SR3 Newbie Rigger Needs Shopping List Options

[Anung]

Hi all, first-time poster here...be kind. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I just got into a newly-started SR3 game, and in my infinite (lack of) wisdom, i.e. because the party needed one, I'm playing a Rigger. Problem being aside from understanding the basic concepts of being a Rigger I'm still learning...i.e. I'm reading as fast as I can. I've got my character basically figured out (and I have a few weeks to tweak), but won't bore you with the details here...I mean, unless you really want me to. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) However, I'm having one hell of a time going through the SR3 book (I have access to the other books but I'm trying to get through the first book first...) and figuring out what I should be equipping myself with and why.

So, basically this boils down to- is there any sort of "shopping list" of stuff riggers should have, or even just recommendations? Preferably with explanations as to why I should have them? I'll take websites, basic lists, anything I could get my hands on at this point. I tried searching the net but was depressingly unsuccessful.

I'm not sure whether there's anything else I should be including here, but I'll be happy to provide you with any other helpful information.

Thanks so much!

Anung

[Cain]

To start with: the Vehicle Control Rig. Absolutely essential.

Second is to decide if you're going to be more of a drone rigger, or a wheelman. If you're going wheelman, you want to jack up your skills in one or two souped-up getaway vehicles. Your biggest job is transportation: getting to and from the run site. You'll need stealth skills as well as good driving skills, and a high-rated VCR.

If you're going drone rigger, it's better to generalize some. Pick up a couple of combat drones (Strato-9 for the MMG, Steel Lynx for sheer toughness), some good spy drones (Mini-blimps and spider drones) and a couple multi-purpose drones (Retrans unit). You don't need high skills in all of them, but do upgrade the Pilots whenever you can.

Next is armament. Heavy weapons are required for either rigger concept. As I said earlier, you get a free MMG with the Strato-9, so that's a good start. But the heaviest weapon you can legally lay hands on is the Great Dragon ATGM. And it's cheap! Machine guns are good too, but stock up on Great Dragons. For smaller drones, pick up a few conversion kits, some small-arms weapons, and extra external smartlinks.

After this, gear. Buy gear to support your primary weaponry-- the ATGMs. You can use the Indirect Fire rules if you plan carefully. If you're going drone rigger, here's also where you buy the best Remote-Control deck you can afford. If you can afford it, consider a Cranial Remote Deck, and slave it to your bigger deck. That multiplies your effectiveness.

Well, those are the basics. Other people here can fill in the blanks.

[the_real_elwood]

Yeah, in our SR3 games, the rigger ALWAYS picked up a Steel Lynx, preferably with an autocannon on it, and let me tell you it saved our hides more than a couple times.

[Anung]

Thanks for the replies so far!

VCR is all taken care of.

Our GM doesn't distinguish between drone and vehicle riggers, so I'm trying to pull double-duty. _Probably_ more bent towards drone. I already picked up a couple, though the names and such escape me right now.

Amusingly I had Heavy Weapons and then forgot my justification, but since my character's still in Beta, taking them back's easy enough.

(adds SR to the list of things he shouldn't be thinking about while fighting a cold and feeling barely-conscious (grin))

[Cain]

Our GM doesn't distinguish between drone and vehicle riggers, so I'm trying to pull double-duty. _Probably_ more bent towards drone. I already picked up a couple, though the names and such escape me right now.

In that case, pick up a Bulldog Step-Van, trick it out as a Command and Control mobile base, and use it as your getaway vehicle. You'll need to buy drone racks for it, and maybe a pop-up turret if you want to have fighting capacity without looking conspicuous; but you can get both for the price of one. Now all you do is set up the van as a drone.

When you buy your vehicle skills, be sure to specialize them all in "remote operations". That'll give you extra dice any time you operate it away from the controls, which will be always.

[wind_in_the_ston...]

You need a truck. First of all, you need something to cart the whole team around in, when necessary. Second reason, drone racks.

[Anung]

I apparently have a lot more reading to do. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Granted I come from the world of AD&D and White Wolf, but I'm sorely missing any sort of "Here's how to have a good rigger character" section in the SR books that I've seen so far. I've told my friends this wouldn't have been my preference if I'd realized what would be involved.

