Just out of curiosity, why are most of the drone bodies capped with a body rating of 4? I only see one in Arsenal that's got a whopping 10 (The Mitsuhama Tomino), although it's intended as a Cyborg body.

This seems to limit the amount of stuff that can be modded into a drone, but it also seems that you should be able to make tougher and stronger drones than that.

Another question: Other than the Manservant, are there any humanoid drones that actually look human? Augmentation seems to hint that they exist, but I've so far been unable to track down any sort of drone or cyborg body that looks like a basically unaltered metahuman, sort of like some of the drones/cyborg bodies in Ghost in the Shell.

Have I just missed it, or are the rules for making a meta-human looking drone somewhat non-existent?

One of the plot lines I'm working on involves some creepy metahuman smuggling stuff, sort of like in a sex-slavery trade that the PC's are being hired to investigate. Real live metahuman girls and women are being smuggled with the equivalent of drone-run "real dolls" as a cover.

The problem with this is that I'm not finding any decent rules on how to put this type of drone together...

You'll probably have to put something together yourself. Extrapolate off of what you've already identified in Arsenal, since -- as you've discovered -- they're aren't really any true metahuman-looking drones. You should be able to use other various modes (e.g., Mimic) to help create them and as long as they're covered in a fleshy material and can closely mimic metahuman capabilities, they should be good to go. Just don't tell Sarah Connor.

There is somewhat of a weak technological boundary in the form of synthetic cyberware rules (a perception(3) test to notice). Within that, you should be good to go if you give manservants another name, assuming that the designer went for human-looking this time around.

Synner has mentioned the Mimic option for drones which will be included in the Arsenal Errata as well as a body augmentation mod for drones which he cut out of Arsenal on the forums. I think it might be in the Arsenal Q&A thread.

for the record, the otomo is in fact a humanoid drone that looks humanoid, not just in shape but in details. each one is custom-designed iirc, so it would make sense for there to be a cheaper version with lesser stats which is mass-produced. probably just use the stats of the manservant, but add in the cost of the mimic modification, and they'd probably have a specialised autosoft...

And additionally for the record the manservant doesn't actually look human. It's humanoid in shape, but if you check out the picture it doesn't look in the least bit convincing in terms of passing as a person.

This is the Otomo, from Arsenal. It is custom-designed to a specific race and gender, and can wear traditional armor and wield traditional weapons. It automatically comes with the Mimic, which is a synthetic (but LIVING) skin that replicates metahuman skin and allows for facial expression, etc. In game terms, it adds its rating (up to 3) to the Disguise test for passing as a metahuman (which WOULD likely require an appropriate Autosoft). The only holdup is that Arsenal doesn't state what level of Mimic the Otomo comes with, but it's easy to assume it's maxed out, since the purpose of the drone body is to pass as a metahuman (generally for cyborgs).

This is, AFAIK, exactly what you're looking for.

I didn't realize that the Otomo was that sophisticated. I'll have to take a second look at that one. This gives me a few ideas

Just glanced at those drones... not bad, not great.

I take it there's no way to cobble together a selection of cyberlimbs cybertorso and cyberskull into a lifeless walker frame. (was thinking it would be cool to make an AI char who could be mistaken for a cybersamurai, especially if the body was built out of a collection of parts scavenged from your victims).

Otherwise it looks like the Otomo is really the only book pick for it. And there would be no way to raise body/str/etc. etc. individually as you could w/ limbs (customized or old fashioned capacity based augmentations).

In the description of the mechanical arm upgrade, it says that you can equip them with cyberlimb stuff, GM permitting.

I have been working on an AI walker drone guy lately as well. It actually works out awesomely.

It's not as if it's an auto-win button... even against magic... you don't resist damage.

They just need to roll object resistance and the damage is automatic on the AI-walker drone guy. Which is a pretty big weakness, though you'd be immune to all the mind control and mind effecting stuff.

It just struck me the body/str/whatnot scores seemed kinda meh for something which is basically a full cyberbody drone.

Yeah, they are going to be beat in body and strength ratings by most sammys. With the structural integrity mod (not quite canon, but listed on this board) you can get an Otomo with a body/strength of eight or nine, not shabby at all.

And they can do okay with Agility (Vehicle skill+Handling essentially )

Vehicle armor is sweet too, and don't forget, your Drone AI character doesn't have a stun track, so that precludes taking a lot of damage. No chance of poisons or gases bugging you either.

Recoil reduction equals body, that's never a bad thing as well.

But my favorite part is the sensors, its just so cool, the way I can envision a Drone character viewing the world.

Yeah drone bodies aren't instant win, but they aren't to shabby either.

