History Main / WithThisHerring

Somewhat less noticeable these days, not because your kit is any better, but because the setup of being deliberately sent on a mission by a king is currently out of fashion, in favor of either being a penniless drifter who just [[LateToTheTragedy happens upon the adventure]], or [[KidHero being a kid]] who [[JumpedAtTheCall insists on taking on the challenge]].

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator FP-45 Liberator]] was a small single-shot .45 caliber pistol developed by the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, designed to be cheaply mass-produced and then distributed to resistance fighters throughout occupied Europe. The extremely rudimentary design included a 4-inch unrifled tube for the barrel and extensive use of stamped sheet metal. 300 workers at the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors put together one million pistols in a mere ''13 weeks'', which were priced at $2.10 apiece. The idea was for bomber planes to drop large numbers of them into European cities with a significant [[LaResistance resistance]] presence. With just one shot at a time (and no means of reloading quickly), a maximum lifespan of about 50 shots, and an effective range of no more than 8 yards, the FP-45 was basically good for just one thing: to sneak up on an Axis soldier, kill him with one shot at point-blank range, and steal his weapon. It would also have been a good psychological weapon against the Axis, because [[ParanoiaFuel you never know who might be carrying one.]] It came in a waterproof box with ten rounds of ammunition, a wooden dowel to push spent casings out of the chamber, and a set of cartoon instructions. Alas, there was a problem: The Americans sent 500,000 Liberators to the British, but the Brits were not ultimately willing to carry fewer bombs in their planes so that they could drop boxes of liberators from the sky. They did end up giving some out to Greek partisans, at least. Most of the 500,000 that stayed in America also found no use, while the few that were distributed went mostly to India, China, and particularly the Philippines. The vast majority of the Liberators that remained in storage after the war were destroyed by the government.

%% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion in the Caption Repair thread:
%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900
%%

[[caption-width-right:350: Maybe the monsters are up to settle this with a game of Tennis?]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Well, it's not like Sprig is [[BratsWithSlingshots any better equipped]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:When life gives you a tennis racket... [[NonSequitur make lemonade]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:When all you have is a tennis racket...]]

* The Confederacy was plagued by logistics problems throughout UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. When it started they had no capability to manufacture artillery (and when they developed it the results were sub-standard and inaccurate), their rail system was badly placed to move troops through the interior of the country, and for some reason, they had a chronic shoe shortage for basically the entire war. Some Confederate re-enactors like to think this was ''planned'', claiming that since the high (c.50%) import tariffs on manufactured goods - like machine parts - kept the South dependent on the North for building up its industry and supplying it with factory-produced consumer and other goods. This is true, insofar as it really was a side-effect of the US' longstanding protectionist economic policies. In the South, capital that could've been invested in manufacturing was instead invested in slave-labor plantations growing cash crops and buying everything else, leading to the ironic situation of the South having plenty of cotton but a shortage of clothing, as they simply sold all their cotton to textile mills in the North or overseas.

* The Confederacy was plagued by logistics problems throughout UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. When it started they had no capability to manufacture artillery (and when they developed it the results were sub-standard and inaccurate), their rail system was badly placed to move troops through the interior of the country, and for some reason, they had a chronic shoe shortage for basically the entire war. Some Confederate re-enactors like to think this was ''planned'', claiming that since the high (c.50%) import tariffs on manufactured goods - like machine parts - kept the South dependent on the North for building up its industry and supplying it with factory-produced consumer and other goods. This is true, insofar as it really was a side-effect of the US' longstanding protectionist economic policies.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator FP-45 Liberator]] was a small single-shot .45 caliber pistol developed by the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, designed to be cheaply mass-produced and then distributed to resistance fighters throughout occupied Europe. The extremely rudimentary design included a 4-inch unrifled tube for the barrel and extensive use of stamped sheet metal. 300 workers at the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors put together one million pistols in a mere ''13 weeks'', which were priced at $2.10 apiece. The idea was for bomber planes to drop large numbers of them into European cities with a significant [[LaResistance resistance]] presence. With just one shot at a time (and no means of reloading quickly), a maximum lifespan of about 50 shots, and an effective range of no more than 8 yards, the FP-45 was basically good for just one thing: to sneak up on an Axis soldier, kill him with one shot at point-blank range, and steal his weapon. It came in a waterproof box with ten rounds of ammunition, a wooden dowel to push spent casings out of the chamber, and a set of cartoon instructions. Alas, there was a problem: The Americans sent 500,000 Liberators to the British, but the Brits were not ultimately willing to carry fewer bombs in their planes so that they could drop boxes of liberators from the sky. They did end up giving some out to Greek partisans, at least. Most of the 500,000 that stayed in America also found no use, while the few that were distributed went mostly to India, China, and particularly the Philippines. The vast majority of the Liberators that remained in storage after the war were destroyed by the government.

