I have a player who is playing a Drake. He wants some stuff to use in drake form. Any suggested guidelines on cost, availability, etc?

If your player is a drake, I suggest you assign whatever costs he asks for his character's equipment.
If his character is a drake, I guess you'd have to be more specific on what exactly he wants...

Here is what he was asking about. Should it just use standard metahuman gear cost modifiers? Or would it be more rare because he's a drake?

I am not really seeing anything on "fully capable hands". They have paws nimble enough to manipulate objects, but nothing indicates they'd be able to, say, fire a gun, or even assume the right stance to do that.
So from the RAW standpoint, I'd maybe (maybe) allow some specially designed equipment usage, with costs and availabilities raised significantly.
However, if I had a player bent on playing a drake, I'd think on cutting him some slack, they're underpowered as it is. Not that I personally fancy an idea of a dracoform firing a gun, though...

I would say take the "Metahuman Adjustment" modification and apply a 2x cost modifier for normal gear. If you can make something so a troll can use it, you can make it so a Sirrush can use it. Though I think your player should look up the difference between a Sirrush and an Eastern Dragon.


That said, I'd bet those humanitarians at Evo already make this kind of stuff, primarily for young Dragons. They probably don't manufacture a lot of it, but they probably have it in their catalog how to manufacture anything to have Draconic Adjustment.

My advice? Tell your player to cultivate a Fixer contact with connections to Evo and just double the Metahuman Adaptation costs.

And I honestly don't see any reason why an Eastern Dragon wouldn't be able to use a firearm adjusted to him. They're huge! stance doesn't matter so much when the arm you're using to shoot the gun has weighs half as much as an average male human. Throw in a smartgun link and dragon goggles, and worries about proper shooting stance fly out the window in a hail of gunfire.

Of course, his fellow dragons may think he's a bit of an asstard, but hey, if it's stupid but it works, it wasn't stupid.

Heh, just had a vision of a drake with a yoke on that holds two different big guns over the shoulders, using a specialized voice activation system to key in the particular vocalizations a drake could do, and uses a laser pointer mounted somewhere on the drake's head to aim.

Well, yeah, a specially adjusted firearm maybe. But not a basic metahuman model like the player's quote seems to imply.
Besides, you can't fire an airsoft gun without assuming the right stance, if you want to hit anything, that is. And I'd say their recoil is about as low for a metahuman as a metahuman firearm's recoil would be for a dracoform.

With regards to the Earpiece, Goggles, and Comlink I'd personally just add +50% cost to it. The only thing that is really being changed, is a bit of the "mechanical" part of the equipment, meaning it's form. The electronics remain unchanged, and as the size is increased, there should be no real problems fitting the electronics into the new form. Basically it's just a sort of custom cover we're talking about.

As for the gun, I'd have to say that it would depend a little on exactly which type of gun we are talking about, and what modifications will be needed, in order for the Drake form to be able to handle it. If all that is required, is a basically a bigger grip and/or stock, just add +25-35% of the normal price. If the modifications required are more complex, go wild. If the gunsmith needs to make the majority of the weapon from scratch, in order to allow for proper handling with Drake sized hands/claws, I'd say that the player could easily be looking at a surcharge of something like 250-1000% the normal price, depending on the level of complexity. Basically, modifications that affect the function of the internal mechanics will cost an arm and a leg, as it will mean that the player is asking for a custom build weapon made from scratch more or less. Modifications that only affect the outer shape of the weapon, but leaves the internal mechanics and functions unaffected, would involve much smaller costs.


/Kyrel

Strap-Smartlinked Gun to Arm.
Give it Wifi.
Get Smart-Goggles.
Get Trode-Net in appropriate Size.
Link it all up.
Fire at will.

Just be aware, if you build a gun-bunny drake, they're never going to drake-out.

For one. Very simple. Reason.

Armor.

Would you rather have 10/8 armor...or 4/4?
(It doesn't even matter that the 4/4 is hardened, because that protects you from Strength 1 punches. Nothing else.)

My drake ended commissioning a vertiable artifact. Specially enchanted armor that would shape-shift along with my own body. Never got to use it because the game collapsed before it was done. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)
Cost an arm and a leg, too.

That's why I'm a proponent of using the Vehicle Mod armor pricings and availability for drake armor also. 500 per point, armorer skill to custom make it to you, and you get your very own drake barding (and it follows the standard rules for armor, such as encumbrance and other whatnots).

Possibly also allowing some version of forearm snap blades that strap on over the drake's claws, allowing their claws to do more damage, similar to the armored bear biodrone. Something like four times the cost of the spurs or something sounds about good.

Having drake barding is one thing.
Having the time to put it on is another.

Which is why my second drake went naked (armor just got in the way).

It wouldn't be very hard at all to make armor to fit a Drake. The hard part would be getting into it. Presumably, he's not going to Drake out and fly across the city in full armor and kitted out with as much firepower as your average Knight Errant HTR team.

That kind of shit tends to get noticed, and when you're a Drake, getting noticed (by the news, no less!) in Drake form is a fast path to being given an offer you can't refuse by someone like, say, Lofwyr. At that point, your basic only hopes are to work for Lofwyr (never a really hopeful thing, to be honest,) one of the other Greats, flee to another AAA megacorp that's powerful enough to tell Lofwyr to leave their employees alone (and interested enough in having you do violent work for them to throw their weight at the Dragon,) or go to the Draco Foundation's reserve for Drakes who don't wanna work for Dragons.


But then, Drakes aren't really going to shine in Seattle, anyway. Drakes would be better if you wind up doing a lot of runs into the wilderness. Get yourselves an RV as a group mobile base, and the Shadowrun equivalent of a 2 1/2 ton truck, modified for offroad work, to carry the team's gear and head into the Salish-Sidhe, or whatever the local wilderness is. You'd usually have the time to get into the drake armor before engaging in any hostilities, especially if the rest of your team (or drones) help you put it on.


Or head down to Bogota. enough violence and dracoforms flowing out of Amazonia down there that you could be reasonably anonymous.

No trodes for drakes.
And we know metahuman science hasn't deciphered dracoform neurology enough to even fit them with datajacks safely...

Couldn't they use a DataJack, though. I mean really, even Dragons can use a DataJack. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Rules say no, just like Shapeshifters any augmentations simply disappear in the shifted form. Dragons can get a jack because being a huge freaking lizard is their natural form (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

AHhhh... Okay, that's right. They do not have the Jack in their Drake Form, but do have it in their Metahuman Form. Thanks... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Personally, I'd be inclined to houserule it to say that any augs you have shift shape along with you, per the "you paid for it in precious Essence" rules. (Of course, I'd also consider giving Sensitive System automatically to any shifter/drake that wanted to try this.)

Thought that was already GM's discretion for delta grade bioware, the keeping their benefits when you shift.