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I can understand the standard scatter quality applying to a blunderbuss, with its horn-shaped barrel and all. However, I'm working on a campaign setting right now that has access to advanced firearms, and just allowing shotguns and double-barreled shotguns to fire in a cone doesn't make any sense.
Simply put, shotguns don't work that way, even when firing buckshot. At maximum, I'd think that the pellets might expand into a 1-foot-diameter spread. I understand that there are certain attachments that can be placed on the end of a barrel to increase said spread, but a shotgun without any such attachment? Not so much. It's never going to get the crazy 20-30 foot cones that the scatter quality promises.
So, my question is, how can we achieve the goal of making more realistic shotguns. Two caveats: Firearms, in my homebrew rules, do not attack touch AC; and most firearms have increased range (60+ feet), the shotgun itself at 40.
My current idea:
A critique as well as any suggestions would be extremely helpful. Also, what's the name of the attachment that increases a shotgun's spread? I can't remember.
...Catch Phrase,
-Chris
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Seems WAY to powerful. I would say if your going to double the amount of damage dice, you need to reduce the size of the damage dice used. ESPECIALLY if your going to increase the Crit mod.
Also, for the sake of the flavor that I get from the guns section, I would say that only Maste Work guns would have the choice of being either buckshot or regular.
I would not increase damage dice between shot and slugs unless you already have some method of differentiating which type of trauma is better against a given victim. From what I've seen, D20 doesn't handle that kind of variance nicely.
(Example: more damage dice means penetrating DR more easily. Typically, shot is explained as having poor penetration compared to slugs, so this makes for a bit of head-scratching. Shoving in an exception for DR for shot means you now have two rules and likely more to come, but you could just as easily have gone with fewer in a different direction.)
To my knowledge, even though it doesn't get a massive cone, shot is used to increase accuracy against fast-moving small targets at range, and the finer the shot, the better for this (up to a point). Interesting things can come out of that aspect.
Possible ideas:
Shot ignores an amount of cover bonus to AC. (it probably hits the cover in the process, so be careful about melee allies)
Shot lessens the range penalty of firearms. (might have a smaller range increment, or not)
Shot has a better chance to hit small targets. (Might deal damage to swarms)
Perhaps something like "If a shotgun using shot misses due to cover, range, or size bonuses to AC, it trades a dice of damage for +X to hit to overcome any of these penalties (but nothing else). It cannot do this within the first range increment, and cannot trade away its last damage dice."
While it's still mostly useful for hunting game, it's also good in trench warfare or claustrophobic urban settings since it messes with cover. You can make various grades of shot, some with better to-hit trade in factors or the like. Crafty, inventive, or mad science characters might push the trade in even further using unique class abilities or magical materials, or make specializations like anti-swarm shot or anti-ghost shot.
Perhaps simply having it deal 1/2 its damage to splash damage to those around the original target or on a line to the target?
Just as a heads up on your range idea, moving the shotgun to a 40 ft range means that with 5 range increments, its entirely possible to shoot the shotgun (accurately, if with a -10 penalty) 200 feet.
Shotguns can fire up to about 60 yards with accuracy and effectiveness. That's about 180 feet right there.
Shotgun slugs are used for mid-range shots up to 100 yards (300 feet). It's not a preposterous idea for a non-flared barreled shotgun.
I'd go with a line effect. If you don't mind having a bit of complexity, have the line effect reach out to 5 range increments, while a slug goes out to 10 range increments. At 30' increment, that's 150 and 300 feet respectively.
Range increments on the line shouldn't be too hard to figure. One attack roll, apply the penalties based on which increment each target is in (and don't forget soft cover, +4 AC if there's someone in between, which would be the case in a line).
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d20 modern/future may be something to mine for ideas on improving guns' performance and/or realism.
Something to keep in mind however is that d20 has an inherently a non-realistic damage system. Trying to make realistic guns is going against the very nature of the way the rules work.
There are other game systems that strive to be real-world accurate, but they tend to be rather ponderous and far less popular than the simple and fast d20.
I prefer to think of d20's 'flaw' in this way instead as a positive. Damage isn't 'realistic', it's 'cinematic'. And that's why alot of people play.. to take part in their own imaginary fantastical 'movies' instead of spending the same amount of time watching someone else's movie.
Even in a cinematic sense, there's at least two types of shotguns: the wide arc, flared barrel spray; and the longer range, tighter spread shotgun.
I'm thinking the shotgun Jason Bourne uses in the Bourne Identity to clip the guy in that field... vs the sawed-off used by Kyle Reese in the Terminator in that dance club scene.
Cone vs Line, should still be a decent cinematic representation in d20. It's not like it's being terribly realistic even with that option.
I put in shotguns in a game I GM'd, and this is the system I used. I thought it worked better, the cone thing is really very silly.
I don't remember the exact system, but what I did was change the properties of the weapon. Say you have a smoothbore musket, does 1d10 or something. I used the one in the 3.5 DM's guide, don't really remember what it did. It had a range increment of 100 feet, say.
Loaded with buckshot, the weapon acts a bit differently. The range increment is reduced, I think I halved it, but I might not have penalized it that much. The clever part was, the range increment penalized the attack differently. At point blank range, the shot did more damage, 1d12. As it got further from the target, it became less damaging. At each range increment, instead of taking -2 to hit, I dropped the die size one category. Because the range increment was narrow, this meant that pretty soon you were only doing 1d4 damage, to reperesnt a highly dispersed and low-energy cloud of shot, but you could still hit something.
Come to think of it, it may have been 1/3 or 1/4 the range increment, whatever made sense at the time.
This is why shot is good for duck hunting at great range. Ducks have very few hit points. (c:
At most, a useful field of shot has only dispersed to about 2 feet in diameter, and that is at something like 200'. A 15' cone is just ridiculous, I'm sorry to have to say. Even a blunderbus doesn't disperse shot that much. Most attachments for shotguns are designed to minimize dispersal patterns, not increase them.
What shotguns are good for is stopping someone in their tracks. Perhaps they can knock someone prone (The shotgun would not knock you off of your feat itself, the way your body reacts to it would.)? If you don't like that, perhaps shotguns can stun people? It isn't 100% realistic, but it's the best way to recreate the sheer shock a shotgun blast delivers that I can think of.
Falling is how the body reacts to firearms period -- however it tends to be more of a stumble. This has more to do with fluid dynamics and the way the nervous system is set up in a body than anything else from what I understand of it.
Falling is how the body reacts to firearms period -- however it tends to be more of a stumble. This has more to do with fluid dynamics and the way the nervous system is set up in a body than anything else from what I understand of it.
That's a fair understanding, though I should note that it is possible to get shot several times and not go down, or once and go down immediately. Combat injuries are pretty much impossible to generalize. There are a massive number of factors involved. Shotguns are one of the best for knocking someone down immediately, but even they don't do it through sheer force, they rely on the human body's reaction to the shock.