[HoE] weapons rant

[Number 6 <toadpooka@usa.net>]

Why do people insist on having a katana in EVERY game in the world?
I'd pay big money if I could insure that I could get into a game without ever hearing someone come
up with a crappy excuse why their Space Marine from the year 10,3125 can carry around a katana made
by a master of 'ninja forging' in the year of 15 BC.  the katana, in most cases, can cut through any
material known to man, is folded approximately 3*10^9 times, and does a million billion points of
damage.  JUST LET IT GO!  It's a cliché, and a pretty dumb one at that.  If you want a world where
everyone and their little brother has a katana up his sleeve, go play one of the Highlander
ripoffs.  I promise not to stop you.
Every game has its own particular style.  Characters in the game should fit into the milieu of the
setting.  If you haven't noticed, HoE is NOT set in feudal Japan.  The differences are subtle, but
they're there.  Get your character a gun, maybe a sword or big knife (the sledgehammer idea sounds
cool), and leave the ninjas back home in Tokyo.
If anyone ever asks me if they can have a katana in any of my games, they will be swiftly beaten
about the face and neck with the largest fish I can find, whilst I give them a long history lecture,
informing them of everything that has happened in the past 1000 years.  If they don't wise up after
that, I will put THEM into a forge and fold them over a hundred times, and see how they like it.

-- 
Love,
Joseph Malik