Blackpowder Weaponry

The annals of the Empire of Turelion record that the invention of Blackpowder weaponry was one of the major advantages that Turelion had over the other nations, tribes and national groups across the rest of the world of Kelbonnar. Despite the fact that Blackpowder weapons can be notoriously unreliable, and that the blackpowder itself that is used to fire them is much more expensive that arrows or bolts, the grievous injuries they can cause; their effectiveness against even thick armour; their application as siege weapons and the sheer intimation factor that they bring to the battlefield made them a key advantage for Turelion.
Aside from the major breakthrough in their discovery, there has been little advancement in the technology since it was initially conceived. The lack of changes, compounded with the expensive price of blackpowder weapons and their ammunition, means that they have not superseded more traditional ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows, nor have they eliminated the need for mêlée weapons, which are still sadly as necessary as ever for those looking to equip themselves for a fight.

Common Types of Blackpowder Weapons:

The most common types of Blackpowder weapons are:
Pistol - A small Blackpowder weapon that can be fired with one hand, Pistols are the most common Blackpowder weapon to be found across Kelbonnar.
Double Barrelled Pistol - These Blackpowder weapons have built on the initial concept of the pistol and have two barrels that are loaded and fired independently of one another. The inclusion of the extra barrel means that they are more expensive and are heavier than a standard pistol.
Duck’s Foot Pistol - A more recent invention, the Duck’s Foot Pistol is a pistol format Blackpowder weapon that has four barrels that are set at angles to one another in a shape that is reminiscent of a duck’s webbed foot, giving the weapon its name. These pistols have only one firing mechanism, which means that all four of the barrels fire simultaneously when the trigger is pulled, spraying the projectiles out in a cone.
Musket - The most common longarm Blackpowder weapon, the musket’s longer and wider barrel means that it can fire larger projectiles much further than a pistol, but its size means that it must be aimed and fired with both hands.
Double Barrelled Musket - As with the Double Barrelled Pistol, the Double Barrelled Musket builds on the standard musket pattern with the inclusion of a second, indecently loaded and fired barrel.
Rifle - An improvement on the musket, Rifles have rifled barrels that impart spin to the projectiles fired from them. This enables the to fire accurately much further than a standard musket.
Blunderbuss - A Blackpowder weapon with a shorter, wider diameter barrel with a flared mussel, a Blunderbuss is designed to fire a scatter of metal scraps of small lead balls across a wide area.
Volleygun - A Volleygun is around the same length as a Blunderbuss, but instead of a single large barrel, it is comprised of between four and eight individual barrels that are all connected the same trigger mechanism. When fired, a Volleygun unleashes a wall of lead balls in whichever direction it is pointed.
Grenade - Large, round, hollow metal balls stuffed full of Blackpowder with a short slow match fuse sticking from the top. When the fuse is lit, it travels down into the store of Blackpowder within the grenade and explodes, sending shards of metal and tongues of fire in all directions.

Homebrew Rules for Blackpowder Weapons:

Pistol

• Cost: 75GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Pistol Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 1d8 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d4 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 3lbs
• Range: 50/200ft
• Properties: Ammunition, Armour Piercing (-1), Loading, Misfire (1)

Double Barrelled Pistol

• Cost: 150GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Pistol Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 1d8 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d4 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 5lbs
• Range: 50/200ft
• Properties: Ammunition, Armour Piercing (-1), Long reload (1*), Misfire (1), Multi-shot

Duck’s Foot Pistol

• Cost: 200GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Pistol Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 2d4 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d4 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 8lbs
• Range: 20ft cone
• Properties: Ammunition, Heavy, Long Reload (2), Misfire (2)

Musket

• Cost: 100GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Musket Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 1d10 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d6 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 10lbs
• Range: 100/400ft
• Properties: Ammunition, Armour Piercing (-2), Loading, Misfire (1), Two-Handed

Double Barrelled Musket

• Cost: 150GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Musket Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 1d10 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d6 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 12lbs
• Range: 100/400ft
• Properties: Ammunition, Armour Piercing (-2), Heavy, Long Reload (1*), Misfire (1), Multi-shot, Two-Handed

Rifle

• Cost: 250GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Musket Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 1d12 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d6 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 10lbs
• Range: 200/800ft
• Properties: Ammunition, Armour Piercing (-2), Loading, Misfire (1), Two-Handed

Blunderbuss

• Cost: 200GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Blunderbuss Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 3d4 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d6 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 10lbs
• Range: 40ft Cone
• Properties: Ammunition, AoE, Heavy, Long Reload (1) Misfire (2), Two-Handed

Volleygun

• Cost: 250GP
• Ammunition Type Required: Volleygun Ammunition
• Ranged Damage: 4d4 Piercing
• Mêlée Damage: 1d6 Bludgeoning
• Weight: 12lbs
• Range: 40ft Cone
• Properties: Ammunition, AoE, Heavy, Long Reload (2) Misfire, Two-Handed

Grenade

• Cost: 50GP
• Ammunition Type Required: N/A
• Ranged Damage: 1d12 Piercing & 2d10 Fire
• Mêlée Damage: N/A
• Weight: 4lbs
• Range: 20/60ft - explosion radius of 10ft sphere.
• Properties: Thrown

Special Rules:

Ammunition:
All blackpowder weapons need ammunition in order to function. A single unit of ammunition for a blackpowder weapon is presumed to be a lead projectile and enough blackpowder to effectively propel it. The cost of ten units of each type of ammunition is as follows:

• Pistol - 1GP
• Musket - 2GP
• Duck’s Foot Pistol - 3GP
• Blunderbuss - 4GP
• Volleygun - 7GP

