If there's one thing virtually every shadowrunner is obsessive about, it's his weapons. So here is a catalogue of some 34 new firearms to delight every gun nut wanting to tool up for the next 'run.

No messing about, either: after the usual webpage simulation, it's straight in to some rules - a couple of new weapon traits for the old-schoolers (although I cannot imagine actually wanting to handload ball and powder mid-firefight) and notes on using these weapons with either the 4th or 5th editions of the Shadowrun ruleset - and then the weapons themselves. Page on glorious page, with pictures, sales blurb and commentary from the typically irreverant 'runner community.

Starting small, there are holdout pistols, fancy ones perhaps more suited to display than use (with a neat anecdote about how a corporate executive kept a pair on display but loaded, and used them to save himself when an assassination team came a-calling), machine pistols and submachine guns, right up to assault rifles for those with more military needs, as well as shotguns and even sporting rifles. There are even some reproductions of historic weapons (hence rules for cap and ball), for those who want 'collector's pieces' without the price tag. The way they are presented, this can almost be used as an in-character catalogue (if you ignore the stat blocks tucked neatly in one corner of the page).

The nice thing is the range of weapons: not just the sort you want for serious work, but some 'fun' weapons for the hobbyist, collector, sportsman (be it hunting or target shooting) and even one suitable for youngsters learning to shoot. It speaks of a prevalent gun culture, of course, where firearms ownership is commonplace and widespread... but that's the kind of impression the whole Shadowrun setting gives anyway. Some mention is made of suitability or adaptations for different metatypes, and yes, there is a flamethrower in there as well!

Most 'runners reckon you cannot have too many guns, throw this at them and give them a few more to choose from.

A pretty good book and well worth the price, it is simply a collection of weapons for both 5th edition and 4th Anniversary edition.

From the 4th ed point of view its nice, it expands on the earlier Gun H(e)aven books with some modern (and some not so modern) inclusions.

From the 5th ed point of view, specifically the use of accuracy in weapons it has a couple of questionable stat lines. There are a few weapons that are oddly high or low in accuracy when compared to others in their category.

A very disappointing first "crunch" product for SR5, Gun Heaven 3 combines possibly the three worst things one could in a "gun book" - boring weapons, many of which seem to serve no definable purpose (not even in world-building), inconsistent, frequently poor art (much of it barely counting as art - i.e. basically lazy photoshops of photographs of real world guns, which look wildly out-of-place - one could at least photoshop an 2075-era scope onto them!), and to cap everything off, awful balance, with some weapons just ridiculously all-round better than others for no apparent reason (their prices are higher but gun prices in SR are so low that's not a balance factor - especially when they have a very easy availability rating). Some of the ideas, like modernized versions of classic guns, are fine, but the implementation and art are deeply uninspiring.

Bonus annoyance points for including modifications which aren't described but allegedly will be in Run & Gun, so which serve no function at this time.

This was a big disappointment for me ,but firearms have ever been a sore point in shadowrun, the earlier editions had some really solid stuff but it seem to have lost its way over the years. the design team really need to find someone who knows their stuff, as pics of bolt guns written up as semis just isn't good enough for the money and i believe this could easily be a rich source of depth in the game with out any trouble at all. strange how in the year 2075 their still banging away with cartridge style actions while in 2000 we have caseless and sabot rounds, we haven't come to far in 75 years have we. I wouldn't bother with this book it gives nothing if not less than the core rules ,apparently it was put together in someones lunch break,next time let someone who knows witch end is dangers write the thing.

Here's what you get: a holdout, a light pistol, a heavy pistol, 3 machine pistols, 3 SMGs, 5 assault rifles, 6 shotguns, no fewer than 10 sporting rifles, an LMG, an assault cannon, and a flame thrower. Keep in mind, the reason it has so many sporting rifles is because the core book for SR5 doesn't actually have any (at least not billed as such). The damage codes on the sporting rifles are actually pretty impressive; they range from 6P to 13P, though the 13P weapon is only Accuracy 4. Nice in that they have both SR5 and SR20A stats.

Neither the Machine Pistols nor the SMGs were really that impressive when I did a side-by-side comparison to those available in SR5 core. The Assault Rifles were actually pretty interesting though, and I imagine the Shotguns and Sporting Rifles are actually worth looking at. The "Vintage" classification seems unnecessary with the "throwback" descriptor in SR5, and... I just can't place the look of an old west revolver in the hands of a runner in 2075. There's even one sporting rifle that is Cap and Ball ammunition, which takes 3 complex actions to load. Why include that?

The art is well done, but the design aesthetics of some of the weapons just look.... lame. or old. A couple of the rifles (admittedly made by the same manufacturer) look nearly identical. Again, the art itself is good, I just don't like what they're depicting. Pretty subjective, but.. I'm just not getting that same futuristic vibe of advanced weaponry when I look at a lot of these as I do from the SR5 book, or older edition splatbooks.

All in all still kinda iffy on it, but if you're a hardcore collector or your character is a gun enthusiast, this is still worth a look. Not sure I'd buy it off a shelf, I would definitely say buy it PDF if you want it. I realize it's not the main Firearms splatbook, but I'm still kinda underwhelmed. Not worthless, but fairly niche, and even then not the best.

Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/12/26/tabletop-review-shadowrun-gun-heaven-3/

Oh, Shadowrun. Leave it to you to release two supplements the very day I go on vacation for a week without any internet. So these reviews are later than I am comfortable with and then my readers would like, but at least they are getting reviewed, right?

Thankfully Gun H(e)aven 3 is an exceptionally easy product to review. It’s a thirty-eight page supplement in the same vein as the Para series, Mil Spec Tech and Used Car lot. Each page is devoted to a specific item. You get a piece of art to showcase said item (in this case, guns), some snarky JackPoint commentary and finally mechanics. It’s worth noting that the mechanics side of this piece gives stats for both Fourth/20AE AND Fifth Edition. Catalyst Game Labs has been doing this a lot lately and it’s nice to see them supporting the most recent version of the game as well as the previous version which some gamers have been slow to adapt for reasons ranging from limited disposable income to edition wars drama. This way fans of both versions can purchase this supplement and it also gives CGL more potential profit than if they only released this for a single system. WotC’s Dungeons & Dragons has been doing a similar thing with their Sundering line, but CGL has been giving mechanics while D&D has been going systemless. Point in the favor of CGL.

Unfortunately, Gun H(e)aven 3 is insanely priced. Eight dollars for roughly thirty guns? Without the art and copious amounts of white space, this supplement would be about ten pages tops. Hell, you can go to the last two pages of the collection and see the mechanics are repeated in a condensed fashion and each edition’s stats are less than a page. There’s so very little content, perhaps a paragraph PER PAGE, that it’s hard to justify the price tag on this, especially when similar releases like, say, Parazoology 2 has more pages, better art and a ton more content in terms of both mechanics and Jackpoint jargon. I realize there isn’t much that one can say about a gun without starting to get repetitive, but man, you are basically paying for a supplement that is more than 50% blank space per page. That’s just wrong to me.

Another big problem I had with Gun H(e)aven 3 was this following paragraph: “Not all of the standard modifications listed with the weapons in this book are detailed in Shadowrun, Fifth Edition. A book with more weapons and combat options called Run & Gun will be released shortly after this book, providing details on these modifications.” Why does this bother me so much? Because this means Gun H(e)aven 3 is incomplete and you need to purchase a SECOND SUPPLEMENT to actually get full usage out of this one! That’s insane. What’s worse is that said second piece isn’t out yet, meaning you have to wait to actually use this properly with Fifth Edition. So not only has there been some bad editorial decisions here, but Gun H(e)aven 3 comes across as a cheap cash grab that only the most devout (or stupid) Shadowrun fans will pick up. It’s kind of insulting and I feel bad for the author because I’m pretty sure this is editorial all the way.

Now aside from these two big quibbles, Gun H(e)aven 3 is a nicely done piece. The mechanics are solid, the Jackpoint banter is fun to flip through and you get thirty new weapons to add to your game, not that you probably needed them. I did find it a bit odd than some of these guns were complete junk that the Jackpoint crew ripped on. At first I was like, “Why devote an entire page to a weapon you’re basically saying players shouldn’t use?” but honestly, it would be weird and unrealistic if every firearm was a must have piece of awesomeness. By having crappy weapons in addition to high quality ones, the Sixth World becomes just a little more fleshed out in ways other games aren’t. If you’re really unhappy with all the gun options presented to you throughout both 4e and 5e or you are unable to stat out new items yourself, then yes, you may want to pick this up because now you have several dozen new options for your players and NPCs to equip themselves with. My personal favorites in this collection are the Krupp Arms Kreigfaust, the Winchester Model 201, and the Shiawase Arms Incinerator, the latter of which is probably going to be the favorite of many who pick this up because hey, flamethrower.

Overall, let’s give this supplement a thumbs in the middle. It’s deeply insulting to be told that you need to purchase another supplement in addition to the one you just purchased because the team behind it couldn’t be bothered to throw in a bit more mechanics, especially when so much of this release is blank space. It’s doubly so to do it at such an inflated price. There’s no way you should be paying more than five bucks for Gun H(e)aven 3 and even then, it’s really more of a curiosity piece than anything which will truly add something new to your game. I mean, if you want to spend eight bucks on a bunch of guns you could come up with yourself in a few hours and fit the stats into two or three pages of Microsoft Word, knock yourself out. I’d personally be pissed if I had spent money on this thing, though, considering how little you get for the price tag.

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Gun H(e)aven 3

Originally posted on www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!

Item-Gun H(e)aven 3

System-Shadowrun 20th Anniversary edition and 5e

Producer- Catalyst

Price- ~$7

TL;DR- An all around well done supplement for both systems. 93%

Basics-Oi, chummers! It’s time to log onto the shadownet and read about the latest batch of guns to hit the streets of the sixth world. Each of the over 30 guns in this book gets a full page treatment with a picture, stats for 4th and 5th edition, and some fluff from some of the more notable members of the Shadownet.

Mechanics or “Crunch”- I wouldn’t say this is a revolutionary book for mechanics, but its goal is to show off new guns. And, at that it succeeds quite well. The book shows off new guns like cap and ball guns and flamethrowers while giving stats for a lot of weapons. If you’re looking for a good collection of new guns for your game, this is a great addition for Shadowrun. 5/5

Theme/Story or “Fluff”-This part is well done also. Its pretty easy to lose the story of the world when you make a book primarily for numbers, but this book doesn’t do it. Each gun gets a picture which helps with your mental picture of the game. Also, I LOVE the fact that each gun gets a little debate by various players of the shadownet. It really makes me think like I was playing Shadowrun when I read this book. 5/5

Execution/Art- I liked the layout of this book. That was well done. I loved the art in this book. That was AMAZING! What I didn’t like was the price. The book is under 50 pages and it costs about ~7 bucks. I know art is expensive, but this was a bit too much for the book. 4/5

Summary- Honestly, this is a well done splat book for both SR4A and SR5. You might only need one copy per group since you only really need it when you buy your gun. I might complain about price, but I am glad I bought it. If you want to play the man with the gun and to know why your guy has that gun besides some metagame numbers, this is the book for you. 93%

Gun H(e)aven 3 provides (surprise surprise) more guns for Shadowrun, statted out for both 4th and 5th editions which is useful and also -at times- perplexing. The weapons are primarily small arms, with one each assault cannon, light machine gun and flame-thrower, many of which are the sorts of weapon that would be found in households, not usually the sort of heat runners would pack but that they might be shot by or be forced to use in bad circumstances. All of this is useful in the right circumstances. But what perplexes me about the product is that while it is the same weapon from edition to edition, the availability, cost and legality (!) of many of the guns changes from edition to edition which are part of the same continuity, some explanation would be welcome.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

First of all, the fact that Gun Heaven 3 can be used with Shadowrun 4.1 and 5 is a very nice touch.

The supplement introduces a lot of rather exotic and/or vintage guns with little real combat efficiency for player characters, although many of them have their uses in the hands of civilians, low-tech gangers and/or third-world fighters. Some of them also have a lot of style for posers, especially the variety of wild-west vintage style revolvers and lever action rifles. On the other hand, there also are a few quite exciting, high-powered guns like the monsoon and the rainforest rifle that could possibly rise the power level of your campaign an will be very attractive to players.

Fluff and crunch are quite good, all in all, the illustrations have very different styles but the quality is generally nice, much better than some of the crude pieces presented in gun heaven 2.

All in all, in my opinion, the PDF is not a real must-have, but quite worth the purchase and may add some nice aspects to your Shadowrun-Universe.

Gun Heaven 3 expands the Shadowrun 5th Edition arsenal, and does so in an interesting manner. It pioneers new territory as far as official content we've seen in Shadowrun, and it's got a lot going for it with regards to expanding the capabilities of combatants in 5th Edition campaigns.

It's a well-done piece, with gorgeous guns throughout. There's even a good old Springfield Model 1855, should one want to go back to black powder weapons, and several other interesting guns. Sporting rifles are added back into 5th Edition, which is, in my opinion, a good thing.

A few weapons in this are archetype breakers, such as the Rain Forest carbine, a solid option for a runner with high Automatics who needs a more solid single shot weapon that hits more like a sniper rifle, and there are interesting historical weapons throughout. It also includes a good glimpse of a civilian weapons catalog, with a chunk of easy to get weapons that would be just as much in place in a homeowner's gun cabinet as in a security guard's hands. Other weapons such as the Monsoon include features and applications that we haven't seen before, even though they were supported in the previous rulesets (it uses six barrels that hold the ammunition, akin to the somewhat famous Metal Storm concept weapon).

For $8, you could go worse than Gun Heaven 3; it's got a lot of new art, the witty banter and fluff with each weapon is good, and it's got a lot of interesting guns. Of course, at the same time, it doesn't really introduce any new rules that are likely to see use in play (unless someone violates the rules of magic and time travels back to the Civil War).