So I am working on a Jayne Cobb character for SR4.... The only hang up I am having is how to make Vera. It was his most prized weapon. I know the actual model is based off of a Saiga-12 shotgun (looks wise) and for all purposes it is a really big rifle, but this thing is supposed to be able to mess up spaceships and the like. A simple assault rifle will not do. I was thinking heavily modified sniper rifle or assault cannon would work (short barrel and other mods.) or maybe grenade launcher.

What do you guys think?

Sniper rifle with firing mode change, maybe short barrel.

nothing

Hough !
Medicineman

"Callahan full-bore auto-lock with a customized trigger, double cartridge and thorough gauge"

The simple route would be to take an Ares Alpha, give it a custom grip, Extra clip, some APDS rounds, maybe a heavy barrel.

I'd look at the Ares Vigorous Assault Cannon (Arsenal, Pg. 30). Add Salt to taste, serve when ready.

Bah, liked your gauss rifle idea better

he only ever uses Vera once, and that one time he had to use a vacc suit to allow it to fire, so it is some sort of chemical slug thrower.

He fired it in burst mode, so I would go with a Snipers rifle with BF modification.

OkOk But Lunchbox' Gun looks way Different (thats why I edited)
My Idea was an Ares Thunderstruck Gaussrifle for hard targets with underbarrell Grenade Launcher and WP Grenades for the softer Targets.

with a Da Capo Dance
Medicineman

Yeah the burst fire sniper rifle makes the most sense, if nothing else because a burst fire assault cannon just scares the crap out of me (though is tempting )
I will run some numbers and see what works best.

Thanks guys.

I personally still think it's just a top of the line, tricked out, assault rifle. It's obviously meant to be man portable (he actually uses it in another episode, and I'm a bad fan for forgetting the name, where Mal and Wash are captured) as he wields Vera in 1 hand and his pistol in the other. So while Vera is definitely meant for "hard" targets, it is not cannon sized. At most I'd trick out a sporting rifle with BF over the sniper rifles, making it more of a DMR.

Jayne shoots out a window in a space station and shoots ceramic breakers/transformers. Hardly messing up a spaceship, unless I'm missing canon fluff from a book.

Assuming the window is armor plating, ammo could deal with that.

I actually second the sniper rifle with burst fire.

Though the idea of Jaye as a shadowrunner is quite hi-larious. For some reason Jayne screams "troll" to me.

"Now you're just gonna scare him..."

"Pain is scary."

I am going with a tricked out sniper rifle.

The character should be very fun to play. I went with ork instead of troll but gave human looking to go with it for fun. His lack of any social skill will make for fun times.

Double Post

Ork should work, I mean, after all, he is like a trained ape... without the training.

The whole "guns can't fire in space" thing is a tv myth. They work FINE in vacuum; the propellant (like all explosives) has its own oxidizer. And of course, aiming at longe range with no gravity and no wind / air resistance is just that much easier. Shooting things in orbit might be hard because of orbital mechanics, and your gun might jam from getting cold in vacuum, but its gonna shoot (and cycle) just fine if yah lube it right. And if there's one thing Jane likes to do, its lube his gun...

Shooting up the space station probably wasn't that hard; unlike the Firerfly and most of the ships they fought, it wasn't designed for orbital re-entry, so it wouldn't have been built any heavier than needed to hold air plus the rigors of whatever construction tasks they used it for. Assault rifle works fine. I'd be tempted to make it from the Styr Aug CSL (or whatever the presto-chango gun is called now) with some customization, and no switchable modes; assume Jane didn't get the full kit, just what he took off the guys who tried to kill him.

Vera isn't meant to mess up spaceships, even says so in a later episode, "..the best I got is Vera and she can barely even dent the hull"
I saw vera as more of a battle rifle and would take a sniper (.50) with BF and Shortened barrel, and as much recoil mods as i can manage. I guarantee nobody likes .50 cal burst fire coming their way.

One thing we should consider, is that Vera is a specialty rifle. We're not dealing with "modding" a "normal" gun here; we should be taking the most accurate base weapon, and applying as many modifications as are neccessary to have Vera. We're not "overmodding," we're designing a designer gun from the ground up.