The ubiquious AK-97, They're everywhere! Options

[lodestar]

Is it just me or does it seem that every corp or ganger with a bit of firepower seem to have one of these units? I was just checking some of the old printed adventures I got and most of the new ones and it seems that every corp slag seem to be standard issue. To me it would seem that Russian State arsenals might not be that open to selling them to the corps, or at least the corps might better equip their teams with FN- HARs, and Colt M-22s. Maybe that's just me.

Now given that there's probably also tons of eastern european and chinese knock offs, it just seems quality wise these would be bottom of the chain.

Now here's the big kicker question. Do you always throw the AK in there or do you spice things up a bit giving the opponents a bit of arms differentiation to make every corp sec team a bit more trademarked if you will.

Secondly do we know where the major production lines are for these automatic death machines are in the world of 2060? By that I mean specific locations.

[mfb]

AK-97s should be everywhere. i don't give them to higher-end sec forces, but i give them to everybody else.

[iPad]

As a character I aint seen them to be honest.

[mfb]

they really shouldn't be common if the opposition is above street or low-end merc.

[Glyph]

Agreed. They are basically a cheap, generic assault rifle with no frills. Now that Cannon Companion has the Colt M-23 (which is a similar bare-bones gun), you can mix it up a bit more, but the AK-97 will definitely be the most common assault rifle carried by street punks, gangers, and corporate types on a budget.

[Austere Emancipa...]

No AK-97s in my game, just the AK-100 (AK-103, AK-104, AK-105) series and AK-147, as well as earlier AKs (AK-74, AK-47) and other Russian assault rifles. Western corps use other weapons, mostly Colt M22s (no integral grenade launchers in most ARs IMG), S-K uses G38s, Japanacorps use weird toy weapons, etc.

[Gyro the Greek S...]

One of the advantages to the stripped-downs and no-frills assault rifles is that you can add all your own customizations and don't have anything unneccesary to tear out.

[Raygun]

The AK (Avtomat Kalashnikov) moniker suggest actual Russian manufacture. All Russian AK rifles have been manufactured at the Izhevsk Machine Tool Plant (IZHMASH) in Izhevsk, Russia (about 600 miles east of Moscow), and I don't see any reason for production of newer rifles to move anywhere else. Though IZHMASH has already long since passed up "97" in their numbering scheme, so that doesn't exactly fit.

There are plenty of other countries that manufacture or have manufactured the AKM or rifles heavily based on the AKM. Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and probably a few others that aren't coming to mind at the moment. Though, again, I doubt that any of them would use the AK acronym.

There are several examples of the newer AK an AN rifles at my site.

[Orient]

[Fix-it]

I throw in sawed-off shotguns and street-sweepers once and a while.

[Large Mike]

Heh. Street Sweepers. I still love 'em. "It seems that he was shooting at you with a blackpowder gun made primarily of a steel pipe."

[Lantzer]

Oddly enough, my street punks don't tend to use assault rifles. Pistols, pipes, pieces of rebar, knives, chains, baseball bats, and the occasional metahuman, sure...

[Austere Emancipa...]

While concealability is a real problem with assault rifles, I can't think of any other reasons why street gangs wouldn't be packing AKs. One reason street punks should have them is that they're much cheaper than most reliable semi-automatic pistols -- ~$250-300 for an AK-47 IRL vs. $450-500 for a Glock 17, for example.

[toturi]

I have no problems with street gangs having AKs, especially if you are talking about those in the security Z-zone areas. But the important thing to remember is that the skill level of the gangers are not likely to be higher than 3.

[Arethusa]

[Austere Emancipa...]

It doesn't seem very likely to me that assault rifles will become less available on the streets in the next 60 years. Extraterritoriality helps immensely, as does the large number of nationstates in North America (and Europe) where civilian ownership of military weapons will be much more common and far less restricted than in the USA. And as cheap as $200 is for a Glock 17, AKs are much cheaper still (often well under $100) in places where they cross over from the military to the black market quite freely. In the late 90s, it was widely reported that an AK-47 could be purchased in Russia for 50-100 FIM ($9-18) -- might not have been true, but even $50 would be pretty damn cheap for such a weapon.

In any case, I have never seen firearms legislation which would restrict SMGs less than ARs. However, concealability does favor SMGs, and it's hard to fire an AR gangsta-style.

[Lindt]

All of the sudden I have this vison of a troll, elbow way up in the air, holding this big greasy Ak sideways... Thank you for brightning my monday.

[Chance359]

[GrinderTheTroll]

Yet another fun game feature (the play on the well known AK-47) picked apart by the vultures of "keeping it real".

It's a fantasy game already, sheesh.

/flame off.

[apple]

[Herald of Verjig...]

You do a skill test to stage the damage, but hitting is easy.

[Chance359]

You're right about needing skill, but I guess I prefer the SR2 suppression fire rule. Known as the "lead-air" theory.

[Herald of Verjig...]

Don't recall that, what's different from the 3rd edition rules?

[Black Isis]

In my games, very few people carry assault rifles around -- they are not exactly what you'd call "subtle" or "concealable," after all. Most runners and gangers (even Mafia or Yakuza goons) are going to carry SMGs at best, just because you can conceal one under a long coat without too much trouble. Assault rifles are going to be used by SWAT or military troops, or maybe by one or two goons out of a big group.

Of course, that's assuming the game is in an urban area -- if you are in Africa, or the middle of nowhere in the NAN states, or hunkered down in the Yucatan, things are going to be different. Remember that AK-47s, Chinese knockoffs of AK-47s, Singaporean knockoffs of Chinese knockoffs of AK-47s, etc are some of the most common firearms on the face of the earth right now, because they are cheap and easy to manufacture, easy to operate, and durable as all hell (they aren't particularly GOOD, in terms of accuracy, anyway, but they are durable). I think I remember hearing that in Africa you can buy an AK-47 for $50. The AK-97 is the heir to this legacy, so in my games the AK-97 is used by every two-bit revolutionary, drug kingpin, or third-world paramilitary type you find.

[Raygun]