Background: Firearms

Pathfinder is a game of heroic fiction, and that means violence and combat. Heroes, in 20th and 21st century genre fiction, use weapons. Even Tyrion Lannister got into the act a couple of times in the books and on the show, and he's the least physically imposing person playing the Game of Thrones.

In the Divided States of 1899, there are certain people who don't fit in to the normal world; they go off and have adventures of various times. And that's fine, because there are monsters and there are villains in this world. Heroes destroy those things.

Firearms are legal in the United States of 1899 as well as Peachtree, Deseret, La Republica de Tejas and the territory controlled by the 500 Nations (though they are registered via Calculation Engine in all of those places save the 500 Nations' lands and Tejas, which still uses written file cards to show who is licensed to carry a firearm). The CSA does not allow anyone with African ancestry to own or use firearms; occasional dispensations are made for plantation owners who have slaves go out and hunt or lower the animal (or monster) population around their holdings. Unauthorized possession of firearms by slaves is a capital offense and generally the Confederates do not bother with the formality of a trial in such situations.

In more urban areas of most of the countries, it's not permitted to openly wear or carry guns; police and soldiers do, but citizens at large are considered eccentric at best and horribly dangerous at worst for toting a rifle or pistol around with them. The more one gets out into the countryside, though, the more likely it is that someone will be armed. Thanks to the use of magic weapons, it's also likely to find someone with a bow and arrows or crossbow and quarrels wandering around; enchanted swords, armor or shields are also relatively common in the more sparsely populated areas--guns are used for hunting, vermin control, monster defense and signalling (as well as bank robbery, death threats, duels, ambushes and outright murder). Of course, the gambler with a concealed derringer in his sleeve or boot is a cliche in Western fiction and small hidden firearms can be found anywhere there are people who wish to have an edge in a fight but not to advertise the fact.

Some wizards and sorcerers channel arcane power through their firearms in a newly American kind of magic (the European schools of wizardry were more tradition-bound and stuck to archery or swordsmanship when amplifying one's skills through arcane means). Gunpowder using mages are confined to using load-and-fire weapons that have ramrods and powder horns; part of their arcane focus and weapon knowledge comes from loading the shot or pellets individually rather than using a revolver or a repeating rifle. (This is at least partly a way to avoid unbalancing the game; having a wizard who has to hold still to reload their gun after every time they fire a shot is a way to keep them from having too much power.) They may use the single-shot pistol, blunderbuss, musket or other black powder firearm that requires individual shots to be loaded individually (the rifle, revolver, derringer and shotgun don't allow the same kind of focus for a black powder mage; they might know how to use any or all of those weapons as a gun, but not as a way to focus magic). In game terms, a black powder mage gets to add +1 per two experience levels (+1 at levels 1-2; +2 at levels 3-4, etc.) to casting rolls when channeling a combat spell through a gun (think of something like Burning Hands or Magic Missile being vented through a Kentucky long rifle or flintlock pistol instead of the caster pointing their fingers to aim). They suffer a -3 to casting rolls when trying to use a similarly damaging spell without a gun. Spells that would not be channeled through a gun don't get a bonus or penalty.

Firearm use in Etheric vessels can quickly result in the death of everyone on board, either through breaking through the hull or by damaging critical components of the ship. It's very common for Etheric sailors to learn some kind of melee combat--typically the officers know swordsmanship and the ordinary Ether servicemen use maces, clubs, axes or batons. The Etheric pilot Captain Green of the Gibbous Moon is renowned for his skill with a ten-foot length of weighted chain that he uses to disarm and entangle enemies before attacking them; similarly eccentric weapons like nunchaku or bolas see frequent use in combat on Etheric vessels (and the oceanic and space navies of the various nations tend to offer instruction in a wide range of techniques and weapons; different ships of the line pride themselves on the eccentric fighting skills of their officers).

Just as melee weapons and medieval ranged weapons can be enchanted to provide combat bonuses, firearms can also bear arcane enhancements. The history of America is the history of guns, and some families have arcane firearms handed down from generation to generation like swords in a Samurai clan. There are also alchemical bullets and powder preparations that can have magic effects even when fired from a mundane gun. An outlaw magician may well be telling the truth when he says he has a bullet with someone's name on it...