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Shotgun

2018-04-03T11:46:51Z

2601:147:4200:6280:D4CC:5818:F71C:B101: /* Notable shotguns */

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A '''shotgun''' is a large caliber smoothbore [[firearm]] which is designed to fire a cluster of small projectiles (once commonly lead pellets but for environmental reasons steel is more common, either way they're known as shot) in one shot, though most shotguns can also accept solid slugs. The cluster of bullets spread out to cover a wide area after exiting, taking some of the burden off of aiming and causing considerable damage to an unprotected body. It comes at the expense of hitting power and precision at long range due to the sheer spread. The earliest shotguns were large caliber muskets known as blunderbusses. Today shotguns remain widely used by police, hunters and sport shooters and see some use as a secondary weapon by soldiers. Modern-day shotguns are extremely reliable, fairly accurate (for what they are) and relative simple to produce and operate, while being devastating in close combat. The "gauge" used to measure the size of the shot used in a shell. 12 gauge means that it takes 12 lead balls of the diameter of a 12-gauge shotgun to equal one pound in weight. So 16, 20 and 28-gauge take 16, 20 and 28 lead balls of the diameter of a matching shotgun to equal one pound. This means that the higher the gauge, the smaller the shot is. 12-gauge is the most commonly used in combat, with the smaller gauges being used when hunting small prey. [[Dakka|when in doubt, carry two. If you still have doubts, attach two to your fists and two to your boots, then carry two in your hands again.]]

==Notable shotguns==
[[image:SPAS 12.JPG|thumb|300px|right|A pair of SPAS-12 Shotguns. The lower has a fixed stock and a shorter magazine tube, while the upper has its signature folding stock unfolded.]]
*'''Double Barrel:''' One of the most common shotguns available, the double-barrel is a very basic, no-frills firearm that, instead of having any sort of magazine or ammunition tube, simple has two barrels with one shot each. This simplicity and the generally low price tag makes it popular with farmers and hunters. The double-barrel is typically used for hunting and can come in side-by-side or over-and-under configurations, the latter being popular in sports shooting. Rare triple-barrel shotguns exist, but at this point you're getting a heavy hunk of metal. Double-barrels are sometimes chopped down to create a nice personal defense weapon, though this modification is oftentimes illegal.
*'''Winchester 1887:''' The shotgun made famous by Terminator 2, this is a 10-gauge lever-action shotgun, giving it a strong Old West vibe to it. Firing it one handed is not recommended unless you really are [[Deathmark|a terrifying robot assassin]]. A trick associated with this weapon is spinning it around to chamber a new shell, but unless you have an extra-wide lever that is at least as wide as two fingers you're only going to break your fingers trying to do this. Not to mention that this is very dangerous.
*'''Remington 870:''' Pretty much ''the'' pump-action shotgun. Used by everyone from hunters and sports shooters to police and elite special forces units. Tough, durable and simple to use; there's a good reason the Remington is as popular as it is. Because of this there are oodles of aftermarket parts available so that you can make your shotgun as tacticool as you want.
*'''Mossberg 500:''' The Pepsi to the Remington's Coke. The two are very similar and arguments between fans of the two are sources of major [[skub]] amongst firearm enthusiasts. In practice they are pretty much the same, with the Mossberg being lighter and cheaper than the Remington, but it does not come in as many different gauges.
*'''Benelli M4:''' Made by the Italian Benelli corporation, the M4 is famous for its wedge-shaped stock and [[video games|being the spray-and-pray stick in Counter-Strike]]. While used by civilians it is more commonly used by special forces units and police.
*'''Saiga 12:''' A Russian-made shotgun derived from the popular AK layout. It is a semi-automatic shotgun loaded via a detachable box magazine unlike the two above. Used by Russian security forces it is also popular amongst hunters because the required licence is far easier to obtain than that for a rifle. Factory-made box magazines go up to 8 and the aftermarket makes magazines for 12, 20 and even 30 shells, but the latter is very heavy, expensive and bulky.
*'''USAS-12:''' Built by a subsidiary of the Korean Daewoo (the car manufacturer) based on the AA-12, the USAS-12 is an automatic combat shotgun exclusively used by militaries. A semiautomatic version was put on the American market in the early 90's, but it was declared as to "having no sporting purpose" and was branded a "destructive device", immensely limiting its potential buyers. It has a nice 400+rpm rate of fire, allowing it to empty a 20-round drum in 3 seconds or less.
*'''AA-12:''' The Atchisson Assault Shotgun is a fully automatic shotgun most famous for its low recoil: through some clever engineering the user gets only 10% of the recoil they'd normally feel from a 12-gauge shell. This makes the AA-12 highly controllable even with its 300rpm rate of fire. It has also been associated with the FRAG-12 round, a miniature grenade the size of a 12-gauge shell. While the FRAG-12 fits in any 12-gauge shotgun, there is something [[awesome|alluring]] about being able to hold your shotgun on target while shooting 20 grenades at it in 4 seconds flat.
*'''SPAS-12:''' A shotgun with a capital SHOTGUN. It is a big honkin' piece of metal capable of double-action: it is both a gas-operated semi-automatic and a pump-action shotgun at the same time. This allows it to both act as a semi-automatic weapon with lethal shells and a pump-action weapon capable of firing bean bags, tear gas and other less-lethal shells that do not generate enough pressure to cycle the action. This is also how they are used in movies because blanks are too light as well. Movies and games almost always show the shotgun with its bulky folding stock folded in on top of the weapon. While no longer in production the SPAS-12 retains its reputation as a big, menacing son of a shotgun and fetches quite a bit on the second-hand market, even with its failure-prone safety.
*'''KAC Masterkey:''' Developed by Knight's Armament Company, the Masterkey is an underbarrel attachment for the M16/M4 assault rifles. It is essentially a short pump-action shotgun intended for breaching doors that can be slapped to the underside of a rifle so that soldiers do not need to carry around a separate weapon. To fire it the user has to shift their hands so that they hold the shotgun as normal, using the magazine of their rifle as a makeshift stock. Because of its lack of grip or stock firing a Masterkey as a stand-alone weapon is a very bad idea. For that reason andthe ease of reloading the M26 MASS was choosen over KAC.
*'''Punt Gun:''' What if you wanted to shoot an entire "flock" of birds with a single shot? You could use a punt gun! (Or, you could, back in the day, but you wouldn't do it now because it's really, really illegal). Punt guns are shotguns the size of a small boat used for hunting, and only hunting because they're too stupidly large to use for combat.

