firearms are likely to be found is the SPELLJAMMER® campaign.6 Smoke powder weapons ranging from sophisticated wheel-lock pistols to huge (even magical!) bombards are found in many crystal spheres, thanks primarily to two races: Krynnish tinker gnomes, who have migrated en masse to wildspace over many centuries, and the huge, hippo-headed giff, who have an extreme and sometimes fatal love for guns and explosives. As one would imagine, tinker gnomes and giff get along famously. Spacefaring humans have also greatly aided the spread and use of firearms by constantly improving weapons design and using guns in many combat situations.

More recently, however, two other forces have begun to spread firearms and smoke powder through the spheres. During the Second Unhuman War, humanoid armies and spelljammer navies led by the scro (powerful spacefaring orcs) sometimes carried smoke powder explosives and firearms, though usually only elite or command units had them. The war recently concluded with a marginal victory for the elven Imperial Fleet, the scro’s primary enemy, scattering the battered humanoid forces — and their weapons — across wildspace.7

Additionally, the Smiths’ Coster, a weapons-and-armor merchant company largely controlled by dwarves, has long been responsible for spreading smoke powder weapons throughout many spheres. It is highly likely that the Second Unhuman War has redoubled the efforts of the Smiths’ Coster to get firearms into the hands of dwarves, gnomes, humans, and other good-aligned folk across the spheres as defensive weapons. The Smiths’ Coster is based in the gigantic asteroid belt known as the Grinder, in Greyspace, a sphere which was the scene of a huge battle during the Second Unhuman War.8

Unusual sorts of smoke powder weapons from wildspace include magical bombards, disposable “Giff guns,” and whole ships built around gigantic cannons, called Great Bombards. (The mere existence of Great Bombards inspired the creation of the first known “gun cult.”)9 Any firearm up to the level of wheel-locks can be found in wildspace; snaplocks might be found but are extremely rare, the product of intense and prolonged development.

One important development is that firearms are entering numerous worlds from sources in wildspace. Wheel-lock pistols known as “starwheels” are sometimes sold or traded across Toril (of the FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign) by spelljammer crews, or they are stolen from crews by local thieves.10 At least one spelljammer landed on Krynn bearing firearms, and this event has likely been repeated many times on this and other worlds.11

The most advanced firearms known in any official AD&D campaign are found in Earthly settings where nonmagical gunpowder is cheap and plentiful. A magical version of Europe, detailed in HR4 A Mighty Fortress, includes everything up to snaplock firearms, with a wide variety of large field guns.12 Because provision is made for magic to work during this period, magical firearms are well within reason, though they would be very rare as the process for enchanting them is likely to be longer and more difficult here than on high-magic worlds. It is likely that this Earth can be reached by other-world adventurers only through the most difficult planar travel. Gothic Earth, detailed in the RAVENLOFT® Masque of the Red Death boxed set, has many sorts of advanced firearms common to the 1890s, but there is (thankfully) no provision for making them magical. An enchanted Gatling gun would be a frightening piece of work, indeed! Gothic Earth’s weaponry lies outside the field of this article; HR4’s Elizabethan Earth represents the most advanced state of magic and weaponry that will be dealt with here, though a hypothetical world with technology at the level of A.D. 1800 is allowed for in the weapons tables.

1. See the Player’s Handbook (PHB), pages 68-69 and 73 (1989 printing) or pages 94-96 (1995 printing), and also DMGR3 Arms and Equipment Guide (pages 53-54 and 108-109), for more arquebus details. Magical smoke powder is described in the DUNGEON MASTER® Guide (DMG), pages 138 and 179-180 (1989 printing) or pages 187 and 238 (1995 printing). Original campaigns mixing advanced firearms and magic are described in DMGR5 Creative Campaigning, on pages 4, 8-11, 17, 33, and 35-36. DMGRZ The Castle Guide, on pages 98-102, gives bombard and cannon statistics for generic AD&D campaigns.

