[DamienHollow]

Shotguns are my favorite real world firearms, being less of a conventional "gun" and more of a "payload delivery system" capable of being loaded with everything from rock salt to explosive slugs. But I have a hard time swallowing Shadowrun's Shotgun rules.
Real world, a 12 gauge slug works out to about 18mm in diameter and leave the barrel at around 1600 fps (this actually means they are faster and heavier than many .45-70 gvt. loads and deliver 50-100% more energy than most modern assault rifle rounds) Being typically bare lead or hollow/ballistic point, they expand rapidly and do tremendous amounts of damage.
In Shadowrun, the shotgun does barely any more damage than a rifle without even half the range. Shot is considered nearly worthless to the point they only have Flechette rules which grant insane bonuses to enemy armor (ignoring the fact that one of those darts might just slip though an unprotected area..) Essentially they've completely removed any and all advantage the shotgun holds in real life without providing a good reason to use one.
So it boils down to this, is there any reason to even have these in the game and not just give all shotguns some arbitrary reference?

[Henzington]

The only advantage of shotguns at least in my experience is that they are part of the longarm skill so if you are building a sniper they are nice as a back up gun.  The fact that there are full auto shotguns that can use any type of ammo is a nice alternative to a sniper rifle in certain situations.

[All4BigGuns]

Shock Lock ammunition. Pretty much one of the best rounds for blowing down a door.

[DamienHollow]

Shock Lock ammunition. Pretty much one of the best rounds for blowing down a door.

Yeah, but isn't that what the party troll is for?

[All4BigGuns]

Shock Lock ammunition. Pretty much one of the best rounds for blowing down a door.

Yeah, but isn't that what the party troll is for?

Not every team has a troll. At least not the metatype; pretty much all groups have at least one of the other kind.

[DamienHollow]

Not every team has a troll. At least not the metatype; pretty much all groups have at least one of the other kind.

Yeah, ours was the GM, that's why I don't play with him anymore.

[CanRay]

Dragonsbreath rounds are great for when you have to kill something with fire!

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Thing is, Damien, shotgun blasts really are great at short range against unarmored targets - less so at longer ranges, or against an armored target.  Just part of reality, which is folded into the game by the rules.  *shrugs*

[Black]

Thing is, Damien, shotgun blasts really are great at short range against unarmored targets - less so at longer ranges, or against an armored target.  Just part of reality, which is folded into the game by the rules.  *shrugs*

Full Auto Long Burst plus Corridor. 

Messy is an understatement.

[DamienHollow]

max of 9DV with a +5 AP, street gangs might fall easy prey but anyone with a 4 Ballistic takes nothing but stun. Though that's a lot of stun.
I'm not arguing about the range, I'm saying that it's one less reason to go for shotgun.

[farothel]

It depends on the type of game you play.  If shooting mostly takes place in buildings, the longer range of an assault riffle shouldn't be much of an issue.  I often give a shotgun to non-primary combat characters (like hackers and such).  It does more than a pistol and in those characters I don't often see an assault riffle background-wise.  Also most shotguns have lower availability and don't raise as many questions if Lone star or KE finds then in your van.

[Mirikon]

Depends on whether you're using shot or slugs how useful a shotgun is. Personally, for any sniper build I find that they're a great backup weapon. I also use them sometimes on Face/Hacker types, especially when I'm a low IP character in the meat. A 1-2 IP character with a shotgun is a bigger threat than a 1-2 IP character with a pistol, IMO. Especially if you're just trying to hold people off or look intimidating until the street samurai and the weapons specialist look this way.

[Shadowjack]

Shotguns are AMAZING and most people underestimate them.

- In crowded areas you can hit up to 3 targets twice per round.
- +5 Armor is not going to add up to that much damage resisted in most cases. +2 DV is better than +5 AP.
- Unarmored targets can be taken out very efficiently
- You always have the option to use slugs and they're decent

Shotguns have weaknesses too, primarily the poor range on flechettes. But in the right circumstances they're very deadly. The advantages I listed were off the top of my head, there are more that I forgot.

[WellsIDidIt]

Also remember that with a wide choke setting, a non-combat character may not be doing much damage, but he can make multiple enemies have to dodge with every shot. With two Simple Actions, they would be at -2 to dodge attacks from the combat oriented characters even if they soak all the stun.

[DaveDaveDaave]

Yup shotguns fully auto on one or 5 of those lovely little Arachne drones (as illustrated in a previous thread) if its a weapon for security forces its perfect.It`s not likely to over penetrate and you can load the rounds with dozens of security Rfids to activate at a time of your choosing letting local law enforcent get a reasonably easy arrest unless of course the party have stripped naked, scrubbed, had a magnetic hoover running over any open wounds and have secured any kit used in a faraday cage. Hell for security purposes load some of the rounds with DMSO and a horse laxative, almost guaranteed physical link for sorcery purposes.