True, but they arn't carried there on the person once at the party. They would be left in a locker or something. Hard to use a pocket secretary or a computer
in water. Or even sand, and he'd be the dorkiest dumbass in the party. No one would invite him.

It all depends on why you are there. Maybe you are there as part of your cover. Maybe a Johnson is meeting you there to discuss the next run and you have to fit in. Or maybe you need to convince Idiot Exec #314 to give you a certain piece of information and you can only catch him there. Maybe you have to fo there to fence an item you picked up on a run.

Ok, those work.

But still, in pretty much all beach fashion I can think of, mens AND womens, you are completely fragged as far as handguns go. You might be able to sneak a knife.

Are you kidding? The beach is made for loose Hawaiian shirts (easily covers an armored vest and/or a heavy pistol) and other baggy clothing. Most people carry all kinds of bags and containers, for example coolers that can be used to store, among other things, larger weapons and explosives. A lot of people wear wrap- around, or sarong-style baggy things (which grant both easy access and extra concealability), supposedly over a swimsuit (but who knows?). Some people even wear surfing style body suits (form-fitted body armor?) under such flowing sarong-type clothes.

Get a cyber-holster. It does not matter what you are or are not wearing.

Gunwriter and former policeman Massad Ayoob wrote some on the subject of women and concealed weapons. The best concealed option for woman, besides thigh carry, which is only good for dresses and skirts, he said, was the shoulder holster. The worst was the straight draw waistband holster, as women's hips tend to flare out, causing the gun to be pretty noticable.

Which would work fine to conceal a hand gun. There won't be a big enough change in 56 years to make it unconcealble, there hasn't been a big enough change in the last 156 years to do that.

With some doing, I can hide a replica Desert Eagle (way too light, but properly sized) in some larger top hats. I know this.

Hm. That would be interesting; it would make sense for hats to return in Shadowrun, especially given acid rain. You can certainly hide a lot of chips or such in a hat, but you can't keep it on indoors.

~J

As for open carry - in Buckhead, walking around with a gun openly displayed would raise eyebrows and invite a chat from interested police officers.

Walking around Techwood Homes with the same gun might raise an eyebrow and a spirited discussion about whose gun that actually is.

It's all in who's doing the carrying, where they are and how they appear.

-Siege

If you were choosing to be that eccentric, you might as well not worry. It was considered fairly rude.

I suppose there's nothing stating that it would have to be in the future, but having a serious hat on indoors is rather odd.

~J

My friend with the tophat does wear it indoors. Of course, it gets odd looks no matter where he wears it, so that might not be the best strategem for someone who's trying not to draw attention...

Well, I meant as opposed to a cap or other piece of light haberdashery, but silly hats would be a bit more apropos as well.

~J

Certainly. I was giving an idea of how much volume can be hidden, not legitimately suggesting that a non-Troll would actually carry a real one there.

~J

Glad we could help

~J

This just occured to me: Creative uses of tazers and metal parts in clothing. No need for weapons. Play a dwarf to get it to really work.

"But, Mister, my mommy pinned it on and I don't know how to get it off!"
ZAP!
"Fragging stupid orc."

Better yet, Otaku.

~J

Just to back up the statement about the small of the back (no pun intended), we usually rig the sound packs to actors taped to their skin on the small of the back, just off the spine. Shockingly easy to conceal things there.

JaronK

For a woman, the purse is probably the most practical. I can't see why you couldn't get one with a special holster built right in, so you don't have to mess around with a zipper or dig past the checkbook, makeup and cell phone to get to it. In a regular purse, the heaviest items eventually sift their way to the bottom. So after walking around for a while the thing will be underneath everything else.

Of course, if someone manages to steal said purse they're getting a bit more than they bargained for. Better get biometric ID and a secondary weapon. Come to think, that's good for anybody. Cuts down on that whole "shot by your own weapon" problem. I bet police get that stuff all the time . . .

I seem to recall seeing once a holster built for bicyclists. It wrapped all the way around the stomach and held a small revolver behind the rider's back. Of course, you'd better STOP your bike first . . .