2. See FORGOTTEN REALMS Adventures (FRA), pages 11-13 and 20, and the new edition of the FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign boxed set, A Grand Tour of the Realms, pages 11 and 108-109, for details on these weapons and events surrounding their spread through Faerun. (It is implied that Lantanna gnomes, possibly as priests of Gond, are aiding the spread of firearms — not surprising if Gond did appear to the Lantanna in a gnome’s form during the Time of Troubles.) Also, the 1995 anthology, Realms of Magic, includes two short stories about firearms in the Realms: “Smoke Powder and Mirrors” and “Gunne Runner.” The latter story notes that the Realms word “gunne” might be a corruption of Gond’s name.

3. The SPELLJAMMER® boxed set’s Lorebook of the Void, page 89, bans the use of smoke powder and firearms on the world of Oerth, though such devices work elsewhere in Greyspace. The BIRTHRIGHT boxed set’s Rulebook, page 17, notes that arquebuses are unavailable in Cerilia (but see “Weapons of the Waves” in this issue, as well as the forthcoming novel, The Falcon and the Hawk, by Rich Baker). See also Chronomancer, page 79, for notes on guns in the GREYHAWK and BIRTHRIGHT campaigns.

In DRAGON® Magazine issue #30, page 12 (“From the Sorcerer’s Scroll: New Setting for the Adventure”), Gary Gygax stated, “Gunpowder and explosives will not function on the World of Greyhawk.” He also disallowed firearms in AD&D game worlds in general in the AD&D original edition DMG, page 113 (“Transferral Of Fire Arms To The AD&D Campaign”) and in a letter to DRAGON Magazine, in issue #66, page 4 (“Out on a Limb: Gary on gunpowder”). The latter was in response to an article by Ed Greenwood in issue #60, page 24: “Firearms: First guns were not much fun.” Here, the historical development of gunpowder firearms is described, with information on converting primitive hand match firearms to AD&D game statistics. Much of this material on adding gunpowder weapons to AD&D campaigns reappeared later in FRA, pages 11-13.

Ed Greenwood wrote an expansion of his earlier article that appeared in DRAGON Magazine issue #70, page 31: “A Second Volley: Taking another shot at firearms, AD&D style.” This included notes on matchlocks and flintlocks, with detailed illustrations. Ed points out (correctly) that Gygax himself seems to have allowed firearms into his own GREYHAWK campaign, despite Gygax’s protestations to the contrary. Firearms in the GREYHAWK campaign are mentioned by Gygax in articles in DRAGON Magazine issues #17, page 6: “Faceless Men & Clockwork Monsters: A DUNGEONS & DRAGON® [sic] Adventure Aboard the Starship Warden” (see page 8) and issue #71, page 19: “Greyhawk’s World” (see page 73). It is possible that the City of Greyhawk wizard who was seen with a pistol, as noted in issue #17, was Murlynd from issue #71 (see editorial comment in Ed Greenwood’s “A Second Volley” in Best of DRAGON Magazine, Vol. V, page 22, 1986 printing). No one but Murlynd is likely to have a true firearm on Oerth — if you don’t count the artifacts from the Barrier Peaks region, of course.

Both Gary Gygax and Ed Greenwood, among many other AD&D game designers, have allowed for AD&D game characters to travel to other worlds where firearms work very well — particularly our own Earth. For examples, see the AD&D original edition DMG, pages 112-114 (BOOT HILL® and GAMMA WORLD® game mixing with the AD&D game); DRAGON Magazine issue #30, page 12: “From the Sorcerer’s Scroll: New Setting for the Adventure”; and issue #57, page 5: “Modern Monsters: The Perils of 20th-Century Adventuring.” A more complete listing of fantasy- world crossovers to our modern world appears in POLYHEDRON® Newszine issue #117, page 23: “A World of Your Own,” sidebar (“AD&D Voyages to Earth & Back”).

