[Dragaera] The New Palace

[Jon%20Lincicum]

----- "Michael Wojcik" <mwojcik at newsguy.com> wrote: 
> Jon%20Lincicum wrote: 
> > 
> > If a highwayman is clever, he never has to fire his weapon, anyway. 
> > It's used as a threat, so I don't know that this is as big a drawback. 
> 
> This is an interesting point. Is a flashstone useful as a threat? If a 
> random tough steps into the road holding a small rock, and claims it's 
> a flashstone, would the fat[1] merchant in question believe it? It 
> seems like obvious threats would work better than ones the victim has 
> to take on faith. 

When a hoodlum sticks up a convenience store with a handgun, how do you know it's loaded? 

How about if he's just got a gun-shaped lump in his pocket that he sticks at you, menacingly? 

Is this a credible threat? 

As with any threat, I'd say it's only effective so long as a) it is not just a bluff, or b) if it is a bluff, the bluff is not called. 

I think Vlad made a similar observation to Verra in /Issola/ regarding threatening the Jenoine... 

Majikjon