Gunslinger

Gunslingers are, as the name implies, firearms experts.  The slow advance of firearm technology out of Secord and Summerfall has grown a few schools of shooting. Some naturally gifted individuals pass their craft on from master to apprentice.  Both manufacturers are generally willing to sell their older model weapons to trusted folks (although you’re not getting a coilgun out of Secord or a Spellshot out of Summerfall) and that exposure is slowly advancing the art of sharpshooting.  

Armor:  Gunslingers are trained in light armor.  Heavy armor complicates reloading and doesn’t leave enough space for ammo junkies to carry reams of magazines.  

Weapons:  Gunmages are trained in every variation of firearm, including new ones as they’re developed.  They’re also trained in short/medium melee weapons as holdouts or last resorts when (not if) the ammo runs out.  

Grit: Gunslinger effects are driven by Grit, as opposed to Mana or Energy.  Grit is mechanically identical to Energy but disambiguated here to avoid things like Energy Gems from falling into Gunslinger’s hands and turning a six-shot pistol into a railgun.  Grit is purchased, capped, and spent at the same rate Energy is.

Class Feature: Hard to Kill  Gunslingers that can’t take a hit don’t last long.  Gunslingers treat any Kill or Slay effect delivered by voice, bullet, or packet as a Stun effect instead.  If you want to kill a Gunslinger, use a knife.  Or an axe.  Dealer’s choice.  

Gunslinger Skills

Category	Name	Prerequisite Skills	Skill Point Cost	Use Cost
Damage
	Accuracy +1		10	-
	Accuracy +2	Accuracy +1	10	-
	Accuracy +3	Accuracy +2	10	-
	Accuracy +4	Accuracy +3	10	-
	Accuracy +5	Accuracy +4	10	-
	Accuracy +6	Accuracy +5	10	-
	Grit (1-40)		1
Pistols
	Trickshot	Accuracy +1	3	1
	Rapid Fire	Piercing Shot	3	3
	Disabling Shot	Called Shot	4	4
	Fan the Hammer	Disabling Shot	5	5
Rifles
	Piercing Shot	Accuracy + 1	3	2
	Called Shot	Trickshot	3	3
	Bull’s Eye	Rapid Fire	4	4
	Killshot	Bull's Eye	5	5
Defensive Skills
	Roll		2	1
	Initiative	Roll	3	1
	Tough	Initiative	4	4
	Countershot	Tough	5	4
Miscellaneous Skills
	Crosstrained	6	1	1
	Holdout	2	1	-
	Quickdraw	2	2	-
	Rapid Reload	6	2	3
	Weapon Ward	1	2	1
	Gunsmithing		1

Gunslinger Skill Descriptions

Damage

Accuracy: This is what shooters use to increase firearm damage.  Precision gets you a tight group and that’s great for competitions.  Accuracy puts you close to center; that’s better if you’re fighting for your life.  A tight group ten feet to the right of the ogre bearing down on you is not particularly helpful

Accuracy applies to no weapons outside of firearms.  It also carries a limitation Focus and Precision do not - no combination of Accuracy and  base weapon damage ever exceeds 10.  Gunslingers can surpass this limit momentarily at the cost of Grit but cannot sustain 11+ damage by any mechanism or combination thereof.  

This also means that no gunslinger will ever swing more melee damage than the weapon they use.  That is correct and intentional.  Gunslingers are called primarily for their love of the technology and skill involved.  They are not the types to use guns as a surprise.  If they can shoot, they will shoot.  It’s only if they can’t that they grudgingly go to melee.

Pistols

Trickshot:  This costs one energy and absolutely guarantees that a bullet will land exactly where the shooter intends, so long as the intended destination is not an animate target.  Trickshots can cut nooses, push buttons across the room, drop chandeliers, and all sorts of other things, but have no direct combat effect.  (We realize there’s some gray area here - shooting a pouch off an enemy’s belt, shooting through shoelaces to interrupt footing, etc.  For the gray areas, if the marshal rules the shot out of scope, it doesn’t work but also doesn’t cost you any energy.)  Trickshot functions to the theoretical range of the weapon rep (usually around 30 feet, if your weapons are at a safe FPS).

Rapid Fire: Rapid Fire allows you to drop the x-to-hit call/flavor from your weapon call entirely, reducing it in its purest form to just a number. This accelerates your firing speed, but does come with a downside - your target is free to interpret your number as whatever flavor he likes, which functionally means that any target that reduces or eliminates any flavor of damage does the same thing to your Rapid Fire.

