[DL] Re: The Little Ramiriz

["Andrew Greene" <blaze@netaxs.com>]

> Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 20:16:09 +0200
> From: oleingva@ifi.ntnu.no
> Subject: [DL] The Little Ramirez
>
>
> Howdy gang,
>
> One of my players has an idea for a gun that he wants his new mexican
character, Ramon Diaz Ramirez (quite a name, huh?), to start with for his
Belongin's 2. It is basically a sixgun, except that it lauches ALL SIX shots
with one pull of the trigger. Player insists that something like this has
existed, and that it malfunctioned 7 out of 10 times. Didn't sell much, he
claims. I wonder why.

Actually, it sounds like he's describing one of a number of multishot,
multibarrel pistols like the old 'Duck's-foot' pistol, which had three to
eight barrels, generally arranged to spray bullets over a fan-shaped area
with a single shot.  These were designed to repel boarders and put down
mutinies on sailing ships, and were usually of around a half-inch caliber
and pretty darned heavy.  There's no reason that one couldn't be
manufactured with straight barrels, and a few larger models (volley guns,
milliteruses) were actually used in the civil war with, in some cases over a
hundred barrels.  Really, I don't see these as malfunctioning so often,
they're failry simple.  I also don't see this as a Mad Scientist issue - it
existed for over a hundred years before the Civil War. If anything, give it
a token misfire chance, like a flintlock.  As for generating hits, I'd
suggest that for a non-spread version, give a hit per raise, up to the total
number of barrels.  For spread versions, do the same, but allow it to affect
a fan-shaped area.  I'd give it the +2 to hit in either version, just like a
shotgun, since there's a fair amount of lead in the air.  Reloading a gun
like this probably wouldn't be feasable in combat.

 > Now, this partcullar gun was made by Ramon's brother, a mad scientist,
and these are the stats I've come up for "the Little Ramirez", as they call
it:
>
> Little Ramirez:
>
> Shots: 6
> Speed: 1
> RoF: 6
> Damage: 3d6 per shot
> Range: 10
> Malfunction: 16
> Minor - Gun jammed. A fair (5) Thinkerin' roll fixes it
> Major - Misfire. The chamber is ruined, and the gun cannot be fired untill
it is replaced
> Catastrophe - Gun explodes! The weapon is utterly ruined, and does 6d6
damage to the user
>
> +2 to Shootin', one additional shot hits per raise
>
>
> What do ya' all think?
>
> Marshal Ole I.Stene