Strange though it may seem, the king has sent you on the most important {{quest}} the world has ever known, and he expects you to pay your own way. Oh, he might invite you to scrounge around the castle for any treasure chests you can get to (forget the ones with locks or behind locked doors), all probably containing enough loot to buy a pointy stick; but it wouldn't even occur to him that, what with the ''world'' hanging in the balance, it might be a good idea to give you every resource at his disposal. No SupernaturalAid for you!

No relation to RedHerring, nor to the WithThisRing trope. The fanfiction ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'' is rather the opposite, starting the protagonist out with one of the greatest weapons in the universe.

!!Examples:

* [[WithThisHerring/VideoGames Video Games]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* A few of the weapons randomly distributed at the beginning of ''Film/BattleRoyale'' (for which the point is to be the last one alive on the island) include a pot lid, binoculars, a paper fan, a megaphone, and boxing gloves. Two end up useful, one ends up getting the owner killed, and the other two are used for one-off dark jokes.
* At the start of ''Film/EnemyAtTheGates'', the protagonist is one of the unlucky ones handed bullets (and ''only'' bullets) instead of a rifle before facing an enemy onslaught. "The One with the rifle shoots! The one with the bullets follows him! When the one with the rifle gets shot, the one with the bullets picks up the rifle and shoots!" The man in front of him doesn't need his for very long though. Actually a reversal of the real situation in Stalingrad at the time, where there were weapons aplenty,[[note]]the weapons, unlike the soldiers, tended to survive the charges[[/note]] but not usually anywhere near enough ammunition for them.
* In ''Film/{{Momentum|2015}}'' hi-tech thief Alex is being pursued by assassins after a data drive in her possession. Hoping to tool up, she visits her contact Raymond at his loft safehouse. Unfortunately, he has no weapons except one shotgun (which he keeps for himself), and he's HopelessWithTech so doesn't have a computer. The only assistance Raymond does offer is a landline telephone which Alex uses to contact her dead partner's wife. Then to make matters worse, the assassins raid the safehouse and use the phone's redial function to locate the wife, putting her in danger. So Alex finishes up [[NiceJobBreakingItHero completely empty-handed with a hostage to save]].
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': The TropeNamer: King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are forced to go and find a shrubbery by the deadly Knights Who Say Ni -- "Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale!". After recovering a shrubbery from Roger the Shrubber, the Knights Who Until Very Recently Said Ni ask them to find another shrubbery, and challenge them to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest, wiiiiiiith... A Herring! Arthur decides that this is silly and, upon learning that [[TheScottishTrope the word "it" hurts the Knights' ears]], bypasses them entirely.
* Two of the characters facing down bloodthirsty aliens with future tech in ''Film/{{Predators}}'' are armed with a scalpel and a prison shiv. This is actually justified, however, as everyone grabbed by the Predators comes equipped with the weaponry they are most familiar with. Whether or not that weaponry is practical for combating Predators. So when everyone else draws their guns (including a custom assault rifle, a sniper rifle, dual nickel-plated pistols, and even a ''[[GatlingGood freaking minigun]]'', this one guy looks down at his shiv and laments at length the fact that he has no gun.
* Similarly played for laughs in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', where the protagonists take on zombies with cricket bats, tennis racquets, pool cues, patio furniture, and - for no real reason other than RuleOfFunny - some of the hero's ''record collection''. "The Batman soundtrack?" "Throw it."
* In ''Sword of the Valiant'', Sir Gawain was recently knighted by King Arthur to face The Green Knight, who gives him a year before he will return to cut off Gawain's head (long story). King Arthur give Gawain his personal, shiny silver armor (after taking the gold crown off) to wear on his quest. Unfortunately for Gawain, it was shiny because it was Artie's "dress armor" and about as thin as aluminium foil. Gawain only finds this out when his first adversary crushes one of the gauntlets like paper.
* ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'' is about 5 friends taking on an alien invasion and trying to save humanity, while completely drunk and with no idea what's going on.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Most TabletopRPG setups avoid this: ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' (depending on the campaign and generousness of your DM, of course) gives you at least enough starting gear to do your job -- things like a decent set of armour and a good weapon for the fighter, or a mostly-stocked spellbook for a wizard, or the clothes on your back for a monk. That said, it usually takes leveling to about level 4-ish to grind enough gold to buy magic items (or be able to take on enemy encounters that would drop magic items), but that's less this trope and more the inflation brought about by every adventurer and their brother swimming in treasure.
** Fifth edition averts this trope entirely by attacking it from the other end: there is only one item in the game that is actually necessary for the full use of a character combat ability: the divine focus, arcane focus, or spell components pouch used by a spellcaster to cast their spells. Every other combat ability in the game is either entirely innate or can be applied at only a slightly reduced power level to improvised or trivially-obtained weapons, and full-strength gear is cheap on the level of standard adventuring profits covering a near-full replacement even at level one. Out of combat abilities such as lock-picking still require tools, but the skill required to use the tools can also be used to craft replacements on the fly in a pinch and inferior materials rarely levy a mechanical penalty on them either. Even losing your armor entirely doesn't shift your defenses enough to be a crippling loss... even for fighters. Wizards still need their spellbooks, which are expensive to replace, but they only need them to change what spells they have prepared or cast ritual spells.
* ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'', a game that uses ''D&D'''s basic system but in a modern-day setting, avoids this trope like the plague. It's perfectly reasonable and doable to set up a first-level party decked out in the best non-magical equipment you can find. However, ''d20 modern'' is less reliant on your equipment than some tabletop games.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Spycraft}}'' breaks from the "gather loot and save" setup in favor of "get stuff from quartermaster depending on mission": a low-level mission will give you a mundane 9mm pistol, and as things get worse you can ask for Uzis, AK-47s, Browning Automatic Rifles, and if the world is ''really'' going to hell, an [[{{BFG}} M2HB heavy]] [[MoreDakka machinegun]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', of course, doesn't merely use this trope, it practically embodies it. Almost every piece of equipment given is not only useless for its intended purpose but is guaranteed to be the cause of death of at least one player character. [[RuleOfFunny Thankfully, there's a reason for this.]]
** ''Paranoia'' does something even worse: It's actually not that odd to get equipment assigned to you. Lots of equipment. Tons of it. Things you don't need, even. But one small detail: You're ''responsible'' for all the equipment given to you and are expected to return it in the same condition you were given it. Yes, that includes grenades. This being ''Paranoia'', it hardly needs saying that a failure to do so is treason. Or bringing it back in perfect condition is treason, as you failed to use your resources appropriately. Or both: you get accused of treason for failing to bring one thing back in mint condition ''and'' for failing to use your resources appropriately. Even if, logically, you had no way of knowing that you could set things on fire by pouring the latest version of Bouncy Bubble Beverage on them--or that this was what Friend Computer (or your superiors, [[BadBoss who probably do want you dead]]) wanted, instead of you using your zap-gun or, y'know, a grenade. [[note]]That said, experienced Troubleshooters do in fact know that BBB is almost invariably a more potent, reliable and effective weapon than anything you get issued through official channels.[[/note]]''Never'' underestimate the ways you can get killed and/or accused of treason in ''Paranoia''.
** And that's not even getting into the equipment you might get from R&D. Not only does it have to be returned in mint condition, but you also need to use it at least once during the mission and file a report on it afterwards. You don't have security clearance for the instructions. You might not have security clearance to know what it does. And it has a tendency to [[PhlebotinumBreakdown malfunction]] even ''more'' often than your regular equipment.