==Ammunition Types==
*'''Buckshot''': The most commonly associated ammunition used in shotguns. Buckshot is a shell filled with lead balls that fire out from the barrel in a cone; how tight that cone is depends on whether the shotgun has a choke. Buckshot, as the name implies, is lethal to deer, but works just as well on humans. 12 gauge 00 (pronounced double aught) is the most common type, consisting of 9 lead balls .36"(9.1mm) in diameter.
*'''Birdshot''': Like buckshot, but the balls are much smaller, and as a result there's less empty space in between each ball when fired. This makes it well suited for shooting birds out of the sky. While each ball individually won't do quite as much damage, you'll definitely give someone a bad day if you hit them with it. Note for writing: birdshot is a terrible choice for use against humans or any substantially sized animal, so unless your characters have a reason for using it specifically (desperation etc) having a character use birdshot for fighting will result in /k/ laughing at you.
*'''Slug''': A solid piece of lead; this allows shotguns to be used more like a rifle in that you're aiming at a single point in space, though slug shotguns aren't quite as accurate as rifles. They are, however, much bulkier than rifle rounds, making them better suited to hunt large game.
*'''Flechette''': Instead of balls, you fill a shell with long metal needles. These are more aerodynamic than buckshot, but have less stopping power.
*'''Dragon's Breath''': What do you get when you fill a shell with metal shards and flammable liquid? A giant fireball coming out of a shotgun barrel, that's what! You'd also get a barrel full of afterburner shit, so make sure you don't fire this thing more than twice before you clean the gun, unless you like your gun exploding in your hands (hence why it's almost universally used with cheap throwaway double-barrels).
*'''Frag-12''': Mini-explosives crammed into a shotgun shell.
*'''Rubber Pellet''': These are the non-lethal rounds typically used by police. It hurts like hell to get hit by one, but at least you're not bleeding out.
*'''Breaching Round''': Made from metal powder and wax, these rounds will knock out door locks and deadbolts without ricochets, making them safe to use in close quarters.<br>

*It's actually quite easy to make custom ammunition for shotguns by cramming whatever the fuck can fit into a barrel into a standard slug shot maybe with some tightening. Most weapon shops even sell custom shotgun ammo kits. Sure, custom slugs more often than not have terrible accuracy, but it's invaluable in urban fantasy/mystic/horror settings where you can shoot whatever the fuck that eldritch abomination you're fighting against is vulnerable to - like wooden slugs for staking vampires from the (relatively) safe distance or saltshot against ghosts or demons. Hell, making silver shotgun slugs against werewolves is a much safer option than silver bullets for rifles or pistols if you're not a proficient smith, as poorly made slug is much less likely to jam your gun than poorly made bullet.

