Hello everyone,

I have just a quick question, since me and my gaming group are fairly new to Shadowrun (About 3 game sessions in)

We're having a small bit of confusion or disagreement over how Riggers firing from inside of a Jumped in Drone work.

AT first I was told, Agility + Gunnery

Then we were like, okay, no that's wrong, it's Gunnery + Targeting

Now I'm told it's Sensors + Gunnery, and that Clearsight autosoft only works for an active aiming.

Just looking to get this ironed out so I can jump back into my rig and continue to shoot things.

Sensor + Gunnery.

Unwired has a nifty chart in the back for "common rigger actions."

It's useful, if you have the money.

to expand on that, the dicepool for a rigger using gunnery is sensor + gunnery (+/- modifiers of course).

clearsight is an autosoft. it only helps drone pilots (ie it's a program that gives a drone pilot the skill, it does nothing for a metahuman rigger) for sensor tests (including those active sensor targeting tests, of course). targeting is an autosoft. it only helps drones for gunnery tests (so for a drone, the dice pool is... well... depending on who you ask, it's either pilot + gunnery or it's sensor + gunnery)

so, to clarify... when you are rigging a vehicle, the autosofts the drone pilot has are irrelevant, because all they do is provide skills for the pilot program... and the pilot program isn't doing anything when you are rigging the vehicle.

FAQ also helps.

Thanks for the replies guys, we were getting slightly confused.

Is there any way other then Improved Sensor Array, to up the Sensor rating of a drone?

Don't forget that gunnery is a vehicle skill, so Control Rig gives a +2 bonus. Hot sim gives another +2 bonus if you're willing to risk the dumpshock.

Most riggers can also specialize in Gunnery (Ballistic) without much problem. Since most combat drones have Sensor3, assuming Gunnery 5 and the specialization, that's sensor 3 + gunnery 5 + ballistic 2 + smartlink 2 + control rig 2 = 14 dice cold sim, 16 dice for hotsim.

If a rigger takes the time to get an active sensor lock, he adds the successes from his sensor test to any shots he takes on that target. Don't forget to apply vision enhancement bonuses as well as the -3 penalty for targeting metahumans.