Guns in fantasy

[Notadate]

Like the title said.

What is your opinion on them. How effective they could be. Why they’re good and why they’re bad. Give a good explanation , no “they are bad! Blah blah.”

 

[BearlyAlive]

They're alright if they're the braindead longe-range cousin of crossbows, but if the story can be dumbed down to "Me have gunz, me win" then it's just brainless deus ex machina. Guns should never be the ultimate weapon in a world where people can rain down fire and lighting. Now lasers and deathrays, tho...

There actually is a series about gunpowder fantasy written by Brian McClellan, pretty interesting read. It's pretty much fantasy French revolution without the French.

 

[SurfAngel_1031]

Depends on the fantasy for me. The way gunpowder changed everything here in real life can happen again with fantasy. If you are wanting more traditional Dungeons and Dragons fantasy, then having no guns works. If you want it to be similar to World of Warcraft, where it's fairly low tech that is great too.
If I were doing a fantasy that was on the border of deciding tech vs magic, then I would have guns and work around it.
If I were doing high fantasy, then I wouldn't have guns as an option.
So I guess I don't think they are good or bad - its more like how they are used/presented that is good or bad.

 

[Lloyd]

Guns in fantasy is just tacky

 

[sanitylimited]

i cant stand guns in fantasy. instead of improving yourself, you can only improve the tools you use. thus you remain weak.

that isnt fantasy, its delusional bs.

siting down in meditation for hundreds of years is far superior to guns, thats how much i hate guns.

 

[LunaSoltaer]

When presented with the option to use guns or spells the only real answer is both:

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I don't like guns IRL, so why the fuck would I want to read about them in a fantasy setting?

 

[Shard]

IMO they should be treated as anything else -- does the world's development go in that direction? Does society allow research that would lead to them being created? How difficult is it to produce workable propellant and well-made components? In fantasy settings, it is likely easier to enchant a wand or similar to cast a basic spell, which would allow similar results, so do you have both, one, or neither?

It is also important to consider range, accuracy, reload speed, how many shots per reload, etc. A multi-barrel pistol is vastly different from a bolt-action rifle, which is vastly different from an SMG. If you have long range, high accuracy guns, do mages even exist, or did they all get sniped? If you have rapid-fire weaponry, how do people combat that? Be sure to consider the ramifications of each choice.

In my story, guns exist, but are incredibly uncommon, as hunting can be done just fine with a sling, bow, or crossbow, which are much easier to produce and supply ammo for. For combat, the mana mutating creatures often results in natural armor that would reduce the effectiveness, much as it makes swords and spears worse than staves and clubs. And since most armor is made of leather or scales, that protection carries over to humans as well. If they had modern firearms it might be different, armor-piercing ammo is pretty hard to beat, but flintlocks aren't exactly good at punching through tough targets.

 

[NotaNuffian]

To me, GATE has fudged the whole gun imba thing for me, especially when up against the dragon ffs.

Yes, a powerful kinetic weapon is OP against flesh creatures and Newton is smiling his ass off fucking the occults who are forced to play in his field.

And here is the irritating part, magic adhering to science when it is supposed to be its own branch of physical law. Fuck magic shields unable to block a 50 cal, why not have a magic field that deflects all physical projectiles by warping space? Why not have a dampening spell on internal combustion? Magic is supposed to be imba like guns, but authors only know how to make a one sided dom-sub relationship with either the magic or guns on top forever or try to make a forbidden lovechild between the two, which is cool for awhile until you realized that guns are either a fancier wand that looks like a gun or just good for firing odd bullets.

 

[Bartun]

Well, that's exactly what my main antagonist uses. ?

Their world is medieval-style and pretty low-tech, and firearms are so rare that people think of them as "magic" and the people who use firearms as "mages". Although actual magic doesn't exist in my story, people see the things they don't understand as magic.

