Gear: Mountain Guns

Mountain Guns

The rebellion on Zhǎngshān finds it difficult to acquire high-tech weaponry. Weapon shipments to the world are carefully screened and while smugglers to manage to get some arms to the Free Zhǎngshān Army, they often find themselves short of guns. Ever resourceful, the rebels have managed to develop a local gunsmithing technology based on accessible tools and materials. Machine shops operating out of garages or pack facs are used to build barrels, receivers, magazines and other components. The designs are similar to those of the 20th and 21st centuries, with somewhat similar operating principles. Because the feedstock for superconductors and advanced carbon materials can be scarce on Zhǎngshān, the mountain guns are made out of steel and wood. Although Zhǎngshān gets the credit for developing mountain guns, the idea has spread to other parts of the Verge. Cheaply made firearms using local materials and backyard manufacturing techniques are called mountain guns wherever they are found.

Mountain guns fire bullets out of steel cased cartridges. The cartridge holds the bullet, an inert propellant, and a button SMES. A typical mountain gun will accept a cartridge from the magazine into the chamber. Upon pulling the trigger, electrical contact is made allowing the SMES to arc across the propellant, vaporizing it and producing a high pressure plasma to push the bullet down the barrel. Working the action ejects the spent case and brings a new cartridge into the chamber. Many mountain guns have rifled barrels, to impart spin to the bullets and stabilize them in flight.

The similarity in operation to old-style gunpowder weapons means the Zhǎngshānese gunsmiths can largely copy old designs, with slight modifications to the firing process. Using electric plasma propulsion does mean that there is no powder fouling of the action and barrel, and cleaning is not nearly as much of an issue as with powder guns.

Mountain guns have the same ammunition options as induction guns, although because of their already larger signature, the Sig score of disruptor bullets only increases by 2.

DescriptionPenWoundAPShotROFAmmoBulkAimRCLStrSpreadDASpeedPSzSigMassPrice
Compact Pistol10+0s7+1-1+1-2-2+1880100-11½+120.7|0.085|0.25
Light Pistol10+0s17+1+0+2-2-1+1980100-11½+121|0.25|0.6
Medium Pistol10+0s15+1+0+2-1-1+198080-11+121.2|0.255|0.7
Heavy Pistol9+0s7+1+0+2-1-1+1910060-10½+121.2|0.155|0.4
Magnum Pistol14+0s15+1+0+2+0-1+19100100-11+131.2|0.35|0.8
Ultra-Magnum Pistol15+0+0s7+1+2+2+1+19120120-10½+141.8|0.2512|0.7
SMG10+0s,b330+2+2-3+0+1980100-11½+123.5|0.3518|1
Varmint Rifle8-2¼+0120+1+4+5-7-3+2470100-13+112.5|0.087|0.25
Assault Carbine11-2s,b330+1+3½+4-4-2+24180250-12+143.5|0.4525|1.2
Hunting Rifle14-215+4½+5-1-2+25250200-11½+153.5|0.1510|0.5
Battle Rifle14-2s,b320+1+4½+5-2-1+24250200-11½+154.5|0.725|2
Sniper Rifle18+1-2110+1+4½+5+1+1+26300250-11+166|0.615|1.8
Elephant Gun18+1¾-213+1+4½+5+3-1+25350200-10+174.5|0.320|0.8
Anti-Materiel Rifle28+2-213+1+5+5+4+3+25400250-9½+1815|0.560|1.5
Anti-Hardsuit Rifle30+3½-213+1+6+5+7+5+25400250-8½+1930|1.5100|4
Pump Shotgun, slug12+1+015+1+4½+5+0-1+2080100-10+143.5|0.210|0.7
   buckshot6-1+0+3+0+1145100-10+14
   gooseshot2.5-4+0+7½+0+1118100-10+14
   duckshot1.7-5+0+9+0+1112100-10+14
Riot Shotgun, slug12+1+015+1+3½+4+0-2+2080100-10+143.5|0.210|0.7
   buckshot6-1+0+3+0+1145100-10+14
Tactical Shotgun, slug12+1+014+1+2½+2+1+0+2080100-10+143|0.1810|0.6
   buckshot6-1+0+3+1+1145100-10+14
Machine Gun14-212250+4½+5-1+2+25250200-11½+1512|850|20
Heavy Machine Gun28+2-28250+5½+5+4+7+25400250-9½+1860|40100|120
Light Autocannon30+3½-212300+6½+5+7+7+25400250-8½+1945|150150|400
Chain Gun30+3½-2100300+6+5+7+9+25400250-8½+19100|150250|400

