Hollows Weapons: the Rifle

“The world is dangerous but you are more dangerous; you are the apex predator. You are calm; you are methodical; you are operating far above your base instincts. There is no wilderness or threat that you cannot tame or kill. The land is rotten and corrupted but you, paragon of patience, stand pristine above it all.”

The rifle is modernity, and modernity is calm and orderly. No swirling melee, no barbaric brawling, but a measured march towards victory. The Rifle bides its time, and when it acts, it does so decisively, precisely, and professionally.

What is the Rifle?

The Rifle kills at range. It does so without mess or fuss. A Rifle wielder never needs to look their victim in the eye or hear their final scream. 

Whether it’s repeating, high-calibre, or scoped – high capacity, high damage, or geared for sniping – the Rifle’s core ability is the same. It lets its user Focus more closely than any other Hunter. Most Hunters can get one Focus token, which they can spend to get advantage on a roll. Rifle users can have up to five Focus, and they have more options for using it: they can avoid harm, deal extra damage, make more manoeuvres, or claim terrain. Rifle users also gain Focus more easily, creating a satisfying game loop that allows a Hunter to spend a couple of turns setting up, then make one devastating, battle-defining shot.

The Rifle rewards positioning and patience. Pin down an Entity with covering fire to cancel its manoeuvre, find cover and use it to avoid deadly attacks, or simply fall back on training and attitude to keep doing what you were made to do – firing shot after predictable, repeatable shot. 

At Tier 3, the Rifle user’s Focus boosts Sharp, their attack stat, and grants them an extra attack. That’s what training gets you. You’re a reliable, professional killing machine.

What is the Rifle Really?

The Rifle conquered the world. When the dominion of the Isles was at its height, it was at the heart of every conquering force: trade and diplomacy may be what cements an empire in place, but violence digs the foundations. 

But one Rifle doesn’t win a war; ten thousand Rifles do. To deliver ten thousand Rifles – and the ammunition needed to fire them, and the tools to maintain them, and the spare parts to swap out during a campaign, and the soldiers to carry them – you need infrastructure. You need steel refineries and weapons manufacturers and cargo ships and iron ore mines and anti-union laws and strikebreakers and vassal nations and bloodlines and flags and the continual threat, whether implied or explicit, of absolute violence against those who disagree with you. You need civilization.

The Rifle is but the foremost, sharpest point of the grand machine that was the Empire.

The Rifle tells you: you are untouchable, unimpeachable, unflappable. You can do whatever you want because you are in charge and whatever you want is the right thing to do. You’re the conquering army. You’re the state. You’re the rules. You’re the boys’ club, the back-room deal, the secret handshake. You cannot be stopped.

But the Rifle knows, deep down, that it’s nothing alone, without the great machine of Empire to support it. Without bullets and production lines and foundries it’s just dead weight to carry around – an obligation you’ve brought upon yourself that you’re too proud to forsake. 

That’s the Rifle’s secret and its truth: if left alone and told to manifest its destiny, it’s dead in the water.