Most role-players, or at least their characters, are very interested in their weapons. In Cyberpunk, however, it's not just how much damage they do but how stylish they look when doing it that's important. Plenty of weapons have been presented already, of course, and the main purpose of this book is to catalogue them systematically in a single reference work for ease of use.
The weapons are organised by type - starting with melee weapons and going through bows, 'exotic' weapons, and myriad classifications of firearm to explosives; with sections covering ammunition, recoil, and other stuff you need to think about. Within each category items are organised alphabetically - so if you know whether the handgun you are interested in is Light, Medium, Heavy or Very Heavy, for example, it ought to be easy to find! There's no index, so if you are looking for a particular weapon and are unsure of its category, you may have to hunt around a bit.
Listings are pretty basic - the game stats in a standardised sequence, a brief description and a note of where the weapon first appears. There are a few illustrations, separate from the actual listings. Within a given category, the differences seem to be mainly manufacturer based. Good for the posers who want to rattle off the full name of whatever they are toting but there's not much to help you discern the strengths and weaknesses of any given weapon.
This is very much a book for players rather than an in-character resource. It compiles all the weapons that have been talked about in other books in this game line (as well as Interface Magazine, and there is but one new weapon - the Nova Model 757 Cityhunter, a heavy handgun. It has a wierd design, and triangular rounds (trounds) - of which it carries 18, six in the barrel which rotates revolver style, and the rest in the body of the weapon which you reload in once the first six have been fired. It packs quite a punch, but it's biggest strength is when the opposition stop and stare at it rather than fight you! It does appear in the illustrations section, fortunately...
Ultimately, this is a handy reference, but the original descriptions of the weapons when published elsewhere are more likely to awaken your inner gun-bunny. Information on the range of ammunition available is useful (visions of a street vending machine - heavily armoured of course - where you can pick up a reload almost mid-fire fight spring to mind). It's useful to have all the stats in one place, though.
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