While a drone may not get to resist powerbolt or something, the 4 hit threshold the mage has to hit before he can affect you is more than most characters would roll in any case. That's basically 3 free resistance hits. Whats more the odds a non-maxed mage hitting you (say magic 5, sorcery 5, no other bonuses) are only so so to begin with. And it requires the mage to cast at at least force 4 at you to have even a change of affecting you. The complete immunity to a wide variaty of very debilitating effects a mage can throw at you is awesome as well. Stunbolt and Orgasim (and similar spells) are two of the nastiest spells in any mages arsenal, and you can just laugh at them.

In exchange for all this though, unless you are a CCD'd rigger, you are now open to a wide variety of attacks from the matrix that most players don't have to worry about to the same degree.

Actually Max, we were talking about stuffing an AI character in it.

And the Otomo says it can wear normal character armor as well... which raises the question of how much... and since they don't have a reaction score... does that mean the 2x Body rule doesn't apply.

Response essentially equals Reaction, which your AI character will have.

That said, just handle it like you would normal cyber armor for encumbrance. Least that's how I would do it.

i searched the forums and couldn't find it, can you point me in the direction of this? also, i was making a character, and though i was being original by being an AI in an Otomo... then i saw this thread

Since you asked so nicely ... Structural Reinforcement

thank you very much

I got the idea of making an AI in a Drone body by Watching the Terminator TV show on Hulu. It seemed the best way to make a fully robotic, fully non human character. Cyborgs still are too human for me

I just had a thought... how would friendly counterspelling affect things. Could you counterspell to protect your armored van ride from getting powerbolted for example.


On the other side w/ 6bod... the otomo... looking at the list of mods in arsenal. With only 6 mod slots it's actually very much a pick and choose operation. You really do have to decide what you want to do and mod accordingly... (though you could get multiple otomos for multiple roles if you're rich).

Juicy ones:
For the Otomo on the go....
1slot, Additional Fuel Tank (normal drones only go 6 hours before needing recharge)
1slot, Improved Economy (paired w/ above for 24 hour run time between recharges)
1slot, Suncell (again a way to keep yourself operational)
1slot, Gridlink (override) (you do like having unlimited runtime as long as you're in town right)

Because it wouldn't be shadowrun w/o it!
1slot, Armor (I view this as no different than cyberarmor... so stack it w/ worn armor)
2slot, Concealed Armor (just not obvious)
1slot, Complete Skinlink (you like your skinlinked gear right)
1slot, Gecko Tips (who doesn't want to watch their street sam full cyber walk on the ceiling)
2slot, Improved Sensor Array x2 (you do want to have a sensor rating of 6 right... especially for all those perception and firearms tests!!! plus adds tons of capacity to install ALL your favorite sensors and vision and hearing upgrades!)
1slot, NanoMaintenance system (what did you think the mage/medic was going to heal you?!)
1slot, Self-Repair (DR1 for any hit doing less than 7dam... which you should have enough armor to do; again nobody's going to be able to 'heal' you during a run)
1slot, Smuggling Compartments (space to put things... such as your hidden nexus running your AI)
1slot, special armor mod (for when you just need extra armor protection)

Nice (but a bit costly):
3slot, Body stabilizer (nice effects but probably not worth half your capacity, great for ninja types)
2slot, Anti-theft (can we say concealed shock hand on steroids! 10S!!! since you can trigger it on command no reason you couldn't use it as part of unarmed combat melee touch)
2slot, Mechanical Full arm (full strength for those who like to melee)
1-6slot, Signature Masking (way too bulky... but cool for the ninja who just doesn't show up on sensors)

I think it already comes with a pair of mechanical arms, they just need to be added via errata.

Armor is a really bad choice, because it makes you obviously a machine. Concealed however is much much more viable as it doesn't waste the innate mimic option.

I don't suppose it's just a coincidence that the movie RoboCop 3, while otherwise a colossal piece of garbage, featured human-looking drones that wore clothing and equipment and used swords, and were named Otomo?




-karma

Well Otomo means attendant or companion, and the Evo version is named "Consort", so it seems pretty obvious to me that they started as sexbots.

Assuming you don't have a long term emotional connection with someone, who wouldn't want a "properly programed" Cameron (from T:SCC)

You were being original. And so was I. And Squinky. And many, many other people who opened runner's compainion, read the rules for AI, saw the pilot program background and then immediately looked for anthroform drones in Arsenal. We were all just being original in parallel. >.>



Arsenal even mentions this use for them in the description, so yeah, I'd say so.

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I can't figure out any way to get one of these on creation though - they're availability 24 and the restricted gear quality only gets you up to 20...

Since you have to tweak the system to allow for a cyborg in the first place, in those cases we just assume Restricted Gear covers it for that purpose alone.

Fair enough.