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[Gabriel]

Well, it did make the games interesting. But when you only get say 3 or 4 points of Karma maximum per game, that extra 3 points would have come in real handy.

Gabriel

[Retread]

I made a "Heat Rating" of sorts. Every time the players iced a person and got caught in some fashion, their heat rating would go up, affecting their actions like racial prejudice in social encounters.

[Gabriel]

Sounds like a good idea. Of course, it also sounds like a bit of paperwork, but still a good idea.

Gabriel

[kv]

How did you keep track of the 'heat,' then- I mean, was a street punk worth 1 heat point, and a corporate secretary worth 3, or was murder a certain amount of points, injuring people a certain amount, and explosions worth a different amount?

  -kv

[Retread]

It's basically in terms of exponential cost.

Say you steal a guy's soyburger that costs 10 nuyen. That gives you a heat rating of 1 with that person and his/her affiliates.

Now you'd have to continue to do stuff costing in total of 100 nuyen to raise it to 2. 1000 for 3, 10000 for 4, 100000 for 5, 1000000 for 6, and so on. Corporations keep track of even heat ratings of 1, but they aren't going to send out the hitsquad because you stole a box of ketchup packets, but once you head into the 5+ range, you start to piss some one off royally. These numbers can be modified to fit your game specifically with a multiplier (x2, x10, x20, depending on how you want to regulate it) This isn't necessarily direct material value, either. If you embarass someone in public and cost them a job or a huge business deal, you might see the heat rating from the loss of all that money.

Heat Rating acts like prejudice in someones eyes. Effectively, you are a liability, you've done some damage, stole a car, killed a goon (depending on what price you put on good goons) and trusting you is a problem. However, just like racial prejudice, Heat can be alleviated with a good Charisma roll temporarily. The only way to permanently reduce heat is to make some profit for that person. However, this shouldn't be used so mechanically that a player can kill a person's family brazenly and then buy them some drinks and it'll all be okay. Some people are priceless. Killing lovers, family members and close friends can earn you a Heat rating of 10 making any reasonable discussion impossible, regardless of how charismatic you are.

Heat is not entirely mechanical, it should be used as a litmus for character interactions, and is not necessarily set in stone.

[kv]

I like the idea- I might have to implement this stuff next time I GM Shadowrun.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Yeah in 2056. Maybe by then I'll get to play as a character and not a GM.

Gabriel

[kv]

Hey, If/When you come down for my wedding, we'll have a Shadowrun game for my bachelor party, and you can come hang out and play and get all of my friends killed.

   Anyway, but weapon modificiations... any other questions?

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Chummer, I'm planning on coming down for the wedding. Just need to remember to dust off Gabriel and bring the Twinkies.

Oh, and has anyone noticed that in the Cannon Companion you can get an underbarrel grip for a rifle and an underbarrel wieght for a rifle, both of them helping with recoil, but you can't get a weighted underbarrel grip? What's that all about? I always assumed you could get a grip weighted for an additional cost, but it doesn't appear anywhere in the books? Who missed THAT?

Gabriel

[Retread]

The underbarrel weight is for pistols, Gabe. The grip is rifles and shotguns. Weighting the barrel will help little, I think, considering the muzzle velocity of most shotguns and rifles.

This also begs the question: Why can't you make a customized underbarrel grip? I mean, everyone needs 9 points of recoil compensation, right?

Player: "I'm going full auto, targetting 3 people with 3 rounds per."

GM: "Okay, let's see here, that's a penalty for recoil of..."

Player: "Hey, I have recoil comp 9, there shouldn't be any penalty!"

GM: "You're kidding, right?"

This is why a 10 STR troll with a gyromax-stabilizer and a minigun is very very scary.

[Gabriel]

And also why the troll is targeted FIRST! Even before you geek the mage, hit that troll with about 25 manabolts and a slay troll spell.

And I never noticed the grip was for a pistol. I must have missed that. Thanks.

Gabriel

[mercy]

as for laser sights I would only bother putting them on pistols and shotguns
because of the ranges your shooting at it helps get you on target faster

[Poison]

As I recall, the Smartlink II system has additional benefits at long/extreme range... but I'd have to check again.

I normally Smartlink II all my weapons if I have the appropriate cyber.

It's a pity that flashbangs were never quite implemented using the Shadowrun system - they'd probably be a Flash/Concussion grenade combo, or perhaps a Smoke/Concussion grenade combo... but seeing as they're commonly used these days it's an oversight not to have them defined.

On the original question, I'd turn the Colt M-23 into an Assault weapon - unless you're likely to regularly need to snipe... in which case you're better off getting a dedicated sniper rifle anyway.  So throw the concealability to the wind (it starts with 2 or 3 anyway, so not much to lose) and pack it out with a high rating Gas Vent, Shock Pads for the stock, Smartlink II system and the nastiest ammo you can lay your mits on.  Get a good pistol (my favourite is the Colt Manhunter) as a backup, or for jobs where you may need some high penetration in a small package.

A special mention to the HK227S - it's silent, it's deadly, it's perfect for stealth missions where you need some take down power.  Modern-day Spec-Ops use the HK MP5-SD, and I consider the HK227S to be the 2050's equivalent.

[mercy]

poison to your mods I would ad a foregrip fold out side mounted

[Ingo Monk]

I'd like to mention a few things that came to mind while reading this post (specifically laser sights):

Just like Gabe said, lasers will be visible with any small amount of smoke or dust.  The exception to this I believe would be red-dot sights.  Link.  Red dot sights function similar to laser sights, they put a dot where the gun is pointing.  The main difference is that the dot is only projected inside the sight.  Probably the most commonly used sight in military/security services today IMHO.  In any case it's easy to say that someone got this as a mod to a firearm rather than the standard laser sight.  Downfall is that it would be top-mount only.  Generally they'd be a bit more expensive as well, but you could integrate thermo/low-light like any other sight.

The other type of sight is infrared laser sight.  Example.  These function just like a standard laser sight, but is not visible on the normal light spectrum (only visible in SR with thermographic vision I'd say, as low-light only enhances visible light).  Kinda neat, could be used on standard firearms or even as a laser target for infrared homing missiles or some such.