Current Events > interesting discussion about guns in RPGs, especially turn based RPGs

(+) Yeah! (+)

in a game like shadowrun, wasteland, fallout even to some degree stuff like X-Com, jagged alliance or immersive sims like deus ex.

so basically this came up in the discussion about The New World (the latest age of decadence developer's game) set in a generation spaceship vs an RPG called vigilantes which is a mafia/crime themed X-com like RPG both are in development.

so the new world's have developed an interesting gun mechanics in their RPG. it is that your skill in guns does not influence the raw damage dealt by the gun itself. your gun skill or stats related to it won't scale the damage a gun have and they made them only affect accuracy/effectiveness of the gun itself.

while vigilantes have a more traditional scaling system, although they have also the same depth of locational damage and debuff. in other worlds the same gun would do different damage depending on the level and stats of the holder.

in TNW, for example we have 2 characters, one skilled in gun, and one doesn't they both the same gun. if both hit each other with it, they more or less would have dealt the same damage. the difference is how often both would hit, and deal damage to vital organs (aka vital organs)

since the game has alot of types of shots and locational damage like VATs in fallout, a more skilled user could easily deal more critical damage, or targeted shot that give certain kind of debuff (like headshot that deals critical, or arm shot that reduce enemy's to hit chance, or leg shot that reduce enemies' AP)

and i think it is a great system if the complex system of targeting and locational damage and stuff. not to cite realism as a guidepost to game design, but it makes sense overall, because a baby accidentally shot a gun into someone would deal same damage as a soldier doing the same thing, with a trained soldier would do it more accurately and effectively.

vigilantes, on the other hand use a more traditional system where if a gun deal 10 damage in level 1 character, it would deal 100 damage in level 20 character.

which one do you prefer and do you think RPGs should create new creative mechanics or stick to traditional, proven formula?
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