Going Shopping

One item I've found consumes an enormous amount of time is shopping. Before departing for Montana this week, Clark decided to go use his Connections(3) at the local sporting goods superstore to fit out the party. In particular, they wanted rifles. I ruled that they could find target shooting rifles (.22 and the like) and gave them a 2B/2 damage profile. I figured that about represented the damage one could do with a .22 rifle based on my experience and the balance of the rest of the guns in A Time of War.

The party also bought a lot of rope and other materials, then went on to Montana. While they were in that town, Bert asked if there was a gun store in that town. I figured there certainly would be, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and instantiated a gun shop in our virtual town. This proved to be something of an error, as he immediately flipped open his copy of A Time of War and started browsing the listings. I recognized that behavior immediately as a big timesink, and tried to short-circuit it by giving a short and comprehensive list of the types of weapons available -- shotguns, bolt-action rifles, and one elephant gun if they needed it.

The key note here is that browsing weapons tables is something for between sessions -- not to be done in-session. The reasons for this are many, but the primary first-order effect is that session is stopped until a decision is made, and the second-order effect is that inevitably much kibitzing about different weapons (or armor, or food, or what have you) follows as theory and application is discussed, and in extreme cases, whole plans of operation are scuttled as players run through hypothetical scenarios. It is keenly important to deal swiftly with these sorts of session-stalling searches swiftly and decisively. A short product list is the first step, but make sure each product has a definite purpose -- a short-range weapon, a long-range weapon, and something heavy, in this case. By doing so, I quickly and with great authority nailed down the available options, and closed off any questions of "do they have this?" that might have bogged us down further.