Shotgun (SLASH'EM)
) 
| |
|---|---|
| Name | shotgun |
| Appearance | shotgun |
| Damage vs. small | 1d2 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d2 |
| To-hit bonus | +3 |
| Weapon skill | firearms |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 200 zm (+10/positive enchant) |
| Weight | 35 |
| Material | iron |
- For the firearm in dNetHack and its derivatives, see shotgun (dNetHack).
- For the "automatic" counterpart, see auto shotgun (SLASH'EM).
A shotgun is type of a weapon that appears in SLASH'EM, SpliceHack, SlashTHEM, and Hack'EM. The shotgun is a one-handed launcher that uses the firearms skill and is designed for use with shotgun shells. It is made of iron.
Pirates in SlashTHEM know the item as a blunderbuss. In Hack'EM, the shotgun appears as a broken crossbow when unidentified, similar to the item in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack.
Contents
Generation
Shotguns are generated differently across variants.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, shotguns are not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
Shopkeepers are always generated with shotguns and 3 different stacks of 3–22 shotgun shells as ammo.[1]
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, shotguns are not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
Shopkeepers are always generated with shotguns and 2 different stacks of 3–22 shotgun shells.
SlashTHEM
In SlashTHEM, shotguns are very rare and make up 1⁄1000 of weapons randomly generated on the ground, in shops or as death drops.
Gun stores can also stock shotguns, and have a 2⁄25 chance of generating one on each square.
Shotgun generation for monsters behaves as in SLASH'EM.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, shotguns are not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones.
Gun stores can stock shotguns, and have a 1⁄20 chance of generating one on each square.
Shopkeepers have a 13⁄20 chance of being generated with a shotgun and 2 different stacks of 3–22 shotgun shells as ammo.
A shotgun can be created at a forge by combining a pistol and a broadsword.
Description
A shotgun has a +3 to-hit bonus, a very limited range of 3 squares and a -1 rate of fire. The negative rate of fire means that a hero who is Skilled or better in firearms will generally need a shotgun with a high enchantment in order to fire more than one shot per action, as detailed in the table below.
Rate of fire
| Enchantment | Unskilled/basic | Skilled | Expert |
|---|---|---|---|
| +2 or lower | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| +3 to +5 | 1 | 1 | 1d4-2 (min 1) |
| +6 to +8 | 1 | 1d4-2 (min 1) | 1d5-2 (min 1) |
| +9 | 1d4-2 (min 1) | 1d5-2 (min 1) | 1d6-2 (min 1) |
Strategy
Shotguns theoretically make for powerful early-game weapons due to the high damage from shotgun shells compared to ordinary bullets, but several factors make them highly impractical for this purpose. One primary factor is the uncommon ammunition: firearm ammo will always mulch when shot, which necessitates maintaining a cache of ammo and reserving it for emergencies and similarly dire situations; Yendorian army sergeants and captains are the only monsters aside from shopkeepers that can generate with shotgun shells, and both only have a 1⁄2 chance of being given the ammo along with auto shotguns to use them.[2][3]
Shopkeepers themselves are the earliest possible sources of shotguns, which also makes them very likely to kill most heroes that attack or aggravate the shopkeeper even if that hero's goal is not taking the shotgun for themselves—while a cursed shotgun significantly weakens the shopkeeper's melee damage in theory, they are still strong enough to batter most early-game heroes to death unless that character has escape items on hand. Additionally, most heroes that are both capable of training firearms and can either kill a shopkeeper quickly, or else engineer circumstances where they are killed off, will be very unlikely to actually need the shotgun themselves. This is especially true if the now-untended shop also has valuable weapons, armor or other items besides the shopkeeper's own gold and personal inventory.
With all of the above in mind, shotguns may have a potential niche for some character builds as an emergency short-range weapon of sorts; their uncommon ammo and lower rate of fire make them tedious to use on a long-term basis, compared to submachine guns and assault rifles.
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"Consider detailing per-variant strategy."
Origin
A shotgun, also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece, is a long-barreled firearm that is designed to shoot straight-walled cartridges known as shotshells: these shells either discharge "shot" (numerous small spherical projectiles) or slugs (singular solid projectiles). Shotguns are most commonly used as "smoothbore" firearms, meaning that their gun barrels have no rifling on the inner wall, but rifled barrels for shooting sabot slugs (slug barrels) are also available. Shotguns are derived from older smoothbore firearms, such as the musket widely used by European militaries from the 17th until the mid-19th century—their most direct ancestor is the muzzleloading blunderbuss, also used in similar roles from self-defense to riot control.
Shotguns were often favored by cavalry troops in the early to mid-19th century, due to its ease of use, generally good effectiveness on the move, and its substantial power (particularly for coachmen); by the late 19th century, they were largely replaced by breech-loading rifled firearms shooting spin-stabilized cylindro-conoidal bullets, which were far more accurate with longer effective ranges. The military value of shotguns was rediscovered in the First World War, when American forces used the pump-action Winchester Model 1897 shotgun in trench fighting to great effect. Since then, shotguns have been used in a variety of close-quarters combat roles in civilian, law enforcement, and military applications.
Shotguns come in a wide variety of calibers and gauges, ranging from 5.5 mm (.22 inch) to up to 5 cm (2.0 in), though the 12-gauge (18.53 mm or 0.729 in) and 20-gauge (15.63 mm or 0.615 in) bores are by far the most common. Almost all shotguns are breech-loading and can be single barreled, double barreled, or in the form of a combination gun. Like rifles, shotguns also come in a range of different action types, both single-shot and repeating. For non-repeating designs, over-and-under and side-by-side break action shotguns are by far the most common variants. Although revolving shotguns do exist, most modern repeating shotguns are either pump action or semi-automatic, and are also fully automatic, lever-action, or bolt-action to a lesser extent.
Shotguns have an effective range of about 35 m (38 yd) with buckshot, 45 m (49 yd) with birdshot, 100 m (110 yd) with slugs, and well over 150 m (160 yd) with saboted slugs in rifled barrels, with the spread of small projectiles making a direct hit unnecessary. Comparatively, shotguns and shells in SLASH'EM are exaggeratedly short in range but high-accuracy: this is likely based on a similar trend applied to shotguns in many shooter games, where they are portrayed as close-range weapons with a conical spread range that inflicts heavy damage to targets within the area (presumably due to the shot hitting those targets before a majority of the spread occurs).
