In our games, most of the fights happen indoors, or even in the same rooms. A large group of enemies are melee combatants - daemons, frenzied mutants, some xenos, battle servitors, frenzied cultists etc. With basic ranged weapon, maybe you can manage to fire twice, before enemy is on you. Hence shotguns, and pistol at that. They are my weapon of choice for weak non melee classes such as adepts or psykers (at the begining at least). When you start the game and have some money, invest in hack shotgun, and trust me, it will be usefull for most part of the game. Especially with inferno shells. 

rafaelmb said:

I know I have a PC who has Meathammer, that is Compacted, and added a Pistol Grip to it for single hand use and a red dot sight between the 3 barrels.  or as we look at it something like this (but his has no barrel past the stock )

Yes it short range weapon  PB 1m/ S 2m/ M 6m/L 9m/E 12m with a single shot

but he uses it strictly as a GET THE ^&@%$(&! WAY FROM ME, Gun

2d5+5 with scatter and tearing

Works well as a 1 and done weapon with quickdraw (and the GM has allowed to be considered a Pistol for rules)

Angel of Death said:

My bet he will regret this!

Most compacted Basic Weapons would be better than their Pistol counterparts if it weren't for the fact that they can't be used in meele. To allow this creates many interesting  weapon options but is the base for power-gaming.

Yeah, there is a special upgrade from RT - hostile aquisitions called micro. It changes the weapon class from basic to pistol.

In addition -2 to dmg, range and weight at 1/4, -30 to find concealed weapon and ammo is two steps harder to find, or just treat it as exotic ammo. 

Amaimon said:

As the Compact Upgrade reduces range, weight and clip size to 1/2, it's only natural that Micro Upgrade should reduce not only the range and weight, but also the clip size to 1/4 and suddenly a Micro upgraded Storm Bolter isn't as attractive as it first looks. Probably a thing for the errata, if there ever will be another one for RT.

The carnadon has the accurate trait, which is why one of our ascened players still uses it, as he has a very low BS skill.

I also rule that bolt pistols are rather large and consequently, are not very concealable. Wearing big coats to hide it is also makes the players stand out.

Yeah, you know that accurate does not grant additional damage to pistols, only to basic. I missed that part "basic" for a while too.  

Amaimon said:

Yes, i noticed, but he likes the +10 bonus. He had unfortunate rolls during his character creation.

That's still not an excuse to use carnodon in an ascension game. Any basic weapon with accurate and red dot sight would be better. Or cadian pattern hellpistol with built in targeter if he wants bonus to hit. Whatevs.

Low BS does not make character useless if he does not want it to be that way. He could grab encarmine and spray for pinning effect. Or some flamers, with them he can have 1 BS. 

Bolt weapons are awesome but bolt shells are stupidly overpriced for what they do (384 thrones for a single bolter magazine, compared to 18 for a plasma gun flask or 15 for a meltagun canister).  My group houserules bolt shells to cost 3 per bolt instead of 16 per bolt, which still makes them cost 72 Thrones per magazine. Still pricey but not quite as bad. Perhaps it should be even lower, like 2 per bolt or 1 per bolt; bullets and shotgun shells are 1 Throne for 20 shots.

but also, bolt weapons cannot explode on your face like plasma guns will, and tend to shoot farther than meltaguns.

PnPgamer said:

Range is fairly irrelevant in DH gunfights, since most of them take place within very short ranges, and a meltagun's sheer power justifies getting in close. As for plasma guns, a calamity vent or an expedient use of a Fate Point will negate the overheating effect, which still isn't nearly as bad as it is on the tabletop.

Bolt guns are by the numbers, better than any equivalent SP, only losing out to the super expensive and rare Melta and Plasma (comparitively), a base bolt does more damage, more pen, more reliable damage, better damage type ("X" for explosive is one of the best) and has prestige attached to it.

However they are big, bulky, stand out, cost a TON to keep in ammo and honestly don't justify their cost effectiveness.

SP guns are easier to find (both new guns and the ammo), have cheaper alternate ammo, several high end models and a lot of options. However their base damage type is "I" for Impact, one of the weaker, the high end models stick just as much out and the base ammo though cheap, honestly, it sucks, they have worse damage, worse averages and their best "cheap" pen (3) is still under a bolter.

They honestly both have their uses, but unless doing a higher end campaign, I wouldn't outfit a PC with boltguns and even then they would have a good SP backup most likely. And yeah, for their cost there are a number of HIGHLY effective guns, like the hack shotgun, handcannon, shotguns, etc.

my friend always says that Impact is one of the best, becouse it is loot friendly and doesn't destroy the gear of the enemies.

True, but survival is also important, a dead enemy > a weakened one