Our group keeps reading the sections on vehicles, drones, rigging, gear and technomancer, and we're still confused. This might have been covered, but I couldn't find it.

We're trying to figure out how a TM might be "present" with the team in the field, be able to participate in combat somehow, yet remain as safe as possible. His physical attributes are average or low, and he's concerned he'll be taken out with a single shot from people with bad aim.

The idea he came up with, was to keep his meat body elsewhere (perhaps in a car a few buildings away), while he "jumped in" to a non-combat micro bug drone. He would try to be sneaky, and hopefully never have that drone be a target, thus avoiding damage & dumpshock. Then, he could compile a machine sprite, and have it control a combat drone to do the fighting & take the damage. Would the sprite's pilot rating come into play here? Would the sprite be able to use its targeting autosoft complex form to fire a drone's mounted LMG?

Finally, a third non-combat drone (fly-spy, or perhaps a few of them) would be floating around at key points keeping an eye on things, and relaying it to the TM if necessary (spot an incoming ambush coming in the back door and such).

Is this even doable?

We're trying to figure out what skills the TM would need. If the TM is jumped-in to the micro bug drone most of the time, and wants to be stealthy, it seems he needs Infiltration (vehicle specialization) himself. And while he is jumped-in and sneaking around, he rolls his own Agil + Infil. Correct?

Does the TM also need Pilot Anthro to make sure he can navigate with the bug, or is it assumed that since he and the drone are "one" when he jumps in, that he can move around without tests? After all, one doesn't need a skill to simply walk. If he is truly meshed with the drone, it seems like movement would be natural.

For a moment when reading the rules, it seemed like the TM could get away without having any pilot skills, and just jump-in or let his sprites pilot.

And the biggest question of all... does the TM even need to do all this? It seems like he doesn't need to jump into anything at all, and his various drones (and data feeds from his teammate's contacts/cybereyes&ears) could let him interact with what they are doing. Then he could simply issue remote commands to his drones and/or sprites hoping in drones.

And what impact does his persona's signal have? If everything is wireless, and his brain is always connected, couldn't he be across the world doing all this? Or must he be within his persona's signal range to issue comands to drones & make spritis do things without it being a remote service?

He also wants to be able to use negotiation, leadership & other interactive skills with NPCs. He is concerned that it will be harder to do if his meat body is elsewhere, and he is doing it remotely. And how would he do that anyway? I figured this world was use to that kind of remote communcation, and it was not as "cold" as we view emails vs. in-person stuff today. Dunno.

Sorry for the rambling. We're just eager to understand. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Drones are pretty confusing to me as well, but I know this much: Command is your friend.

Keep in mind that your TM cannot directly "jump into" a drone without a Vehicle Control Rig implanted.

Serbitar - thank you SO much for taking all that time to provide all those answers. It is extremely helpful. Quick follow up questions, if that is ok.

Assuming the TM's Resonance was a 6, it seems like his persona's signal is a 3, making his signal range 400 m. If a TM was in a corp security zone where matrix access points were not open, the TM could no longer communicate with his sprites/drones beyond the 400 m without hacking or something?

If the TM wanted to jump into a fly-spy, would he be using Pilot Aircraft for those tests now?

If the TM wanted to jump into a doberman and actually fight, would he be using Intuition + Gunnery to fire (per your house rule of not using his meat body's Agil for infiltration)?

A smart TM-rigger will get a Comm with a high signal rating to use as a range extender and as an external firewall, possibly with an Agent or Sprite loaded to provide some cover if the TM needs to flee the net.

The skill to drive a fly is........hmmm. Yes, it probably would be Pilot Aircraft.

I expect the Pilot:Anthroform will get remade into "pilot:biomorphic drone" which will have specializations like biped, winged, quadruped, hexapod, etc.

two words to solve all your signal-based problems: sattelite link.

500 for absurdly long range communication, and it's certainly cheap enough you can afford to drop it onto two or three drones. if you are feeling exceptionally cheap though, you can just carry one on the technomancer's person, and install one into one "command drone" and that should be long enough range for just about any need you may have.

My houserule was to allow players to choose between either the standard Stat + Skill combo, or to replace the stat with the "corresponding" mental stat. Keeps everyone happy.

Ok heres a twist how would a normal drone rigger stop a TM from taking over his drone? if I was dived in for instance and the TM droped a lvl 10 sprite on me?

I had a TM take over my rig kicked me out (dumpshocked) and he sent his sprite down the line to makesure of the job

when a TM drops a rating 10 sprite on you, there is only one solution: nuke whatever he dropped it into, and disconnect everything else from the matrix.

you can't do squat against a rating 10 sprite really, so don't even try. just pack your bags and go home. this is the (theoretical) advantage of technomancers... eventually they can just get downright scary, if you dump enough karma into them (and by enough karma i mean a whole heck of a lot).

of course, that being said... what kind of sprite kicked you out? it shouldn't be able to get in without exploit (crack sprite) and shouldn't be able to control the device without command (machine sprite) if i'm not mistaken. unless, i suppose, you allow all sprites to rig (they just wouldn't have appropriate skills i guess). in any event, even if you allow the sprite to control the drone, it couldn't do much more than move around... without proper autosofts, it can't shoot.

some sprites do get autosofts I found out but he has a crack come in and give me an enema while he took control of the drone since I got knockedout and a sprite came down the line found out where I was doing biz and made sure I didn't wake up again..

now we have a TM in our group and I see him running around with 8's and 9's all the time I even saw him summon a level 19 crack sprite ( nick named the HULK) it loved taking out firewalls in a blink of an eye.. it did nearly kill him summoning it but man I have a serous inferiority complex with those things now ( I technically died but the GM said there was a mage next door hearing my death scream came over to see what he could do (GM kindness no to kill the players off to fast))

We have seen a hacker do something similar, being a rigger hacker he jumps in and out of drones more than a technomanser would but the key to presence was to keep a copy of his icon in team members comlinks (using the being in multiple places at once rules). He could talk to us ether collectively or individually using our pan linked ear buds, and see threw our vision enhancements, and was able to use our comlinks to piggy back his signal to access any locks or other security devises that needed to be hacked.

Edward