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> Building a TechWiz/Rigger cross, am I forgetting anything here?
ElFenrir
post May 10 2005, 02:23 PM
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I like the Tech Wiz idea, but since i never played a rigger, I wanted to cross him more with Rigger. Sort of a tech specialist with a VCR(low level), with a few little added twists to his character. Ok, I have some background fleshed out for him, but this is more from a 'technical' standpoint...since I never really played a Rigger/techwiz, am I forgetting any important skills or whatnot?(Most skills are chosen for character but there are some skills that one just needs for their job, hehe.)

Build Point system, 123 point base(purchased 2 extra with flaws for 125)

Attributes:
Body: 4(5)
Quickness: 5
Strength: 4(5/7)
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 5(7)
Willpower: 4

Cyberware:

Obvious Cyberleg: w/Quickness +1, Str +3, built in microtronics/electronics/vehicle tools kit, ball/impact armor 2/2, and retractable blade(w/dikote, like the handblade only comes out of the foot)

Cybereyes(alpha) with low light, thermo, flare compensation, image link, optical mag 3 and microscopic vision

2 Alphaware Datajacks

Chipjack(2 slot, Alphaware)

VCR-1(Alphaware)

Plastic Bone Lacing(Alphaware)

Smartlink-2(Alphaware)

Headware Memory(Alphaware, 100MP)

Math SPU-3(Alphaware)

Bioware: Cerebral Booster 2, Muscle Augmentation 1, Mnemonic Enhancer 3, Enhanced Articulation

Active Skills:
Car: 6
Car B/R:6
Computer: 4
Comp b/R:4
Electronics: 4
Electronics B/R: 5
Microtronics B/R: 4
Ettiquette: 3
Cyber-Implant Combat(Kickblade):3(5)
Pistols(Ares Predator 3)::2(4)

Knowledge/Language:
Spare Parts Locations: 4
Chop Shops: 4
Local Bars: 3
Cybertechnology(b/r): 2(4)
Music(Melodic Metal):2(4)
Cars of the 20th Century: 2
Demolitions Background: 2
Mathematics(Tech Math):4(6)
Engineering: 6
Cyberterminal Design: 3
English: 4 rw: 3
Finnish: 4 rw: 3

Edges: +2 Build Points, Tech School Education, Friendly Face
Flaws: Allergy(Nutrisoy, Mild), Compulsion(Mild, Tinkering with Everything)

I splurged and upped his R/W skills so he could better read blueprints and schematics and the like, it made sense for him. I started the cyberterminal design, because he is actually considering learning the whole decking thing better as well: his computer skill is high enough to have jacked in before and had some background in it. He has a background in cybertech b/r from his leg, and working with the street doc to tweak it up.

Reason for the physical hardening(the light bone lacing and muscle augmentation), in background was to 'catch' the rest of his body somewhat up with the much more sturdy leg. The Dikote blade was added as a last line of defense in case he's forced to have to kick hoop fast(otherwise he isn't too much of a fighter guy. He figures tho when doing onsite stuff, things can go wrong and better safe than sorry.)


So I have a fair amount of nuyen to spend still: and I am planning on getting:
Eurocar Westwind 2000
Nissan-Holden Brumby
Land Rover Van(might make this primary)

Now I just gotta figure out how to pimp these things, this is where I'm stuck. I mean, basics like APPS/crash cages, firmpoints/hardpoints, and definately sensor increases; and of course i'd like to add some armor, and maybe Body increases, but i dunno if the latter are worth it. Also the engine mods, fuel mods, turbocharging...

And then there is a matter of the electronics gear...I know i'll need stuff like a sequencer, maglock passkey, and the survaliance equipment(as said, he's a bit of everything...that stuff is for the onsite breakins and the like.

I also need to get a few drones that he can tinker with, with remote control decks, etc...not to mention I already bought vehicle, computer, electronic, and microtronics kits and shops(i doubt i'll have enough left for a vehicle facility after pimping the rides out. And yeah, we allow them...remember we tend not to worry about availability too much in our games at the start.)

SO......any suggestions for ride/drone pimping/tech gear/stuff to maybe begin building a cyberdeck with as well?

