Advice for a new GM

>guns
you have two options. Make them super powerful pseudo-magical items, or make them realistic. But if they're realistic then your players will probably never want to use them.

I'll admit, no; I thought it was a (worse) article I came across previously. I'll give it a look.

>1. How do you balance guns in a fantasy world?
Tough because Guns are basically the death of plate armor so they should be able to penetrate basically anything other than armor enchanted specifically to resist bullets. The enchanting business is gonna be booming baby.
>2. How do i really show off a bad guy without giving the party the opportunity to try (and fail) to kill him right there?
keep him out of reach or the party otherwise unable to act in his presence.
>3. sacred artifact used to kill said bad guy? if so, how would i go about it? one for every member, or let them fight over it?
make it important but niche. In one of my games for a side boss which was a heavy metal necromancer (necrobard) they had to get a mystical flute and prepare it to defeat him. It was integral to defeating the big bad but only one character (who happened to be a bard) really even cared to carry it with them. There was no conflict whatsoever.

>Realistic guns
Can we talk about this in a game that isint designed to use guns?
D&d is a game of swords , magic and bows (assuming thats the fantasy game we are talking about)
When you put a high speed projectile into that what the fuck do you get
You get armor that doesn't matter
Plate armor was barely a 8th of an inch thick
imagine what a fucking blunderbuss could do to that shit
Thats why whenever my dm put a gun in and handed it over early on i asked him "so how does this work agianst stuff like heavy armor"
And we had a hour long discussion about how it basically equates out to the exact same reason as to why we dont fucking wear plate armor now
but if you wanted to put muskets in your game but remeber you are then opening the line for the pc's to say
"well what if i literaly just buy like 20 trained hirelings in muskets and make a firing squad its not like with bows they do 1d6-1d10 damage with this i can literaly break the front line of any fight if not just kill them all"

[Sophistry fucktouples in size]

... I was more talking about accuracy, reload time, and dampness. Wtf are yoi sperging out about?

Care to point out some examples?

he only made good points, friend-o. You should think about these things. Just in case one of your players do.

Firearms change dynamics of combat where implemented. Assuming that by "fantasy" you mean medieval style with knights and such, guns shift everything. When the simplest person can pull a trigger and kill the most experienced warrior, experienced warriors become worth less and trigger pulling becomes worth more.

I never refuted his points, or disagreed with him. But early blackpowder guns are not a great weapon for a small group of heros exploring caves, dungeons, and generally fighting groups larger than theirs.

In large numbers, on fields where you can form firing lines, absolutely. That's where they excell. But by the time my players are participating in army battles, they're usually beyond mundane weapons anyway.

Yes, I read Men At Arms too.

I think the point for you would be that guns will devalue high-armor targets. I'm assuming they can have flintlock pistols? because if so, any rogue in the group might as well hold on to four or more and keep them constantly loaded just in case. any time some big bad comes with heavy armor, that rogue will instantly have four chances at a one hit kill.

... I don't have guns be a one-hit-kill in my D&D campaigns. I mean, if you do that's fine, but I don't.

oh then no one will use them

I don't have daggers to the back be one hit kills either, but my rogue still uses them.

sure. I imagine your daggers to the back dont require a 60 second reload either.

I bet your daggers don't have a chance to misfire and damage themselves/the user.

>2. How do i really show off a bad guy without giving the party the opportunity to try (and fail) to kill him right there?
My group likes to have short scenes every now and then showing things happening elsewhere in the world. You could do this for the villain and show some of the things he's been up to. Of course, it works better in online games where you can just copypaste a couple premade paragraphs detailing the event and all the NPC dialogue. It might be awkward doing it in person or over voice. It also takes a certain type of group to appreciate the style of storytelling, a lot of people don't like that.

>3. sacred artifact used to kill said bad guy? if so, how would i go about it? one for every member, or let them fight over it?
You should probably include more solutions than just the mcguffin. If the players come up with their own idea on how to beat him, you should work with them to create a new plot line for them to follow and let them run with it. Maybe they want to create their own magic item to defeat him with, or they want to lure a dragon into his hideout and let it 1v1 him to weaken him before the party tries taking him on. Whatever whacky stuff they come up with, as long as it's plausible you should usually let them try it and give them a reasonable chance at succeeding with it.

Players will rarely try to solve a problem in the one exact way that you planned for them to solve it. Even if you spell it out for them and have an NPC infodump the exact solution, if they come up with their own plan they'll always prefer that.

So, what, should I let guns be the equivalent of a disintegration spell? You're just being silly. If I want to run a highly realistic fantasy game where a dagger to the ribs can kill a world famous hero, and where guns will instantly kill their targets, then why would I be running D&D?

1. Make them do slightly more damage than bows, and be ridiculously more expensive.

2. Public spaces, lots of guards or:

3. Badguy is invincible until mcguffin is done things and stuff to. Either party item, or item for just one player who is the player you like the least. Either option helps the party have more fun.

>1. How do you balance guns in a fantasy world?
If helps if you know what system you're using.
Another thing to remember is that in most "standard" D&D settings they have full plate armor, as per in this picture.
At the point when people had invented that they had had guns and gunpowder for almost 100 years and made use of them in warfare often enough that you had multiple varieties and designs floating around.
Advanced and sophisticated plate armor was in fact designed to defeat early firearms as well as heavier weapons.

