Shrapnel Games Blog

So yesterday a group of us went to see Iron Man. Highly recommended, even if you’ve never had an interest in the character (I’d fall into that category). As we were leaving the theater there was a marketing group outside handing out feedback forms. The woman hands one to myself and the others in my group and says, “Hi, here’s a really quick survey we’d like you to fill out to find out what you thought of the movie.” We look at this “quick” survey to find it has nearly 70 questions on it, including essay questions. Look at each other. Look back at the questions.

Err, no. Hint: if you post-movie survey resembles a tax form it’s probably time to rethink it. How about five questions answered on a one to ten scale? That sounds a little better, don’t you think?

We had several in our group who are in the SCA so talk on the ride from the theater turned to whether the Iron Man armor would be SCA-legal (the consensus was it would be). Once back we were planning on firing up a long afternoon of gaming but with SCA talk still buzzing decided to break out some long bows and do some target shooting.

Until yesterday I don’t think I’ve ever shot a bow in real life. I vaguely recall maybe firing one once as a Cub or Boy scout. I have fired plenty though in gaming. From rangers striking down evil orcs to legions of bowmen fighting the French at Crecy, many of clothyard shaft has flown at the table. In gaming archery is always easy. Point and shoot, roll some dice. How hard can it be in real life?

Yesterday I learned a couple of things:

1. Archery is fun. I plan on shopping next weekend for a long bow.
2. Archery is not quite point and shoot. Well, it is, but if you want to hit your target there’s a little more to it.

Now obviously as a total noob I wasn’t going to pull off any Legolas-sliding-down-stairs-on-a-shield-while-firing-multiple-shots type tricks, nor would anyone confuse me for Robin Hood. But I was still surprised at my first attempts. We were shooting at a target twenty-five feet away (which is nothing in RPG range increments) and wow, if I was fighting an evil sentient field of grass I would have done all right, but against the actual target? Not so much.

I started picking it up rather quickly though and by the end of the day was putting six shafts out of six into the target, although usually not where I was aiming. I began to learn how much pull to use, how to aim to compensate for the fall of the arrow, which arrows performed better than others. Archery seems to be half physics, half feel.

Actually finally doing something in real life that happens all the time in gaming made me appreciate the game aspect even more. If my character is only hitting eight times out of ten when being attacked by a flock of owlbears, I won’t feel so bad when in real life I’d be fumbling to nock the first arrow while being devoured by the mob.

It also started me thinking about how much “expertise” we gamers proclaim to have when it comes to gaming, but how much do we really have? In historical gaming there are no shortage of experts on tactics and equipment, yet how many folks have commanded a Confederate artillery unit, British tank division, or Roman legion? Same thing with sims. We gamers will argue over how quickly a FW-190 should be able to turn at 15,000 feet but where does that come from? An Osprey book we read once?

By no means am I discounting the value of reference works, but ultimately in the end there is something to be said for real life experience over book cred. I have to wonder if forums will be more civil if everyone on the Internet didn’t proclaim themselves to be ultimate scholars because they can search on Wikipedia.