Shooting and fighting
How do we represent shooting muskets and single-shot pistols?
Basically, we treat shooting similar to casting spells: In both cases, the scene only works if all players act. There is no "hard" system or even points.
You draw your pistol, point it at the charging "Huntsman" and "BOOM!"
The other person decides how he/she will react. It may help to announce something beforehand - but this can also be done ingame and emotionally, e.g.:
"Come closer and I'll shoot your guts out!"
BANG!
(and not: "Offgame info: I'll shoot right between your eyes. And I'm a super shot.")
The other person decides if you really got his guts or "just" his knee.
He howls, braces, curses - and grudgingly gets back up. Now his gun points at you - and you take cover. React appropriately. And if you want to add morer, you've already had fake blood in your hand: Splash! "Ah, the bastard got me!"
Could your character die doing that? Yes, but that's not the point now. Dying directly would be a bit boring.
Now it's all about: playing, acting, getting hit in doubt, having fun. Others observe the scene and enjoy it. We stay in immersion. Playing the way, we played as kids (only without bickering). Everything happens only in our imagination.
It's not about "play to loose." Imagine two people shooting at each other and both always fall right over. It's about "play to play."
Whoever boasts afterwards of having made a particularly large number of hits without having been down once, didn’t get it.
If you shoot someone in the back from behind, no one could act. First yell at your opponent, let him know roughly what you're going to do - and then pull the trigger. Your opponent has to react, too.
If someone shoots and you don't have cover, you'll get hit no matter what. If you yelp and play out your hit, it's more exciting for everyone than a miss. Misses happen enough - if only when a scene gets more complex (and you don't realize someone just shot at you).
How "accurate" does the gun have to look or function?
Only important to us:
- it is safe - nobody gets hurt
- it bangs, but not so loud that others get hearing problems
- it has only ONE shot (no revolver...)
- it fits reasonably the genre
- we don’t use projectiles