History Main / ArbitraryGunPower

** The Spycraft-derived d20 ''Series/{{Stargate}}'' game mostly sticks with fairly constant damage within weapon classes, except for the Dragunov sniper rifle, which somehow gets stuck doing less damage than a 9mm pistol and has the shortest range of any rifle-calibre weapon.

* Damage in ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' is just plain hilariously random. Being shot by the exact same gun can do a sliver of damage the first time, and flatline you the second. And due to the way 'character abilities' work when turned on, this gets absolutely crazy with high-stamina enemies/characters, even human ones. Giant louts like Hector Barbosa can take a full magazine to the head then punch you to death while you reload, while little girls like Viola and Krayola will wilt if clipped in the hand.

!!Examples

* ''VideoGame/{{ArmA}} III'' is noted to take place [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in a near-future]] where body armor has advanced further beyond the protective abilities it has nowadays. NATO and the fictional CSAT have as such upgraded to more powerful standard weapons utilizing caseless 6.5x39mm bullets to compensate, and can still drop foes in one or two bullets, but this makes life hell for the indigenous army of Altis and the local guerillas, who as standard issue are stuck with old 5.56mm weapons that are now about as effective as bee stings - you can shoot a man wearing even a simple pilot helmet in the head and face multiple times with the AAF's "Mk 20" (an FN F2000), and until you've put at least five or six of them into his brain all you'll accomplish is turning yourself into a mild annoyance. This also makes pistols generally worthless as well, outside the "heavy" ones in .45, and also gives the NATO special forces in the ''Apex'' DLC a distinct disadvantage, with them moving back to 5.56mm weapons while CSAT moves on to Chinese rifles in 5.8mm that perform pretty close to their 6.5mm rifles from the base game.
** Funnily enough, the best armor in the game, the Carrier Special Rig, rating Level V, is described at a hefty 24 armor and 90% base resist. Looks tough as nails and sounds like you'd be able to take a mag of ammo and not drop, right? Nope! Around five 9mm handgun hits drop you. It might let you take three or four 5.56 hits, and forget about 7.62, those will drop you in around three. Meanwhile, in testing, a modern-day Level III trauma plate for civilians sustained ''eight to ten'' hits.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} 1942'', machine guns such as the BAR were treated as video-game-style assault rifles, meaning that they had weak power but were automatic... and [[ArtisticLicenseHistory they were the primary weapon of the assault classes]]. Historical standard-issue rifles were wielded only by engineers in the game. Fixed machine guns were laughably weak and whoever used them stood straight up, exposed to enemy fire. The only instant kill shot was a sniper headshot. Presumably, these were all AcceptableBreaksFromReality, but the ''VideoGame/ForgottenHope'' [[GameMod mod]] made weapon damage and weapon assignments much more realistic and historical, and was generally well-received.

** ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}}'' plays it a bit less straight as guns of the same caliber do the exact same damage per bullet and suffer the same damage-falloff, making the guns of the same caliber different by the fire-rate, magazine size, spread, and how the weapon reacts to recoil... well, mostly, [[ArtisticLicenseMilitary aside from when the guns do the same damage when they actually aren't the same caliber]] (such as the 7.62mm RPK being mistaken as the 5.45mm RPK-74 and given the same lower damage profile as the AK-74M).

** ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyWorldAtWar World at War]]'' gets ridiculous with its laughably-underpowered, damn-near-useless M1 Garand. As the starting weapon of the Rifle class, it's nerfed to the point that you'd think it was chambered in .22 Short. But the M1 carbine ([[MisidentifiedWeapons incorrectly called the [=M1A1=] in the game]]; that would actually be the paratrooper model with the folding stock) is somehow a HandCannon because it's the last weapon unlocked in the game. That's also ignoring the purest embodiment of this trope with the Garand and the bolt-action rifles, which will have their damage ratings boosted upon the attachment of a sniper scope for absolutely zero reason other than because players expect sniper rifles to be more damaging, even when the only difference is the addition of a scope.
** In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' and ''World at War'', in normal multiplayer mode, headshots take two to three shots to kill, unless it's a sniper rifle or certain weapons with Stopping Power. Hardcore mode seems to be an aversion at first glance (as you die much more easily), but this is only due to you having far fewer hit points, making bullets that might not hit the vitals act as an InstantDeathBullet as well depending on the gun's damage (like a gut-shot with the Skorpion in ''[=CoD4=]''). In both modes and all later games (until ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'', which requires a dedicated melee weapon for it), melee and anything similar to it (throwing knives/tomahawk and ballistic knives), even if dealt to the ''foot'', is always an insta-kill.

* The hunting rifle in the ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' series is based on a weapon that should be firing the same bullets as the assault rifle, but in-game is a terror that will penetrate and [[OneHitPolykill instantly kill as many zombies as you can line up in one shot]]; meanwhile the assault rifle will barely penetrate one zombie and often requires multiple bullets to put them down. The pistol-versus-rifle issue is at least played somewhat closer to reality, as the standard pistols suffer in accuracy and damage per shot compared to any of the primary weapons, but because they have [[BottomlessMagazines infinite reserve ammo]] and a high yet controllable maximum rate of fire, a lot of players still swear by them (even without the achievement for completing a campaign using nothing but the pistols, since some players will continue relying on them even after getting that achievement). Meanwhile, the HandCannon Magnum introduced in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' trades capacity and fire rate for damage jacked-up close to that of the sniper rifles' - even Realism mode's ridiculously-tough common Infected can tank two or three shots from a sniper rifle with no problem, but will die where they stand from a Magnum shot to the gut.

* ''VideoGame/Operation7'' averts this completely, wherein a weapon's base damage is entirely dependent on the ammunition being fired. To elaborate, every type of ammunition (eg. [=5.56x45mm=], [=9x19mm=], [=.40 S&W=], etc.), and load variants in each type of ammo (Standard ammo, match-grade rounds, etc.), have their own damage numbers. The only aspect of a weapon that determines actual damage dealt per shot is their "Range" stat, and the higher the stat, the less of an effect that damage drop-off over range will have on the projectile.

[[folder:Film]]
* The Spanish film ''800 Bullets'' includes a scene where the old man blows up a backhoe with one shot from a lever-action rifle.
* In ''Film/DeadInTombstone'', the power of Guerrero's {{Hand Cannon}}s varies greatly. Sometimes a shot from them is enough to blast someone backwards through a closed door, and at other times a head shot leaves nothing more than a gentle spray of blood on a window.
* The guns in ''Film/DjangoUnchained'' seem to deal whatever damage makes the coolest shot at the time. During the final showdown, Django shoots [[spoiler:Lara Lee]] and the body is thrown clean out of the room in a different direction entirely, while another victim merely drops to the floor where he stands.
* ''Film/LastManStanding'', an American remake of Kurosawa's ''Yojimbo'', has Bruce Willis' Sanjuro-analogue armed with a pair of what appear to be normal 1911 semiautomatic pistols that nonetheless strike with such incredible force, his victims are literally hurled dozens of feet through the air, sometimes while being folded in half, other times turning full flips midair. The guns have only normal recoil, as well, despite apparently firing full cannonballs at people.
* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', Trinity's relatively weak (in real life) Beretta pistol somehow has the ability to make an agent [[BlownAcrossTheRoom fly about 10 feet]] when shot point blank. In fact, in that whole lobby scene, most of the guns got an upgrade in power.
* The final scene of ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead''. Sharon Stone shoots Gene Hackman so hard in the head, he is flung a good thirty feet backwards, flipping through the air. It is especially odd since the rest of the movie mostly averts this trope, with one other notable exception when someone has a 4 inch hole blown through their head.

[[folder:LARP]]
* ''Roleplay/OtakonLARP'' has guns, fists, swords, ki blasts… All damage is dealt to players in HP. Items and buildings or Mechas can have Structural Hit Points that are damaged by guns.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Since the gameplay in ''Roleplay/DestroyTheGodmodder'' runs around HitPoints and any source of damage only decreases them, guns are no exception. They'll never do any instantly fatal damage as is typical in real life. In addition, other ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, and even melee weapons can be just as effective, as the power of an attack depends purely on the creativity and effort put into it - and, for games that use it, the level of the weapon alchemized with the [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Alchemiter]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'', a Tec-9 fired semiautomatic was one of the most damaging pistols in the game. And, of course, due to CriticalExistenceFailure, mid-to-high-level [=PCs=] could absorb multiple rockets to the face, drop grenades at their own feet, and generally laugh off the consequences.
** And in SpinOff ''D20 Future'', weapons stop getting better at PL 7 (out of 9). PL 8 and 9 weapons get cooler descriptions, but identical or slightly worse damage for some reason.
** One notorious example is the FN 5.7mm round. For no discernible reason, it was given the highest damage of any pistol round, equal to that of a .50 Desert Eagle.
* Downplayed in ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'', which has an abstract weapon rating system that goes from 1-5 for anything mundane, and is more about the ''narrative'' danger than the ''physical'' danger. A derringer might be Weapon:1. Most regular pistols are considered Weapon:2, long guns and magnum pistols are Weapon:3 and "battlefield quality" weaponry like heavy machine guns or explosives are Weapon:4. Weapon:5 and above are either magic or [[CarFu getting hit with a vehicle]]. Played more straight with the possibility for Mortal Stunts, low-cost specializations that can boost damage in certain circumstances, such as at point-blank range or by emptying the clip.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Guns obviously don't appear in every setting, but most editions have given rules for them. Because of how armor works a firearm is generally no more likely to hit a target than any other ranged attacks, even if in theory the target is hard to hit because of, say, plate armor that shouldn't be very effective against a rifle. Plus, while they might do more damage, a gun is still just going to damage a targets HP, so things like a Barbarians rage reduce the damage bullets do, and any sufficiently high level character can take a few bullets without slowing down at all. Guns also often do only slightly more damage than more classic weapons like a bow or a sword, and even have drawbacks like misfiring or taking longer to reload in order to keep other weapons relevant.
* Played straight and averted in ''TabletopGame/FengShui''. A regular shot is an InstantDeathBullet for the regular Mook, but protagonists ([=PCs=] and relevant [=NPCs=]) suffer reduced damage, just like the movies.
* Averted in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', as firearm damage is calculated from known muzle energy and bullet diameter.

* Explicitly the case in ''TabletopGame/InNomine'', which deliberately reduce the effectiveness of guns, because swords and powers are more genre appropriate.
* Present in ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms''. Whether you're using a gun or a bow is almost irrelevant; range varies widely and they're all in the same Power range, so whether the gunner or the archer is more effective depends on the skills of the wielder more than anything else.
* In the LowFantasy RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' wheel-lock guns deal Slaying damage, meaning each successful attack dice deals two damage instead of the normal one. While in ''TabletopGame/MyriadSong'' and ''Urban Jungle'', sci-fi and noir games from the same company using derivatives of the same rules, guns deal normal damage.

* Explicitly averted in ''TabletopGame/KillPuppiesForSatan''. The rulebook notes that game rules for guns are never particularly realistic and refuses to give any specific rules, instead offering some real-world information on guns and their effects. Essentially, the GM is supposed to wing it if the [=PCs=] insist on using guns.
* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'': the granularity of the damage system means that all pistols do about the same amount of damage and howitzers do the same amount of damage as Batman's punch.
* The TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness used this trope but not as flagrantly as many {{Role Playing Game}}s. All guns were fairly lethal, though a bit less so than real life weapons. Additionally, a weapon's lethality was more like real world lethality than many games. Velocity and caliber, not rate of fire, dictated damage. Supernatural creatures only resisted firearms by virtue of their powers, not because the guns themselves weren't deadly. Finally, a shot with more successes was a more well-placed shot and rolled more dice for damage. It was still extraordinarily difficult to kill anyone instantly with a handgun, however, regardless of how many successes the attack rolled since the damage dice would usually reduce this to a deadly but still survivable level.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Spycraft}}'' has it both ways. Most gun damage is based on the bullet used (a few minor variances are there, but one or two points is reasonable, especially if moving to a longer barrel). But there's the feat 'Style Over Caliber', which lets someone with a .22 holdout pistol deal more damage than someone wielding a 9mm combat handgun.
** The Spycraft-derived d20 {{Series/Stargate}} game mostly stuck with fairly constant damage within weapon classes, except for the Dragunov sniper rifle, which somehow gets stuck doing less damage than a 9mm pistol and has the shortest range of any rifle-calibre weapon.
* In Sci-Fi RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', crossbows have better damage than any slug pistol, better range than any energy pistol, and better accuracy than any rifle - some of the deadliest weapons of the Space Age!

* {{TabletopGame/Warhammer 40000}} has an odd version, in that lasguns (which are explicitly more powerful than modern assault rifles, but still among the weakest weapons in the game) have no armor penetration value. This means a normal human wearing a flak jacket has a 1 in 3 chance of shrugging off a lethal wound, under the justification that their "armor", which covers at best their upper chest, shoulders, and head, stopped it. And then other weapons pack the same strength as the lasgun, but are impossibly better at piercing armor despite no other change in performance. For example, the hellgun, which has just as much theoretical power as the lasgun, is capable of ignoring space marine armor. That puts it a factor of two better at piercing armor than the Marines' own full-auto-rocket-propelled-grenade-firing guns.
** Then again, most personal armor in the 40th century is excellent compared to 21st century stock. The aforementioned "flak jacket", the Imperial Guard Flak Armor, is actually a very high-quality personal protection system that would be capable of withstanding fire from a real ''light machine gun'' and preventing its user's death. It's as good as tissue paper most of the time only because it's in a setting where the average power of personal weapons is just that high.
** {{Averted|Trope}} in most cases, really — a failed To Wound roll with firearms means the target ''was'' hit, but was wounded non-fatally and not incapacitated. A failed armor roll either means the firearm pierced the target's armor or hit them in a place where the armour couldn't protect (say, a lasgun-toting conscript taking out a Space Marine with a lucky shot [[EyeScream through the visor]]). Since most infantry only have one wound, this means they can be easily killed by a single good hit. On the other hand, there are infantry which have more than one wound. They may be very badass non-humans which served as a more reasonable justification, but may be simply very badass humans that play the trope straight. [[OldSoldier Commissar Yarrick]], for instance, who is apparently a normal human pushing 70 and can not only survive three consecutive blasts from a fusion gun, but still get back up and give the opponent a PowerFist to the face.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Lampshaded repeatedly in ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}''; the only aversion is [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Warmaker]], [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120228082624/http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/20020403.html a gun]] created by the [[PhysicalGod Eternals]].
* {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/AquaRegia'' in a fight between the protagonist against a {{Cyborg}}. A single bullet to the brain is enough to put him down. [[DoubleTap He shoots him again]] just to [[MakeSureHesDead be sure]]. Considering that he lives in a {{Cyberpunk}} {{Dystopia}} and people can [[MadeOfIron survive multiple hits]], this is understandable. TheHero himself was almost killed the same way, so it's [[PayEvilUntoEvil payback]].
[[/folder]]

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', Trinity's relatively weak (in real life) Beretta pistol somehow has the ability to make an agent [[BlownAcrossTheRoom fly about 10 feet]] when shot point blank. In fact, in that whole lobby scene, most of the guns got an upgrade in power.
* ''Film/LastManStanding'', an American remake of Kurosawa's ''Yojimbo'', has Bruce Willis' Sanjuro-analogue armed with a pair of what appear to be normal 1911 semiautomatic pistols that nonetheless strike with such incredible force, his victims are literally hurled dozens of feet through the air, sometimes while being folded in half, other times turning full flips midair. The guns have only normal recoil, as well, despite apparently firing full cannonballs at people.
* Ditto the final scene of ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead''. Sharon Stone shoots Gene Hackman so hard in the head, he is flung a good thirty feet backwards, flipping through the air. It is especially odd since the rest of the movie mostly averts this trope, with one other notable exception when someone has a 4 inch hole blown through their head.

* In ''Film/DeadInTombstone'', the power of Guerrero's {{Hand Cannon}}s varies greatly. Sometimes a shot from them is enough to blast someone backwards through a closed door, and at other times a head shot leaves nothing more than a gentle spray of blood on a window.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', as firearm damage is calculated from known muzle energy and bullet diameter.
* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'': the granularity of the damage system means that all pistols do about the same amount of damage and howitzers do the same amount of damage as Batman's punch.

* In Sci-Fi RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', crossbows have better damage than any slug pistol, better range than any energy pistol, and better accuracy than any rifle - some of the deadliest weapons of the Space Age!