My guns don't either? I only have critical fails happen if the players agree that it'd be an appropriate moment.

Most of what you said is inaccurate or flat out incorrect.
Actually guns and plate armor existed alongside each other for some time; it was MUSKETS that ended plate armor, but they had guns and used them in war for well over a century by that point.

buddy do you want your guns to be used at all or not. Because it sounds like your system is better off without them.

Guns are merely a thing that exist in my setting. I have rules for ballista too, but my players don't go dungeon crawling with them.

The exception is Artificers with thunderguns, since those are infused with magic. But you can't buy up scores of thunderguns and arm a small army with them.

1. If you are using guns, make pistols that are in-line with heavy crossbows and has the same loading time, and give it a tag "this is a gun". Basically, it's a heavy crossbow with a different ammo type. Done. No fuss. If people want to complain throw magic missiles at them until they die or cast a shield, then mention that you are firing magic missiles from guns and just in general /fuck 'em/ for bitching. tl;dr don't make up new gun rules if you don't know what you are doing.

2. Distance. If the party isn't at a distance that they can respond to what the BBEG is doing, then they can't do much but watch. A dragon flying over a town and breathing flame down before flying off, shouting a word of warning? Sure.

This doesn't work on higher level people, so you use teleport instead of flight. Or plane shift instead of teleport. After they know plane shift, you are likely experienced enough to handle things.

3. I don't like it when there's only 1 solution to a problem in TRPGs, but if that must be the case - maybe it doesn't have to be a physical artifact. Maybe it's a blessing on the heroes. Maybe it's a power switch you toggle at the basement that shuts off the BBEG's power supply. Maybe it's the forgotten and forbidden word that reveal the Reverse Scale of a Dragon Overlord.

If you don't want a dragonslayer sword, then don't make a dragonslayer sword.

>I have rules for ballista too, but my players don't go dungeon crawling with them.

no shit

Not the guy you are replying to, but my PCs calculated the weight of a ballista and convinced me that they can carry it on a Tenser's Floating Disk. So they actually do.

This is apt stuff, but its making me relive the aches of proposing a game then being immediately asked 'is it sandbox or railroad?' by the local flgs superfat.

>When the simplest person can pull a trigger and kill the most experienced warrior, experienced warriors become worth less and trigger pulling becomes worth more.

That's already in most fantasy games in the crossbow.

Well played.

Take a cue from WFRP.
Have guns be highly specialised and expensive things. The skill in using them is rare and learned from sources unavailable to ordinary fellows (or disreputavle adventuring types) and the methods of care, maintenance, and construction of handguns is even more guarded being the province of career gunsmiths and guilder engineers. None of them are going to share the secrets of their trade with rag-and-bone wanderers who drift in on the breeze.

Even with guns in common use in the military, folk who do not have access to them as a matter of course (virtually everyone, including these layabout scoundrels who hunt for treasure in swamps and ruins) would have little clue on how to use them. Squeeze the trigger aye? Well, no... 'What's step one? Where does the cartridge go? What's this long stick thing? I think I saw a marshal put it in the barrel, should I do that?'

Occasionally a vagabond, beggary, wastrel-warrior will come into charge of the skills and equipment to be a gunsman. Hurray! Now he can discharge the thing at the enemy before engaging, man-to-man, with his foes. Such a weapon will make light of armour, frighten horses, make big clouds of smoke bloom up from its pan and generally be very intimidating and effective. Balance? It is balanced. Balanced dose not mean equal. Its the top of food chain of ranged weapons, a status paid for in specialised training, lots of money, dedication, debts, and the risk of taking your hand of when it all goes wrong. That's real balance.

I'm actually making a setting with fantasy elements based around late 19th century technology so here goes.
Rule #1: Don't use D&D or a D&D clone of any kind with guns.

>How do you balance guns in a fantasy world?
Beef up the monsters. They aren't human and most are magical, you can give them a bit more HP, or armor, damage resistance, and dodge bonuses and something like bonuses to constitution saves.

>How do i really show off a bad guy without giving the party the opportunity to try (and fail) to kill him right there?
Magic shield, or some other supernatural ability.
>but wont that apply to melee weapons, too?
Option #1: In most games, mechanically, it takes a lot of time and effort to enchant something. Mages are also usually rare, use this to your advantage. Enchanting bullets that will inevitably disintegrate and thus disenchant is impractical. They should be either non-existent or as rare as enchanted swords and such.
Option #2: You know how werewolves can only be killed by silver? Well now your creature can only be killed by [insert extremely rare material here].

>Sacred artifact used to kill said bad guy?
Like I just said, sure.
>If so, how would I go about it? One for every member, or let them fight over it?
If a team of monster hunters/professional assassins is going to be teaming up against a specific foe, they should obviously have a fitting weapon. One for each member.

1. Balance then against bows and crossbows
2. Have him destroy something big, it will someone powerful when he appears.
3. Go the kryptonite route instead of silver bullet. The object weakens him/removes his invulnerability but the party still had to work to defeat him.

That last point could also leave the non-sword wielding members of the party feeling like sidekicks.

>Take a cue from WFRP.

My bosom companion with melanin-enriched skin.