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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Taran on October 22, 2012, 09:08:04 PM
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Would you have them re-load every second exchange as a full round? Or is there some other mechanic you'd use to represent their slow loading time?
I have a player who's character has a musket as his main weapon.
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I seem to remember a musket needing a full minute of reloating--which is forever in a fight, and certainly far longer than one round in combat. And that's without someone trying to knock your teeth in.
Outside of magical help, I'd say a musket is a one-shot weapon in any given fight. I'd advise he put a few skill ranks into Weapon and get himself a bayonet to attach to it. Or take a stunt that lets him use the bayonet-equipped musket with Guns.
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During the Napolenic Wars, the Brits could get 3-4 shots off an Minute.
Rifled Muzzle Loaders took alittle longer. 2 a Minute, but they could shoot much further.
I believe in Sotc and the Dresden files actions like shooting arent just one bullet, but sometimes several (like murphy and pistols) but its just one scene.
Reloading a Musket I guess could take a turn, or you make them reload and then shoot as a supplemental action.
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I have a player who's character has a musket as his main weapon.
Not sure how realistic you want to be but, if using a musket against modern weaponry, they're likely to only get one shot per scene. Modern combat is fast and mobile - a musket is neither. ;)
Fantazero is correct about the musket's rate of fire - the British infantry's standard was 3 per minute. Post Minie ball (~1860s or so) rifled muskets were as fast, before then one per minute would have been a very good rate.
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The way we've done it is we roughly decide how many bullets are in a clip and then use a suplemental to re-load when the clip is gone. IF you do any spray attacks with Full Auto-type weapons we decided that you have to re-load afterwards.
So, in comparison, muskets would be much slower. I like the idea of it taking longer, though. I also like the idea of a stunt to use Guns for melee for the bayonette.
Should inhuman speed make it faster?
Not sure how realistic you want to be but, if using a musket against modern weaponry, they're likely to only get one shot per scene. Modern combat is fast and mobile - a musket is neither. ;)
Fantazero is correct about the musket's rate of fire - the British infantry's standard was 3 per minute. Post Minie ball (~1860s or so) rifled muskets were as fast, before then one per minute would have been a very good rate.
My game takes place earlyish 1600's. Muskets ARE modern weaponry!
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Should inhuman speed make it faster?
Probably!
My game takes place earlyish 1600's. Muskets ARE modern weaponry!
Cool! In that case do you really need to enforce delays? A musket vs musket battle will have the same exchange length and when you get to melee you need to fix bayonets and charge! ;)
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That's going to depend on how quickly Melee is engaged vs. the musketeers. If someone can engage before the reload is complete then yeah, it'll matter.
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That's going to depend on how quickly Melee is engaged vs. the musketeers. If someone can engage before the reload is complete then yeah, it'll matter.
Well, it's not like the musketeers who are actually threatened by the melee-er (ie. those in the same zone) are likely to continue attempting to reload as they're butchered one by one. The action can be abandoned.
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I'd do it by Guns skill, and kind of use the stress track tiers:
Guns 5+: 1 shot every 2 exchanges
Guns 3-4: 1 shot every 3 exchanges
Guns 1-2: 1 shot every 4 exchanges
Guns 0: 1 shot every 5 exchanges
Have a stunt that bumps their fire rate up (to a max of 1 per exchange).
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I'd do it by Guns skill, and kind of use the stress track tiers:
Guns 5+: 1 shot every 2 exchanges
Guns 3-4: 1 shot every 3 exchanges
Guns 1-2: 1 shot every 4 exchanges
Guns 0: 1 shot every 5 exchanges
Have a stunt that bumps their fire rate up (to a max of 1 per exchange).
That's an interesting idea. The speed powers can boost it the same way it boosts dodge, +1, +2 and +3.
Neat!
Edit: I just had a chat with one of the players(not the one who'll be toting the gun) and we were thinking of making it a supplemental every round. Then just using compels and what-not for those times when re-loading in combat doesn't seem to make sense.
The other comment he made was that the player could have a few pistols as back-up, so re-loading might not matter too much...
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Yeah, pistols as back-up is how pirates usually did it. That said, if you're in any sort of melee, reloading a musket is going to be pretty much impossible. There's like eight steps you have to do in order. There's a reason that even up to the Civil War, after a couple volleys it was 'fix bayonets' and into melee.
If you're going for any kind of realism, then honestly, I'd say a musket user gets his one shot off at the start of combat then has to melee or go to pre-loaded pistols.
