Re: [DL] Firing and H2H

["Roy Spence" <roy.ster@virgin.net>]

The reason that the firing/H2H stuff came up in our group is that one of the
guys made up a mean and nasty two gun crackshot character.  After the first
six months of play the player decided to swap him temporarily for an old
way's Indian geezer.  The Indian's only ranged weapon is a spear, but this
is also his tribal relic, therefore he doesn't throw it very often.  He was
a bit surprised about how much more difficult it was to hit someone in the
head in comparison to his old character, and ended up slugging it out with
an enemy only to have a gunslinger shoot into combat over his head and kill
the guy he's fighting.  This has led him to be become viewed as one of the
weaker characters in the group when in fact he should be pretty strong.  The
guy after his first fight asked why anyone would take a hand to hand based
character over a gunslinger because of the increased difficulty to hit.  I
can understand that this may not be a problem for other characters who have
abilities that enhance their H2H capability, i.e. martial arts, but not
everyone want's to play a character like that.

This is what has led me down the road, of H2H is for Fightin' rolls, Ranged
is for shootin' rolls.  A H"H character caught at range is hosed, but
shouldn't this be balanced in some way, so that a shooter caught "up close
and personal" shouldn't still be beter off.  I wouldn't rule out Pistols
being used in H2H but just that they should be of an equivalent (or more?)
difficulty than a Fightin' rolls, all realism aside, of course.

That said, it's just a personal observation.

Roy