Need help with rigger toys, or when pigs fly. Options

[CrystalBlue]

Thank you to everyone that's been helping me with the rules lately. I have a firm grasp of the combat, magic, and matrix rules. Now I need help on the last aspect of the shadows: riggers. Now, these little guys are the most versitial and clever bunch in the sprawl. They hook up to drones and vehicals, get a group from point A to point B, provide physical cover and overwatch, and can assist in tactics. Problem is, the mechanics are lost in the mists of the shadows...so please help me out.

- How does a rigger control a vehical when in combat or chase?
- What tests are used in vehical rigging and when?
- What are the rules for drone rigging and using them in a combat/overwatch role?
- What is BattleTac and who needs it to be useful?
- Can a rigger BattleTac and overwatch with drones while rigging a vehical, all at the same time?

Please help...this is the last hurtle I seem to have. Thank you.

[hobgoblin]

read the rigger/vehicle chapter in SR3. that will help some.
then there is the rigger3 book that adds a lot to that material...

1. 2. 3. are all in sr3 ;) (except for using drones in normal combat, thats a small note in rigger3. basicly the drones have movement similar equal to their acceleration and act based on the riggers initiative. unless they are robots, that allso is coverd in rigger3).

4. battletac is the sr take on the digital battlefield. basicly it allows all users to share info so that what one person, vehicle or drone detect, the rest allso knows about. so for it to be effective everyone on the team should be equiped with it.

5. short answer, yes. long answer; by adding battletac to the remote deck and any drones controled by it, make the vehicle controlable as a drone and then hardwireing the remote deck to the vehicle (and dont forget the battletac hardware). then the rigger makes the vehicle into his primary drone while still being able to order the other drones around. all is explained in rigger3.

[CrystalBlue]

@_@;; Ahahahahah...uhm...yes. I'll state this better.

I have read the SR3, and no where that I found do they list the cut-and-dry rules to using and controling vehicals and drones via an RC or VCR. They tell you what it's like and how a rigger inturpperats it, but not how the game mechanics handle everything. I'm half-way through the Rigger 3, and I still completely lost on how to command drones and use their sensors and combat abilities. And I still don't know the rules to adding weapons and equipment to vehicals and drones. I know that there's the captains chair and primary mode in drones, but how do you actually use this. The rules are either so buried that I can't understand them, or they're all the way at the back of the book.

[Bigity]

I'm pretty sure Vehicle tests and Gunnary and Sensor operation are all explained in that particular chapter.

In captain's chair, certain things can be done. A particular list of actions if you will.

When directly controlling one drone, you get basically another set of actions you can perform.

[CrystalBlue]

Ok then. Here's a new set of questions then.

- When piloting a vehical with a VCR, do I use gunnery to fire?
- When jumped into a drone, do I use gunnery to fire?
- When in the captains chair, do I use gunnery to fire?
- If it's a complex action to issue orders while in the captains chair, is that all you can do for your phase?
- When issuing commands to drones, what do I roll?
- When a drone executes a command I give it, who rolls and what do they roll?

[Nikoli]