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This thread almost makes me want a Guns roll to reload with MoS reducing load time.
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This thread almost makes me want a Guns roll to reload with MoS reducing load time.
Oh hey, that's not a bad idea. Require a combined MoS of X to reload, then it takes what it takes. It even supports doing other things as supplementals and affecting the reload, as well as FP expenditure speeding the process when it counts.
I like this idea more than my own. Speed powers can give their normal bonuses to the roll, and Stunts can give bonuses or reduce the total MoS required.
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MoS?
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MoS?
Margin of Success.
At least that's what it looks like.
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You might be interested in the Sharpe series of novels. Set in the Napoleonic Wars, they've been adapted to films starring Sean Bean as Sharpe, a man who rises from the ranks to be an officer.
There are some excellence fight scenes in those movie that start with a round of musket fire being exchanged and then move to swords, spears, clubs, and the occasional reloaded musket. They really capture the fighting style of that era.
If you want realism, I'd go with "I shoot, then if the enemy lets me I spend the next few turns loading - otherwise I use the blunt end like a club" method.
The reason I'd suggest that is so that the other, non-musket using characters can shine around the musket's limitations. Reloading as a supplemental seems to take away from the other characters.
Richard
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Here's how I'd do it:
Muskets and other black powder guns are one shot weapons. To reload, you must make a successful Guns roll (this would be a standard action). I'd probably call it a Fair roll, then compel or modify given circumstances. Speed powers allow this as a supplemental action.
So you get one shot unless you deliberately reload. Now, this gives a lot of power to spellcasters. If modern weapons have no chance of being part of the game, I'd probably increase the weapon rating of firearms by one step for balance sake.
I like the idea of spellcasters spooking animals instead of hexing in this time period. Animals would become fearful or aggressive towards them.
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So instead of a car's engine blowing out, the horse does.
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So instead of a car's engine blowing out, the horse does.
No, so horses could kick wildly or allied calvalry flee your presence.
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Here's how I'd do it:
Muskets and other black powder guns are one shot weapons. To reload, you must make a successful Guns roll (this would be a standard action). I'd probably call it a Fair roll, then compel or modify given circumstances. Speed powers allow this as a supplemental action.
So you get one shot unless you deliberately reload. Now, this gives a lot of power to spellcasters. If modern weapons have no chance of being part of the game, I'd probably increase the weapon rating of firearms by one step for balance sake.
I like the idea of spellcasters spooking animals instead of hexing in this time period. Animals would become fearful or aggressive towards them.
Yeah. Casters curdle milk, spook animals etc..
There is also a very anti-supernatural feeling...witch hunts are alive and well, so spellcasters don't really make a big show.
So far my weapons are:
Musket/blunderbuss: weapon 3
pistols: Weapon: 2
hold-out pistols: weapon: 1
(maybe I can increase those weapon values by one...I don't know...)
I'm allowing the player to make double-barrelled versions if they can find them or make them.
I'm really tempted to say it takes a full round even though the character has inhuman speed.
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Which is kind of like blowing it out since it makes it useless to the wizard and everyone else.
Of course there's also magic to control animals, so the hexing doesn't have the same backlash as when you do it to technology since magic and technology just doesn't mix. So maybe that animal affecting magic doesn't work at all during this time period? Seems a little weird though.
Machines are fairly simple in the 16th century, but there are some that are complex enough that I wouldn't mind seeing magic hex them. Clock work is becoming a big deal and the steam engine is right around the corner anyway so you're basically on the verge of industrialization depending how late in the 16th century you're looking to be.
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Which is kind of like blowing it out since it makes it useless to the wizard and everyone else.
Of course there's also magic to control animals, so the hexing doesn't have the same backlash as when you do it to technology since magic and technology just doesn't mix. So maybe that animal affecting magic doesn't work at all during this time period? Seems a little weird though.
Machines are fairly simple in the 16th century, but there are some that are complex enough that I wouldn't mind seeing magic hex them. Clock work is becoming a big deal and the steam engine is right around the corner anyway so you're basically on the verge of industrialization depending how late in the 16th century you're looking to be.
The whole theme around the campaign is Magical Mayhem vs Mechanical Might.
Because of <<instert backstory>> much of the main magical Power Houses are weak and isolated. The rise of technology is just taking hold in a newly established colony and are gaining power. Wizards can hex tech, but it's harder to do.
