I like to make sytlistic characters. To me, there is no attraction in a regular person. Even a regular person with abnormal personality traits is just not that fun. There has to be some sort of genre to them, like a raver, or a goth, or a cowpoke, or a russian, or an irish person, etc. This kind of 'hook,' of their being part of a certain trend or from a foreign land makes them interesting to me. If they're just a local who likes to commit crimes, it's no fun.

That said, I've been stumbling on how to make a rigger with style. Maybe this is because I refuse to watch movies like 2 Fast 2 Furious and other hotrod wet dream movies, because I am personally not that interested in cars. So I just haven't seen any examples of kickass characters who like cars. It seems like Riggers always end up being boring people who are not straight laced enough for polite society, but are much more straight laced than other runners because they need to enjoy spending time keeping up really large and expensive pieces of technology.

So, does anyone have examples of exciting, stylized rigger characters, or ideas on how to make one?

First off, I'd suggest figuring out their driving style. There's lots out there, with more coming (Drifting is a relatively new thing, thanks to lighter and lighter materials!).

The Clothes makes the person is true. Just as a Warrior is indicated by his fighting technique and weapons of choice, a Rigger will be proven by his driving style and vechicle type of choice.

Do they go for the Back-Roads racing style of the Rural areas, dodging trees, rocks, and fellow Rednecks?

The In-And-Out of Traffic of Urban Road Warriors, skimming through traffic and using back alleys to the best of their ability?

The Pure Speed of the Highway Star, just going for pure speed, and more of it?

Check my sig for the second story I'm writing, "A Night To Never Remember". The Main character is a "Wheelman" (He doesn't consider himself a Rigger as he doesn't play with "Toys", read Drones.).

He was a Texas Redneck that struck it good, and got into the NASCAR circuit. For the rest, you'll have to read the story.

i had an idea for a rigger once, but no way to realize it utilizing the rules . .
i basically had him be the undercover racer king . . he would drive up to where the racing will start in his car(looking banged up, dusty, dirty, rusty and as if it were standing on stilts more or less and won't have much of a sound) and then take on whomever wanted to put him into his place . . but on the starting line, the car would lower itself down to hug the ground, spioilers on front and rear would pop out and the hood would open up to allow more air into the turbo underneath and the sound should change with the press of a button from whinning high howl to low rumbling growl . .

Just heads up: real tuners (auto enthusiasts) friggin hate the Fast & the Furious movies as they have flooded our usual haunts with riced out honda civics.

This can be fun in game: Look up sites that chronicle bad taste auto "enhancements" and imagine what 50+ years of technology combined with even further devolved bad taste could equal. I can already picture chrysler-nissan jackrabbits with absurdly huge wings (on an FF car) and non-functional airscoops.

Ricer used to be a bash against import cars, but the import tuning culture has evolved to such a point that even domestic tuners give them respect now. For example, if you put a wing on a honda civic (a front engine, front wheel drive car that has no need for rear downforce) you are likely a ricer. If you do a JDM (Japanese Domestic Manufacture) engine swap on the same car, put some nice wheels on it, and can intelligently discuss your preparations for a turbo kit, you might be a tuner.

For the record, I drive a Nissan 350z that is being prepared for an enhanced roots type positive displacement supercharger.


Now more on topic, if you'd like to make a stylistic driver type character, I would recommend watching Ronin. The wheelman in that movie is exactly the dude I'd want picking me up on a run. Jason Stathams character in the Transporter flicks is another good one (if a little over cg'd and over the top). Real drivers come in a couple of varieties: The dude with the money to have a VIP type ride precisely tuned to his purposes, and the Driveway mechanic who still manages to pull off maximum performance through hard work and creative technical solutions.

Speaking of Ricers: Hyundai Shin-Hyung/BMW 400GT/GMC Commodore: Arsenal: Pages 108-109.

For those reading my story "A Night To Never Remember", the Mitsuhama Motors Tengu is also the same class. For those not reading my story, it's in the first chapter, and plays a very important role in the story.

i was talking about something like the Taxi/Taxi Taxi movies *g*
but of course not with an asian car <.< . .
maybe use one of those Cars that come in normal and Turbo Version(can'T access my books from work and don't remember the name) and make the Turbo Version look like the normal one . .

If you like anime (I know there are several people around here that don't), I suugest trying to find an old one called Riding Bean. Its like modern day Shadowrun. And it made me want to play a rigger.

Also, the reoccuring antogonist in that - a crazy police detective - is hilarious. His attempts to beat Bean at his own game are just... priceless.

-paws

You need something "special" that gets screen time.

Some ideas:

- a Spider in a net of micro drones; Mr. Info all the way, matrix heavy build. Your arachnoid drones make their way around the LOS of cameras, mikroskimmers work as mobile camera systems etc. Buy an attention coprocessor and have newsfeeds running through your cybereyes all the time. This type is interested in society and could become a secondary face. Knowledge is power.

