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Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 15:36:44 GMT
From: "Jussi Marttila"
Hello again , y'all.
This is something which I have been wondering about for a while. How much "gun control" do you use in your games? I mean , how "manly" hardware do you allow your players to fool around with?
IMHO , giving the players too much and too big guns kills off some of the horror. I've ran a few "haunted house" scenarios in which I haven't allowed the investigators to use more than their service revolvers/pistols. With less guns , I think that you get the players to think more , shoot less. Try killing that Dark Young with a '38 , now…
However , I have allowed my players to use heavier guns from time to time ( a SPAS-12 shotgun in the trunk of their Chrysler and once a Tommy gun in Carcosa). Overusing them just diminishes from the effect of "right , big guns out now , serious opposition". Besides , I've found out that guns don't really matter that much except against the guys in purple bathrobes. In one of my latest scenarios , the investigators actually managed to arrest 4 cultists out of 5. I applauded that action. Think about this : Reverend Jonas , the Evil Undead Sorceror from the Chapel of Contemplation (check CoC rulebook about the Chapel) , ends up in an criminal insane ward , high on Valium for all forseeable future…
Oh , btw , I have started getting ideas about running a one-shot scenario which takes place during the American Civil War. Featuring Pinkerton , Robert E. Lee and a concentration camp… That would be something for a change.
Jussi M , somewhat tired of AK-47.s
"Kennedy was killed by mutants!"
-Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
From: Davide Mana
Greetings.
Jussi hit us with
This is something which I have been wondering about for a while. How much "gun control" do you use in your games? I mean , how "manly" hardware do you allow your players to fool around with? IMHO , giving the players too much and too big guns kills off some of the horror. I've ran a few "haunted house" scenarios in which I haven't allowed the investigators to use more than their service revolvers/pistols. With less guns , I think that you get the players to think more , shoot less. Try killing that Dark Young with a '38 , now… However , I have allowed my players to use heavier guns from time to time ( a SPAS-12 shotgun in the trunk of their Chrysler and once a Tommy gun in Carcosa). Overusing them just diminishes from the effect of "right , big guns out now , serious opposition". Besides , I've found out that guns don't really matter that much except against the guys in purple bathrobes.
I generally tend to keep the hardware low in all of my games, from fantasy to space-opera to CoC - not an easy feat, considering I have three full-fledged gunfondlers in my team (one of them once came to a game of ours straight after a hunting afternoon, with a dead boar in his car's trunk).
In most of my games, normally the premise looks tame enough to justify only the minimum firepower.
There are exceptions, if reasonable - when we played 'Across the Fence' (my short and nasty 'Nam era DG thing) the guys were simply staggering under the weight of guns and ammo from day one.
Back-up guns.
M16s.
M60s.
Kalashnikovs.
Grenade launchers.
Bouncing Bettys
Plastic demolition charges.
When they were allowed the means to call for air strikes against Cambodian Tcho-tcho villages they were grinning like honest-to-goodness Cheshire cats.
Sure, finding themselves a few days later over the fence, in deeply forested terrain swarming with rabid tcho-tchos and byakhees, having to rely only on knives to open their way out of the bind before the air strike hit, they were considerably less cheerful.
But the result was memorable.
Heavy ordnance is a crutch.
Like with all crutches, the fun starts when you take it away.
And this is it, I guess.
From: Jean-Philipe Chapleau
I generally tend to keep the hardware low in all of my games, from fantasy to space-opera to CoC - not an easy feat, considering I have three full-fledged gunfondlers in my team (one of them once came to a game of ours straight after a hunting afternoon, with a dead boar in his car's trunk). In most of my games, normally the premise looks tame enough to justify only the minimum firepower.
I too agree with that. In almost any RPGs whenever the PCs begin to get big/heavy weapons, they tend to use it too many time and for each & all situation.
Thus one usually sweeps the party whenever they put something immune-or-almost to the weapon. I try to keep games low with artillery. But I do allow them to get it… That's when a smiley-happy GM tells the player that it is not such a great idea… They usually relent… or they don't come back…
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 20:27:15 +0200
From: Eckhard Huelshoff
Good Evening.
Davide Mana schrieb:
Greetings.
[snip]
I generally tend to keep the hardware low in all of my games, from fantasy to space-opera to CoC - not an easy feat, considering I have three full-fledged gunfondlers in my team (one of them once came to a game of ours straight after a hunting afternoon, with a dead boar in his car's trunk). In most of my games, normally the premise looks tame enough to justify only the minimum firepower.
There are exceptions, if reasonable -
That's the decisive point: The number and types of weapons should fit into the situation.
In regular 'FBI-type' investigations my players normally carry the usual handguns.
If things are expected to get a little bit rough, shotguns and even SMGs do occur.
If the PC perform SWAT-like Operations the arms and equipment carried is granted according to the situation.
The same goes of course for military operations.
