How do I make Riggering fun?, GM looking for some advice Options

[Mardegun]

Although I have been doing Shadowrun for awhile, I have never been in a group with a rigger. Now I am GMing a game and our first session, which involved a chase was boring. The PC are using a modified Leyland-Rover Tran (G CI bed), so he can carry the other 5 PCs ... I am starting to wonder if I lack the imagine to make chasing fun for everyone.

I would love to hear suggestions from you guys on the kinds of things I can do to make riggering fun for EVERYONE.

The following are some things that are important to me on this subject.
- I want riggering to be fun for everyone. One of the problems from the last run was that the other PCs just sat in the vehicle. It was the smart thing to do, so I don't want to discourage them from this practice, but what else can I do?

- I don't want to have to whip out a map every time something goes down for the rigger. I want things to be lose enough so that I don't have to set everything up ... especially if I can't make it very fun.

- Of course I want the rigger to be more than the get-away vehicle, so I want to do some building riggering, but that will be rare. The player of the rigger PC is smart enough to use his vehicle intelligently, but what else can Iy do?

- I want to run a average to low power game, so how do I challenge a PC who has VCR 3 with a head deck?

- I want to make the rules as simple and FAST as possible. For this reason I and the PC have agreed to do very little ECM/ECCM. I am also using very little from Rigger3. The main thing I am using from that book are the moding rules and that is about it.

Any suggestions are welcomed and thanks!

[RangerJoe]

My counsel would be the following:

* VCR3 =/= low power.

* Gunports make everything more fun.

* Have other PC's vehicles involved in the chase. Everyone will want to rigger to cover their hoops, bringing everyone into the game.

* Narrate the effects of ECM/ECCM. GM: "You see the fuzzy outline of something sleek and oblong, with a searing red thermal signature streaming from the back. You'd think it was bristling with guns, but something is clouding your vision." Player: "I make an ECCM test."

* Make chase scenes as exciting as those in this.

[Catsnightmare]

Rules wise. It's a lot more easyer if you just throw the Maneuver Score crap right the frag out the window, and shoot it as it hits the pavement. And if you can, get the quick-and-dirty Rigging rules out Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book.

[Trax]

If you get him a remote control deck and a couple cheap drones or so, then he can still help the team pretty much anywhere instead of being the get away driver.

[FrostyNSO]

Drones. Yes.

As for making it fun for everyone, have those dudes chasing your rigger start taking pot-shots while leaning out windows, or as they pull along side to try and run the rigger off the road, a goon in the back opens fire with an SMG on the guys in the back. Maybe during that manuever, one of the goons throws a grenade into the back of the truck and the PC's have to bail. Maybe they hit a backed-up stoplight and have to head against oncoming traffic, or Lone Star notices and puts a couple drones on their asses that the PC's in the back can shoot down.

[Eyeless Blond]

Well, first off it sounds like you're having the rigger to all the driving, which is, almost unfortunately, the only way it works in SR; either you're a rigger or you're road pizza. The other guys should be either A) support fire, B) planning out a route/hacking Gridguide to screw with pursuit, or C) keeping their heads down and (OOC) taking a beer break. :)

A) is a little odd, mostly because of the stupid rule about passengers not being able to go before the driver has his first action. My opinion is to toss that rule and let the sammies either fire their own guns/throw their own grenades or allow them to use some manual override to fire the guns (Gunnery skill, naturally). Mages, naturally, have a lot of their own things to do; mostly summons to conceal your vehicle/prevent it from crashing, or ones to destroy the opposition. Melee characters have to sit this one out unless you're going for more of a action film feel, and then you can have all sorts of fun letting the adepts leap onto other cars, stab drivers through the windshield, and jump back to the riggermobile (or even play with the new car himself if he's got a driving skill--unlikely)

B) is a good idea for the decker. Anyone see the remake of the [b]Italian Job[/b, where they hack the street lights to funnel the targets/pursuers where they wanted? That's a great idea for the decker-types to play around with, maybe even hacking into Gridguide-controlled vehicles for use as decoys and battering rams. :D

Oh, right, and forget the Maneuver Score, as mentioned above. I don't know who came up with that, but unless everyone at the table is intamately familiar with it it's not worth the trouble.

As for making the rigger useful outside of the vehicle, that's what drones are for. :)

[Trax]

yeah, leaning out and shooting from the windows is always an option.

[Ranneko]

Just remember to open the window first, otherwise the decker can be a little upset with you.

[Trax]

Shooting the decker is also always an option.

[Mardegun]

Well I feel better, because I have done some of what you guys have mentioned.

* Just so you guys know, there are gunports and I did have people shooting at the vehicle, but the PCs just decided to sit back. Maybe I should bring the game up and close

* Also the group doesn't have a Decker, so any kind of hacking is out the window.

