Why should swords and knives be better against vampires than guns?, Thoughts from playing way too much VtM Options

[Wounded Ronin]

So for the past week or so I have been kind of binging on the famous Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines video game by Troika. One big trope in the game is that supernatural entities are highly resistant to firearms so that in general it is more effective to attack them with swords and knives than with firearms.

To me, that doesn't make very much sense, because it is basically saying that a sharp piece of steel weighing perhaps three pounds that is swung at low speed somehow magically causes much more trauma, structural damage, and systemic disruption than a piece of lead that flies at supersonic speed, causes temporary and permanent wound cavities through the body, and tends to exit out the back of the body leaving a big exit wound.

I'm a really big enthusiast with both firearms, and also historical weapons. I've done test cutting with a variety of sharp swords on goat legs and pork legs, including bare versus wrapped in cloth, or wrapped in leather. Basically, I would say that there is no comparison between swords and firearms and that firearms will generally cause a lot more trauma much more quickly than a sword, especially a sword that is used for cutting as opposed to thrusting. It's not to say that swords wouldn't be deadly to a human, but we're talking about trying to stop a regenerating immortal being that basically lacks vital organs.

I guess this is also the Highlander fallacy. If you can only kill an immortal by decapitating them, a .50 caliber round to the head makes much more sense than trying to cut it off with a sword.

Do you feel that the atmosphere or feel of the VtM world or setting would be worse off if guns were simply generally better than swords? Is the idea that vampires have to have sword duels in the streets of downtown LA critical to the setting? Why not just have the vampires use swords back in the 1600s and then transition to rifles with hollow points in the 2000s?

I could see if a vampire had invested a lot of time in swordsmanship back in the 1600s, he might continue to practice in the 2000s or even have a historical collection of swords, but it would basically be a hobby, or as a means to practice physical coordination and skills. Maybe older vampires of a certain generation might still challenge each other to sword duels, if they grew up with that stuff and felt emotionally driven to call each other out in that way. But, if all of a sudden some vampire hunters came knocking, I wouldn't expect him to grab the sword instead of a shotgun, unless he had no other weapons handy. For me personally, the idea of a vampire defending himself with a shotgun doesn't ruin anything.