[street.mage]

A fellow GM and I discussed this a year or so back, and basically the answer from him was, "It's too much micromanaging to really be even considered to use."

I kind of took it as just that because I didn't really have any ideas.  It's not like you really use those little boxes on the character sheet for keeping track, since with all of the erasing and marking, you'd pretty much need a new character sheet each mission.  I suppose that's possible, but that's a lot of paper and stuff.

I've thought about keeping track on a note card for a night, and just marking 4 llll with a slash through it for 5 bullets.  Thought about using a bead counter on a bar, that you slide back and forth to represent bullets spent and such.  So how do you keep track of ammo?  Or do you?

[CanRay]

I have an old PDF that I got from "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" that has 30-Square boxes and 100-Square boxes to denote ammunition for myself.  But unless the players when I'm running are using something other than regular ammo, I don't really pay attention other than to make sure they reload and have enough magazines.

...

I'm not saying it this time.  I'm not.

[Simagal]

I wait until they glitch, then they need to reload. 

[All4BigGuns]

I wait until they glitch, then they need to reload.

I'd say critical glitch personally. Like in either of the d20 Star Wars games. Roll a 1, hope you have a spare power pack.

[raggedhalo]

Critical Glitch would be more like a jam, or shooting your teammates, I think.

[JustADude]

Personally, I use Chummer, which lets you pick the weapon 'load' it with the proper ammo, and then 'fire' it, subtracting the proper amount of ammo from the clip and your total supply.

[CitizenJoe]

Just how much shooting are you doing that it becomes a burden to track ammo?  If you're talking about specialty ammo, then ya, you gotta track that because each shot is like a hundred nuyen.  If you're talking about regular ammo stashed during downtime, just assume runners burn a few clips on the range to keep up their skills and scribble down the number of clips or boxes left.  If you're talking about tracking ammo during a run, then they are likely going to check their supply before heading out. 

[Crash_00]

I usually just right it on a sheet of paper, but if that doesn't work for you, I suggest what Deadlands did. Make good sized bullet outlines on the side of your character sheets for the number of rounds in your primary weapon. Then use a paper clip to slide down the paper as you fire your gun.

Generally I always find it best to keep track of consumables that are used often on a separate page of notebook paper to keep the character sheet from getting worn out.

[Wraithian]

I've mentioned this prop before, but is worth mentioning here.

A large whiteboard.  A large enough whiteboard, and your players should be able to keep track of their ammo usage during combat on the edges, still leaving room for you to do rough maps, etc.

[CanRay]

BTW:  I consider regular ammo to be part of lifestyle, especially for Shadowrunners, but even for John Q. Wageslave.  It's a dangerous world out there.

Special ammo, OTOH...

[Zilfer]

Personally, I use Chummer, which lets you pick the weapon 'load' it with the proper ammo, and then 'fire' it, subtracting the proper amount of ammo from the clip and your total supply.

I'm actually thinking that's how i'm going to track it soon. xD

[All4BigGuns]

While I always buy plenty of ammo just in case, I find it to be too much of a hassle which detracts from the fun of the game to micro-manage the tracking of ammo.

[Serious Paul]

Unless there's a reason to be concerned In Game I don't care that much. if someone is abusing something then maybe I'd track, but honestly it's not often a major concern at our table. But then I can also say that few of my players bother with anything other than standard ammunition either.

[Reaver]

I have a simple clip system I use:

I know what weapons my players are carrying into a run (cause I ask for a load out from each player before they "go out") and I write down the ammo cap per mag per player. Then I ask how many mags they are packing PER weapon/ammo load (ie: 1 mag gel, 2 mags APDS, 2 mags reg. for Faden's Manhunter)

Then, on their initiative pass, if they shoot, I add a tick next to their name, when they are out off ammo (and they don't notice it themselves!) after they roll their attack, I announce that their weapon goes "click"... And watch their eyes bulge!

[street.mage]

I usually just right it on a sheet of paper, but if that doesn't work for you, I suggest what Deadlands did. Make good sized bullet outlines on the side of your character sheets for the number of rounds in your primary weapon. Then use a paper clip to slide down the paper as you fire your gun.

Generally I always find it best to keep track of consumables that are used often on a separate page of notebook paper to keep the character sheet from getting worn out.

That's awesome.  This may be an idea; I've been contemplating making new character sheets anyway and may add this feature "along the sides," kind of in boxes like a damage track.  Thus, the player chooses their most "used" gun and weapon mode, marks how many bullets are shot in the graphic of the bullet/bullet hole, and slides the paper clip down when they fire.  A gunslinger that commonly used two different guns could color mark the bullets or paper clips.

And I didn't really specify what I was talking about when I made the OP.  Sorry about that.  Also sorry I haven't checked on this question sooner.  I'm actually talking about keeping track of bullets shot in their clips during combat; not purchasing and keeping track of regular ammo or specific AP or Gel round ammo.  I re-read my original question and was like, "Really?  That was really informative...facepalm."

Purpose of the question is that I'm a fairly new GM to the game; I've GMed all manners of D&D editions back in the day, a few WOD games, and one SR game.  It was pretty simple.  I'm easing my players into the rules, getting more complex as we play (for example, next time I'm going over when it's good to use a narrow/wide burst for gunslingers, magical lodge and counterspelling for the mage, charging and intercepting a charge for the ork brawler, and I'll do something else that benefits the specific characters for them soon) because you have to admit - until you get the hang of it, this game is extremely complex; and most of my players think so too.  I'm also going to be going over actions; the first game was basic combat stuff, the second game they got in their first "real fight," but for their actions it was like, "What do you want your character to do," wait for an explanation, then "Ok, well of all that, this is what you can do.  Yes, you can shoot him again."

But while I was getting the stage set for how I was going to present it, the tracking of firing ammo (normal ammo) until it's time to reload or etc, because if you ignore it, you're basically throwing away several key elements for simple actions (unload without a smartlink, reload).  And we all love the actions in the movies when the hero, or in this case, anti-hero, runs out of ammo at the last second, to reload, jump into the fray and bury two bullets into the two antagonist goons trying to make him part of the wall decor.

But after typing all of that and commenting on the "bullet" tracker with a clip, that also means as a GM, I probably need to track it too, and the NPC's have much more options of weapons and amount of normal ammo per clip, etc.  Any suggestions?  Or should I just ignore switching out ammo in combat because it's too tedious to mess with while you're doing all the modifiers to determine your dice pool?