* One of the other PCs are good at electronics, which may lead me to introducing ECM/ECCM ... have the one PC control this system. The problem with this idea, is that the game isn't very high tech.

* The group doesn't have a sorcerer and Conjurer, but almost everyone expect the Sami are new to SR.

* I starting to like the idea of getting rid of MS and the passenger rule

Any more ideas guys?

[Angelone]

Well if they're being shot at and just sitting there, maybe the enemies will think some are wounded and go in for the kill and try to board the vehicle like in Mad Max. Just have a few jump from their vehicles. That should get a reaction.

[FrostyNSO]

Just remember, a good car chase shouldn't just be one car following the other. It should be bumping wheels, trading gunfire from a meter away, and plowing through fruit stands. :rotfl:

[Trax]

You forgot about the two guys crossing the road with a plate of glass, oh, and the big stack of crates filled with chickens...

[Panzergeist]

Just remind the rigger, any weapon he wants to use, just needs the gunnery skill. Machine guns, rockets, assault cannon, sniper rifles, anything. Riggers get the l33t firepower.

[Edward]

I find chases to be of limited scope, we usually have the firepower to end any chace within 2 blocks, the rigger drives us out while the passengers remove the pursuers’ ability to peruse, spirits, spells, grenades, full auto fire, possibly even a heavy weapon stored in the vehicle will take care of that in short order. If all the rigger has is a car to transport the party then all he can be is a getaway driver (and his secondary skill sets unrelated to rigging)

For fun as a rigger drones are where it is at, with a drone like the steal lynx you can be right with the teem as they go threw the run, at the same time a drone like the Loan Star strato 9 provides exceptional external surveillance and long range fire power in an unobtrusive package (keep the original paint job, people will think it’s a police surveillance drone, witch it was before you stole it, and ignore it)

Edward

[Eyeless Blond]

[Ol' Scratch]

Never keep the original paintjob if you can afford a Photovolatic Chameleon and Transponder Library one instead (and at only 5,000 nuyen for one and a couple thousand more for the other, they're pocket change for most runners). Why limit yourself to just a Lone Star scheme when you can shift it to some other pre-programmed pattern -- and matching transponder signal -- at a moment's notice?

[Nikoli]

good call there Dr. Funk. Also, the MK-6 makes a great telepresence drone, to back up the party, using those great electronics and electronics B/R skills to better use.
Drone excel in filling weak points for a party. Load out a drone for electronic and demo work and you can have them deal with bombs, security in a hostile environment, etc.
As a side note, it's Riging not Riggering.

[Jrayjoker]

[Nikoli]

True, I always took it from the VCR, Vehicle Control Rig.

[Edward]

In a city the size of Seattle how much do you think the average cop thinks about who is controlling the LS drone, a cop watching it wont think, and given the number of riggers necessary to operate the LS remote presence in the city they are not going to realise that one of the other riggers doesn’t have it, the only time any star officer will think about a dron is when its working with him and when he requested its absence such as when an operation is going down and they don’t want the targets spooked.

Edward

[SpasticTeapot]

I would allow people to use weapons in pintle mounts with their normal weapon skill. A pintle mount, which is similar to a tripod, allows any character with a suitably big gun to werak havoc on an opposing vehicle. Physads of the pistolaept and archer-master varieties can have lots of fun shooting out the opponent's tires, and there are few methods of deterring airborne persuers than summoning a fire elemental in their cockpit. Shamans are even more likely to be busy; a shaman can summon a few spirits, go astral, and then have them wreak havoc on the opponent via accident powers.

[Fix-it]

An Armed MK-6 or doberman is so much more valuable than a steel lynx IMHO,
not to mention a LOT less obtrusive.

(Hey, is that a tank rolling down the sidewalk?)

the Guyver version is nifty too, if you can hack the price, at 95K :nuyen:

As for chase scenes. make them zany. give him options. extreme stunts are fun, as are absurd obstacles.
taking it to a different place is fun as well. (railroad tracks or subway?)

[Angelone]

Maybe instead of bullets have the enemies fire watermelons or kiwis at them. Mmmm kiwi. That would add all sorts of modifiers, and imagine a lucky shot to the muffler.*

*I know next to nothing about cars but I think stuff stuck in muffler isn't good.

[Nikoli]

Not to mention, an MK-6 has built in storage, enough to carry reloads for the gun-bunnies, some C-12 blocks and detonators, some eletronics tools, a scanner, gas detection, etc. basically, you have another you there with the team, just at a safe distance.

My personal preference is to set up the team vehicle with drone controls and a signal repeater while the rigger is in a clean car another 25 KM in a different direction. If the bad guys track your rigger down, they find the van, at which point an un-remarkable car slowly drives away in a completely different part of town.