A Brief Observation on Putting Guns in your Fantasy Game

Why are guns a problem for systems designed to accommodate melee combat? Whenever we take a game that facilitates heroic action fantasy, with strong PCs tearing the enemy monsters to shreds with their swords and bows and halberds, introducing a gun just makes it… fall apart. In the confines of fantasy game-fiction, you can justify a goblin getting hit by a sword-swipe and being fine, if not a bit battered. But can you justify that same goblin getting hit by a bullet? From an actual gun? It’s more likely than you think. There’s a lot of discourse revolving around the concept of special treatment for guns in classic fantasy RPGs. “This enemy can withstand a d6 sword”, says the game-master, “but can it withstand a gun? The thing that makes your flesh explode into a bloody pulp in all those movies I saw? No it can’t. Therefore, the gun must deal, uhhhh, 4d6 damage or something like that. But I can’t put a 4d6 weapon in the hands of my players, that’s busted, so it’s gonna have a -5 to hit…