Firstly HQ is pretty crap at simulating anything. Unlike GURPS and other games of that ilk it deals with resolving conflicts, not simulating the results of actions. So it really doesn't matter how many shots your rounds of .45 your M1911 holds - it's got enough until it runs out as the result of a conflict or as a result of an exchange within that conflict. So during a firefight Biggles gets a bead on Von Manstein with his Webley and his player fails his roll giving 3 resolution points to the bad guy (You can tell he's bad - he's prussian, got a monocle and clicks his heels together). There are all sorts of things that the GM could use to narrate the outcome, but one perfectly good one might be: "It's an easy shot, even Bertie's dowager aunt could make it but the hammer falls on an empty cylinder, making an echoing clicking sound." Boom boom (or not), ammunition problem solved.
Second thing is credibility tests depend on genre. So playing a gritty modern game set in Iraq there's no way someone can fire a bow 400m straight up. However Hawkeye can (which head would Sir like on that arrow?), Legolas can (using his "Irritating Pointy Eared Poofter" keyword), Odysseus can (using his ability "Bow that only I can string") and Superman can (he doesn't even need a bow, he can probably fart with enough gusto to get it that high).
So you need no stinking search engine or a table of data - most things are usually evident from the genre and enough falls out of the wash from conflict resolution to let you wing the rest.
Cheers,
Ash
> I really like the HQ rules so far, though I have questions. One comment I
> would make, though, is that the mechanics sort of outsource simulation to
> the narrator. If a player finds a luger with a full magazine and wants to
> shoot enemies, it's up to the GM to know how many shots he can take. It's
> up to the GM to know if an archer's attempt to shoot an arrow 400 m
> straight up passes a credibility test, or how nasty it is to be hit with a
> billiard ball dropped from five stories, etc. In simulationist games such
> things are often baked into the rules or into tables of stats. To decide
> how tough or impossible something is, I need to know or look it up myself.
> This is not a bad thing in today's search engine enabled environment.
>
> I often ignored those sorts of stats, but having them as a backup was
> nice.
>
>
>
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