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' makes this potentially CrazyAwesome, however, in that there is a Charm (character power) that would potentially allow a character to block a thrown mountain, ''with a butter knife''. And a combat-focused character can take this power ''at starting level''. Needless to say, the butter knife would not survive. Also completely averted through purchasable backgrounds. High levels of Command and Arsenal allow you to start the game with an army of 10,000 men outfitted with the finest mundane equipment available. Pool points with the rest of the party and you can outfit a squadron of 20-foot tall Magitek robots.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' is, as usual, flexible: you generally get a reasonable set of starting cash, you can use an equipment list to buy any items your DM agrees are available, and you can even have a regular income (assuming your character actually has a job and attends to it regularly...) But you can get better starting funds as an Advantage by spending character points or get extra character points by taking poverty as a Disadvantage.
* Creator/GamesWorkshop games:
** In both ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' all of your units come with only baseline equipment. Named characters avert this, usually with special powerful equipment exclusive to them or a combination of equipment that stock characters cannot take. It's still this trope though because you can literally field a unit of elite vanguard units armed with stuff most bread and butter troops wouldn't be caught dead with (and in most cases, it works because the points are better allocated elsewhere).
** The TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 role-playing games vary this.
*** ''TabletopGame/DeathWatch'' starts you and your battle brothers with gear that is decent - for a value of "decent" that 99% of the Imperium's armed forces would lie, steal and murder for.
*** ''TabletopGame/RogueTrader'' also averts this - the question is not whether you can afford a Lasgun, but whether you can afford ten thousand of them for your household troops (and the answer is usually "Sure, take it out of the petty cash!").
*** ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' was a bit worse about this, since the franchise was only slowly breaking away from traditional adventurer group [=RPGs=] and finding its own stride - thus, the agents of the most powerful organization of the Imperium are often equipped with the herring. In that case, it often overlaps with OnSiteProcurement; you're supposed to be low-key investigators, after all, if they wanted to go in heavy they would have sent one of their many military forces.
*** ''TabletopGame/OnlyWar'' finally usually averts this, but also occasionally indulges the trope: The players can first build their regiment which gives them a good set of standard equipment useful for their troop type. Then comes the [[RandomNumberGod logistics roll]] that determines whether the Departmento Munitorum assigns you 20 kg of explosives for the sabotage mission... [[RuleOfFunny or 20 crates of Ogryn dress uniforms.]]
*** {{Averted|Trope}} in ''TabletopGame/{{Necromunda}}''. While in the main ''Warhammer 40,000'' game, the Imperial Guards' lasguns and flak armour (known flashlights and T-shirts to the fandom) compare poorly to the equipment of other factions, it's usually because those other armies are immortal death machines, spore-based super warriors, or {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s. The Imperial Guard still has ten thousand years of technology and the resources of the quadrillion strong Imperium of Man. Compared to them, the gangs of ''Necromunda'' are, well, slum dwellers. The general lack of armour or sophisticated weapons in the game's [[WretchedHive underhive]] setting makes even basic and improvised weapons like knives, big chunks of pipe, and ordinary pistols (aka "stub guns") reasonably effective. Lasguns are actually toward the high end of the effectiveness scale, and flak armour is elite gear. A single [[SuperSoldier Space Marine]] or Genestealer would be a OneManArmy.
** In the background for ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' the Iron Warriors suffered a case of this that contributed to their fall to Chaos. Despite being specialized in taking defensive fortifications rather than building them, they were tasked with holding worlds with ever-decreasing numbers, in one case a single squad assigned to watch over an entire planet.
* Averted by ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'', since there's not really anything in the way of magical equipment in the setting, and most players can easily start with decent equipment for their class. This is because in the first edition, equipment optimization was determined by weight, and in second edition, classes came with a core set of starting equipment (so a noble class character would always have a good-quality outfit and a rapier, for instance).

