Wormwood Guns?

[Braden Campbell]

They should be appearing sometime in the Rifter as part of the Wormwood Addendum... a little project of mine going back several years.

PM me for more details if you need

[Spinachcat]

Oooh...muskets and flint-locks and wheel-locks? I would so love to have more "swords & powder" action to Wormwood.

Braden, spill us some teasers!!!

[Braden Campbell]

My idea is that Worldgate has this huge thing called the New Model Army. Instead of swords and shields, like everyone else on Wormwood is using, Worldgate has gone "high tech", and uses 18th century flintlock weapons and massed smoothbore muskets.

The guns are copies of the originals, made out of poured resin and pillar wood. Instead of flint, the hammer holds a sliver of Wormwood PPE crystal. A special "magic black powder", available only in Worldgate, is poured down the barrel, just as it was in real life. Then you fire.

One shot per melee round is the best you can do, but at 5D6 per musket shot, a group of 20 guys can dish out 600 possible points of damage... enough to take down a Battler Parasite.

[asajosh]

If your looking for stats on black powder weapons, you gotta get a little obscure. The book in my collection that comes to mind is Transdimensional TMNT GL

[Braden Campbell]

Yeah... but the reload times in that thing are far from acurate. Plus, its no longer in print AFAIK

[asajosh]

Copies can still be found (Im on number 3), tweaks made

[Braden Campbell]

Screw it... enjoy the preview.
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W.P. Wormwood Flintlocks
This skill is available as a Weapon Proficiency to any and all Wormwood O.C.C.’s. It allows characters to reload, disassemble, unjam, clean and otherwise maintain techno-wizard converted flintlock-style weapons. Characters will also be able to recognize the weapon quality of such guns at 30%+5% per level. W.P. Wormwood Flintlocks instills the following bonuses: +2 to strike (aimed) at first level, and an additional +1 to strike (aimed) at levels 4, 7, 10, and 13.
Bursts and sprays are not possible with these types of guns, although shooting Wild certainly is. Called shots are also possible with Wormwood flintlocks, and this skill could be combined with W.P. Sharpshooting if the GM allows it. The reloading time will remain the same however: one shot per melee. Also note that this single W.P. covers the use of both pistols and rifles as described below.

Flintlock Pistol
The most common style of Wormwood pistol is one based on the .50 London Pistola. The original weapon was used widely during the Age of Sail, especially by pirates who tended to carry a brace (pair) of the guns when boarding enemy ships.
Weight:3 pounds loaded
Range: 200 feet (60 m)
Damage: 4D6 per shot
Payload: Single shot only.
Chance of Misfire: 10%

Wormwood “Shotgun”
This is not a true rifle as we might think of. Nor is it a musket. What Wormwoodians call a shotgun is really a kind of large, double-barreled, flintlock pistol. Instead of a single large ball, this weapon is filled with several smaller ones. It has two triggers which can be fired one after the other, or concurrently. Its design is based heavily on the .68 Charleville Model 1777, originally made in France.
Weight: 6 pounds loaded
Range: 200 feet (60 m)
Damage: 3D6 per single shot, or 6D6 for a double blast.
Payload: Two shots total
Chance of Misfire: 10%

Wormwood Smooth-bore Musket
Were it not for the fact that the hammer holds a shard of Wormwood crystal instead of a piece of flint, this weapon could easily be mistaken for a .75 Brown Bess Land Pattern Musket. As the standard musket used by the British Empire the world over, it was easy for Wormwood raiders to find these weapons and bring them back to Worldgate for study. The barrel on this weapon is 42 inches (1.06 m) in length. A bayonet can also be added onto it for use in melee combat (requires W.P. Spear).
Weight: 10 pounds loaded
Range: 600 feet (180 m)
Damage: 5D6 per shot
Payload: Single shot only
Chance of Misfire: 10%

Note that this is simply a small part of a much larger section on Worldgate.

