Changelog: Flintlocks & Fulminates
As we get ready to roll out the first Nations & Cannons Kickstarter, we've pushed a pretty big errata update to the Flintlocks & Fulminates supplement available on DriveThruRPG and in the Black Powder Blunders Misfire Deck!
Flintlocks & Fulminates is considered the "test bed" of the Nations & Cannons ruleset, where we explore advanced firearm mechanics for experimental 18th century weapons, as well as historical eras outside of the American Revolution (roughly 1650 to 1850).
Using community feedback as part of our playtesting, we're planning on continuing to support this PDF supplement with balance tweaks and new content updates at least through 2024. While Flintlocks & Fulminates and the Misfire Deck are not essential to the Nations & Cannons experience, they give a little extra spice for GMs running historical campaigns!
The rules in Flintlocks & Fulminates are 95% compatible with the Core Rules book, and mostly exist to offer new combat options and player customization with special wargear, weapon accessories, new gambits, and magnificent items. We've updated a few key terms to be better cross-compatible with other third-party publishers like Mage Hand Press. Moving forward, inter-operability with other 3pp rulesets is going to be a major priority for the Nations & Cannons team!
General Updates
Many small typos and formatting corrections throughout!
Additional art added from the golden age of American Illustration
Added iconography for the "grip" property in inline descriptions throughout the entire supplement
Three new "misfire conditions" added for clarity and ease of reference: aflame, prone, riding, and squeezing
As part of the streamlined rules for beast mounts in the Riding condition, new items have been added with mechanical effects for mounted combat.
New experimental fighting styles have been added to the final chapter. We'll continue to monitor these properties and will support them with updated rules in the future if they're well received.
"Using Firearms" (pg 12)
This section has been completely overhauled, with streamlined modifiers for using firearms in the misfire conditions above
Revised section on water exposure and rules for what happens to your guns when you go in the drink!
A new action called "Prime and Load." This section gathers all the mechanics on firearm reloads into one convenient place.
In response to balance testing, we've created a new rule about ability damage modifiers for firearms. This is something we'll continue to adjust and offer new character options for in the future
"Weapon Properties" (pg 13)
Revised text throughout for clarity and to reference the Prime and Load action
Renamed the "scatter" property to "spread" for compatibility with other 3pp publishers
Misfire: On a misfire, weapons are "jammed" instead of breaking, and a player can attempt to clear a jam via an object interaction (this resolves overly punitive misfires for characters making more than one attack).
Reworked the Heavy property to impose Misfire penalties while prone, riding, and squeezing
Removed the necessity of using hailshot ammunition for the point-blank property
created new "sighted" property and added to pennsylvana and jager rifles (as well as the swivel-breech, colt lever-action and jezail rifles, and the saddle pistol). This property will be expanded in a future update into a full-fledged aiming and concealment mechanic.
Updated the Special text of the bolas, and added two more special melee weapons to the weapon table: Handwraps and the Sabre
Added Heavy property to carbine, shot-gun
Decreased Misfire score of Jager Rifle to 2
Katzenkopf weapon moved to the Advanced Weapons section
"Grenades" (pg 17)
Moved grenade rules into its own section, complete with descriptions for advanced grenades that can be created by gambits (or purchased at a premium)
Grenade logic revised for clarity throughout, and to make grenade Misfires more clear
New rule: a character must use an object interaction to light a grenade before throwing it (preventing grenade spam). * The object interaction rules have been reprinted here for clarity, as well as offering some 18th century specific
"Advanced Weapon Properties" (pg 24)
clarity and conciseness updates to the Break Open, Breechloader, and Unsteady properties
new "Mounted" property added to simulate heavy hand cannons, swivels, and wall guns
Stopping Power property completely reworked to synergize with Mounted
"Advanced Firearms" (pg 25)
added a new lever action weapon, Lorenzoni Musket
renamed Nock Carbine to Cluster Muske,t and Windbusche Carbine to Windbusche Rifle
Colt Ring-Lever increased range to 65/260
added Point-Blank property to Lepage Carbine
Increased Volcanic Pistol's Misfire score to 2
Removed Unsteady property from the Rampart Musket, gave it the Mounted property and a Stopping Power score of 15
Updated Howdah Pistol to have a Stopping Power score of 13
"Accessories" (pg 30)
New accessory: Cut-Down Stock removes the Heavy property from a firearm, allowing its use without penalty while riding, squeezing, or prone
Reworked the Forged Yoke accessory to confer the Mounted property
added new accessory option for converting a Matchlock firearm to a Flintlock firing system
New magnificent items: Match-Grade Ammunition for sharpshooters and Safari Belt for big game hunters!
Rocket Ball ammunition for Volcanic Pistols and Volitional Rifles has been moved to this section and expanded
Swivel Sling wargear reworked with the new riding condition
