Instead of Lord of the Rings think Warhammer fantasy.
Reading "Warrior Priest" atm, almost all the fighting is done with hammer and sword but one character has a pistol as well, lets him get out of a tight spot every now an then.
What he said. Think of a thiefy character, light or no armour, covered in little vials and he has a metal tube with an automated tinder box on it. when he activates the clockwork mechanism of the tinder box it explodes and sends a tiny ( or a bunch of tiny?) metal balls flying out the other end of the tube.
Now its not a gun, its a bang stick, and its cool!
If they did anything more advanced than that I might be a little disappointed but I can always just ignore them, plenty of ways to play these types of games... Right Obsidian? Right?!
...
Right answer! (if you said yes)
I know I could just do research, but do we have an estimated release date yet? I'm getting excited