Iconic Guns from Across the TL

[Wavefunction]

Hey guys,

I know virtually nothing about guns (what can I say, I'm English), which is a little inconvenient when I'm trying to help one of my players piece together a list of generic guns for a game. Fortunately he know a lot more about them than me, but it's still a little tricky.

So I was wondering, what would you guys say were the most 'iconic' guns of each TL? Ideally broken down into categories like Revolver, Semi-Auto, Rifle, Shotgun, SMG, etc. but I'm really not fussy.

Secondly, if you guys no any nicknames for those guns, it'd be fun to know them, since in our generic list of guns we'll probably be trying, where possible to give them more stylish names than such classics as 'Holdout Pistol' or 'Bolt-Action Rifle'.

Thanks!

[Ji ji]

The iconic firearms I can think of:

Sniper Rifle: Remington Model 700, AI Arctic Warfare Magnum, Barrett M82
Rifle: M1 Garand, Holland & Holland Nitro Express hunting rifles, Lee-Enfield,
SMG: Thompson Submachine Gun, IMI UZI, IMI Mini-UZI
Semi-auto pistol: Beretta 92, Luger 1908
Auto pistol: Beretta 93R
Revolver: S&W Model 29, Mateba Autorevolver, Colt 1860, Colt Python, Colt Detective Special, Ruger Super Redhawk
Shotgun: Remington Model 870, Daewoo USAS-12
Assault Rifle: AK-47 (Kalashnikov), M16, Browning M1918, FN FAL
PDW: FN P90

[Rockwolf66]

Since you asked for a List by Tech Level.

TL: 5

Air Rifle: Steyr-Girandoni Model 1780. Also called the "Windbuchse" (Air Rifle) it was probably the first repeating Rifle in military Service. It was also Thomas Jefferson's Choice to arm the Lewis & Clark expedition.

Pistol: Deringer in .44 caplock. This is the pistol that Killed Abraham Lincoln.

Revolver: Colt M1873, the classic "Peacemaker"

Shotgun: Belgian Meteor 10 gauge. Famous for being the weapon Doc Holiday used at the OK corral.

Rifle:Winchester Model of 1873, Possibly the most famous lever action rifle ever.

Mechanical Machinegun: the Gattling gun model 1874.

[mhd]

I'll give you another "knows 99% of guns from movies and games" perspective. On the other hand, if I actually do know a gun's name, that means that it has to be quite iconic...

Revolvers (generally hard for me to distinguish between most of them):
- Colt Walker (those huge ones that Clint Eastwood carried as Josey Wales)
- Colt Peacemaker (basically everything else in Wild West movies)
- Webley .455 (chunky Brit revolver)
- Smith & Wesson 36 (short police revolver)
- Smith & Wesson 29 (Dirty Harry)

I call every small holdout gun "Derringer".

Semi-Auto pistol:
- Luger P08 & Mauser C96 (your standard Nazi pistols)
- Colt 1911 (used to be the default semi-auto, still quite popular)
- Beretta 92 (if it isn't a Colt 1911)
- "Glock" (if a semi-auto is more square-ish)
- Desert Eagle (90s poser gun)

Shotguns:
- Mossberg or Remington pump action
- don't know any two-barreled one by name or even manufacturer.

Submachinegun/machine pistol:
- Schmeisser MP 40 (nazi sprayer)
- Thompson .45 (gangster gun with big drum magazine)
- Sten (ugly, cheap Brit thing)
- H&K MP5(K) (default modern SMG)
- Uzi (or that)
- Tec-9 (if it has that barrel shroud)
- Mac-10 (drug dealer henchmen sprayer)
- FN P90 (the futuristic Stargate SMG)

Rifle, semi-auto:
- Winchester 73 lever action (western carbine)
- M1917 Enfield (that WW1 rifle with the big groove)
- Mauser 98 (nazi rifle)
- Dragunov sniper rifle (if someone shoots at Bond...)
- Barrett sniper rifle (that huuge thing with the big muzzle break that munchkins always want to get)

Rifle, assault:
- AK 47 (well...)
- M16 (and its copies/variants)
- Steyr Aug (futuristic bullpup, well known from Die Hard)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Ji ji

The iconic firearms I can think of:
[...]
Semi-auto pistol: Beretta 92, Luger 1908

Add the numerous Browning-designed semi-automatic pistols to the list, as they were so iconic during the early stages of the adoption of semi-automatic firearms (TL6) that small semi-automatic pistols were referred to simply as 'Brownings' in some European states.