Captain's Chair Mode is roughly like a real time combat game, your perception is basically an over view of the sensors, you tell drones to attack targets and those atacks are carried out on your init, using the drone's pilot rating for skill (drones get no combat pool, but with IVIS, they can get a pool of sorts that they all share). This is the drone network at it's most vulnerable, because drones cannot work the mojo like a rigger can, drones can die rather quickly in this mode, so your rigger needs to have a good situational awareness (maps and figurines are best for this).
Jumping into a drone is like being there for the rigger, anything they could do in a car they can reasonably do in the drone. Such as shrug off incresible amounts of gunfire while jumping off a ramp at 45 kph and spinning 180 degrees for a hell of a bootlegger's turn.
SR3 details what sort of actions it takes to change modes like this (Captain's Chair and Jumped in), so the rigger doesn't just flit about, there is a great deal of tactical consideration here to time your jumps just right so you aren't stuck with no actions.
If your rigger has the computer skill, they can pre-program certain things so that they may issue basic commands as a free action (thanks to the transducer) instead of a simple one. Most drone actions are complex actions, as a balance to the force multiplication that is a properly stocked rigger stable. Drones are excellent for cover fire, suppressive fire and distractions in Captains chair mode. Make early and often use of Full auto and recoil compensators. riggers are best left to the "Go Loud" moments as sound suppression isn't the forte of autofire (unless the wiz-kid casts and maintains silence on the barrels).
Also, grenade launchers are your bestest best buddy with drones and the right options.
Like any archetype, rigger usefulness is only limited by the player. They can m,odify a drone for telepresence work, so that their electronics and B?R, demolitions, etc. don't just languish back int he van. They are also the natural choice for "radio guy" as the more tactically useful radio gear is rather heavy.
With FDDM options, the other members of the team can call fire support in on targets witha simple action (pays to invest in laser designator add-ons) thus giving force multiplication all new demensions.
Normally, it takes a lot of work to get the data from drones, until you read the passage on transmission of sensor feeds (in SR3) can plug in their radio and watch the sensors on one of your team OPS channels, so invest in encryption, a small radio with a good rating and some sort of heads up display device.
This makes peering around corners, in hostile environments, etc. much safer than letting the sammie run in and peek.

For a really sick concept, have the sammy get the internal RC deck (no VCR) and run with a drone or two in captains chair mode, make these either the inexpensive spotters or the heavily armed and armored fire support, freeing up the rigger for other tasks. You can even share drones this way through some of the rules explained in the naval section of R3r.

[Bigity]

I'll try to answer some, dont have my books at work.

1) You use gunnery every time you are not physically (your meat body) firing a weapon mounted on a vehicle.

2) Yes

3) I'm not sure you can fire a weapon from captain's chair mode, only direct the drone to fire.

4) Well, for that pass, yea. You still get the init bonus from VCRs though, so you can possibly do multiple passes in a turn. Also, you can issue orders to more then one drone from captain's chair mode.

5) Nothing, unless some kind of comprehension test is in order...fuzzy on this one, someone help me out.

6) You, the player rolls it, and most actions use the Pilot rating..unless you are directly controlling the drone. Then it's your skills + Control Pool.

[Nikoli]

Actually, you use gunnery for any weapon mounted more permanently than a pintle.

[Bigity]

Yup, I think you're right. I was getting confused over Sensor gunnery.

[Nikoli]

that's okay. It's been a long road for me to learn what I think I know about SR3 rigger combat. It's a pain, but when properly applied, you cna seriously frag up a hostile force.

[mmu1]

[Nikoli]

And I suggest you invest in autosofts for your drones, ads their rating to the pilot rating for total dice, however, Clearsight does not add bonus dice for sensor enhanced gunnery, just in making the lock.

[CrystalBlue]

Ok...I'm pieceing this together. Let me give you all a senario and let's see if we can't iron it out. I'll list all the relevant stats of this character. I won't worry about pistols or stuff like that.

Gammy
Dwarf Rigger

B: 7 Q: 6 S: 4 C: 2 I: 6 W: 3 R: 6 Int: 1
Gunnery: 4 Computer: 4 Small Unit Tactics: 6 Car: 3

Computer w/ BattleTac Mod
5 Tactical Sense Programs
VCR 2
BattleTac IVIS
RC Deck 6
RC ECCM 2

LoneStar Surv. Drone
H: 3 S/A: 100/9 B/A: 2/0 Sig/Aut: 4/0 P/S: 2/5 C/L: 1/20
Has ECM 2, external fixed HP, RC interface, and rigger adaptation. HP has an Area Vermicide Autocannon.

GM-Nissan Doberman
H: 3/5 S/A: 70/8 B/A: 2/6 Sig/Aut: 2/0 P/S: 2/1 C/L: 2.5/50
Has RC interface, rigger adaptation, External FP, and remote Micro-Turret. The FP has a Colt M22A2.

Ares Roadmaster
Has rigger adaptation and is dwarf customized.

I hope this is all the information I need. I'll start next post.

