In my setting, there are firearms...

gaus weapons require very precise timing of multiple solenoids, which is kind of ridiculous for a dark ages tech. gauss rifles dont really make much strain on the barrel, at all. OP is talking about rail guns, not gauss guns, which are at least somewhat, sorta, kinda, possibly plausible. if they have a magictech source of electricity and supernatural sources of wear resistant materials, then they could do it.

They would be much better

> Realistically, would they be better than flintlock weapons?

That depends entirely on how much force they impart upon their bullet. Thusly it's your setting so what you say goes.

What you should consider instead is if these weapons are easy to manufacture en masse. Flintlock single shot weapons were king because they were cheap and easy to manufacture, even though clockwork machinists made plenty of more advanced revolving guns for those who could pay enough.

If you're equipping a whole army for war, it by necessity has to be on the cheap. Do these dwarves have a lack of gunpowder making materials? Are the new guns just as easy to make a ton of? If they're slow to produce at all any planer will probably go with the next best alternative just to get people equipped. The worst thing to happen in warfare is to lose the initiative, and being forced to delay because of equipment and supply shortages is a classic way if losing the initiative.

Also Armies require an absolute shit ton of equipment, so a whole army of reich dorfs needs for its individual soldiers, just for the weapons-

Cleaning kits for basic maintenance
Individual recharging packs (having to rely on the supply train to recharge every time would be very slow)
Ammunition of the specific type they're using, has to be pre forged iron since you can't use lead in magnetic weapons, no molds for you

And for higher echelon levels-

Weapon repair facilities (Troops don't fix their own weapons if you want to make any sort of good pace, they hand their shit in and pick up a spare at the armory)
Ammunition supply for the multiple sorts of guns
Recharging stations

Just for the guns.

>If not, would it be too much to say that the magic defies some of the physics?

Magic is defying things anyways since the materials involved are fictional.

Most non-D&D settings don't bother with the typical standard fantasy Dwarves in my experience.

If you assume that the big artillery style Railguns have a crew to keep them loaded then it wouldn't be unfeasible to have a trained crew member use a casting of Mending between shots, however now that I think of it, at least in 5e (And as a smug nigger pointed out not every setting is D&D), it takes a full minute to cast Mending anyways, which only affects one cubic foot of material.

So in theory you could have a cannon system with interchangeable barrels, where rather than loading a new slug you switch out the barrel, the gunner fires it, and while this is happening you have a pit crew of sorts repairing and reloading the slugs and maintaining the barrels. The main issue with this would be needing a larger fully trained crew to fire the artillery at a decent rate, and I assume a Renaissance-tech level setting, a piece of railgun artillery with ranges on par with modern weapons would more than make up for the extra crew in sheer range and destructive power.

I kind of feel like designing a magitech artillery cannon now, off to photoshop.

sauce of gif?

>Most non-D&D settings don't bother with the typical standard fantasy Dwarves in my experience.

that's wrong stupid

Don't bother, it's Bleach.

Railguns, coilguns gauss gun - same general principle, same restraints. The US Navy did some railgun tests and had the same problems, the barrel died after too few shots and the energy levels required were too high to make it worth it.

The point still stands that OF COURSE it is ridiculous for a medieval/renaissance setting. The thing that matters is what OP thinks is cool and how it can be hand waved with magic in a way that sounds plausible if you don't think too much about it.

dunno, got it from 4+Veeky Forums

A character I've wanted to play is a magic arms dealer who's invented a way to mass produce weak magic equipment for sale to kingdoms, with the biggest seller/most effective item being a simple Halberd with a trigger that when pulled fires an Eldritch Blast cantrip.

So your army could, with pretty much no training, fire a volley of Heavy Crossbow strength shots out to a further range with no need for logistics like ammo and with no need to reload so you could do so in combat.

The basic version of said Halberd would have a level 1 Eldritch Blast Cantrip, with more expensive ones having higher level versions, so more attacks per turn (Faster refire time) and specialty versions could be bought for people like generals and nobles with the Eldritch Blast Invocations like the +CHA mod to damage (set to the level of the weapon rather than using the wielder's CHA mod.)

Where does the bullet stop?

Also IIRC the problem is you need strong energy source and massive capacitors to operate this thing continuously. There's one or two mounted experimentally on nuclear cruisers, but possibility of making it man portable, or even land vehicle portable is a distant future still.

And that there is one of them slow ones.

>railguns and coilguns are the same
no they fucking arent, do not speak about shit you know nothing about. coil guns do not require contact with the barrel at all in order to function
>navy railgun failed
NIGGA, the navy rail gun is doing just fine. all barrels need to be replaced after so many shots, and the rail gun is no exception.

stop talking.
just fucking stop talking.

I think artillery would be the way to go with guns like that, take down any kind of Constantinople and up fortifications away in as few shots as possible.

While the constraints you mention still apply, harder to manufacture that gunpowder, difficult to mass issue, limiting these babies to only one or two artillery pieces would reduce cost and maintenance vis-à-vis general issue.

If such a gun is capable of reducing times that would save a ridiculous amount of resources. The Ottomans spent two months at Constantinople, keeping an army of 100.000 guys in the field all the while.
If the Dwarves with railguns can break apart Constantinople-level walls on week one that means saving money on salaries, supplies, ammunition etc. and most importantly means their armies can move FAST. Spend a week taking out the enemy's über-fortress of doom means he will have less time to gather his forces, rally allies, find mercenaries etc.

Also having a few artillery pieces crucial for the war effort allows a small band of adventurers to make a real difference by taking the guns out in a daring mission behind enemy lines. Good enough justification for me.

What if the gun was powered by love juice? And dwarven gunslingers had to harvest succubuses for more?