* {{TabletopGame/Warhammer 40000}} has an odd version, in that lasguns (which are explicitly more powerful than modern assault rifles, but still among the weakest weapons in the game) have no armor penetration value. This means a normal human wearing a flak jacket has a 1 in 3 chance of shrugging off a lethal wound, under the justification that their "armor", which covers at best their upper chest, shoulders, and head, stopped it. And then other weapons pack the same strength as the lasgun, but are impossibly better at piercing armor despite no other change in performance. For example, the hellgun, which has just as much theoretical power as the lasgun, is capable of ignoring space marine armor. That puts it a factor of two better at piercing armor than the Marines' own full-auto-rocket-propelled-grenade-firing guns.
** Then again, most personal armor in the 40th century is excellent compared to 21st century stock. The aforementioned "flak jacket", the Imperial Guard Flak Armor, is actually a very high-quality personal protection system that would be capable of withstanding fire from a real ''light machine gun'' and preventing its user's death. It's as good as tissue paper most of the time only because it's in a setting where the average power of personal weapons is just that high.
** {{Averted|Trope}} in most cases, really — a failed To Wound roll with firearms means the target ''was'' hit, but was wounded non-fatally and not incapacitated. A failed armor roll either means the firearm pierced the target's armor or hit them in a place where the armour couldn't protect (say, a lasgun-toting conscript taking out a Space Marine with a lucky shot [[EyeScream through the visor]]). Since most infantry only have one wound, this means they can be easily killed by a single good hit. On the other hand, there are infantry which have more than one wound. They may be very badass non-humans which served as a more reasonable justification, but may be simply very badass humans that play the trope straight. [[OldSoldier Commissar Yarrick]], for instance, who is apparently a normal human pushing 70 and can not only survive three consecutive blasts from a fusion gun, but still get back up and give the opponent a PowerFist to the face.
* Played straight and averted in ''TabletopGame/FengShui''. A regular shot is an InstantDeathBullet for the regular Mook, but protagonists ([=PCs=] and relevant [=NPCs=]) suffer reduced damage, just like the movies.
* The TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness used this trope but not as flagrantly as many {{Role Playing Game}}s. All guns were fairly lethal, though a bit less so than real life weapons. Additionally, a weapon's lethality was more like real world lethality than many games. Velocity and caliber, not rate of fire, dictated damage. Supernatural creatures only resisted firearms by virtue of their powers, not because the guns themselves weren't deadly. Finally, a shot with more successes was a more well-placed shot and rolled more dice for damage. It was still extraordinarily difficult to kill anyone instantly with a handgun, however, regardless of how many successes the attack rolled since the damage dice would usually reduce this to a deadly but still survivable level.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Spycraft}}'' has it both ways. Most gun damage is based on the bullet used (a few minor variances are there, but one or two points is reasonable, especially if moving to a longer barrel). But there's the feat 'Style Over Caliber', which lets someone with a .22 holdout pistol deal more damage than someone wielding a 9mm combat handgun.
** The Spycraft-derived d20 {{Series/Stargate}} game mostly stuck with fairly constant damage within weapon classes, except for the Dragunov sniper rifle, which somehow gets stuck doing less damage than a 9mm pistol and has the shortest range of any rifle-calibre weapon.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' features both a 1911 pistol and a Model 1917 revolver, with the revolver being more powerful. In reality both guns fire the same .45 ACP round. The fully-automatic Thompson uses the same round. None of these weapons [[UniversalAmmunition share an ammo pool]], either.
* Explicitly averted in ''TabletopGame/KillPuppiesForSatan''. The rulebook notes that game rules for guns are never particularly realistic and refuses to give any specific rules, instead offering some real-world information on guns and their effects. Essentially, the GM is supposed to wing it if the [=PCs=] insist on using guns.

* Downplayed in ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'', which has an abstract weapon rating system that goes from 1-5 for anything mundane, and is more about the ''narrative'' danger than the ''physical'' danger. A derringer might be Weapon:1. Most regular pistols are considered Weapon:2, long guns and magnum pistols are Weapon:3 and "battlefield quality" weaponry like heavy machine guns or explosives are Weapon:4. Weapon:5 and above are either magic or [[CarFu getting hit with a vehicle]]. Played more straight with the possibility for Mortal Stunts, low-cost specializations that can boost damage in certain circumstances, such as at point-blank range or by emptying the clip.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Guns obviously don't appear in every setting, but most editions have given rules for them. Because of how armor works a firearm is generally no more likely to hit a target than any other ranged attacks, even if in theory the target is hard to hit because of, say, plate armor that shouldn't be very effective against a rifle. Plus, while they might do more damage, a gun is still just going to damage a targets HP, so things like a Barbarians rage reduce the damage bullets do, and any sufficiently high level character can take a few bullets without slowing down at all. Guns also often do only slightly more damage than more classic weapons like a bow or a sword, and even have drawbacks like misfiring or taking longer to reload in order to keep other weapons relevant.

* Lampshaded repeatedly in ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}''; the only aversion is [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Warmaker]], [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120228082624/http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/20020403.html a gun]] created by the [[PhysicalGod Eternals]].

* ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' is very guilty of this. In RealLife, the main reason that early matchlock firearms were quickly and overwhelmingly adopted even by societies with a strong archery tradition (e.g. Japan) in spite of their expense and long reload times (they could manage maybe 1-2 shots per minute compared to 6 for a skilled archer) was because guns were ''incredibly powerful''. They packed [[https://i.imgur.com/Ir9CxA9.jpg twenty to forty times]] the kinetic energy per shot of a longbow arrow or sword strike, and well over ten times the kinetic energy of a crossbow bolt, enabling their bullets to blast right through the vast majority of armor and inflict horrific wounds. Later firearms were even more potent as powder quality and metallurgy improved, not to mention standardization of the flintlock and then percussion cap mechanism facilitating far higher rates of fire (average 3-4 per minute for the former). In the games ranging from ''Medieval II'' to ''Warhammer I/II/III'', firearms will do at most two or three times the damage of arrows, to [[CompetitiveBalance keep the latter at least somewhat relevant.]]
* The ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' series is a notable ''aversion'' of the common FPS trope in which handguns do comparable damage to or more damage than assault rifles to balance out their lower rate of fire and magazine size. Realistically, the handguns in both games deal significantly less damage than the assault rifle (even the Magnum in the first game is noticeably weaker than the assault rifle), making the assault rifle superior in every way barring ammo availability in the first game or the required skill point investment to actually use it in the second.
* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' features an AnachronismStew of firearms manufactured between 1855 and approximately 1903. The game includes a few oddities, such as a Volcanic pistol that is more powerful than a Single Action Army. In real life, the Volcanic's "Rocket Ball" ammunition was pathetically underpowered and the weapon was obsolete long before the time the game takes place. Meanwhile, the .45 Colt cartridge is the weakest in the game, even though it should logically be the strongest. Compared to other pistols, though, the Volcanic is the weakest, even though they all use generic "Pistol" ammo.

