What's your level of armament?, Roughly equivalent to the Ute Army Options

[Garland]

Not to tread on algcs' toes, but his poll got me to thinking: what DEFCON is your group usually operating under? I realize that a good group of runners adapts to whatever situation, but what do you see most of the time?

My current group falls somewhere between option one and two. We've got a couple of passable brawlers, but only 1 (!) gun in a group of 6. I voted "8" because we've got 2 adepts and a shaman.

Edit: And who voted number 1? What's the story there?

This post has been edited by Garland: Feb 4 2005, 09:01 PM

[JoeJones]

IIRC, Garland-sama, we've actually got 3 guns. Lucas has a Colt Manhunter and a Streetline Special, and Bubba's got a hunting rifle of some sort.

[Garland]

I stand corrected. But only one of them has much chance of being used in the near future.

Edit: The one that actually HAS been used.

This post has been edited by Garland: Feb 4 2005, 09:40 PM

[Jrayjoker]

I ran a game last year in which the heaviest weapon was a baseball bat with a sliding weight inside it. We did have a mage, though.

[JoeJones]

[Nikoli]

[Garland]

Heh. If it weren't for the ganger (played very well by JoeJones) and the shaman, that's where my group would probably be.

I'm surprised we don't have any 3rd world militias out there yet... C'mon guys, if even one of your team members is WALLHACKER!!!1! you're halfway there.

[Cynic project]

Guns like any item that shadowrunners have are tools. Given that ideal, you should bring the right tools to the job. You do not need to bring a tank to stealthy B&E and you shouldn't only bring a knife to forward assult on a machine gun nest.

So, wile my characters always tend to have guns, they always have guns that work for the job at hand. Or at least try to. Right now, I am playing a character with three heavy pistols. One witch is plastic,and an AR. These will change based on the run. He also uses knives.

[Crimson Jack]

My group is magic-heavy, gun-lite.

[Capt. Dave]

Where's the First World standing army option?

[Kagetenshi]

Your group has 40 points of vehicular armor and Thor Shots?

~J

[mfb]

"The rigger has a tank and/or a flock of drones."

[iPad]

[DocMortand]

I did the 2-3 with tons of magic option...before the last run the group had barretts and AR as the chief guns - but the ran up against a pro merc group that had a Panther AC, so the group is better armed now (and recovering from a variety of Deadly wounds)

[The Grifter]

Option 9. Totally.

[Capt. Dave]

[Necro Tech]

Words I never get tired of hearing.

"Ok, I take cover by the side of the building and set up a claymore."

Explosives are Good.
Heavy Weapons are Good.
Artillery is King.

[Daishi]

Yeah, I'm with the "where is the First World standing army option?"

Tonight's session involved the team's insertion being covered by orbital suppression fire.

In our previous campaign that was more strictly shadowrun, the only excuse for having less than 8 points of recoil on your long arm was that because it was either a full-blown sniper rifle (and was already on a bipod) or it was an 81mm mortar (also on a bipod).

I think we might play heavy. :D

[Typhon]

O.K. I'm personally Guiltly of Putting my Running Group into the "as many guns as fit into the trunk of a car" Spot .... I can't help it , I'm a Pistol Specialist Merc with enought Holsters and guns to make our Gun adept Cry Foul . so here is the Load out(Note: this is just what my Sheet says he has on him at the moment) : (2) Ares Predator I , (2) Ares Predator II , (2) Gyro Jet Pistol , (1) Walther Palm Pistol , (1) Remington RoomSweeper , (1) AK-98 .... and a spare clip for each ... yeah lets hear it for Ammo B/R kits! :nuyen:

[DrJest]

I went with "3 or 4 with magic", since my groups have always had a tendency to snatch up weapons as the need arose then keep them on ice for future necessity - nothing like have a Nakatomi Fuchi exec murdered by a gun registered to a Villiers Fuchi security team, back in the day. The whole "enough magic to choke a barghest", tho, is inaccurate. If you saw a mage OR shaman partnered with an adept, it was a magic heavy group for my lot. They just weren't that popular; in fact, thinking about it, in groups i've run I only saw four magical types in my career (one mage, one shaman, one sorceror adept and one physad specialising in knives), and usually not more than one at a time.

EDIT: I think I'm unusual in having the kind of group whose players said "Have we got a mage..? Okay, then I won't play one."

[The White Dwarf]

Voted 4 solely because of the wording of the question. That is the normal amount of firepower we operate with. As in, I go to the meet, I go see my fixer, I do a driveby for the run, etc. It is rare for the team, as a whole, to be caught with anything less than "a trunkfull of firearms" at our disposal. Obviously we only carry pistols to a meet, or nothing if its high class, things like that as the situation demands. But the firepower isnt far off.

That said, anytime we do an actual *run* it could scale up to "heavy weapons and explosives" and I would say moderate (not insane) amounts of magic. The big stuff is there, but its only retrived when people have prior knowledge of its need. And magic is ever present but usually not to an extent that we can overwhelm something with magic alone. Weve had a few groups like that, it really changes the game so we try to keep it to no more than 2 magicians outta 5 ppl, roughly.

[toturi]

I voted the last option. Apart from the street sam who has overwatch with heavy weapons (always heavy weapons) and the rigger with his army of drones and requisite tank-like vehicle, the otaku(with her tribe) is ready to deck into Ares and gain control of a Thor shot if necessary. The mage has maximum Great Form elementals on standby. Enough magic to choke a barghest is an understatement. 1 normal adept, 1 magical adept, 1 mage, 1 shaman, even the otaku has SURGEd Astral Sight.

[Trax]

I went with option four, although technicly i'm the one carrying an arsenal of weapons. However with my Valiant lmg I shot down a couple Dragon choppers that caused a seven block fire, and another member of the group blew up a fairly large piece of the earth with C12, killing 3-4 squads of Red Samurai, and if it had been a second later, it would have killed Villiers as well.

Option 3 would work as well.

[Snow_Fox]

Usually we carry hand guns with the sami's keeping something extra, like SMG's or shotguns, in the trunk.

[MagicalGirlPrett...]

We have a pretty good mix, but in general our group likes overkill. I myself carry a pair of titanium-laced fists and an Ingram, we have a troll that seems to like to carry a PAC and HMG around with him in public (with hilarious consequences), a ninja physad who's just about the only stealthy one in the group, a gunslinger with akimbo pistols, and a pyromaniac of a mage. Very often our GMs are frustrated by our sheer need for brute force and our general lack of tactics often gets us into trouble. Still, it makes for a lot of cool explosions... :rotate: