Line #10 FantasyGunControl/TabletopGames


1	%%%
2	%%
3	%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
4	%%
5	%%%
6
7	----
8
9	* Averted in ''TableTopGame/SeventhSea,'' since its setting includes musketeers and pirates.
10	* ''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. (In this setting it's not just a matter of local inventors getting clever ideas, but also of the eponymous still-ongoing banestorms every now and then dropping people and their equipment from alternate realities -- explicitly including modern-day Earth -- right into it.)
11	* ''TabletopGame/BladesInTheDark'' has a different interpretation of the trope. Being set in a pseudo-Victorian setting, firearms do exist, and are quite prolific. However, the Immortal Emperor restricts the citizenry of his Empire to only use breech-loading single-shot pistols and rifles, and even the latter require registry. The Imperial Military, however, use the bolt-action rifles, revolvers, and early self-loading pistols you'd expect from a Victorian setting, ensuring that the Empire keeps its edge over any potential rebellions. Getting their hands on Imperial-grade weaponry is a go-to "big score" for crews of Scoundrels in Duskvol, if they are willing to risk the only Tier VI faction in the game coming down on them like the wrath of an angry god.
12	* 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 ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' books, mentioned under FantasyGunControl/{{Literature}}).
13	* 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.
14	* In ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' black powder is known and used for fireworks. Military use is made impossible by the fact that larger concentrations of the stuff attract mischievous fire spirits, although the dwarves are rumored to have found a way around that problem and may be stockpiling firearms for their version of Ragnarok.
15	* ''TabletopGame/DarkLegacies'': 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 guns... 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...
16	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
17	** 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 ''TabletopGame/BootHill'' (a now out-of-print Old West-themed [=RPG=] sold by Creator/{{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.
18	** A common rationale for the lack of guns given in many D&D settings, explicitly or implicitly, is that it's due to an inversion of MugglesDoItBetter. Many different kinds of monster are ImmuneToBullets by virtue of the fact they can only be hurt with magic -- more importantly, there's a fairly low-level spell called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Protection from Ordinary Missiles"]] which grants the ''exact same effect'' to the benefactor. This drastically undercuts the usefulness of guns, since being easy to train people to use means nothing when the beings you want to use them ''on'' will simply be unaffected by them. Without that advantage, early guns are basically inferior crossbows; inaccurate, slow to reload, prone to being rendered useless by the damp, with very variable stopping power and a propensity to explode and kill the user instead of the target, especially given how common PlayingWithFire abilities are in the typical D&D setting. Therefore, there's no real incentive to spend the time and effort refining guns when crossbows work just fine, especially when magically augmenting them to be quicker to load, lighter, etc, is available and far less likely to kill you before you get it to work. Even gunpowder as an explosive isn't that great a weapon, given how common protection from fire and heat is in D&D.
19	*** 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 {{Charles Atlas Superpower}}s counterbalance the natural efficiency of a decently developed gun.
20	*** 5th Edition does provide Artificers with the Artillerist archetype, allowing them access to the powerful Eldritch Cannon. However, this is not exactly a firearm that would be mass produced, as the Eldritch Cannon is a piece of {{Magitek}} that only the Artillerist themselves can figure out [[OnlyICanMakeItGo how to fire]], let alone maintain the weapon's functionality.
21	** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'':
22	*** 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. Smokepowder has all the disadvantages of gunpowder, plus it also is magical so it's vulnerable to Dispel Magic (which renders it permanently inert) and doesn't function inside of an anti-magic field. 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 Magazine/DragonMagazine.
23	*** Creator/RASalvatore 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:
24	*** 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.
25	*** 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.
26	*** 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.
27	*** In this universe, smokepowder is just as dangerous to the user as to the target. "One in ten" is a common saying, meaning that one out of every ten uses of a smokepowder gun will end up blowing up on the user.
28	*** In Waterdeep smokepowder is illegal, and Khelben (Waterdeep's highest-level wizard, and a member of the city's ruling oligarchy) eliminates every pinch he can find, along with those who smuggled it in.
