[UA] Firearms Use

[David M Jacobs]

At 02:16 PM 8/03/02 +1000, Doug Stalker wrote:

>All the combat I've had has started close (10 metre's or less) where
>handguns (or SMGs if you;ve got 'em) would be the way to go.  How do other
>people find firearms getting used in their games?  What sort of combats do
>you find happening?

A few decades ago, the FBI realised that about 80% of gunfights occur at a 
distance of 21 feet or less; I use this as a general guideline.

The PCs mostly engage in close fire combat, which can be a real pain when 
you're talking automatic weapons.  One player has a habit of botching his 
rolls (he once rolled five 00s in a row in one game of CoC) and unloading a 
magazine into one or more of the other PCs.

Only very rarely do the PCs engage in melee; by the time their ammo runs 
out, they start to realise that they've put themselves in a situation which 
they can't escape — and if something isn't scared off/killed by all that 
lead, it's probably pretty pissed at them.

The only real exception to gunfighting is when they decide to interrogate 
someone.  DG GMs/designers on the list might get a kick out of the 
following example:

Whilst playing "Convergence" from the DG sourcebook, the PCs asked around 
and obtained a list of Billy Ray Spivey's friends.  They'd gone through 
Scott Adams' room at the motel and discovered the contents of his 
computer.  When they went to the town hall, they guessed that something was 
amiss, but never really found the truth behind the aldermen.

However, they did realise that a couple of Spivey's friends shared surnames 
with the aldermen.  Their search for Jane Allen turned up no leads (or none 
that they noticed), so two of the PCs found the home of another alderman 
(Cartwright IIRC) and knocked at the door.

Fortunately, his son (one of Spivey's friends) was at home, and came to the 
door with bloodshot, heavy-lidded eyes.  He managed (barely) to keep his 
weed-fueled paranoia at bay, but was still suspicious that two guys in 
suits had turned up to ask questions about Spivey — especially when the PCs 
flashed FBI IDs and told him that Spivey was being held on suspicion of 
drug trafficking.

Not surprisingly, he clammed right up, citing the kind of "I know my 
rights" crap that you see on TV.  After a few minutes, the PCs tired of his 
uncooperative attitude; one pulled a gun and the other dragged Cartwright 
Jr into the back yard.  They proceeded to beat the living crap out of him, 
screaming questions at him and threatening him with the gun.  The poor lad, 
stoned out of his gourd, went nearly catatonic.

The PCs realised that they were getting nowhere and left.  Cartwright Jr 
recovered after about a day or so, and went to meet a lawyer at the local 
diner to tell him his story.

Frank Carincola was having lunch at the time, and was about to wrap up his 
investigation (having exhausted all of his juicy leads), when he overheard 
the conversation.  He rushed back to his hotel room to review the footage 
that he'd taken, and discovered a couple of suspicious-looking figures 
matching Cartwright's description lurking at the edge of one of his opening 
shots.

Carincola took a screen dump of the shot and went around town asking 
questions.  Eventually, he came up with names for the two PCs, and through 
various means, determined that only one of them was actually an FBI agent; 
the other PC's ID was fake.

Guess what was the following week's lead story on Phenomen-X?  #%o)



David M Jacobs
dmjacobs at zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~dmjacobs/
ICQ UIN: 17027598

"'Kevin,' David interrupted, 'what the Germans should have done
was show the Russians a dead cat and ask them to explain it.'

"'That would have stopped the Soviet offensive right there,' I said.
"Zhukov would still be trying to account for the cat's death.'"

— from Valis, by Philip K Dick


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