Quote:
Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic
I agree, there's no real reason to have black powder weapons in the realm of career skills. I can't think of any sort of career aside from what Jason mentioned (employment as a living history guide) or perhaps as a movie armourer, where early firearms would be anything except a secondary skill.
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Somewhat tangential but hopefully interesting is that I've heard Kevin Dockery talk about being the last US Army soldier trained in flint-knapping. The Old Guard had Brown Besses for the bicentennial when he was their armorer.
I pretty much agree, though, that most pre-war careers won't have any reason to have black powder firearms proficiency. Even the living history guides and TV/film guys won't necessarily have any experience firing anything other than blanks from the black powder guns. Some folks might have live fire experience from NSSA or SASS events, but those work better as secondary rather than career skills.
I also suspect Early Firearms was a last-minute addition or otherwise overlooked, because it's not in the skill list on pages 48-49 or the skill descriptions on pages 136-138 of the v2.2 rulebook. Archery covers making ammunition for either bows or crossbows and making staves for either (but not stocks for a crossbow), so a crossbow user needs Early Firearms for shooting and Archery for making ammunition, which makes it an odd double-skill weapon compared to a bow.