This requires perhaps a clarification in the rules. The frame comes with limbs that the user's actual limbs fit into and can be moved around like normal limbs. The mechanical arm attachement is an extra limb that is not connected to or controlled by any part of the user's body. Thus, without really clumsy verbal commands, a datajack or VCR is the only way I can think of to use it.

Are you saying that magic/cyberware initiative bonuses should not apply while using power armor? I like the idea of only riggers getting the bonus in theory, but I can't think of any logical reason why other initiative enhancement shouldn't work just because a character is wearing power armor.

This would be machanically the same as a Smartgoggle system, and thus would only provide half the normal smartlink bonus. The system already comes with a HUD (to monitor power levels and damage), perhaps smartgoggle bonuses for mounted smartguns could be standard...

John campbell:

I didn't... but thinking about it, there should be. Otherwise, the system would get so bulky that any argument for intuitive and natural limb use would become untenable. Let's say frame rating 8 and engine rating 10 are the theoretical maximums.

Dax:

Um, I'm not sure I understand your comment. Power armor has a legal code indicating that it's military-grade gear, and simple possesion carries a minimum 8000 nuyen fine and a 2-year prison sentence. I think I may have messed up the legal codes though... lower is supposed to be more obviously illegal, right? Then the legal codes should be 2 for frames and maybe 4 for engines.

It was a joke based on the humor of mixed-up genres: Warhammer 40K (I think) power armor crossed with a Shadowrun troll.

Right in one guess.

Plus, why make something less efficient than rigging when you already have that technology available?

Except for the fact that drones are vulnerable to electronic warfare and rigger emulation, making them unreliable in warfare against technologically advanced opponents. There is definitely a niche for power-armor/mobile suit types of things (especially considering the silly fact that you can fit more guns onto a pair of articulated limbs than you can onto a small car).

I think you hit on the best reason thus mentioned thus far for their lack of existence in SR canon, though, with the gritty cyberpunk/snazzy magic vs high tech scifi comment.

A competent robotic pilot can overcome those obstacles and keep drones going strong. Without a rigger.

Unless, of course, theres a robotic pilot of equal or greater competence on the other side, devoting his time and effort to thwarting your competent robotic pilot.

Shouldn't you be asking: How much style have the costs got?

I'm not one of the people who go on about the plausibility of power armor existing in SR either. I actually used two of John Campbell's Ares Spartans in one situation. But since the plausibility of power armor is a non-issue, then so should the plausibility of the prices be.

Compare the prices to other, less stylish but similarly effective vehicles. Use a modifier based on just how good a thing you think stylish is: If Style Is Everything, power armor should cost about 0.5x that of conventional ground vehicles of same effectiveness. If Style Is Sorta OK, 1.5x.

Since the question doesn't make any sense, no.

I am concerned with a certain degree of plausibility, but my main concern is to make cool shit. I just want to have semi-reasonable prices for said cool shit. Nowhere did I say that "style is everything," or that "plausibility is a non-issue." The specific issue of whether drones were better at doing the same thing as PA was just not one that concerned me, it was outweighed in my mind by the benefits of having something cool in my games.

Power armor should be insanely expensive. You're talking about military grade hardware that requires very expensive manufacturing processing. Even very large suits are going to have very discreet electronics bordering on needing to be nanolathed into place. The suits of power armor I added in my game world are near a full million nuyen for just the basic suit. Optionals like AC, automatic transmission and bucket seats cost extra.

And while power armor is cool, it has very limited uses for Shadowrunners. Powered armor is a shock troop level piece of equipment near the same ranking as a tank in the battlefield heirarchy. The wearer wouldn't have much combat pool while wearing it as well.

I don't think this dichotomy is a good one, though. Just on the cyberpunk side of things, Neuromancer had space ships, space stations, superhuman AIs, robots, and bionicly enhanced humans: all "high-SF" concepts, but completely cyberpunk as well because of how they were used.

I think power armor can be very cyberpunk, especially when designed to look like full-metal-jackbooted uber-enforcers of The Man.

I don't think anything that complex would be required. Sensors on the inside of the frame that detect the movement of the user would be fairly easy to make, but they'd require some very good comupters to interpret.

I don't see why this is difficult at all. The sensors above would be turned off if a VCR link is detected. The rigger would move with the suit in the same way your left arm would move if someone pulled the left sleave of your shirt.

Austere:

Taken with Reaver's comments below, I think the best place to look for similar veichcles for comparison would be high-end military gear.

Reaver:

Definately, any running team whose jobs are of the scope and scale of "get scientist/data/prototype x away from corp facility y" would have little use for power armor. (Actually, any run involving any amount fo stealth would find it more of a hindrance than a help.) I'm prety much committed to the fact the only runners with power armor will be those whose typical mission involves fighting high-powered magical threats like bug hives and toxic shamans/spirits/critters, mercing in the desert, or the like.

Actually, that's where the "power" part comes in: the basic armor of the suit is supported by the engine. Combat pool losses would only be incured if the suit has extra armor not compensated by the engine's utility output.

Blaze:

That's an interesting point. What is the line, conceptually, between power armor and mechs? How big does an anthroform war machine have to be before it qualifies as a mech? How bulky does powered armor have to get before it approaches being a mech?

The power armor I envision is similar to what was presented in the novel Starship Troopers. When I think "mech," I think something about five stories tall (possibly with a borderline psychotic and/or depressed teenager piloting it). This is why I limit power armor frames to rating 8. Beyond that, the suit would make a user about 20 feet tall, and any argument I could make for "natural" movement of the limbs based on internal sensors would become untennable. The limbs would be remote enough that the Mechanical Arm Operation and Walker skills would come into play. A rating 1 frame is about as bulky as medium hardened military armor, with a pronounced "backpack," a larger helmet, and some bulky mechanics around the joints. A rating 8 frame I envision as being about the size of those APUs in Matrix Revolutions. That's right on the line, for me, between power armor and a mech.

One thing I can do to make the power armor more like actual armor, a thing being worn, than mech, a thing to be piloted, is to make firm and hardpoints design options instead of standard features.

Cool. How'd they work out? I designed them solely as a proof-of-concept and have never actually used them...