Going to church? Don't forget your sawed-off shotgun!

This thread is for discussing campaign verisimilitude and dealing with player suspension of disbelief.

We're playing in a Cthulu game last night and one of the players (not me) is an archeologist who happens to be proficient with a sawed-off shotgun. He lists the shotgun as his equipment. This is our first session and the DM (not me) sets us up in church. The archeologist is there to meet with another player who is playing a private investigator (not me).

The players hear a commotion in the back of the church and find a zombie priest eating another priest. First thing that happens? The archeologist takes out his shotgun and shoots the zombie.

The DM is OK with this. One of the other players (also not me) is up in arms though. "Why did you bring a sawed off shotgun to church?" The player had no good reason, other than "I have enemies", which was good enough for the DM. The other player spent several minutes ranting about how stupid that was.

Have you had any similar experiences when a player rants about unrealistic actions despite the DM and the rest of the group letting it slide for the sake of "moving on"?

(And FYI I played a quiet lumberjack who managed to survive the night with 100% of his sanity.)

I find it sad that multiple people at the table thought it would be perfectly reasonable to bring a loaded weapon to church.

Anyway, I've long thought it would be interesting to allow paranoid behavior in a horror game, but to have it force a sanity check.

I find it more unrealistic that you survived a CoC game with 100% of your sanity than having a character with a loaded sawed-off in a church... Maybe I've played too much CoC, though.

Depends on what kind of church it was.
If it's a regular church, then, yeah. Bit over the top.

If it's the kinda place where people dance around wit rattlersnakes, then a sawed off is just plain a good idea.

What if the shotgun is misfiring and needs to hear a good sermon to set it right?
-blarg

What the archaeologist should've said was something like:

"Look, I've been attacked in much nicer places than this. I've learned the hard way that it's really better to go armed all the time now."

And then he could've spun a tale about how he was in a church somewhere in upper Egypt/Sudan and got attacked by his bearers.

Brad

takasi said:

(And FYI I played a quiet lumberjack who managed to survive the night with 100% of his sanity.)

Click to expand...

So... you were the quiet guy... with an axe... who was unfazed by it all....

What I find unrealistic is that the other PCs let you live.

...

And yeah I've had those moments of "You brought what to the church/coronation/bris/bbq?" before.

mmadsen said:

I find it sad that multiple people at the table thought it would be perfectly reasonable to bring a loaded weapon to church.

Click to expand...

While not common, I've actually been to church when I knew I wasn't the only one with a loaded weapon there - and no one was law enforcement! Time and place really matter.

Regardless of the circumstances, it's always a good idea to bring a sawed-off shotgun to church.

And it's a good idea to display it if they try to send the collection plate around twice...

Now I've never played CoC, but personally I would that that bringing a gun to a church would have to have something to do with the Archeologist's respect from religion, or at least that religion. I have respect for religion and churches, but if Im playing in a game where crazy . . . . stuff . . . . happens outta the nowhere I know Im . . . . . . DANG sure im bringin that gun. But thats me . . . .