This rifle is now the ultimate power in the universe

[011121]

So I'm looking at the rifle special rule and something struck me.  

 

it says he gun's range is multiplied x10 for each  from focused.  Focus can give a total of     .

 

Now maybe they intended this to mean a max of x30 (10 + 10 + 10) but as written it looks a lot like a max of x1000 (10 * 10 * 10).

So the howles pattern 1874 has a range of 24" which basically means 24 meters.  3 rounds of focusing and you can hit some one 24 kilometers away.

 

to give an appropriate sense of scale the earth's (and presumably malifaux is on a planet similar to earth in size) horizon is about 5 km away for a typical human height observer.  Twenty four kilometers straight up puts you, again on earth, halfway into the stratosphere which is higher than the concord flies.  The longest sniper shot recorded to date was 2.47 kilometers, a paltry tenth of what a decent malifaux character can do with a vastly inferior gun.

 

Frankly even at the x30 we get 720 meters which seems unlikely given how crude rifles in the late 1800s were.  I've limited it to just x10 regardless of the amount of  's.

[zeeblee]

The only problem is that I'm relatively sure you lose Focus at the end of the round like most other conditions.  Though you could potentially interpret "to next action" as lasting until an action is actually taken.  The skirmish plays by the first interpretation, but it's possible the RPG operates in a different way.

 

This reminds me of the free action rail gun from DnD.

[011121]

I've been assuming it lasted until a non-focus action is taken.  I thought the table top game played that way too, actually.  Was that changed from 1E?

Anyway with the calm and collected talent and ranged expert it's still possible in game to get focus + 3 and fire in one round.

[Omenbringer]

Now that is funny. I remember discussing Rifle ranges and making them at least somewhat realistic during the play testing. Fairly certain it should be x10 for Focus +1, x20 for Focus +2 and x30 for Focus +3 not x1000 for Focus +3.

 

This puts the rifle ranges much more in line with reality. This would put the Howles Pattern 1874 with a range under Focus +3 of about 720 yards.

[Mason]

Fairly certain it should be x10 for Focus +1, x20 for Focus +2 and x30 for Focus +3 not x1000 for Focus +3.

 

That was probably the intention, yes.

[Piranhamoose]

As far as realism, apparently current .22 rifles have an average effective range of 150 yrds.