Re: GM-controlled Bad Luck points

"psychohist" <psychohist@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:1186438180.465298.171630@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> My understanding is that this was a result of increased reliability of
> semiautomatic pistols.  In other words, Peter's suggestion may be
> dated, but wouldn't necessarily be incorrect, for example for a game
> set in earlier decades.

First off, few things have a single cause behind them. Fewer yet are
driven 
by more than perception.

In this case, I have the advantage of being engaged in the hobby during
the 
switchover. Thus I knew officers at the time, read the articles concerning

the switch, etc. It wasn't reliability driven (something that's obvious
when 
you consider that the Military, always a big reliability customer, had 
switched to semi-auto more than a half-century before). In fact, one of 
weapons selected today by a number of law enforcement agencies and 
individuals was designed in 1911.

Often time a bone to reliability having 'improved in recent years' was 
tossed to make the new weapons more acceptable to the line officer, but 
those statements were on par with "The M-16 is a self cleaning rifle" 
nonsense.

Rather the primary cause the growing number of gun battles making the news

where the slow reload of the revolver played a role in some bad outcomes. 
There was also the 'arms race' where various criminals were using
semi-autos 
and the police felt outgunned as a result. These and other factors were
the 
same driving influences behind the development of SWAT teams and the like.