Okay, so here goes. It occurred to me that an easy way of toting military hardware around the 'plex is to put that SMG or rifle in a duffel bag. Now, it won't pass muster with any sort of sensor, and most checkpoint guards and bouncers will want to check the inside of the bag, but for everyday carry it should theoretically work.

My question here, as someone who doesn't own guns, is what the limit is in terms of size. I'd imagine length would be the primary limit, and I looked up the M16's length and it's 39 inches long. Now, that's the fixed stock version, so I'd imagine something with a collapsible or folding stock (or a bullpup gun, which would have a shorter length overall) would be easier to fit. I doubt 40 inch duffel bags would be hard to find, or all that noticeable either.

So, here's my question. How should I work this into concealability rules? The way I figure it, barring the gun imprinting on the bag itself all onlookers would notice is that there's stuff in the bag, which doesn't strike me as suspicious at all.

The only downside I se is that it'd probably take a Complex Action or more to ready the gun in a pinch. Actually, I'd say probably five Complex Actions (to unzip the bag, and then ready the gun). Does that sound fair? Too much? Too little? Thoughts?

It's very easy. You can get an AR or AK pattern rifle down to 'large pistol' size very easily.

The M4 Carbine, the current issue version of the M16 is ~30" long with the stock collapsed, for example. An AK with a side-folding or underfolding stock gets down to about 25".

If that's too awkward for you, the venerable MP5k is just over a foot long with a collapsible stock, and true machine pistols like the MAC-10, Uzi, or Skorpion are shorter than that.

Personally, I'd figure it to be a Complex action to draw a weapon from inside a carried bag, at most a full-round action. Beyond that and it starts to get in the way of combat, and SR's combat system is more for simulating action movie gunfights than realism.

Well, simulationism versus action movie gunfights is personal preference. But I get what you're saying. Particularly since assault rifles in Shadowrun are presumably more carbine-like, as (in 5e at least) their range has a hard cap of 550 meters, but M16s can theoretically hit at 800. So yeah, that gets around the "how the hell does a Street Sammie transport his AK-97 if he rides a Harley" question.

Saddlebags. Big old hand-tooled leather saddlebags.

I'd say that this was a reasonable solution and rule of thumb. As someone who totes round rifles to various airsoft events, and has similar problems with transportation at times, this seems fair to me and easy to justify. I'd also go with your guidelines on removing from the bag - sights, bipods, muzzle breaks and charging handles all have the damndest habit of catching on folds of the bag or internal pockets or other bits of stuff, so you have to ease the gun out of the bag, or risk ripping something off something. Perhaps a quickness test against some suitable number to shorten this procedure might be reasonable for the very ept.

I own both an AR 15 and an AK 47. The AK is actually a pretty short little rifle. In the first place, both could absolutely fit in a large duffle bag. Second, in the world of SR, you should be able to customize any rifle to have a collapsible or folding stock. I would think that just about any rifle with a folded stock could fit in a large custom saddle bag. You would want the saddle bag to the customized anyway so the rifle could be safely stowed while loaded, and also readied relatively quickly. A bit like the handgun purses they make for women who want to take responsibility for their family's safety.

Really good post.

The GM might keep things simple by incentivizing the player to not accessorize the rifle if it's intended to be drawn and used quickly. Nothing like manly use of iron sights, Take Aim actions, and short controlled bursts.

Depending on wherer you carry the stuff and if you have a permit, consider adding other stuff to put into the bag. A duffel bag makes for a good mode of covert transport, but a duffelbag with an AK-shaped outline in it sure will attract attention. And as always if the characters transport the things legally, I always find that it severely calm down the police officers if the gun is unloaded and has a gunlock to it, so they know I won't spray them or some others down once they stop watching. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Actually, that would incentivize customizing the rifle - iron sighs snag like a bitch, so you'd want to file those off altogether and use the smartgun link, and maybe get some kind of sleeker, sci-fi looking clamshell construction that bulks it up a bit but, more importantly, makes it smooth.

Actually, this is probably why the Ingram Smartgun remains the Perfect Weapon. Remove all external protuberances except the magazine, and it's pretty small, and you can operate all the functions they would otherwise control via smartlink anyway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I kept imagining someone pulling out a Mossberg 590. The bead sights would be less snaggy than a ghost ring and it's a pretty smooth weapon.

If we are thinking of pulling out a rifle for some kind of brutal close range ambush, I imagine you could put bead sights on a rifle.

Since SR deals with retro-80s tech, I'm not sure if adding Smartgun capability would make the gun more or less snaggy.

In 5e, it'd depend on whether it's internal on external.

That is the concern in any of the editions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Hence the Ingram's superiority, as it was designed to be a SmartGun ™ from the ground up! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

My rigger has a delivery drone that can land, or drop weapon/gear pods. Sure its not helpful for indoors, and it does mean that you're tying potentially quite a bit of nuyen into something someone else could steal, but having that 'pizza drone' drop you your backup heavy artillery, when it otherwise looks like you're going light or unarmed, can be useful.

Well, what I mean is, since it's retro-80s tech, I can see the external smartlink as adding something obtrusive, snaggy, and bulky to the outside of the weapon, but if it's internal, do we really expect the weapon will have the same dimensions as a fully manual weapon?

I always felt like the old tech the idea of smartlink was based on was the OICW, which, due to the inclusion of computer, laser range finder, and optics, was a relatively bulky rifle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective_Ind...l_Combat_Weapon

So, in terms of the setting, do we consider smartlinked weapons to have additional bulk due to the inclusion of onboard computer, range finders, diagnostic circuits, and so on? For me as the GM, I'd show people a picture of the OICW and just say that since it's retro-80s everything is bulked the hell out.

Enormous period fantasy Ingram: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/...539E3A158220AF/

It depends, with an external smartlink, I'd say yeah, sure. With internal, I think it depends on whether the weapon comes with the smartlink as a normal design feature (see Ares Predator II to V, for example) or whether some gunsmith had to cut the gun open and cram the parts into it somehow.

Nope... I do not assume that the Internal smartlink ads bulk. Seeing as how the internal smartlink does not add to concealability.