Re: Moragspace discuss

On Mon, 10 Jan 2000, George Lavalle wrote:

> During the Civil War, see, they had what I think were flintlocks...but you
> had a ball, powder, and a little metal plate to go at the back. (and a ram
> rod to tamp the powder down) The plate is what translates into a cartridge.
> Stop me anytime here....

If I remember my U.S. Military History class, the Civil War was fought
primarily with single-shot percussion cap muskets, firing Minet balls.
Rifles came into use towards the end of the war.  (Correct me if I'm wrong
here, Paul.)

Minet balls could be added to Spelljammer firearms if you wanted somewhat
more powerful firearms without drastically increasing the tech level.  In
cross section they looked something like this:

        ___
       /   \
      |     |
      >     <
      >     <
      >_/-\_<

When fired, the explosive gases would be forced into the concavesection at
the bottom, squashing the back of the bullet and spreading the
"corrugated" section out so it would contact the barrel of the musket.
This would make the bullet spin, providing a rifling effect.  Since the
bullet had to be made out of soft lead for this to work, it also
functioned as a dum-dum round and made rather hideous wounds.

In AD&D terms, I'd double or triple the range of a firearm using a Minet
ball and stage the damage up to the next best die (1d4 becomes 1d6, 1d6
becomes 1d8, etc).  I might also require a seperate weapon proficiency to
allow the shooter to take advantage of the greater range.

Richard Gant
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