Permission to rewrite/expand: Guns Are Worthless

The entire intro, when discussing this trope, talks about literally no other context but RP Gs, assumably fantasy RP Gs.

If this trope is RPG-exclusive, why does it have a Film section? A Real Life section? Why, in fact, does it have any non-game section?

It's certainly not used as an RPG (or even fantasy) exclusive trope in wicks. So shouldn't we just go ahead and rewrite this intro, expand it out of its little self-proclaimed niche? It seems that previous tropers have already done so, after all.

Yes, do a rewrite.

OK, then, I'd like some help. What are the key points that need to be hit?

So far, I have:

• Guns are generally the best personal weapon because of their high destructive power/range ratio.
• However, firearms generally become useless when they count most in a fictional setting, especially fantasy and horror, generally because letting them work would immediately defuse a lot of tension and plot.
• Factors that can cause them to become useless include undeath, better technology, and unique physiology.

What else (or any better/clearer/additional wording on what I already have)?

edited 29th Dec '10 2:26:49 PM by Leaper

Another thing that might come to mind is either the target is Immune to Bullets but vulnerable to melee, or every shooter graduated from the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy. Those are two major factors as to how guns tend to be worthless in most situations.

You should probably cover that it's mostly the plot that makes guns useless.

Here's what I have so far:

When it comes to offense and personal defense, it's been long established in real life that firearms are the best way to go. They pack considerable destructive power in portable packages and can strike long-distance.

However, such ruthless efficiency doesn't usually serve fictional plots very well. Just one gun can swing the balance of power severely, especially in a "man vs. mob" situation. Thus, if a hero's access to guns is unavoidable in a fictional milieu, writers will tend to use the plot to defang their effectiveness. Perhaps the enemy is supernatural or has an alien physiology, and thus resistant to projectile weapons. Perhaps they have superior technology, either in shielding, better projectile weapons, or both. Perhaps there's an ammo shortage, making every firing precious. Whatever the method, there will be some reason why the problem can't be solved with a few judicious headshots.

In games, this trope tends to be reflected in a reduction of firearm effectiveness compared to "standard" melee weapons. Again, ammunition tends to be used as a limiting factor; swords don't need to be reloaded, after all.

[Insert related tropes here]

Any further thoughts/suggestions?

Sounds good to me.

Seems to me that this might be combined with the current thread on Five Rounds Rapid.

Hmmm, potential problem: there are tons of examples on the trope page right now in which there is no plot-related reason given for why guns are inferior to melee weapons. How does that fit in with previous insistence that there must be a plot-related reason?

In other words, how do examples that are basically "the writers/game creators made guns worthless, probably for dramatic reasons, without giving an in-story reason for it" fit into this trope?

Dramatic reasons are plot related.

Aha, cool.

In that case, I'm going to make the change tomorrow (with a few tweaks) unless anyone objects. (I'd wait until after the weekend, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of point at the moment; no one seems to be clamoring to keep this trope limited to RPGs.

OK, done. Take a look; if nobody objects to anything in it after a while, I think we can declare this done...