Korjik I have a stack of D&D books you couldn't jump over to begin with. I didn't need anymore to have adventures. I also have a three foot tall stack of Shadowrun source books. I started at 16 and I'll be 48 at the end of the month. I'm gamed out.

Clev, not all cultures share information and technology with each other. At all. Most of the name brand firearms are aquired via interdimensional travel, often at great risk. One campaign has (had) a bunch of guys who raid post apocalyptic worlds for technologies. The last run was a second raid into a high tech world that had been over-run with Aliens. There was only one survivor, my friend Ol' Weird Bob.

After fighting his way back down the inside of a skyscraper, teleported up from ground level outside the building. Simple in and out looting raid. They had it all figured. The Aliens would all swarm up to where they were up high in the building. If they got enough swag or if it got too hairy they would teleport back down to their vehicles. The teleporting wizard was then one of the first fatalities. Cut in half from behind in a burst of panic fire. The game got really good after that.

(Fumble, critical hit nearest ally. Critical hit, body split in twain, immediate death. Failed saving throws all the way around)

Bob had made it to the parking garage, after going too far down no less, and having to fight his way back up. As he looked at the distant square of daylight, and all the darkness and overhead pipes and duct work between him and home he said something that had never been said in D&D before.

"Damn it!, I'm down just a .357!"

Cultures that can blend magic and technology often don't see firearms as all that, and a bag of chips. Not in worlds with trolls, dragons and undead.

Take an orc long bow. Launchs a 3.5 foot long solid iron arrow 300 yards. Think of a piece of rebar flung that far. Awesome penetrating power. Not done through brute force alone. The only better smiths than the orcs are the dwarves. And that says alot. Their smiths enchant everything they make as a matter of course. Its just that nothing they make is pretty or balanced to a human's viewpoint. You may have noticed its difficult if not impossible to use recovered orcish hand weapons well. That's why.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales