Hi all,

So, I'm trying to design a drone similar to the Knife-Missile drones in Iain Bank's Culture novels, or Gundam's funnels/fangs. Basically (for those of you who know neither), they would be very fast drones, dagger/knife sized, very sharp and capable to stay in the air for a moderate amount of time before needing to dock and/or recharge, that kill the targets by ramming/slicing through them. They may or may not be capable of stationary flight, but they must be really agile so they can make right-angle turns or even U-turns in short distances.

It may not be doable with 2072's SOTA, so I guess that's my first question: Has Shadowrun's technology reached a point where such drones can be built? How should I stat' them?

Check out the Cyberspace Designs Dragonfly p. 117 Arsenal. It is close.

Also the Ares Heimdall.

Sorry, it's really not close. A flying knife that can hover and strike, yes. But the knife missiles in the Culture novels are way beyond that. They turn on a dime and you can't even see them move - they propel themselves by some sort of gravity manipulation I think and you just hear this whine in the room while people die. At least, that's how I remember them. Something that fulfills this role in SR2070, yes. Something that is the same as the Culture novels, definitely not. Dragonfly is a good place to start though as DireRadiant says.

Well, knife-missiles with the same specs and abilities as the one made by the Culture are way beyond the technological possibilities of 2072, but I was wondering if the concept (with much lower specs) could be imported.

I guess the dragonfly is a good place to start indeed, though I'd have to make it much faster.

Fixed.

While I salute you on your excellent taste for being a fan of the Culture novels, the simple fact is that every Culture weapon depicted in the books would be game-breakingly overpowered in Shadowrun (or any other RPG not specifically set in the Culture, for that matter). A PC with a single knife missile would be essentially unstoppable in combat. A single drone could make a moderately serious play for world domination. A single GCU would basically conquer Earth by its mere presence, in the sense that every single interaction would instantly become all about the GCU and the actors' status and position relative to it.

That is basically a Dune's Hunter Seeker Weapon. Sorry guy, try that when the Holtzmann's contragrav generators get online. Imagine the countermeasures neeeded to stop one of those babies...

Step 1)Buy a Knife

Step 2)Be a Magician

Step 3)Conjure an Ally with the following Powers: Movement, Telekinesis, Sorcery, Accident, Inhabitation. Put it in the knife.

Step 4)???????

Step 5) Profit.

You could skip buying the knife since the ally spirits Materialized form could be a knife.

but the possession of the knife mean that due to stupid rule IIRC its one uber knife. As ALL stats are uped by force...

Except that a Knife has no stats... therefore the "stats" will be equivalent to the Ally Spirit's Stats, which means that you can just use a Material Form "Knife" as the weapon...

Keep the Faith

Knives have stats. They have the weapon stats and physical stats. Logicaly this mean not only tose possed knife get stringer it gets shaper nastier and longer...

So... A Knife has a Strength? Reflexes? How about Dexterity? No?
Well, then how about MOvement? Logic? WHat about Willpower? Maybe Charisma? Not there either huh?

The Bonus to the weapons damage property is not a Stat... it is a bonus, and would thus not receive any "upgrade" from Possession in the Statistical Sense...

I can possibly agree that the Knife MAY become more durable, but that is somewhat of a stretch...

Logically, Possession does not provide any physical or mental stats, so your argument is somewhat lacking...

Keep the Faith

I'm sure there was a table with the base armor and body of weapons. The other phicical and mental stats they have are 0 thus bonuese can be added to it. As to weather armor or damage ect gets +force thats a iffy one I agree.

If can one can find this able I'll be greatfull as other wise i'm insane. IIRC a knife as 1body and 1-3 armor

I have never seen such a table, if you find it please be sure to let me know where it is...
If it does exist, I would bet that it shows Durability and Structure... not Body and Armor...

Keep the Faith

I've looked at the master index nothing leaps out as lising stats for items. Still hunting though.

Ah ha not the best link but a knife is the same conceal as a min-drone so maye this leap of logic come form using a body in that range.

That is a might impressive Leap there...

You can turn a weapon into a drone with modifications. But I would classify a knife with that modification with a 0 Body myself...

Keep the Faith

A homunculus vessel like a golem is specifically crafted so as to allow for movement, whereas an object vessel like a knife is not. Street Magic lists several homunculus vessel types available and gives their stats. It does not list object vessels, however, because such vessels typically cannot move on their own, even with spirit assistance, and do not have stats.

That said, a spirit inhabiting a knife as an object vessel is still able to use its powers to full effect. If the object's means of locomotion is entirely power based, it can still work.

However, while a spirit possessing a knife can use telekinesis to lift itself and hurl itself at enemies, this is handled the way you would handle a spellcast or power usage, not as if the knife were a bumble-bee. The knife does not have physical or mental attributes. It does, however, get an increased barrier rating from ITNW, giving it a (Force x 2) hardened barrier value on top of its normal barrier values.

So the knife is now really hard to break, and it's dual natured and can be used to fight astrally, and it can cast powers. It can even magically lift itself and move itself around, at the cost of a service, possibly even throwing itself at someone. However, it is not enhanced in any other way.

~Umidori

In the same vein, if you took something that is meant to move, like a flying drone, and modified it for stabbing (stick a bayonet on it!), and then had your spirit possess that, it would work as a homunculus vessel and would have physical stats which would be modified by the spirit's power.

~Umidori

Now do that to one of those missle drones. Use an ally spirt abd knife missle as well as raw alows. Cont the bayonet as a ram plate and with tge huge. Armor you'd get from inhabiting it you should have a knife missile. Now it's a bit silly and by RAW a ram plate can't be added to it. But it should assuming force 4 spirt hit quite hard.

I would only allow a knife - missile in shadowrun in special circumstances....

Minding that weapons can be destroyed with a martial maneuver from Arsenal, which states that the standard barrier destruction rules apply, you'd expect the knife to have the standard Armor and Structure stat set.

for more of a gundam feel (i.e. actually a big nasty drone following your mech around and killing stuff) it's very difficult to top the nimrod. this is of course generally going to only be useful if you are, in fact, flying a t-bird/helicopter/fighter of some description. it's not much of a ramming weapon but i don't remember the funnels doing a lot of ramming either.

Cast Improved Invisibility on oneself. Pick up knife. Run around stabbing people as fast as you can. You may make "vrooom" noises if you wish to convey advanced technology.

Sorted.

I believe that a reasonable alternative would be something like 2 of the smallest flying drones in the book with stealth mods and yo-yo's of doom.

A yo-yo of doom is a spool of monofillament wire. The 2 drones start flying in unison in contact. Then they separate and the yo-yo's spool out their wire creating a line between the 2 drones. Then the drones quickly fly at head / neck level around the room.

I guess you could use a knife, but why bother?

Another option would be a blender drone. This would be a small drone with a spinning rod sticking up from the center. This drone moves to the middle of a room and then several small yo-yo's of doom fly off it with their monowire attached to the rod of the blender. Then the yo-yos fly around in a circle at a constant angular velocity creating a vortex of death.

The first one, with monowire between two drones, would work.

The second one, with monowire spinning around a central drone, might not. The physics would be iffy for smaller drones, because you'd need to weight the ends of the monowires. This would mess up the flight stability.

~Umidori

I currently have a setup like that, in the SR game i'm currently playing. Figure its appropriate, I should share.

I'm using a pair of Dobermans, set up with some Defiance EX Shockers. These, in turn, have gecko tips(yes, the darts too) and additional clips. The Secondary Clip's taserdarts carry monowire attachments, instead of the regular taserstring.

The amoung of 8P ap-4 shenanigans you can get up to with a pair of drones who are able to string sticky-monowire-garrotes between each other on a moment's notice is amazing.

They would have durability and structure, yes...

Keep the Faith