I started a thread here that I will resurrect soon with some custom monsters
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,33425.0.html
Anyways, I like the idea of rolling to re-load - but could it lead to too much rolling?
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Maybe. Because then you are rolling to reload, rolling to fire, rolling defenses, rolling to reload, ad nauseum. On the other hand it makes sense that you can fumble reloading a muzzle loader. You could also fail to reload a regular modern day gun properly though, although it is easier and there are less steps, and they don't make you roll for that.
I think basically you can make it take extra time to reload a musket, but let him get it right every time. Unless you can think of an interesting result of him failing, in which case make it a Guns skill roll.
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Rolling to reload isn't bad, because it 1) makes it his primary action for the round, which IMO is as it should be and 2) it gives him something to roll. It's fulfilling from a gamey point of view.
I think I saw the first Sharpe movie adaptation. It was pretty good. Dude only gets his musket half-reloaded as he's facing down a charging cavalryman. He's got the powder loaded so he just fires the ramrod out of the barrel into the bad guy like a spear gun!
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I'm still wondering how you're going to reload while someone's taking a swing at you. I mean, even if you're an expert musketeer and can plausibly reload in 20 seconds, 20 seconds is a long-ass time for someone to be swinging a sword or whatever at your head.
Off the top of my head, reloading a musket involves getting out the powder, holding the musket straight up while you pour it in, putting the ball in, putting the ramrod in, pulling the ramrod out, lifting the musket again and pouring some powder in the pan, then firing. That's six or seven discrete actions that need to take place in order and having to dodge in melee means you're not going to be able to do it.
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I'm still wondering how you're going to reload while someone's taking a swing at you. I mean, even if you're an expert musketeer and can plausibly reload in 20 seconds, 20 seconds is a long-ass time for someone to be swinging a sword or whatever at your head.
Off the top of my head, reloading a musket involves getting out the powder, holding the musket straight up while you pour it in, putting the ball in, putting the ramrod in, pulling the ramrod out, lifting the musket again and pouring some powder in the pan, then firing. That's six or seven discrete actions that need to take place in order and having to dodge in melee means you're not going to be able to do it.
As far as actions and time go, D&D first ed had a round last 1 minute. FATE's system is kind of flexible (which is one of my players' arguments for having it only be a suplemental)
I like the idea of rolling to re-load, the more I think on it. It gives him an action(instead of an attack) and, I suppose, can still do a supplemental, and since he has inhuman speed, can move a zone.
A failed roll means it takes longer, it can be compelled to fail, a poor role can result in the gun blowing up in his face etc...
The question is: what would the difficulty be?
If the standard is 2 shots/ minute, a mediocre(+0) re-load time would be "half a minute" and to bring it down to "an instant" would add 2 (Fair +2) to the difficulty. It seems low to me. Maybe mediocre is more like 1shot/minute...I'm no historian...
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If the standard is 2 shots/ minute, a mediocre(+0) re-load time would be "half a minute" and to bring it down to "an instant" would add 2 (Fair +2) to the difficulty. It seems low to me. Maybe mediocre is more like 1shot/minute...I'm no historian...
How hard do you want it to be for him to reload in one exchange, right? I personally would make Mediocre 1 shot/minute, but you have to ask yourself do you want the reload roll to actually be a challenge, or just something that he'll probably make without difficulty but that could pose a problem with a poor dice roll?
Secondly, consider the scale of your zone maps you're using, and as others have mentioned, how long you kind of see each exchange taking. If you're limiting musket fire to 1 or 2 zones but see exchanges in 6-10 second intervals, a musketeer is only getting off one shot before their enemies are within slashing distance. If you see exchanges as 30-60-second-long abstractions, however, a 1-2 zone range would make muskets a more effective weapon wrt reloading times.
Off the top of my head, reloading a musket involves getting out the powder, holding the musket straight up while you pour it in, putting the ball in, putting the ramrod in, pulling the ramrod out, lifting the musket again and pouring some powder in the pan, then firing. That's six or seven discrete actions that need to take place in order and having to dodge in melee means you're not going to be able to do it.
This is absolutely true too. Once you're in melee you really need to have a bayonet, sword, or brace of pistols ready.
EDIT: Although if you wanted to provide a chance and give a nod to over-the-topness, maybe count any defense roll results as a block on the reload difficulty. I'd personally just disallow reloads while in melee, though. It's simpler.
