Hobbits with pistols

[Jacobite]

From the "Which Era of Blackmoor do you find most interesting?" thread:

I got two .44 Colts for the wife - she's a very handy shot, and being a telepath very rarely misses - and a dozen three-band Enfields for the lads in my household guards. (They said that the things make lousy spears; the snap-on blades are pretty poor quality.) Plenty of the little lead slinger pellets and the 'foof stuff' you pour down the tube, too.

Lots of fun for the kids, though; heaps of noise and smoke. Phil was perturbed; he hated the things and said they got his world-setting smudged.

Reading DA1, I was struck that Mello has a pair of wands of lightening bolts each with six charges. Philo has one too - again with six charges. Were these revolvers? Gygax used a similar ruse in Greyhawk to explain away Murlynd's pair of six shooters. Neither one of them can even use these wands according to BECMI rules, so like the cleric with the dagger that doubles as a steak knife, we can assume these were mentioned in Arneson's notes. Philo's write up even parenthetically states he OWNS the wand, but does not carry it.

Has anybody made this connection before and is there any specific known reason why the hobbits might have pistols?

[gsvenson]

A number of the original players were 20th century types that arrived in Blackmoor thru something strange like the Bermuda Triangle. They arrived with some modern weapons and stuff. I think Wesley and Maker arrived in a small plane that crashed. I am not sure of the details any more, though.

[Havard]

A number of the original players were 20th century types that arrived in Blackmoor thru something strange like the Bermuda Triangle. They arrived with some modern weapons and stuff. I think Wesley and Maker arrived in a small plane that crashed. I am not sure of the details any more, though.

Are you thinking about the Icelandic Cave adventureGreg, or are those two separate things?

Anyway, that probably explains the presence of firearms in the early campaign as you are saying. Published versions of the setting tend to attribute technological weapons etc to the Valley of the Ancients or the Temple of the Frog.

Back to the original questions:

Reading DA1, I was struck that Mello has a pair of wands of lightening bolts each with six charges. Philo has one too - again with six charges. Were these revolvers? Gygax used a similar ruse in Greyhawk to explain away Murlynd's pair of six shooters. Neither one of them can even use these wands according to BECMI rules, so like the cleric with the dagger that doubles as a steak knife, we can assume these were mentioned in Arneson's notes. Philo's write up even parenthetically states he OWNS the wand, but does not carry it.

Has anybody made this connection before and is there any specific known reason why the hobbits might have pistols?

Another great find! Although Greg is probably spot on with where those items came from, but I do like the idea of pistols being popular among Hobbits.

Also recall that Muskets were available in the equipment lists in the FFC, so it could be adaptations from that?

-Havard

[aldarron]

From the "Which Era of Blackmoor do you find most interesting?" thread:

I got two .44 Colts for the wife - she's a very handy shot, and being a telepath very rarely misses - and a dozen three-band Enfields for the lads in my household guards. (They said that the things make lousy spears; the snap-on blades are pretty poor quality.) Plenty of the little lead slinger pellets and the 'foof stuff' you pour down the tube, too.

Lots of fun for the kids, though; heaps of noise and smoke. Phil was perturbed; he hated the things and said they got his world-setting smudged.

Reading DA1, I was struck that Mello has a pair of wands of lightening bolts each with six charges. Philo has one too - again with six charges. Were these revolvers? Gygax used a similar ruse in Greyhawk to explain away Murlynd's pair of six shooters. Neither one of them can even use these wands according to BECMI rules, so like the cleric with the dagger that doubles as a steak knife, we can assume these were mentioned in Arneson's notes. Philo's write up even parenthetically states he OWNS the wand, but does not carry it.

Has anybody made this connection before and is there any specific known reason why the hobbits might have pistols?

Nice! I believe you are onto something there. I can say that in the FFC and ToTF laser weapons were "explained" to the medieval minds of Blackmoor as shooting magical "lightening" so it stands to reason that pistols might have also.

[chirine ba kal]

I just bought the things from the elves. They were all called "magic Elven bangsticks" in Dave's Blackmoor, at least when we were visiting.