Shotguns, Rifles, Pistols, Oh My!

Another quick opinion poll for you folks who still bother reading a thing I post.

Shotguns, Rfiles, or Pistols? Which do you prefer?

Shotgun Pros: The spread makes it -real- easy to aim. You can even hit multiple opponents with a single attack. And, if the Net Gun is still available in SR4, being able to use a shotgun means you can use the Net Gun, handy for keeping an opponent out of the fight for a few passes. You also have all the neat little special ammo available to shotguns.
Cons: Range is a huge one. And your power drops significantly, the more people you try to catch in a spread. Plus, you know, it's a shotgun. It's obvious. Can't really walk around with it unless you're in a bad side of town.

Rifle Pros: Range, range, and more range. Same basic special ammo types as the Shotgun, comes in all sorts of varities from sport to sniper. Also comes in -assault- mode, even less subtle than a shotgun.
Cons: Not subtle at all, and very obvious. Need to be precise, especially at distances.

Pistols Pros: Concealable, but can be heavy hitting. All sorts of types, from those designed to slip through MAD scanners to those designed to deliver shotgun power at hand-held size.
Cons: Usually doesn't have as much -umph-, and when it does it has low count before reloading.

any others you can think of?

well Good sir, i would have to take the shotty with me. alot of power and versitility if you look at alternate ammo types. if concealabitlty is the problem, there are a couple shortbarreled versions in the Arsenal book. range can be improved if your useing slugs. however the whole point of the shoty is to get up close and personal with it.

Second to that would be pistols. again lots a verstility with the ammo. if ammo's the problem, try the fechetti security or the machine pistols with a 30+ clip.

Oh ho! A man after my own heart. I've always had a fondness for shotguns, personally.

Of the three, definitely the shotgun. Preferably a burst-fire shotgun. If you want my favorite choice, though, it's gotta be a pair of shiawase blazers. Yeah, they're tough to get and you only get four shots per canister, but it cuts through armor as well as a laser. Plus, you know, the whole dual-wielding flamethrowers thing. That's just awesome.

Awesome, but impractical...
Anyone who runs around with dual flamethrowers tends to be toast later on...
I mean, its great against bugs and the like, but in n ormal combat ?

My favourite: Pistols. On the second place: Rifles
Shotguns are just too loud and too messy when used with Buckshots... If you use slugs, its downgraded to a rifle firing a huge calibre, but lacking the range...
Spare them for CQC, I think their use in different situations is somewhat... limited.

Pfft, well, fine, if you're gonna judge on a silly criteria like efficiency.

Efficiency ?
Have you ever tried to wield dual automatic shotguns ?
Its just quite impractical (For most people that arent trolls, that is...)

Shotguns are a underrated weapon in most Shadowrun games.

Depending on the concept of the character. Take "Shotgun Sikh", a Ork with Shiva Arms. Using two FA Shotguns, with appropriate minuses for dual weapon use, can lay down suppressive fire using tight chokes, narrow burst etc the damage is amazing to see in effect. Since he uses two arms per shotgun, recoil is manageable.

If allowed his RAAM 4 over and under FA binary shotguns increase the amount of pellets/slugs going down range.

Also given the nice additions of the shotgun rounds in Arsenal adds even more charm to a character.

Many of my character carry/use shotguns, very nice for mage to not look like a mage, even if they can not use it well.

Rules in Shadowrun..
1. Shoot the Mage
2. Shoot the Troll.

With the rules for weapon modding in Arsenal, most shotguns can be "improved".

As which I have a preference? None I go with the character and his concept. So I use all three when needed.

Rule in Shadowrun:
Kill 'em all !

My characters use small shotguns in Close Combat, but thats about it.
I think, suppressive fire is much more effective when delivered with the big guns...
Shotguns would be out of ammo too fast for me...

So narrow choke was +2 DV +2 AP, now becomes +2 DV +5 AP

Medium choke was +0 DV +4 AP, now becomes +0 DV +5 AP

Wide choke was -2 DV +6 AP, now becomes -2 DV, +5 AP

Interesting

So a CMDT set on Narrow choke firing a narrow burst is +13 DV +5 AP

Long burst narrow set on narrow choke is +16 DV +5 AP

Full burst narrow set on narrow choke is +20 DV +5 AP

Yes I know the recoil from above will be great.

I think the comparison is a little skewed...

At range the rifle wins...

but most combat should be within 90 yards. probably less.

so you are talking CQC.

If I wasn't worried about concealing, I'ld take a shotgun. versatile heavy hitting low concern for accuracy.


a side note:
sometimes it is good to think about the social impact of a weapon.
In some parts of the world carrying an assault riffle is no big deal... carrying a pistol however can get very unexpected results.

Quote :

sometimes it is good to think about the social impact of a weapon.
In some parts of the world carrying an assault riffle is no big deal... carrying a pistol however can get very unexpected results.

Yea, pretty much any idea/belief out there has an opposite. Such that some think concealed small weapons are more of an issue than openly displayed ones and vice versa.

I would have to say the M79 Grenade Launcher would be nice