History FantasyGunControl / TabletopGames

*** Amusingly, the Bretonnian supplement gave us a look at the statute decreeing Fantasy Gun Control. [[LoopholeAbuse A strict reading doesn't support a ban on firearms]]. It bans [[ExactWords crossbows]], but it hasn't been updated since the introduction of black powder weaponry, although including black powder weapons in the ban is generally considered within the spirit of the law. However there is a movement in the port city of L'Anguille calling for either a stricter reading or an explicit amendment of the law, so they can openly upgrade the harbour defences with cannon.

** Subverted in the ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting, where it's noted that some enterprising tinker gnomes have created their own versions of firearms. Most people don't use them, since tinker gnomes are notorious for their {{Rube Goldberg|Device}}-esque BunglingInventor tendencies.

*** R.A. Salvatore sometimes mentioned guns and other non-magical explosives in his ''Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt'' and other Realms novels, sometimes having the protagonists comment that they're too dangerous, and at other times having protagonists treat them as being useful in the right situations:

** However, the Knights of Bretonnia are a straight example, since they ''deliberately'' enforce Fantasy Gun Control in their own kingdom. In fact, they have Fantasy Gun Control in Bretonnia so hard some knights have [[GunsAreWorthless magical protection from guns]] just [[ThePowerOfHate because they hate them so much]].

** Then the "Reign of Winter" Adventure Path revolved around tracking down the great witch BabaYaga with the trail leading the party to her homeland: [[spoiler:[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Russia, circa 1918]], thus facilitating the addition of several WWI-era Russian firearms (and a British tank) and even a Fighter Archetype based around trench warfare to the game.]] A later AP, "Iron Gods", takes place in the land with the crashed ship, and necessitated a brand-new sourcebook with technology up to laser weapons.

** About six years later, Kaladesh, an artifact-oriented world that actually ''did'' use advanced technology, didn't use guns for nearly the opposite reason: the inevitable grimy, smokey aesthetic that comes with firearms didn't match the clean, shiny appearance of the technology on the plane. As a result, most weapons are LaserBlades or good old fashioned [[RayGun Ray Guns]].

** Then the "Reign of Winter" Adventure Path revolved around tracking down the great witch BabaYaga with the trail leading the party to her homeland: [[spoiler:[[WorldWarOne Russia, circa 1918]], thus facilitating the addition of several WWI-era Russian firearms (and a British tank) and even a Fighter Archetype based around trench warfare to the game.]] A later AP, "Iron Gods", takes place in the land with the crashed ship, and necessitated a brand-new sourcebook with technology up to laser weapons.

** A magically-unstable region is home to blackpowder firearm technology, and maybe some early rifles, revolvers, and shotguns. Another region is a ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian''-style land where an alien spaceship crashed. There you can find androids (available as player characters) and machinegun-toting {{Spider Tank}}s. Other planets in Golarion's solar system have even higher levels of technology, such as cybernetics and more spaceships.

** Then the "Reign of Winter" Adventure Path added several WWI-era Russian guns (and a British tank). A later AP, "Iron Gods", takes place in the land with the crashed ship, and necessitated a brand-new sourcebook with technology up to laser weapons.

*** 5th Edition does provide Artificers with the Gunsmith archetype, allowing them access to the Thunder Cannon firearm. However, this is not exactly a firearm that would be mass produced, as the Thunder Cannon is a piece of {{Magitek}} that only the Gunsmith themselves can figure out [[OnlyICanMakeItGo how to fire]], let alone craft ammo for and maintain the weapon's functionality.

*** 5th Edition does provide Artificers with the Gunsmith archetype, allowing them access to the Thunder Cannon firearm. However, this is not exactly a weapon that would be mass produced, as the weapon is a piece of {{Magitek}} that only the Gunsmith themselves can figure out how to fire it, let alone craft ammo for and maintain the weapon's functionality.

*** That said, there is a reasonable argument that gunpowder weapons might still proliferate as being at least a low-level ranged weapon used between standard armed forces, who aren't likely to benefit from magical protection. But guns wouldn't become the default weapon of choice in most D&D worlds the way they did in the modern world because protective enchantments and even simple CharlesAtlasSuperpowers counterbalance the natural efficiency of a decently developed gun.