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How hard do you want it to be for him to reload in one exchange, right? I personally would make Mediocre 1 shot/minute, but you have to ask yourself do you want the reload roll to actually be a challenge, or just something that he'll probably make without difficulty but that could pose a problem with a poor dice roll?
Secondly, consider the scale of your zone maps you're using, and as others have mentioned, how long you kind of see each exchange taking. If you're limiting musket fire to 1 or 2 zones but see exchanges in 6-10 second intervals, a musketeer is only getting off one shot before their enemies are within slashing distance. If you see exchanges as 30-60-second-long abstractions, however, a 1-2 zone range would make muskets a more effective weapon wrt reloading times.
This is absolutely true too. Once you're in melee you really need to have a bayonet, sword, or brace of pistols ready.
EDIT: Although if you wanted to provide a chance and give a nod to over-the-topness, maybe count any defense roll results as a block on the reload difficulty. I'd personally just disallow reloads while in melee, though. It's simpler.
He's going to have a guns skill of 4 and inhuman speed, which gives him a minimum roll of 1. He's got aspects that he can spend FP's on to increase his roll. Also, I'd allow him to craft quick-reload kits...I forget what they're called, but they speed up the re-load process a bit. So he could get a free tag or two/scene toward his roll. Therefore, I don't see a +3 roll as being excessive. It also accentuates the fact that an untrained soldier isn't much use with a musket beyond firing once.
As far as using it in melee, there's a couple of things I'm thinking:
1. I don't want to gimp him too badly
2. It would be easy to have an enemy make a declaration, "re-loading a gun" which can be compelled to :
a. fail a reload attempt
b. Fail a dodge attempt
c. Have bad stuff happen to the gun/him when it's fired
d. Other bad stuff I haven't thought of
I think it would be too much of a penalty to prevent him from re-loading in melee. Is there anything else that does this? Of course, it would make him pull out other weapons and do different things in combat if I did. I'm also thinking of the game balance regarding casters. It would make casters that much more powerful if I didn't let people re-load in combat.
I'd like to go back to a previous post:
So far my weapons are:
Musket/blunderbuss: weapon 3
pistols: Weapon: 2
hold-out pistols: weapon: 1
I'm allowing the player to make double-barrelled versions if they can find them or make them.
What do you think of these weapon values? Fair or should they be increased?
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I think it would be too much of a penalty to prevent him from re-loading in melee. Is there anything else that does this? Of course, it would make him pull out other weapons and do different things in combat if I did. I'm also thinking of the game balance regarding casters. It would make casters that much more powerful if I didn't let people re-load in combat.
Well...yes. It's a fact of the setting that it's modern weaponry that evens the odds between humans and the supernatural world. I'm all for game balance, but to me, letting someone reload a musket in melee just plain breaks suspension of disbelief, even with the speed power.
Quite frankly, a musket isn't the best choice for a weapon in close quarters, at least as far as firing it goes. That's a fact of the weapon, same as saying that a sword isn't a long-range weapon. If he wants to use a musket, this is one of those truths of the universe he's going to have to contend with--it is, quite simply, not something you can fire with any sort of rapidity. The nature of the weapon was something that every warfighting civilization had to adapt to, so he should too.
Look at every Civil War or Revolutionary War movie--at most there are two, three volleys of musket fire, and you only have time for that because the other side is literally just standing there. Once the melee starts you just plain don't see musket fire because it is more or less impossible to reload a six-foot-long weapon while someone is swinging a bayonet at your face.
If you really have to "balance" it, balance it by compelling him repeatedly to not be able to fire if he's in the middle of dodging.
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I'm all for game balance, but to me, letting someone reload a musket in melee just plain breaks suspension of disbelief, even with the speed power.
It breaks suspension of disbelief for you, but my players are arguing for having it only cost a supplemental. So, it obviously isn't a problem for them. It is for me, though, and I must find a middle ground. Granted, I should have hammered out rules for muskets BEFORE players made their characters, but I didn't and now I'm looking for a solution that is a compromise and is balanced.
If you really have to "balance" it, balance it by compelling him repeatedly to not be able to fire if he's in the middle of dodging.
Well, that's what I was planning. And that was the idea behind the skill role to reload. It makes good musketeers fast and makes the mediocre ones slow. It also lets me compel.
Lastly, this is a game and their characters are supposed to be exceptional and I want the players to have fun. Most of them are first-time RPGers, much less Dresden players. If I go all rules-lawyer on them and tell them "no" for everything, they won't want to play anymore.
