I've been working on a concept for a rigger character who wears an automated backpack full of mini and microdrones, as well as having one or two small drones attached and possibly being a drone itself. I was thinking of having several commlinks built in to use the pack as a drone hub/retransmitter. The character would subscribe the pack (or the packs commlinks separately depending on what you all say) to the characters commlink allowing him to monitor/run more drones than normal. Obviously this would have both strengths and weaknesses.

I'm expecting the whole thing to weigh about 15-35 kilos (30-75 lbs). I figure there would be a chute at the bottom, from which the rigger can cause drones to fall, either into his hand or onto the ground, by accessing his headware commlink, as well as a mini/microdrone landing rack (solely for recovery, not charging, that would take place inside the pack) at the top. Possibly also a "mass launch" hatch for those swarm logic moments.

I'm looking for ideas to expand this concept as well as limit/balance it.

And, GO....

use a Cyber-Torso instead of a removeable backpack? O.o
internal capacity for comlinks and the such useable?

I'm looking to keep the character mostly meat. I guess I shoulda specified that. Good idea though, I'll keep that in mind.

It's a neat idea, I had a similar one with my first Rigger. He had a four legged drone that usually hung onto him like a backpack. It had two of the ball drones and a little bit of carrying capacity with some odd tools and such. Since he was the groups only 'tech' person he got all the hacking jobs as well, so if he had to split up from the group at all he'd have the Troll in the group wear so he could keep a little more of a direct eye on them.

a mostly meat rigger . . gotta say, i did never think about that O.o

sounds like you need a GTS tower. you wouldn't really have to wear it as a backpack at all, but you presumably could do so (if you redesigned it slightly to allow for a different than normal orientation, the drone could basically just idle and let you pull it around). that being said, i don't think it's exactly backpack-sized...

well,if the rigger is a troll, anything below a motorcycle is more or less backpacksized O.o

medium drones are human sized. the tower is large sized. and has a vehicle mod that is only allowed on vehicles with a rather large body (10, iirc) normally...

Speaking of a motorcycle, take the Harley-Davidson Scorpion, give it walker mode, maybe like SatCom, and a drone multi-launch from Arsenal. Asthetically it's a leg-braced backpack mobile-frame that supports itself and moves with you, and has all that drone capacity. This is just from memory, but I think with the 6 (or 5 with SatCom) mod-slots you can fit a drone multi-launch that holds like 20 micro or 10 mini drones.

Useful, thanks.




MOSTLY, not entirely. Just headware probably.




I was thinking of upgrading the signal of the commlinks in the backpack by a few points (1-2) and using that for the retrans to other drones. Send the pack off by itself like a drone carrier then retrans through it to increase range, possibly with other dropable retrans units along the way. If you load it with two retrans units that are actually liked by wire you could even get past Wi-fi inhibiting paint/wallpaper or even a Faraday cage by dropping one on each side of the inhibitor. This isn't something you'd need all the time, but, when you did need it, you'd REALLY NEED it. Most of the time it'd just be a drone carrier/service depot kinda thing.




I was actually planning on making this rigger a troll, That way I could make it a hundred kilo pack if necessary.




I was making something kinda like that for the troll's sidecar on his motorcycle. Plus trying to fit a smartlinked weapon mount.



Would it be out of line to put a nanohive in the pack for minor drone repairs? (Mini/microdrones only probably.)

ask your GM if it's out of line . . preferably, after you just suggested to pick up drinks/Pizza tab *snickers*

If you go with the motorcycle suit, you can get that nanohive autorepair.

Sorry folks, I'm just gonna bump this once to try to get a few more ideas.





What do you mean exactly?

i think he means that if you use the idea with the motorcycle, there are nano systems that reapir vehicles.
and a motorcycle, even if it is used as a backpack, is still a vehicle and thus can get the nano repair kit O.o

Theres a couple of allowances that need to be made here, but this is what it would look like if it works like it should.

- Dodge Guardian. Remove the integrated weapon mount, dropping availability to 8 and freeing up two more mod slots (bringing the total slots to 10), and dropping the total to 12,500 nY.
- Walker mode: 2 slots, 4k, avail. 4.
- 2 full arms: 4 slots, 8k, avail. 6.
- r16 armor: 1 slot, 3,200, avail 6R.
- Satellite Communication: 1 slot, 500 nY, avail. 4.
- Nonconductivity r6 (Text says max rating 10, chart says 6): 1 slot, 3,000 (5,000 if r10), avail. 8.
- Repeat above step for either Fire Protection, Insulation, Chemical Protection, or Radiation Shielding (your choice). Same cost as above, and your vehicle's slots are maxed.

End result:
H Acc Spe P B A S Avail Cost
+3 10/17 50 2 8 16 2 8R 34,200

You can further play with sensors: getting multiple (2+) cameras with the eye enhancements and a microphone with all the audio enhancements will still leave you enough capacity for like a r6 Radio Signal Scanner, r4 Ultrawideband Radar, r6 Olfactory Booster, and one or two other neato sensors, while still keeping the availability under 12 (or at worst, under 20 and within the realm of Restricted Gear).

This will net you a suit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkf_mXuNFJc...feature=related

you can't remove built-in mods to get more slots.

It can be done with weapon mods for sure, for vehicles I don't remember

Just the mention of this gave me the image of Invader Zim and his backpack... Here

Not quite. You can indeed remove built-in modifications on weapons, but I'm pretty sure you don't actually get the 'slots'.

yeah, the crafting system in shadowrun has allways been a bit curious in those regards . .

