Silence & Thunder: Pistol Variants in Delta Green (Patreon)

Firearms can be a comfort to Agents who come to see death in every shadow. It's usually a shallow comfort. When guns come out, it's a good bet that the mission has already gone wrong. But Agents and their players will always seek to wring every last chance of advantage out of the instruments they bring the the opera.

SILENCED PISTOLS

Agents kill. Careful Agents kill quietly. What does it take to fire a gun without being heard?

The movies and TV shows where most of us hear silenced firearms are terrible guides. A Glock 19 (9 mm) fires at about 165 decibels. A Glock 19 with a suppressor fires at about 140 decibels, still around the ear's pain threshold and far louder than any power tool. Think of a pistol with a silencer being at least as loud as a movie pistol without a silencer. 

It is possible to have a pistol with the kind of stealth that Hollywood has led us to expect. A .22 pistol firing subsonic ammunition can be not much louder than a pellet gun. A subsonic cartridge means less powerful powder, but loading it with a heavier bullet can make up for lost muzzle energy. And the added length of the suppressor to stabilize the bullet's path can make up for the slower bullet's lost accuracy. At least for the purposes of playing Delta Green. 

A subsonic .22 round has so little recoil that it may fail to move the bolt, eject the spent shell, and chamber a new round. A mischievous Handler can call for a separate Firearms roll to see if the Agent bought or loaded just the right kind of cartridge and maintained the pistol well enough for rounds to feed properly. Failure means the pistol gets one shot and then jams.

• Skill: Firearms
• Base Range: 10 m
• Damage: 1D8
• Lethality: N/A
• Ammo Capacity: 10
• Armor Piercing: N/A
• Expense: Standard
• Examples: Walther P22, Glock 44, Ruger SR22

VERY HEAVY PISTOLS

As soon as Dirty Harry made the .44 magnum a household name in 1971, its days as "the most powerful handgun in the world" were numbered. Shooters will always want bigger guns. 

Hunters use the massive handguns that followed the .44 magnum to hunt bears, wild boar, feral hogs, deer, even bison, moose, elk, and other big game, and for self-defense when getting that close brings a bear or moose charging.

• Skill: Firearms
• Base Range: 25 m
• Damage: 1D12+1
• Lethality: N/A
• Ammo Capacity: 5
• Armor Piercing: N/A
• Expense: Unusual
• Examples: the Ruger Super Redhawk, and Taurus Raging Bull are five-shot revolvers firing .454 Casull; the Desert Eagle Mark 19 is a semiautomatic firing the .50 AE, ammo capacity 7

VERY HEAVY VARIANTS

Barrel Length: Some very heavy pistols come with longer, much heavier barrels, making the pistol 38 to 43 cm long (15" to 17"). That boosts base range to 30 m. An Agent firing such a heavy gun with Strength lower than 13 is at −10% to hit. Some very heavy revolvers have very short barrels instead. Those squat, massive weapons are a little less unwieldy but reduce base range to 20 m.

Even Heavier Cartridges: The S&W .460 and S&W .500 cartridges inflict 1D12+2 damage. Agents with Firearms skill can even find or hand-load S&W .500 cartridges with unusually hot powder and heavy bullets that inflict 2D8 damage. An attack with a round that heavy in the turn immediately after it’s fired is at −20%. 

AGENT'S HANDBOOK TWEAKS

If you're paying attention this closely to firearms, you can make a couple of minor corrections to the Agent's Handbook firearms tables. 

• The .357 magnum should be listed with "medium pistols." Its ballistics fit better with the .40 S&W and the .45 ACP than with the .44 magnum and 10 mm Auto.
• The .50 AE is much more powerful than the Agent's Handbook's "heavy pistols." It belongs with the very heavy pistols detailed here.

Good luck, Agents. I don't expect these options and changes to do much more to keep you alive. But they might offer a little comfort, however false, on your next operation for Delta Green.