The rationale is, simply, what effect does a firearm have? The original author of CoC did a very good job assigning those effects to various calibers, IMO.
In most cases. Nothing is perfect, but the numbers stack up better than some games in which guns are one of the primary elements. Check out Dark Conspiracy. I love the game, and the firearms rules are good overall, but the damages seem waaay off. As in, you could certainly kill an elephant with a Barrett .50, but not a hefty human with one shot.
Speaking of elephants, I agree that that does not make much sense. CoC elephants have 60-70 hit points as I remember, and an elephant gun with 3d6+4 or whatever just is unlikely to put one down, even with an impale. This is something I houseruled, but I don't consider it a deal breaker. I use an aiming rule of some sort. It still models OK, though, because elephant hunters usually went for brain shots and many successful elephant hunters used calibers such as the 7mm Mauser. Which no one in his right mind would use on an elephant, you'd think. Oh, and I find the same average damage from a .50 or an elephant cartridge like a modern .416 to .458 or an older elephant gun like a .600 or .700 to be about right...
|