* Most {{RPG}}s by default, because of the SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness.
** ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'', and ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' in general, do this so often that it's the king of GunsAreWorthless as from beginning to end, maybe except in the hands of characters who ''only'' use guns, they really are worthless.

* ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'':
** ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'': Going by official sources on the ammo used by the assault rifle (7.62x51mm) and pistol ([[HandCannon 12.7x40mm]]), you'd think they'd be about the same power. The rifle requires some odd 20 rounds (1/3 of the magazine) to down an Elite and 3-10 to kill Grunts and Jackals (depending on rank). The pistol is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, allowing for a one-shot of all the Grunts and two shots for Elites.
** The SMG in ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' is rather odd. Despite only firing 5x23mm submachine gun rounds, the weapon seems to drop Brute [[DeflectorShields shields]] just as effectively as the much larger (and logically more powerful) 7.62x51mm rounds used by the assault rifle. ''VideoGame/Halo2''[='s=] [=SMG=]s were realistically weak by comparison, in part because it was designed for the then-new GunsAkimbo ability (meaning using one without pairing it up with another gun was [[LittleUselessGun pointless]]) though for some reason could still cut through non-shielded Covenant forces. Then again, ArmorIsUseless when worn by the Covenant, very consistently, in all games, books, and cutscenes.
** ''VideoGame/HaloReach''[='=]s DMR does just shy of three times as much damage per shot as the faster-firing assault rifle. Canonically they're using the ''exact same'' round from similar barrel lengths, even if their ammunition isn't interchangeable in-game.
** And of course we have the infamous Needler. This is a gun that fires ''shards of glass the size of your arm that stab into you'', yet the direct damage it does is rather unimpressive. It's mostly useful for a causing a OneHitKill when enough are stuck in an unshielded target.

* In ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', enemies can sometimes swallow three or four headshots from pistols and machine guns before dropping, but a hit from [[RevolversAreJustBetter the magnum]] or the sniper rifle kills them instantly, even if you tag them in the foot.
** We also have the [[GatlingGood minigun]] mooks that can eat several rockets from the RPG, the most powerful weapon in the game (excluding the miniguns themselves, which just aren't practical). These rockets can kill the other mooks in one hit, but they don't really phase the minigunners. And later in the game, rockets kill [[spoiler:the tank]] in 3-4 hits. Fighting just two guys will use more precious rockets than fighting [[spoiler:a main battle tank]]! Drake calls them mutants, perhaps there's some truth to that...
* Damage in ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' is just plain hilariously random. Being shot by the exact same gun can do a sliver of damage the first time, and flatline you the second. And due to the way 'character abilities' work when turned on, this gets absolutely crazy with high-stamina enemies/characters, even human ones. Giant louts like Hector Barbosa can take a full magazine to the head then punch you to death while you reload, while little girls like Viola and Krayola will wilt if clipped in the hand.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Turok}}'' series fan favorite Mag 60 fires 3 bullets per tap in primary burst-fire mode. Does maybe 10-15 points of damage, a full load will barely kill a purim or another player in deathmatch. Move into alt-fire, however, and you charge up and use 15 at once, which does nearly double damage what 15 normal shots would do on the same creature in the same location. Damn near instant kill on small enemies (removes limbs, decapitates, ''blows them in half''), one or (but usually) two to down a purim, aiming center mass and then firing upon a purim puts a truck-sized hole in its stomach on the second shot. The first time you see this in action, even you will stare as incredulously at it as he does. Typically most weapons follow this format, with alt-fire using more ammo but being stupidly overpowered for what it fires, especially the rapid-fire weapons.
* In the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' series, it's partially justified, since what you're shooting usually has super-strong armor.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} 1942'', machine guns such as the BAR were treated as video-game-style assault rifles, meaning that they had weak power but were automatic... and [[ArtisticLicenseHistory they were the primary weapon of the assault classes]]. Historical standard-issue rifles were wielded only by engineers in the game. Fixed machine guns were laughably weak and whoever used them stood straight up, exposed to enemy fire. The only instant kill shot was a sniper headshot. Presumably, these were all AcceptableBreaksFromReality, but the ''VideoGame/ForgottenHope'' [[GameMod mod]] made weapon damage and weapon assignments much more realistic and historical, and was generally well-received.
** ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany 2'', on top of somewhat deadlier weapons overall, has a Hardcore mode similar to the Call of Duty examples at the top of the page. True to the trope, though, the M93 machine pistol still does less damage per individual bullet than the starting M9 pistol, solely because it fires faster.
** ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}}'' plays it a bit less straight as guns of the same caliber do the exact same damage per bullet and suffer the same damage-falloff, making the guns of the same caliber different by the fire-rate, magazine size, spread, and how the weapon reacts to recoil... well, mostly, [[ArtisticLicenseMilitary aside from when the guns do the same damage when they actually aren't the same caliber]] (such as the 7.62mm RPK being mistaken as the 5.45mm RPK-74 and given the same lower damage profile as the AK-74M).
* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', the [[SwissArmyWeapon Assault Rifle]] and [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistol]] powersets run on this trope. Not only can {{Badass Normal}}s and {{Squishy Wizard}}s sustain multiple gunshot wounds with no lasting damage, your own guns will barely even affect [=NPCs=] that are four or more levels above you. They are also no more powerful than any other [[GlassCannon Blaster]] powerset, including Sonic Screams, [[AnIcePerson Ice Blasts]], and [[ArcherArchetype Archery]].

