Audibility of smokepowder

[Zhorn]

So as a small side quest for my players as they passed through Luskan, they were tasked by the Host Tower of the Arcane to deal with a shipment of smokepowder from Lantan, preventing it from entering into the city and threatening the current balance of power.

While successful, they also manage to squirrel away a single keg for their own fun later, which has me wondering.

How loud would firing smokepowder firearms or exploding smokepowder bombs in in-game terms?
For example; there are spells with "emits a thunderous boom audible out to 300 feet" in their descriptions, but smokepowder (from what I've read so far) doesn't have an audible distance written into the rules.

Out in the wilderness, or in combats where the only hostile force is already aware of the party it won't matter much, but for combats where enemies nearby but otherwise unaware of the party; I'd like to have a good gauge of how close they would need to be to definitely hear smokepowder detonations.

In reality, the sound of explosions and gunfire can travel a pretty decent distance, but similarly the sound of thunderwave should also travel more than 300 feet. So I'm happy to restrict this to in-game logic.
Is matching it up to thunderwave's 300 feet audible distance a good pairing? Should it be shorter/longer?

[Dork_Forge]

So as a small side quest for my players as they passed through Luskan, they were tasked by the Host Tower of the Arcane to deal with a shipment of smokepowder from Lantan, preventing it from entering into the city and threatening the current balance of power.

While successful, they also manage to squirrel away a single keg for their own fun later, which has me wondering.

How loud would firing smokepowder firearms or exploding smokepowder bombs in in-game terms?
For example; there are spells with "emits a thunderous boom audible out to 300 feet" in their descriptions, but smokepowder (from what I've read so far) doesn't have an audible distance written into the rules.

Out in the wilderness, or in combats where the only hostile force is already aware of the party it won't matter much, but for combats where enemies nearby but otherwise unaware of the party; I'd like to have a good gauge of how close they would need to be to definitely hear smokepowder detonations.

In reality, the sound of explosions and gunfire can travel a pretty decent distance, but similarly the sound of thunderwave should also travel more than 300 feet. So I'm happy to restrict this to in-game logic.
Is matching it up to thunderwave's 300 feet audible distance a good pairing? Should it be shorter/longer?

Is there a difference between gun powder and smoke powder besides the latter being magical? If not then 150feet for a pistol sized firearm seems reasonable and 300 for a rifle sized?

[Sigreid]

How close do you want it to be to gunpowder? I shoot paper for fun and I can tell you that real guns are a hell of a lot louder than people who dont shoot think and the movies portray.

[Dork_Forge]

How close do you want it to be to gunpowder? I shoot paper for fun and I can tell you that real guns are a hell of a lot louder than people who dont shoot think and the movies portray.

Out of curiosity, does the average muzzle loader go super sonic?

[Zhorn]

How close do you want it to be to gunpowder? I shoot paper for fun and I can tell you that real guns are a hell of a lot louder than people who dont shoot think and the movies portray.
As mentioned in the last paragraph, I'm fully aware of reality and how game mechanics don't always align to that. So I'm not 100% concerned about trying to map to reality. I'm mostly interesting in in-game consistent answers. If there's a source somewhere as to what it would be in the Forgotten Realms or some other official setting.

[Sigreid]

Out of curiosity, does the average muzzle loader go super sonic?

Nuzzle loaders do not. The bang is still significant. Hearing it out to 300 feet would probably be fair enough.

[Dork_Forge]

Nuzzle loaders do not. The bang is still significant. Hearing it out to 300 feet would probably be fair enough.

Oh just to clarify I wasn't asking for game reasons, I'm just interested in fire arms and have never shot a black powder gun (or that many guns overall being in the UK).

[Nagog]

As mentioned in the last paragraph, I'm fully aware of reality and how game mechanics don't always align to that. So I'm not 100% concerned about trying to map to reality. I'm mostly interesting in in-game consistent answers. If there's a source somewhere as to what it would be in the Forgotten Realms or some other official setting.

I don't think there is an "official" ruling on the sound of firearms, considering firearms are typically fringe or borderline homebrew material, and even a lot of official things that deal thunder damage don't have listed sound travel distances.

[Zhorn]

I may just have to go with the 300 feet if there's nothing in the books or a similar WoTC source.

Scouring through Waterdeep Dragon Heist is not yielding anything there (dang, why can't physical books use a ctrl+f function). Smokepowder and pistols galore... no mention of sound.

I have a pretty dex heavy group, and so they approach a lot of problems with stealth. Will be curious to see how they approach problems knowing they have a keg of smokepowder to play with.

[Sigreid]

It could be used to make a heck of a distraction.

[Callin]

While doing research remember that modern powder is not the same as old school black powder. My quick search has people comparing a gun from the late 1800s to sounding quieter than a AR 15. In my reenacting and growing up near a civil war reenacting site I heard em once a year for many years. They honestly are not that loud using modern powder. Loud enough for 300ft to hear sure. No problem. So older powder and other factors I would give it that range or less for game mechanics.

[Sigreid]

Oh just to clarify I wasn't asking for game reasons, I'm just interested in fire arms and have never shot a black powder gun (or that many guns overall being in the UK).

Actually, even many, many modern firearms, especially pistols and revolvers don't use supersonic projectiles. The vast majority of the noise is the explosion that sends the projectile down the barrel. On some guns, such as a .44 magnum you and people standing hear you can feel a fairly strong pressure wave from the explosion as well.