Of course the opposition as well is armed according to the situation.
And all those arms are only helpful against our friends' human enemies.
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 16:08:24 +0800
From: "John Woods"
Jussi Marttila wondered: How much "gun control" do you use in your games? I mean , how "manly" hardware do you allow your players to fool around with? IMHO , giving the players too much and too big guns kills off some of the horror.
Actually, I've found that some players will self-regulate. Especially if it's in their best interests. In the first Delta-Green scenario I ran with my group (who are used to Cyberpunk and Mechwarrior), one player didn't notice a bystander with a videocamera as he confronted what he thought might be one of the main villains. When the amateur footage was picked up by a local news-station, he got to explain to his boss why he handled what was supposed to be a peaceful situation with the words "Federal agents! <bang> You are surrounded <bang, bang>. If you are armed <bang, bang, bang>, throw down your weapons <bang> and come out with your hands up <bang, bang>. We <bang> will not harm you <bang, bang>."
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 09:11:56 +0200
From: Russel Lunt
Jussi Marttila wondered:
How much "gun control" do you use in your games? I mean , how "manly" hardware do you allow your players to fool around with? IMHO , giving the players too much and too big guns kills off some of the horror.
I agree. Large guns help overcome the sense of horror at witnessing something indescribable rip through a horde of cultists/innocents. I prefer to go for the 'well slap me sideways, this sucker ain't goin' down, Billy-Ray,' feel for the gun-toting yahoo in every role-player. I go for the nasty bad guy that takes minimum damage from impaling weapons (or even zero damage from non-magical weapons), but one that has a weakness that either research or careful deduction from the evidence at hand with unravel with minimal effort. I like the work smarter not harder approach. big guns in my campaigns tend only to enhance the feeling of helplessness.
subscribers to gun fondlers monthly would probably get upset with me as a keeper, given the above penchant, but occasionally it encourages them to actually role-play a bit. :) and to actually respect the wizened prof at the back with the barely double figure san when he says, 'I really think you should concentrate on keeping that thing occupied while I work on getting rid of it'.
Reverend Jonas , the Evil Undead Sorceror from the Chapel of Contemplation (check CoC rulebook about the Chapel) , ends up in an criminal insane ward , high on Valium for all forseeable future…
pretty cool coup. bigger guns tends to help the party blow the innocents up with the bad guy if he's a normal mortal, as well as to conveniently destroy all evidence/clues. my group has a good track record at 'stopping the badness' (even if they sometimes take a bit long and need a few extra clues :) ) but a poor one at 'working out what the hell was going on'. they seem to think that big guns are appropriate on occasion. they just seem to choose the wrong occasions.
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 08:39:13 -0400
From: "John Sherman"
Usually the way I handle the "big gun rule" is that there is a direct proportion to the gun size my characters use to the chance that Joe Joe the Texas state trooper will engage in a legal altercation. I typically don't restrict use/ posession of firearms as long as the player comes up with a good explanation as to how they obtained it. (A professor at Yale will not have a .50 cal sniper rifle because daddy was ex-special forces) Lastly, I always give my players the chance to shoot first ask questions later. They killed the wrong guy once because the real bad guy set him up. Makes for some good moral dilema. Plus DG hates it when they screw the job up and bring attention to themselves. With some players, I let them hang themselves and deal with the aftermath. Sometimes a hunting horror is an ATF agent. (heheheh).
From: Morpheus
"John Woods" <ua.ten.tenii|oreh#ua.ten.tenii|oreh> wrote:
Actually, I've found that some players will self-regulate.
Yes, so do I. I've run many games, and often (here I think to AD&D, Twilight 2k, ecc.) the main players' worry is "how powerful is that weapon?. But, after a few CoC adventures, they understood that weapons aren't the best choice to defeat (?) the Mythos. This is especially true when we are speaking about DG : in this case my players seems to understand that the most useful resource is knowledge, political influence, and right contacts. Sometimes I let them use some big&powerful weapon (typically hand grenade, MG or launch grenade), but only as "special effect" for the story. Actually, they had never used these kind of weapons to direct damage a Mythos entity.
After the first DYOSN, they learned the value of a good escape ;)
So : let them make experience, and hit them hard when they think "big guns = no problemo" …
Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 12:20:57 +0100
From: "Andrew Clark"
With regards to taking on cultists it should be born in mind that many DG Agents come from a intelligence/police background and hence have a interest in gathering information. DG as an non-agency could certainly do with a better idea of what it faces.
Unfortunately it's difficult to interrogate someone whose been reduced to strawberry jam (jelly). Of course in the fight againist the Mythos how far PCs are prepared to go interrogating cultists etc; is a different question.
If they step over the boundaries of 'good' taste depending on the keeper it could affect SAN and if a ruthless attiude developed dealing with cultists starts to come into day job…'Day at the Races' defending yourself vs IAB anyone?