McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Genre Craft: Expectations of a Hybrid Genre
Vryce:
In a world of Wizards, artificer, and alchemists I cant see gun powder working. I think someone would have invented it but it would not be practical. A man would have to buy a warded gun. His bullets would need to be individual warded, or a pouch to put them in warded. It would suck to have only 6 bullets in your gun and have a wayward sorcerer exploding your gun belt. As wells as it being doubly expensive. You have to have the materials to make the gun powder and the materials to make the wards.
I think the idea of a gun make sense, it’s a wand/rod with a handle. As well as bullets being ruined projectiles that can have different functions. Lighting, force, fire, etc… the cant misfire or explode because you stand up to a wizard with enough power to by-pass your guns/bullets wards. the cost would be just the spell placed on the gun to make it throw something fast and then the type of bullets you want.
Of course the above would only work in a place where magic was common, or common enough to have a artificer in most city and towns.
Paynesgrey:
It's as easy to fix, gimmick or protect as is needed by the author to create the atmosphere the author desires, the level of scarcity preferred, etc. For example, the author could decide that it's the mechanism of the gun that gets hexed unless warded properly. Remember that this isn't a "this is how it would work" issue so much as "how could we make it work to give the author the tools to make the world they want." :)
Vryce:
That true, i get caught up in the why things happen a lot.
and i think i would miss the smoke from old world guns, the smells you would loose from simply using magic. or course that could be changed depending on the type of ammo used.
The Corvidian:
Vryce, in a fantasy setting gunpowder would be the providence of wizards, alchemists, and artificers.
Here is another take, one use foci that look like minni balls. They are put into the chamber, and when they are fired they turn into a type of elemental attack. Things like lightning, fireballs, or ice pellets.
lt_murgen:
One thing to keep in mind about "the old west" is that there were really 2 periods in history, but films tend to muddle them together. The first was the antebellum West. It was the time when frontiersman, trappers, miners, and explorers pushed into the vast unknown. Towns were few and far between, established along with military forts. Most people passed through the area on their way to the west coast. Others moved huge herds of cattle from grazing land to graing land, never staying long. Resource rushes (like the Gold Rush) brought a group of people in, but left ghost towns behind when the resource ran out. Also this was the time that the Mormons moved west (religious groups fleeing repression?). It is the setting for most of the man-versus-nature or man-versus-man stories. Most weapons were single-shot muzzle loaders, right up until the very end. Casting metal balls was easy, and powder can be stored in bulk if properly maintained.
The second was the post- civil war era. The west became a place of wealth, of industry. Railroads pushed into the vast praries. The vast open cattle lands were claimed by farmers and guarded by barbed wire. Cities grew up to concentrate the wealth- cattle pens at rail-heads, banks to loan money to farmers at a profit, etc. This is the setting for most of the man-versus-society classic Westerns- the travelling cowboy who defends the poor homesteaders from the rail-baron who wants the land, taming of a town run by evil men, etc. Mass prodcution and common parts were key to making repeating rifles. Without common bores with tight tolerances, repeating firearms are impossible. Most of them had to be made back east and shipped. People did not make ammunition. It had to be bought. At best, a larger frontier town might have one small shop that bought brass and did re-loading.
Deciding what kind of struggles you want to write about helps define what kind of 'frontier' should look like, and what kind of weapons were available.
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