Rethinking my Firearm Classes

15 Oct, 2025

When I wrote the classes for Revolver, my intent was that every class could use guns, but the Gunslinger would be the class that specialized in them. A piece of feedback I got from multiple players, though, is that they expected more firearm classes in a game called Revolver. Fair enough!

So I took the abilities I like the most from my Gunslinger class and distributed them amongst 3 new classes, each one focusing on a different archetype of firearm user.

Duelist

The duelist is the kind of character who stares someone down at high noon with her hand by her holster. It's a class about shooting first and shooting a lot.

Duelist Class

Iron sharpens iron. You’ve honed your skills by testing them against others in high stakes duels. You long for a worthy opponent.

Whenever you roll for initiative, gain bonus damage to attacks made on your first turn equal to the number of duelist templates you have.

Starts with:

• A trophy from a duel you won (Decide what it is)
• Box of bullets (1d6 usage dice) Choose one of
• Two dueling pistols (hand weapons)
• 1 Hand cannon (field weapon)

Templates

• Quick Draw, High Noon
• Double Tap
• Read the Room
• Fan the Hammer

Quick Draw
Anytime you succeed on an initiative roll, you can immediately make an impaired attack with any of your weapons. If you do, you are moved to the end of the initiative order.

High Noon
Provided a target can understand you and is capable of feeling shame, you can challenge them to a duel.

Out of combat, you can challenge someone to a duel by spending a Style Point, they must make a Mind check to refuse. If they fail, they agree to the duel, and you can negotiate weapons and stakes. Most duels are to the death. Someone with followers may choose to send a representative to duel in their stead.

In combat, you can challenge a creature to a duel by yelling at it as a free action. The creature must make a Mind check or attack you on its next turn. This ability cannot force an opponent to make major tactical errors.

Duels

While you can set any terms for a duel, the most common is pistols at high noon. In this sort of duel, the participants march ten paces away from each other, turn, and shoot. Faster Agility time wins, provided you don’t miss.

During this sort of duel, the participants roll a contested agility check to determine who shoots first. The winner then makes an agility check to see if they hit. If they hit, there is a 3 in 6 chance the loser is reduced to 0hp, and needs immediate medical care, and a 3 in 6 chance they are killed immediately.

Before rolling the contested agility check, Duel participants can choose to take a bonus of any size to their roll. If they do, a penalty of the same size is applied to their agility check to hit their opponent.

If the first character to fire misses, the second participant can roll their agility check to attempt to hit their opponent. If both participants miss, the duel ends in a draw.

Double tap
When using a firearm to attack on your turn, you can choose to attack twice. When you do, both attacks are impaired.

Read the Room
You can tell when trouble’s brewing. After you exchange a few words with someone, you can tell whether they are hostile, unfriendly, indifferent, or friendly to you.

Fan the Hammer
You rapidly and inaccurately empty your gun at a single enemy. Make 1d8 impaired attacks against them. Whenever you use this ability, you cannot attack again with the weapons you used until you spend a turn reloading.

Dead Eye

The Dead Eye is a sniper. They are patient, can hit a shot from a mile away, and are masters at keeping their cool.

Deadeye Class

You figure a good way to take out enemies is shooting em’ before they get close enough to hit you, better is before they’re close enough to shoot you, best is when they don’t know you’re there until the bullet passes through their skull.

Your extraordinary focus grants you a -1 bonus to all Mind checks to resist mind-altering effects for each sharpshooter template you have.

Starts with:

• A piece of flair you won in a sharpshooting contest (Decide what it is)
• Box of bullets (1d6 usage dice)
• 1 Rifle with a scope (field weapon)

1. Extended Range, Long Shot
2. Line up the Shot
3. Sharp Eyes, Perfect Placement
4. Sure Shot

Extended Range
When you use any ranged weapon, treat its effective range as one longer than usual (close -> nearby -> far -> distant)

Long Shot
When using a rifle, you can take out a target from remarkably far distances. You can try to shoot someone who is over 200 feet away from you. Aiming a long-distance shot takes 1 uninterrupted minute. In perfect conditions, you have a 5 in 6 chance of hitting. Those chances are modified as follows.