*** A couple of anthology stories touch on the subject of smokepowder, both of them making the point that smuggling smokepowder can be more trouble than it's worth. In ''Smoke Powder And Mirrors'' by Jeff Grubb, Khelben himself stands next to exploding barrels of smokepowder and isn't even singed or disheveled. In another Waterdhavian story, one of the contraband-hunting characters receives a ''point-blank [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter blunderbuss shot]] in the face''. He recovers from its flash and thunder in as much time as it takes to say "[[DeflectorShields Protection from Normal Missiles]]".
*** Side note: All of the above are ''true'' of gunpowder as well. The balance is that firearms, while not any better than a crossbow in any practical sense until the US Civil war, are extremely easy to load and operate, making them great for empowering the lower classes but not so great for the hereditary monarchies of medieval Europe to maintain their monopoly on military force. So, depending on how much credit you want to give the author, this may be a clever way of slipping some in-setting ValuesDissonance into the story, making the characters true believers in the quasi-feudal system that keeps the peasants at the bottom where richer and better-supplied people like the protagonists and their foes can easily run over them without repercussion.

** Even more notable are the Skaven, who wield sniper rifles, flamethrowers, [[IncrediblyLamePun Ratling]] guns, laser cannons and... a ''nuke''. A lot of which hilariously backfires.

** However, the Knights of Bretonnia are a straight example, since they ''deliberately'' enforce Fantasy Gun Control in their own kingdom. In fact, they have Fantasy Gun Control in Bretonnia so hard some knights have magical protection from guns just because they hate them so much.

** The 1st edition ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' included in-game statistics for firearms, Gatling guns, dynamite, and other [[TheWildWest Wild West-era]] weapons in the context of a crossover campaign with ''Boot Hill'' (a now out-of-print Old West-themed [=RPG=] sold by [=TSR=] at the time), but it was "strongly urged" that they be limited to specific adventures or areas. ''AD&D'' 2nd edition had the arquebus (an early European musket) available for players to use at the DM's discretion. The 3rd edition Dungeon Master's Guide provided rules for certain "Renaissance" gunpowder weapons, modern and even futuristic firearms and explosives if they are to be included in the setting. Normally they are highly expensive or not buyable at all, however. 5th Edition has again provided stats in the DMG for guns ranging from flintlocks to antimatter rifles.

** In the ''TableTopGame/{{Mystara}}'' campaign setting, this is played with in odd ways. The backstory of the campaign setting is that the pseudo-medieval setting actually takes place long after the collapse of the high-tech Blackmoor civilization, but every so often, high-tech items from Blackmoor or other sources will show up in a given adventure or campaign module. In the Hollow World campaign setting, which is really part of the Mystara setting, there is a valley containing high-tech elves, but their technology is really {{Magitek}}. Curiously, however, while you will never or hardly ever see firearms, you will see futuristic weapons like ray-guns and so forth. For rules purposes, these weapons will function like similar spells, such as magic missile, fireball, disintegrate, etc.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Banestorm}}'' has very literal Fantasy Gun Control, in the form of a conspiracy of wizards who keep the technology suppressed, both through flagrant destruction of stores of gunpowder whenever they're found, and by wiping the minds of anyone with the knowledge of making it.

** Subverted in the ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting, where it's noted that some enterprising tinker gnomes have created their own versions of firearms. Most people don't use them, since tinker gnomes are notorious for their BunglingInventor tendencies.

** A magically-unstable region is home to blackpowder firearm technology, and maybe some early rifles, revolvers, and shotguns. Another region is a ''ConanTheBarbarian''-style land where an alien spaceship crashed. There you can find androids (available as player characters) and machinegun-toting {{Spider Tank}}s. Other planets in Golarion's solar system have even higher levels of technology, such as cybernetics and more spaceships.

*** The series explicitly states that gunpowder does not work due to the divine will of Gond, god of invention and creativity. Instead, Gond allows an alchemical substitute called "smokepowder" to exist in the hands of his church, so that its use is easily controlled. There's also a Thayan variant -- very clumsy bombards using some liquid propellant, not scalable down to portable guns. Also, ''pneumatic'' needle guns were mentioned as a typical trick of drow commoners (''The Drow of the Underdark''): it's easier to conceal than a crossbow. Ed Greenwood even wrote a few articles on this issue (the first being named "Firearms: First guns were [[CoolButInefficient not much fun]]") for DragonMagazine.