Area-of-effect (AoE):
Weapons with this feature fire multiple projectiles all at once within a given radius. When the weapon is fired, all targets within a 20ft (Duck’s Foot Pistol) or a 40ft (Blunderbuss or Volleygun) must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save they take the damage listed in the table above, on a successful save they take half damage.
Armour Piercing:
The projectiles fired from Blackpowder weapons are incredibly good at punching their way through armour. When a character wielding a Blackpowder weapon rolls to hit, they deduct the armour piercing value of the weapon from the targets armour class for the roll. For example, if a character shot a pistol at a target whose normal armour class was 11, the character would count the targets armour class as a 10 for the purposes of that roll.
Long Reload:
Some Blackpowder weapons take longer to reload due to their more complex workings or multiple barrels. After firing the weapon using an action, bonus action or reaction, you must then spend an action to reload the weapon equal to the weapons reload score (N.B., Double Barrelled Pistols and Double Barrelled Muskets are given a reload score of 1*. As both weapons have a pair of barrels that fire independently, if both are discharged in the same turn then an action must be sacrificed to reload both barrels of the weapon. If only one barrel is discharged in a turn then for the purposes of reloading it acts like a single barrelled weapon and no action needs to be spent. A player can also choose to only reload one barrel if both are empty.)
Misfire:
Whilst the technology behind Blackpowder Weapons has existed for nearly 600 years in Kelbonnar, the inherent instabilities and dangers of the weapons have yet to be solved. As a result whenever a roll to hit with a Blackpowder weapon rolls (without taking modifiers into consideration) the weapons misfire score, the player must then roll on the misfire table to see what happens.

Roll (1D10)	Consequence
1-2	The weapon suffers a catastrophic failure and explodes in the wielder’s hands. The wielder takes the weapon’s damage instead of the intended target, and the weapon cannot be fired again until a number of days equal to its misfire score and quarter of the weapons gold value have been spent repairing it.
3-9	The weapon suffers a major jam and does not fire. The wielder must spend 1d4+1 actions to unjam the weapon before it can be fired again.
10	The weapon still fires, but suffers a minor jam. Roll to hit as normal. After this attack the weapon can still fire, but fires at disadvantage when it is next used.

Multi-shot:
Blackpowder weapons with the multi-shot property hold two shots that can be fired individually. This means that they can be fired twice before the wielder has to reload. However, each barrel has to be loaded as a separate action. As both barrels are operated by separate mechanisms, a wielder does not have to fire both their shots before reloading. For example, a wielder of a Double Barrelled Pistol with two actions per turn could choose to fire one of their barrels and then reload it in turn 1, fire both barrels in turn 2 and reload both in turn 3.

Additional Player Feat:

Blackpowder Expert:
Thanks to your extensive experience handling, maintaining and firing Blackpowder weapons, you gain the following benefits:

• You become proficient with Blackpowder weapons and can add you proficiency modifier to attacks made with a Blackpowder Weapon.
• You ignore the loading property of firearms (does not include firearms with the Long Reload property).
• Being within 5ft of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack roles.
• When you use the Attack action with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a Blackpowder weapon you are holding that does not have the two-handed property.
• You are able to craft your own ammunition for your Blackpowder weapons at half the cost of buying the ammunition, though you must allocate at least 2 hours to this to do so.
• You can also craft improvised blackpowder explosive devices that can be set off by use of a timed slow match fuse. For every 2gp you spend on Blackpowder for the device, it causes 1d4 force damage and 1d4 fire damage on explosion. You must spend a minimum of 1 hour per 2gp worth of materials to construct the device.

Inventor(s)

The inventor of Blackpowder weaponry has remained a mystery ever since the discovery was made, with the secret only being known to a handful of senior figures in the Imperial College of Engineering and a small group of senior officials within the court of the Emperor. It is even whispered that the current Emperor Belliotrix IV is not aware of who the original inventor was, though whether this is through lack of access to the knowledge or lack of interest is not known.
In any case, the technology was deemed to be so important that the person responsible for its creation has essentially been expunged from history, presumably to help keep the technology as closely guarded by the Empire as possible.

Access & Availability

Unlike most trades in Kelbonnar, the production of both blackpowder weapons and blackpowder is restricted by the Empire to those who have been granted a license by the Imperial College of Engineering. Part of the reason behind this restriction is to ensure that only those qualified to make both items are allowed to (Blackpowder can be especially dangerous if it is not mixed properly), but another reason is to limit the amount of blackpowder weapons that can go into the market, and ensure that the price for them remains high.
As a result, it is hard to get a hold of a blackpowder weapon through official means anywhere else other than in a large town or city, as gunsmiths are much more likely to set up shop in a place where they can both get trade from the community and passing traffic, but also make money maintaining the blackpowder weapons of the local nobility and garrison.
There are, of course, more underhand ways to get a hold of blackpowder weapons, but dealing with unregistered gunsmiths, or people willing to sell ammunition and make repairs on the blackmarket, carries all sorts of risks, not just detection and arrest by the authorities.

Complexity

Though the basic premise of a blackpowder weapon is simple (you ignite blackpowder to fire a lead ball at your target), the weapons themselves are very fiddly and complex to make. The parts required, even for the most simple of blackpowder weapons need to be very carefully crafted and assembled in order to make sure that the weapon doesn’t malfunction or potentially explode on its first use. In addition, the selection and shaping of the flints used to create the initial sparks in the weapon has to be as carefully done as the construction of the weapon, in order to ensure that when the trigger is pulled the weapon fires regularly.

Related Materials

• Blackpowder