Topic: Black powder firearms for RMU

[EvilWilliam]

Searching around the forum, I see references to someone who has done some sort of rules (charts?) for using firearms in RMU, can anyone point to actually where they are?  I'm wanting to look at doing a Napoleonic campaign.

The easy route AFAICS is just to use the ice bolt table and substitute impact for cold crits, but if there's something better out there...

[Hurin]

Grimsouled is doing a Traveller-Spacemaster conversion. You can see the website here: www.kevinknight.org

[Hansuke]

There used to be some firearm charts on the net years ago but I don't see them and didn't download them in any case. I looked for some RM books that might help you convert, but I don't have anything from RM that would get you into the early 1800s. RM Pirates will get you the early 1700s but I don't see it on Drivethrurpg. RM At Rapier's Point is on Drivethrurpg but it is set somewhere in the early to mid 1600s. RM Outlaw is set in late 1800s but I don't see it on Drivethrurpg either. I was just re-reading At Rapier's Point in the last couple of weeks thinking about creating some firearm charts for RMU to convert that over to RMU. I've been watching the Musketeers TV show as of late and thought about some RMU treatment to amuse me. Wish I could be of more help, but there appear to be historical gaps in RM genre books.

A long time ago, I downloaded some rules that allowed one to treat the Napoleonic Era to some magical D&D stuff, but can't remember which hard drive it is on at the moment.

Edit: Look on page 54 of RMC IV. There are rules there for some weapons you might can work with. You need SM attack tables though for the criticals. Pistols and rifle use small projectile, shotgun uses shotgun, and cannon used blaster tables.

[Cory Magel]

Weapons Law: Firearms
https://www.amazon.com/Weapon-Law-Firearms-Rolemaster-5524/dp/1558062890
But it's from the RMSS/RMFRP era.

[EvilWilliam]

Thanks all, that's very helpful, I already had some of those resources, the issue was the extent to which they matched RMU balance.

Thanks also for flagging Grimsouled's work, that's really interesting, and I'll definitely put that to use.

[Hansuke]

After comparing SM tables against RMU tables, here are my suggestions to which RMU tables to use without having to create your own tables:

all small projectiles are puncture criticals
small projectile mk1 use stinger table medium as medium
small projectile mk2 use crossbow table small as if it were medium.
small projectile mk3 use crossbow table medium as if it were medium.
small projectile mk4 use crossbow table big as if it were medium.

I looked at shotguns, but its going to take me more time to analyze them. I am not sure if they were used in Napoleonic armies in any case.

Cannons are more complicated also. I need more information.

Weapon Type	Reload Type	Reload Time	Rate of Fire	Fumble Range	PB	SR	MR	LR	Table
Pistol	Muzzle	3	1	3	10/+10	50/-	100/-40	250/-80	sml proj mk3
Pistol	Breech	1	1	5	10/+10	50/-	100/-40	250/-80	sml proj mk2
Pistol	Revolver	1	1	5	10/+10	50/-	100/-40	250/-80	sml proj mk1
Rifle	Muzzle	3	1	5	20/+20	250/-	750/-40	1500/-80	sml proj mk4
Rifle	Breech	1	1	7	20/+20	250/-	750/-40	1500/-80	sml proj mk4

[MisterK]

Weapon Type	Reload Type	Reload Time	Rate of Fire	Fumble Range	PB	SR	MR	LR	Table
Pistol	Muzzle	3	1	3	10/+10	50/-	100/-40	250/-80	sml proj mk3
Pistol	Breech	1	1	5	10/+10	50/-	100/-40	250/-80	sml proj mk2
Pistol	Revolver	1	1	5	10/+10	50/-	100/-40	250/-80	sml proj mk1
Rifle	Muzzle	3	1	5	20/+20	250/-	750/-40	1500/-80	sml proj mk4
Rifle	Breech	1	1	7	20/+20	250/-	750/-40	1500/-80	sml proj mk4

Do you mean maximum ranges or maximum effective ranges ? I don't know if RMU has changed the lansdcape much, but in the previous RM editions, a longbow was listed at a maximum usable range of 400' as listed in the attack table, which was far less than the maximum range of the weapon [in the XVIth century, the minimum *practice* range was set by Henry VIII to be 220 yards for flight arrows - heavier arrows obviously had a shorter practice range. The record range for an english longbow is about 450 yards]. A quick (and thus necessarily sketchy) search for firearm ranges in the early XIXth century led to muzzle-loading muskets used by the French napoleonic infantry to have a maximum effective range of 100 yards (with a rate of fire of about 1 shot every 20 seconds). Rifles were not used by the french infantry, and reportedly were more accurate (maximum effective range up to ~170 yards), but slower to reload and harder to produce.

I was wondering where the 1500' max range value was coming from.

[Hansuke]

I was wondering where the 1500' max range value was coming from.

I just copied the table from RMC IV page 54. I didn't even check the ranges. I was concerned about the charts. Guess I need to look at the ranges and see if that can be put in RMU terms also. Thanks for catching that.