Great insight, guys. To clarify my concern though, if you deployed a bipod/tripod at 40 meters and fired from a stationary position in a firefight, wouldn't you just get shot down in seconds? The bonuses provided from a mechanical standpoint are excellent but I'm having a hard time understanding it immersion-wise. I picture bipods and tripods as being used from "safe" positions, not out in the open at ranges where pistols can shoot the user down (in-game).
Fire-and-Maneuver,
bounding overwatch, leapfrogging, and other small unit tactics work quite well in
Shadowrun. The basic idea is that if you need to move through a space while being shot at (or you expect to be shot at soon) only half of your group should move and the other half should be shooting.
A combat round in
Shadowrun is only meant to represent a few seconds of time, with everyone constantly doing stuff simultaneously and not just politely waiting their turn. So Samurai Sam might sprint forward, drawing his katana and his machine pistol; Molly McMercenary takes a knee behind a crate, steadying her shotgun’s bipod on it, and throws some lead downrange, hopefully suppressing the enemy; and Dickie Decker dives behind hard cover and starts hacking.
Three-ish seconds later, Sam has taken cover behind a forklift, so he throws a suppressive burst towards the enemy; Molly stands up and sprints closer to the enemy, reloading her shotgun as she runs...
Now, ideally, if you have to take a long range shot you’re doing it with long range weapon (or you have a stupendously high dice pool). But even a crappy weapon used by a guy with a tiny dice pool can contribute: every die you roll has a “6” on it, right?