4. An article outlining means for adding firearms to the D&D® game’s Known World campaign, later the AD&D game’s MYSTARA® campaign, appeared in DRAGON Magazine issue #199, page 96: “Ready, Aim, Fire!” (Bruce A. Heard). However, this was an unofficial option, and only the Savage Coast region of the RED STEEL® campaign has smoke powder and firearms at present. For details, see the RED STEEL boxed set’s Campaign Book (pages 51-52, 56, 81-86, 93-95, 97, and 112-113) and Lands of the Savage Coast (pages 10-11); see also the Savage Baronies boxed set’s Book 1: The Savage Baronies, pages 8-10, 13, 20-21, and 51-60. Note than only in Cimarron County are firearms and smoke powder actually manufactured, and these are heavily used there, though they are known to other Savage Baronies, particularly Guadalante, and to distant Renardy.

5. Two examples of tinker-gnome projectile weapons are found in the Tales of the Lance boxed set’s World Book of Ansalon, on pages 68-69. The belcher is a match-lit cannon and the blunderbuss is a hand match weapon. Both use smoke powder, as normal gunpowder is not found on Krynn. It may be that smoke powder is actually imported to Mount Nevermind by extremely lucky gnomish spelljammers. The gnomes of Taladas do not like adding magic to their inventions, as they regard it as “cheating.” See the Time of the Dragons boxed set’s Guide Book to Taladas, page 109, for details.

6. There are many references to smoke powder firearms and bombards in the SPELLIAMMER campaign. Some important ones include: SPELLJAMMER boxed set’s Concordance, pages 42, 45, and 47; SJR1 Lost Ships, pages 4 and 74; The Legend of Spelljammer boxed set’s Captains and Ships, pages 13-15 and the Great Bombard card; CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer’s Handbook, pages 57, 62-63, and 88-89; The Maelstrom’s Eye (SPELLJAMMER Cloakmaster Cycle, Volume 3); and the War Captain’s Companion boxed set: Book 1, pages 67, 72, and 78; and Book 2, page 25.

7. Scro are noted to use firearms and explosives in The Maelstrom’s Eye, mentioned above. They were involved in sending advanced firearms into the Realms through Waterdeep in the short story, “Gunne Runner,” from Realms of Magic.

8. Information on the Smiths’ Coster appears in CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer’s Handbook, pages 88-89. The battle known as the Borka Maneuver is detailed in the War Captain’s Companion, Book 1: War Captain’s Guide, page 20. It is likely that the Smiths’ Coster and other groups are currently battling remnants of the scro and Borka fleet throughout the Grinder, if not across all the Known Spheres.

9. Magical bombards appear in the War Captain’s Companion boxed set’s Book 1: War Captain’s Guide, page 78; “giff guns” appear in SJR1 Lost Ships, page 74; Great Bombards are detailed in the War Captain’s Companion boxed set’s Book 2: Ship Recognition Manual, page 25, and The Legend of SPELLJAMMER boxed set’s Captains and Ships, pages 13-15 and Great Bombard information card.

10. Page 13 of FORGOTTEN REALMS Adventures, the story “Gunne Runner” from Realms of Magic, and page 93 of the SPELLJAMMER boxed set’s Lorebook of the Void all point out the influx of firearms from wildspace into the Realms. Doubtless, the Smiths’ Coster has contact with the humans and gnomes of Lantan, and may have contacts in Waterdeep and elsewhere.

11. The event noted here was the arrival of Herphan Gomja the giff aboard a crashed spelljammer, about 30 miles south of Kalaman; see the SPELLJAMMER novel, Beyond the Moons, for details.

 It is worth a thought that in the RED STEEL campaign, smoke powder is said to have been discovered in AC 948 by a dwarven family called the Smithy clan. This clan, made up primarily of smiths, invented the arquebus in 957; the wheel lock pistol was developed by a Smithy and a halfling jeweler named Westron in 975. (The current year is about AC 1010.) Such rapid technological advancement seems stunning even by our Earth’s standards — unless the Smithy clan was merely a front for the Smiths’ Coster, which lent technical know-how to local dwarves!

12. For details, see HR4 A Mighty Fortress, pages 36, 38, 54, 56-61, and 69-70.