Guns were used in early days in the form of cannons, because cannons could knock down walls at longer ranges that the older trebuchets and catapults, plus they were noisy, smokey and made a log of bright flashes, all of which had a tremendous psychological effect of the attackers and the defenders.

Handguns evolved from cannon, mostly for the noise and psycholigical effect the noise and smoke created. Really, early BP guns were more about the noise than the effect, and in pre-industrial times their noise was terrifying to peasants.

In a D&D setting, wizards can cast fireballs and lightning spells to knock down castle walls. Cannons were like as not less developed in that case as a wizard's spells could be just as effective and easier to use. Guns never developed because cannon didn;t develop.

That's certainly a good rationale for not having pistols etc. in your fantasy game. Equally, the disadvantages of D&D magic (limited "ammo", takes decades to train, etc.) could be used to explain why guns would develop in parallel. Depends what you want in your game.

Can a fireball knock down a wall, by the way? I would have thought it wouldn't have much effect on stone. Then again, I don't play D&D, so I wouldn't know.

edit: Actually, you could use this "no need, we've already got magic" to scale back technology even further from the usual mediaevalish milieu we find in fantasy games. No bows, no steel. Maybe, if Tenser's Floating Disc is easy enough to come by, no wheel.

Quote from: CaudexThat's certainly a good rationale for not having pistols etc. in your fantasy game. Equally, the disadvantages of D&D magic (limited "ammo", takes decades to train, etc.) could be used to explain why guns would develop in parallel. Depends what you want in your game.

Can a fireball knock down a wall, by the way? I would have thought it wouldn't have much effect on stone. Then again, I don't play D&D, so I wouldn't know.

Unlikely. IIRC, a D&D fireball produces almost zero actual force, just fire. You'd have to melt it, which is unlikely at best. A barrage of high-level fireballs might burn a hole through it, but it'd be easier at that point just to use a spell designed for the purpose.

A fireball could case a rapid heating of stone that lead to thermal fracturing.

One thing for blackpowder is that it's versatile, it can be used for uprootting stumps to clear fields, or for shattering stone in a quarry.