- a Mechanic should constantly work in the vehicle shop. It´s not what you drive, it´s what mods you are currently installing in "the next big thing". You personally may not care about cars, your char does. Of course you will own tools for other trades (like weapon mods), too. This type is part of the modding sub-culture, either a street mechanic or an ex-corporate type.

- a Heli Pilot that is saving up for a personal copter. For the time being, rotor drones have to do the trick. Any downtime is spend in high-end simulators, the true reason why you are running a response 6 setup. Both aggression and calm efficiency can make for interesting personalities here. Corp and national militaries should have loads of these guys.

Gunsmith Cats is another Manga/Anime that fits in nicely with Shadowrun, and is made by the same guy.

Gunshop Owners by day, Bounty Hunters by night, with a lot of underworld espionage going on (The Boyfriend of one of the main characters is hiding out from the Mob!).

I just wish I could find my DVD of it, but at least I have most of the Manga.

Some questions/suggestions:

Is your Rigger a driver/operator *only*, or do they do their own modifications?

If they are purely into the driving thing, they might craves some sort of star-status like F1/Indy/Nascar circuit drivers get now. They might have high Face-type Dice pools and have a sense of class and style. Maybe they hang out at expensive nightclubs. You'll need a good Mechanic contact to do your mods for you.

If they're more into making their own vehicles optimum for the task and then operating them, then you're probably looking at a less-socially adept grease-monkey type. With a Big Fraggin' Wrench for when when inanimate objects exhibit their innate cussedness.

Or they might be the totally focused obsessive-perfectionist.

There's no reason they can't have whatever "non-profession-related" character hook. They can be French, smoke cigars and be into Industrial Noise music and still be a driver. Profession-related hangups could include:

* not driving manually, ever; not even knowing *how* to, maybe.
* not rigging drones "I'm a driver, Jim, not a puppeteer!"

I'd say look at their background for distinctive schticks.

Edit: Oh, almost forgot. Treat the vehicle Modification stuff in Arsenal with the utmost caution. It's a nearly pointless set of guidelines: the limitations and costs are so out of whack they look like nobody even ran a quick eye over them and you almost instantly get into "GM oversight" territory. A toner snort'n'sneeze could produce more useful patterns on a page.

Sorry to further the threadjack, but no Lupin the 3rd?

I know its not dark and dystopic, but it does give good inspirations for a face / thief (two of them working via very different methods), a gun specialist and a crazy physical adept katana master pulling off heists no one thought possible all while avoiding the law.

If anything, watch Castle of Cagliostro, which is Miyazaki so you know it's quality.

Wow, I'm going to have to go and get my head examined for not suggesting that!

And suddenly we've gone from Riggers to Anime. *Starts trying to figure out Seattle's Bus System to figure out how to get back to the topic*

I have a player who has a former go-ganger as rigger. He's a bike obsessive who nonetheless has a mouth on him, and can hold his own in a fight. He left the gang, 'cos he wasn't making enough money to keep up with his technofetish ways.

my samurai allways get the shivers if they meet some technophile . . just imagine them being more turned on by the metal inside them than the body that is around the metal . . creepy *g*

If you think that's a bad fetish, might I suggest you stay away from the kinkier bars and clubs.

Riggers don't drive motorbikes. It's a completely different controlset. No matter how much "Pilot" or "sensor" you have, a bike is run by body weight and intuition. A rigger wants the pure mental control of a proper vehicle.


Also, if you want a rigger with a defined "genre". Look no further than Tank Girl. You could easily turn Tank Girl into a speed freak (rather than a destruction freak). And she definately likes to customize her vehicles. If you can get your hands on the comics. Do. But if not, watch the movie. It's no oil painting, but it's ok to kill a few brain cells every now and then.

Thanks for all the ideas! No offense to anyone, but old style anime art makes me want to barf, I can't watch any of the early import stuff. If anyone wants to watch a non fossilized anime about modern shadowrunners, check out Black Lagoon. I had thought about taking inspiration from there, but it's mostly about a boat, and most settings just aren't very good for a boat borne team. There's just one driver character, a guy who gets really super high and it somehow makes him a better driver... Only it doesn't work because he soon gets too high and crashes and dies.

I liked Tank Girl, until it turned out that her tank fired beer cans at people. That was just stupid, even within the campy setting

Coupla things come to mind..

Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams is the best book I've read about being a Rigger/Panzer driver..
..Even if you ignore the tall, jeans wearing Cowboy [his handle], there are others mentioned.

Apart from that, there are several SR novels involving Panzers, their crew and support staff

For a good Rigger, I'd almost insist on "need-for-speed" [must be indulged once per day/per week] as a mental addiction.

I'd imagine that being a Biker Rigger might be the ultimate ride - the wind in your hair, the throb of the engine as your heart, the risk of death much more possible..

Or how about doing it the other way round [as Peter F Hamilton does in one of his short stories, I think]..
..The car is the main body [where the brain is], and the body that's walking around is the remote/drone ??

Could you have a Rigger never goes on 'Runs, but only sends out humaniform drones ??

There's a Bubblegrum crisis story where the driver builds and installs a prototype neural interface into his car..
..Then he dies, while plugged in..
..And the car is possessed by him.


