From:	Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:	Re: Ares Viper Slivergun
Date:	Thu, 6 Apr 1995 00:40:02 GMT

> The Ares Viper Slivergun... a most impressive weapon, no?

Most surely so.

> Here's my question...
> Damage is listed at 9S(f)...
> It's a light pistol that uses heavy pistol ranges... (so sayeth the rulebook)
> So does it do 9S(f) per shot for a 12D(f) three round burst
> Or does it do 6M(f) per shot and 9S(f) when firing a burst?

Since everything else lists the damage for a single shot (even weapons that
only fire full-auto) then it's 12D(f) for each of two bursts. Ouch. Even
with double impact that's going to hurt. And you have two bursts instead of
the one you get with, say, a Savalette Guardian. Ouch twice in succession.

> ALSO!
> It fires bursts, but it's silenced...
> Do you use silencer or sound suppressor mods?
> Do you use silencer for single shots and SS for bursts?

SR2 says it's silenced. I go with the silencer modifiers, but there is an
extra penalty for burst fire. Technically I mumble that it's because it only
fires a specific type of flechette ammunition which is easier to suppress but
also rather unusual. Not even illegal, but unusual: enough that sales assistants
remember "the big tribal-looking guy, yeah, he wanted two boxes of Viper rounds,
he was here all right" longer than otherwise. Not a drawback of the Guardian,
which also fires APDS or explosive ammo.

The Viper's combination of magazine size, damage and burst fire do make it
a very nasty weapon in the right hands, but all you need is someone hiding
behind cover to negate it. And forget about damaging vehicles, too. It's a
popular weapon among my players, and one of my characters carries one as a
back-up pistol: but it's not universally used, which is the hallmark of an
unbalanced weapon. When *everyone* uses the same gun, the system's out of
balance :-)

BTW, all these weapons are...interesting to fire, or at least the nearest real
equivalents I've seen (the Glock 18 by repute, and in person a broken M1911A1
that emptied a 18-round clip of .38 Super in just under a second...five times,
as we all tried to see "if it was fixed yet"). The M1911A1 was a Para-Ordnance
custom job with wide frame and a ported barrel, and it still needed both hands
and a lot of determination to get most of the rounds on target at 20 yards. A
burst limiter would have helped a lot, though. Five or six was the shortest
burst we managed to get (the ROF was enormous) but that usually meant all on
target. After about six the climb pulled them skywards: we didn't perforate the
roof, but the backstop hadn't been punctured *that* high for a while.


--
When you have shot and killed a man, you have defined your attitude towards
him. You have offered a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or
for worse, you have acted decisively.
In fact, the next move is up to him.
Paul J. Adam (still a Mohican and proud) paul@********.demon.co.uk