Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
"Cover" does not just refer to a specific identity - going in dressed as a local is still cover, it is just a very weak one. Ideally, you want to pick a cover that allows you to do what you need to do, and if you want to carry a gun, pick a cover that allows you to do so.
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While dressed as a local and carrying out surveillance, any visible weapon marks him as a threat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
But that MP7, once used, will immediately mark him as a high-level operative - anyone in that area might carry a pistol (or even an AK, if they do security work or such), but someone carrying an expensive and unusual weapon with hard-to-acquire ammunition is going to draw attention. As soon as he uses that MP7 and leaves witnesses, his cover is gone, and he is exposed as some foreign operative.
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The only way someone on a surveillance op draws a gun at all, it's because they have been identified as members of security forces and are in imminent physical danger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
Besides, as a Delta he will have been trained on AK's and such and should also be more than capable of killing an enemy by pistol and then taking his rifle. Still, if he wanted to have a disguise AND a larger weapon, I would consider having a car or cart or such that would allow him to conceal an AK. If he pulls that then it is likely he will be perceived as Al Qaeda or Iraqi Intelligence or a local criminal or something of that nature.
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It makes no difference whether hostiles that engage him believe him to be Iraqi Intelligence, a rival militant or an enterprising criminal. If he has to pull a gun at all, it is because he has failed at his primary function of clandestine surveillance, but would like to avoid that failure having terminal consequences for him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
There are three basic scenarios I can see here:
1) He is trying to look like an ordinary Iraqi. This is what I was going with the whole time, and believe it or not, if he starts firing an MP7 he is likely to be remembered and unable to resume any similar guise without moving to a new area.
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He's trying to look like an ordinary and non-threathening person in a crowd. Recognising that at some point during several months of intelligence ops in cooperation with US special operation personnel and commando units from Iraqi security forces that range over most of western Iraq, it would be possible for one to result in a catastrophe, he elects to carry some form of concealable weapon for self-defence.
This could be anything from a .22 pocket pistol to a short-barreled carbine in a specially designed scooter-mounted covert case.
Most likely, striking a balance between utility and stealth, it will be a modern CCW handgun in at least a somewhat effective caliber carried on him and possibly something that packs maximum firepower in minimally bulky package that he carries on his scooter, in case everything turns to excrement and he really does need to shoot his way out of an ambush.
That might be, for example, a Kahr P380 carried in a IWB holster beneath normal clothing and an MP7 kept in a special pocket sewed in the satchel he has on the back of his scooter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
2) He is trying to look like Iraqi military. So equip him like Iraqi military.
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When he wants to look like Iraqi military or security forces (if for some reason he does), he'll draw kit from their stores, as he's probably going on an op with them.
There will be no shortage of Iraqi gear that a simple official request relayed through the Ministry of the Interior can make available. I (and the player who asked about this) am concerned about high-tech gear available to Delta exclusively (or at least inconveniently expensive for private contractors to buy) that the PC might 'borrow' from the gear he carried on his Delta intelligence ops and bring with him to use on the actual adventure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
3) He is trying to look like a foreign mercenary or US military or whatever. Give him whatever you want, but it wastes the advantage of his appearance.
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Not a factor in either the Delta operations that the PC was doing when pulled out to play local expert / security element / field electronic device technician for an irregular team of specialists from various agencies or in the actual adventure resulting from that.