Anthromorph drone/robot Options

[freudqo]

Is there actually an example of one in one of SR1-2-3 book?

I might be blind, but I fail to see any…

[Bodak]

There's the JIM Suit in Canon Companion p 108 and 57:

JIM suits consist of hardened, self-contained exoskeletons that maintain air at reduced pressure. With the advent of ASIST technology in the 2020s, most JIM suits are wired for rigger operation.
The suit carries a self-contained air supply, which provides up to 20 hours of air. JIM suits have an armour rating of 6. A suit may be modified for rigger interface, which confers the benefits of a vehicle control rig.

Despite saying the JIM suit can act in both modes: armour and vehicle, it only supplies a statblock for the armour variant. Some of the numbers don't quite add up though when you total up its components:

• Bucket Seat (R3.153) — uses up 6CF for airspace and reinforcement when a human only occupies 1/2 a CF
• EnviroSeal (Water + Engine) (R3.132)
• Life Support [2] (R3.133)
• Amphibious [1] (R3.149)
• Ballast Tanks (R3.116) — maintaining 1 Atmosphere allows rapid ascent without adverse effects
• Depth Enhancement [47] (R3.115) — this weighs 846kg alone! I can't figure out how they got the JIM suit's total mass so low
• 2 × Mechanical Arm with Strength Enhancement [1] (R3.152) — raising Strength to 10
• Hardened Vehicle Armour [6] (R3.131)
• Chemical Seal [4] (CC.52) — as a consequence of being water-sealed diving armour
• Insulation [2] (CC.53) — to maintain a stable temperature through thermoclines
• Improved Handling [2] (R3.115) — to keep the vehicle manageable by operators without a VCR
• Spotlight (White / Infrared) (R3.154)
• Sensors [2] (R3.147) — human senses are going to be useless at 100m depth, let alone 600m
• Sonar [1] (R3.148)
• Autonav [3] (R3.127) — since the stock JIM suit doesn't come with Rigger Adaptation, and therefore has no Remote Control Interface, it has no Drone Pilot. That leaves only carrying it everywhere by crane or shoving a strong operator into it every time they need to move it. An Autonav would be able to walk and position the unoccupied suit on command: Level [3] is necessary for handling steps, ramps, cargo holds, sea bed, etc. Level [4] would add autonomy sufficient for the suit to make un-manned journeys such a test dives, delivering equipment, returning to an anchor chain if signal is lost, etc.
• Orientation System (M&M.18) — considering • the substantial discount for integrating this into the design of a vehicle rather than implanting it into a biological body (R3.152 cf SR3.303); • the benefit it would provide to an operator spun by ocean currents at the bottom of a 600m chain in complete darkness, keeping his bearings and making his way toward mission objectives; • the capability to collate Sensor output into a permanent contour map of the sea bed and salient features; • and the synergy with the Autonav, this component is fundamental to the JIM-suit's described usecase. "The orientation system is another useful rigger tool, especially when linked to a vehicle's autonav or GridGuide. This combination increases the rigger's ability to navigate, locate routes, create maps, and so on." (R3.28)
• It may be tempting to Remove Manual Controls (R3.118) to liberate a few resources, but manual viewports are essential for using Manual Gunnery when Sensor-Enhanced Gunnery is jammed

It'll have:

• Signature 5
• Body 3 (R3.62: 300-750kg is Bod 3. R3.67: Str 9+ mechanical arms come with a Bod of 3. R3.204: the sample Large Anthroform (R3.109) has Bod 3)
• Handling: 3 (4 for Large Anthroform (R3.109) with Str: 9 (R3.204); -2 for Improved Handling: 2 (R3.115); +1 for Hardened Vehicle Armour: 6 (R3.131)).

SR4's Attitude book has a similar exoskeleton similar to the power loader from Aliens, called the Iron Will (Body 6 Armor 4 suit that gives you 8 strength at the cost of 1 agility).

If all that fails, you could always buy second-hand cyberlimbs, cybertorso, cyberskull and Stirrup Interface (SR4) or Snake Eyes (I think it is? It's SR3 anyway) to build your own remote control anthroform. If the GM requires all those cyberparts cannot be powered by a vehicle type power plant / battery but need to consume Essence, just install them in something with Essence. Maybe a cockroach - what's the worst that could happen? ;-P

[freudqo]

Thanks for the input!

Unfortunately, that's not really what I'm looking for. I was really wondering if they have an example, somewhere, of a stated-up drone or robots with the anthroform chassis. Here unfortunately is just another vehicle they don't seem to have really thought about much…

For now, the simplest seems to be to try to look at the design process from Rigger 3 to see what could be on the market and available for players, despite the bullshit one can find there (vehicle armour and AV ammo, oh damn…).

[Cochise]

Is there actually an example of one in one of SR1-2-3 book?

The closest thing I remember was one of the advanced MCT security drones that actually was a crawler rule wise but sported a more or less human upper body, two arms and advanced robotic features.

I might be blind, but I fail to see any…

You're not blind. Even the expanded vehicle list done by the folks at Fanpro Germany at that time didn't include a single example that used the anthroform chassis of either size. They did several walkers however ...

[freudqo]

Many thanks!

This is a bit disappointing that there are no real robots, but I guess it didn't really fit in the shadowrun universe.

[Bodak]

I guess it didn't really fit in the shadowrun universe.

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