If that's the case, leave the weapon mount and drop the SatCom and the other Special Armor Mod (Fire Protection or whatever you chose).

Motorcycle/mecha. Interesting thought. Not for this probably, but I've already got 50 new ideas springing from that, thanks.

Scratch that, mecha/drone depot. Holy shit. When it absotively, posilutely has to be destroyed in 30 minutes or less. Oh dear, my players are in so much trouble.

i still fondly remember my concepts for a transport-hovercraft that acted as an air-craft-carrier for drones . . including the sidewalls folding down to the sides so there was a bigger airstrip O.o
only skimmer and vector thrust drones on this one, with the odd zeppelin thingie . . sadly, doing something like this from a ZEPPELIN was way too expansive ^^

I thought there was a drone carrier based on a zeppelin?

no, there'S a small zeppeline-drone that carries micro drones that also fly/hover somehow . .
i was talking about a big, Hindenburg Style Passenger Zeppelin with built in living amenities and Shop for light vehicles like motorbikes and drones ^^
slap some armor on that baby, ruthenium polymer it and install one boatmurdered load of electronic warfare equipment, and you have a home for your rigger ^^

I see, Skycaptain in a zeppelin instead of big helo type thingy. And before anyone complains, "helo type thingy" is, in fact, a technical term at my house. Mostly because autogyro and helicopter don't apply to that thingy. I could have said rotor-powered aircraft carrier, but I didn't feel like it, so there.

no, more like a mix between the shield helicarrier, the air pirates mobile base of operations in tailspin and the hindenburg style zeppelins ^^

You mean that zeppplin from Arsenal?

dunno, at work right now, no books here <.< . .
and i am/have been playing SR3, and in there, this stuff was HORRIBLY expansive . .
even if you managed the availability somehow -.-

edit: wtf, i've been sigged o.o

HA! *points finger* That's what you get for saying something funny.

eh, could have been worse ^^
while we're at it with the zeppelins . .
why not use that carrier drone as a backpack? O.o
at least for smaller drones it should work without too many modifications i think

I was actually planing to use it as the base, then adjust for my purposes. But, now I'm drooling over the thought of a mecha/drone depot too.

I'm gonna work on the backpack over my weekend (Tuesday and Wednesday) and I'll post my finished product here for critiquing on Thursday night. Flamers make sure to have your insults ready by then. And, try to come up with something better than "Yo mama" jokes.

As a rule of thumb, I've decided that the full mechanical arms and walker mode legs count as cyberlimbs, per Arsenal suggestions, and to balance it out, regular limbs (like walker mode on a car) get 1/2 the slots of obvious cyberlimbs, and drones with Mimic option (like Mr. Otomo) get 1/2 the synthetic limbs.

If there is anything anyone wants to say in this thread now is the time. I'm gonna print it out in 5 hours for reference material.

Oh, and don't make me sic Serious Cat on you.

why does tachi want to print it out?
why does tachi threaten to sic serious cat on us?
that and so much more you will find out next time on: dumpshock - the shadowrun soap!

Cuz my home computer is deceased and I'm to broke to replace it. It's the only way for me to reference what you weirdos suggested.

Cuz you're all very weird, and you scare me; (Pot and kettle anyone?) and, cuz Serious Cat is my hero and he's much tougher than I am. I use him as an enforcer all the time, his rates are high, but, he's worth it.

I seriously need some help. My riggerpak has developed a life of it's own. This project has totally exploded out of the original framework.

So, here's the question:

How exactly would you determine the Persona Limit of a newly invented 'link or nexus? And what matrix attributes (and anything else) directly affect it? I can't find any help in the books, there's plenty on Persona Limits of existing hardware but nothing on creating your own.

Help! Please!

Oh, one, er, two other questions. How does the Persona Limit affect the size limitations of a device? If there is a lower Persona Limit can the device be smaller?



I.M.P.S. (Imps)
Integrated Modular Pack System: Device Rating (5), upgradeable as normal.

The I.M.P.S. is a ‘drone without propulsion’, though propulsion can be added. It resembles nothing more than an ordinary hard-shell backpack, and can easily be underestimated, unless you actually recognize what you’re looking at. It’s made of ultra light-weight materials, making it easier for soldiers to carry (for those 100km marches); however, the advanced materials cause the price to be very high. Though lightly armored; when a propulsion system is added to make it fulfill the role of a normal drone, an Imp’s speed, maneuverability, modular attachments, and small size are its primary defense.

The I.M.P.S. modular nature and myriad of power connections and attachment points gives the owner several benefits. Among these are: he can use the next lower level set of tools to modify the Imp (shop instead of facility, kit instead of shop, etc.), the modification interval is halved, the threshold for modifications are reduced by 25% (round up), and size restrictions are removed when determining available modifications (Except sensors and Weapon Mounts, GM’s discretion on what actually fits).
Std Upgrades: Assembly Time Improvement, Limited Maneuverability (+4 slots)

Pilot: 5
Body:2
Armor:2
Sensors: 5
Slots:8
Avail: 18
Cost: 24,000

Stats for added propulsion systems are up to you, though, I'd suggest making them perform only about 50-75% as well as other drones of comparable size. I may have gone a little overboard on the "modular benefits", but I'm gonna use it as is.

If you're custom-building a nexus, use the rules in the back of Unwired. Otherwise, I believe Commlinks have a persona limit of 1.