I general, I think Riggers don't get portrayed very well in games, because they were too much of a one-trick-pony and didn't get played very often [which is why they got merged with Deckers]

and now they still suck because with edge someone can insta-gib them inside their tank with a heavy-flechette gun *g* nah, just joking
riggers . . Knight Rider 2010 or however that movie was called in america for example would be good for a Shadowrun-Style-Car-Warrior

Smokey and the Bandit is a great source for riggers. I've played Snowman both as a rigger and as a Wheelman in Spycraft.

Bugger.

Now I have to finally watch those movies and make notes for adventures.

I'd just like to point out that you don't have to do cars. There are other options. I'd also like to point out that any GM worth their Salt isn't going to insist on only allowing the vehicles in the BBB into the game. They're just going to insist on doing any conversions themselves and not letting in purely better vehicles.

Also I would suggest asking if they'd do special rules for highly "used" vehicles. Personally as a GM I enjoy giving steep discounts on such things but they have some degree of the "gremlins" flaw.

Anyway other options.

Chopper. Used to be a classic, now the autogyro you can get in the BBB leaves a bit to be desired, but the template of getting anywhere is some good stuff.

Minisubs. Shockingly useful in cities on the water (i.e. Seattle). Does somewhat limit options however, but opens up a range of new ones (I've had a lot of fun running undersea missions. The paracritters come in a wider variety than the city and the players are sort of always out of their element).

Mini vectored thrust craft. This one comes fromthe back of rigger 3. You always see these things in SR art. Heck I think I see one in the vehicle section of the 4th ed BBB. Anyway in Rigger 3 you make them by taking the large vectored thrust drone frame and then adding in some seats and stuff. These days I'd talk to the GM about what you might be able to do with a couple Dalmations.


If you don't like being the person getting the team to and from where they're going being a drone rigger that goes in with your drones (which, due to RF paint, usually is the only option). That lets you be a part of the squad as it were.

ah, yes, the SHIELD Heli-Carrier Concept . . if your Hacker/Rigger has a Comlink with enough Signal-Range he can have a really unconspicious Zeppelin with some Ads on the Side hover above the part of the City where he is going to be active and just have it drop things down to support him . . lighter than air for stealthy recon, some fast hover, skimmer or vector-thrust drone for chasing things or delivering micro-walker drones for in building espionage . . or if you don't wanna go the zeppelin route just use a hover-craft-transport-vehicle O.o . . if you position that one out on the sea you can use marine-drones too *g*

We did have a discussion about how one could justify rigging a bike, without falling off through going limp. You could probably find the thread, if you were interested.

Of course, my player came up with the rather strange plan of having a Stirrup Interface implanted, and leaving his body in the hands of a pilot while he went off and did his rigging thang. Not an option at creation by RAW, due to the availability, but did you know that a Stirrup Interface does the same thing as Move By Wire, with the added benefit of being able to run a pilot, for 5k:nuyen: less...

No doubt one could concoct a fluff reason why they don't work in metahumans if one wanted to, but there's nothing in RAW that says you can't.

well, built one into a Troll-Samurai, biggest and meanest Walker-Drone you'll ever have O.o

Given the essence cost of a stirrup interface, you'd better make him a cyberzombie, just to be on the safe side.

I've always been very happy (being an SR3 man) to let motorbikes be the last province of those without a vehicle control rig. I still allow the +1 datajack bonus, because I imagine it would help to DNI things like brakes, gears as well as getting information feedback. I also like motorbike adepts.

Because the SR3 rigger was such a god in any vehicle, the motorbike became a way for solo runners to have a chance at getting away in vehicle combat chase sequences. They could use the size and godly handling of a motorbike to outmaneuver and get places the rigger in a car couldn't.

I was gonna post a buncha stuff but CanRay and HullBreach basically said what I was gonna say anyway.

That said, let me note something about drifting: "Fomula D" as they call it is more of an artform than a style of racing. It is not how you should be racing your vehicles for maximum performance. It can look awesome, but you'll want your rubber on the pavement sans slippage if you're gonna really push the vehicle.

Also: HullBreach, I envy your 350Z's ability to take a supercharger. I almost got one, but went for a BMW instead. Putting a charger in a BMW is just an immensely expensive pain in the ass. (But I have four seats, and it still drives awesome. I don't really NEED the supercharger, but it'd be cool.)

Actually if your GM has an old copy of Rigger 3 it's pretty good for letting you play with the toys you want to play with.

Somewhere around here there is a thread for how to make a Tachicoma. That could be a bit of a stretch but you could get something in the vein.




Oh on the note of driving cars and such. One thing I really like about the SR4 rigger is that the rigging gear doesn't suck up all that much in the way of BP and the wireless matrix and viable AIish pilot gives you the option of being more of a "Batman" type character.

i.e. you the bulk of your BP into generally kicking tail, taking names, and chewing bubblegum, but then you add in a cool ride (or autogyro) that you can control remotely and order to show up where you need it.