  • Compact Pistol: A slim, lightweight pistol for concealed carry.
  • Light Pistol: A semi-automatic pistol shooting a relatively light bullet.
  • Medium Pistol: A semi-automatic pistol with a slightly larger bullet. It is popular for its high magazine capacity, controllability, and rapid follow-up time.
  • Heavy Pistol: A semi-automatic pistol firing a slow, heavy bullet. Its proponents extol the high stopping power of this caliber, many refusing to use any other caliber of pistol.
  • Magnum Pistol: This pistol fires a large, high power bullet for increased penetration.
  • Ultra-Magnum Pistol: A huge pistol with monster muzzle flash and retort and punishing recoil, but that is capable of putting big holes in things (for a pistol).
  • SMG: A fully automatic sub-machinegun. With the folding shoulder stock extended, an SMG gets -1 to RCL, +1 to Bulk, and +1 to Aim.
  • Varmint Rifle: A bolt action rifle shooting a light, low-powered round for hunting small game.
  • Assault Carbine: A rifle capable of semi-automatic and burst fire, shooting a light bullet for reduced recoil and increased ammunition capacity.
  • Hunting Rifle: A bolt-action rifle firing a full-powered cartridge.
  • Battle Rifle: A rifle capable of semi-automatic fire or burst fire, shooting a full-powered cartridge.
  • Sniper Rifle: A bolt-action magnum rifle, tricked out for high accuracy.
  • Elephant Gun: A bolt-action rifle firing a huge bullet, for hunting large, dangerous game. It sometimes gets pressed into service to take out infantry in body armor.
  • Anti-Materiel Rifle: A heavy rifle intended to destroy equipment and vehicles.
  • Anti-Hardsuit Rifle: A huge 20mm rifle, used by Zhǎngshān partisans against troops in hardsuits or similarly armored robots. While shots will not always penetrate a hardsuit, the blunt trauma will still cause casualties. Explosive ammunition is often used to further this effect. It can be loaded with a variety of ammunition types, including practice rounds (use the listed stats); armor piercing incendiary rounds (-2 to AP, incendiary effect is Temperature Score +8, Pen 7, Pen RS -3, Wound +2 burn damage for three rounds, and then Temperature Score +5, Pen 1, Pen RS -9 Wound +2 burn damage for 7 rounds, acts like a tracer, causes full burn Pen if bullet Pen penetrates armor but fails to overpenetrate target otherwise use Burn RS for a single turn); and armor piercing explosive rounds (-2 to AP, contact Pen 7 Wound +7, blast Pen RS -3 BBRS -1 BRPB +1[-9], fused to explode after delivering Pen 10 behind armor or when all of its Pen has been delivered, whichever comes first).
  • Pump Shotgun: A shotgun used for hunting small and medium-sized game.
  • Riot Shotgun: A pump shotgun with a shortened barrel, to make it more handy in confined situations.
  • Tactical Shotgun: A pump shotgun with a shortened barrel and no shoulder stock for use in confined quarters.
  • Machine Gun: A general purpose machine gun, that can be carried by a single soldier (although a second often carries the ammunition). It is generally fired from a bipod.
  • Heavy Machine Gun: A machine gun commonly used as a vehicle armament or at fortifications. It fires a massive bullet that can quickly kill unarmored or lightly armored vehicles. For transport, the machine gun breaks down into a 20 kg base and the gun itself (with the remainder of the mass).
  • Light Autocannon: A light automatic cannon, commonly used on armored vehicles. It uses the same variety of ammunition as the anti-hardsuit rifle.
  • Chain Gun: A Gatling-style electric driven rotary cannon with an extremely high rate of fire. It has the same ammunition types as the anti-hardsuit rifle.

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