I'm a sucker for gunplay, and while I appreciate a good melee system (there are not many), guns have a unique attitude that I find cannot be matched by any other traditional weaponry.

The idea came to me of mixing in gunplay in a non-traditional setting such as medieval europe, or any other similar fantasy setting, when I was playing Skyrim the other day (a game plagued by horrible combat) with a mod that adds dwemer firearms. Suddenly I felt like I was legitimately enjoying the combat, and it clicked for me what a unique combination of visual design and gameplay it was that elicited such a reaction.

I love the forested, rustic, generic fantasy setting. I think it's one of the best settings for inspiring that sense of exploration and comfort. In a video game that is heavily focused on combat, being able to defend yourself is going to be a large driving force for that exploration. No personal weapon is better at defense than the modern firearm. The game would still have to be challenging, of course, but just the psychological effect of carrying a firearm I think provides an interesting gameplay experience. This, coupled with a non-traditional fantasy setting, will likely give way to some pretty interesting emergent gameplay.

The weapons would be written into the game logically, so that they feel old and primitive, but still effective in their use. They'd have a sort of 11th-13th century aesthetic vibe. Large, clunky, wood and metal contraptions.

I think guns are unique in that they give the player a sense of security, that the player doesn't have to rely on physical prowess in order to defeat an enemy. This will produce a psychological effect in the player which carries over into the gameplay style. Not to mention, guns are far easier to structurize a combat system around from a developers perspective.

My intention with this idea, also, was not to just have something like in Fable 2 & 3, where guns are just a small part of the game world, but to instead have firearms be a huge focus. Firearms have revolutionized warfare in the modern era. Just imagine the effect they'd have a thousand years ago! In this idea, the whole world would be essentially centered around firearms, but as if from a medieval perspective.

Does this sound like a plausible idea for a shooter, and do you think it would work?

I think running around with a single-shot musket could get very boring very quickly and end up with me charging with my bayonet. Don't you think?

Also, I tend to prefer melee in systems such as Mount&Blade or War of the Roses. These work great.

I think running around with a single-shot musket could get very boring very quickly and end up with me charging with my bayonet. Don't you think?

Also, I tend to prefer melee in systems such as Mount&Blade or War of the Roses. These work great.

Actually, I was thinking it'd be a bit more stylized than just single-shot muskets. Like a crude fully-automatic firearm device but with a medieval aesthetic.

Since the firearms would be such a large focus of the game, I'm also thinking that upgrading/customization would be a fairly large portion of gameplay as well. I envision an entire medieval society obsessed with this firearm culture, as I'd imagine them being a thousand years ago or so.

As for the melee portion, as I envision it the game would probably have something more simplistic but functional, but again with the main focus being on gunplay. It would likely not be as intricate as something in M&B. Something more in tune with a dedicated melee button, perhaps a secondary melee weapon as backup.

I think running around with a single-shot musket could get very boring very quickly and end up with me charging with my bayonet. Don't you think?

I second that.

The closest would be maybe dishonored. Even though we are a few centuries later, Corvo stil have a one shot weapon.And it felt really good. More like a shotgun than a pistol, but it was the kind of gun I'd use very rarely. And it was ok because they were a whole lot of option beside using our gun. But if I had to do the whole game with the gun only, I think it would quickly become tiring. The reload time would become frustrating because it would break the flow of the game.

But I just re-read your post, and you propose to have modern firearm (or at least decent) in term of efficacity, and a medieval looks?

This is not a bad idea, because if you go with the old arquebuse, I guess you would miss something like 90% if your shot if you are not at very close range, and that would'nt be very fun to play (my numbers are not accurate, but you get the idea )

In the other hand, if you introduce modern firearm, the whole world would have to adapt, and many medieval things would become obsolete (armor? close combat weapon longer than a knife? bow?)

But, the idea itself is interesting, it would be nice to have guns but not a steam-punk universe, for a change. It could be more like warhammer 40k. They have spaceship, gatling power sword, and other futuristic things but the feeling is more medieval than futuristic. So, for the good of the game and the rule of cool, I think you can dismiss some physics laws

Glad you like the idea!

Indeed, you'd have to take things into account like armor and all that. Personally, I love the 11th-12th century setting, which was generally before plate armor came into existence. Perhaps there could be some medieval equivalent to modern ballistic vests? I think all of this would look really interesting from a visual design perspective, and even more so it would look unique.

You could tell a story on its own just through the visual design. A society that was reliant on the old ways of combat (swords, axes, shields) suddenly and drastically changing to adapt to the invention of the firearm. Discarding of old and useless material like armor and shields and reshaping the way fortresses are built to account for this new method of warfare. Perhaps there would be cults of traditionalist fundamentalists that condemned the firearm as being the work of the devil or something? I think there's a lot of interesting things you could do with this setting.

Woah, semi-auto?

I think, if you'd like to be on-theme, you'd need to be scared about blowing yourself up. A single shot was already dangerous, imagine a semi-auto rifle or chaingun...

That being said, would your enemies also be granted that kind of firepower? Otherwise, it would feel like a zombie apocalypse (ranged vs melee) but in a medieval setting, which somehow isn't so strange afterall (awkwardly).

Woah, semi-auto?

I think, if you'd like to be on-theme, you'd need to be scared about blowing yourself up. A single shot was already dangerous, imagine a semi-auto rifle or chaingun...

That being said, would your enemies also be granted that kind of firepower? Otherwise, it would feel like a zombie apocalypse (ranged vs melee) but in a medieval setting, which somehow isn't so strange afterall (awkwardly).

Well, there'd probably be some liberties taken with the design. Maybe some master engineer designed a firearm that was capable of semi-auto fire in an efficient manner, similar to modern weapons? It would have some setbacks though, like maybe it overheats, can only fire very high caliber rounds, or are very hard to control?

As I envision it, the majority of people would have access to this technology. However, there would still be remnants of the past, so you might see the occasional enemy try to rush at you with a melee weapon or something. I suppose this could open up an interesting gameplay opportunity where the player character is vulnerable to melee damage since you're potentially not wearing armor, and the primitiveness of the weapons could make it hard to get to a rushing enemy in time.

I was also thinking something on par with the draugr dungeons in Skyrim, where you'd have otherworldly foes that maybe didn't use traditional weapons at all. Maybe some more organic enemies that spit acid or spikes on you or something. Kind of like a sci-fi/fantasy mix. Doesn't that sound cool?