Campaignlet framework: Bronze and Sand

Quarantaine has weirdly increased the amount of D&D I'm getting. Once we figured out that rpg-via-skype is vastly better than no rpg at all, the choice was easy. There's even interest in forming a small extra group for a couple of oneshots. And so, I thought to quickly hash out a setting for a couple of dungeon crawls. You know, 3-4 lines as backdrop. Of course that went as well as you'd expect.

Just 3-4 lines of backdrop, I said to myself.

I hereby present to you: 

BRONZE AND SAND

[ also available as a Google Doc ]

IT IS A TIME OF FADING EMPIRES. Proud city states fight for freedom from the five great kingdoms of Iskander. Merchant caravans and sailors from across the known world bring priceless glass and silks to market. But the dusty roads are beset by sandaled raiders gripping bronze or bloodthirsting iron. Sorcerors drown entire triremes in demon-conjured storms.  In the wilds, the sphinx and lamia have woken to nibble at the corners of empire.

SETTING. This world is like ours in the times of Hellenistic Egypt and Greece. Sandals and short swords of bronze or dread Iron. City states war, trade and build Wonders to their glory. The world is wide and untamed. There are strange beasts and ancient treasures beyond the oil lamp's light.

Iskander was the great general whose two decade conquest heralded the start of the modern world. He famously conquered the entire civilized world and bound the tribes of Gog and Magog behind the half-mythical Iron Gates. When spent Iskander returned from this last task, his five generals rose up and divided his domain into five kingdoms.

ICONIC CREATURES. Androsphinx, Basilisk, Catoplebas, Centaur, Chimera, Cockatrice, Cyclops, Dao, Djinni, Dryad, Efreeti, Empyrean, Gorgon, Griffon, Guardian Naga, Gynosphinx, Harpy, Hydra, Lamassu, Lamia, Leucrotta, Manticore, Marid, Medusa, Minotaur, Mummy, Nereid, Pegasus, Roc, Salamander, Satyr, Serpopard, Spirit Naga

INSPIRATION

• Goblin Punch's OSR funnel Lair of the Lamb: screamed out to me as THE thing to play as a oneshot. Of course then I needed a setting to hold it...
• I Don't Remember That Move's Harpyshaft adventure: I read it immediately after Lair of the Lamb and it connected with the bronze age-y Alexandrian vibe. Also check out Whose Measure's Harpyshaft notes
• Coins & Scrolls' Iron Gates series: provided the framework I needed, specifically the idea of a mythical mediterranean sandbox, ruins everywhere, Iron as a powerful but soul-deadening metal. My take will be much less pre-apocalyptic than Skerples'.
• Dungeon of Signs' Along the Road of Tombs: decadent empires, ruin-squatting robbers and culties. Chock-full of atmosphere.
• Against the Wicked City's Cities of the Great Road: endless stretches of road with proud, strange cities you've never heard of before. For when my beloved chaos worshipers inevitably decide the map is too small and they want to head to the Wicked City. FML.

PEOPLES AND ORIGINS

Niceans - crafty traders and spies, prosperous kingdom [Byzantium; ruins of Troy]

• Cities: Basileia of the Golden Domes, Zenopolis of the wondrous Clock Tower
• Ruins: fallen Illion with its Cyclopean skeletons, underground Kaymakli, the shunned Corpse-City of Kar Hadash, the flying mountain Exile
• Encounters: merchants, spies and assassins; star-mad mages and priests, bound angels and devils; rakshasa, vampires, Vanir barbarians, ghouls

Aeneans - 1000 isles of fiercely independent city states. Fishers, hoplites and schools for oratory and invention. [Greek/Roman; ruins of Mycenae]

• Cities: Rhen of the Wolf Coliseum, Pyrgos and Gythion with its Colossos
• Ruins: Cyclopean, like those at Hagar Qim, Ta' Hagrat or Illion. Rumors abound that the Aeneans have dark appetites like the ones who lived in this land before them.
• Encounters: Roving philosophers, questing kinglets, trader-pirates, river and wood spirits, a horde of cryptids and god-children tasked to complete bat-shit-crazy tasks

