Kits, Shops, Facilities, and "Adequate tools" Options

[Jason Farlander]

I, for one, have found the B/R rules in shadowrun to be, shall we say, somewhat inadequately explained. While I dont have a problem with *making stuff up*, I figured that it would be a good idea to see if anyone knows of canon clarifications I've missed or put more thought into a balanced system than I have.

The specific question I have is this: are the "required tools" for vehicle customization in rigger 3 supposed to be absolute, or is it possible, within the rules, to perform those acts with lesser tools? It seems that everything worthwhile in the book requires a facility, but I can say without hesitation that the majority of those things should be possible without access to a manufacturing plant. Hell, theres a guy in new zealand who built a working cruise missile in his garage for less than 2000 USD (granted, his government bankrupted him for publishing his methods online... but hey, its possible).

I've basically always ruled that the "inadequate tools" rule applies for every step away from the "required" toolset the builder/customizer is. So, if something requires a facility and you only have a shop, that would involve a +2 TN modifier, using a kit would impose a +4 modifier and using "improvised" tools would, impose a +6 modifier. Does this seem reasonable?

Also, as a side note, has anyone come up with functional rules for actually creating things from scratch?

[Siege]

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the current SR build/tweak system to be less than realistic.

With that in mind, I'd say modify the rules to reflect what you think is reasonable.

-Siege

[mfb]

oh, come on. just because you can default from electronics B/R to aircraft B/R, that's no reason to say they're unrealistic.

[Shockwave_IIc]

I understand what you are saying jason, but i myself would stop at the first level.

Ie. you can't use a kit when it is saying that a facility is needed. because there are somethings you just won't be able to improvise with.


But i have also taken your point a bit futher in a different direction, I've freqeuntly had my character cut down his electronics kit to only the parts he would need to deal with say maglocks (so as to save space and weight), but for anything else that you need to do that would require a kit for you suffer inaddiquate tools modifier for.