“My gun’s bigger than yours”

It’s been a long time since I’ve put anything together, in fact too long. This is due to a couple of reasons. One: I’ve had my head buried deep under the sand between work, school and keeping my girlfriend happy; and, Two: I haven’t been able to think of anything new and exciting. I was actually afraid I’d burnt everything out of my dense skull. ;) But fear not I’ve actually been thinking for a while on some subjects and I finally was inspired by that old feeling of combating munchies. In fact I was inspired by one line.

“My gun’s bigger than yours.”

Long have I been aware of this universal problem in gaming, but I’ve had the luck of player understanding of the unspoken rule. If your character has a particular item, so can your enemy. In gaming terms if your PC has the Barett 121 it’s likely that, sometime in the future, so will the opposition.

The arms race in any game is something that can cause more than just a small problem. Just look at a game like Rifts which, very quickly, went off the deep end and is only now recovering. With the infusion of product by the new authors, the game is finally almost back on track. For the longest time all Rifts was was who had the latest book with a more damaging weapon and who picked the latest OCC with the most power. For the longest time, no one who started when it was just the mainbook, playing a cyber-knight, a headhunter or a juicer (for that matter) could hope to survive against players who had characters out of Atlantis, Phaseworld, or every ridiculous new sourcebook. After that, until I believe it was the Old West came out, for the first time the various OCC’s and RCC were again on even ground.

The same applies to SR. With the release of Fields of Fire, how many PCs right now don’t have something from it? Be it the Area Alpha or the Barett 121? I can remember when the Ingram Valiant was one of the most feared weapons and the Predator was “The Gun”. Now it’s the burst fire Ruger Thunderbolt which I needn’t remind anyone is supposed to be a rare weapon. Even before the T-Bolt usurped it, the Salvatte Guardian was the gun that replaced the Predator. But it was a balanced gun. It could only fire a burst as its whole action.

Now what’s the reason for all this… It’s elementary my dear, “Damage”. The Thunderbolt does more damage in one salvo, which by the way is only one simple action to do so, than a round from the Predator. It’s a burst firing .45 caliber handgun. Nobody wants the Predator anymore, it just doesn’t do enough damage! Now, lots of people will use the reduced firing time with this weapon as an excuse, but that just doesn’t work in SR. 99% of the fire fights only last for a couple of rounds at the worst. Unless the bad guys got enough armor to slow down tank rounds, he/she isn’t going to last more than a couple of ticks when the combat junkies open fire upon them. If the junkies have to reload even if it’s their precious Thunderbolts generally they’re screwed anyways. They’ve decided to take on a literal army, even if it’s just a corp army.

Now here’s where it gets really bad. Every other net book has weapons that do even more damage than that. Before FoF was released most of the heavy pistols all of a sudden did 10M or 12S. With Assault rifles whose base damage was 8S. So the Internet too has tried to do the same. Not that there aren’t some great netbooks out there. Some of them add a wealth of good information that will add to your game. You just have to pick and choose which ones carefully. Here’s a hint: check out Nerps Underworld. Ignore the weapons and move straight to the Criminal Gear and Equipment and Fixer sections, they’re great.

Now all this aside here is what really ruffles my fur as a GM. It’s bad enough that the player wants this stuff and will probably get it either at character generation or by bitching and moaning until their GM caves in. Which is something thankfully I haven’t had to deal with in my current group. They’re the best crew I ever managed to assemble. Took me two long years to do it and a fracture of what in the beginning was a good group too. But after a long rebuilding period I did it. I found the right mix of people and a good mix of playing styles with players who can listen to each other as adults. But as I found out especially in other games, like the one with a completely different group, players expect the advantage to be all theirs. But the truth is far from that.

In the list below I’ll give a few of the truths of RL and gaming.

If you have a nasty weapon which does a lot of damage. You can bet someone else does too.
If you ever meet them, they are going to do their best to kill/maim/hurt you just as much as you’re trying to do to them.
You’re not going to give quarter, so neither will they.
You’re the Bad Guy to them.
The guy with the biggest gun/mage is going to be shot at first.
Yes, I’m trying to kill you.
Sniping works both ways.
Expect to get hurt in a fire fight.
Player’s don’t always win.
And finally to repeat. If you like the Barett 121 and shoot a lot of people with it. Someone else likes it too and is going to shoot you with it.

Now there is a solution. Respect the GM and the unwritten rule. If you don’t want your GM to bring out that big gun, neither can you. By working within a pact of reasonable agreements and an understanding of what is acceptable in your game, things can be worked out. Characters will survive, they might get beat up but they’ll survive. The bad guys will engage you realistically and act realistically and everybody is going to be happy. Most of the time. ;)