And some more rules questions..., We do have a habit of finding these things Options

[hyphz]

A few points that came up from another exploratory session.

1. Firing a vehicle weapon is a Complex Action. Is this true even if a jumped-in rigger is firing a weapon from a drone that would be a Simple Action for him to fire normally?

2. How does recoil affect Drones?

3. For hacking drones, what are the normal Matrix stats of a drone and can they be upgraded? According to the general table in the rulebook they would have Device 3 but this seems a bit low as any reasonably minmaxed hacker would be able to take them over.

4. Is there any way to increase the Body of a Drone?

5. In the adventure "On The Run", why do the runners need to get backstage to hack Nabo's Commlink? Even if it has Signal 1 it should be in range from the roof or back wall of the warehouse?

[Aku]

For three,I would agree, but you should be able to upgrade it per normal.

[MikeKozar]

Regarding Recoil, there are two ways to play it. By default rules, vehicles do not suffer from recoil. In Arsenal, there are a set of optional rules that suggest that a vehicle's Body be used as Recoil Compensation.

VEHICLE WEAPONS AND RECOIL
Theoretically, vehicle weapons mounted in a weapon mount
(p. 146) do not suffer negative recoil modifiers, but this can lead
to strange results when a very large gun is mounted on a very small
vehicle. For example it is possible to install a weapon mount with
an LMG onto a small drone with a body rating of 2 (cat-sized) and
suffering no recoil effects from full auto fire, where a normal human
would have trouble holding the weapon let alone successfully hitting
anything. In instances like this, it is perfectly all right for the gamemaster
to apply negative modifiers equal to those a person shooting
the weapon would suffer from recoil, counting in the vehicle’s mass
(as a rule of thumb: its Body rating) as recoil compensation.

I personally find the optional rules very pleasing; My rotordrones give me 3 extra points of RC, and I feel it's a more realistic interpretation.

[HunterHerne]

1. Yes, this true. The Gunnery skill includes firing from non-metahuman triggers, which would be the Drone body. As such, it would be a Complex Action for a Rigger.

2. I completely agree with the Body acting as additional Recoil compensation rule.

3. The Basic Device Rating is 3, but they can be upgraded normally.

4. Not that I am aware of.

5. Because it's in hidden mode, or shut off during the concert, would be my best guess. If it worries you that much, let them hack it from the roof. It's safer that way, anyhow.

[Yerameyahu]

There's some debate about Gunnery. I'd go ahead and let Jumped-In Gunnery be non-Complex, as an incentive to Jump In.

Letting drone ignore recoil is insane, so use the Body optional rule. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Combat drones (=stock weapon mount) are Device Rating 4.

Some munchkins think you could abuse the Similar Models rules to get a drone variant with +1 Body. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Don't forget that wifi-proof walls and roofs are very common (and cheap).

[hyphz]

2. I completely agree with the Body acting as additional Recoil compensation rule.

Surely if it's a Complex Action to fire it's irrelevant anyway as the drone cannot fire the multiple bursts/shots in a Phase that would cause recoil to apply? Is that right?

5. Because it's in hidden mode, or shut off during the concert, would be my best guess. If it worries you that much, let them hack it from the roof. It's safer that way, anyhow.

If it's in hidden mode, can't it be found with a search action? Or is there some extra restrictions on them?

[Yerameyahu]

Recoil applies to any shot. If you fire a Full Burst (10 bullets, and with a Complex Action), but you only have RC 3, that's -6 to the shot.

Hidden Nodes require a special ElecWar action (2 options), p230. Cuz they're hidden.

[MikeKozar]

...regarding Body, there isn't much you can do to change it - it's more of a general index for the size of the Drone. Body Stabilization gives Walkers some situational bonuses, and adding a sidecar to a motorcycle gives it additional body, but for standard combat drones? You get what you start with.

...hacking drones is a Rigger's nightmare. If you have corp backing, you can slave them to a nexus with a non-standard wireless connection, so that after they figure out that they need to be signalling in an arcane frequency and get through the encryption, they realize they're on a DR8 node crawling with more black ice then Seattle roads on a January night. If you're on a budget, you could just jump into the node in hot sim and pray your combat software is good enough to wreck the opposition.

...regarding the office, wifi blocking walls are pretty common, and a good GM will use them whenever the story is better with them. I suspect that's why you need to get backstage.

[HunterHerne]

Surely if it's a Complex Action to fire it's irrelevant anyway as the drone cannot fire the multiple bursts/shots in a Phase that would cause recoil to apply? Is that right?

Drones themselves don't take a complex action if they have the right autosoft.

If it's in hidden mode, can't it be found with a search action? Or is there some extra restrictions on them?

It can be found with a Find Hidden Node action. But a threshold of 4 is pretty steep...

[Mayhem_2006]

4. Is there any way to increase the Body of a Drone?

Yes.

Use a bigger drone.

[Mardrax]

4. Is there any way to increase the Body of a Drone?

5. In the adventure "On The Run", why do the runners need to get backstage to hack Nabo's Commlink? Even if it has Signal 1 it should be in range from the roof or back wall of the warehouse?

If the drone in question is a motorcycle, you can add a sidecart ;p

And I do believe the 'link was turned off. Not quite sure though.