Black Powder

Black powder is a dark, grainy material that burns rapidly, made of a combination of saltpeter, carbon, and sulfur.Typically, 75/15/10% respectively. Black powder is effectively the earliest explosive on Earth, at around 900 AD (TL3), and is used extensively as a propellant in firearms, cannons and artillery, and for bombs and other blasting applications. 
== When it Shows Up ==
* Early black powder (referred to in GURPS as serpentine)Low-Tech, p.85 is a fairly weak explosive at REF 0.3. This TL3 material tends to separate on its own, and often has to be mixed during battle (pray to Saint Barbara, perhaps). 
* Corned powder, a TL4 invention, is essentially serpentine, but dampened and pressed into cakes, then carefully dried into grains. This allows it to be carried directly into battle (mayhaps held aloft by the arms of a fanatic orc). 
* When used in warfare or mining, black powder tends to be stored in 100-lb barrels (a massive 6dx14 cr ex damage if it explodes), 4-lb cans (4dx4 cr ex), or in roughly 1-lb powder-horns when being used for ammunition.
* In post-apocalyptic settings, black powder might return as a low-tech (and low-requirement) solution to whatever critters or monsters are wandering the wastes.
== When it Leaves ==
Around TL6, cleaner, smokeless powder propellants replace black powder for most firearms, and stable, less temperamental dynamite replaces black powder use for blasting. Black powder is still used in blasting caps and other small detonators, but doesn't see common use outside of niche situations, such as improvised explosives that one might see during a Reign of Steel, or perhaps After the End. Furthermore, black powder is still used for its earliest purpose--fireworks!
== Historical Examples ==
* Black powder was developed in China circa 904 AD, making it one of China's many "high tech" developments ahead of Europe.
* Black powder is used extensively for the muskets and cannons in the "Age of Sail", right up until the 1880s where American cowboys, late Victorians and Meiji-period samurai all get their hands on smokeless powder.
== Nonhistorical Examples ==
* The setting of Banestorm (circa TL4) has effectively and universally outlawed black powder weapons. There's a theory that this is due to some sort of dragon conspiracy to prevent the development of firearms.
* Introducing black powder to a world without it can have disastrous consequences.Infinite Worlds, p.208
* Most worlds between late TL3 and TL6 have black powder
== See Also ==
* Explosives (skill)
== References ==