Currently GMing a game in a renaissance setting in a near civil war/rising terrorism era and I'm trying to create an event akin to the the attempt to kill Louis Philippe I by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi.
"He took lodgings on the Boulevard du Temple, and there, with two members of the Société des Droits de l'Homme, Morey and Pépin by name, contrived an "infernal machine" (in French, machine infernale), consisting of twenty gun barrels, to be fired simultaneously.
[...]
A ball grazed the king's forehead, and his horse, with those of the Duke of Nemours and of the Prince de Joinville, was shot; Marshal Mortier was killed, with seventeen other persons, and many were wounded; but the king and the princes escaped essentially unharmed."
Here you can find an image of the infernal machine
We're currently playing a low magic game with guns (mainly muskets and basic one shot pistols) so I like to keep the magic on the low side but I am not willing to completely exclude it.
The event will include a crowd mainly of aristocrats waiting in line for an important event and at least one of the players (Lvl 3-4).
What would be your take on it?
Also if you have any other interesting historical events one can use for inspiration in a game, feel free to share them!
My issue is basically a rules issue.
I don't see how the gun rules could be used for this since the scatter effect on guns is limited to a cone of 15 ft(for the blunderbuss) which is basically close-quarter stuff and not how I envision this.
Maybe I am not interpreting the rules correctly however but I don't see cones working with range increments..
Using standard muskets and 20 attack rolls also seems ridiculous.
I'm just not sure how to rule it instead of just :
BOOM and pre-selected people die.
First, I think you would need 20 people aiming 20 muskets. This is more or less like firing grape shot, one at a time. You could just use the cannon rules or assign area of effect damage.
Second, stylistically, are you trying to tell a story? If you a predetermined outcome, either arbitrarily decide or do the rolls before hand and come to the table knowing how the plot will go.
I generally decide how the plot will go but with some exceptions. I generally game out what the principals are doing and see what happens. Sometimes a SINGLE CRIT is that it takes, especially if one side does not know the abilities of the other.
Hope this helps!
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You could use the rules from d20 Modern for automatic (machine gun) fire. I know the infernal machine wasn't a "machine gun", but these rules would seem to apply to the situation...
Autofire: If a ranged weapon has an automatic rate of fire, a character may set it on autofire. Autofire affects an area and everyone in it, not a specific creature. The character targets a 10-foot-by-10-foot area and makes an attack roll; the targeted area has an effective Defense of 10. (If the character does not have the Advanced Firearms Proficiency feat, he or she takes a –4 penalty on the attack roll.) If the attack succeeds, every creature within the affected area must make a Reflex save (DC 15) or take the weapon’s damage. Autofire shoots 10 bullets, and can only be used if the weapon has 10 bullets in it.
Autofire is not the same thing as burst fire, which involves firing a short burst at a specific target. Firing a burst requires the Burst Fire feat. If a character fires a blast of automatic fire at a specific target without the Burst Fire feat, it’s treated as a standard attack. The attack, if successful, only deals normal damage—all the extra ammunition the character fired is wasted.
Obviously you'd have to modify this rule to apply more to your situation (20 shots as opposed to 10 for example), but I think with a little tweaking, this rule should work...
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We're currently playing a low magic game with guns (mainly muskets and basic one shot pistols) so I like to keep the magic on the low side but I am not willing to completely exclude it.
The event will include a crowd mainly of aristocrats waiting in line for an important event and at least one of the players (Lvl 3-4).What would be your take on it?
If you have access to the 3.5 Heroes of Battle book there is a rule in there for firing in formation. It was written for archery but you could probably modify it for firearms pretty easily.