29	*** 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, courtesy of Protection From Fire being a readily-available, low-level wizard spell. 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]]".
30	** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' plays this trope straight. Their justification is that a wand of magic missile or an enchanted crossbow is so common (and far safer and effective in the hands of a conscript) that no one ever really bothered to make guns.
31	** ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' has the giff -- a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy race of mercenary-minded]] [[BeastMan humanoid hippopotami]]. They love firearms, to the point of ''making the big cannon a structural element of a ship'' ("[[http://www.spelljammer.org/ships/deckplans/GreatBombard.gif Great Bombard]]"), ''with its muzzle useable as a ram'', and using smokepowder as a currency. Others usually avoid firearms, because fire will cause phlogiston, the medium all ships must travel to between crystal spheres, explode violently, powder magazines are [[StuffBlowingUp dangerous]] if hit and smokepowder isn't as cheap as catapult stones. The ''Cloakmaster'' cycle shows both sides of the issue.
32	** Given its roots in post-medieval Gothic horror, ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' has ''never'' adhered to this trope. One of its earliest published adventures featured a blunderbuss-wielding NPC, and its 3E game products include rules for snaplock firearms, early gunpowder traps, and even a sharpshooting prestige class. That is, people can shoot [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent them wolfies]] with {{silver bullet}}s, yeah.
33	** 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; the kind of logic tinker gnomes use would mean that a simple musket would end up thirty feet long, mounted on a cart, and able to make you a sandwich, play your theme song, and put on a puppet show... but probably not actually shoot bullets.
34	** ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'':
35	*** 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]].
36	*** One issue of ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine takes the Greyhawk world a few centuries into the future and postulates jet fighters dogfighting dragons and a gunpowerless magitek rifle: the rifle fires 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 returns an instant after it leaves. Gunpowder-using guns are also mentioned as being an outdated technology, still in use by dwarves.
37	*** Futuristic beam weapons can be found in a crashed spacecraft (possibly part of the ''Warden'' from ''TabletopGame/MetamorphosisAlpha'') in the Barrier Peaks, as seen in the classic adventure ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks''.
38	** ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'': This is played with in odd ways:
39	*** 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.
40	*** In the Hollow World campaign setting, there is a valley containing high-tech elves, but their technology is really {{Magitek}}.
41	*** Hits decided AnachronismStew levels with the Flying City of Serraine and its magic-powered [=WWI=]-style ''biplanes'' that of course use magic wands in place of machine guns. (The city's own fixed anti-air defenses -- and yes, it has those, you never know when a hostile dragon or such might show up -- follow the same principle.)
42	*** Curiously, while you will never or hardly ever see firearms, you will on occasion see more "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.
43	*** Wheel-lock pistols are increasingly common in Cimarron County on the Savage Coast. Which makes some sense, as Cimarron County is a FantasyCounterpartCulture of the Wild West.
44	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
45	** Played with. 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.
46	** In First Edition, there's a martial art dedicated to the use of these weapons. Second Edition has ''two''. This means you can 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.
47	** Actual standard projectile handguns are introduced in the form of "prayer pieces." They're made of gold and fire golden bullets that are propelled by ''the faith generated from miniature shrines'' engraved on the barrel.
48	** A rather clear case of GunsAreWorthless, too. Whatever assorted "firearms" of the setting can do, arrows can do just as well or better, especially considering there are arrow-tips with almost every projectile type avialable for guns. And in the hands of one of the namesake Exalted, soon enough a toothbrush and a nuclear bomb become equally deadly.
49	* ''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).
50	* ''TabletopGame/{{Gondica}}'' has a Renaissance-esque technological level, and makes swords still important by
51	* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'':
52	** In ''TabletopGame/{{Banestorm}}'', humans arrived from Earth (or ''[[TabletopGame/GURPSInfiniteWorlds an]]'' Earth) about a thousand years ago. There have been subsequent influxes of Earth humans, some relatively recently, so you'd expect guns to at least be known. Except that [[TheMenInBlack the Ministry of Serendipity]] hunts down and mindwipes anyone with alien ideas that threaten the status quo.