==The Short-Range Shotgun Fallacy==
It's a common belief amongst people that shotguns are strictly short-ranged weapons, that their particular method of firing makes them all but useless at a distance. As the title of this segment suggests, such a belief is pretty much wrong. Here's why. The primary reason this idea exists is because of /vg/; because shotguns are preferred for tight confines and urban fighting, most early shooters (other than, ironically, [[Doom]]) made shotguns do more damage the closer that you were to the target for balance, and the idea was absorbed into popular culture. The whole shotgun fallacy is similar to the flamethrower fallacy in which both weapons are actually much more accurate and longer ranged in real life rather than being only effective at less than ten feet like most video games.

The entire "shotguns are only good at short range" idea is based on the notion that when a shotgun fires, the pellets it expels will spread further and further apart as they travel, until they are so scattered they're incapable of dealing any real damage to whoever they hit. It's not entirely without basis, and in fact this was a well-known issue with the blunderbuss, but it's mostly false when it comes to shotguns.

See, unlike blunderbusses, shotguns have small, narrow barrels, rather than the tapering wide-bore muzzle of their predecessor. Thusly, whilst a shotgun shell's contents do have a scattering effect that means it's impossible to get the same pinpoint precision accuracy you would have with, say, a sniper rifle, they don't scatter anywhere near so far as a blunderbuss's shot would, even when using a wide-bore. In fact, this scattering effect is ''precisely why'' shotguns are considered the best guns for hunting with; the spread of pellets is much more likely to connect with a fast-moving target, and this is especially important when hunting birds or small game.
Further more, some shotguns can also fit a device called a choke. A choke is threaded onto the end of a barrel, the choke has a slightly smaller internal diameter than the barrel. This forces the shot to stay tighter together, farther down range. This is how turkey hunters can kill with neck shots without damaging meat at 40 or so yards. Some shotguns ,typically called slug guns, do have rifled barrels. While terrible for shot (the imparted spin spreads the shot dramatically, like video game levels of spread), it shines with solid metal projectiles. Special slugs designed with rifling in mind, provide significant range increases. Practiced shooters can make 150 yard shots rather easily. There are even chokes with partial rifling to allow smoothbore guns threaded for chokes, to shoot some specialized rifled slugs.

This said: compared to the multiple hundreds of meters effective range of rifle caliber bullets the shot gun "''is''" a short ranged weapon. What they don't tell you however is that most fire fights are short ranged anyway, which is the main reason why after world war two army's stopped using what we would call "Battle rifles" and swapped to smaller caliber assault rifles (trading in range for a higher rate of fire). For most situations a shotgun is as good as a rifle if not a little better since it's actually easier to hit your target with a shotty. The main disadvantage is that you can't carry as much ammo (the 12ga shells are bigger and heavier than the average rifle bullet), and shot is rather inefficient against body armor. TL:DR; assault rifle is more versatile than shotgun, hence AR gets used.

One of the few games that ignores the whole 'Shotguns are only useful at close range' trope is hilariously Gears of War, which is one of the most testosterone-poisoning and over the top games made. Whilst its true the Gear's shotgun instakill enemies up close, most players actually use the shotgun at it was intended, which was a mid-range weapon. It is telling when the majority of players prefer the shotgun than the iconic lancer assault rifle in open space firefights as it is amazingly accurate despite the spread and deals decent damage. There are even reports of players [[Wat|sniping with the shotgun better then most snipers.]]

==In [[Warhammer 40k]]==
Your typical generic weapon found in almost every genre, the Shotgun is a pump-action weapon utilized by the [[Imperium of Man]]. It is a short-ranged anti-personnel weapon, and easily fired accurately on the move thanks to its wide spread of fire. Regularly employed by the [[Adeptus Arbites]], the shotgun (also referred to as a scatter gun), have been around since before M3. 38,000 years later the biggest "improvement" is the addition of 50 pounds of metal, allowing it to be used as a club so that after shooting a pissed off [[Genestealer]] you have the option of boinking it on the head, but only a Space Marine would consider a 50 pound weapon useful, even as club. Probably the longest lived weapon in the Imperium (right after anything sharp or heavy), it has appeared on nearly every Imperial world and battlefield.

It is also commonly employed by [[Space Marine]] Scouts and [[Imperial Guard]] Veterans, although the [[Space Marines]] are equipped with more powerful "Manstopper" rounds. Its hail of shot can shred through flesh, but its low velocity causes it to be ineffective against armoured enemies. The [[Imperial Navy]] uses them when boarding a ship or putting down mutinies because the nature of its rounds make it unlikely (read impossible) to pierce the hull of the ship, which is a good thing. The [[Deathwatch]] have their own shotguns, mainly for the specialist ammunition they use to take down many different types of Xenos at close range.