Darians - strict and proud, worship many fiery beings under the Lawgiving Sun. oppressively large cities amidst vast plains [Persian; ruins of Ur, Babylon, Babel]

• Cities: Afshar and Chaldea with its Glass Wall, Sargon and Marduk, Meridia the City of Sorcerers
• Ruins: Shulgi, Ur-Nammu, Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, Ziggurat of Tongues, Black Pyramid of Khalgorond
• Encounters: Fire cultists and tiger worshipers, bound fire demons, elementals and all djinns except marid, wereboars and -tigers, purple wyrms and rocs in the deep desert

Iskandrians - desert kingdom in decline on its long river. Named after the great general who bound the tribes of Gog and Magog behind Iron Gates. [Egypt, Alexandria]

• Wonders: Iskander's Library (also) and Iskander's Tomb are marvels of the known world, although dwarfed by the Pyramids of Hisarna.
• Encounters: riddling sphinxes, destitute heirs of Iskander, haggard caretakers of His Library and Tomb, nightly ceremonies to the old gods at sand-covered tombs and steles, undead ancestors wondering why the honour rites have stopped, ghouls, wraiths, giant scorpions, jackalwere

Sea Peoples - wide-ranging raiders and traders [Phoenician; ruins of Carthage]

• Cities: Byblos, Tyre and Sidon the Infinite City are the largest cities in this loose federation
• Ruins: jealous Rhen destroyed the great trade hub of Punicia, the trade hub of Punicia, destroyed by jealous Rhen; the Pillar of Fire
• Wonders: the dark-rumoured Vault of Moloch and Tyre's Lighthouse
• Encounters: traders from strange oceans; merchants tired of explaining the Sea People don't sacrifice children; ongoing feuds and displaced people of Punicia; child sacrifices; rhinoceros vanguard and elephant riders, Fish-headed sea dwellers; jackalwere and ogres and witch covens

MAP

Made with Inkarnate free edition, then a quick pass in Illustrator for roads and borders. Basically the med with serial numbers filed off.

WEIRD PLACES

The Black Pyramid of Khalgorond
The Pillar of Fire
The Abominable Island
The City of Infinite Ruin
The Blue Necropolis
Guilder, the City of Green Brass (good for a city with a great Pharos-style lighthouse)
The Invincible City of the Tusk People
So You've Been Kidnapped by a Giant Bird

ADVENTURE

Or: how the fuck do I make a character for this sandy hellhole?

GAME RULES
System: D&D 5e, all player handbook classes, races and backgrounds available
Stats: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8, or 4d6-drop-lowest, or d18
Starting level: 0 (funnel) or 1 level below the rest of the party for a new character; when we level in between sessions, everyone rises to the same level
Faith: write up at least 5 words about your patron deity. You can be an atheist. The gods like that. Gives them something to aim for.


RACES
All the regular player handbook races are available as bloodlines of humanity. You are and look like and age as a regular human. No racial tongues, no darkvision. You can speak Common and the language of your origin region in addition to any extra tongues.

d20	race	description
1	Dragonborn	djinn-blooded, with elemental sign like wind-tossed hair
2-3	Dwarf	children of the smith god Talos
4	Elf	cryptic children of the Sphinx or dryad-blooded
5	Gnome	followers of the wise goddess Septet
6-7	Half-Elf	nymph-children
8-9	Halfling	small and sneaky humans
10	Half-Orc	satyr-children or rowdy humans
11	Tiefling	child of the Lilin or Iblis the deceiver
12-20	Human	the multitudes of humanity

CLASSES
All 5e PHB classes will be open to the players, but we start with a 0th level funnel. Characters have their starting stats, race and background, and that's it. No equipment, no class levels, 6+Con modifier hit points and proficiency with simple weapons.