53	** ''Dungeon Fantasy'' doesn't worry overmuch about setting details when there are dungeons to explore, but the default is guns don't exist simply because that's usual in the genre. ''Pyramid'' vol 3 #36, however, includes a musketeer [[CharacterClass career]], but notes that ''only'' musketeers have access to this strange new technology. (It also says it's up to the GM if the musketeer's weapons use regular gunpowder or some alchemical concoction that's harder to replicate because regular gunpowder doesn't work -- the demolisher career in the same book [dwarven explosives expert] assumes the latter.)
54	* Aversion: The furry Tabletop Game ''TabletopGame/{{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.
55	* Averted in ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'' the setting makes use of guns for nearly every faction in the ''Warmachine'' game.
56	* ''TabletopGame/KingsOfWar'': The Dwarfs and Abyssal Dwarfs are notable gun users. The Dwarfs possess rifles and cannons as common weapons, while the Abyssal Dwarfs combine alchemy and dark magic with their weapons. Certain other factions such as the Kingdoms of Men and League of Rhordia are also capable of fielding their own cannon lines and musket blocks.
57	* Partially averted in ''Lace and Steel,'' another tabletop game with a ''Three Musketeers''-inspired setting. Guns exist and are common, but they are considerably slower than blades.
58	* In ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'', gunpowder was was introduced to Rokugan by gaijin traders but was declared supremely illegal after the gaijin used cannons to kill the Empress. This doesn't stop {{ninja}}s from using smoke- and firebombs (which are dangerous to the user as well).
59	* ''TabletopGame/MageKnight'' has a whole faction of gun-toting dwarves and humans, specifically as a counter to the setting's technomages. They have everything from flintlocks and arquebus to chain guns and personal cannons.
60	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
61	** The makers 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]].
62	** A very straightforward practical application of this trope, invoked by the publisher. Some time ago Magic used to have [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45484 power armors]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=21400 laser-armed spaceships]] on top of everything abovesaid (which if you check up editions is rather old, too). Nowadays, however, they announced they'd like to keep game's flavor a lot more "fantasy'sh", therefore firearms are remarkably absent from all the recent Magic sets.
63	** 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.
64	** About six years later, Kaladesh, an artifact-oriented world that actually ''does'' use advanced technology, doesn't use guns for nearly the opposite reason: the inevitable grimy, smokey aesthetic that comes with firearms doesn't match the clean, shiny appearance of the technology on the plane. As a result, most weapons are {{Laser Blade}}s or good old fashioned {{Ray Gun}}s.
65	** Bizarrely enforced on Ixalan, a world based on the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs [[AnachronismStew and the Golden Age of piracy]]. The Legion of Dusk (vampiric conquistadors) aren't depicted with any kind of ranged weaponry. The Brazen Coalition (the pirates) are depicted with crossbows, and their ships use, "firecannons," powered by {{Magitek}} instead of gunpowder. The closest thing to a handheld firearm is [[https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=blunderbuss+%28game%3Apaper%29 Dire Blunderbuss]], which is itself ambiguous on whether it uses magic or gunpowder.
66	** Streets Of New Capenna solidly ZigZags here; the [[https://scryfall.com/card/snc/233/arc-spitter Arc Spitter]] is shaped like a classic tommy gun, and the [[https://scryfall.com/card/mom/238/invasion-of-new-capenna-holy-frazzle-cannon Holy Frazzle-Cannon]] from New Capenna's Invasion is shaped like a gattling gun, but both of them are powered by Halo, a GRatedDrug derived from angels on the plane.
67	** Played very straight on Innistrad, a set that otherwise calls to mind the late 18th or early 19th century in regards to battle dress. Tricorn hats and fencing swords are used alongside...hand crossbows.
68	* In ''TabletopGame/OrbisAerden:ReignOfTheAccursed'' (think Vampire the Masquerade but set in a completely fictional world and with more HP Lovecraft themes). The Godspawn have worked to stunt technological growth to help keep themselves hidden from human society. This means that despite Aerden being at about the 19th century level; steam power is unknown, and guns are so expensive that it's still viable to wield swords and wear chain mail.