Among those guns are the FN-Browning Mle 1900 and FN-Browning Mle 1910 in .32 ACP and the hugely popular tiny holdout pistol FN-Browning Mle 1906 in .25 ACP.

During the latter half of TL6, the entirety of TL7 and even into TL8, the Browning High-Power in 9mm Parabellum would also be 'the' semi-automatic pistol that people all over the world think of when they think of semi-automatic pistols.

The Colt M1911/M1911A1/Government* in .45 ACP is also pretty iconic at TL6-8. 'The' semi-automatic pistol in the US until TL8, still in active use with special operations units and police tactical teams and remains an icon of gun culture in the modern day.

Originally Posted by Ji ji

Revolver: S&W Model 29, Mateba Autorevolver, Colt 1860, Colt Python, Colt Detective Special, Ruger Super Redhawk

I would argue that the Colt SAA/M1973 in .45 LC (nicknamed 'The Peacemaker') is an icon of TL5, the various British Webley revolvers in .455 Webley are icons of early TL6 and the S&W Hand-Ejector/Military & Police/Model 10* in .38 Spl is the iconic revolver of TL6-7.

Iconic 'holdout' recolvers are the S&W Safety Hammerless/New Departure (nickhamed 'The Lemon Squeezer') in .38 S&W for TL6 and S&W Model 36 'Chief's Special' in .38 Spl for TL7.

*Different names for gun models in real-world terms, with enormous price differences in the modern day due to importance of various minutia to collectors, but all have more or less the same GURPS stats.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Ji ji

SMG: Thompson Submachine Gun, IMI UZI, IMI Mini-UZI

Is the Mini-Uzi actually iconic?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Is the Mini-Uzi actually iconic?

The Uzi in all its forms is easily recognizable. I'm not sure most people will know the difference between the Uzi, the Mini-Uzi, and the Micro-Uzi, though.

Interesting that no one has mentioned the Brown Bess or Kentucky Rifle, two very iconic Revolutionary War guns (musket and rifle, respectively).

(The late-TL5 lever-actions listed above I usually consider TL6, as most use cartridges rather than needing to be hand-loaded after each shot.)

[borithan]

If someone asked me for iconic guns I would probably name (in no particular order):

the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) rifle (TL6)
Thompson Sub-Machine Gun (TL6)
Vickers Machine Gun (TL6)
Luger (TL6) (Pistol)
Mauser (pistol, rather than the rifle) (TL6)
MP40 (TL6 SMG)
Uzi (TL7 SMG)
MP5 (TL7... or is it 8? SMG)
AK47 (TL7 Assault Rifle)
MG42 (TL... I think it is classed as 7. 6 and 7 seem to transition during WW2. Machine gun)
Colt 1911 (TL6, Pistol)
M16 (TL7, Assault Rifle)
FN FAL (TL7, Assault Rifle)
The lever action Winchester (or whatever one generally known as "The Winchester"). (TL5, I think, rifle)

These are primarily ones that feature heavily in films or the public or national consciousness some way. There are a few others that are on the edge of the group, like the Sten sub-machine gun (I remember this is classed as TL7), and the American Garand semi-automatic rifle (TL... &?), and the Browning High-Power pistol (Pretty sure it is TL6). Revolvers... aside from the Colt Peacemaker and the Webley, I couldn't even begin to name any. There are so many different versions, and as cinematicaly they primarily feature in Westerns (a genre I am not massively keen on), I don't know any of them by sight anyway.

To me I don't think any of the muskets are terribly iconic (there is usually very little obviously distinctive about them), but if I had to choose one it would be the Brown Bess, as at least there is name recognition there.

[Mailanka]

More fictional settings are kinda hard to pin down. For my TL 10 military space campaign, the gauss CAW got a lot of love from players, but I don't think any weapon earned as much fear and awe as the portable railgun. While every gun in the game is a gauss weapon of some kind, discussions of the portable railgun is more likely to see links posted to naval weapons, to enjoy discussions about what kind of recoil it would have, and discussions about whether a sniper with a portable railgun is superior to a super-soldier with power armor.

Beam weapons seem to get less love, probably because they're not particularly distinctive. That said, plasma weapons generally seem to have a bit of a cult.

[Tomsdad]

Nice lists so far. But how about this, instead of us giving you a list how about you think of a gun you've seen in what ever setting (and consider memorable / iconic and would like to use, but don't necessarily know the name off) and we'll see if we can give you the name.

That way you'll hopefully get a list of guns you will find iconic rather than what other's might. Especially as people who know guns might have different criteria of what they consider iconic than you.

Basically let's play "name that gun"