Well, to make a long story short, I'm a visual person and I like to draw. These days I draw a comic based on a gaming session, and I'm at a page right now where I have to draw a rigger doin' his thing.....and I have no idea how to draw it.


I've read through the rulebooks a couple of times, and aside from the realisation that a rigger is a complicated piece of work I couldn't find out much.

So this is less a question for artists and more a question for GMs and, well anybody really: how would you describe a rigger controlling a vehicle?

A physical description, ya know? I know what happens, I just can't figure out how I would explain it to a blind guy (or in my case a bunch of people who've never played Shadowrun before) so that they'd get a good idea of what's going on...

Any ideas?

Concentration. Adrenaline rush. Tense, maybe? Hm.

Two descriptions - from the third-person, observing-the-physical-scene perspective, and from the first-person, I-am-the-Rigger perspective.

From the third person, the Rigger is sitting in the seat of the vehicle, and appears unconscious. Eyes closed. Exactly how many wires of what shape and size make up a VCR is unknown to me - I prefer to think of them as a pile of wires (7-10) coming out of the top of the spinal column. See 'Ghost in the Shell.'

From the first person, the experience is almost beyond description. The closest we puny mortals can get to it is by playing computer games and reaching a point where we don't have to think about our hands hitting the keys, we've just immersed ourself in it. Except it's even more addictive, because the new body has power, power beyond our fleshy form. The term "jet-powered sex" applies. The difference in immersion between the datajack and the VCR is massive, gargantuan - with the datajack, the driver/pilot gives orders to the machine. With the VCR, the Rigger becomes the machine, and all those movements and adjustments he has to make become second-nature.

It's similar to decking from the outside, one wire plugged into a datajack type device. No need to get all anime and blow it out of proportion.

For a good visual example look at Guld Bowman from the Macross Plus anime. He pretty much rigs his jet. Specifically the first 30 seconds you see him synch with it.

Rigger using RCD, Archtype point of view
In the background a ghostly image of the rigger looms forward; from his head cables extend outward like tentacles slowly becoming more substantial, and the ends grasping two hovering drones (shoved into or wrapped around). Cables running down his arms end in hands but the fingertips are also drones (or sink into the drones). If his eyes are visible they are blinking screens with RPMs, KPH, fuel meters and indicators.

Rigger 3 has excellent pictures of a rigger using CCSS.

You could try to make the vehicles feel more "alive" in pictures when the rigger is jumped into it; almost like a personification.

Thanks a lot!!

MachineProphet, I really liked your idea, and it's certainly a good way of getting into a rigger's head.

BitBasher, I'll have to go watch Macross Plus...I have a friend that has the dvd, but I never got around to watching it! (shame on me I guess! )

Kanada I like your description for the eyes and I'll have to check out the Rigger Book...(yay for being a starving student! )

Dim Sum and K1tsune.... okay...I got it. Tense, concentrated....but not constipated... got it!

And thanks everybody, you really helped me out!

Kitsune Chan, can we have a link to your comic again?

I think Bulletproof is her comic, but I could be mistaken.

Anime is cool. Just one more style of Art to my mind. Some is good, some is bad; just like everything else. It's nice to have a varity to show my players.

Thanks Fortune for the link, and keep up the good stuff Kitsune Chan.