What are some good ways to build a rigger for someone (like me) who dislikes the more complex (i.e. Hacker-level) Matrix RAW and doesn't want to dive into a morass of houserules?

I'm thinking of something like an EW specialist in captain's chair mode, running IC on his network and focusing primarily on the drones, not on hacking into the opposition's communication feeds. Unfortunately, I don't know how to build someone like that. Anything I try will probably be a snack for an average spider.

Thoughts? I'm also interested in rigger advice in general.

Clustering the drones might be a viable option, though I don't know what that does to control of an individual drone. Hm, nix the wifi and use laser communications? Obvious disadvantage of keeping them all in LOS of at least one other drone, but much harder to scan/hack.

For a drone-based rigger, hacking is pretty much going to be necessary on some level or another.

However, a 'wheelman' type that concentrates on the vehicle he's in could be a great build as a mystic adept. Concentrate on Improved Ability in the needed vehicle skill(s) and the go for a possession tradition to give your vehicle(s) a real boost. Sorry, just a weird thought...

If you go the emerged route, it's possible to build a pretty decent drone rigger technomancer. See if the GM will let you take a Control Rig as a Complex Form (2 BP for an unrated Complex Form = 10k in Resources BPGen, which is exactly the same cost as a control rig!) Take a Smartlink Complex Form as well. Then just judiciously assign your remaining BP (or Karma) amongst Complex Forms, necessary skills, and your Resources.

You can take a few ranks of Compiling and Registering and pick up the Dronomancer stream which will give you access to a couple of sprites that can hack and hijack things for you, if you decide you don't want to put any resources into Hacking skills, Exploit, and similar Complex Forms.

Good Matrix Attributes are nice, but honestly the one you want to focus the most on will probably be System, since that limits how many active subscriptions you can have at one time (and drone riggers need that!)

Complex Forms (or Programs if you want to stay a mundane) you will want are Encrypt, Analyze, Stealth (SR4A stated that Track can now be used on a drone to find the physical location of the active subscriber, meaning non-hacker riggers now have a reason to have this one), probably Data Bomb, Command (as high as you can get it!)

Jumping into a drone means half the pool comes from your drone's own attributes. That means you need to beef up those Sensor packages and upgrade those Response chips. You can upgrade all your drones and vehicles to Response 4 pretty effortlessly and cheaply in chargen, and still come in under the new limitations SR4A added to Hardware upgrades.

If you play an emerged rigger, it's probably easier to do without hacking skills since your sprites can back you up. If you play a mundane rigger, however, it's probably worth the investment to drop some extra BP on more programs and skills to at least have a token hacking ability. You'll have the points for skills since you won't have to worry about buying up a Resonance attribute anyway.

FYI: I'm playing this build, an emerged dronomancer (albeit made in a pre-SR4A 750 karmagen) and he's alright. My killcount after 2 sessions is up to 16. Good times.

There's an echo that emulates a controlrig (although you have to take it two times if i remember right), Abschalten, so there's no need for a "control rig" form

Then edit the opening post, and click on the correct "post icon". IIRC, this changes the topic display.

I've made a similar character. While my rigger does have a comlink, it is very specialized around EW, encryption, and maintaining control over your network. You want to have a great signal, and firewall rating and good defencive programs (like defence, reality filter, biofeedback filter, etc) and good controlling programs (EW, Scan, Edit, etc.). You don't need a big attack or blackhammer program. You drones and vehicles should have good autosofts if you can afford it. That way they can act independently if needed.

If your feeling evil you can have a specialized IC program in each drone and your comlink that packs blackhammer and will attack anyone that trys to control the drone or your comlink (that doesn't use the biometric reader to access it).

That would be the Immersion Echo, and yes, if you take it twice it's just as good as a control rig. But it's not a control rig, and if you were able to emulate one, then you'd have your bonus dice from the get-go.

Considering the investment costs involved, I don't think it's game-breaking to allow a Control Rig complex form, AND later on get Immersion x 2. A Control Rig complex form costs just as much in BPgen as the implant, and it can be crashed since it's run as a CF. Immersion requires you give up at least 29 karma just to get that bonus, and that's precluding you from taking any other echoes during that time.

A drone-based technomancer getting +6 (+2 hot-sim, +2 control rig, +2 Immersion x 2) on all jumped in tests sounds pretty huge, but when you consider how specialized he's going to be, and how he's only got +2 dice on a mundane rigger to begin with, it's not really too bad.