Edit: I know I only gave him the VCR-1, and no Gunnery skill, but remember, he's a rigger/techwiz cross, not a full blown vehicle rigger, kinda like how the SR3 tech wiz doesn't have the uber pimped deck of the combat decker. The Gunnery skill may come later though, and definately Gunnery B/R.
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BlackHat
post May 10 2005, 02:48 PM
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I wouldn't worry about a cyberdeck... making a techwiz/rigger/decker is spreading yourself a little too thin. Also, with computers of 4, you're not oging to be a wiz online anyways. I made a character like this a while ago, and I noticed that it is real expensive to buy even a low-end cyberdeck with all the "essential" programs you will want/need.

With my character, I opted to just give him a high computers skill, and a datajack and leave it at that. He could be a passable decker if he got his hands on a deck. One of the things about shadowrun, is that if you meet a decker, and kill a decker, there is a damn good chance that you can snatch his deck (whcih usually has programs on it) and save yourself a buttload of cash.

As for pimping out your rides... I don't know if there is any way to raise a vehicles body other that dikoting the entire thing (nearly impossible)... I am a big fan, with my tech wiz, fo the GM Mr. FixIt from SSG. It has a huge load for its size, lots of room for customization.... it won;'t last long in a firefight, but it can carry a lot of heavy electronic equipment for you.
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ElFenrir
post May 10 2005, 03:13 PM
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I'll look into that Mr. Fixit, might be good for electronic stuff if I can just keep it out of the line of fire, more a long distance thing.

I didn't plan on buying the deck at the start, hehe...I already need the rest of my cash for the vehicles and pimping. For raising Body, I might have been thinking back waay too far...in the original Rigger Black Book(sr1!), you could increase Body. I did read thru Rigger 3 like one time...and went back over certain areas with a fine tooth comb...but I guess I missed them taking out the Body increases in SR3. I'll just stick with the armor then, I know it affects certain things, but at least for the van, which I'm considering to be the 'main all purpose vehicle', i'd like to be armored. A couple weapons, lots of electronic survaillance, tools. The Eurocar is gonna be the uber speed machine, the Brumby maybe the weapons platform, when he learns the Gunnery skill, or has someone in the party WITH the gunnery skill. Also has the off-road capability.

Drone wise I am thinking simple ones like the Rotor-drone, the snooper drone, and perhaps some of those lil' guys for some stuff(the body 0 'bee' drones.) Maybe one good heavy drone for a tough spot. (the Doberman looks pretty good here, for it's price. I can't quite go into the 90,000 range for the drones yet.)

I admit I did twink the b/r aspect of him pretty badly with the Enhanced Articulation and Microscopic Vision. But hell, it helps with the job.
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BlackHat
post May 10 2005, 03:21 PM
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With Rigger 3 at least, you cannot purchase bee drones. There are some good body-0 spider type survelence drones though. Also, a heavily armored van would look extremely suspiscious depending on its markings, and where its found. My techwiz cahracter had one tough vehicle with concealed armor, and passanger safty features, and another less tough electric van which he used mostly to transport his drones (who have their own armor and crap) and electronic equipment. You will definalty want a trnasport vehicle... and vehicle armor rules, but it tends to weigh the vehicle down, a lot, so a heavily armored vehicle is usually less than ideal for trasporting drones (since htey are pretty heavy)
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ElFenrir
post May 10 2005, 03:27 PM
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Well, i'd definatley conceal the armor for the armored vehicle. Hmmm...by the sound, perhaps it's a good idea to get a second van...lightly armored, lightly modded, the transport vehicle. The prices of the Land Rover Van isn't that terribly high, so I can essentialy purchase two of them...one the armored, more armed one with a little gear inside, the lightly armored transport van, the Brumby(weapons platform that shall remain hidden), and the speed machine Eurocar.

Yep, no deck for me even if I wanted one. :D :grinbig: I luckily have a good amount of cash left even after buying the shops and stuff.

Where can one get those little flying drones? If they even exist. But the spider drones can work as well, I just need a few little guys for light survaillance.
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Edward
post May 10 2005, 06:48 PM
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The way this character fields I think he wants a cyber deck, not a good one, in fact POS would be just fine, don’t try actually decking with it or if you do be ready to jump out fast, the reason you want it is because it allows you to access information on eth matrix much faster.

