I need help with guns How they work?

You could say the same as having them automatic and instantaneous making guns useless as even if caught unaware the rune would trigger and the shield would beat the bullet unless it’s fired faster than light.

How do runes work in your world are they an item you carry or do they have to be written somewhere?

It might be easier to forget shields just have the enemies resistant to bullets unless the right ammo is used.

It’s not worth the stress of trying to force something to fit into a world where the use of something makes little sense and use.

Edit: quick question can everyone use magic? If not how rare is it? I have an idea how it could be useful without being overpowering but would require the answers to the above being no and rare.

If shields like that are ubiquitous then people aren’t going to use guns that can’t pierce shields. If the shields aren’t perpetually active but can be raised instantly and maintained for a gunfight at no drawback, people will only use silent ranged weapons; real-world gunshots are deafeningly loud and the sound carries.

Also, if guns are only useful for surprise attacks then most gun attributes will cease to be meaningful; all that will matter is whether they can be used to successfully launch a surprise attack. That narrows things down to basically “sniper rifles” that can kill at extreme range before you’re seen and “pistols” that you can hide in a bag or under your shirt and yank out unexpectedly. I don’t think that’s a bad story idea, but it wouldn’t lend itself to a wide array of interesting choices between guns and I wouldn’t advise it if you want co-equal guns, melee, and magic.

What I’d do is have at least three ranks of defense on enemies. Lowest tier is “no” shield; optionally they have a shield but every gun on the market can breach it. Then middle tier is a shield that can be overwhelmed by gunfire but it’s usually best to use melee or magic unless you are Gunperson McGun. Top tier is ordinarily impenetrable; I would suggest having “shieldbreaker” guns that can get through them but at a severe tradeoff to other attributes. Nonhuman enemies can map their anti-gun defenses to these categories; werebears would be in the top category, for instance, except requiring “silver” rather than “shieldbreaker”.

Then to balance with the others I’d have a similar tier system with magic, and melee almost always works but you need to be in melee to use it and that means your target can use melee on you.

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Not everyone but in the city about a 50% 75% is or a mage or a ultra creature (elves werewolves… Vampires.) It is really common use and common knowledge. A normal human can have a shield and writing in runes that could be shared on internet.

The setting is the planet was more the same as ours until s. I until the equivalent of Roman empire founded a totalitarian religious system main goal is exterminating all mages and ultra naturals from the world. It was about killing all when a magic barrier was created protecting the last magical city Saravia.

2,000 years has passed there are more free cities protected with barriers where magic people and free citizens live in a democracy. While rest of world is in a very slavist genocidal empire.
so as I say weapons are very useful against the empire that’s why weapons are produced in mass . However in the city itself. Well their use is limited and I wanted limited. As is part of reasons why empire don’t win in the wars

In that case it seems fairly straightforward: guns are for fighting imperial forces and are not particularly effective against residents of the city; by the tier breakdown I suggested imperials would be bottom tier and most people in the city would be tier 3. Shieldbreaker guns, if they exist at all, are probably illegal for civilians to own within the city because their only purpose is killing mages and supernatural creatures. They’d be possessed by police SWAT teams, possibly military (only if the military gets deployed against supernatural beings) organized crime or terrorist groups, and as many imperial troops as the empire can supply; if the empire can’t make them due to not having magic they’ll steal as many as they can.

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The more I hear the less I think guns in the usual sense wouldn’t work or kept being in use. Guns only flourish because they are useful. The moment the shields were introduced they cease being useful as you have to get up close to a supernatural foe which makes it easy for them to kill you. If you want Guns best to make it magic based like you charge the gun with magic and it gives you 2-3 shots depending on.the source of magic. Each shot is powerful but has a short range

Edit: another thought if shields are created via runes then in theory itd be possible to use runes on bullets or the weapon to bypass the shield.

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They are magical guns that needs mana and are like wands that’s are useful and the ones have lots of sense. However The player could choose NOT be a mage and not learn magic even if Npcs explains in detail how stupid that decision is Literally calling Player stupid and naive. There is blood magic that every vampire uses that needs blood so to a blood magic user well a weapon could helping in situations were they don’t want use blood powers are they are low. or they are far range.

Runes can be altered by magic by hacking and or explosives magical of otherwise.

For instance in a scene I have planning the slavers have several kids to sell you decide save the kids the slavers are humans but still has a rune security system you can hack you can also set a explosive nearby the runne if you are sneaky enough and blown up the rune . or use other systems as magic or sexy persuasion . after destroying the rune bullets will work against slavers as they are simply humans.

With a magic gun it doesn’t even have to be used by magic users. For example a crystal could be charged with magic by person a but once done anyone can load it into a magic gun and pull the trigger. Then after 2-3 shots the crystal is empty and needs replenishing.

Good luck with this. I know how easy it is to get lost in the details .

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Yes I thought about that. But magic weapons only reaction to users that use mana or have enough concentration of mana. It is a safety measure to make no empire soldier use them.

I think i am designing a way that have sense and player will now that mostly weapons are secondary in the game even if can be really useful in certain situations. Like intimidating some folks or charming others.