 

[Deleted member 113259]

I like mana rifles and blasters. Medieval weapons are good in fantasy because you can pour mana into them. So if you just do that for a long-range sniper rifle, or a small canon, then you can make them fit into the world. Unfortunately, people often make realistic guns in a fantasy world that doesn't fit, or they keep it to early guns like muskets but still have sword combat, pretending there wouldn't be an incentive to further develop firearms in that world.

Both of these make guns not make sense to their world, so I believe the best way to make it work is to integrate them into the world by having them as options that aren't considerably better or worse than others.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I like mana rifles and blasters. Medieval weapons are good in fantasy because you can pour mana into them. So if you just do that for a long-range sniper rifle, or a small canon, then you can make them fit into the world. Unfortunately, people often make realistic guns in a fantasy world that doesn't fit, or they keep it to early guns like muskets but still have sword combat, pretending there wouldn't be an incentive to further develop firearms in that world.

Both of these make guns not make sense to their world, so I believe the best way to make it work is to integrate them into the world by having them as options that aren't considerably better or worse than others.

What's gun's advantage that magic don't have? The lack of a casting time? Stealth as compared to when mana flutters?

Am genuinely seeking the answer for mixing guns and magic. Mahouka did something cool about it and it is to do long distance casting.

 

[Deleted member 113259]

What's gun's advantage that magic don't have? The lack of a casting time? Stealth as compared to when mana flutters?

Am genuinely seeking the answer for mixing guns and magic. Mahouka did something cool about it and it is to do long distance casting.

Could be, but what I was saying was to make it magic-based like pouring mana into a sword.

With a sniper rifle, you increase the range and accuracy of spells.

With a blaster, you could increase a spell's explosive power at short ranges.

These might end up replacing bows as hey did in real life, but you could give bows the benefit of a lower mana cost to use or have a bow specialist class in the story.




(Oi you edited while I was typing and ended up saying exactly what I was going to say.)

 

[NotaNuffian]

Could be, but what I was saying was to make it magic-based like pouring mana into a sword.

With a sniper rifle, you increase the range and accuracy of spells.

With a blaster, you could increase a spell's explosive power at short ranges.

These might end up replacing bows as hey did in real life, but you could give bows the benefit of a lower mana cost to use or have a bow specialist class in the story.




(Oi you edited while I was typing and ended up saying exactly what I was going to say.)

Yeah, apologies on that.

But whilst I was thinking about gun x magic, Mahouka came to mind and all I could think about for the merits of guns are long range and silent (magicless) firing.

The magicless part has always been on display by the Runesmith and other works, because another merit of gun is the fact that just like a charged magic item, the user can be a muggle.

 

[Deleted member 113259]

Yeah, apologies on that.

But whilst I was thinking about gun x magic, Mahouka came to mind and all I could think about for the merits of guns are long range and silent (magicless) firing.

The magicless part has always been on display by the Runesmith and other works, because another merit of gun is the fact that just like a charged magic item, the user can be a muggle.

A muggle that mugs people.

 

[Cipiteca396]

A gun is a frame. The gun contains and improves a reaction to make a useful result. That reaction can be magical in nature.

Instead of throwing a simple fireball you can use that fireball as fuel for a cannon. Maybe you use water instead, and create a pressurized water hose.

I think it's only natural that guns would appear in a magical society, possibly even sooner than in a mechanical one. You can think of wands and staves as either earlier prototypes, or a divergent path of the gun.

On the other hand, I think blackpowder weapons are a little out of place in a cliché medieval fantasy setting. I won't complain about it, but I can't see a real reason for it unless magic is relatively rare. In that case, they might be used to drive magic extinct... Which would be super boring to me.

 

[Deleted member 58005]

If a gun isn't working, then it means it isn't big enough.

 

[Missivist]

Modern guns vs weird monsters can be good fantasy. Or you can throw a musketeer in with some swordsman, and still be technically correct. Modern guns vs swords is just a bit too much for me to get into the story.