Sorry, not meaning to whine. Just wish it was more newbie-friendly. Thanks for all the help!

[the_real_elwood]

Oh, and if you're gonna use the truck as your Command and Control vehicle (our groups riggers did this too, works real well), jack it up with as much signal power-boosting equipment as you can afford (think its called flux rating in SR3, but I don't quite remember). Then, if the rest of the group doesn't need the vehicle nearby for a quick extraction, you can park a safe distance away and not have to worry running out of range on your drones. Our groups rigger never liked to put his meat body in danger, and I can't say I blame him. He wasn't really cut out for it.

[Cain]

I believe you can use half the vehicle's Body as a boost to your Flux. I don't have R3R on hand, though.

And like I said, go for the Bulldog. It's not expensive, it's well-armored, it's large enough for anything you might need it to do, and it's super-common on the streets as a delivery van.

Granted I come from the world of AD&D and White Wolf, but I'm sorely missing any sort of "Here's how to have a good rigger character" section in the SR books that I've seen so far. I've told my friends this wouldn't have been my preference if I'd realized what would be involved.

Gah, the rigging and vehicle rules were one of the worst parts about SR3. While I still prefer it to SR4, I would rather have a cow step on my tongue repeatedly than be forced to use the Maneuver Score. I highly suggest that you talk to your GM about simplifying the vehicle rules. Unplayable would be too nice a way to describe them.

Oh, forgot: if you can afford it, upgrade your most independent drones with a robotic pilot. They're much, much more capable that way.

I apparently have a lot more reading to do.

Not as much as you might think. Just skim the vehicle customization rules; like I said, the actual vehicle rules are worse than unplayable, so your GM will likely be using house rules anyway.

[Anung]

Can't comment back to most of this stuff until I've actually had a chance to read the books some more (semi-happily, our next session isn't for a few weeks at this point, so I have time) but our first session, a mix of character generation and initial 'get the party together and get our first mission' was incredibly daunting for me when I was going through the gear/cyberware lists. I hadn't even begun to read that part of the book yet and it seemed like every item had an important note about it listed somewhere _else_ in the book.

As a Technical Writer...(shudder) I'm much better at "To play a Rigger, you'll want these items, and this is _why_ you'll want these items. So buy them now. For each vehicle you'll want this stuff to make it work, and if you want to play with drones, pick up these items..."

I want bullet points!

Not that I'm bitter. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Link]

Granted I come from the world of AD&D and White Wolf, but I'm sorely missing any sort of "Here's how to have a good rigger character" section in the SR books that I've seen so far.

For simplicity you could use either rigger archetype from SR3, modified as you like it.

[Anung]

I actually was looking over the archetypes a bit, and that was a little helpful. Since I'm not strictly drone or vehicle, can't just pick one up and use it, and reverse engineering (no puns intended) would probably give me a headache. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Either way, right now I've got a few weeks to polish up the character, and now that I realize how much I underestimated the complexity of the system I _think_ I'll be okay. Still wish they just had a nice "Intro to Riggers" section though.

[John Campbell]

I'm the GM, incidentally. Yes, I've mentioned that I'll be playing kind of fast and loose with the vehicle rules. And yes, I've recommended that Anung ignore the vehicle/drone rigger distinction, because it's basically completely bogus. There's no real advantage to limiting yourself to one or the other when you can do both at practically no extra cost. And I'd have recommended you play something simpler, but it's not like any of the other players ('cept John, and he's got the other really-complicated-to-build archetype) have any more SR3 experience than you do.

I've also mentioned that vehicle and drone Availabilities are a "just ask me" situation, because the rules for calculating them are so messed up. And, in fact, used the Strato-9 and that fragging MMG as one of my examples why. The Steel Lynx is also on the "not at character generation" list. ('Cause I really don't want to have to throw opposition with weapons that can threaten a Steel Lynx at an all-newbie party on their first run, that's why.) On the flip side, if you want one of the big civvie choppers or the like, I'm okay with that, despite the too-high Availability.

