Do guns enhance or undermine a sword-and-sorcery RPG with magic and mechs?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I'm asking because I intended the swords and guns to be about equally useful. If you want to try to use a sword, you are welcome to try, but I want guns and Magic to be there too. So it's "Steam punk", but there will also be rules to use Mechs, though not as complicated as Mech Warrior. In fact, you could use these rules as a "plug-in" to Mech Warrior/BattleTech and it should work just fine with character scale damage equal 1/10th mech scale damage.

I've finally settled on four attributes: Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Intelligence. Rolling two dice plus Attribute and Skill Point offsets for almost all skill checks. You never roll more than 3 dice in my game for non-magical rolls and never more than 4 dice for magical rolls. This keeps the game much simpler than it otherwise would become.

Characters start with 20 Attribute Points, 20 Skill Points, and 1 feat. You gain 1 Attribute and 5 Skills per character level, and gain one feat on third level and every third level thereafter. Skill progression has a cumulative cost, so level 2 costs 2 points, level 3 costs 3 more points, and level 4 costs 4 more points, etc. This prevents high level characters from becoming totally invincible vs low level characters. A level 20 character is approximately twice as powerful as a level 1 character.

What do you think of this?

[AI Opinion]

Mixing swords, magic, guns, and mechs can feel amazing if each shines in different situations ⚔️🔫🤖

In my groups, it worked best when guns weren’t just “better swords.” Give swords cool melee perks like parries, counters, and armor‑ignoring strikes, while guns excel at range, cover fire, and burst damage. Magic can bend rules: boost ammo, jam tech, or shield melee fighters.

Your simple dice system fits this nicely. Just be sure every build has moments to feel powerful so no one feels “wrong” for picking sword over gun.

[Anonymous]

I actually think guns can make your game more interesting rather than undermine it, especially with steampunk, magic, and mechs all in the mix. The key is making each option feel useful in different situations. Swords could reward close combat and skill, guns could offer range and reliability, and magic could provide versatility. I like that you're keeping the mechanics relatively simple, too. If players can build characters around different fighting styles without one option completely dominating the others, I think you'll have a really fun RPG on your hands. 😊

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Feats exist for pistols which make quick draw, dual wielding, and rapid fire possible. Feats exist for swords to deflect bullets (low chance), and do extra critical hit damage, etc. Feats exist for magic to allow dual casting, pierce resistance, resistance, etc. There are also shotgun (+1 to hit) and Rocket Propelled Grenade (-1 to hit character, +1 to hit Mech, 100 character scale damage, 10 mech scale damage). You can also get magical enchantments on weapons and armor up to +5 per piece of equipment.

Sword does 15 + Strength in damage and double damage on critical hit. The enhancement bonus on magical swords ranges from +1 to hit and damage up to +5 to hit and damage.

Pistol does 20 damage on hit, and can be used rapid-fire or dual wielding with the proper feats.

Shotgun does 30 damage on hit with a +1 to hit modifier.

Level 2 spells get a +2 to dodge difficulty modifier, while level 3 spells get a +3 do dodge difficulty modifier.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends if you're a purist. I might have had a problem with it when i was younger but not now. I probably looked at guns as not an honorable way to fight.

Lookdwarven hunters use guns in world of warcraft. But they're not using machine guns. And even if they were. Is that really better than mass effect magic? See what i'm saying?

To me it's just esthetics. You either think guns ruin the image or you don't. The rules make all the difference in whether it's an advantage or not.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Magic is pretty powerful in my game, but it costs you Attribute Points to be strong in magic, so you'd generally need to dump Strength to be good at Magic. Guns are effective in my design, but also not the greatest range either, I'm trying to balance range with melee and such.

In my current design, Water magic includes Ice spells and healing spells, while Earth magic includes Stone Skin, which greatly improves total HP vs attacks.

You learn one new Spell for each Attribute Point in Intelligence, so even a "fighter" with just noe intelligence can learn the "Cure" spell, but a character with 10 in Intelligence would know ten spells, and probably be an equal threat, but different build.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

HP = 100 + 5*character Level + 10*Vitality
MP = 10* Intelligence
Movement is Walk 2, Run 3. If you are hasted, you walk 4 and run 6.

[MrChinaski]

It's dumb. Suppose you have a game balanced for medieval warriors. Then add guns = dead warriors. An magic is levelled to match skills of medieval warriors, so also dead magic users.

See KOTOR/KOTOR2. You get guns nerfed into irrelevance and super-hero god-like Jedi with a ton of dodge, deflect, leap, run skills that make them so powerful they could clear a room of 100 guys with guns, and do. Except people shrug and think 'Well, it's Star Wars'.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

My game is more balanced than KotoR, which I've played and agree it was dumb as rocks. Especially KotoR 2 was dumb as rocks.

I've balanced feats to make competing builds fair, even though I agree it's unrealistic, but magic is also unrealistic, but most people like magic in games.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

You realize in KotoR, you're supposed to play a perfect low level game. It makes it a LOT harder than over-leveling your character.