* In ''TableTopGame/BlueRose'', although setting is generally around the tech level of TheCavalierYears, there are no guns...but there are "crystons," which are basically just the {{Magitek}} equivalent of flintlock pistols (and are likely a subtle ShoutOut to the flashstones from the ''{{Dragaera}}'' books, mentioned under FantasyGunControl/{{Literature}}).

** TableTopGame/{{Greyhawk}} fans tend to be notoriously gun-phobic and it's generally accepted that guns simply don't work in the setting. Exceptions are sometimes made for the hero-god Murlynd and his paladins, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the DM]].

* In TableTopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings, using gunpowder is dishonorable and is illegal by Imperial law. Which, of course, doesn't stop {{ninja}}s from using smoke- and firebombs (which are dangerous to the user as well).

* One issue of ''Dragon'' took the Greyhawk world a few centuries into the future and postulated jet fighters dogfighting dragons and a gunpowerless magiteck rifle: the rifle fired by teleporting the projectile close to the sun, allowing it an hour to accelerate due to the sun's gravity, then teleporting it back combined with a time-travel spell so it returned an instant after it left. Gunpowder-using guns were also mentionned as being an outdated technology, still in use by dwarves.

* TabletopGame/TheFantasyTrip book "In The Labyrinth" includes descriptions of several types of primitive gunpowder weapons. Some of them can deal a lot of damage. However, gunpowder is expensive and unreliable, and guns are unwieldy in combat, meaning most characters stick with muscle-powered weapons (or magic).

* Played straight in Redspire Game's D20 dark fantasy Dark Legacies, which is a real head-scratcher. The game itself has steam-driven power armour, land battleships powered by coal and other steam-driven vehicles, flamethrowers and automatic crossbows that are fed with ammo belts (the belt-fed automatic crossbows have their own big brother in a version that uses a steam engine to recrank). But no gun...the closest thing is a weapon called the bolt cannon, which is a recently invented cannon that shoots heavy bolts by detonating a small bomb inside. What is especially weird is that Dark Legacies takes place in a future Earth which had survived a demon invasion. Yes there is magic but it's fairly weak, has many drawbacks and very rare. Not to mention that the laws of physics hadn't changed to make guns unusable. It's just that somehow, humanity and its allied race of tinker gnomes have somehow never re-invented gunpower weapons or found any surviving examples from military depots, gun shops etc...

** The Ultimate Combat supplement for Pathfinder spends some time discussing various levels of FantasyGunControl, from 'there aren't even cannons around' to 'Showdown at the Orctown Corral', and noting how they can affect the tenor of the game.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' is a notable aversion:

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
** The Empire and the Dwarfs (''especially'' the Dwarfs) make extensive use of handguns, pistols, cannons, mortars, volley guns, and recently, rockets. Oh, and steam-powered tanks and ''helicopters''. Let's not forget the Skaven, who wield sniper rifles, flamethrowers, [[strike:Gatling]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Ratling]] guns, laser cannons and... a ''nuke''. A lot of which hilariously backfires. However the Knights of Bretonnia have Fantasy Gun Control in their own kingdom. The whole nobility = lancing people down in 5th edition, in 6th seems to just be pique. In fact, they have Fantasy Gun Control in Bretonnia so hard some knights have magical protection from guns just because they hate them so much.

** In Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, rules are provided for gunpowder weapons but their use is discouraged by all the limitations put on them - they are extremely rare, extremely expensive both to purchase and to maintain, they are prone to misfires (capable of actually killing the wielder, with a bad roll) and they don't do any more damage than the cheaper and more reliable bow and arrow.
** Amusingly, the Bretonnian supplement for WarhammerFantasyRolePlay gave us a look at the statute decreeing Fantasy Gun Control. [[LoopholeAbuse A strict reading doesn't support a ban on firearms]]. It bans [[ExactWords crossbows]], but it hasn't been updated since the introduction of black powder weaponry, although including black powder weapons in the ban is generally considered within the spirit of the law. However there is a movement in the port city of L'Anguille calling for either a stricter reading or an explicit amendment of the law, so they can openly upgrade the harbour defences with cannon.