You'll need heavy weapons, but not the Heavy Weapons skill. Heavy Weapons is for firing heavy weapons that you're personally toting around. All vehicle-mounted weapons use the Gunnery skill, regardless of what the normal skill for using them is. You want Gunnery as high as you can get it. You'll probably want Pistols or something like that for a personal-defense weapon in case you get caught outside your vehicle, but concealability is the order of the day there.

I recommend getting a couple more drones, and diversifying and specializing them a bit. The Condor is good for snooping around and surveillance - it'd probably be a good idea to jack up its Sensor rating and put some stealth features on it. Having a weapon on it might even be a drawback - a blimp with a gun draws more attention than one without. If you want shooting stuff from the air, you've got the rotodrone. Another might not be a bad plan. (Armor for them, also good idea.) A couple ground drones are recommended - Dobermans or something similar, so you can send some heavy guns on-site with the team. Command vehicle, transport for the team - these might be the same vehicle or not. If they are, I recommend getting something bigger than the Nomad (Bison, Roadmaster, Bulldog) and getting a regular car for your daily driver. Your Nomad would make a good command van if you want to remote-rig the team transport, though.

I've got a reply in the works for that last email you sent me, Anung, but it's fairly extensive, so it'll be a little bit before I get it sent out. Tonight, maybe. I've got other stuff I have to get done this afternoon.

-- Æđelwulf

[Camouflage]

For an multi-purpose rigger I would suggest:
- van or truck as group transport/mobile HQ/drone-carrier (e.g. Ares Roadmaster)
-> with photovoltaic chameleon-paint, transponder library, runflat-tires, drone-pilot and remote-control (minimum standard-mods for ANY ground-vehicle), added with drone racks and some performance-upgrades
- a normal car for getting around, inconspicous observations and as secondary getaway vehicle (e.g. Ford Americar)
-> above mentioned standard-package
- some cheap and inconspicious rotor-drones for observations (like the Nissan Roto-Drone or se E-T Prospero)
-> tranponder-library and perhaps chameleon paint to disguise them as e.g. traffic-surveillance or TV camera-drones
- Condor with a retrans-unit (again transponder-library might be useful)
- solid ground-combat drone (i use the Nissan Doberman, with an AK97 on the turret and a Mossberg CMDT on the fixed hardpoint)

Strato 9 and Steel-Lynx are nice, but also way to obvious to rely on them outside of no-holds-barred combat situations. You can try and get your fingers on those later in the game (depending on how generous your gm is when it comes to cash).

[Cain]

I don't have my books handy, but I think it was the Ares Guardian Vectored-Thrust drone that was always a good choice. It didn't pack mcuh in the way of weaponry, but it's armor couldn't be beat. If nothing else, it made for great moving cover.

And I still stand by the Bulldog, with chameleon paint, transponder library, and morphing license plate. The fluff says it's one of the most common delivery vans in the sprawl, so you cad believably disguise yourself as almost anything; from janitorial services to pizza delivery trucks.

[Not of this Worl...]

Already loads of good advice here.

My advice is to use the "SR3" tag with all posts about SR3. That is the main way I surf these forums these days unless a thread title like this manages to stick out at me long enough.

Any questions still unanswered?

[Anung]

I think right now I'm at the point where I need to get more reading done before I can say whether I still have any unanswered questions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Is SR3 really a good choice of tag? You can't search for it...

[Catsnightmare]

If arming a car or drone on a budget (be it space or cash) go with an Ares Alpha. It's a nice middle-mix of firepower. Assault rifle on burst and full auto does some respectable damage, and you can instantly switch to shoot with the built in grenade launcher for a little extra punch (depending on your grenade load out).

[Not of this Worl...]

I think right now I'm at the point where I need to get more reading done before I can say whether I still have any unanswered questions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Is SR3 really a good choice of tag? You can't search for it...

If you look at the left side of all the topics when looking in the forum, if the SR3 tag or any other was chosen it will show. Most don't have a tag so the SR3 ones really stand out.