* The ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series is a huge offender in this regard. A shot from one of Dante's handguns, at least [[CutscenePowerToTheMax in gameplay]], is about as powerful as a mosquito bite. Of course, [[GunsAkimbo he wields two]], they have BottomlessMagazines, and they can be [[MoreDakka rapid-fired]] or [[ChargedAttack charged up]], but as far as raw damage goes you're better off marching up to the enemy and slashing it to death. In this case, it may be as the enemies are typically demons they're highly resistant to small arms even when shot in the head - Dante, even only being half-demon himself, actually takes a bullet to the forehead on at least one occasion in a cutscene in ''VideoGame/{{Devil May Cry 3|DantesAwakening}}'' and is only mildly annoyed about it. When you have to overcome their healing, slashing them up with an enormous sword would likely be more efficient.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' has an extremely wide range of damage dealt by similar guns that fire the same ammunition, although this is occasionally justified by the elemental damage that many deal. However, player characters can take skills that let them do more damage with certain weapon types, and even increased magazine sizes in various weapons, including ''revolvers''. That's right, you can somehow store ''nine'' bullets in a six-gun just by being good at it. [[MST3KMantra Don't ask how. Just go kill something with it.]]
* In the ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' series, engineers' pistols do slightly less damage shot-for-shot than scouts' rifles, which in turn do far less damage than shocktroopers' assault rifles, including headshots.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' guns, bows and crossbows of the same level are generally equal in power and choice depends on what you can get your hands on. In hands of warriors and rogues, they are next to useless (and in the ''Mists of Pandaria'' ExpansionPack, unusable at all), while when used by Hunter class they are as deadly as magic and other weapons of other classes (that is to say, ''still'' not ''nearly'' as deadly as they would be in real life).
* The assault rifle in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' is seriously underpowered, despite being chambered for 7.62mm NATO, a rifle cartridge that's considered excessively powerful for the purpose it is used for in-game. A pistol will be a OneHitKill on nearly any enemy across the game if you [[BoomHeadshot nail them in the head]], but a full five-round burst from the rifle will only do a ''single'' extra point of base damage over that pistol shot.
* The hunting rifle in the ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' series is based on a weapon that should be firing the same bullets as the assault rifle, but in-game is a terror that will penetrate and [[OneHitPolykill instantly kill as many zombies as you can line up in one shot]]; meanwhile the assault rifle will barely penetrate one zombie and often requires multiple bullets to put them down. The pistol-versus-rifle issue is at least played somewhat closer to reality, as the standard pistols suffer in accuracy and damage per shot compared to any of the primary weapons, but because they have [[BottomlessMagazines infinite reserve ammo]] and a high yet controllable maximum rate of fire, a lot of players still swear by them (even without the achievement for completing a campaign using nothing but the pistols, since some players will continue relying on them even after getting that achievement). Meanwhile, the HandCannon Magnum introduced in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' trades capacity and fire rate for damage jacked-up close to that of the sniper rifles' - even Realism mode's ridiculously-tough common Infected can tank two or three shots from a sniper rifle with no problem, but will die where they stand from a Magnum shot to the gut.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': No matter how sci-fi the series gets, at most one or two party members per game can even use guns (at about the same damage output as swords and bare hands) and enemy mooks with machine guns are about as dangerous as any other enemy.
* ''VideoGame/{{ArmA}} III'' is noted to take place [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in a near-future]] where body armor has advanced further beyond the protective abilities it has nowadays. NATO and the fictional CSAT have as such upgraded to more powerful standard weapons utilizing caseless 6.5x39mm bullets to compensate, and can still drop foes in one or two bullets, but this makes life hell for the indigenous army of Altis and the local guerillas, who as standard issue are stuck with old 5.56mm weapons that are now about as effective as bee stings - you can shoot a man wearing even a simple pilot helmet in the head and face multiple times with the AAF's "Mk 20" (an FN F2000), and until you've put at least five or six of them into his brain all you'll accomplish is turning yourself into a mild annoyance. This also makes pistols generally worthless as well, outside the "heavy" ones in .45, and also gives the NATO special forces in the ''Apex'' DLC a distinct disadvantage, with them moving back to 5.56mm weapons while CSAT moves on to Chinese rifles in 5.8mm that perform pretty close to their 6.5mm rifles from the base game.
** Funnily enough, the best armor in the game, the Carrier Special Rig, rating Level V, is described at a hefty 24 armor and 90% base resist. Looks tough as nails and sounds like you'd be able to take a mag of ammo and not drop, right? Nope! Around five 9mm handgun hits drop you. It might let you take three or four 5.56 hits, and forget about 7.62, those will drop you in around three. Meanwhile, in testing, a modern-day Level III trauma plate for civilians sustained ''eight to ten'' hits.
* ''[[Videogame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl]]'' balances its weapons by giving rifles high armor penetration but extremely poor damage, while shotguns, pistols and submachine guns have much higher damage but with poor armor-piercing properties. This fits together with a health/armor system where mutant enemies (both animals and human-derived monsters) have large health pools but no armor to speak of, whereas normal human enemies have very little health but can wear many types of armor, some highly effective. This system works pretty well in terms of making buckshot or high-caliber pistol slugs strong against mutants but not against military-grade combat armor. Where it falls down is that this makes rifles bizarrely ineffective against mutants, to the point that it may take an entire 30-round mag of expensive rifle ammo to kill a wild boar when a single cheap shotgun shell would have done the trick. This balance element tends to persist in the many mods and conversions that exist for the series, presumably because if rifles were realistically powerful and effective against all enemies then the other weapons wouldn't have much reason to exist.
* ''VideoGame/PhantomDoctrine:'' Pistols and revolvers do a few more points of damage than rifles of the same tier when firing single shots. Handguns can also perform headshots, which are even more powerful and ignore cover. Question: why bother with rifles? Answer: rifles can perform burst and fully automatic fire, which have much higher minimum damage; and headshots use up the shooter's precious Awareness.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships'' uses ships that were made in real life or at the very least were some kind of prototype design, while also splitting them into tiers of ship quality. As the ships are given the correct gun size & count, they have to be balanced by things like rate of fire and accuracy. A major example of this is the United States Heavy Cruiser line, which is 5 ships who all have the exact same main gun (203 mm (8 inch)/ 55 Caliber) with several ships having the same 3x3 gun battery configuration. The Tier 7 New Orleans has the exact same gun setup as the Tier 8 Baltimore, but fires slower than the latter even with the exact same guns.
* This is a gameplay mechanic for the SniperRifle introduced in ''VideoGame/SeriousSamTheSecondEncounter''. Its NETRICSA info for that game makes mention of a pressure-venting system to minimize risk to the user by slowing down the bullet if it detects that it's not fired from a stable stance - what this means is, if you use the scope and fire you'll get a shot that's as powerful as two rockets hitting the target, while if you fire it from the hip, the ''same bullets'' will become significantly weaker, closer to a single shotgun blast. Later games switched to a system more typical of other games, making the bullets deal the same damage regardless but [[ATeamFiring noticeably less accurate]] if you fire without the scope.
* Almost any remotely modern military RTS will display this as a result of trying to harmonize combat roles with the BottomlessMagazines, ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon, EasyLogistics, and potential {{hitscan}} weaponry. For instance, soldiers capable of taking multiple anti-tank rocket hits, but then getting pasted by a much smaller and weaker hand grenade.
* In ''VideoGame/PuzzlesAndSurvival'', heroes that use guns as one of their combat skills cannot instantly kill opponents. When their shooting skills are used in combat, they only cause health damage to the enemies.