LANGUAGES

Common tongues
Common - trade tongue
Aenean* - Aenea, Nicea
Darian / Eme gir* - Daria
Demotic* - Iskandria
Sea People / Rasna - Sea People

Arcane and esoteric
Abyssal (chaotic evil spirits) *#
Celestial (good spirits) *#
Deep Speech (aberrations)
Draconic *#
Druidic #
Giant (such as the ancient Cyclopes) *#
Infernal (lawful evil spirits) *#
Primordial (elementals) #
Sylvan (fey, nature) #
Undercommon (underdark)

* also exists in a separate Ancient / Noble form, no longer spoken and hard to read
# used to write or cast magic

EQUIPMENT
Most of the PHB equipment is available: lenses and waterclocks were available in ancient times, after all. Metals are a special case: almost everything is made out of bronze. Due to the limits of crafting bronze, there are no long- or greatswords, rapiers, chain armor or half and full plate. (You could make them out of iron, but no-one's invented those techniques yet.)

Materials
All items made out of iron and steel carry a bloodthirsting curse, but they are also stronger and more flexible than bronze. Items made from bronze, wood and bone are fragile and can break with abuse. A few hours in a smithy can repair them.

Weapons or armors made from bronze, wood or bone break on a critical fumble.

• 1 break: halve all damage dealt or halve the AC bonus
• 2 breaks: weapon or armor is damaged beyond repair

 

A THOUSAND GODS

Gods and their miracles are everywhere, and so are their temples. Some gods are known throughout the world, others only in one isolated hill village. Ancient power, anointed kinglet, river spirit or ascended hero? Who cares. They're the glitzy fucks who can call down lightning and turn into a vase of daisies to seduce your bae while you're out sifting the sand for gold.

• Moloch the Golden - Sea People god of fire and war, rumours of child sacrifice 
• Ankai - Darian god of gold, civilization and sunlight 
• Ennu - Water god of knowledge, storms, dreams and writing 
• Dagon - Ancient Darian / Sea People god of grain and prosperity
• Ammon the Ram - the Protector and Diviner
• Resheph - Ancient Iskandrian god of plague, war and thunder
• Nitan the Beast - unfettered god of iron, earth and blood, but also mathematics and invention

IRON MUST BE BATHED IN BLOOD

Directly lifted from Skerples' Iron Gates series; I mostly stole copied summarized his work, although some of the descriptions under Iron stats are mine.

Iron protects and iron corrupts. As each age draws to a close, iron sings a song of blood. Those who wield iron lose memories and restraint. They are honed to a killing edge. Not bestial or mindless, but simplified. Knights plot furious wars, perpetrate massacres and reach for their weapons at the slightest sign of dissent.

metal	effect	cost
steel	attack & damage or AC +1	regular x5
iron	regular item stats	regular x2
bronze	attack & damage or AC -1, min. 11	regular
wood, bone	attack & damage or AC -2, min. 11	half regular

Your Iron capacity to safely carry Iron is [Iron stat bonus], minimum 0.

• Iron daggers, swords, chain armour, and shields count as 1 Iron.
• 20 iron arrows count as 1 Iron.
• Giant hammers, giant shields, etc. count as 2 Iron.
• Iron-infused spells count as 1 Iron.
• Any number of non-violent Iron items count as 1 Iron, no matter how many you carry.

Iron stat: How you resist Iron's siren call of blood. Doesn't have to be your highest. Your Iron stat's ability bonus sets your Iron capacity. Roll under your Iron stat to successfully save against Iron's roar for blood.

