Editing Duel (section)

== Duels with Firearms ==

Historically, dueling firearms were single shot, muzzle loaded pistols manufactured as matched pairs.  A critical consideration in a gun duel is whether or not the combatants will use one or two pistols, the latter case being rare but not unheard of.

Gun dueling had some interesting meta.  In many pistol duels, the combatants would simply shoot their pistols into the dirt (or the air, or otherwise off target) to preserve honor, and then call the whole thing settled for simply showing up.  This cannot always be relied upon, and a key study of this is the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aron Burr.  

One interesting nuance was that both sides had to shoot before the duel was settled, which could turn very grim if one party carelessly shoots quickly (and probably misses) but the other party holds their fire and then carefully aims.  Doing this but then deliberately missing when you absolutely could have killed was the maximum in honor victory points, showing oneself not only supremely brave (for holding your fire when the other side didn't) but then also more honorable and charitable (for not using the advantage).