* In ''Enlisted'', the infantry-based cousin of ''VideoGame/WarThunder'', all bolt-action rifles deal a standard 20 points of damage. However, semi-automatic rifles, even if they use the exact same caliber as their bolt action cousins (like the G43 using the exact same round as the [=Kar98k=]), only do around 12 points of damage to balance out their superior rate of fire. On the flip side, the [=StG44=], chambered in a smaller intermediate cartridge as befit an assault rifle, still does around the same amount of damage as the G43 even though the latter uses a fully powered cartridge.

* In ''Enlisted'', the infantry-based cousin of ''VideoGame/WarThunder'', all bolt-action rifles deal a standard 20 points of damage. However, semi-automatic rifles, even if they use the exact same caliber as their bolt action cousins (like the G43 using the exact same round as the [[=Kar=98k=]]), only do around 12 points of damage to balance out their superior rate of fire. On the flip side, the [[=St=G44=]], chambered in a smaller intermediate cartridge as befit an assault rifle, still does around the same amount of damage as the G43 even though the latter uses a fully powered cartridge.

* In ''Enlisted'', the infantry-based cousin of ''VideoGame/WarThunder'', all bolt-action rifles deal a standard 20 points of damage. However, semi-automatic rifles, even if they use the exact same caliber as their bolt action cousins (like the G43 using the exact same round as the Kar98k), only do around 12 points of damage to balance out their superior rate of fire. On the flip side, the StG44, chambered in a smaller intermediate cartridge as befit an assault rifle, still does around the same amount of damage as the G43 even though the latter uses a fully powered cartridge.

* ''LARP/OtakonLARP'' has guns, fists, swords, ki blasts… All damage is dealt to players in HP. Items and buildings or Mechas can have Structural Hit Points that are damaged by guns.

** One example in both versions of ''[=RE2=]'' that just so happens to be justified is how Leon's default VP-70 handgun has slightly less power than Claire's Browning Hi-Power. It's ostensibly done to make up for a higher capacity compared to the Browning, but due to the technical aspects of its design[[note]]Basically, it uses a blowback system that normally can't handle the higher pressure of a 9mm, so the rifling is cut deep to "bleed off" excess propellant and knock the ballistics down closer to that of a .380[[/note]], the VP-70 really ''does'' fire 9mm at a lower velocity compared to other handguns with similar specs. Whether this is a case of ShownTheirWork or AccidentallyCorrectWriting is unknown.

** One example in both versions of ''=[RE2=]'' that just so happens to be justified is how Leon's default VP-70 handgun has slightly less power than Claire's Browning Hi-Power. It's ostensibly done to make up for a higher capacity compared to the Browning, but due to the technical aspects of its design[[note]]Basically, it uses a blowback system that normally can't handle the higher pressure of a 9mm, so the rifling is cut deep to "bleed off" excess propellant and knock the ballistics down closer to that of a .380[[/note]], the VP-70 really ''does'' fire 9mm at a lower velocity compared to other handguns with similar specs. Whether this is a case of ShownTheirWork or AccidentallyCorrectWriting is unknown.

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''WebComic/AcidRain'' in a fight between the protagonist against a {{Cyborg}} a single bullet to the brain is enough to put him down. [[DoubleTap He shoots him again]] [[MakeSureHesDead just to be sure]]. Considering he lives in a Cyberpunk Dystopia and people can [[MadeOfIron survive multiple hits]], is understandable. TheHero [[MadeOfIron himself]] was almost killed the same way, so it's [[PayEvilUntoEvil payback]].