The focus is more the social aspect but fighting or jobs that requires guns like be a bodyguard or a hunter of dangerous beasts will be available for people that like those. There are be a westling heel Be a model Be a fitness training do jobs for magical societies fight in magical tournaments or be a sexy blogger that’s some of works I am currently coding in very tiring gosub-scenes . However with money you could go to spa buying clothing etc… So game will have an economy system and going to places with dates similar to Tin star but in smaller scope lol… No way this will end as awesome…

Assuming the MC won’t regularly fight imperial soldiers, I would advise making guns very simple and not giving them a lot of stats. There’d probably be an enormous array of different types in universe, but if shields are widespread most of the distinctions will be pretty irrelevant. The only meaningful combat attribute of a gun that can’t pierce shields will be how many people it can take out of action before shields get raised. Which pretty much comes down to whether you can get within effective range and fire before someone realizes you are there and have a gun. Everything aside from that is basically cosmetic; within the city any attribute of a gun that doesn’t contribute to doing that is just for show. Hunting weapons would tend to be similar, intended to drop the animal in one shot from a distance before it flees or charges.

I’d suggest starting by thinking about how many different gun-related options you might offer and how many outcomes you want them to have, and use that to determine what gun attributes you want. Guns are only meaningfully distinct if trying to use them in a given situation would yield different results; any differences that don’t impact that are flavor text and don’t merit tracking as a stat.

Also, keep in mind that the reason guns are used for fighting and intimidation is that they can be used to shoot and kill people; if they can’t do that they aren’t very intimidating or useful in a fight.

Some guns are more conceable than others. Some are louder. Some have more stopping power. But bigger isn’t always better. A lot of assasins use small 5mm pistols because they are quiet easy to conceal and have low recoil. So they can get in close and fire a lot of shots at someone quickly and without making too much noise.

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Guns are intimidating for most humans as most of humans are just that. Also There is a good number of refugees rescued from slavery in the Empire for them a gun is something to be feared and a symbol of power. many ex slavers just bought weapons for sake of show themselves that they aren’t slaves anymore.
Normal humans doesn’t have shields however in game you won’t attack normal humans and if you are a slaver or a ganster or something like that you will have a shield even if is just a rune one . I have designed few weapons that are practical and easy to conceal and some very impressive that are for the show as could be used in some of the jobs as model or in wrestling as a show charisma factor.

Like stats I think i go for range and accuracy and the effect bullets could have as paralyzed poisoning burning etc… As a weapons could be very useful to harming ultra beasts and help a lot in combat that way.

Okay so,. Range is best described as how far a round can be launched from a firearm. Accuracy is generally most influenced by a shooter’s ability to be proficient in the fundamentals of good marksmanship. But if you’re looking at stats FOR the firearm specifically for a COG type game then, accuracy and spread would be like the same thing. Someone already made a comment of capacity for how many rounds it can store. Another idea is for the weapons upkeep, like how well taken care of is it (clean?, Lubed?, Not rusted?) So maybe base stats being this:

  • Maintenance
  • Capacity
  • Quality(accuracy, range, and spread?)
  • Proficiency (how used to this type of weapon someone is / how well trained they are with it)
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Maintenance is a thing already as you have X uses of a gun before having to go a gun shop to fix it maintenance depends of quality of gun.
And proficiency 75% of pc has no idea of what a weapon is and haven’t seen one. As only one of 3 origins have a training in weapons and even the one specialist in them pc has 19 years old just ended the high school. Is not a choosen one or anything So he won’t turn rei and learning use light saber without even try.

About ammo Well It has no importance as most of time you will have one of two shots before alarm triggers. And mages have real magic shields not only runes.

So I doubt weapons will have many shots and they will be made to be stealthy that’s why i won’t have big weapons available e

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Very nice. I saw “Guns” and was like “FINALLY something I’m good at and knowledgeable on!” I can be of use for a change! Haha

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Then I will send you pm when I have to write something about weapon fire or something as I have never seen a real gun and less hear it or seen it fire.

My defence is There is magic lol! to some stuff. Still weapons are not themain focus but part of rhe world in a attempt of immersive setting were you can polishing nails buy a tiger style loincloth play magic cards or buy a crossbow

After reading the thread and considering your setting, needs and wants, my feedback is:

Make fire-arms the exclusive realm of a duelist subclass in your game with specific dueling pistols being the weapon. This way, you control all the variables and codify the expected behavior and exposure of the fire-arm within your society.

Furthermore, without active support from that subclass anyone acquiring such weapons would be limited with what they can accomplish with them.

The dueling pistols of the late 18th and early 19th century would be perfect for stats and mechanics…

Limited shots, limited use, especially by the uninitiated and more importantly limited impact on everything else.

The rules of dueling are easy to research and you can adapt them specifically for your setting, including rules that limit magical enhancements and interference …

You also get more NPC character possibilities to use if needed.

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No. No no no. No That’s why i have magic cards duels. The guns are basically for hunt and jobs and a way to people play without to learning magic. Could use them.

I mean I am imagining know One stealthy enter in a building and say HEY SLAVER I HAVE A GUN SO YOU KNOW DUELING TIME … NOW RESPECT THE… rules …m Pc has been totally obliterate with guns knifes and magic

Your idea has sense in other setting But I don’t see gansters, beasts and zombies partaking in a sigle XVIII duel and selecting a godfather zombie… while everyone is broadcasting it in socialmedia

After seeing your pushback: you shouldn’t include them in your game.

You are trying to make a weapon into something it isn’t … either you outlaw them completely or you formalize their ownership and use into society

This type of disconnect is something I’ve seen before.

Their are used their are boought and trade and use by military. However same in my country almost nobody have them mostly nobody have seen them

That is my point - your country has regulated and codified into law a very strict set of rules of use - this is exactly the same as the “dueling” rules were but even more strict and under the control of those with power.

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