Imperial shotguns also can use a wide variety of different ammunition, including all types of bolts for maximum firepower (though less effective than an actual [[bolter]]) (for some stupid reason), web charges for non-lethal takedowns, blazerer charges, that turn a shotgun into a nerfed flamethrower, talk charges for breaking doors, and really about anything you can fit inside the barrel, making it a great utility weapon in any FFG game.

*Range:12 | Str:4 | AP:- | Type:Assault 2 (Space Marine version, 7-th edition)
*Range:12 | Str:3 | AP:- | Type:Assault 2 (Imperial Guard version, 7-th edition)
*Range:12 | Str:4 | AP:0 | Type:Assault 2, becomes Str:5 if fired on range of 6" or less (Space Marine version, 8-th edition)
*Range:12 | Str:3 | AP:0 | Type:Assault 2, becomes Str:4 if fired on range of 6" or less (Imperial Guard version, 8-th edition)

{{40k-Imperial-Weapons}}

Nazi

2018-04-03T11:16:52Z

2601:147:4200:6280:D4CC:5818:F71C:B101: chamberlainist style appeasement

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{{Topquote|I have in this War a burning private grudge—which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.|[[J.R.R. Tolkien]]}}
{{Topquote|1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHFtbSZ3KRE YOU UTTER FOOL! GERMAN SCIENCE IS THE FINEST IN ZE WORLD!!!]|2=Stroheim, an over the top Nazi and the first Guile}}

Important note: although the armed forces of Germany during World War II are commonly referred to as such, "'''Nazi'''" only refers to the political party. The regular German armed forces were the ''Wehrmacht'', who were not necessarily Nazis (most likely "paper Nazis," citizens who took party membership solely for the benefits like "not being purged as a dissident"). After the war they were not considered Nazis, unlike the ''Waffen-Schutzstaffel'', or Waffen-SS, which were the actual military arm of the Nazi party and declared an inherently criminal organization, though much like every WW2 party involved, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht were not complete saints either] (including the contentious issue of whether dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was or wasn't a war crime, [[Grimdark|though according to conventions of the time, it wasn't.]])

== Historical ==
[[Image:Nazi uniforms.gif|thumb|right|150px|Nazis: Evil, but stylish]]
'''Nazi''' is the commonly used shorthand version of ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (National Socialist German Workers' Party, a political party which took over Germany <s>for 1,000 years</s> from 1933 to 1945. It also refers to people who belong to said party, their ideology, and their regime in Germany during said period of time. Led by Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party emerged from the uncertainty and political upheaval due to the Red Scare, the end of the German Empire after the Great War, resentment at unfair conditions imposed by Treaty of Versailles, economic uncertainties due to the Stock Market crash of 1929, German ethnic nationalism, a desire to blame things on scapegoats, and a belief in militarism popular among many returning veterans. They were also aided by their invention of modern campaigning and propaganda, wide-spread dissatisfaction with the status quo, the strategic seizure of the political positions that controlled the police force, and more dumb luck than anyone has any right to have, let alone a bunch of [[Imperium of Man|evil, racist]] [[Racial Holy War|loons]].

[[Image:Germania.jpg|thumb|left|150px|What the Nazis wanted]]
The Nazi's initial success can be attributed to the image of glorious economic recovery they presented to the rest of the world; making many people believe the little mustachioed guy couldn't be that crazy since he'd made his country recover brilliantly in very little time. And while Germany did indeed recover, the whole thing was helped and held upright by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mefo_bills MEFO bills]: basically a Ponzi scheme that allowed the government to loan money on the sly through a front (the ''Metallurgische Forschungsgesellschaft'', or MEFO in short). This allowed them to work at a much higher level of debt flotation than allowed by international regulation, and the idea was to pay back the loans with seized gold and valuables from at first [[Goblin|Jews]] and then directly from conquered nations after the war went on, since even [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_bond state created debt bonds] are exactly that: debt, credit, which is trust. Eventually the creditor will want something in exchange (or at the very least get his investment back) or the debtor's credibility will be shattered, stopping the money flow.