Personally, I'm still trying to get my players to cut down on the number of assault rifles they bring places. They're just finding ways to not be seen at all, making concealability a moot point.

Snow Fox is intimately familiar with the Anita Blake books.

A little off topic, but bleh ...

I was speaking with a police officer mate who has done what we here call the Covert Course, which means he's considered to have done the training to work short term undercover and so on. Anyway, he recounted one of the tactics which was shockingly effective in young-and-hip bars.

When I was a university student and thoroughly convinced of my general superiority, the running joke was going to a bar and seeing two (never one, never three) males who were noticeably five to ten years older than everyone else, standing somewhere where they could see most of the scene. They would have short haircuts, tan lines that covered neck and wrists but not arms and legs, and would wear, without exception, some variation on brown or grey pants and a loose hawaiian or colourful shirt. You would even occasionally see them adjust their belts (which remained under their un-tucked shirts) as if they were too heavy. Us entirely-too-cool university students would spot the obvious undercover officers and snigger to ourselves.

What we didn't know was that these would be police officers, generally senior ones. The proper covert officers would circulate the bar blending in far better, actually achieving whatever objective they were there for. If an arrest was to be made they'd use their covert listening device to tell the officers outside who to arrest, and then the obvious coppers would do the actual arresting. This would then perpetuate the story of the obvious covert officers which would then circulate.

Still remember the case I worked on where an idiot came up and spoke with a female covert officer, thinking she was a prostitute, and was done for Publicly Soliciting for Prostitution. He went to court and so on, and a month later same covert officer, same idiot, next corner up in the same suburb, and the transcript of the covertly recorded conversation included the line "don't I know you?" "no, why?" "sorry, I must be paranoid, I'm told everyone's a copper around here" "well, I'm not but I think that girl over there might be" "damn, thanks for the warning, so, how much for [explicit sexual act censored for the kiddies]"

Just to show I can drag myself back on topic, one of my mean GM tricks is letting the players get all decked out with concealability ratings worked out to decimal points using their patented long coats and +50% concealability, and then have them enter a resturaunt which asks them to check their coat at the door.

What about Indian sari, Muslim burkas, African caftans and Amerind ponchos? In a heavily multi-cultural metropolitan area like SR Seattle, I wouldn't find any of these to be out of place (especially the ponchos).

The burkas are especially wonderful because you don't even have to be a woman under there.

Anita Blake. Bah - if I want soft-core porn, I'll read a Playboy.

That being said, SnowRaven's specific requirement involved hiding a gun while wearing standard or stylish corp attire which would be a little more problematic. Unless the corp in question permits or requires burkhas - at which point, stop worrying.

-Siege

The cultural clothing is good anywhere you can play customer that isn’t anty that culture.

This includes the entry ways to most corporate buildings (not necessarily most of the ones you want to infiltrate)

Full ceramic weapons, non-metallic ammunition and a ruthenium burkhas. I may do that sometime.

Edward

It ain't stylish, but it's damned effective.

That said, Siege is right; we're pretty far afield here from the realistic concerns of a real woman wanting to live a life and carry.

Also, who the hell is Anita Blake?

Anita Blake is the creation of one Laurell K. Hamilton - she was the forerunner to a crop of "Alternate Reality" books.

Werewolves, vampires, magicians, oh my rub shoulder, paw and fang with us mere mortals in a more or less contemporary setting.

Ms. Blake is a necromancer with an attitude who hunts vampires and assists the police as an "undead trouble shooter" and paranormal advisor who makes a point of carrying a lot of weapons and carries the "I'm short and bitchy" attitude like a a proverbial chip on the shoulder.

Laurell K. tries to be "realistic" in her research into modern weapons and related issues, which is how the character gets cited as a reference as a literary icon of grrl power.