** A gun's damage in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' varies tremendously depending on which mods are equipped, despite most of them not changing the ammunition used. Switching a gun from semi-automatic to fully automatic drops the damage per bullet significantly, even with same-level mods. [[GunsDoNotWorkThatWay Even stranger]], the part that affects damage and fire rate is the receiver, which in real life is just the gun's ''casing'' -- while fire rate could be excused by abstracting the receiver mods to include everything within said receiver (e.g. modifying the bolt carrier to be lighter or heavier, thus speed up or slow down ejection and chambering), if anything should be affecting damage, it would probably be the barrel.

This can lead to some extreme oddities, such as certain guns having wildly different damage outputs despite using the same caliber and having similar barrel lengths.

In RealLife, guns are effective and potentially lethal ranged weapons, with their range and lethality being dependent on the design of the gun and what ammunition it uses.

In entertainment media, however, the creators may arbitrarily assign any given gun more or less power than it should have, whether it is some calculable damage value (e.g., a pistol does 10 damage per shot, a sniper rifle does 20, anything automatic does 2), or given a gun's recoil, that gun should be really powerful in a twisted sense of Newton's Third Law ([[LawOfInverseRecoil the more kick back, the bigger the damage right]]?) [[note]]Recoil is a tricky business, as the amount ''you feel'' depends on a number of factors. Two different rifles can each be better or worse at handling their recoil than the other (due to shorter or longer barrels, gun weight, recoil compensation etc.) You'd need a gun as small and light as a bullet to receive the exact same force back.[[/note]] Maybe it's to fight ComplacentGamingSyndrome, or perhaps the creator just wanted something dramatic. It may not make sense that a weeny pistol in real life is now a hand cannon, but [[RuleOfCool it does look cool]]. But it's still absurd that there are strange cases where guns just can't seem to kill as fast as they should.

In RealLife, guns are effective and potentially lethal ranged weapons.

In entertainment media, however, the creators may arbitrarily assign any given gun more or less power than it should have, whether it is some calculable damage value (e.g., a pistol does 10 damage, a sniper rifle does 20, anything automatic does 2), or given a gun's recoil, that gun should be really powerful in a twisted sense of Newton's Third Law ([[LawOfInverseRecoil the more kick back, the bigger the damage right]]?) [[note]]Recoil is a tricky business, as the amount ''you feel'' depends on a number of factors. Two different rifles can each be better or worse at handling their recoil than the other (due to shorter or longer barrels, gun weight, recoil compensation etc.) You'd need a gun as small and light as a bullet to receive the exact same force back.[[/note]] Or perhaps the creator just wanted something dramatic. It may not make sense that a weeny pistol in real life is now a hand cannon, but [[RuleOfCool it does look cool]]. But it's still absurd that there are strange cases where guns just can't seem to kill as fast as they should.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/GURPS'', as firearm damage is calculated from known muzle energy and bullet diameter.

** Perks, unique weapons, and [[BribingYourWayToVictory DLC]] play this straight, however. Unique pistols in both the base game (like [[Film/BladeRunner That Gun]]) and DLC (like A Light Shining In The Darkness) out-damage most rifles per shot, and unique rifles (like Pacienta and the All-American) outdamage their vanilla counterparts firing the same rounds for no real reason. This is not too bad in ''Dead Money'' (because there are only three new guns, only one of which is guilty of this trope) or ''Old World Blues'' (because most of the new weapons are energy weapons), but gets very ridiculous in ''Gun Runners' Arsenal'' and ''Honest Hearts''. The latter in particular has ''ridiculously'' overpowered .45 ACP weapons like the M1911 and Thompson Submachine Gun.

* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in ''WebComic/AcidRain'' in a fight between the protagonist against a {{Cyborg}} a single bullet to the brain is enough to put him down. [[DoubleTap He shots him again]] [[MakeSureHesDead just to be sure]]. Considering he lives in a Cyberpunk Dystopia and people can [[MadeOfIron survive multiple hits]], is understandable. TheHero [[MadeOfIron himself]] was almost killed the same way, so it's [[PayEvilUntoEvil payback]].

* ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' is very guilty of this. In RealLife, the main reason that early matchlock firearms were quickly and overwhelmingly adopted even by societies with a strong archery tradition (e.g. Japan) in spite of their expense and long reload times (they could manage maybe 1-2 shots per minute compared to 6 for a skilled archer) was because guns were ''incredibly powerful''. They packed [[https://i.imgur.com/Ir9CxA9.jpg twenty to forty times]] the kinetic energy per shot of a longbow arrow or sword strike, and well over ten times the kinetic energy of a crossbow bolt, enabling their bullets to blast right through the vast majority of armor and inflict horrific wounds. In the games ranging from ''Medieval II'' to ''Warhammer I/II/III'', firearms will do at most two or three times the damage of arrows, to [[CompetitiveBalance keep the latter at least somewhat relevant.]]

* ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' is very guilty of this. In RealLife, the main reason that early matchlock firearms were quickly and overwhelmingly adopted even by societies with a strong archery tradition (e.g. Japan) in spite of their expense and long reload times (they could manage maybe 1-2 shots per minute compared to 6 for a skilled archer) was because guns were ''incredibly powerful''. They packed [[https://i.imgur.com/Ir9CxA9.jpg twenty to forty times]] the kinetic energy per shot of a longbow arrow or sword strike, and well over ten times the kinetic energy of a crossbow bolt, enabling their bullets to blast right through the vast majority of armor and inflict horrific wounds. In the games ranging from ''Medieval II' to ''Warhammer I/II/III'', firearms will do at most two or three times the damage of arrows, to [[CompetitiveBalance keep the latter at least somewhat relevant.]]