LotFP Firearms, Pt Tertius – Misfire Table

I promised this update back in Part 2 (Part 1 is here) and finally sat down and hammered it out. The simple versions are first, but I just couldn’t resist making a longer and more complicated one.

Someone rolled a double “1”.

Definitions:
Damp weather is foggy, or with a very light rain (what we in the Northwest call a “mizzle” – not quite a drizzle, but worse than a mist). Most caves, crypts, and dungeons are Damp as well.

Wet weather means actively raining, or surrounded by constant soaking wetness (for example, hiding inside a mud-filled trench or culvert, or adventuring inside a sewer). NO blackpowder gun may be reloaded in Wet conditions unless the character is carrying Cartridges, or under cover and working with dry powder.
Wet weather penalties also apply if the gun has been in direct contact with water and not reloaded since – for example, while fording a stream, hit by a wave breaking over the deck, &c. The gun can, however, be reloaded without penalty.

Cartridges reduce weather penalties by 1, but cannot be used with cannon.

Using improvised repairs or supplies (powder, flints) adds 1 to the base Misfire chance (cumulative), but does not affect Misfire table rolls.
At your option, characters interrupted while re-priming or re-loading their gun may Misfire it, drop the matches or keys &c. I suggest a Breath save.

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As written (Simplest):
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When a gun is fired, the target rolls against the gun’s misfire chance.
Wheel and matchlocks must be completely re-loaded on a misfire. Flintlocks must be reprimed only. Advanced locks ignore weather penalties.
Fast but boring, makes flintlocks an utter no-brainer.

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As I ran it last session:
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When a gun is fired, the target rolls against the gun’s misfire chance. Guns always misfire on a fumble (natural 1), and cannot misfire on a natural 20, even if they would normally misfire automatically.
On a misfire, the firing character must roll 1d20 again. If the gun didn’t fail because of the weather, a result of 1 (or 1-2 on a fumble) means the gun exploded, hitting its user for half damage (save vs. Breath to avoid). Otherwise, odds mean dud loads and evens mean squibs (match goes out, flash in the pan, spark failure, whatever).
Fast in-play, and easy to adjucate. Also, it killed one of the NPCs. Well, technically the botched surgery to correct the injury killed him, but he was already at 0 HP.

I’m so totally not a disaster waiting to happen! No, wait! Come back! T_T

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The far more complicated but possibly more fun version:
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When a character uses a firearm, their target rolls 1d20 as well (as in the standard system). (I’ll be keeping the fumble and crit options here)
If it comes up under the gun’s basic Misfire chance, the firing character rolls again on the misfire table. This table is graduated based on the various dangers of the gun’s type. The base misfire chance penalty I originally used for breechloaders, tack-on pistols, and multi-barrel guns has been removed, in favor of direr consequences when they fail.
“Shoddy” guns cost 75% of the gun’s final cost, and take 25% less time to make.

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Misfire Chances by Weapon Type:
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• Lockless:
Misfires on a 1-6 on 1d20, on a 1-12 in the Damp, and cannot be fired in the Wet.
A Lockless gun rolls 1d6 on the Misfire table
• Matchlock:
Misfires on a 1-4 on 1d20, on a 1-8 in Damp conditions, and 1-16 in the Wet.
Matchlocks roll 1d8 on the Misfire table
• Wheel-lock:
Misfires on a 1-4 on 1d20, with no modifiers for weather.
Wheel-locks roll 1d10 on the Misfire table
• Flintlock:
Misfires on a 1-2 on 1d20, or on a 1-4 in Wet conditions.
Flintlocks roll 1d12 on the Misfire table

Misfire Effects
Roll:	Result:
1 or less	Explosion!
2-5	Dud load
6-7	Bad Load
8	Lock Damage
9 or more	Squib/Flash-in-the-pan

Subtract 1 from the roll if the gun is Low-quality, a Breech-loader and/or double-barreled or multi-shot (cumulative).
Add 1 to the roll if the gun failed due to weather conditions (that is, it would not have misfired without a weather penalty)
Note that this means that a dodgy flintlock is more likely to explode than a well-made one (10% vs 5%) but far less likely to do so than a badly-made handgonne (~33%) or matchlock (~25%). This is very, very intentional.

Results:
Explosion!: Well, shit. The gun is immediately rendered useless. Player must save vs. Breath or take half the gun’s damage.

Dud load: The powder was bad, or water got in. The character must reload the gun entirely, taking an additional 3 rounds to clear it, before firing again.

Bad Load: Roll 1d6. If the roll is 3 or less, the gun was underloaded. Otherwise, it was overloaded. An Overloaded gun doubles its damage, and an Underloaded gun halves it.

Lock Damage: the gun’s base Misfire chance increases by 1. Flintlocks must replace the flints, Wheel-locks become unusable until repaired.

Flash-in-the-pan: The priming powder went off, but the gun didn’t, or the match went out.
• Matchlock guns must relight the match, taking 2 uninterrupted rounds to remove and replace it.
• Flintlocks take 1 uninterrupted Round to recock and reprime
• Wheel-locks take 3 Rounds to re-wind the wheel.
Additionally, the gun’s base Misfire chance increases by 1 until it is reloaded or successfully fired.

Posted by docschott on February 21, 2014

https://docschottslab.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/lotfp-firearms-pt-tertius-misfire-table/