To give you a clearer idea of what happened: imagine spending money from a credit card, raising the debt until being near broke to make the rest of the world believe you are rich. But still, your neighbors don't lend you a dime for making guns. So what you do? You make up a credit card called Mefocard, borrow even more wildly to create weapons promising you'll pay the lenders back with gold and valuables in a few years... and then try to kill your neighbors and rob them to give '''their''' gold to the bank. If the banks' security declares war on you, great! You'll gun them down too, and force the lesser banks and neighbors to accept and distribute '''your''' debt amongst '''themselves''': A continent wide robbery. Needless to say it was an all-or-nothing gamble and reason why the scenario of not waging war (like in Hearts of Iron or some alternate reality stories) simply wasn't a realistic option. Despite their multiple annexations of territory, the Nazis couldn't sustain their charade without the influx of riches and materiel from other conquered territories. So they soon mobilized their armies and launched a war of expansion on the rest of the world, starting with Poland. (The question is still open amongst historians as whether they annexed enough reserves with Czechoslovakia to keep the charade up "peacefully" long enough to let their Red "ally" make the opening move instead, but that's a discussion for another place and time.)

Their goal (next to getting gold and industrial materials to pay the enormous gambling debt of an empire) was to impose their militaristic Social Darwinistic ideology across Europe, outlaw any dissenting school of thought, enslave all the "sub-human" Slavs (after starving to death more than half of them in accordance to Generalplan Ost) and exterminate any "undesirables" (Jews, Roma, homosexuals, etc) on which they blamed all their problems because they felt that they were superhumans without any flaws; any problem which they suffered had to be the fault of some subversive "other" from outside who tried to cause the Master Race misery for no other reason than "teh Evulz". But due to some severe strategic fuckups from Hitler who often overruled his military leadership Germany ended up with a three-way war with the Soviet Union (who provided blood), Great Britain (overseas bases) & the United States (More armaments than you can possibly dream of with an extra helping on top) while their major allies such as Romania & Italy capitulated during the middle years of the war. In the end, while Germany may have had some areas of technological advantage (at least initially and this is often overstated; the Wehrmacht for example could not field properly motorized divisions unlike its opponents); by the end of the war they struggled with the lack of many strategic resources and dislocation of production lines and reverted to some crude solutions) along with a chronic shortage of secure OIL there was no hope of repulsing both the Western Allies and the Soviet Union at the same time and thus the Nazi regime finally met its end when the Red Army marched into Berlin and Hitler *BLAM*med himself along with his mad-as-a-hatter common-law (and actual for 24 hour!) wife. Indeed, while their hate-wagon managed to go far and overrun Europe it simply had too much war to fight on multiple fronts, a lack of effective strategic planning in the form of Hitler and his cronies (the corpulent cross-dressing Goering for example who viewed it as his sacred duty to squander one of the world's only first-rate Air Forces) and as most powerful nations of the time opposed them either because they cherished their political freedoms (nobody cared about this), saw their economies fail (all nations arrayed against the Nazis saw THIS except the United States who did splendidly) or simply were in the Nazi "to-exterminate" list (a very broad and long list).

It is actually a known fact that through their actions the Nazis did manage to kill more white people (for non-whites there is basically no difference between a white English, German, Russian or French other than their funny accents) in recorded history than any "anti-aryan" enemy they could blame at, in fact, the war they started is one of the main reasons that none of the European countries (with the possible exception of Russia now, but the definite exception of the Soviet Union in the immediate aftermath) is the dominant power of the world after ruling much of it for almost a century. The current situation in Europe becomes doubly hilarious in hindsight now that Europe has had a massive immigration problem after the Nazi regime, a considerable Muslim and African minority to fill the gap in labor specifically because of the clusterfuck known as the Second World War; a Muslim and African minority that would never take root in Europe if Hitler's [[Edgy]] autistic rage did not finally break the mold of xenophobia around the planet and realize that though some folks may not like people of black skin and different features, murder camps and monstrous treatment worse than insects ''might have gone a bit too far''.

[[Image:Reichstag flag.jpg|thumb|right|150px|What the Nazis got]]

==Nazi Portrayal==
Nazis are portrayed as people who used vile actions towards a vile end (To his credit, Hitler did envision for Germany to be the greatest nation ever. Its just that his plan to attain this was the moral equivalent of driving a bus through a busy sidewalk filled with women and children). But (and this is important) rather than just being an alien other, they represented the worst qualities of industrial Western civilization (racism, militarism, hyper-nationalism, expansionism, manifest destiny, enforced conformity, social darwinism, eugenics and so forth) inflated and turned inward against bits of Western civilization. To modern western civilization, the Nazis have the role of the great foe. A magnificently horrifying evil that wrought death and misery on Europe which needed to be stopped by all means possible. Their known track record of starting WW2, carving a bloody swath through Europe, and their infamous ethnic genocide and enslavement campaigns against undesirables have painted them as the most evil villain that the world has ever seen.