[CrystalBlue]

Ok. Here's the run. Gammy has to watch over his team as they infiltrate an Ares warehouse and manufacturing plant. He sends his survalience drone up to the roof to make sure the cost is clear, and to provide the runners some cover while they're disabling the back door lock. Once he makes sure that no one's on the roof, he jumps into the doberman and accomponies the runners, while his meatbody is safely in his Roadmaster. The Roadmaster is in an alley next to the warehouse and in line of sight with the survalence drone. While jumped into the drone, he'll try to relay BattleTac information with the group while watching out for the decker that's breaking down the Maglock.

Assuming that it's dark out with only the moon shinning above, and also assuming that this area has little noise, what rolls would I make for sensing with the survalence drone, then sensing with the doberman when jumped in, then finally with monitoring the feed back from the survalence drone while still jumped in? Also, forgive my spelling...I'm terrible, and the spell checker doesn't pick up everything.

[hobgoblin]

to use battletac between drones and/or between drones and people both the rcd and the drones need to have battletac installed (and people will need battletac equipment).

ones you have that in place you dont need any tests to maintain battletac link as long as the drones are linked to the deck. basicly the deck acts as a relay for the info.

to sense anything with drones you roll a sensor test, see end of page 135 onwards.

allso, an idea could be to equip the roadmaster with remote control gear. even if your in the drone primarily you cna issue orders to the car then. you can evne jump into the car from the drone without having to jack out of the deck and into the car directly.

and if you have rigger3, look up hardwireing the deck to the car. that way the car becomes a permanent part of the decks list and you jack into the deck when you jack into the car :cyber:

[Kagetenshi]

Doesn't the Tactical Computer have an Avail of 12 or somesuch?

~J

[hobgoblin]

[tisoz]

My CC says the lowest availability master unit is rating 1-4 at availability 12. A rating 1-4 personal comm unit is availability 8.

I didn't think it mattered for the example, because no one said it was a starting character.

[Nikoli]

Right, the B-tac system handles the comms on it's own, mostly. Anything special, like jamming, over comming jamming, etc. requires electronics skill. The person that wants the info has to call it up with one of their own actions, similair to observing in detail.

And I highly recomend making the truck a drone. Though, if you add an electronics bay, you don't need to unplug and jack back in to switch. the electronics port gives you normal access without that time waster (I use this in my rigger's "clean" car). Making the truck a drone adds more options, such as multi-vehicle tactics in tailing someone, as you can control them all through captains chair mode. It also let's you read the truck sensors instead of relying on the spotter drone, though redundancy isn't bad.
To spot something with sensor, you make a Sensor test (roll the rating) and if you bought the auto-soft options and software, add that rating as well. Also, you can add cyber-implants to a drone for half-price IIRC, which means more speialised snesors, like the gas spectrometer, etc.

[hobgoblin]

[CrystalBlue]

So...so far, all I'd have to do is roll some sensor tests. And that's in the book. Also, I would make me car a drone and place a hardwired RC inside the truck to seamlessly go from drones to vehical. Got it. I'd still have my personal RC, though, in case I have to go on-site where my car can't go. But anyways...

We break into the compound and head to the target. As soon as we're deep enough into the facility, I would pull my sensor bot down and have it come inside with me to play spotter for us, using the truck's sensors to watch our exit. At this point, I roll for the sensors and detect a patrol rounding the corner. I slip back before they see me. We manage to get by them, only to see another patrol in our way. And then the lead starts to fly. At this point, I'd roll initiative and hope I get something high. On my first turn, first phase, I would jump out and order my drone group to put down supression fire on the patrol. The second phase, or second turn, I would relay BattleTac, as I believe you have to take the last complex action in your turn to do so. Or at least that's what the book seemed to say.

[hobgoblin]

hmm, while i cant comment on the battletac stuff (have not botherd to realy read up on the rules), i dont think i would use a rotor drone inside. simply it would make way to much noice for it to be consealable...

[Nikoli]

IIRC, the person that wants the data available has to spend the action. So if you're pulling data through B-TAC for yourself, that holds true.