Wellington Makes More Conventional Firearms?

[Prole]

"Believe it or not, there is a tremendous demand in North America for conventional S.D.C. weapons. Hunters, farmers, police and soldiers all have a need for a good, old-fashioned pistol or rifle from time to time."

Cool, big market lots of money to be made, even with four more companies in the market.

"Few arms manufacturers offer, brand new S.D.C. firearms, which forces people to rely on ancient pre-Rifts models that, in many cases, are barely functional."

Well not really the case lately, but in the books alone, sure.

"Golden Age exploited this opportunity and is one of the leading independent manufacturers of conventional firearms on the continent, and has been for years. Only Wellington Industries produces more."

Hol'up, don't they only offer like one pistol, one SMG, two 15mm weapons, and some explosive launchers? Who is playing 2-4 times GAW prices for their small arms?

I don't even have prices for their conventional ammo, I just know they invented the explosive and ramjet rounds other people make cheaper (Granted, that 5-15% difference disappears over 100 miles or something, because of transportation or smuggling costs).

[taalismn]

I'm presuming that there's a larger number of companies than listed churning out SDC firearms for the Black Market, and that Wellington is doing plenty of business pumping out copies of Colt .45s. hunting rifles, AKs, AR Bushmasters, and 'Saturday Night Specials' that don't get mentioned. These weapons tend to unexceptional(no bells or whistles that would warrant print-space) and that the ammo prices are as listed in the Game Master Guide under the Conventional Weapons listing. It may be Wellington, GAW, and the BM that effectively set the average prices listed.
THat's how I always played it.

[glitterboy2098]

frankly i wouldn't be surprised if Wellington reskinned the old NEMA sdc rifle and pistol with some slightly different stocks and then labelled them their own creation.

[Prole]

"Wilk's, Northern Gun, Bandito Arms and a handful of other weapons manufacturers produce a handful of conventional revolvers and automatic pistols, sub-machineguns, assault rifles and machineguns."

This is the New West book, still no mention of Wellington, but mention of three other firms. Granted, counting these, it could still be considered "A few" and the Merc Ops book came out later, so if it says that there is a shortage of conventional firearms in that area, then there is.

Wilks is on the other side of the CS, Bandito is on the other side of the CS, and Northern Gun is considerably further to the north then GAW. So that explains why GAW would be in this large area where conventional weapons are rare. What I find very interesting, is that Wellington is supposedly making so many, but they aren't being sold in the New West or anywhere near GAW.

Either that or demand is considerably higher then the combined production of any of the listed companies in all the books.

[Orin J.]

GAW produces a LOT of models of conventional guns, it's just not gone into much detail (maybe because it's a bit of a crapshoot, doing limited runs inbetween needing the milling tools elsewhere based on what they feel will well fast) or with much concern.

since they're probably not big earners it's most likely that the majority of SDC firearms comes from small "one roof" shops which means the more advanced stuff is likely pretty rare, making it a good niche for wellington to exploit since they have the know-how to make quality "modern military" firearms and can upsell them with advanced ammo.

[Prole]

GAW produces a LOT of models of conventional guns, it's just not gone into much detail (maybe because it's a bit of a crapshoot, doing limited runs inbetween needing the milling tools elsewhere based on what they feel will well fast) or with much concern.

since they're probably not big earners it's most likely that the majority of SDC firearms comes from small "one roof" shops which means the more advanced stuff is likely pretty rare, making it a good niche for wellington to exploit since they have the know-how to make quality "modern military" firearms and can upsell them with advanced ammo.

The books claim that the majority of conventional firearms are hundreds of years ago, pre-Rifts, and that any new production is only happening at a "few" locations. When it names companies making such firearms, the named corporations are hundreds of miles apart.

[taalismn]

The books claim that the majority of conventional firearms are hundreds of years ago, pre-Rifts, and that any new production is only happening at a "few" locations. When it names companies making such firearms, the named corporations are hundreds of miles apart.

[/quote]


Game Master Guide stats that most are knockoffs of pre-Rifts designs and that 'hundreds of thousands' are being used in North America. Plus includes rules for 'found' guns with a 40% chance of being virtually useless. Frankly, I think that's optimistic.

Just assume that those manufacturers are pumping out general/generic SDC weapons, selling them through second and third parties, or as unprinted side products(Wellington also sells bulldozers and construction equipment, but we don't see specific examples of those products). They promote their more innovative and expensive products up front(i.e., In the Books).
Meanwhile, the smaller private Operators and mom-and-pop companies are doing custom and small-batch work that falls under the numbers that merit mention(I mean, nobody nowadays realizes that there's firms that still produce a handful of DC-3 pattern aircraft).