[quote=@Darth]

The last line is what I've been saying the entire time. We're using different terminology, but it's essentially the same claim.
[/quote]

I think the issue you're hitting is that folks like LeeRoy and myself who're firearm enthusiasts, both in-game and out (or at least I'm assuming, in LR's case), have been told repeatedly, often, over the course of many years, and with [i]enormous[/i] prejudice that the use of firearms in an RP context, at any power tier, for any reason, with any character, constitutes douchebaggery of the highest order and that we're both awful players and awful people for bringing a gun to an anything-else fight.  It has left folks understandably bitter, when we're so frequently told that what we love to do and what we find fun an interesting, is Literally The Bane of All RP.

It's [i]impossible[/i] to challenge someone to a low-powered gunfight because they all assume a pistols-at-ten-paces idiot duel where everybody dies on the first post.  A paintball-style run-and-gun battle with athletic parkouring soldiers using their guns, their wits, and their moxie is...well, you never see it because [i]literally everyone[/i] assumes that if you shoot, you hit, and if you hit, the other guy dies.

Which is absolutely ludicrous, and has ruined more than three perfectly good games/game ideas.

I've been a firearms-centric player and Official Gunslinger long enough, and generally successfully enough, that people have asked me to write them guidebooks on how to make guns work in RP.  I know the rules of gunfighting in the game.  I know that the most important one is that people will do [b][i]ANYTHING[/i][/b] to avoid being struck by gunfire.  Folks who'll cheerfully let an opponent run them through with a halberd will break character and/or resort to metagaming or powergaming to get out of the way of a .22-equivalent round.  That scorn and derision for firearms and firearm users, and that intense desire to avoid [b][i]EVER[/i][/b] taking a hit from firearms, is so universal that most of the more successful gunslingers I've met/fought [i]count[/i] on those reactions and use them to steer their enemy's actions.

That doesn't make the scorn, derision, and cries of "CHEESE NUB" any less grating.  Heh...nor does it really make it easier to hear when someone states that it's blind-obvious that of [i]course[/i] firearms are OP cheese in low-tier/mild powers - who [i]wouldn't[/i] agree?

I would argue that it's perfectly possible to have a really engaging and entertaining dispowered/mild-powers gunfight - so long as the characters were set up for it.  Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of low-tier guys are set up for melee street brawling - no eagle-eyed riflemen in body armor, because an eagle-eyed rifleman in body armor is instantly and universally decried as unfair cheese and banned from the board.

Is that really fair, though?  Is it impossible to see where the gunslinger fans are coming from on this issue?  yeah, I prefer mid to high tier where it's not a big problem, but maybe someone really, [i]really[/i] wants to play that eagle-eyed rifleman.  How's he supposed to do that when everyone tells him he's a cheating dickbag for even contemplating the profile?