This is the common opinion that is widely accepted and well backed by historical documents. Even so you will hear plenty of other viewpoints of the Nazis from other groups. Some will say their portrayal is riddled with the allied propaganda excessively demonizing them. Some will say that while the Nazis did give Europe a good stomping, the other participants were just as, if not more evil than the Nazis and that they're just being used as the poster boy (these people often say the [[Communism|Soviets]] had a worse track record than the Nazis in terms of people murdered by the state, or the Americans who nuked not one, but two Japanese cities. This of course, is without taking account of the Japanese Empire whose ''official'' death toll outstrips the ''estimates'' of the Holocaust 4-to-1 combined with horrific medical experiments on innocents a-la [[World of Warcraft|Forsaken/Sylvanas]]), and some people on the /pol/ side of the spectrum will say that [[Edgy|Germany did the right thing and their enemies was actually the evil ones]] (remember, this is /pol/ we're talking). All in all, discussions that relate to the portrayal of Nazi Germany are bound to [[skub|generate heated debates]] due to numerous factors.

In relation to fantasy, however, varying opinions on the perceived Nazi character allows them to be looked at from varying points of view, developing their character all the more. Take the [[Imperium of Man]], for example. Some will say that the Imperium's a nutcase since they're willing to allow an Inquisitor to turn an entire hive spire into a towering inferno if he so happens to find a single heretic in a spire where millions of people reside in, on the grounds of "Hey, this guy is worshiping chaos. Those people might as well be worshiping chaos too and this might lead to the entire world rebelling. BURN EVERYONE". Some will say that the Imperium's just being pragmatic and such an action is justifiable as the Imperium is constantly beset by merciless foes who will not think twice to bring them down, as such their method for survival is cruel, but necessary. Which, given the fact that daemons really do exist and can corrupt entire planets in a short amount of time, is pretty justifiable. Even the Imperium's xenophobia is justifiable given how nearly [[Orks|all]] the [[Necrons|major]] [[Tyranids|races]] pretty much want to wipe everyone else out, [[Dark Eldar|or else]] enslave them. But that doesn't change the fact that these reasons are often just used as an excuse to torture and kill anyone who's even slightly unorthodox, either out of paranoia or because it amuses them.

==Impact on fantasy==
Militarily the Germans had, hands down one of the best armies of the time, well disciplined and well trained with experienced mid-level officers, this combined with borderline insane levels of morale at the start of the war due to years of giving the middle finger to the war wary western nations which capitulated to their demands turned the German into an [[chaos|unholy]] Juggernaut. The Germans were known to have some of the best armored tanks in the war, their small arms far outstripped the guns Europe had at the time, and were pioneers to many advanced technologies during their time that have become well known today, like jet engines, cruise missile systems, fully automatic rifles(even with battery-run night scopes around '44), stealth craft, and many others.

This, combined with their infamous cruelty, have spawned the Nazi-esque villain template where the villains are both powerful and [[Eldrad|gigantic dicks]] to everyone else, making them completely despicable. This is because if the villain is significantly weaker than the protagonist of the setting, most people will still feel a few grains of sympathy towards the former or make them a laughing stock. But, when you make the villain both an enormous asshole and just as or more powerful than the protagonist, all bets are off and he's fair game.

Of course, the weaknesses of Nazism also need to be taken into account, in that a lot of their supposedly superior technology turned out to be highly unstable and would frequently be outclassed and definitely outnumbered by Allied designs once the latter got their shit together (this was even true at the start of the war, British Matilda II's were all but immune to German tank fire, and a column of them almost stopped Rommel at the Battle of Arras). Add poorly managed industry and the fact that supplies at times were delivered by horse (which was not actually that atypical since only America and early war Britain were that ridiculously mechanized), and you have a faction that is the epitome of [[Chaos Space Marines|style over substance]]. This really bit them in the ass later when the Allies, [[Imperial Guard|focusing on production and strategy over science fiction and tactics]], managed to leg up the Third Reich and battle hardened allies soldiers became the top dogs without question. In fiction, expect the Nazi villains to have eventually have their technology outclassed or at least made irrelevant and the hardened heroes turn Nazi soldiers into cannon fodder.

On the political side of things, the batshit insane racial policies of the Nazis will be explored in fiction as being founded as junk science, or at least hypocritical when the fantasy faction's leaders turn out to not even come close to their own idea of racial purity (seriously, Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and etc. are the anti thesis to any common definition of superman- Hitler in particular being a meth-addicted flatulent junkie with several damaged organs told to avoid meat). Not to mention Nazi's poltics have a tendency to make more enemies then friends preventing a 'the enemy of my enemy' situation working out in their favor.

