but thats why were putting tons of red tape around such things.

(kindle almost dead so i may not post much for a while)

That's really the issue. If a player can have a gun, how do you balance it out so that the player isn't so powerful that they may as well be god moding (to use video game terms.

Making it single shot and fiddly to re-load, comes to mind, as does the danger of getting black powder wet. Plus, as Tek mentioned, the older weapons were prone to being damaged by the very act of firing, so add a percentage chance of damage, up to and including damage to the wielder.

Mages are the most powerful long distance combatants, for example, so their power is balanced by physical weakness and the need for time to cast. If you can strike before they do, you have a chance.

Make the same sort of compromise with guns, or the game will be lopsided, and change dramatically.

I know I have more thoughts on this, and am normally more articulate, but I am fighting my three year old for control of the keyboard

Celtia and I looked into this a few days ago for the TSC setting, we reckoned that 200 years from when the game's we've got running are over black powder will begin to be used.
Since we're using the 4e rules we then went and worked out an actual class that could use it and unique weapon rules (it didn't count as a melee or ranged weapon), Celtia has more details though, I might ask him to post...

you should check out the gunslinger class for pathfinder. it was just released in the ultimate combat book. you can find it here.>>> http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/gunslinger

Keep in mind that flintlock weapons are pretty modern, and didn't arrive until the 1600s. Gunpowder weapons in general, though, are much older than most people realize, and saw use in European warfare as long ago as 1346 at the siege of Calais.

Saying that guns need special training is kind of backwards, too, since one of the major reasons for their rise on the battlefield is that it is much easier to train soldiers in their use than it is to train them to use bows.

If you want to balance the power and ease of use of a firearm (which is pretty much essential), then I'd suggest focusing on the unreliability, inaccuracy, and slow rate of fire of the weapons. At a time before inventions like the rifled barrel and such, there's no such thing as accurate gunfire.

Just my thoughts.

Well, Clockwork, it seems I came by this thread before you even told me about it.

I have spent a long time preparing a design for imbuing basic flintlock-styled weaponry, but as of yet only in the Edition of my knowledge (4e). Currently working exclusively with pistols.

In 4e terms, I made them in a seperate group than "Melee" or "Ranged" in most cases, rendering the vast majority of Ranged-based attacks and feats unusable with them, hampering them. In addition, they suffer from a much shorter range than what most ranged weapons would have (before Rifling - the 'grooves' inside a barrel that causes more modern ammunition to spin - guns of any kind were far from accurate at much distance). This does of course mean that you must spend a feat to be proficient with them in 4e, since no class is automatically given proficiency (save one, which I'll get to later). However, even with proficiency, there is no bonus to hit. Without proficiency, it is the only weapon where you get a negative modifier to hit, an element of their remarkable lack of accuracy.

Of course, it may be easy to train to use a firearm, but to use such (what would now be described as) primitive weaponry, you must remember the act of gravity and air resistance, the angles of fire, the range of fire and holding a steady hand when you only have one hand to do so. These rules describe when pistols first were seen as viable weapons, but they are far from commonplace.

What seperates them truly, though this is only applicable to 4e, is how they are used. Instead of using a Standard Action to 'attack' (as it works in 4e) and a Minor Action to 'reload' as it is for crossbows, pistols are more complex still.

Minor Action: Fire weapon (due to the greater ease of aiming something so small and light and pulling a trigger)
Minor Action: Clear chamber (inefficient gunpowder from the setting leaves residue in the barrel that MUST be cleared for another shot to be effective)
Standard Action: Reload powder and Shot

For those familiar with 4e rules you'll see you're able to fire and reload a gun in a single turn, but you'll use up every action you have including Movement. In addition, though the damage is greater (still in testing for balance, but I'm looking at 1d12 damage die), the loss of additional actions and the lack of benefits and range drives most classes away from gunpowder based weaponry as a primary weapon.

Of course, seeing as it takes a Minor Action to fire...plenty of classes MIGHT try to make use of it as a one-off sidearm. Though given their expense over any other weapon, and without the Quick Draw feat it will still take a minor action to switch to, and another to fire, not many may see it as worth it.

Finally, there is a 'backfire'/'misfire' chance. By rolling a '1' on a d20 to hit, you must roll once more to dictate what effects it will have, which there is a table to explain, from your weapon permanently destroyed and you taking fire damage, to the best-case-scenario, where you don't even lose your ammunition in a basic misfire.

I am in the process, though, of making my own class that exclusively uses the various pistols, and has his own abilities and feats just as a ranger would have with his/her bows or dual weapons, the Pistoleer. Among other benefits, the Pistoleer can more or less avoid some of the worse outcomes of backfiring weapons. But to avoid rambling any further, I'll stop now.