• Strength: Fight yourself. Force your sword back into its scabbard. Your neck bulges, your teeth grind.
• Dexterity: Move, don't think. You twitch and endlessly repeat your gestures.
• Constitution: You overcome it by exhausting yourself in manic exercise.
• Intelligence: You lose yourself in intricate thought. You mutter and squint.
• Wisdom: You overcome it by centering yourself. You stop moving, close your eyes. Your breathing slows.
• Charisma: You overcome it by brushing aside the bloodlust with a wry smile.

capacity	effect	attack bonus
At or Below	No effect.	-
1 over	If you kill an enemy in a particularly bloody fashion, Save or recklessly attack the next adjacent enemy.	+1
2 over	You cannot write. If you kill an enemy, Save each round or recklessly attack the nearest target, friend or foe.	+2
3 over	You cannot read or write. You forget almost everything. If you kill an enemy, Save or attack the nearest target, friend or foe. You regain control when combat ends.	+3
4+ over	You become a mindless husk driven by bloodlust. This is irreversible. You gain +10 HP and reduce all incoming damage by 2.	+4

There can be only one

I set myself a simple rule in my current campaign: a maximum of one for each big, nasty mythological critter in the Monster Manual. They aren't races or types, they are unique beings. That means I can use goblins and zombies and werewolves by the bucketload, and there may be undead wizards, but there is only one true Lich. Only one red dragon. One Hydra, one Death Knight, one Kraken, one Nymph, one Medusa, one Cyclops, one True Basilisk in the entire world.

Why? Not just to hammer home that these things are special. That I can do with descriptions. But because I find that constraints breed creativity. Now I need to think: will I place my one Banshee in this tomb? Or use another ghostly undead in its place? It forces me to keep things fresh instead of recycling enemies and their mechanics. Reskinning only gets me so far and I hope that my players will enjoy this variety as well.

(Players in my campaign beware: big spoiler info below the image!)

Maybe I'll make an exception to the Rule of One for purple worms. Goblin Punch recently suggested to have purple worm become the food of choice at court and I find that a hilarious idea. The princess wants a purple worm feast for her 16th birthday, so ride out, brave knights! From: Purple Worm / Joel Pigou (ArtStation)

WHO IS MY VAMPIRE?

Case in point: the Vampire. I already know who my one vampire is, the whole world knows it: Saint Cascarrion, who died and lives to hunt vampire spawn and prevent the return of Nameless Queen Yama.

What's my Rule of One telling me here? Consider the module Death Frost Doom. In its original version, the big bad at the bottom is a vampire. He's waiting for a mortal to invite him out of the tomb so he can lead his army of undead into the world and bring back the Dead Empire that (in my campaign) killed the Creator. Except now this guy can't be a vampire, because I already have Saint Cascarrion running around.

My first thought was to just place some other undead leader type there. A wight, a wraith. (Except I already have my Wraith moving behind the scenes, but ok.) An easy fix, but boring.

UNHALLOWED IS HIS NAME

I just thought of a more interesting solution: that last tomb is empty. In fact, to get into the complex at all, you have to break a seal put there in the name of the Archpriest of the Authority himself. On pain of excommunication and eternal suffering, turn away from this place.

The Church knew all too well that the Du'vanku had an undead army squirreled away, and they knew its commander could lead that army to shatter the Church. And so the Church took Cyris Maximus, and bound him in so many wards and geasa that even he doesn't know who he is anymore. Now the vampire is their tool instead of their enemy.

Sleeping Priests keep Cascarrion's memories under lock in their dreams, monks in hidden shrines endlessly turn the prayer mills that power Cascarrion's geases. Priests and monks of minor orders, in boring, out of the way places. Hardly anyone in the Church or outside it knows how important they are. But if the priests would wake up and the mills stop, Cascarrion would stop. And remember.

There now. Isn't that a wonderful ploy for a death cult to start and for the players to discover?

Devourer from Planescape

Postscriptum

What if Maximus' tomb wasn't the only one? Surely the Du'vanku hid away more of their forces when they realized they'd killed the Creator and wrecked the world. Suppose each of these places references the others. Maybe with maps, maybe with mad writings about rivalries between these monstrous beings.

I've already made the Tomb of the Serpent Kings a Du'vanku crypt. Now I know that the resident lich Xiximanter (the players still haven't met him!) is the Du'van wizard who is trying to find immortality and resurrect his race. I can already see the arrogant Mummy Lord high cleric who wanted to murder the Creator, a Devourer necromancer as a rival to Xiximanter, a Bodak warlock who made pacts with the Exile to get the keys to True Heaven, and so on.