It's actually the experienced player who's arguing for the quick re-loads, actually.
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Fantastic roll allows you to reload and fire in the same exchange.
Great roll allows you to reload and take a supplemental action this exchange.
Fair roll allows you to reload this exchange as a full round action.
Less than Fair means that the gun has the aspect "Improperly Loaded."
Speed powers provide their Athletic Ability bonus to the roll.
I would make pistols Weapon 3 (the calibre on many pistols from this period is absurd), but give them a range of 1 zone. I would make muskets and other long guns Weapon 4 (they are the equivalent of "Battlefield Weaponry" as far as difficulty to get in this time period). Holdout guns would be Weapon 2.
This would compare to daggers/knives at Weapon 1, Sabers and Rapiers at Weapon 2, Halbards and Warhammers at Weapon 3.
Make firearms very effective and potent, but difficult to use consistently. That accurately reflects how they were in this time period, in my opinion.
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It breaks suspension of disbelief for you, but my players are arguing for having it only cost a supplemental. So, it obviously isn't a problem for them. It is for me, though, and I must find a middle ground. Granted, I should have hammered out rules for muskets BEFORE players made their characters, but I didn't and now I'm looking for a solution that is a compromise and is balanced.
I don't know your players, so I might be off base on this, but honestly, this seems to me as the player in question being less concerned about believability and more concerned about getting to use his preferred skill and most powerful available weapon as often as he can manage.
I mean, if someone comes at him with a sword or something, chances are he's going to be defending it with the musket. How he's going to manage that and a seven-step reloading process at the same time just boggles the mind. (Maybe if he had a shapeshifting power and gave himself a couple extra arms...hey, it worked for the T-1000.)
Lastly, this is a game and their characters are supposed to be exceptional and I want the players to have fun. Most of them are first-time RPGers, much less Dresden players. If I go all rules-lawyer on them and tell them "no" for everything, they won't want to play anymore.
I'm not saying you should say no to everything. Just to the things that don't make sense.
And he can still use guns as a primary weapon--a brace of pistols can be as nebulous a number as the amount of bullets in a clip, and in my experience combat rarely lasts more than 5 or 6 rounds, so it would be completely believable that he has enough pre-loaded pistols to last him through a scene of melee combat.
And even if he runs out of that, a musket is still five feet of solid wood (potentially with a pointy bit at one end), meaning he's still got a Weapon:2 or 3 to fall back on. To me, that's where the speed power would come in handy--not reloading (which is more precision and finesse than speed), but in fighting hand-to-hand.
It's actually the experienced player who's arguing for the quick re-loads, actually.
I'm sure he is, but I have to ask, is he an experienced gamer or an experienced roleplayer? And while I'm sure he's experienced in gaming, is he familiar with muskets?
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I mean, if someone comes at him with a sword or something, chances are he's going to be defending it with the musket. How he's going to manage that and a seven-step reloading process at the same time just boggles the mind.
He has high Althletics. I'm not going to let him parry with his Guns skill
And he can still use guns as a primary weapon--a brace of pistols can be as nebulous a number as the amount of bullets in a clip, and in my experience combat rarely lasts more than 5 or 6 rounds, so it would be completely believable that he has enough pre-loaded pistols to last him through a scene of melee combat.
And even if he runs out of that, a musket is still five feet of solid wood (potentially with a pointy bit at one end), meaning he's still got a Weapon:2 or 3 to fall back on. To me, that's where the speed power would come in handy--not reloading (which is more precision and finesse than speed), but in fighting hand-to-hand.
I've recommended this and that he take a guns stunt to let him use that skill for bayonettes.
I'm sure he is, but I have to ask, is he an experienced gamer or an experienced roleplayer? And while I'm sure he's experienced in gaming, is he familiar with muskets?
That sounds a bit accusatory...but if you must know:
He is both an experienced gamer AND role-player. He's not the one who has the gun-toting character, but he is advocating for the one who is. The gun-toting one also happens to be completely new at the game.
He's probably as knowledable of muskets as most gamers who aren't historians and have never fired a muzzle-loader - which, I assume, is around 80% of gamers. He's done his homework, though.
The point he's trying to make is he doesn't want to bog the game down too much. We were originally going to do this setting with d20 modern and muskets had sooo many extra rules. He just figured with the nature of Exchanges in FATE, it wasn't a big deal.
