Took my pistol to the range this a.m. and put a couple hundred rounds though it (225, to be precise.) While my miserable shot grouping isn't the subject of this post - clearly, I only have a single point in Guns (Pistol) - what did occur to me is how frequently I lost track of the bullet count and was momentarily surprised when my magazine was empty. This led me to thinking: how is it that PCs in a RPG are able to know exactly how many rounds they actually have fired? In an Ultra Tech situation, that's easy - an ammo counter might display this, ala the M41A Pulse Rifle of Aliens fame or perhaps the character has a HUD running that tells him this - but in a more modern society? I spent four years in the Army as an infantryman and even in a carefully controlled environment like a gun range, I lose track of my count. In GURPS: Tactical Shooting , there's a bit about Situational Awareness on page 11 that remarks simply that the game presumes everyone is aware of things that...
Comments