Re: [DL] The LeMat Undertaker

[Reemull <reemull@yahoo.co.uk>]

> Seemed to me that the LeMat seems a little underpowered, and 
> even with the
> Undertaker version, it still seems a little bit underpowered. 
>  I mean, this
> is a big honkin' gun folks.  Then it hit me, this thing is 
> shooting a .40
> round, and even though the derringer shoots the same sized 
> round, shouldn't
> the LeMat be packing a little more "ooommph" to it?  No, 
> looking at the
> marshal's screen, the derringer has better damage.
> 
> So why is this particular round doing only 2D6 damage?  Yeah, 
> I've heard all
> the rhetoric about how it ain't the size that matters, it's 
> the cartridge
> load, etc., but surely this thing should be doing at least 
> 3D6 like the rest
> of the pistols.  Does anyone have any historical info that 
> the LeMat was
> underpowered?

As far as I can tell Law Dogs has chosen the leap between 2D6 and 3D6
damage to take place between 0.41 and 0.42 calibre's.  I'm not too sure
where the jump is in the original Rulebook - but I would expect it to
be somewhere between 0.40 and 0.44.  I've never been fond of the sudden
jump in damages in the deadlands system as I found that all of the 2D6
pistols were dismissed and only the 3D6 pistols were ever used by my
group regardless of any other detail.

Note: I am not a guns guru - however as I have been re-doing the
pistols in my game (where there is no single jump in damage values for
pistols) and I've been scanning the web for information on the various
gun types.  What I've managed to pick up concerning LeMat's is

from http://www.pride-net.com/1998/january/civilwar/lemats.htm

Here Kerry Barlow mentions the 0.40 and a lighter 0.35 round model.  It
is then mentioned that the unconventional caliber size was a problem
until the final models were developed in standard gauge sizes - which
the article indicates is 0.36 and 0.44.

The information from this article seems to be repeated in a number of
places.

from http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Falls/6983/lemat.html

This article suggests that they used 0.40-0.42 sized rounds.  It also
mentions that a few 0.35 sized pistols were manufactured at the latter
stages of the (real) civil war.  Interestingly enough it mentions that
some LeMat's were converted by individuals to utilise the more common
0.44 round.  

The second article only deals with cap and ball weapons so it is
possible that LeMat's were later produced in 0.36 and 0.44 cartridge
formats.

So (without seeing the Texas Rangers book - but it is on order) I would
say that it is perfectly feasible for Texas Rangers to have had their
LeMat pistols modified to take larger calibers; or that later revolvers
could be 0.44 cartridge models.

Cheers

Roy


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