@InFerrumVeritas: I don't like the idea of loading and shooting in the same round. I do like the "improperly loaded" aspect.
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He has high Althletics. I'm not going to let him parry with his Guns skill
Fair enough. Though still, dodging athletically makes it no easier to reload a musket than parrying with it.
That sounds a bit accusatory...but if you must know:
He is both an experienced gamer AND role-player. He's not the one who has the gun-toting character, but he is advocating for the one who is. The gun-toting one also happens to be completely new at the game.
He's probably as knowledable of muskets as most gamers who aren't historians and have never fired a muzzle-loader - which, I assume, is around 80% of gamers. He's done his homework, though.
The point he's trying to make is he doesn't want to bog the game down too much. We were originally going to do this setting with d20 modern and muskets had sooo many extra rules. He just figured with the nature of Exchanges in FATE, it wasn't a big deal.
Fair enough. As I said, I don't know your players, so I admitted off the bat that I may have been way off base. I didn't mean it to be accusatory, it's just been my experience that some gamers will argue for things that give them some sort of advantage at the expense of making in-universe sense, and that other players argue for things without practical knowledge on the subject.
In fact, I've been that second type before. I've been in games where I tried to do something and the GM (or another player) has pointed out something I was unaware of that would put what I was trying to do somewhere on the spectrum between "foolish" and "spectacularly impossible so put that down before you hurt yourself."
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Personally I find the option of firing once and then switching to a brace of pistols all getting fired once per pistol to be pretty badass.
Out of curiosity though, where is your game taking place? Because it's pretty unlikely that you can just go waltzing around firing muskets "willy-nilly" over most of Europe. Or with a musket out at all.
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Personally I find the option of firing once and then switching to a brace of pistols all getting fired once per pistol to be pretty badass.
Out of curiosity though, where is your game taking place? Because it's pretty unlikely that you can just go waltzing around firing muskets "willy-nilly" over most of Europe. Or with a musket out at all.
This is frontier country, my friend! Waltz away! Don't get too brash about shooting people or they'll send a posse after you. Some places have strict rules about weapons - most do not. The setting is Rokugan...with a spin....
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Gotcha, yeah probably no gun laws then. Awesome!
I just finished reading the Baroque cycle which happens in the late 16th early 17th centuries and happened to forget about anything that wasn't Europe at the time.
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Reloading muskets sucked, which is why you ended up with
(http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/jpg/duckfoot2.jpg)
and
(http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd189/BengalRegal/longerdakka.jpg)
and
(http://www.ruble-enterprises.com/images/1623/1623_1s.jpg)
So just keep in mind even if you enforce more stringent reloading rules, your dudes can always just carry more barrels. :)
Also, consider how badass that duck-foot pistol would be for a monster hunter. One barrel loaded with silver, one loaded with iron, one loaded with blessed shot. It's got the Catch for what ails ya!
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Oh yeah, that's awesome! I'll be emailing those pics to my players. Thanks.
I told them they could make double-barrelled version with a craft check.
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Mind you the top two pictures are of guns that discharged all their barrels simultaneously.
That Nock Navy Rifle in the middle had a recoil powerful enough to break your shoulder.
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So I went looking on youtube and found that someone put up the Sharpe movies. And those movie used cinematic reloading at times. Ignore the lack of magic and Sharpe's Chosen Men could be a party of PCs, spending FATE chips as needed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOAWSU5_4t4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOAWSU5_4t4)
Around the 3:58 minute mark, there's a typical "I have a musket, you don't" exchange between Sharpe (the man with a musket) and three horsemen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIFhkCgbHY&feature=relmfu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIFhkCgbHY&feature=relmfu)
There's a battle scene at 5:55 shows how well unprepared muskets do against a cavalry charge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbjPQNm7sAM&feature=relmfu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbjPQNm7sAM&feature=relmfu)
At 5:18 there's the start of a "I have a musket, but there's more of them" scene, one where reloading makes a different. As a result of the need for speed, at 7:30 there's a lecture about going off at half cocked.
The page at http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Company (http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Sharpe%27s_Company) lists the weapons used in the movies - including the nock gun (http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Nock_Gun (http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Nock_Gun))
(http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:NockVolleyGun.jpg)
Richard
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@MrD: I'm basically with you in the reload while dodging melee weapons issue. Though, I'd probably use compels in most cases. If they're willing to buy off the compel, then I guess they are able find a quiet moment in the storm to reload that musket. Works for me.