| From: | Paul J. Adam Paul@********.demon.co.uk |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Viper Errata |
| Date: | Wed, 10 Mar 1999 01:58:44 +0000 |
<ratinox@******.gweep.net> writes
>Hash: SHA1
>* "Paul J. Adam" <Paul@********.demon.co.uk> Tue, 09 Mar 1999
>| Who says every single target you shoot at has armour?
>
>Most targets the average Shadowrunner will be shooting at will have armor.
"Most" but not all.
>| And if 6M flechette is useless, then what does that make 4L from a
>| holdout?
>
>A waste of ammunition.
Then why waste time including hold-out pistols in the rules?
>"Oh, great! Now I can flatten ammunition against
>body armor faster than ever before!"
SSC comment about the Ares Crusader.
>| Uh... even back then, there was the Beretta 200ST. That had a 6L damage
>| code, SA/BF fire, and it was listed under "Light Pistols" in the back of
>| SR2.
>
>IIRC, the 200ST listed is a conversion from the Street Samurai Catalog, not
>part of the main listing of weapons.
And yet the Ceska Scorpion and the Ares Crusader - also SSC weapons -
are seperated into "machine pistols", while the 200ST is planted in
"Light Pistols" and the Viper lands among "Heavy Pistols".
>And SCC has no 'machine pistol'
>weapon category under which to have listed it. That category of weapons is
>new in SR3.
No, it appeared in the conversions table in SR2 and was repeated in SR3.
Even Shadowtech's gear listing gave the Ceska Scorpion and Ares Crusader
the (MP) annotation. The 200ST and Viper... didn't get such
consideration in any case.
>| So if you fire a Beretta 200ST in single-shot mode you do 3(nada)
>| damage?
>
>6L, like any other weapon that qualifies as a light pistol.
But it fires bursts and yet it isn't a machine pistol. So, to be
consistent with the Viper, it must do 3(nothing) damage in single shot
and 6L in burst.
What other burst-fire weapon has its damage quoted for the _burst_? I
can think of one, the Ruger Thunderbolt, and that explicitly quoted.
The Uzi III - only able to fire BF - has 6M damage listed, does that
mean individual rounds only do 3L?
>That is what
>the Viper *SHOULD* do, too.
In your opinion.
Contradicted by not one but two editions of Shadowrun rulebooks (indeed,
by SR3 FASA have eliminated all comments about the Vioer being a 'light
pistol' - it's listed under "heavy pistols" and comes in the pistol
listings after the Max-Power, Predator and Warhawk.)
Seven years after SR2, after the "error" has been repeated and confirmed
in multiple sourcebooks and by other weapons, I'm unwilling to create a
special "Stainless Steel Rat says so" errata category for one weapon
just on your say-so.
>| Sure it can. Take a look at the Star Firestar, for instance, or some of
>| the microGlocks.
>
>And they are all nigh-uncontrollable because their frames are much too
>light to absorb recoil, just like every other machine pistol in the world.
Who said they were autofire weapons? You asked for examples of "small
pistols firing full-power rounds", I offered several.
Autofire? With FMJ rounds, hard to hold. (But then, so is a Desert
Eagle, yet we hear cries that 9mm Para is a 'light pistol' and all heavy
pistols are .44 Magnum or thereabouts.)
If, though, you confined yourself to lightweight flechette rounds, then
the recoil forces drop and the weapon remains controllable.
Oddly enough, Glock continue to sell their Model 18; it's not an easy
weapon to master, I understand, but it certainly can't be useless or it
would have disappeared a decade ago. That's a lightweight 9mm full-auto
pistol firing FMJ ammo.
And in burst-fire, a stock Viper's first shot is at +3, the second at
+6: that sounds at least slightly difficult to control and hit with to
me.
--
Paul J. Adam
