In reality, guns have a lot of different factors that change how they behave. I can name a dozen popular rifle calibers off the top of my head, and nearly that many pistol calibers. Each different caliber and make of gun (and often every different model) uses different magazines. I can go on about the differences between pump-action rifles and lever-action rifles. The use case for a revolver over a semi-automatic pistol, how a suppressor can change your guns performance beyond sound and more. And I probably will in later posts.
And it's this detail that people researching guns for their game get hung up on. the debate over revolvers and automatic pistols have been going on forever. As has the debate about the comparative effectiveness of various popular calibers and gun designs. In the real world someone looking to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a gun needs to be able to weigh what works better for them. The differences in magazine capacity, the size of the grip in their hand, the subtle differences in recoil impulse and which controls are on the gun in which areas.
But for most games none of that matters. The difference between 9mm Luger and .40 S & W is academic in a game sense. It isn't going to change a character's tactics, choices or how people react. In the real world, there is some barely quantifiable arguments in favor of both of them. When abstracted to a game, the differences of dice rolls are an order of magnitude larger then and advantage one may have over another. And in the majority of cases, it's just not fun. So why bog your game down with that nonsense? The player who says "and my character has a revolver on her bedside for protection" and the player who says "My character carries a stainless Smith and Wesson 642 4" revolver with Miculek trigger job, XS "Big Dot" sights and Buffalo Bore Magnum plus ammo" are saying the same thing. Roll the dice and play the game.
To that end, I recommend to any game designer and game runner that you think about any detailed rule, especially firearms. Really think hard about "Is this going to make the game more fun?". In some cases, Wikipunk being one of them, there might be value to a more detailed firearms customization system. but in most cases, the basics are more then enough to have the inevitable shootouts be fair enough. You can flavor text the guns any way you need. But the basic rules will keep your game easy to adjudicate and fast moving.
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