Ah, bipeds. Is it time to restart the great work? From: Vampire Soul Channeler / Ryan Barger (FineArtAmerica)

Piratecrawl: Guns of Alabasque

In the Free City of Alabasque there are no church bells. Gun crack is the sound of religion here. This small town on the isle de Carcosa has the best gunsmiths in the world, but you'll have to sail to the Maelstrom Islands to buy their handiwork. Inspired by this beautiful map by Micaholism.

Blogger ate the original version of this post, so here goes, from memory...

THE FREE CITY OF ALABASQUE

Population 8750 including the outlying farms, give or take a death by duel. Alabasque is self-sufficient and sober to a fault: proof of its Ranstead roots. The few things it cannot grow or create itself are bought from scared-stiff traders. The town could grow rich if it produced its advanced firearms en masse, but the gunsmiths of Alabasque are artists, not factory workers.

In Alabasque, everyone, everyone carries a firearm. Every Alabascan has an opinion on guns. How to care for them, what rites to appease them with. Store rifles with the barrels down, or over the door. Waft your bullets with incense in an airtight cupboard or keep a light shining on them at all times. Speech is peppered with proverbs about shooting straight, having a steady hand, the eye guiding the shot. Unflinching sharpshooters rise to high office as a Leaden Brother. Those too afraid to challenge deserve whatever happens to them.

Staggered design with four charges in a row.

Duels and whips
The Alabasque are unfailingly polite, especially for people of Ranstead stock. Understandably, because the only law in Alabasque is the law of the gun. Offend someone, cut in line, disparage their wares, and you'll hear the ritual phrase: "I take high offense at that and challenge you to a duel". Nine times out of ten, the affair is settled with an apology. The remainder, well that's when you find out how much lead you're worth.

Children under the age of 12 are immune to duels but mock-duel amongst themselves. The heady feeling of their first pistol turns some into Whips when they come of age: eager to duel at the drop of a pin, they'll blurt out the challenge as fast as they can whip out their first weapon. Some grow out of it. Others are buried with their firearms. A Leaden Brother assures the gathered that "tempers kill, not firearms". Then, a three-shot salute. Look suitably berieved, or surviving Whips may challenge you for your impertinence.

Origins
Alabasque was founded by twelve Ranstead tinkers fleeing a failed rebellion in their hometown of Slivau. They built their own firearms to fend off bandit raids when the Freiherr wouldn't send help. And when the tax collectors came, they refused to pay their dues to a useless lord. The army came, faced unexpected resistance but won through sheer manpower. The gunsmiths fled and took their advanced designs with them.

On the Valois-claimed Isle de Carcosa, the Alabasque carved out a place of their own near pockmarked ruins. Schemata found in the ancient workshop-cellars hinted at even more intricate modifications than the gunsmiths had already developed. Strongboxes contained small caches of strange bullets that cannot be replicated. Yet. The Leaden Brothers have faced more difficult challenges.

ALABASQUE FIREARMS

The twelve master gunsmiths that fled Slivau have perfected bullet-loading designs when the rest of the world is still using muzzle-loaded flintlocks. Some whisper that these weapons are demon-haunted, and using them imperils your soul. Nonetheless, agents of the Old Country armories would kill (or worse) to get their hands on Alabasque schematics. So far, they have failed to replicate them.

All major gunsmiths will sell Alabasque bullets by the box (5 sp per bullet, 220 sp per box of 48).

Regular flintlocks (and cannons) misfire on a 1-in-20, Alabasque firearms on a 0-in-20 (I include this because some special ammunition ups the misfire chance.)


I'm resisting the temptation to add 7 different calibers and making players track those. I just don't think it's worth the hassle. The difference between regular and Alabasque weapons will do.

flintlocks	damage	misfire	range	max range	reload	slots	urban cost
holdout pistol	d6	1/20	10	20	3 rds	0	150 sp
pistol	d8	1/20	20	40	2 rds	1/2	50 sp
musket	d8+2	1/20	60	120	2 rds	1	100 sp
blunderbuss	3d4	1/20	20	40	3 rds	1	100 sp
charge + shot	-	-	-	-	-	1/6	1 sp

Alabasque	damage	misfire	range	max range	reload	slots	urban cost
pistol	d8+2	0/20	30	60	1/bullet	1/2	100 sp
rifle	d10+2	0/20	80	160	1/bullet	1	200 sp
shotgun	3d6	0/20	30	60	1/bullet	1	300 sp
bullet	-	-	-	-	-	1/12	5 sp

(I once thought nothing could be a worse layout programme than Word. Then I tried copying tables to Blogger. Ah well.)

Duck's foot pistol. For when you're fighting multiple duels at once.

 

Gunsmiths of Alabasque

Each master gunsmith has multiple apprentices and specializes in one modification. Firearms with this modification cost 10% less than usual in their shop. Roll 3d12 if for some reason want to randomize names, specialties and quirks.


Names are lifted from real world firearms history (i.e., I skimmed wikipedia), quirks and specialties are completely made-up. 

d12	Master	specialty	quirk
1	Alex Seidel	Concealed	right hand replaced with metal tool
2	Carl Walther	Long barrel	lost both legs
3	Edmund Heckler	Luxury	blind
4	Ernst Thalmann	Magazine	bandages seep green blood
5	Fredrick Mossberg	Melee	sword dueling scars
6	Gaston Glock	Multibarrel	metal plate replaces top of skull
7	Johann Brueger	Quick mechanism	intense pauses while speaking
8	Leopold Werndl	Rotating barrels	collects miniature vehicles
9	Lorenz Sauer	Silencer	extra paranoid about spies
10	Luzern Thomet	Unmodified*	deaf, extremely twitchy
11	Theodor Koch	Well-balanced	will not help women
12	William Ruger	Advanced bullets**	will challenge you to a duel

* i.e., Alabasque weapons without any modifications

** see special bullets, below

And I bet you can also pick a lock with it.

Firearms modifications
Only available for firearms, not for cannons. Add static costs first, then apply factors. Example: a well-balanced, quickfire Alabesque pistol (50) would cost (100+75) x2 = 350 sp.

Concealed
A hidden version of the weapon, concealed in for instance a belt buckle, on a wrist holster, in a wooden leg, in a cello. Advantage to shoot someone with surprise. Holds one shot, takes 2x the usual time to load. Half range and max range.
cost: x2

Long barrel
Extends both range and max range by 1.5
cost: +50 gp

Luxury
A specially decorated version of the weapon; these are issued to both decorated officers and arrogant fops. Gives advantage in social situations like establishing status, intimidation, building reputation.
cost: x2

Magazine
Insert an entire magazine of 6 bullets in 1 round. Alabasque weapons only.
cost: x2

Melee
Weapon is reinforced and outfitted with a blade. Deals slashing/piercing damage in a melee attack. *: two-handed use
cost: +15 sp for d6, +60 sp for d6/d8*, +150sp for d10*

Multibarrel
Fires its barrels in pairs. +1 to hit and damage per extra barrel fired. The weapon's reload time is per barrel, and it takes powder and shot rather than modern bullets. Cannot be applied to Alabesque weapons.
cost: x [barrels], up to 6

Quickfire
Can fire as many shots in a round as the clip allows. This does not give extra attacks, but a +1 to attack and damage for every bullet fired. Alabasque weapons only.
cost: x2


Rotating barrels
Fires one barrel per shot, then rotates in another loaded barrel.
The weapon's reload time is per barrel, and it takes powder and shot rather than modern bullets. Cannot be applied to Alabesque weapons.
cost: x [barrels], up to 6

Silencer
Dims the sound of the gunshot and hides the muzzle flash to that of a loud or a fizzled firecracker. Alabasque weapons only.
cost: 25 to 250 gp

Well balanced
+1 to hit with this weapon
cost: +75 sp

Firearm hidden in a fake watch.