Nazis are also the progenitors of all acceptable targets where human bad guys are concerned. Be it in vidya games or movies, nobody has a problem with Nazis getting gunned down by the hundreds by the heroes (well, the Nazis might, but screw those guys), and they don't even have to resort to the dehumanizing full helmets that most other villain goons have to wear to make slaughtering them okay.

A more comedic take on Nazis in fiction owes to wartime cartoons, where the soldiers and Nazi command are all bumbling idiots, because only an idiot would seriously consider becoming one. Hitler today has essentially been turned into a punchline with all the gags centered around him, which is kinda awesome when you think about it as dictators that wish to be feared would never want to be remembered as a joke.

===Examples===
*Many soldiers in [[Warhammer 40,000|the Imperium of Mankind]], such as the Thunder warriors and Steel legion, bear Lightning imagery. While not Nazi, the symbology shows great resemblance that of the British Union of Fascists. This is also interesting as their Leader, [[British Empire|Oswald Mosley]], was still politically active around the time of the formation of Games Workshop. Note also the symbol of the Schutzstaffel, which is a pair of twin lighting bolts.
** Furthermore, the Imperium will often draw from Nazi Germany either indirectly (hatred, bigotry, willingness to use torture, repression, and terror to their ends) to overt (The Death Korps of Krieg). Though given their love for trench warfare, the Death Korps are closer to the Germans of the First World War rather than the second. That said, he Imperium also draws from Stalinist Russia, North Korea, and even Jihadism with the Imperium's martyrdom obsession: basically, it's a grab bag of the worst of humanity's civilizations...[[Grimdark|Against entities even '''more evil''' than them]]...
*The [[Skaven]] from [[Warhammer Fantasy]] and later [[Age of Sigmar]] borrow many Nazi-esque elements, which in turn makes them the most vile and evil race in the World That Was... Only it's taken to its logical extreme, as with many things Warhammer. For example, Nazis had a hatred for what they believed was ündermenschen and believed the "Aryan" race was most pure, while the Skaven hate all other living things, including their own race, only believing themselves to be worth anything. Pack in some advanced Wunderwaffen and chemical weapons as well and you have a solid, if over-the-top Nazi fantasy faction for you.
*In [[Star Wars]], the forces of the Galactic Empire have many design elements (like Darth Vader's ''Stahlhelm''-like helmet) cribbed from the Nazi military, so that the audience knows it's okay to shoot them. Also, many of the weapons used (as they were all older real-world guns with window dressing) were German in origin, namely the StG44 (A295, DLT-20A), C96 (DL-44), and MG34 (DLT-19, DC-15A). They are also noticeably all human (with notable exceptions like Thrawn) in a series with a diverse list of aliens. Also the title "Moff" is equivalent to Gauleiter in Nazi Germany.
*In [[Doctor Who]], the Daleks are defined for their fanatical hatred of anything that is not a Dalek (this was intentional and for fun the creator of the daleks had their original enemy look just like the nazis wanted to look like).
*In anime, there is the Principality of Zeon from ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', which also has elements borrowed from the WWII Empire of Japan.
*The most extensive take on the theme of Space Nazis would be the Helghast from ''Killzone'', where the people of Helgan see the ISA as Imperialist gits who forced them out of their planet for refusing their rule. Although by Shadow Fall, they become akin to Communist East Germans, being filled with political radicals and separated by a wall and all.
*The aptly named "Fourth Reich" from the Metro series, who, ironically being Russian and therefore the only race the Nazis hated more than Jews (this is made substantially more odd by the fact that they're based both on the original Nazis and a large number of real-life Russian Neo-Nazi groups), still hold fast to their National Socialist ideology, however they speak little German outside of common movie lines. At constant war with the Red Line, a post-apocalyptic Communist revival. Thinks that Slavs are the superior race and all others must be destroyed. Their racial policies also extended to "mutant" humans infected with radiation.
* The Norsefire from V for Vendetta count.
*If you have a fantasy/sci-fi world, it will almost certainly have some sort of Nazi analogue floating around. At the same time, Nazis also figure into a lot of alternate history fiction; Nazis invading England, Nazis invading America, Nazis successfully conquering the USSR, Nazis getting the Bomb first, Nazis creating an army of mutant uber-troopers, Nazis on the Moon, Nazis using occult powers to summon demons to aid them, all of these have been done. The Nazi obsession in alternate history is largely due to the fact that we consider them (for right reasons) evil and our modern world is the result of an Allied victory. A Nazi victory to us is just unthinkable. Hell, this page itself is pretty long.
* [[Wolfenstein]] is a perfect example of just how cemented the Nazis have become into pop culture as the closest thing to [[zombie]]s in terms of guilt-free punching bags.
*Nazi ideologues may even show up in children's shows if one pays close attention (not counting war time cartoons).
**The Fire Nation from Avatar: The Last Airbender considers the element of fire to be superior to the other three (water, earth, and air) and wages a war of expansion and genocide against the other three nations, succeeding with a genocide against the air nomads. While the Fire Nation's broader culture and technology also has many connections to the Nazi's allies of Imperial Japan.
**The Gem Empire in Steven Universe hates organic life and constantly exploit planet resources to create more gems (Lebensraum). They also have a strict hierarchy and devotion to their fascist leaders, the Great Diamond Authority, and have a weird salute.
** Marvel's X-Men frequently encounter pre Imperium era factions that want to wipe out all mutants, even if these exterminators may be mutants themselves. Oh, and Magneto went Nazi in the opposite direction by wanting to [[Heresy| kill all the humans]].