69	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'':
70	** A magically-unstable region, the Mana Wastes, is home to black powder firearms technology, and maybe some early rifles, revolvers, and shotguns. Another region, Numeria, 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; this gets explored further in the ScienceFantasy SpinOff ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}''.
71	** The ''Ultimate Combat'' supplement 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. The Gunslinger class assumes that early firearms are an emerging technology with the secret of their manufacture just starting to leak out; an alternative archetype for the class, the Bolt Ace, allows them to use their features with crossbows instead.
72	** The ''Reign of Winter'' Adventure Path revolved around tracking down the great witch Literature/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 Numeria, and necessitated a brand-new sourcebook with technology up to laser weapons.
73	* ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'': Although most of the world has approximately Bronze Age technology, the Mostali (Dwarfs) have high-tech superweapons called "guns", which they guard jealously. However, the dwarves themselves safeguard their monopoly by sending ClockworkCreature gremlins to sabotage any human-made technology they deem too dangerous (not to mention automatically assume it has been stolen from them -- which is admittedly the case fairly often), ensuring that it will either work badly or not at all.
74	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' is much more strict about avoiding firearms than its DistantPrequel ''Warhammer Fantasy'' was. The only two factions to make extensive use of firearms and motorized vehicles are the very {{Steampunk}} Kharadron and the Skaven, who mostly go on for ramshackle but powerful {{Magitek}} lasers cannons, flamethrowers, and the like. The Cities of Sigmar also employ steam-powered tanks and flintlocks among armies otherwise consisting of melee troops, crossbows and archers. All other factions are strictly high fantasy melee-archers-monsters-and-magic deals, however.
75	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyBattle'': Zigzagged. SchizoTech is a major factor of the setting -- different factions range from Stone Age tech to steampunk Napoleonic -- and, while some factions make extensive use of firearms, others very explicitly enforce bans on their use, and make up for it by means of magic, supernatural strength, guerrilla warfare, or some combination thereof.
76	** The Empire, Cathayans, Dwarfs, and Ogres make extensive use of handguns, pistols, cannons, mortars, volley guns, and rockets. Oh, and steam-powered tanks and ''helicopters''. As a general rule, the Cathayans' and Dwarfs' weapons are generally more reliable and accurate than the Empire's and the Ogres'. They're pretty much objective improvements over their muscle-powered equivalents, mainly balanced out by cost; e.g. an Imperial Handgunner is 9 points while an Imperial Archer is only 5, and a dwarf bolt thrower is 45 points to a cannon's 100. Some editions (e.g. 6e) actually make it clear that the Empire ''only'' uses gunpowder ranged weapons in their regular army, with catapults and ballistae entirely absent and archers and crossbowmen classed alongside the Free Companies as militia rather than proper troops (and even the Free Companies have a smattering of firearms in their bands). The other Old World human nations (besides Bretonnia, see below) are in the same boat as the Empire, though seemingly a bit behind -- it's noted in ''Dogs of War'' 5e that the crossbow is still more common than the handgun in the Southern Realms, and their army list in both 5e and 6e (while it does have cannons) restricts personal firearms to heroes and unit leaders.
77	** Even more notable are the Skaven, who wield sniper rifles, flamethrowers, [[{{Pun}} Ratling]] [[GatlingGood guns]], laser cannons and... a ''nuke''. A lot of which hilariously backfires.
78	** The Knights of Bretonnia ''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]]. The blessings from The Lady of the Lake also helps.
79	** The elves view firearms as crude, inelegant human and dwarven tools, and refuse to use them themselves. While there's nothing in ''WFRP'' preventing an elven character from using them, the elven factions as a whole do not make use of firearms. As a rule, they make up for this through their exceptional speed, strength and reflexes -- the magical bows of elven archers give them performance rivaling guns -- and by also relying on their powerful magic and alliances with giant magical creatures. The Wood Elf live as essentially Iron Age tribes alongside their tree spirit allies, while the High and Dark Elves remain at a more generally fantasy-medieval technology level and use the same standard bows, crossbows, and ballistae that they've had for thousands of years.
