In Burroughs' Barsoom novels, he justifies all the swordfights (when his heroes have access to some rather brutal firearms) by having all Martians abide by a code of honor that would make it unthinkable to anyone but the lowest rogue to shoot someone who has a sword drawn. The problem with doing this in a role-playing game, of course, is that most players are rat bastards who would have their character shoot a guy in that situation without blinking an eye.
On some level, that's just common sense. Maybe that's why firearms are either not part of the typical landscape of other planetary romances (like in Carter's Green Star and Callisto novels) or of reduced effectiveness (Howard's Almuric). I have tended Athanor toward the latter approach, because I like the swashbuckling idea of having some pistols around, especially if they are essentially black powder arms.
But Athanor also is home to many pieces of lost technology, including a variety of firearms. But in this case, we're talking rayguns, Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon style ray guns. Call them lasers or death rays, I don't really care. But ray guns will be rare but dangerous treasure that heroes can get ahold of, and will make guns much more likely to be used. And the PCs are going to use them with brutal efficiency.
So will I enforce some sort of Burroughsian "code of chivalry?" Of course not. There are better ways to control this through more subtle Referee manipulation:
1. Control the Ammunition
How much can players recharge their weapon? If the answer is not much or not at all, every shot from the precious 4d6 damage laser pistol is going to be tracked much more carefully.
2. No Mercy Cuts Both Ways
An arms race of brutal behavior will eventually either land the PCs in trouble or kill them. Combined withe some in- or out-of character discussion of this escalation may help curb some of it.
3. Actions Have Consequences
Ruthless cowards will not make as many friends as brave warriors. Though the players could always live by the motto "oderint dum metuant" I suppose.
However, I think that this stuff isn't necessary-- at least not in a heavy-handed way. My experience is that powerful items so long as they don't dominate all aspects of play and plot can work well in the game if they ar treated realistically. Others will change their expectations (for good or ill) of the guy who can fell a Tyrannosaur with a couple of shots. Having such an item may make you the target of the attentions of Bad People who want to take it from you, from Good People who want your help, and from Scared People who find your power intimidating. Include that kind of stuff in game, and things get interesting.
But ray guns will be rare but dangerous treasure that heroes can get ahold of...
ReplyDeleteThe problem here is that while they are
(1) rare in the campaign world, anything you give the PCs becomes
(2) common in the campaign sessions.
Your three solutions are created to force case 2 to better match case 1. I think it would be best to metagame the problem away. Just as Kirk and Co. never see the technology of the aliens they defeat (cf the Kelvan technology from ST:TOS "By Any Other Name", and countless other examples), I see no problem with having the PCs encounter super-tech in a conflict situation and then never see it again. Just part of the game-table contract.
True but:
ReplyDelete1) there's super-tech and plot-device. A ray gun is super-tech, but not not game-breaking. A ten-shot 3d6 laser pistol is nasty, but kind of balances the lack of fireballs in a campaign where you could run across a T-rex as a random wilderness encounter....
2) having things uncommon in the world be common in the sessions is kind of normal. After all, the heroes aren't common. They will be weird.
My real goal is to force the players to hoard their badassery. This is a more organic way than, say 4e's encounter and daily powers, or fire-and-forget magic spells but it's more or less the same thing.
Of course, I had a Mage campaign where the player characters destroyed the universe and remade it in their own image, so I may have odd ideas about where to balance PC power in the game.
For guns and use consider reading S.M Stirlings "Court of the crimson kings" (his venutian "Sky People" is also good).
ReplyDeleteThe martians use sword and gun, but the guns are really dart shooting neurotoxins, and there is plenty of armour that may stop that but not a sword.
I just discussed this in a very different context: why not just use guns in a modern say sword and sorcery game. While my method wouldn't work for you context (I decided guns = gunpowder = potion = saving throw) but it is a sticky problem.
ReplyDeleteOne player in my campaign bought a laser pistol of the ancients 2 sessions ago and still hasn't fired it, despite being killed once and in later fleeing an overwhelming battle in which 2 characters died.
ReplyDeleteWhy? I'm guessing it has something to do with him having no idea how many shots it has left.
Blair, I think we are on the same wavelength.
ReplyDelete