[Braden Campbell]

Is this the TW Black powder weapons previously discussed on page 35 of Wormwood book itself or Flintlocks? Cause the stats don't match up...

Yeah, there's a discontinuity. These are my recommendations for weapon stats based on the ones found under the NPC write-ups, and compared to established palladium damages for flintlock weapons as found in Transdimensional Turtles. The reload times come from hard-won research, and many board discussions.

As for page 35, I'm going to chalk that up to Erin Tarn smoking extradimensional weed... because a D4x10 "shotgun" is simply over-powerful for the setting, and not even a Juicer could reload a flintlock weapon in less than 7 seconds.

Maybe she was seeing some other kind of TW weapon in action, like a custom-made, double barreled smooth bore musket? Or maybe she's just getting old and feeble-minded.

[Aramanthus]

It sounds interesting Braden. I'm looking forward to seeing your work published!

[Braden Campbell]

Here is why I gave the Wormwood shotgun the damage that I did.

1. In Dorsey Pentecost's NPC description (Wormwood page 82) he has a TW black powder shotgun that does 6D6 per shot, and has a payload of 2 blasts.

2. In Transdimensional Turtles (page 63 & the only place in all of Palladium canon that puts any kind of stats to such weapons) the damages on every flintlock pistol listed is 3D6. This is one dice less than the listed damage for Wormwood pistols... so I have to respect the 4D6 damage that has already been established.

3. There really were such things as multi-barreled flintlocks, although they were unpopular.

4. Again, in Transdimensional Turtles, the damages for flintlock rifles average between 3D6, 4D6, and one at 5D6. There is no 6D6 flintlock rifle because it would take an actual bullet to inflict that much damage, and muskets don't fire bullets.

5. 6D6 is only 4 points shy of 1D4x10 (36 possible points compared to 40)

6. The Wormwood shotgun has to have at least two barrels, since these are single shot weapons, and Penetecost's apparently has 2 shots in it.

7. So, if Pentecost's "shotgun" inflicts 6D6, and has a payload of 2 shots, then it either a double barrel .32 Squirrel rifle (Transdimensional, page 63, 3D6 per shot) or a double barreled flintlock pistol (Transdimensional, page 63, all of which inflict 3D6 per shot). And given that he rides a Harley, and fires the thing one handed, its probably closer in shape to a 17 inch long pistol than a 42 inch musket.


If you really feel that you need thos extra 4 pints of damage (8 if you're playing an Apok), then use the 1D4x10 stat... but since there is no D2, that damage cannot be divided evenly between two barrels.

[Braden Campbell]

[
I think that the classic Flintlock .68 should get the justice it deserves...

Just so you know, going by the table in Transdimensional Turtles (sorry to keep going back to it, but as I say, it's the only Palladium source) a .68 flintlock "round" only does 3D6 points of damage and has "poor" penetration value ---> the ball will be stopped by wood, stone, and brick.

This is because these kinds of guns did not have rifling in the barrel (the grooves that make the bullet spin like a football), nor did they use bullets. They fried a round ball (in this case, made out of resin) that didn't fit perfectly against the sides of the barrel. Hence, the crappy range, and low penetration power.

[Braden Campbell]

Wormwood "shotgun"?

LINK

[glitterboy2098]

if you don't like the lower damage for a shotgun, just give it a +1 or +2 to strike, and call it buckshot. more likely to hit, less likely to do massive damage at range.

[Aramanthus]

Your explanation makes sense Braden.

[Spinachcat]

Screw it... enjoy the preview.

Thank you Braden!!!

I love the idea of "black magic powder" to differentiate these weapons from classic TW weaponry.

[Aramanthus]

It's definately and interesting weapon!