Disabling Shot:  Disabling Shot ruins connective tissue, acting as (and called as) "Maim <Limb>".  Disabling Shot can in principle be used to ruin inorganic things - a Gunslinger can certainly shoot out the lights or ruin a golem’s leg - but non-Maim uses are probably better handled with Trickshots. Disabling Shot can be used as (an expensive) Disarm if that seems advisable; this is called as "Disarm Shot" if used in this way.

Fan the Hammer:  Fan the Hammer deals your usual weapon damage to six targets at very nearly the same time.  It’s called as “Voice Physical <number>” and hits up to six targets for one application.  You can Fan the Hammer with other shots, but must pay the Grit cost for every individual bullet and this can get very pricey very quickly. Fan the Hammer empties your clip. If your phys rep is still loaded, this instead incurs a ten-count reload action.

Rifles

Piercing Shot: This puts a bullet right through a shield, inflicting its usual damage if it hits a shield wielded by someone with the relevant Shield skill. Piercing Shot appends "Pierce" to your verbal. This explicitly stacks with other Rifle shots. The Grit cost is paid additively and collectively, all at once.

Called Shot:  A Called Shot delivers up to double the shooter’s usual damage, after modifiers are figured in.  This allows a Gunslinger to violate the Accuracy cap.  Generally speaking, this’ll deliver 20 points.  (We are aware that it’s possible (if wildly inefficient) to push way past the 10-point cap and just leave that damage dormant until Called Shot shows up and does some ridiculous damage call for a fairly cheap cost in Grit.  I’ll be mildly disappointed if no one ever gets to 50.)

Bull’s Eye:  Bull’s Eye alters one shot to Voice Delivery, adding Critical or Body carriers (decided at time of use). 

Killshot:  Self-explanatory.  Killshot inflicts 100 points of physical damage and immediately sets its target into death count if that 100 reduces its targets body to -1.  This is called as "Physical Slay" and in its raw form is blocked by shields. If you need it to stick, we recommend Bull's Eye or Piercing Shot to it.

Defensive

Roll: This skill allows the character to negate a portion of an attack. Roll can only be used to defend against attacks that strike the character with a weapon or packet and have a numerical damage value in the call. When used, the defended attack will only deal half damage (rounded down). Roll also removes the Effect of a defended attack.

Initiative:  Initiative causes a small pause in melee, enough time for the Gunslinger to step back ten feet from a melee opponent. Wherever possible, avoid Holds for this - simply call Initiative and back off.

Tough: Tough is how the Gunslingers of old lived to become old Gunslingers. Tough blunts an ass-whuppin; this is called as "Resist Physical".

Countershot:  Countershot is called as a defense to any packet- or bullet-delivered attack. Countershot is called as “Resist Ranged”.  Obviously, if you’re shooting arrows out of the air, you’ll need a gun in your hand to do it.  This is very likely on modules and somewhat less likely sitting in a bar having a drink.

Miscellaneous

Crosstrained: Crosstrained allows a Gunslinger to use a Rifle skill with a Pistol or vice-versa. The Grit cost is additive.

Holdout:  Holdout produces a weapon when you were not otherwise armed.  Quickdraw allows for defensive effects; Holdout puts a gun in your hand if there’s any chance at all you could have had one hidden somewhere.  Holdout’s not perfect - if you’re arrested in a town familiar with your flavor of crime you’ll be thoroughly searched before you get tossed in a cell - but for meetings, “diplomatic” events, and similar places that ban weapons but don’t do a thorough search to confirm, it’s priceless.

Quickdraw:  Quickdraw overrides the “must have weapon in hand” restriction on Gunslinger skills.  You still need a weapon on your person but you can Quickdraw a Countershot if you get caught out in a bar.  Quickdraw also allows for Trickshots without weapons in hand.

Rapid Reload:  Rapid Reload allows you to violate the rate of fire limit.  For the minute following the activation of Rapid Reload, you may fire 75 darts instead of the usual 50.

Gunsmithing:  Gunsmithing the same thing as Engineering, except it only builds guns and ammo.  (We are aware that firearms are technically explosives and that gunpowder can just as well arm a grenade, and we suggest that you pay full cost for Engineering if you’d like to get into explosive force, detonation radius, fragmentation velocity and composition, and timing fuses.)