Yeah, but in shadowrun the whole point is that 2 shots of 4L won't do much to a dangerous opponent who can theoretically then kung fu you later in the turn after you've blown all your combat pool on your hold out pistol shots.

Still, I suppose it does beat giving them a free attack on you if you're bad at HTH.

I thought that called shots can bypass armor anyway.

It was recently errataed that they can; my house rule supersedes that.

Also, before anyone brings up the objection that sniper rifles should be able to bypass armor too, a weapon with a base damage of 14S does not need to be made useful. A weapon with a base damage of 4L does.

~J

Well, if nothing else, the two 4L shots (and it's worth pointing out the "two" part, that's another benefit of a firearm over a melee attack, you get to wack 'em twice) can give him some TN penalties when he closes the gap, and becomes one with his inner Bruce Lee. Even just a +1TN can make all the difference in the world once the fists start flying, remember.

A pair of armor-bypassing basic holdout shots (say Pistols of 6, split a low/average 8 CP between both shots, that's 10 dice at TN 4, twice), with fairly cheap and easy to find EX ammo (in a small quantity, at least) is still giving them 6L + 5 successes, on average, to deal with -- twice. If you sink a karma point or two into it, obviously, it gets that much more nasty.. that's nothing to sneeze at. On average rolls, it'd take about 42 Body dice to soak each shot down to nothin', or 10 CP per shot to fully dodge.

I dunno about everyone else's games, but in my games that's not too bad an opening/surprise shot, for "a measly hold out."

If someone's still capable of kicking your ass after spending enough CP and/or spending and burning enough KP to shrug all that off -- well, you deserve the beat-down, and there wasn't much you could do about it anyways (that is, having a heavy pistol instead of the hold out wouldn't have made much of a difference, if they've got 42 soak dice or 20+ combat pool to toss around).

Assuming close range (when else would you be using a hold out) and the SL-2 built into it (which is easy enough to manage) -- you're looking at TN 4. The SL-2 processor lowers the called shot modifier to a +2, the SL itself gives a -2 TN -- voila, TN 4 for a called shot.

And it's rare not to have one point of recoil compensation, whether it be built into the weapon, or through having a high enough strength.

So, at the end of the day, you're looking at (base, not counting visibility, etc, because the whole thing's a hypothetical) two shots at TN 4. Like I said.

EDIT: I'm not implying there's something magical, special, and innately game-winning about a double-tap called shot, much less one made with a hold out, by the way. I'm just pointing out that they can be dangerous, especially when/if you've got surprise on your side (which is the whole point in hold outs, IRL as well as in game). They aren't a "worthless" firearm by any means. In the hands of someone with the right 'ware (SL2) and a decent skill, any firearm is more dangerous than no firearm.

I thought it was one or the other- you took the normal -2TN or the +2TN for a Called Shot but not both? Even if the rules said you could do both, I'd be a little bit leary of allowing it. Just seems a little too powerful IMO.

Uhm, if you don't think it does both (or wouldn't allow it to do both, however you want to think about it) -- why would someone pay all the extra for an SL2 over a regular SL?

Best part about a Hold-Out in SR1 was they had a staging value of only 1, that meant each success would stage up the would level. This made for a very lethel weapon (with the right ammo), more so than most other pistols in SR1.

IMO, One of the best changes made in SR2 was shifting to an across-the-board number of successes needed to stage up wound levels for just about everything (Magic still needed some work though).

The thing I like most about this gun is the name. Great job.