Your comfortable range is equal to 400 * the number of sharpshooter templates you have.

Line up the Shot
Through focus and controlled breathing, you can line up a perfect shot. You can spend an action focusing on a target you can see. For each consecutive turn you spend doing this, you gain +2 damage on your next attack against them up to a maximum of +10. This bonus is lost if you lose sight of the target, take damage, or take any action that targets anything other than your target.

Sharp Eyes
When traveling, you can spot points of interest over the horizon. Each day you can pick a hex adjacent to the one you are in and learn the appearance of any point of interest that isn’t hidden. When you investigate a hex, you always find any hidden points of interest.

Perfect Placement
When you throw an object that you can lift with one hand, you can choose where it lands, as long as the landing spot is within 90 ft of you and the object can reach that spot with no more than 2 bounces.

Sure Shot
When you use Long Shot, your base chance to hit the target increases to 7 in 6 instead of 5 in 6.

Trick Shooter

This class is inspired by the numerous exhibition shooters who drew in fans to wild west shows in the late 1800s. It's about being flashy and making difficult shots others wouldn't regularly attempt.

Trick Shooter Class

You’ve always aimed for a high mark. A gun feels at home in your hand, and through years of practice, you can hit shots people wouldn’t believe.

Each time you take a Trick Shooter template, your maximum style points increase by 1. You can spend style points on certain Trick Shooter features.

Starts with:

• A distinctive hat you wore in a trick shooting show (Decide what kind)
• Box of bullets (1d6 usage dice) Choose one of
  Two pistols (hand weapons)
  1 Shotgun (field weapon)
  1 Rifle (field weapon)

1. Jack of All Trades, Trick Shooting
2. Hobbling Shot, Flair
3. Make Your Own Luck
4. True Grit

Jack of All Trades
You can spend a style point to take advantage of the unique properties of whatever firearm you’re using.

Hair Trigger (Rifle): You can attack an enemy, even if it’s not your turn

Blast (Shotgun): You can attack two enemies at once as long as they are within close range of each other, using a single damage roll for both targets.

Blow Away (Revolver): A blast to the chest that knocks the target down and leaves them gasping for air. The target is knocked prone and must make a Brawn check to get back to their feet on their next turn.

Multitasking (Dual Pistols): You can attack two enemies this turn

Trick Shooting
You can perform acts of trick shooting that wow onlookers. Whenever you are in a town and perform, you gain 1d4 silver per Trick Shooter template you have and learn one local rumor.

Anyone who sees you perform that isn’t hostile becomes one step friendlier towards you for the rest of the day (unfriendly -> neutral -> friendly -> helpful). You must roll the usage die for your weapons' ammunition when you perform Trick Shooting.

You can trick shoot during a siesta to recover a spent style point.

Called Shot
You can spend a style point to take a shot at someone’s knees or eyes.

Knees: Until your target, or someone else spends a turn resetting their knee, the target can either move or attack on their turn, but they can’t do both. This ability doesn’t work on creatures with more than 2 legs.

eyes: Your target is partially blinded for 1d4 turns, all attacks they make are impaired.

Flair
When you attack an enemy, you can choose to attempt a trick shot. Trick shots have a 4 in 6 chance of hitting (attacks usually hit automatically in Revolver!), but when they do, you recover a spent style point.

Make Your Own Luck
You can spend Style Points to manipulate outcomes. Once per dice roll you make, after seeing the results, you can spend a style point to subtract 1 from it.

Stylish Dodge
Whenever an attack would reduce you to 0 Grit, if you have at least 2 Style Points, you can spend all of them to dodge the attack. Allies witnessing this are inspired and get a -2 bonus to Mind checks for the next 10 minutes.