Gunplay

I have mixed feelings regarding guns and violence in video games. 

On one hand, I do enjoy games with eliminating targets as a core mechanic (provided there is acceptable narrative justification). However, I abhor gratuitous, unjustifiable violence, both in real-life and in entertainment media.

Initially, I planned to prevent the player character from using guns in this RPG, limiting their availability only to NPC guards. The player character would thus be severely disadvantaged with only raw knuckles and (if they can find it) a kind of kinetic melee weapon as the only means of offensive play.

While reducing the violence factor, doing so seem to subtract from the first of the 3 paths of agency that I wanted to offer the player:

1. Direct assault - the fastest and most obvious path often involves some show of force
2. Stealth - the smartest path avoids conflict, but requires planning and patience
3. Social engineering - the path of deception requires having some leverage and a lot of misdirection

So... guns are officially in. This actually amounts to more work for me... so I'm still ambivalent about the whole decision.