We Really Underestimate The Effect of Guns in World/Chronicles of Darkness Games

The thing reared out of the darkness, fangs bared, and red eyes shining with an infernal light. It held vaguely to the shape of a man, but it stank of untold centuries, and the sight of it made you feel as if a thousand insectile legs were scrabbling at the inside of your brain, trying to escape. It took one step, then another, already thirsty for the hot, wet blood it could smell pounding through the human's veins.

Lisa was half-numb with terror, but her finger still tightened on the trigger. The Mossberg bucked in her hands, roaring as fire erupted from the barrel of her gun. The dragonsbreath round tore into the creature, and it shrieked with outrage, and pain. Lisa racked the weapon on instinct, and squeezed the trigger again. The second round blew off the creature's head, leaving nothing behind but a scorched neck stump, as the kindred who had seen centuries turn from the dark shadows of the world fell away to nothing but a cloud of burning ashes.

"No weapon forged by mortal hand, huh?" she said, her voice shaky as she racked a fresh round into her weapon, and slipped a few fresh shells into her gun.

Wait... they're packing what!? No, get me the hell out of here.

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High Caliber Strategy (Guns Are Lethal in This Game)

If you've played any of the games set in the World or Chronicles of Darkness, then you already know the sheer variety of nonsense these games have when it comes to the supernatural. From rampaging werewolves, to centuries-old bloodsuckers, to death-defying sin eaters, and iron-allergic creatures from another dimension, there's magic and monsters aplenty lurking in the dark corners of these modern games. However, we often get so caught up in the power plays between reality-bending mages and primordial creatures of darkness that we tend to forget the sheer, killing power of a modern firearm.

And I'm not just talking about vehicle-mounted military ordnance, here... regular, everyday guns can spell game over for even potent supernatural creatures who roll the dice and come out on the wrong end of a bet.

I talked about this a while back on Discussions of Darkness on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, but I feel like this really bears repeating here. In all versions of these games, firearms deal lethal damage as a rule. For those not familiar, there's bashing damage caused by punches and blunt force trauma that heals relatively quickly, lethal damage caused by guns, blades, and so on that is far more difficult to heal, and aggravated damage which is like using silver on a werewolf... aggravated damage usually makes a character dead in very short order. In the Chronicles of Darkness when you make an attack with a firearm you roll your Dexterity + Firearms dice pool, and add your successes to the weapon's damage rating to determine damage dealt. So if you're firing a rifle (4 extra damage) or a shotgun (3 extra damage), and you end up with a decent number of successes (say 3-4 of them) that's enough to drop someone into unconscious and bleeding out... and that level of damage can also cripple or kill a supernatural creature if they don't have proper protections against what's being fired at them.

The other thing that makes firearms so deadly is that they ignore a character's Defense (as long as the firearm isn't being used in melee distance). If you're being attacked in melee, or someone is throwing something at you, you have the ability to apply your Defense against that action, representing your ability to duck, bob, weave, etc. out of the way to slip punches, dodge blades, and so on. Firearms don't care about your Defense... the only thing that can save you from being shot is armor, cover, and some pretty powerful supernatural abilities.

I say this not because I want folks to think that firearms are a completely overpowered aspect of this game... but instead to realize that guns are a massive equalizer in a modern fantasy/horror game. And if your game is set in America, the land of Smith and Wesson, this is going to be something people run into quite a lot when they end up playing hardball.

A Literal Arms Race

Now, all of this is not to say that guns are an automatic win. For one thing, armor and shields rated for ballistic encounters (the sort of stuff you see a SWAT team roll up in) can allow characters to wade through a battlefield without substantial harm if they have a bit of luck. Secondly, you still have to be able to actually hit a target, and when it comes to distance, lighting, cover, dodging, etc., firefights can quickly become choking, nasty affairs... especially because so many of these games take place in cities and not in open, empty fields on bright days with clear sight lines.

Just as importantly, though, one of the major aspects of the World and Chronicles of Darkness is secrecy. While it is perfectly possible to roar up to an encounter dressed for a Texan wedding and ready to leave a few thousand shell casings in your wake, that sort of thing tends to get noticed in a big damn hurry... and that's exactly the opposite of what you want. Especially when you consider that the authorities have more guns, bigger guns, and there's a lot more of them than there are of you, the application of firearms tends to become far more strategic when you're trying to solve plot. Sure, you might keep a sidearm on you for personal protection, or wear a ballistic weave vest under your coat, but you aren't gearing up all the way just to go about your daily life.

This is a lot like how it's frowned upon to stomp around town in a fantasy RPG dressed in full plate and carrying bared steel. People in the modern world tend to get extremely nervous when someone in a full suit of tactical gear shows up to a grocery store with a shotgun over one shoulder, and a brace of flash bangs on their hip.

Move fast. Break stuff. Disappear.

However, it cannot be overstated that this is not a technology V. supernatural dichotomy. Because firearms being this widely available mean they're going to be in the hands of supernatural creatures and their servants, too. Whether it's gang enforcers who've been juiced up on a kindred's vitae, mortals sworn to fight and die in the service of a changeling, or a mage who has turned a gun into one of their ritual implements, the interactions of modern day weaponry with the supernatural can put you on a fast track to seriously bonkers (and deadly) encounters.

With that said, I feel it's important to understand that when the guns come out, that's when things get really serious in this game. Don't breeze into a room full of heavily-armed bruisers thinking you can take them because you're one of the game's main characters... all it takes is a little overconfidence and a few good rolls on the ST's part for your character to die of lead poisoning on the first round of combat, regardless of how long you've been banking your experience points.

Good planning and preparation is worth a lot... but there's a reason the monsters melt into the shadows when humans start tooling up and lighting their torches!

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