It is also worth remember that comic book characters, even human ones like Punisher and Batman, have variable power levels depending on whose book they are in and what specific story is being told. Frank can hold his own in a Spiderman movie because he is in a Spiderman movie, but he won't be...
I am. Or rather, I am saying that given 5E's design ethos around combat there is no reason you can't have gunslingers or commandos in D&D. The biggest hurdle would probably be figuring out a decent balance for autofire. Otherwise, combat is so abstract and arbitrary that "guns" are just another...
The point is you have to do more than reskin those systems. You have to build new rules with FitD, for example, to make a FitD supers game or whatever. That is fundamentally different than an intentionally generic system like GURPS.
If the argument is "we can never know" then the discussion is moot. Or worse, circular. It is certainly possible to know more about peoples' ply habits, but it would require people dedicated to researching it.
It could also simply be economic. As someone mentioned upthread, a (war) wizard is a huge investment of years of education, so the Guild is going to want to get compensated for that investment when they hire out battle mages to lords and such. but when the gunsmiths come in, they can do much the...
Only those filthy heathens toy with forces beyond their understanding and control. We, the righteous, forge weapons that harness the power of ingenuity to cleanse the world!
I think all world building should serve play, so if part of the world building is "guns vs wizards" what that looks like should be less focused on whether it is "logical" and more focused on what makes a better, more gameable setting. The Mages Guild versus the Gunsmith Consortium is an...
Right. The ability to "reskin" something doesn't make it universal or generic. it still only does what it does, but now with lasers instead of crossbows.