Jailor's Key pistol.

Do you have something special in stock?
Regular Alabasque bullets already pack a punch. If you need an even bigger advantage, ask for advanced or eldritch ammunition.

bullet type	cost per bullet	available
regular	5 sp*	2 boxes + 1/day
advanced	10-25 sp	2d6
eldritch	50 sp	d4 -2d8**

* or 220 sp for a box of 48 bullets

** negative numbers are the number of days until one is brought in, which resets the count

Gyrostabilized multi-stage rocket bullet (from Wanted)

Advanced bullets are little works of art, crafted for maximum penetration, to splinter inside the body, to deliver a poison or to knock out without killing.

Armor piercing

Ignore up to 3 points of physical armor.

cost: 15 sp

Blackeye

A low weight slug that broadens in flight to deal non-lethal damage. Range and max range halved.

cost: 10 sp

Burning bullet

Deals d6 extra fire damage. Shoots sparks from the wound for as many rounds as the original fire damage. Increases the weapon's misfire range by 1 until thoroughly cleaned.

cost: 15 sp

Dragon's breath

Unleashes a 15ft long, 10 ft wide cone of fire when fired. Damage 2d6 per round used, Dex save -2 per extra round for half damage. Increase the weapon's misfire range by 2 until thoroughly cleaned.

cost: 25 sp

Gyrostabilized
Self-stabilizing bullet with ailerons that allow you to ignore shooting penalties at a target between normal range and max range. Can be combined with a Rocket bullet for 40 sp.
cost: 18 sp

Poison capsule

Riddled with tiny holes that release poison from an internal reservoir. Muscle spasms: Con 13 for 6 rounds or take -1 Dexterity. Respitory distress: d6 non-lethal damage (no save) for every round of physical exertion, 1 minute. Light weight gives -2 to hit against armored opponents.

cost: 10 sp for the bullet, 10 sp for the poison

Rocket bullet
Consists of several stages that provide thrust and gyrostability during flight. Double the weapon's range and max range, but fire at targets within 20 feet with disadvantage because the bullet isn't up to speed yet. Can be combined with a gyro-stabilized design for .. sp total.
cost: 18 sp

Scattershot

Shrapnel blasts everything in front of the weapon. Range 10 / max range 20, apply the attack to every target in the 90 degree arc in front of the weapon.

cost: 15 sp

Silent bullet

Slow and with an internal dampener to hide the muzzle flash and boom, this bullet doesn't give the shooter's position away.

cost: 15 sp

Splintering

Shatters inside the body for 2d6 extra damage, but -2 to hit against armored targets.

cost: 17 sp

Eldritch bullets are only for those willing to tolerate the outright strange and unnatural. These weird shells are sometimes found in strongboxes buried in the old ruins. From Goblin Punch, with some of the types on his table removed and the calibers filed off. Numbers behind a bullet's name are the index on Goblin Punch's table - see there for the bullets' effects.

Lothrop, Brigham, and Dark Deluxe (2)

Gold jacketed.

Lothrop, Brigham, and Dark Blackjacket (4)

Translucent casing, dephases slightly in bright light.

Lothrop, Brigham, and Dark Scotch (6)

Reflection in the casing does not show animals or people.

Kiowa Elk (7)

Bone casing, smells musky.

Kiowa Wendigo (8)

Tusk casing, scrimshawed. Smells of blood.

Opponent Orange (10)

Black casings with wax slugs and a weird sort of space bee inside it.

Opponent Yellow (11)

Black casings with some sort of sulfurous metal slug.

Unquiet (12)

Ultrahard glass in a bone casing. Slick with blood. Whispers.

Skethriman Scolex (14)

Amber-like slug in silver casing filigreed with a sign for Empire.

Delivery (17)

Shimmer and shift in the hand.

Mindglare (18)

Glint with purple light like a migraine.

Devilbone (20)

Bone slug, warped and slowly grinding in its jacket.