Do ships in our era have cannons?

[Hoihe]

There seems to be a disperency in various players and DMs' views, so I am looking for a team ruling whether cannons are widespread or not at our period.

Historically,[quote=Wikipedia] From the late Middle Ages onwards, warships began to carry cannon of various calibres. The Battle of Arnemuiden, fought between England and France in 1338 at the start of the Hundred Years' War, was the first recorded European naval battle using artillery. The English ship Christopher was armed with three cannons and one hand gun.[1] By the mid 15th century, Italian and English warships were routinely carrying guns.[/quote] they should exist by now, if inaccurate.

[TeoDeathDealer]

Possibly. Gondites are always trying to blow things up.

[Maecius]

Technically smoke powder isn't introduced until the Time of Troubles, when Gond himself gives the Lantanese its recipe: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Smokepowder

That being said, we have made use of alchemy (particularly alchemist's fire) for explosions and explosive catapults in past server campaigns.

Ultimately it'd be up to the DM team how much server tech differs from the lore.

[DM Golem]

I think the consensus is no to cannons, but yes to creative uses of alchemists fire. I am sure another DM will yell if they disagree! But thats what I think we are working on given the absence of cannon in naval events yet the uses of alchemists fire (Eg in recent Virtuous Soil events)

[Lockonnow]

maybe a catapult on a ship will do

[Calodan]

I think the real question would be whether or not at this time there could be someone smart enough to know that exploding is caused by heat and pressure. There are of course "Unstable" substances that could explode with just one of these I.E. just heat or just pressure. So while lore says that smoke powder is not given what is to say natural unstable substances could not be used to the same effect? Albeit a really high chance of blowing yourself up!

Just using a alchemist fire is not going to blow up. Using multiples of it and then stuffing them into a barrel and sealing it tight would however blow up.

There are of course what are known as chemical reactions as well. Like potassium and water.

Some other types of things as well could be used. If we have pitch in this time then barrels stuffed with pitch and sealed tight could also explode as pitch burns rather hot and given that reaction you only need to apply a pressure of types to cause an explosion.

Fertilizer would also be useful in such senses in this time as well.

I can go on and on with the creative uses but what it really boils down to would be in my guess a INT roll coupled with Lore and Alchemy. Or just a specified roll from any of these might suffice IMHO. Basically the PC would have to have a way to know these creative things to create big explosions.

Sorry could not resist this one as I was a SAPPER in the Marine Corps. Or Engineer but the blow shite up kind! WOOT WOOT!

[Mac]

I love and miss black powder firearms and cannons. There were rules for them in PnP. But in honesty with magic developing they way it has who needs gunpowder. I always thought of mages as cannons in old school PnP. So much to the point that I have given Mages the tittle of Gunners on my crew. One mage packed full of fireball spells is no doubt more effective than any slow loading primitive cannon. I also imagined Mages using counter-spell would be about the only thing that could protect a ship against enemy mages. It is dramatic to picture two ships closeing range and suddenly both of there decks erupt in a dizzying display of magical firepower. This also sucks in ways that a captain of a ship with 3 mages is going to have almost no chance in a firefight with a ship that has 30 mages, No matter how clever he or she is. But on the other hand a sloop with 3 cannons would have no business getting in a fire fight with a galleon that has 30 guns. Unless u have a anit-magic field around your ship, The magic user is the cannon of the high seas.

[Storm Munin]

Yes, but you were taught to have all that fun.
Just as any college graduate worth a grain of salt could use what should have been learned in chemistry and physics there to create rather wicked things.

However, discovery is not just getting it done by chance or otherwise.
It is seeing the merits and possibilities of what you have wrought once it is there.

Oppenheimer made one heck of a toy but it wasnt until after it was used that the full ramifications of his design became known to him and the rest of us.


An intrepid alchemist could have come up with the entire idea of gunpowder him or herself, yet...

Yet I would say the majority of alchemists would have other ways of making things go boom be it by alchemy as in fire/acid bombs or divine/arcane spell thus more likely hindering them to look for novel applications like cannons.
At first anyway.

As for cannons or even gunpowder pistols and rifles on the server I do remember them from rulebooks in D&D roleplaying days.
I also recall the rather abhorrent chance of catastrophic failure.


Oh wait, just how many cannons did Hoihe want?