Potential idea for addtional race... (and maybe firearms...)

[imported_Rasyr]

Gnomes (closer to the D&D variety than the RM variety).
I was thinking of giving them a quasi-oriental culture, and including a tiny bit of magi-tech/steampunk as well. They would have guns as well, but they would be highly inaccurate, and take a long time to load, and PC Gnomes would NOT start out owning any (though they would have knowledge of them).

I was also thinking of the possibility of doing a magical variant of firearms (also expensive) or even just magical items (wands and/or rods) that could simulate.

In any case, the inclusion of firearms would not unduly unbalance things as the time between shots and/or the accuracy would be problematic, and the damage per shot would also still be within current ranges (the most important aspect of firearms, I think, would be that it often ignores DR from armor....)

Thoughts? Comments?
(Note: I am exploring this possibility, not decided on it entirely)

[imported_Raf Blutaxt]

I would definitely like to see gnomes for Novus and I would like rules for firearms as well. I'm not sure about the whole concept of cripling the guns to ballance them with other weapons though. For a medieval feel this would be ok, but in a more steampunk or renaissance game this would not make any sense to me. So having rules for guns in a LN would be very cool.

But I must say that I really like the idea of gnomes with turbans and mustaches, that is just too cool. I'm not sure if this would fit in Tyrlon, but I would steal it for my own games as often as possible.

[Fidoric]

In a past setting of mine, Gnomes were the Mostar technologically advanced people in the world. They did have firearms but also magically enhanced Zeppelins. Their aid was invaluable for the human nations in their struggle against wyvern-mounted Orc invaders.

Raf, I don't think you have to debase firearms to make them fit any setting. You just have to consider different stage of maturation from early black powder firearms to modern .50 machineguns, each with its own range, reloading time, accuracy, reliability...

[imported_Rasyr]

Raf -- the guns I was describing were actually based on real life early types of guns (i.e. these would be similar), such as  the blunderbuss or flintlock rifles... And those "problems" were actually real issues with those sorts of weapons...

[imported_Raf Blutaxt]

Oh, I know they were real, I just wanted more powerful guns for settings where guns really matter. The way I see it, the early guns you are thinking of are far to inaccurate and slow to actually change a setting. For a steampunk, renaissance or baroque world, they would need to be a bit more advanced since those are settings where guns play a much more prominent role. But this of course changes the whole ballance and feel of a game since combat gets more deadly and many other weapons loose power and importance in comparison, so introducing that kind of firepower would be a risky step. Still I would like a Libram Nowus edition with rules for that kind of guns to use in such games.

[imported_Rasyr]

Seems to me that the two largest features of a gun would be:

1) It ignores about half a character's AR (i.e. if Plate Armor has a normal AR of 12, against a Firearm, it would only have an AR of 6)

2) Extra Boon Points -- For example, a pistol might deliver 1 extra Boon Point for a successful attack OR Firearms might earn 1 Boon Point for every 5 points over DEF instead of 1 per every 10 points over.

These two features would make them very deadly...

[imported_Raf Blutaxt]

That sounds pretty good, I'll try it if I have the chance to use them.