80	** The Beastmen make no use of any ranged weapon more complex than a throwing axe or javelin. They consider technology to be a repulsive blasphemy, lack the manual dexterity to operate any device more fiddly than an axe, and strongly prefer to tear enemies to pieces up close and personal. Despite being essentially just hordes of screaming savages in skins, they manage to remain a persistent and existential threat to the Empire's firearms-equipped troops due to their extensive use of guerrilla warfare and ambush tactics.
81	** The Warriors of Chaos similarly view ranged warfare as cowardly, and relegate their armies' ranged element to axe- and javelin-throwing marauders; full Warriors either fight in melee or become sorcerers. In their case, they compensate for this by means of being blessed with unnaturally strong and resilient bodies by Chaos and being clad head to toe in armor so thick that it can shrug off small arms fire, allowing them to march right up to more range-heavy armies and start laying about with their heavy axes, swords and maces.
82	** The Orcs, similarly to the Beastmen, are too primitive to operate complex technology and too savage to really want to fight from range anyway. They have some ranged elements, insofar as they use archers and primitive bolt throwers, but the bulk of their armies consist of heavy infantry and cavalry.
83	** The Lizardmen are primitive descendants of the servants of a bygone race of glorious starfarers. As such, their technological base is split between ancient technological wonders, which they can operate but not repair or reproduce, and stuff that they can make themselves, which is functionally at a Bronze Age level; their devotion to the bygone Old Ones means that they don't care to use any technology not developed and approved by their ancient masters. As such, a Lizardman army consists chiefly of ranks of reptilian warriors armed with stone and bronze clubs and spears, squads of skirmishers armed with javelins and blowpipes, and rare and powerful magitek weapons carried by dinosaurs.
84	** The Tomb Kings are an undead faction whose members were last alive during the setting's Bronze Age. Prideful in the extreme, they refuse to use any tools or methods not invented by their old empires, and still march to war as armies of skeletal swordsmen and archers supported by animated statues.
85	** The Vampire Counts are an especially notable example because they lack any ranged weaponry whatsoever, even simple arrows or throwing spears. The reason for this is that the bulk of their armies consist of hordes of mindless animated corpses that can just about shamble towards warm meat, incorporeal spirits, and feral monsters. The vampire elites themselves prefer to rely on their inhuman durability and to use magic for killing things from range.
86	** Back in the day there was a lot of bleed between ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', meaning that futuristic warriors could have beastman troops, toting automatic rifles and riding bikes. And high fantasy armies could contain {{Powered Armour}}ed mooks with [[AbnormalAmmo boltguns]]. [[RetCon This doesn't happen anymore]].
87	** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'':
88	*** 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, and they are prone to misfires (capable of actually killing the wielder with a bad roll) to boot. That said they outclass all other missile weapons in the game for sheer damage if, ''if'' they manage to work and hit. Hochland Long Rifles do not share the same accuracy and reliability issues, but they are bloody expensive even for firearms and even if you could pry it from the owners' cold, dead fingers, rest assured their family will spare no expense in getting it back.
89	*** 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 the use of crossbows on Bretonnian soil]], 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. The restriction also only applies to Bretonnian knights and their levies - mercenaries and foreign civilians do in fact own guns and the Bretonnians may even hire them when needed.
90	*** The Bretonnian navy, even more amusingly, packs its ships with every cannon it can lay hands on. Since the Bretonnian navy doesn't operate [[ExactWords on Bretonnian soil]], there AintNoRule that says they can't.
91	* Zig-zagged in ''TabletopGame/WorldsWithoutNumber''. In most of the setting, traditional firearms don't work at all due to the collapse of natural laws, but MagiTek firearms called "hurlants" exist. On the island of Ondas, the local magical fields permit for the development and mass-production of normal firearms, but they don't work off the island at all.

Context FantasyGunControl / TabletopGames