* Played with in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''. There's a magical gunpowder equivalent which is used in guns... But there's no projectile. The "guns" just shoot a stream of fire like a miniature flamethrower. The in-canon explanation is that the guns originated during the Primordial War, when the tech-advancement of the Solars would've gone from crossbows to lasers in only a few years.
** In First Edition, there's even a martial art dedicated to the use of these weapons. Second Edition has ''two''. This means you could be badass [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot super-ninja dual-wielding flamethrower-pistols]]. This is standard fare for ''Exalted''.
*** And let's not forget the {{BFG}} of the setting, a shoulder-mounted version that can fire molten-hot pearls covered in magical napalm.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Empire and the Dwarfs (''especially'' the Dwarfs) make extensive use of handguns, pistols, cannons, mortars, volley guns, and recently, rockets. Oh, and steam-powered tanks and ''helicopters''. Let's not forget the Skaven, who wield sniper rifles, flamethrowers, [[strike:Gatling]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Ratling]] guns, laser cannons and... a ''nuke''. A lot of which hilariously backfires. However the Knights of Bretonnia have Fantasy Gun Control in their own kingdom. The whole nobility = lancing people down in 5th edition, in 6th seems to just be pique. In fact, they have Fantasy Gun Control in Bretonnia so hard some knights have magical protection from guns just because they hate them so much.

* The makers of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' have stated this trope explicitly a number of times, but apparently [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=6499 muskets]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201149 do]] exist in some planes. Also, the [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=33695 Goblin Sharpshooter]] appears to be using some sort of [[GatlingGood Gatling gun]]. And sometimes they go straight to magic ray guns. Guns, nothing. This game has [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=1133 rocket launchers]].

*** This became one of the founding pillars of the style of Scars of Mirrodin, where combining with the Machine-ideology of Phyrexia on a wholly metallic plane obviously had the implication that high-tech robots would be running amok, the designers specifically said that while things like armor, gears, levers and pistons can appear, they are to be used so that they are in no way mechanically sound, and must appear as though they're being powered by magic. The result is that most of the inhabitants had high-tech apparatuses used solely to swing around giant blades, and very little way of guns appear.
* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' itself, the 1st edition ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' included in-game statistics for firearms, Gatling guns, dynamite, and other [[TheWildWest Wild West-era]] weapons in the context of a crossover campaign with ''Boot Hill'' (a now out-of-print Old West-themed [=RPG=] sold by [=TSR=] at the time), but it was "strongly urged" that they be limited to specific adventures or areas. ''AD&D'' 2nd edition had the arquebus (an early European musket) available for players to use at the DM's discretion. The 3rd edition Dungeon Master's Guide provided rules for certain "Renaissance" gunpowder weapons, modern and even futuristic firearms and explosives if they are to be included in the setting. Normally they are highly expensive or not buyable at all, however. 5th Edition has again provided stats in the DMG for guns ranging from flintlocks to antimatter rifles.
** The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' explicitly states that gunpowder does not work due to the divine will of Gond, god of invention and creativity. Instead, Gond allows an alchemical substitute called "smokepowder" to exist in the hands of his church, so that its use is easily controlled. There's also a Thayan variant -- very clumsy bombards using some liquid propellant, not scalable down to portable guns. Also, ''pneumatic'' needle guns were mentioned as a typical trick of drow commoners (''The Drow of the Underdark''): it's easier to conceal than a crossbow. Ed Greenwood even wrote a few articles on this issue (the first being named "Firearms: First guns were [[CoolButInefficient not much fun]]") for DragonMagazine.

**** When Cadderly, the central character of Salvatore's ''Cleric Quintet'', invented a crossbow with an exploding bolt (created using the magical substance, oil of impact), he eventually ended up horrified of it. When a villain ended up with it, he became wracked with guilt and was almost convinced it must be destroyed for the good of the world. Particularly jarring as another character points out that said villain is a wizard capable of shooting explosive fireballs from his hands, and that Cadderly's crossbow was terribly weak in comparison. However, he uses it again in ''The Ghost King'', which takes place several years later, against shadowy monsters invading Spirit Soaring, without showing any reservations about it. And later, Jarlaxle, a drow mercenary, gives him the idea to create a much larger explosive bolt using a hollowed out log filled with an explosive substance in order to help them fight an undead dragon.
**** In ''The Thousand Orcs'', Nanfoodle, a gnome alchemist (and follower of Gond) engineered an explosion that proved to be useful against invading frost giants, and, in a later book, it was said to be more powerful than any fireball that even Elminster could have conjured up.
**** In ''The Stowaway'', a novel that he contributed to along with his son, Geno Salvatore, the protagonist notices an arquebus mounted on a wall in the captain's cabin on a ship that he'd just boarded. Later, during a raid the ship, a couple of pirates enter the cabin, grab a hold of the gun, load it with smokepowder, and play around with it (with one pirate taking aim at the other and pulling the trigger), causing a blast that they both manage to survive.