-Siege

Edit: A fansite of the afore-mentioned softcore porn

The best thing for concealing a gun for a women trying to be stylish would be her hair. Something extremely small, such as a hold-out pistol, while it doesn't pack much punch, might be able to be woven up into some elaborate hair-do which can come apart quickly to allow said lady access to the gun. Sure, her neck might get tired, but it might actually go un-noticed unless people like to pat her on the head.

Well, the easiest way around hiding a gun, is to make the gun look like something else. carry a "brief case" gun. but you can easily hide your gun as a hand bag. Cargo pants. i can keep trade back books in my pants,and pull them out about the same speed as drawing them from a holster. Ie you have your costume made gun, that may be shorter,and hold a few less rounds,with a pocket built around it to hide it's bulge as something that looks like a book, with a smart pocket and you should understand the rest.

But in the end you build your outfit around your gun.They have jackets that can hold lap tops,and aren't really noticeable.

Anita Blake, groan. Back when I was a teenager I had a girlfriend who was obsessed with those novels. Because of her I read one of them. And I think that she once mailed me an Anita Blake novel that had been signed by the author and which had handwritten in the cover something like "Enjoy my world, watch your back!". Wow, I have no idea where that book is now. I hadn't even thought of it for years and years and years until this thread brought it up.....



I don't remember enough details about it to say whether or not I thought it was "realistic" as far as the concealed carry stuff was concerned. But now that I think about it, I'm beginning to think that maybe Anita Blake never said anything about the particular types of ammunition she was loading? Maybe I'm way off base here, but it just seems to be the way that I remember it. If that is true, I figure someone who is chasing down vampires and the like would be carefully picking the most destructive cartridges and calibers possible, and that that would be a big point of in-text discussion. "Everyone knows that 9mm sucks, but 9mm ball sucks even worse against vampires!"

Her discussion on ammunition, if memory serves, was on the light end of technical.

Just enough buzz words to make the average reader go, "oooh...nifty."

Of course, I can't claim to be an expert on the subject either.

-Siege

I was under the impression that fit women lost breast mass (lower overall body fat), and that a large bust wouldn't be a huge issue in a draw, assuming you're fit for combat. That said, under a jacket seems to be your best shot, as small of the back seems to be inviting detection from a guy ogling in profile (slim waist with form fitting clothing: danger! you gotta recognise!). Not being a woman, of course, this is all conjecture and vaguely educated guess.

Also, have to disagree about the beach. A sarong or similar large wrap and inner thigh holster can let you pack quite a bit. Uncomfortable, yes, but not impossible. At the worst, a one piece and a ceramic knife on the small of the back is pretty nifty, assuming you aren't in the water.

You know what? If you are going to a beach party, work on your stealth or unarmed skill. At best you'll be able to take a knife. You're screwed unless you can take a purse women. Sorry. Rely on your negoation skills or somthing, hope your GM isn't evil.

Placing a small pistol on the forearm while wearing a formal dress with the open cuffs* or while wearing loose fitting overcoat*.

I would think custom designed clothing would suit the needs best here. A return to early fashions using a rear bow* or (making up the term here) ripple wake lace tail that has layers of flowing fabric to conceal a pocket*. Or using the collar to create a cavern between the neck and lower back in a cloak fashion*.

As a rule yes, fit and active women tend to have smaller bust lines - provided, of course, they haven't opted for augmentation.

As for just dropping a gun into a purse, yes - that would be bad.

But a purse designed with an integral holster for the express purpose of holding and storing a gun? That's more feasible. For that matter, an extra flap that covers a holster concealed inside the material of the purse, allowing the wearer to grip the handle without accessing a purse's traditional point of entry.

Granted, it wouldn't be as fluid and as natural as sporting a quickdraw holster on one's hip, but that's not what we're aiming for, is it?

-Siege

On her forearm? Kanada, that's either one hell of a small pistol or a pretty impressive forearm.

-Siege

I have small fore arms, unless I'm going for big "pirate"sleeves that going to have to be a tiny gun.

Anita Black favors silver bullets and a shot gun loaded with silver shot. She's a licenced executioner, and later on Federal Marshal, she doesn't sweat conceled.