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''
** Being based on the first ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game, the webcomic justifies and parodies this by the king simply being a total {{jerkass}} and maniac who gives the party nothing ''to'' save his daughter and the only thing they get ''for'' saving her [[BrokenBridge is a bridge built]]... that he was making anyway and named after himself. Also, directly referenced in [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/08/01/episode-063-fighters-got-a-point-i-think/ this comic]], where it's apparently irrelevant as the weapons in the town [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness all suck for some reason]].
** Speaking of, after Sarda depowered them and later imploded from PhlebotinumOverload, the gang has to face up to taking Chaos out. They have to do this in twenty-four hours to avert Chaos' plot to destroy the world (which likely involves a TimeCrash); needless to say, they're having a bit of trouble getting their act together after faffing about and ruining civilization up to this point.
* Averted in ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor''. Although the organization forcing Quentyn, the titular Questor, to go on his virtually impossible mission give him literally nothing at all, his fellow villagers (who he is going on his mission FOR) equip him to their level best ability -- food, clothing, equipment, weapons, even an airship. Furthermore, a team of engineering students, sent by a school intrigued by Quentyn's expedition, come to make improvements to the airship and his other equipment.
* ''Webcomic/GoblinHollow'' averts it for an in-comic RPG session, because [[http://www.rhjunior.com/goblin-hollow-0067/ the GM thinks it makes more sense that way]].
-->"The ''Darned Good Reason'' rule. As in 'nobody becomes an adventurer without a darned good reason to think they'll survive it'."\\
''That and I got tired of Fred needing to write up a new character twice a session.''
* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', the ''Years of Yarncraft'' {{MMORPG}} uses this trope full-stop: Torg's warrior character starts out with [[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/080731 just a stick for a weapon]], and no armor except for some ratty clothing ([[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/080801 he doesn't even get underwear]]); Gennaro's wizard character starts out with [[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20080917 just a small piece of string]].
* Defied by ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}''. Murai plans to travel with only a begging bowl, trusting her god to provide for her...
-->'''Digger''': Yeah. Okay. See, what I think you're failing to grasp is that your god ''did'' provide, and what he did provide was ''me''. So you're going to corner whatever passes for a quartermaster in this joint, and you're going to get a ''blanket'', a ''first aid kit'', and a couple of pounds of ''trail mix'', got it? And a ''knife.'' And ''tinder and flint''. And I suppose it's too much to ask that anybody's heard of ''crampons'' around here...
* In ''Creator/{{Toonami}}: Endgame'', TOM kills the pirate that destroyed the Absolution and kidnapped SARA, with a fork.
* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': Bam takes the test given by Headon with just a cleaver. Thankfully, Yuri [[DynamicEntry enters onto his face]] and she and Evan give him an A-grade pocket and the [[EmpathicWeapon Black March]], so this trope gets subverted. It's better that way since the cleaver broke very quickly.
* Justified in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' with John. He wasn't expecting to go on an adventure, so all he has is a mundane [[DropTheHammer claw hammer]], of the kind for typical projects such as fence repair.
* In the prologue of ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'', the Nordic Council of History and Rediscovery only gave their expedition team enough of a budget to pay three people's salaries (out of a requested eight), believing their journey into the "silent world" (where ThePlague runs rampant) is a SuicideMission and hence are only willing to dedicate a limited quantity of ressources to it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' "Wishology" trilogy, Timmy is told he has to fight [[BigBad The Darkness]] and sent on his way... with nothing, not even his fairies, to help him. He also loses everything at the beginning of the next two parts, forcing him to start over.
* ''WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow'': In "Gramps", a grandfather tells his grandchildren a tale of how he supposedly saved the world from an alien invasion. The President asked for his help and told him to choose between door number 1 or door number 2. Had he chosen door number one, he'd have received several big weapons but he chose door number 2 and received a mule.
[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:345:[[VideoGame/HalfLife2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/satisfy2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:345:[-[[http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_the-7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey_p4.html "Gordon, the whole world has been taken over by a race of malevolent aliens. All of humanity is depending on you. Here's a goddamned crowbar."]]]]-]

