Articulated Arms and Ambidexterity, Is this legal? Or reasonable? Options

[Moonstone Spider]

I was doodling a cartoon strip recently and drew a picture of a spider holding an SMG in each leg, firing in a full circle, when it occured to me I could build a shadowrunner to do this.

Cybertorso + 4 articulated Arms + Ambidexterity 8 + 6 SMGs = 60 rounds fired each initiative pass. Of course given how recoil works with multiple weapons it would probably be better to try to get strength 6 and gas vent 4s on each, then only fire in burst mode to shoot off a measly 12 bursts per initiative pass. Of course the cyberware/social penalties would be killing but when it comes to an interesting character design you have to take the flaws with the advantages.

[Omega Skip]

While this idea is indeed cool, I'm quite sure that it won't work per the rules: There's only room for one articulated arm on a cybertorso.

[Zeel De Mort]

True, but then the cyber replacement rules don't exactly make a huge amount of sense at times.

You could always have two fixed external mounts, say one on each shoulder, and then a gun in each hand. You'd be half way there at least..

Or alternatively, if you were to go by what the (previously defined as nonsensical) rules say about this, you can actually put weapon mounts on cyberlimbs as well as on a cybertorso. So *technically* you could have two articulated arms on each leg, one on each arm, and one on your cybertorso.

There.. hold another gun in one of your hands and you've got eight weapons and one hand free! Eight LMGs in fact, although you might encounter one or two problems with recoil, looking like an idiot, and your GM.

[Nikoli]

Much better to have 4 Steel-Lynx's following you around using a laser designator to paint targets and they fire when you fire. can you force multiplier?

[Kagetenshi]

Or a flock of Strato-9s.

~J

[TinkerGnome]

I hear Flock of Strato-9s is surging up the charts, lately. They've got the old guitarist from Shield Wall, too.

[A Rodent of Unus...]

[Fygg Nuuton]

[BGMFH]

[Kagetenshi]

I hear Ingue Ferroque's popular with the club scene. Word has it they're doing the intro music for the next season of Karl Kombatmage.

~J

[Zeel De Mort]

[Moonstone Spider]

Where do the rules say you can only have one external weapons mount? I thought Hatchetman had two articulate arms, and my copy of Man and Machine doesn't say there's such a limit, although I don't have the latest reprint.

So much for adding smartshades and calling myself doctor octpus.

[Zeel De Mort]

It doesn't say that specifically, it's just that the articulated arm takes up too much ECU (7 points) to be able to fit more than one into a cybertorso (7 points, if obvious). You can fit more than one external mount (3 ECU each) though, as posted above.

Hatchetman must have benefitted from kinder or more sensible rules in an earlier edition. :)

[Panzergeist]

I have been thinking about this too. It would be neat to have a character use a third weapon, held in our mounted on a tail or articulated arm. However, it might require and even higher level ambidexterity edge. Using 2 weapons incurs a +2/+4 penalty, so depending on how you view ambidexterity, using three could incur a +2/+4/+4 penalty, or a +2/+4/+6 penalty, which would require 10 and 12-point ambidexterity flaws.

I have actually been thinking more about 3-weapon melee though. Was thinking of making a SURGEd character with a prehensile tail, which could have an implanted monowhip, along with dual-wielded swords. Think of how awsome it would be to have a weapon focus blade, a dikoted blade, and a monowhip!

[Kagetenshi]

Tridexterity.

~J

[Beast of Revolut...]

Three-weapon fighting would be awesome. The way I prefer to run two-weapon fighting is that you take the best traits of each weapons, so you could use the whip's +2 reach bonus, the damage of whichever weapon you choose, and the skill bonus of the weapon focus. Incidentaly, the core rulebook says that weapon foci increase your effective skill rating, rather than increasing the number of dice you roll. This subtle distinction means that if you have 2 edged weapons, one of which is a focus, the focus would increase the number of dice that each weapon gives you, so a force 2 focus would add 3 dice, etc.

As for reach, I wouldn't give the third weapon a reach bonus for being mounted on a long tail, because the length of the apendage should be made up for by the fact that it extends behind you and has to wrap around your body to point at the enemy.

So Panzer, let's take a look at this theoretical character: Edged weapons skill of 6, Whips skill of 6, ambidexterity edge so he doesn't have to use off-hand weapon skills. Dikoted katana or monosword in one hand, dagger force 1 weapon focus in the other, monofilament whip implanted in a tail-tip compartment. The whip gives you a reach of +2, the dikoted katana gives you a damage of (S+4)S, which may or may not be greater than the 10S the whip has, and the dagger gives you a bonus to your effective edged weapons skill. That's 7 dice for the first edged weapon, 3.5 dice for the second, which I believe rounds up to 4, but I don't hace CC with me right now, and 3 dice for the whip, for a total of 14 dice.

Now, let's suppose that you pimp this out even further: With improved edged weapons 6, you would get 13 dice for the first blade, 7 for the second blade, and 3 for the whip, plus 1 for enhanced articulation, which is worth getting for physads. That's 24 dice without combat pool. Of course, you could also add 3 more dice by getting improved whips 6, and 2 more by getting reflex recorders for the edged weapons and whips skill, but that isn't really worth it. And of course, if you choose to start with a million nuyen in resources, you could potentially get a force 5 weapon focus if it had a reach of 0, and still have the cash to get enhanced articulation, which would give you 17+9+3 dice, for a total of 29. Throw in improved reflexes 2 to round out your magic, and you have a human cuisinart. Or better yet, an orc cuisinart.

[nezumi]

Based off of the Captain Octopus idea earlier... Can you use the gyromount with multiple weapons? If so, how? It seems to me that since it's a suit, it would make sense that you could simply add extra 'arms' to connect it to multiple weapons. I read through the rules and didn't see anything one way or the other.

[Moonstone Spider]

That's a neat idea, you'd probably have to pay a lot more for that sort of gyromount though.

Perhaps Hatchetman had his articulate arms coming from the shoulders, and using ECU in the Arms. That would allow two articulate arms on the same person without any rules-breaking.

[snowRaven]