As I've been coming up with story ideas to use in the campaigns I wish to run, I found myself thinking of a classic film, Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. The plot has been recycled many times since then from blatant rip-offs like the cowboy movie, the Magnificent Seven and even by an episode of Enterprise. Its a great movie with a lot more depth than at first glance and certainly something I think GM's ought to watch to get a good grasp on non-western peasants. The story is worth adapting for a quick and easy game, especially for those players that want a combat-heavy game.

One of the things I like in the film is the primative firearms and I recall a scene where, Kikuchiyo uses a gun taken from the bandits against them. in Shard terms, his character certainly wasn't of a caste allowed to use vaylah weapons. What would be the repercussions of such an action in the Dardunah universe? Could a peasant in a pinch, pick up a loaded vaylah weapon and pull the trigger with no later social or legal consequence if such had happened during an emergency?

Since thieves, bandits, highywaymen and the like are alll outcaste by definition, that would mean technically they're not allowed to use Vaylah weapons. I remember reading that the penalty for having such would be death. I can only infer that the penalty for being a raping, murderous bandit is also death. So, in the world of Dardunah, how often it at all, would bandits and their kind use illegal weaponry? Seems once you're already a wanted man, it doens't matter what other crimes you commit.

If vaylah weapons are outlawed, will only outlaws have vaylah weapons?