->''"You must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest wiiiiith... a herring!"''
-->-- '''The Knights Who Say Ni''', ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''

No, you're just going to have to do it the hard way, beating up local slime and mad wolves for the gold pieces they [[RandomlyDrops drop]]. ([[MoneySpider What the wolves are doing with gold pieces to begin with is anyone's guess]]).

[[caption-width-right:345:[-[[http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_the-7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey_p4.html "Gordon, the whole world has been taken over by a race of malevolent aliens. All of humanity is depending on you. Here's a goddamned crowbar."]].]]-]

* In the prologue of ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'', the Nordic Council of History and Rediscovery only gave their expedition team enough of a budget to pay three people's salaries (out of a requested eight), believing their journey into the "silent world" (where the "rash illness" runs rampant) is doomed to fail.

No relation to RedHerring.

* Defied by ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}''. Murai plans to travel with only a begging bowl, trusting her god to provide for her.

* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': Baam takes the test given by Headon with just a cleaver. Thankfully, Yuri [[DynamicEntry enters onto his face]] and she and Evan give him an A-grade pocket and the [[EmpathicWeapon Black March]], so this trope gets subverted. It's better that way since the cleaver broke very quickly.

** The Sherman kept its primary place all the way through the end of the war because the policy of Army Ground Forces then was to favor proven equipment and to require thorough quality testing of any new weapons system before they would approve its use overseas. The programs of upgunning the M4 with the more powerful 76 mm in a new turret and producing a heavier tank model (which ended up being the M26 Pershing) were subjected to this process. Ordinance chief Gladeon Barnes claimed during and after the war that Army Ground Forces head Leslie [=McNair=] hindered the development of these weapons because of his own ideas about doctrine, but [=McNair=] and AGF were actually supportive of prototypes and testing: what they objected to were Barnes' proposals to begin serial production and ship things overseas which had not yet been tested and found "battle worthy". Meanwhile, for those who believed the 75 mm Sherman to be adequate for the time being, multiple factors fostered a false sense of security: the Sherman had been performing well in Italy despite occasional complaints about the gun and armor; the Tank Destroyer Branch was supposed to provide the firepower to take on anything the tanks couldn't handle; and US intelligence was not aware of the full capability and numbers of the new German Panther tank. The Army had conducted armor penetration tests which satisfied them of the 75 and 76 mm guns' continued effectiveness, not realizing that actual German armor was hardened much more than the test plate they had used. To make matters worse, somehow the decision got made to leave behind all 100 of the 76 mm Shermans that had been sent to Britain for the D-Day invasion, meaning that initially they had nothing but the 75. "This," to quote Nicholas Moran, "was something of an 'oops'."
** Therefore, when the hedgerow terrain of Normandy prevented them from using maneuver and forced them into head-on slugging matches with Panthers, the Allied tank forces had a MassOhCrap experience. They started to up-armor their tanks in any way they could, including using things like spare track, concrete, sandbags, netting, and even wood. Ordinance testing determined that these found materials provided little protection and served mainly to weigh down the tank while giving the crew a false sense of security. In fact, materials such as unhardened steel track could increase damage by normalizing the path of a shell impacting the front slope, so that it would turn into the armor instead of glancing off and encounter less effective thickness because of its more perpendicular path. General Patton cracked down on this kind of low-quality hillbilly armour after listening to his ordinance officers, and Third Army instead came up with the practice of stripping armour plate off wrecks of ''any'' nationality and welding it onto their own vehicles. It was distinguished with the official-sounding name ''appliqué armour'' and was adopted by several other US Armored Groups. German armour was especially favoured for this purpose, and many wrecked Panthers and Tigers were stripped down to the frame--another reason why so few survived the war to be reconditioned for museums.

** Fifth edition averts this trope entirely by attacking it from the other end: there is only one item in the game that is actually necessary for the full use of a character combat ability: the wizard's spellbook. Every other combat ability in the game is either entirely innate or can be applied at only a slightly reduced power level to improvised or trivially-obtained weapons, and full-strength gear is cheap on the level of standard adventuring profits covering a near-full replacement even at level one. Out of combat abilities such as lock-picking still require tools, but the skill required to use the tools can also be used to craft replacements on the fly in a pinch and inferior materials rarely levy a mechanical penalty on them either. Even losing your armor entirely doesn't shift your defenses enough to be a crippling loss... even for fighters.