My issue is not with the balance, but with the question if you can actually emulate a piece of hardware that works because it's tucked onto your lower brain (or whatever that area is called) and intercepts "moving" signals whilst active...
Heck why shouldn't it. I rest my case. Hope that is a lesson for you not messing with me

The smartlink and simrig also require hardware, and it seems the Complex Forms sidesteps those requirements. I'm not necessarily saying it makes any sense, but what can and cannot be made into unrated Complex Forms isn't exactly spelled out, leaving it entirely in the GM's hands. If you can convince your GM to allow you to have a certain complex form, I think you more or less earned it.

This type of character is certainly viable. Get a Commlink with good Signal, Firewall, and System (and Response for that matter, just get a really good all around Commlink). Stealth, Encrypt, and Command are your "big" programs that you want as high as you possibly can. Operate your drones either by giving them orders to follow Autonomously, or in Remote Control mode, which is where you control them directly without actually "jumping in" to any one of them. In Remote Control mode you use your skills, but sub your Command program for all attributes. If your GM allows it (and there's no reason he/she shouldn't) take the Code Slinger Quality for the Control a Device action. When operating a Drone in Remote Control mode, every action is considered a Control a Device Matrix Action. Also, if you run Hot Sim in full VR you'll get the +2 bonus for all of those drone actions as well (you can still be in a "captain's chair" mode in full VR) in addition to your +2 from Codeslinger for a total of +4 to all actions where you directly control a drone.

Slave all of your drones to your Commlink, even if they're acting autonomously. This will force any intruding Hacker to hack your Commlink first. Tell your GM that your Encrypt program is set to re-Encrypt all your communications at the beginning of every round (every 3 seconds). This means that a Hacker needs to make a new Decrypt Test (called Initiative Cryptanalysis in SR4A) Test every round, giving them only 1 round to crack your Encryption, and Hack their way into a Drone or Spoof it to cause trouble before having to start all over again. Very frustrating.

Finally, buy the best Agent that you can and load it up with Analyze, Armor, and Attack or Black Hammer (depending on how lethal you want to be). Set the Agent to constantly scan your Commlink for signs of intrusion. Buy a separate but good Analyze program for you Commlink and have that constantly scan for intruders as well. A good Biofeedback Filter, Armor, and Attack program for yourself wouldn't be a bad idea. You'll need ECCM too but not at a super-high rating if your Commlink has a good Signal rating (ECCM 3 should be enough if you have Signal 5 or better).

From there your Drone loadout is all about what you actually want to be doing with it. There are drones that are good for stealth and drones that are good for combat. Load up those attack drones with an LMG with EX-EX rounds, lock on sensors, and start Full Auto bursting your problems away.

Thanks, Malachi; that's exactly the sort of advice I was looking for.

@Malachi

Never thought about all that before. Thanks, I think I will have to incorporate those tactics into my character.

Any why isn't this done everywhere? It would make hacking too difficult and thus it goes against the setting. Sorry, but no, that's not how the world works.

As a GM you could have the PC re-roll their encryption each turn when they are re-encrypting the network. That is totally within the rules and in the spirit of the world (be it a very paranoid rigger).

From what I got from the rules, a given node has two options with encryption - Yes or No. If 'Yes' then variable switching is part of the encryption, with more frequent shifts taken into account with higher rating Encrypt. What you're suggesting doesn't seem to fit the spirit of the rules, and it doens't really even fit the RAW without taking some major liberties.

I hadn't thought of that, but I must agree with Happy's interpretation.

There are detailed rules for Signals Encrytion in Unwired. Every time you re-encrypt a channel you have to log-off and log back in again.

I came up with a scheme that used two subscriptions per channel that was air-tight but it was generally agreed that this was against the spirit of the rules. What you could do is use adaptive encryption with an agent constantly altering the algorithm. That ought to be fairly hard to beat.

I am less familiar with the Unwired expansion than with the SR4 base rules. It might be possible to create a nearly unbreakable encoding scheme using the Unwired rules, but the setting of Shadowrun tells us differently. If such a hack-block is allowed, hackers - and even technomancers - become almost useless as soon enough everyone will use such measures for everything.

DING! We have a winner.
Simply put, there is not encryption as we know it today.

Databomb is a non-hacker rigger's friend. Even a bad databomb is a good defense. Unless an invader has Defuse and spends the time to use it, they take an attack from the bomb and the network knows it is under attack. Even if they defuse it, that's time they aren't inside your network.