I, Takanka Iyotanka, wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle
”☥
——Chief Sitting Bull, Dakota Territory
These are the enforcers of law and justice in the baronies of the Association. They are the bringers of order and death. Years of difficult and specialised training culminate in a sacred ceremony where they are first given the guns of their ancestors. These pistols are their badges of office, as well as their tools of choice.
Requirements:
Blooded background and Spiritual Destruction trait
Minimum 14 Common Sense
Minimum 12 Willpower Ranged Weapon (longarm) III
Ranged Weapon (pistol) V
Any three load firearm skills
Trained by the Association
Previous history as a Charge
You must pass the Pistols Test: You must either complete your training as a charge (seven years and earning the Guns of Your Fathers level bonus), hit a dime-sized target (an effective armour class of 30) at thirty paces with a single shot, or defeat your trainer in a duel. The duel is not to the death, but accidents do happen frequently, especially to impaitent charges. You can only attempt the Pistols Test once per season.
Training time: At least seven years as a charge, though an extraordinary gunslinger can earn their guns in less than two
Features and bonuses:
A special brace of paired rifled revolvers given as a badge of office; these are family heirlooms
Leading: Ignore your target's Speed equal to twice your level.
Faster Than Thought: Draw and fire any loaded handgun before initiative is rolled. The upside is that you are difficult to ambush. The downside is that you must make a Wits check to avoid plugging an innocent in any surprise situation. You may add your composure bonus to the check. There's a reason why surprise parties are not part of the culture of the Association.
To steal your enemies' beer, see their kegs rolled before you, and hear the lamentations of their brewmasters: One drink per evening—regardless of quantity, if drunk all at once—doesn't count towards the alcohol in your system.
Bismeitan: Once daily you can smear an enemy all over the street. Add a third of your Grace score to your gunslinger level as a damage bonus. Additionally, this shot ignores all damage reduction and resistance.
The Double-Tap: You can slay an incapacitated foe at your feet with one action and two bullets. Neither of you need to bother rolling for anything.
Hard: The deep lines on your face make you look about a decade or so older than you really are. You are not in any way physically impaired, but the many miles on the road have started to show. At least you still have most of your hair. Also gain three interrupts per battle; those are nice, too.
Riding Shotgun: Cut attack penalties from movement while on horseback or in a vehicle by half.
Meat Shield: This dangerous ability allows you to weave and dart among your enemies while in close quarters. Your armour class against ranged weapons is five points higher when doing so, but those shots may strike someone else instead. Any attack that misses you within five points (that is, would have hit you otherwise) instead strikes a random person. While this may not seem like such a bad thing to a lone gunslinger, note that the random target may be an innocent bystander, and that other level XIII gunslingers alongside you may be using this ability as well.
Bumping Uglies: When you smite your foes with your bullets of justice, you can now do so with a little more mercy. When you choose to use this ability, a failed system shock check by the target may not mean instant death; they die eventually, not immediately. An even numbered attack roll means that you grazed the side of their skull, or the sight of their own blood made them pass out, or something. They are unconscious for 1D6 (exploding) minutes. That is, for every six rolled, they are out for that many minutes and roll again. Note that normal means of reviving them may not work, and a person can easily bleed out while they are passed out. If the attack roll was an odd number, you hit them with a gut wound or something else slowly and inexorably fatal. They are conscious and in a great deal of pain, but cognitive. Any actions they attempt to make are at a -20, and even something normally unrolled (like running away) suffers the same penalty. These targets will die in 3D6 (exploding) minutes (each six is add-and-reroll). Only extraordinary care can save these poor souls. The Game Master may select one of these outcomes rather than using the attack roll, if he or she so desires. This ability is available once daily.
Situational Awareness: It's like you have eyes in the back of your head. You are aware of all movement and combat activity around you. Enemies get no bonus to hit you in the back, even at long range.
Bullet Time: Your have the reflexes of a housefly. Time seems to slow down for you. You can actually see the bullets headed your way. Bullet time allows you to use evasion with no penalty, and to do so while standing in place. Whoah.
Critical Explosion: After rolling a critical hit with a firearm, roll to attack again. If this is also a hit, the damage triples instead of just doubles. If this second roll is also a critical hit you roll again for quadruple damage. Another hit would be times five damage. There is no upward limit of how many times you can multiply the damage, increasing it by one multiple with each successive roll. This is the same bullet, not a separate attack.
Over the Wall: Your bullets cause an additional 1D8 points of damage to Extrinsics. Note that this applies even if you are in their home dimension.
Burd Ellen: Interdimensional navigation—You have a way of finding your way back home... eventually. You can tell if any magical gateway leads back to your own dimension, even though that may be through a convoluted series of hops.
Here and Now: "Thecomfortofaknowledgeofariseabovetheskyabovecouldneverparallelthechallengeofanacquisitioninthe…" You gain the trait Quick Witted, and go far above that. You get a sort of mental time-out right in the middle of battle. In less time than it takes for a bullet to cross the field of battle you can stop for a moment and think things through. For your mind, time stands still. This gives you time to carefully plan your shots, wonder if you left the stove going, examine how an enemy favours his right leg further, do some quick mental maths on your remaining ammo, and ponder shopping opportunities as you work out an escape route, all in the blink of an eye. This is an instant stretched out into near infinity. It is important to note that this is a purely cerebral exercise. You cannot do anything but think. You cannot carefully aim, use psionics, nor even change how your eyes are focused. This only works in battle, when your life is on the line, and adrenaline is pumping. Expository fourth wall breaking is optional.
Moirai: You are fated to die in battle, and today is that day. Whenever you fail a fatal system shock check you may invoke this ability. Roll 1D6 at the start of every round. As long as you do not roll a 1, you stand and fight. Should you roll that fateful number, or no more enemies face you, you fall and die.
