Reminds me of the Dragon Age RPG, which had my all-time favorite way of dealing with mages and magic.

Good spot. My group is in it's 40's and 50's now, and we're not the target audience for Disney. I don't hate the kid-focused new stuff, but it isn't the direction we wanted to go.

But neither did we want to wallow in nastiness like some modern series. I have no interest in a 'grimdark' world.

I wanted a rich and deep galaxy for 'grown-up' stories. Sex and violence happen as part of a larger story, not gratuitously (don't take the crazier of our artworks seriously! They're not canon!)

So yes, Dragon Age and Mass Effect really hit the right tone and themes we wanted. It's a galaxy of greys, where doing the right thing is still important, but it's much harder to work out what the 'right thing' is.

The more I hear of this Marcy-verse, the more I like it!

Thank you. I should really start a thread to stop hijacking this one!

Or better yet, an Obsidian Portal.

Believe it or not, we got most of our ideas on this very forum during the days of Beta Boards.

Regardless of the mythology, in most actual situations, the "modern ranged weapon" is superior. There's a reason modern militaries issue firearms and not swords to their soldiers. And despite what was said upthread, you can't actually just pick up "a gun" and use it effectively, this actually takes a degree of training and practice. I know RPGs rarely reflect that, but it's clearly true once one looks at the lack of success untrained or poorly trained people have actually hitting a target beyond a short distance, even a target that's just sitting still and not firing back.

With respect, there are those of us who are “naturals” with firearms. We wouldn’t necessarily perform well under combat situations, but give us a weapon that is MOA accurate out to 300m, and we can put the first few rounds in the space of a dime into a target at that range.

And that’s with the first few rounds that we have ever fired out of that weapon. Been there, done that with a properly sighted-in M14.

A dime is 0.705" (or 17.91mm) wide.

A minute of arc is 3.141" (79.78mm) at 300 yards (274.32m).

Most rifles do not hold MOA to 300 yards. Some very few rifles and some very few shooters are capable of shooting 5-10-shot groups of less than 0.750" (that's not a typo) at 300 yards.

However, a mil-spec M14 rifle is not generally capable of holding these standards (original USGI accuracy standards for the M14 with M80 ball was 5 MOA at 100 yards). Tuned competition guns can and so can Mk14 EBRs and M39 EMRs (basically modified M14s in Sage EBR chassises), if they're properly cared for.

Finally, anybody can get lucky with 3 shots (which I assume is what you shot). This is why the US military accuracy testing standards (for rifles) are shot as one 10-shot group or a composite of four 5-shot groups.

Yes, some people do possess a happy talent for firearms. But I question how many of the "talented" could produce such groups on demand and not simply on one lucky day.

(Just saying.)