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Silver bullets
http://forums.paradigmconcepts.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1524
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Author:  Blusponge [ Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:38 am ]
Post subject:  Silver bullets

So my players are loading up on silver bullets. An understandable thing to do since a) they are tracking a known werewolf and b) they are going to be traveling through the Black Forest, which has it's own reputation. So I'm back to working on costs. I'd like to get some feedback on my figures.

Alright, so in 1690, an oz of silver is worth a British pound, or 20 shillings/resource points. A pound of silver (16 oz) would thus be worth 320 RP. If you break down the shots per pound, dividing 16 oz by the number of shots per pound, I get on average 312 RP per pound. Even rounded down to 300 a lb...well any thoughts?

And yes, we've established that while silver is a known weakness of werewolves, not all werewolves are so vulnerable. But the werewolf they are trailing is so vulnerable. So they aren't just throwing their money away here.

Tom

Author:  PCIHenry [ Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Silver bullets

Hello Tom,

I have to ask: Is it really necessary to calculate what silver bullets cost? Are the player really going to fork over money for them?

If it's something the players need then they should have access to them, in the form of silverware, lockets, etc that can be melted down or otherwise.

When I originally came up with the concept of Witch Hunter, I really wanted to get away from that sort of meticulous accounting. So unless it's critical (for some reason other than keeping track of money) then I would have them scrounge for silver, rather than go to Ye Olde Silver Shoppe and buy them.

I think it's more fun that way.

Author:  HeridFel [ Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Silver bullets

Blusponge, I think that the cost that you list seems reasonable. The most expensive small item (a spyglass) costs 900 resource points, which is equivalent to being worth about 3 times its weight in silver. I'd want a spyglass to be worth more than its weight in a precious metal.

Obtaining silver shouldn't be too hard. Most people will be trading in specie, and if the players have gold, they can probably trade it for silver if they are in large enough towns. If I were to complicate matters, I say they'd need to have decent skill at metallurgy (Scholarship, probably) to get pure enough silver from the coins, and then alloy it to get something that would survive being fired. I'd only do this to give a "smart" character a chance to shine; otherwise, I wouldn't say that a werewolf has a weakness but preclude the PCs from taking advantage of the weakness.

Author:  Blusponge [ Sun Oct 19, 2014 3:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Silver bullets

Thanks guys,

Henry: Scrounging for silver is fine. But the cadre is in a modest sized city with access to resources and labor. They asked about costs and I'm trying to work the out in a non-ad hoc way. If they were stuck in some tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere, scrounging would be their only option. But since you raise the point, I'd better make some decisions about how many shots can be made from a pound of silver, because that will come up eventually.

Herid: yeah, but 300 RP for 12 shots just seems ridiculously expensive. Then again, if that's the price I were to quote them, you can bet they'd scrounge. I'd let them use Marksman to make a bullet-no need for esoteric knowledge. You just need a really hot fire (hotter than a campfire) and a mold. Not much else to it.

Right now, I'm leaning towards either x5 or x10 cost for silver bullets, more for silver arrows. Maybe not as realistic...but maybe I need to get over that and send the out to raid silverware caches. :)

Tom

Author:  Blusponge [ Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Silver bullets

This series of articles on the subject is very interesting and enlightening. It's not exactly genre friendly, but would be a hilarious direction to go in with the right group (I'm not sure all of the layers would be that open to it).

There are some good takeaways:
> You need a custom mold to make em. Standard bullet mold is too fragile and casts the silver too small.
> you need access to a furnace. Blacksmith background would be very helpful here.
> Silver is hard enough, the bullets don't deform. They just go right through the target. This makes recovering them a challenge. You also don't need to worry about a silver slug stuck in the werewolf's gut doing auto damage each round.

Author:  Encali [ Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Silver bullets

I strongly object to people being able to get silver bullets. Purely academic reasons, of course :)

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