From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Carrying weapons around (was Re: META:  Swords, etc)
Date: 9 Nov 92 18:50:06 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd1.cis.pitt.edu

In article <40764@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike) writes:
>In article <9319@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>>	Well, guess you'd be suspicious of an awful lot of the gamers I
>>have gamed with over the years. Several of them carry loaded large-caliber
>>handguns with them at all times. They aren't psychotics out to kill
>>someone, but they feel that there are enough "bad people" out there so that
>>it is worthwhile to carry a good piece of self defense around with them.

>	Yes, I would be suspicious.  I live in a city called Los
	
		[snip]

>	But, in my opinion, if you're carrying a gun, either you're
>doing it for bluster (and then you're a fool), or you're doing it
>because you're prepared to use it.  I'm assuming your friends are
>the latter and that means that they most definitely are preapred to
>kill someone with their weapon.  If not, then I'd question why
>they're carrying the weapon around to begin with.

	Huh? Didn't you read my above paragraph? "Because they feel there
are enough bad people out there to make it worthwhile to carry around a
good piece of self  defense...", that's why.

	There's a difference between INTENDING TO KILL (that is, I put
on my sixgun and say to myself, "Hmm... think I'll kill someone today")
and being READY to KILL (I put on my gun and say "If someone tries to
kill me today, they'll be in for a world of hurt.")

	I fit into the latter camp. While I don't carry a gun (expensive
things to buy, and a hassle to license), you can bet that if someone
attacks me, I will do my level best to "level" them. I can't afford
to take a risk with someone who STARTS aggression, so I have to make
SURE he won't threaten me again. If he's lucky, he'll be unconscious.

	That's simple self-defense. While places like the US often
require that a person who is attacked limit their responses, I consider
this a ludicrous attitude. If a man tries to assault you, why should you
restrain yourself at all? He gave up his rights the moment he stepped
on yours...

>	In Los Alamitos I've had friends pulled over for no real
>reason other than, "You look suspicious."  In Long Beach (a handful
>of blocks away) I know people who get stopped by the cops once a
>month who look through their cars searching for guns and drugs.

	Personally, I'd be tempted to sue. I'd sure make them show
REASONABLE suspicion.

>>	And I've walked through the city streets of two cities, so far, 
>>wearing a sword on my hip. No one's done anything to me, although one
>>cop car did slow down and the police gave me odd looks.
>>
>	Guess they weren't bored!  :)

	Maybe. The alternative explanation I heard from friends was that
"Cops hate the wierd ones. You can't predict them. So why hassle him when
he might go psycho and try to skewer one of you?"

	Or they simply realized that there was no law in the city 
forbidding me to wear a 3' blade as long as the thing was not concealed...

>>	Weapons are worn as a matter of course in almost all cities,
>>and most certainly will be worn by adventurers. Considering that legal
>>issues are often resolved by the principals involved and not the 
>>local constabulary, adventurers are well-known to be vulnerable to
>>attack at any time. An Adventurer who was walking around completely
>>unarmed in my world would be thought either crazy, or else he must
>>have something REALLY nasty up his sleeve.

>	Life must be hard on the normal people, then, wouldn't it?
>Pretty scary world.  I'd assume that some cities wouldn't allow
>adventuerers within their walls (unless they're into open warfare in
>the streets...), and some inns, etc, wouldn't let adventurers stay
>at their establishments for the same reasons...

	Why so? Anyone who initiates force in Zarathanton (the main
city) or the other associated cities, and who isn't appropriately
punished by the target of the aggression, deals with the Lords Justiciar...
not a few months hence, but generally within a matter of minutes. So
attacks on ordinary folk are very rare, and even collateral damage is either
rare or immediately compensated for by the combatants... or once more
the Justiciars show up.

>>	In fact, the social strata higher up REQUIRE that you come 
>>armed -- especially if you are going to meet the King. To be disarmed
>>is to indicate not only a lack of trust but an insult and an implication
>>that you offer yourself helpless before your host.

>	Interesting interpretation, I must admit.  In most worlds
>(including our modern ones), I would rule oppositely, but my worlds
>are hardly like yours!

	I went out of my way to make it different, in fact. The Saurans (who
ruled  there originally) reasoned that if you were going to meet the King,
in general you were in HIS power; the least that he could do was to allow
you the comfort of your own armaments. Often, in fact, those in audience
with the King are well armed while the King is (apparently) unarmed. The
Way of Greeting in these circumstances involves turning one's back on
the guest -- thus symbolically presenting oneself as vulnerable to their
weapons.

>	Again, your world is a high-risk world (especially for them
>adventurers!) and being armed can be accepted.  If the world was at
>relative peace, no wars were going on in the nearby vincinity,
>running around armed may very well be cause for alarm.  (And I can
>think of a lot of examples in your world where being adventurers
>would get parties kicked out of cities.  "We don't want our peaceful
>city turned into a warfield!  Out!  Out!"  Heck, if it's as
>dangerous as you say, what inn would open their doors to an
>adventuring party?  "Yeah, there were some adventurers here last
>week.  A group of kobold assassins caught up with them in the night
>and nearly burnt down half the inn.  At least they were nice enough
>to pay for the damage...")


	The world isn't that dangerous IN the cities... outside, however,
it can be pretty rough. There weren't many wars, or such things. It's just
a dangerous world.

>	*I* know what a sea wasp is!  :)

	Not by personal experience, I would hope!

	(or, more likely than not, I'm talking to a ghost...)


                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;

Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc