From: owner-7thsea@darkedge.com on behalf of Robin Lim
[ascendance@home.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 12:28 AM
Subject: [7th Sea RPG] New Weapons

_Weapons_ by the Diagram Group describes many historical weapons, and even a
few historical oddities.  A few of them are very appropriate for 7th Sea.  I
haven't drawn up the stats for these weapons yets, but I'll get around to it
sooner or later.

In 1641, Peter Kalthoff was granted a monopoly on magazine guns in the
Netherlands.  The gun had a sliding breech-block worked by turning the
trigger-guard.   Unfortunately, the book fails to describe where the
magazine is.   By the late 17th Century, the Italians developed the
Lorenzoni system, using two seperate tubes in the butt to hold loose powder
and balls.

While these guns were limited by barrel fouling from the black powder, they
were still remarkable innovations for their time.  They would certainly be
the sort of weapons a more technically-minded villain might favor.

Continuing on the subject of weapons, three other weapons come to mind:
sword-breakers, turn-off pistols, revolvers, and blunderbusses.

Swordbreakers are a variation of the parrying dagger.  They have deep
serrations, much like a comb.  They are designed to catch and break an
opponent's blade.  However, they are less effective weapons.  One or two
raises to break a weapon doesn't sound inappropriate.

Turn-off pistols can be considered the early breech-loaders.  The barrel of
the pistol was unscrewed, and the load was inserted into the other half.
They probably have very little advantage over regular flintlock pistols.

Front-loading revolver mechanisms were used in both rifles and pistols.
Louis XIII owned a matchlock revolver, for instance. The illustration of an
English six-shot snaphance revolver shows something in between a pepperbox
and a regular revolver.

Finally, the blunderbuss is the classic primitive shotgun, loaded with
everything from garbage to broken nails.  I figure it could do 4k4, but
raises cannot be made on damage.  Range should be similar to pistol range.

Rob

---
To unsubscribe, send a message to "majordomo@darkedge.com" and put "unsubscribe 7thsea (or 7thsea-digest)" in the body of the message.

Contents Copyright (C) 1997,98,99 by ALDERAC ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.