** ''Paranoia'' does something even worse: It's actually not that odd to get equipment assigned to you. Lots of equipment. Tons of it. Things you don't need, even. But one small detail: You're ''responsible'' for all the equipment given to you and are expected to return it in the same condition you were given it. Yes, that includes grenades. This being ''Paranoia'', it hardly needs saying that a failure to do so is treason. Or bringing it back in perfect condition is treason, as you failed to use your resources appropriately. Or both: you get accused of treason for failing to bring one thing back in mint condition ''and'' for failing to use your resources appropriately. Even if, logically, you had no way of knowing that you could set things on fire by pouring the latest version of Bouncy Bubble Beverage on them--or that this was what Friend Computer (or your superiors, [[BadBoss who probably do want you dead]]) wanted, instead of you using your zap-gun or, y'know, a grenade. ''Never'' underestimate the ways you can get killed and/or accused of treason in ''Paranoia''.

** The Sherman kept its primary place all the way through the end of the war because the policy of Army Ground Forces then was to favor proven equipment and to require thorough quality testing of any new weapons system before they would approve its use overseas. The programs of upgunning the M4 with the more powerful 76 mm in a new turret and producing a heavier tank model (which ended up being the M26 Pershing) were subjected to this process. Ordinance chief Gladeon Barnes claimed during and after the war that Army Ground Forces head Leslie McNair hindered the development of these weapons because of his own ideas about doctrine, but McNair and AGF were actually supportive of prototypes and testing: what they objected to were Barnes' proposals to begin serial production and ship things overseas which had not yet been tested and found "battle worthy". Meanwhile, for those who believed the 75 mm Sherman to be adequate for the time being, multiple factors fostered a false sense of security: the Sherman had been performing well in Italy despite occasional complaints about the gun and armor; the Tank Destroyer Branch was supposed to provide the firepower to take on anything the tanks couldn't handle; and US intelligence was not aware of the full capability and numbers of the new German Panther tank. They had also conducted armor penetration tests which satisfied them of the 75 and 76 mm guns' continued effectiveness, not realizing that actual German armor was hardened much more than the test plate they had used.
** Therefore, when the hedgerow terrain of Normandy prevented them from using maneuver and forced them into head-on slugging matches with Panthers, the tank forces had a MassOhCrap experience. They started to up-armor their tanks in any way they could, including using things like spare track, concrete, sandbags, netting, and even wood. Ordinance testing determined that these found materials provided little protection and served mainly to weigh down the tank while giving the crew a false sense of security. In fact, materials such as unhardened steel track could increase damage by normalizing the path of a shell impacting the front slope, so that it would turn into the armor instead of glancing off and encounter less effective thickness because of its more perpendicular path. General Patton cracked down on this kind of low-quality hillbilly armour after listening to his ordinance officers, and Third Army instead came up with the practice of stripping armour plate off wrecks of ''any'' nationality and welding it onto their own vehicles. It was distinguished with the official-sounding name ''appliqué armour'' and was adopted by several other US Armored Groups. German armour was especially favoured for this purpose, and many wrecked Panthers and Tigers were stripped down to the frame--another reason why so few survived the war to be reconditioned for museums.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator FP-45 Liberator]] was a small single-shot .45 caliber pistol developed by the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, designed to be cheaply mass-produced and then distributed to resistance fighters throughout occupied Europe. The extremely rudimentary design included a 4-inch unrifled tube for the barrel and extensive use of stamped sheet metal. 300 workers at the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors put together one million pistols in a mere ''13 weeks'', which were priced at $2.10 apiece. The idea was for bomber planes to drop large numbers of them into European cities with a significant [[LaResistance resistance]] presence. With just one shot at a time (and no means of reloading quickly), a maximum lifespan of about 50 shots, and an effective range of no more than 8 yards, the FP-45 was basically good for just one thing: to sneak up on an Axis soldier, kill him with one shot at point-blank range, and steal his weapon. It came in a waterproof box with ten rounds of ammunition, a wooden dowel to push spent casings out of the chamber, and a set of cartoon instructions. Alas, there was a problem: The Americans sent 500,000 Liberators to the British, but the Brits didn't think that delivering Liberators was as efficient a use of their bombers as delivering, well, bombs. They did end up giving some out to Greek partisans, at least. The 500,000 that stayed in America also had a hard time finding homes, and the few that were distributed went mostly to India, China, and particularly the Philippines. In the grand scheme of things, most of the Liberators that were produced went unused and were destroyed after the war.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_gun Deer gun]] was a similarly crappy weapon chambered in 9mm, to be used in Vietnam just like the Liberator.