For drones you cant go passed the steal lynx for aggressive power and it can hide in a van without to much difficulty, there are more options than you can poke a stick at for surveillance but my favourite is the LS strato 9 with original paint job, its not so much that its hard to see as that nobody will remark on it, in fact they will frequently be reassured by its presence.. the only ones that could notice are loan star themselves but provided you don’t use the big gun they will assume some other department has an operation going, as a bonus when things go bad it caries the biggest gun you can have at char gen. for internal surveillance many people will use tiny crawlers but I question there reliability, if you can just hand over to the decker for indoors overwatch. If you want a aerial tank the dalmation can be modified to serve nearly as well as a aries guardian.

a vehicle facility is a wast of nuyen, just take a mechanic contact that has a good supply of parts and is willing to rent space in his facility.

If your considering your self a tecky then more important than your drones is your deck. Read threw the section in R3 about electronic war fair and MIJI get a powerful deck with rigger protocol emulation and rigger decryption and anything else useful and don’t be afraid to steal the drones you need for a job. A prime mover with a sea container on the trailer makes a good place to hide while you remove vehicle tracking devises. You can get a powerful arsenal and a lot of money with this stunt.

Edward
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ElFenrir
post May 10 2005, 10:01 PM
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Hmm...a little POS deck and some cheap basic programs(read-write, browse) might be affordable. I might have to cut out the Eurocar however; having the speed machine is nice but the heavy van, transport van, and weapons truck is eating up a lot of nuyen. I forgot how expensive ECM and ECCM can be!

I am prolly gonna need power and signal amps in the heavy van to power all the electronic drek in there. I am going very light on armor for the transport van: all im putting in that is a crash cage, some good tires, rig it, remote control it, and that's about it. Just use it to haul drones and equipment around.

The ubervan i wanna put concealed armor, a couple ammo bins, a firmpoint or hardpoint, enviroseal, the power and signal amps, ECM/ECCM, APPS, etc. I guess that will be the survaillance HQ van.

the Weapons platform is also gonna have souped tires, Smartlink integration, multiple firm/hardpoints, ammo bins, etc.

Stuff like lights, etc, is pretty cost negligible. But all cars have a nice anti-theft system.

For drones, the Steel Lynx was my big one, I was also going for the basic little Gaz-Niki snooper, and the generic rotor drone.

But yeah, I am gonna have to page thru the electronic warfare more as well. I have a feeling more nuyen is going to be eaten up even more here...whew. One reason I am glad the million exists.


I'd like to increase the sensors to 4 for all the vehicles...but i am wondering if the transport van really needs that. Perhaps I can get away with a 2 on that one and save the big sensors for the other two to save some cash. I might not remote control the weapons platform, but i like the idea of being able to remote control all my vehicles. Of course, i can add that later...
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Sheffield
post May 15 2005, 07:03 PM
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On the "Bee" type drones, you can use the R3 design rules to make body 0 rotor craft drones with flapping insect or hummingbird style wings. They don't have room for much in the way of equipment and they don't have the ultra nasty nanite injectors, but they can hang out on the belts of infiltrating runners to provide the rigger with a few sets of sensors [1] on the ground. And if the team needs to peek around a corner, they can toss the drones out there for a little recon. There are a few other things you can do with them.

For example, give them electronic ports and trick them out with 0 Kg gear like proxy emitters, ultrasound detectors, or dataline taps. This way they can baffle a break-beam, alert the runners to a motion sensor, or sneak a tap under a guard's nose (sig 12).

Another thing you can do with the micro drones (this has to be a walker because you need to upgrade to 0.5 Kg load), is equip them with a radio detonator. The main rulebook says that grenades come ready-equipped for electric detonation, so you just socket one on the back of the micro walker and drive it to the target. To prevent the needless destruction of the drone, use gas grenades, as they don't explode.

Another drone I'm partial to, though they wind up being pretty expensive, is the airborne electronics warfare/signal booster drone. Pick a chassis that fits your character's style, and load it up with an R/C Deck, emulation protocols, decryption, a retrans unit, a signal booster, and an autosoft system with the best Electronic Warfare and Datalink autosofts you can afford. When you run, park it at a high altitude so you get the flux bonus. It's a great drone for making the network more resistant to MIJI, and with the autosofts, it's capable of launching an independent attack on enemy drone networks.

This drone can also be broken into a pair of smaller drones, like miniblimps. One serves the datalink and retrans function, while the other provides the EW offensive.
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