Renaissance Weapons

The Renaissance brought with it many new ideas not just socially, but militarily also. Gunpowder moved from low scale use to large scale use, with musketeers and armoured cavalry. There are many different types of early firearms, some of which will be detailed here, and distinctions will be made between Renaissance weaponary and Age of Enlightenment weaponary.

CL 7 Weapons

In addition to your standard medieval military fanfare, there are a few poorly doccumented weapons in use, most notably the Hand Cannon and Hand Gonne, the most primitive forms of hand-held firearms.

These weapons tend to be cumbersome and heavy, but they are easy to operate, requiring little skill. Therefore they are considered simple weapons. Later this fact led to the shift from melee arms and armour to ranged gunpowder warfare - due to the effectiveness of even poorly trained musketeers.

For this reason, firearms can shift alot of power around in your game.

Weapon Descriptions

Hand Culverin: This weapon was one of the first hand-held firearms. It consists of a miniature cannon mounted on a long, square wooden shaft. It requires a strength check DC 18 to hold with two hands and fire successfully. The Hand Culverin requires two rounds to reload once it is fired. Additionally, the Hand Culverin incurs a -4 penalty to attack rolls regardless of weapon proficiency.
Handgonne: This weapon is similar to the above, only it is a later more refined technology. It requires a DC 18 stregth check to wield without some sort of brace and takes one round to reload once it is fired.
Incendiary Arrow: Not a weapon as such but rather, a bollistic enhancement, the Incendiary arrow has attatched to it a weight of gunpowder and wick. The exact timing of the arrow affects when the gunpowder charge kicks in.
   01-20 The arrow explodes before it reaches its target.
   21-80 The arrow explodes as it hits its target.
   81-100 The arrow explodes at the end of the round.
Using Incendiary arrows (or bolts) decreases the effective range increment of the weapon by -40 ft.

CL 8 (Renaissance) Weapons

As mentioned before, the chivilric period overlapped with the renaissance, and so you can find firearms and full plate coexisting with each other.

Weapon Descriptions

Arquebus: The arquebus was the first trigger weapon, having a most primitive S-trigger that sets a lit wick to the weapon. The arquebus requires two rounds to reload once it is fired.
Matchlock Musket: A much more efficient triggering system, but similar to the above, the matchlock musket has a longer range. It takes one round to reload.
Matcblock Rifle: Same as above in all respects except it is more accurate and deadly thanks to a bore that puts a spin on the bullet.

CL 9 (Enlightenment) Weapons

Enlightenment weapons were more refined than their predicessors. Due to technology improvements in the firing time and range of firearms, melee weapons became less and less effective and continued to become smaller sidearms. Duels began to be fought with pistols instead of swords.

Weapon Descriptions

Wheel Lock Weapons: Wheel lock weapons use a highly sophisticated system of gears and clockworks to provide a more efficient firing mechanism. This causes them to be hard to maintain and highly expensive, however they are much faster to load.
Flintlock Weapons: Flintlock is the most efficient firing mechanism for enlightenment firearms. It is cheaper than a wheel lock to produce and misfires fare less often.
Blunderbus Weapons: The blunderbus is the historical ancestor of the scatter or shot gun. It fires shrapnel out, doing less damage, but hitting many more targets. The blunderbus weapons fan out in a 45 degree radius. The ranges provided are the absolute possible range.

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