The only restrictions in Dungeons & Dragons are your creativity and, occasionally, any physics-defying exceptions you are able to find to the rules. D&D can be both strange and amazing if you’ve ever spent a session coming up with new ways to attack or start something.
However, the community occasionally finds a strategy that is so strange and twisted that it seems to be a joke on the rules of both Dungeons & Dragons and reality. The Peasant Railgun is one of those magnificent strategies; it is a hypothetical “weapon” that can deal close to 400d6 damage in a single turn.
How can players use the working class as a weapon in Dungeons & Dragons?
The Peasant Railgun swiftly evolved from a forum joke at the end of 2008 to a full-fledged fan theory. It created a supersonic projectile launcher using D&D 5e mechanics using a disassembled ladder and only peasants.
Players must have precisely 2,280 commoners, spaced five feet apart in a straight line—more than two miles—in order for this to work. After that, a ladder must be dismantled and broken down into a ten-foot, roughly seven-pound wooden pole. It’s going to be your projectile.
After that, each peasant uses the Ready action to pass the pole to the person in front when it’s their turn. A D&D round lasts only six seconds. In that time, the pole travels 11,400 feet. That means it moves at about 1,188 miles per hour—close to Mach 1.5, or supersonic speed.
Dungeons & Dragon’s Falling Object rules state that an object suffers 1d6 damage for every 10 feet it falls, with a maximum damage of 20d6. However, damage from an object moving horizontally at crazy speeds is technically unrestricted by RAW (Rules As Written).
You did indeed read all of that correctly. This isn’t a spell. This is not a relic. Using math and insanity, players have turned a broken ladder and thousands of commoners into weapons. To put it plainly, it is absurd. It’s hilarious. Theoretical D&D physics at its most chaotic level.
Why is it that you can’t do this anymore?
The Peasant Railgun is revolutionary, not just ridiculous. Dungeon Masters (DMs) worldwide began to worry about what could happen if someone tried to build this supersonic, peasant-powered death machine in their campaign. Meanwhile, players continue to love the meme.
The community banned the exploit because it became too powerful. It abused common elements like object interactions, combat timing, and the Ready action. Sadly, peasants must now return to their normal tasks. They can no longer throw sticks at supersonic speeds—even though it was the smart move.
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide’s section on “Players Exploiting the Rules” explains that the rules don’t mimic real-world physics. They also weren’t meant to turn farmers into a ballistics team that could defeat opponents in one round.
Additionally, the Ready action is not for creating superweapons but rather for heroic movie scenes. Therefore, even though the Peasant Railgun is still a well-known illustration of what happens when imagination and lax regulations collide, the most recent rulebooks have made it illegal.
Ultimately, this exploit reminds us that the game’s best moments aren’t always the fights or treasure. They come from inventive, rule-bending plans imagined by a group of frantic explorers.
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