Re: [WW] Weird Wars Problems - Savage Worlds - D20 Modern

["Steven \"Conan\" Trustrum" <trustrum@rogers.com>]

At 02:42 PM 10/8/02 -0400, Cpt. Canuck you wrote:
>Steven \"Conan\" Trustrum wrote:
>Nor do I care about the 'creation of guns.' Not exactly a good analogy.
>Most of us have swung a stick and have an idea of what swordplay is
>like.  Many people have never shot a gun, or have any idea about
>gun-problems.  I'm sure that it'd be boring to gun-enthusiasts, and
>those who carry guns around with them all day.  Even historians
>dedicated to WW2 may have no idea about guns.

Then again, most people have seen a movie where someone's used a pistol or 
rifle and know enough to pretend to operate them in an rpg. Watch "Saving 
Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers". Tada.

>Excuse me for offending you with this tripe.  No one said anything about
>pages and pages of notes, just some gun info for those who know nothing
>about them.  Sure, it can be played without knowing anything about guns,
>but considering the large amount of what you call 'tripe' in simply
>history lessons that could easily be read on the net, another page of
>gun info isn't so much.  What about all the 'tripe' about the generals
>and other info all readily available on the net?

It didn't offend me, but I can't believe that someone would seriously want 
someone to include this in an rpg when it is VERY accessible. Basically you 
want the rpg company to save you the time of doing some research on your 
own. And yes, when trying to put a manuscript together, spending even just 
a single page on this (something that really isn't at all necessary for 
playing the game unless you've been living under a rock and think that the 
bullet comes out of the butt of the rifle) is asking quite a lot. It's a 
rare moment when a publisher says to an author "we don't have enough info 
here, think you can throw in a few filler pages, maybe something about gun 
operation?" Quite the opposite. It is usually the publisher telling the 
author to cut his manuscript down by X amount of pages to meet their layout 
projections. This means that if I see a book with something this 
unnecessary in it, I can't help but think about how better the space could 
have been used.

As for the stuff about the generals, that is more relevant to the game. It 
builds atmosphere and helps set the ground work for the story, not to 
mention that some of it has been altered to suit the Weird War storyline. 
However, whereas you need to know a bit about the people who lived and 
breathed this war in order to play in the setting properly and 
contextually, you don't need to know anything more about the equipment than 
is necessary to know how it shall be useful to the characters. In this case 
"point gun, pull trigger, see if you hit, roll damage". The small 
descriptions provided are more than adequate to fill in any other blanks.

>Regardless, I don't think people can understand unless they're the ones
>who don't know guns.  Its just like computers.  Those who know them
>can't understand people who don't.  Jeepers man, there is no 'ANY' key.
>Your CD-ROM is not a cup holder!

This isn't analogous at all because you trying to operate a computer for 
real isn't the same as you buying an rpg book and saying "my character 
wants to use a computer." I played several rpgs involving VR and computer 
hacking for years before I even owned or operated a computer. If I'd bought 
the an rpg book on a cyberspace and it was filled with descriptions on 
bytes, kilobytes, processor speeds, data transfer rates, the differences 
between 64 and 128 byte encryption, etc. I would have rushed to see if I 
could return the bloody thing.

>As well, considering the game is heavily based on gun play, more info on
>those guns wouldn't be terrible.

That's what a library is for. A role-playing company is about making 
role-playing games, not about providing resources and history or technical 
lessons for the material covered in those same games. It goes without 
saying that if you have enough interest to play a game based in WWII that 
you will A) either already know enough to do so or B) have proven enough 
interest to learn more on your own.


Steven "Conan" Trustrum
   Email: steven@trustrum.com
   Homepage: http://www.trustrum.com
"The only real people are the people that never existed"     -- Oscar Wilde