If - and it's a big if - you have decided to allow firearms in your Dungeons & Dragons game, this product may be of use. Although claiming that an earlier volume from the same publisher, Fantasy Firearms, is not nececessary to use this work to good effect, you are going to have to obtain some rules from firearms use from somewhere (or make up your own) if you do not possess it.

What this book does have is a selection of fascinating and diverse weapons complete with notes on appearance and history of use, specific rules relating to each weapon's use and often a quite charming illustration. (It's difficult to imagine that the same artist who draws guns so well came up with the near-naked glowering female on the cover, not a pretty sight!). The description of many of the weapons includes the race with which it is most often associated. There is also an impressive collection of firearms accessories, including different ammunition types, handloading equipment and an imaginative collection of magic bullets. There are some magical weapons as well.

Hardware out of the way, next comes a list of feats of use to gunslinging characters... including a bizarre one which allows a spellcaster to imbue a bullet with a healing spell and then fire it at the individual he wishes to heal! A race of gun-happy goblins, a new deity of gunfire and a few monsters which can also use firearms round the book out.

Even if you have chosen to allow firearms, you may feel that some of the weapons herein are a bit too technologically advanced for the concept of hand-crafted firearms which I envisage would exist in a fantasy world where gunpowder and its uses have been discovered... but as rare and possibly unique items they could prove a major surprise on a first encounter!

Return to Fantasy Firearms II: Double Barrelled page.

Reviewed: 6 September 2009