>thousands of underground slave dungeons for the harvesting of love juice for the nazidwarf war machine.
thats actually pretty awesome

Here it is, I might clean it up later but for now I think it's a decent design.
If you go with 's suggestion to make it the adventurer party's mission to sabotage the artillery it adds a bunch of different ways to go about it too since they could just go murderhobo it, steal or destroy the rails or assassinate the pit crew, steal the whole damn cannon and bring it behind their lines, or even sabotage the shielding so their entire backline goes up in a giant explosion next time the crews try to fire.

Drop the ammunition and make it simply a lightning gun - if you're going to go crazy you might as well stick with magic lasers.

Bonus - You could call them something like Havkhan A. Moonbeard's Electric Rifle - HAMER's

>relatively weak
Do you mean within the setting, or compared to real life or modern firearms?

Thank you for all the replies!

Within the setting. It's faster to just swing a sword or draw a bow than to load and fire a firearm.

If you assume they're more like modern guns using a different propellant than full-on Railguns or Coilguns a standard lead bullet would still be fine.

Back when I first played Killzone 1 I assumed the Helghast weapons were using something besides gunpowder for propellant since they sound so different and have a white muzzle flash, they might be a decent base for OP to build off.

youtu.be/aSe7mAc4pRM?t=104

Seeing as OP said his dwarves are Not!Nazis, and you're mentioning the guns the Ottomans used against Constantinople (the biggest bombards required crews of hundreds to operate and transport them) I'm now thinking of dwarf lightning-gun versions of pic related - wunderwaffen do seem a very dwarfish thing to build

>That pic

Could've saved a lot of effort and words and just used the little pic in the top-right corner.

It doesn't fucking matter if it's a railgun with magical magnets, or a portable gateway to the Elemental Plane of Artillery Shells. All that matters is how the magic affects the weapon's function, and why the players should care.

If it's functionally indistinguishable from an ordinary howitzer, why even bother explaining how it works?

Because I like designing shit I'll never use in my own games.

>If it's functionally indistinguishable from an ordinary howitzer, why even bother explaining how it works?

>Not having fully detailed descriptions for how everything in your settings works so when a player asks if they can try something retarded you can give a proper answer instead of "lol idk roll a wis check"
Do you even internal consistency? Or are you one of those /v/ fags that doesn't care as long as it gives you more XP to kill something?

>Hey guys I have this "high fantasy" setting that has magic beyond event he wildest capabilities of modern science but despite that fact everyone only uses black powder weapons because presumably regular modern guns would somehow trivialize all the magic in this made up place where the only limit is my own imagination. If I added laser rifles to this setting would that somehow unbalance this poorly conceived idea?
It sounds like the problem is you.

Not knowing much about the real deal, I looked up some quick information.

Shit son, that thing is way smaller than I expected. But has it been any good? I mean, traditional ordinance on naval vessels is explosive, right? What is this thing lobbing?

Maybe I'm retarded, but i am genuinely curious.

xD nice edge!

Magic in this setting isn't a catch all deus ex machina, there's several types of magic with different power sources and limits. They also aren't "laser rifles", you illiterate mongoloid, I stated they fired off metal using magnets. Fuck off.

Similar question: What do I need to know about life circa 1890-1920 to build a setting there? I want to make a fantasy setting in the throes of an industrial revolution (not steampunk).

>No, no, I can't run a game in this setting yet!
>I still need to detail the dynastic lineages of all the kingdoms!
>...Even the ones on the other side of the planet to where the players will start out!
>JUST IN CASE the players decide to go sailing all the way around the world, and I have to describe the kingdoms they find along the way in great detail!

99% of the shit you're worrying about will never, ever come up in-game, nor will its presence do anything to improve the drama of your narrative. Stop wasting your time quibbling over nothing.

> only worrying about the game
> not taking pride in worldbuilding

I feel pity for you.

I worldbuild only what my campaign needs, and leave everything outside that nice and vague.

The easiest way to avoid contradictions is to establish as little as possible in the first place.

>not just having fun designing dumb shit for fantasy settings
it's like you really are a pleb

the current navy railgun is a kinetic kill weapons system. basically a gun with one of the four fundamental forces of the universe as propellant for a metal slug. some are made to pierce deep, others open mid flight and scatter mach 7 ball bearings over the targets. thats just what i know from the vids they posted and the army's striker system which is a land based truck mounted monstrosity with two fuck huge generators. they also have a sweet targeting system to use arch and propelling force to facilitate multiple consecutive hits at or near the same point for crowd kills, convoys and other target rich environments. the nautical gun has a stated range of 110 nautical miles, which makes me think this thing can reach out and touch someone even farther than that but thats just my speculation. i've heard, but dont know for a fact, that the railgun can even achieve escape velocity and be used to target earth orbiting satellites.

>"Hey guys, are coilguns more effective than shitty flintlocks?"

Yes, OP. Yes they are.

It still sounds like the problem is you.

Not OP but I'm saving this. Could work wonderfully for the magitech not-Ottomans in my own setting. Thank you bro-tier user!

That is brilliant. Now just apply fantasy trappings and you have got the centerpiece of a campaign there. Guns the size of towers, drawn by teams of elephants, powered by magic. Oh yes.

You coukd have a whole campaign of the heroes discovering the weapons, getting back to tell allied command about them ehile dodging dwarf trackers and gnoll mercenaries sent to stop them. Then the real fun begins when the group engages in military politics trying to o e ul with a plan to take the guns out while holding the allied army together in the face of this huge new threat. Then the mission to actually take out the guns, followed by a huge Vienna style cavalry charge to break the dwarven army or die trying.

The optimism of science and civilization growing ever farther, being brutally crushed by the mass industrial warfare and death of WW1.