== Trademarks ==
[[TSR]] had the ™ and © symbols next to the word 'Nazi' where it appeared in their Indiana Jones RPG. This was probably for the sake of the artwork reproduced from the movie, but it's been a source of teasing and flames about TSR trying to claim exclusive ownership of the term 'Nazi.' Same shit happened with Marvel and their WW2 villains, and probably with Fawcett Comics since 'Captain Nazi' was a villain fighting Captain "Shazam" Marvel.

==Nazis and [[/tg/]]==
Long ago, /tg/ realized something that most competent people have: Nazis represent a great liberating force for any GM, for they represent a force that any player need not feel any remorse over resorting to violence against, because Nazis are the textbook template for villains in most settings: they desire world domination, see themselves as the apex species and view most others with utter contempt, wanton disregard for common life, have an industry primarily geared towards war, are the most powerful warmongers, and they have that evil-yet-sublime aesthetic to their armies. Nazis are a modern setting variant of using [[slavery|slavers]] as your enemy in a fantasy game: they have little to no redeeming values, so they're great enemy fodder.

The association gives the players a motivation and to understand that these people are evil, allowing the GM to focus on other aspects of the story. Indeed, one can get similar results by simply providing details that lead us to conclude that any group you are facing off against are this universe's version of Nazis. That said, that same context makes using Nazis a double-edged sword and a lazy GM (or author, script writer, or whatever; this is hardly unique to roleplaying) can royally screw up if one uses them incorrectly. Used incorrectly, Nazis become a kitten-eating one-dimensional caricature of villains descended into self parody, which ''can'' work if the world is built for it. Kitten-eating Nazis work best in "goofy" settings where it's fully possible, and indeed expected for the final boss to be Hitler himself riding a cyborg dinosaur, but in a setting trying to take itself seriously, such flat villains do just that, fall flat and fail to incite the proper emotional reaction. Remember that the '''key''' to successful Nazi use is that emotional reaction. That exportation of real world baggage is the point, perhaps the sole point to use Nazis over some other villain. Nazis have the additional problem of not even needing to be exaggerated that much to make the worst of them into something like this. So care must be taken when one plays the Nazi card, or it will come off as trite.

Entire stretches of [[d20 Modern|d20 Past]] are shown various ways to implement, ''Indiana Jones'' style, Nazis into any campaign during the early 1900s, and [[Savage Worlds]] has an entire supplement devoted to thwarting Nazi super-soldier plans during WWII. More clever GMs can do even more interesting things with it, such as backing up the savagery of the Nazis with [[Fist of the North Star|a humanizing element to make them more understandable, even if antagonists]], whilst another interesting setting, proposed for [[GURPS]], starts the players off ''as'' Nazis and has them turn against their former comrades as the movement becomes harder and harder to justify. It's also worth remembering that Nazis can be used for comedy as well; any one here heard of ''Hogan's Heroes''? All of these lead to some pretty great storytelling, just so long as the GM is aware of the real world baggage Nazis will bring to the game and is able to use that to deepen the experience, otherwise he'll have just created orks in fancy uniforms.

...And then you have bullshit like [[Racial Holy War|this nonsense]], which misses the point entirely and renders us all stupider for the knowledge of its existence.

Unfortunately, since [[/pol/]] rose to prominence, neo-Nazism is actually considered "hip and cool" on 4chan, and as such any mention of Nazis as villains will cause that cesspit to spill onto the thread, turning it to shit.

==Nazi Gear, Weapons, and Vehicles==
For reasons above, if you decide want to use Nazis as your bad guys at tonight's game (or protagonists if you roll that way. Just don't use [[Racial Holy War|RaHoWa]] as a basis unless you want to end up with a trainwreck of a game.) [[Nazi Equipment |here]] is a brief run down of basic information on Nazi equipment.

==Gallery==

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