Guns?
 

I've been keeping pretty sheltered from everything PoE because I want to remain relatively spoiler free. The other day I noticed someone talking about guns in PoE. Then someone was saying it's all guns. Then someone saying all you need is guns.

Seriously?

It has guns?

Why?

Why not? A lot of fantasy RPGs include firearms.

Why not?

The guns in PoE are of the late Middle Ages/ early Renaissance variety, ie arquebus, blunderbuss, etc, so thematically they are appropriate.

Functionally, they act as like the other ranged weapons, only more powerful and slower to load. The only exception is the Blunderbuss, which causes several low damage hits per shot.

Not sure what the problem is.

Edit: Ha, zahra beat me to it :D

OMG they put guns in it :D

Just :D

Why not? Flip that right back'atcha with a:

Yeah, but why?

LOL

ummm…..okay then. o_o

Not sure where this conversation is going soooooo….

Why not? Ever play Arcanum? If not, you should. :)

Ranged weapons are meant to be sold, not used. Just wade in there and get filthy, that's how I roll.

Lol, that sounds like an awesome way to roll!

Re: my surprise:

Well, the game has archers. The game has Mages who fire magical bullits. That's why games with bows'n'magic don't really need guns, because it makes bows and magic redundant. Well, at least in an Infinity Engine game sense.

I'm sure you could have a game where it's all much of a muchness and the choice between archer, mage and musketman is just one of personal taste rather than group benefit, but if that was the case, if I was trying to relive (whatever) an IE game, then I wouldn't be choosing the musketman. But if the musketman is the OP game-changer then I guess, as a gamer, you gotta have that musketman and say bye bye archers and mages.

Also, I don't really count nor imagine the IE games to be comparative to the renaissance era. That's really pushing the whole medieval fantasy era to the edge of itself, because the whole point about the renaissance was that it was the start of the end of fantasy, the start of the era of knowledge above legend.

For me, the imaginative comparative eras for these types of games is always somewhere between BC and about 1300AD, so when they refer to anything as 'the ancient Gods' or 'the forgotten gods' then they are referring to the polytheism that dominated before Constantine and when they talk about warrior legends they are talking about characters like King Arthur and Boewolf (Dark Ages) to whit our current heroes are somewhere around 1000ADish.

But yeah, if this RPG is all about a general 1500/1600ADish era then good for it. Still surprised me and I'm now more unsure about the game, but hey-ho.

I'm like you, I don't like mixing gunpowder and magic, in fact I hate it (probably the reason why I could never play any 'steampunk' game).
As far as gameplay goes, it's just variety, they're not better or worse than bows. Each type of ranged weapons has pros and cons: more or less damage, short to long range, slow to fast, with/without reloading, chance and duration of interrupts, plus special effects like damage reduction, chance to prone, use best of two different damage types, etc.

Guns are even explained in the game. Priest of Magran made them so normal people could fight vs Mages. Seems that was a big conflict in the past vs Mages.

BTW, there are guns in D&D settings as well just that IE games decided to not put them in. In PnP you can easily get them once you got money for them and have access to steady supply of gunpoweder.

Yes, I can cope with the idea that a game can have any elements it chooses, it was just in the context of this part that it's odd and surprising for me and hence my reaction of 'why'.

To which I guess we'll never know without asking the guy that first suggested it in whatever board meeting and what was discussed in that board meeting.

Is it an important issue, probably not. Is it an interesting issue, oh yes, without a doubt, yes :biggrin:

I don't like the guns in this sort of setting but it didn't bother me at all, just like there is a lot of equipment in games I never use. It can all be sold for things I do want….