**** A couple of anthology stories touch on the subject of smokepowder, both of them making the point that smuggling smokepowder can be more trouble than it's worth. In ''Smoke Powder And Mirrors'' by Jeff Grubb, Khelben himself stands next to exploding barrels of smokepowder and isn't even singed or disheveled. In another Waterdhavian story, one of the contraband-hunting characters receives a ''point-blank [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter blunderbuss shot]] in the face''. He recovers from its flash and thunder in as much time as it takes to say "[[DeflectorShields Protection from Normal Missiles]]".

* Averted in ''TableTopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'''s official campaign setting. A magically-unstable region is home to blackpowder firearm technology, and maybe some early rifles, revolvers, and shotguns. Another region is a ''ConanTheBarbarian''-style land where an alien spaceship crashed. There you can find androids (available as player characters) and machinegun-toting {{Spider Tank}}s. Other planets in Golarion's solar system have even higher levels of technology, such as cybernetics and more spaceships.

*** Then the "Reign of Winter" Adventure Path added several WWI-era Russian guns (and a British tank). A later AP, "Iron Gods", takes place in the land with the crashed ship, and necessitated a brand-new sourcebook with technology up to laser weapons.
* Averted in ''TableTopGame/RuneQuest'', to some extent -- although most of the world has approximately Bronze Age technology, the Mostali (Dwarfs) have high-tech superweapons called "guns", which they guard jealously.
** On the other hand this is partially played straight thanks to the dwarves, themselves, as they send ClockworkCreature gremlins to sabotage any human-made technology they deem too dangerous (not to mention automatically assume it has been stolen from them -- and are admittedly right fairly often), ensuring that it will either work badly, or not at all.

* Averted in Swedish tabletop RPG ''Drakar & Demoner'': the ''TabletopGame/{{Chronopia}}'' module mentions large siege cannons made by the dwarves.
** ...but in previous editions of the game, it was specifically noted that using out of character knowledge of the correct proportions of charcoal, nitrate and sulfur would only produce a slow burning fire, as the laws of physics in the game world was different than on earth.

* Played with in ''{{Exalted}}''. There's a magical gunpowder equivalent which is used in guns... But there's no projectile. The "guns" just shoot a stream of fire like a miniature flamethrower. The in-canon explanation is that the guns originated during the Primordial War, when the tech-advancement of the Solars would've gone from crossbows to lasers in only a few years.

* Aversion: The furry Tabletop Game ''{{Ironclaw}}'', which features a Renaissance-era technology level, features guns. They're portrayed with all the limitations guns of that era had: they have a chance to misfire, they're expensive, they have a very long reload time, they can't work well in rain, etc. On the other hand they do twice the damage that other weapons in the system do.

* Averted in ''IronKingdoms'' the setting makes use of guns for nearly every faction in the ''Warmachine'' game.
* The makers of ''MagicTheGathering'' have stated this trope explicitly a number of times, but apparently [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=6499 muskets]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201149 do]] exist in some planes. Also, the [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=33695 Goblin Sharpshooter]] appears to be using some sort of [[GatlingGood Gatling gun]]. And sometimes they go straight to magic ray guns. Guns, nothing. This game has [[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=1133 rocket launchers]].

* The ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' setting of ''GURPS Banestorm'' has very literal Fantasy Gun Control, in the form of a conspiracy of wizards who keep the technology suppressed, both through flagrant destruction of stores of gunpowder whenever they're found, and by wiping the minds of anyone with the knowledge of making it.

* The ''{{GURPS}}'' setting of ''GURPS Banestorm'' has very literal Fantasy Gun Control, in the form of a conspiracy of wizards who keep the technology suppressed, both through flagrant destruction of stores of gunpowder whenever they're found, and by wiping the minds of anyone with the knowledge of making it.
* TheFantasyTrip book "In The Labyrinth" includes descriptions of several types of primitive gunpowder weapons. Some of them can deal a lot of damage. However, gunpowder is expensive and unreliable, and guns are unwieldy in combat, meaning most characters stick with muscle-powered weapons (or magic).