[Rallan]

If you're trying to model the damage of Wormwood's black-powder TW weapons on their mundane counterparts (and I don't see why you would since real flintlocks don't shoot magical bolts of flame, but let's roll with it anyway), you might wanna remember that muzzle-loading weapons got progressively nastier as time went on. The muskets and rifles in use by the late 18th to mid 19th century generally had calibres of about two thirds of an inch, and while muzzle velocities were lower than modern firearms, the mass of the balls ensured they had enough momentum to shatter through even the larger bones of the body and punch clear through a man, wrecking limbs beyond the abilities of contempory surgeons to save.

[Braden Campbell]

If you're trying to model the damage of Wormwood's black-powder TW weapons on their mundane counterparts (and I don't see why you would since real flintlocks don't shoot magical bolts of flame...

I believe Wormwood guns shoot rounds. Take a look at Dorsey Pentecost as he does his drive-by (Wormwood, page 23). Granted, it's a comic, but there's no connective blast going from his gun to that worm-monster-thing. Ans SPAK! sure sounds like a bullet hitting flesh to me...

[abtex]

Steve Conan Trustrum did a few things on Wormwood weapons:

New Wormwood -- New Weapons, Armor & Equipment

New Wormwood Skills and how to use other skills in Wormwood

Wormwood Netbook OCCs

[Aramanthus]

Nice links to the old threads! Thanks Duckfoot!

[glitterboy2098]

If you're trying to model the damage of Wormwood's black-powder TW weapons on their mundane counterparts (and I don't see why you would since real flintlocks don't shoot magical bolts of flame...

I believe Wormwood guns shoot rounds. Take a look at Dorsey Pentecost as he does his drive-by (Wormwood, page 23). Granted, it's a comic, but there's no connective blast going from his gun to that worm-monster-thing. Ans SPAK! sure sounds like a bullet hitting flesh to me...

which is why i always figured they were using some special form of gunpowder, and not some TW weapon. either that or they make musket balls and minnie balls out of the ame resin that they make their HtH weapons from, which can do MD even without supernatural strength, or in this case, ultra-high velocity.


myself i would go with the gunpoweder solution, i dislike mechanics that seem uninspired. (like "well if resin swords do MD resin bullets do too!"), especially if no explanation is given for the effect.

the gunpowder would use ground up crystals mixed into the normal mix, and would be used normally. when fired it basicaly enchants the bullet with something like thunderclap, allowing it to do more damage than normal.

i like the crystal striker idea outlined elsewhere, which might be an interesting way of tying the process together. the energy crystal in the lock helps activate the magic, while the normal gunpowder provides motive force to the projectile.

[Braden Campbell]

I have basically worked it out thusly:

The guns are copies of the originals made out of Wormwood (read. MDC) material such as poured resin and pillar wood. this is so they can fire MD blasts without blowing up.

The rooster (hammer) holds a shard of Wormwood PPE crystal instead of flint... although they are still called "flintlock" and not "crystal lock" weapons.

An enchanted kind of black powder, available only from Worldgate, is what makes it all happen. the powder is made from ground up PPE crystal, burned pillar wood, and other secret ingredients... the ball is made of resin (so that characters can make their own if they have to).

Pour in the powder, pack the ball in on top of that, set the striker to full rooster, and pull the trigger. The PPE shard ignites the works, and the blast goes off.

[Braden Campbell]

Oh man... the word censor strikes again!

[glitterboy2098]

well, it looks like we stumbled on the same idea.

meh, i don't have enough idea's about wormwood to do even a rifter article.
i came up with this as a rifts west coast thing. i was going to have most of the northwest scattered with strange crystals, the result of Mt. Rainer blowing it's top during the cataclysm. (a prison for a powerful being.)
one group of people near the bog that surrounds the ruins of portland would have learned, from a traveller, how to take the crystals and combine them with gunpowder to make powerful weapons, albiet primitive ones, the community was rifted in from the frontier period of american colonization. i had figured the traveller could be a wormwood native, who remembered the guns of wormwood and experimented with using the local crystals instead of wormwood ones in the formula.

[Aramanthus]

Very inteeresting! You both stated similar things. Very cool!