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Mutie

There are certain situations where being a rigger means sitting outside in that pile of armor you call a car while the rest of the team is exploring the sewers just beyond your flux rating.

So after reading some of the great ideas people had for power armor i decided to try to get a discussion going on the design of something more rigger specific.

The goal would be a rigged vehicle which would contain the rigger which can pretty much go anywhere the rest of the runner team could go while maintaining as small a size profile as possible. For the moment lets eliminate anthroforms from the list of possible vechiles because Troll sized is slighlty bigger than this dwarf would like to be using .

Any ideas what we should use a a chassis and what we would like to cram into this machine.

Legless


sable twilight
I don't have the Rigger book with me right now, but I think, if you are only looking for something mobile the rigger can ride around in, then a custom small wheeled crawler drone should do nicely. I think you can add enough cf to handle a seat for the rigger, and has a very nice signature. If a small crawler cannot be made big enough, then a medium definitely can be. Keep it an electric engine, add all the drive-by-wire modifiers you can find, and most of the other add-ons you would want do not take up much, of any space. The only difficulty would be sensors, but if you are only using it as a transport drone, you don't need a lot in the way of sensors anyway.
Lilt
I think the large anthroform is about your best bet. Troll-size may have disadvantages but I very much doubt wheels and sewers mix. I think you could fit something into a smaller walker, maybe even make a walker backpack that you use like Invader Zim's one, but if you did that you'd need a Gir drone too and I don't think you can make drones that are quite that dumb/cool.
sable twilight
It would depend on what the height of any water and what the ground clearance of the wheels are. If there are debris or stairs it would be treated as an off road environment. Small wheeled crawlers start out as at a 4/4 handling, and with dive-by-wire 3 would drop that down to a 1/1 (I think, it's not very clear in Rigger 3 Revised if handling improvements on ground vehicles improve both on and off road handling or just off road). Tricked would be good as well, but I don't think they perform as well on open ground as wheeled.

A walker would probably be good as well. I for got about those for some reason. How do the signature rating compare to the wheeled crawlers? I now have this vision of Mojo from the Longshot series and later X-Men. Hmmmm, put an arm with various cyber weapons might be an idea.
Kagetenshi
I'd say just get a relay drone to extend your signal into the areas the team is exploring.
Though it's possible to make a starting rigger whose signal will extend over 30 kilometers.

~J
Lilt
I really don't think wheels could cut it in a sewer. For a start you'd have trouble getting it down a ladder in the first place (meaning you'd need to find another entrance or you can't follow your teammates if you're in a rush) which walkers should be able to navigate.

Crawlers are better load, cargo, speed, economy, and price-wise.

Walkers are superior acceleration and maneuverability-wise. They don't need acceleration or deceleration tests and they can probably maneuver ladders and stairs without much troubble.

They're even signature-wise.

As the main problem you're describing seems to me to be a maneuverability issue, I'd go with the walker. There's relatively little chance a crawler could get up a ladder, thus if the issue is "I want to be able to go wherever my team does" then anything but a mechanical-legged vehicle will have you left behind at some obstacle or other.
Mutie


QUOTE
I'd say just get a relay drone to extend your signal into the areas the team is exploring.
Though it's possible to make a starting rigger whose signal will extend over 30 kilometers.


Aye i have great range until you start adding background interferance, concrete buildings , plumbing and heaven forbid active jamming. There is also a desire to actually be where things are happening. This is why i figured ok how can i go with them without getting killed ;)



QUOTE
I'd go with the walker. There's relatively little chance a crawler could get up a ladder, thus if the issue is "I want to be able to go wherever my team does" then anything but a mechanical-legged vehicle will have you left behind at some obstacle or other


Aye looks like the walker is probally the way to go since there is such a dsiparity between the meduim anthroform and the large anthroform's cargo size ( I always felt that was a typo but I geuss you give up alot for humunoid shape).

I like the visaul of a dwarf in a mojo walker surrounded by 20 or so spider drones :)

Just need to find room for some protection and sensors

Got to love shadowrun technology , they can cram mainframe computer into your skull but nobody has figured out how to put a decent sensor suite into a box smaller than a refrigerator
sable twilight
That's because most of the space for sensors is made up of receiving equipment.
Lilt
Personally I think the medium anthroform does have a bit too little space, I'd give 2.5CF to a larger one (which is what increased CF means really).

I would probably not allow a character in it unless it was actually being worn as a suit. (and then I'd say the suit damaged the users limbs if it tried to run at the top speed of 100m/round, that's 120kph, muscles don't move that fast unless they're magically augmented)

[edit]You'll probably want a mechanical arm on it. They're just too useful to not have.[/edit]
Nikoli
Could always have a crawler with a winch and one of those grapple guns setup in it. but you'd need a way to disengage it.
Shanshu Freeman
QUOTE (Nikoli)
Could always have a crawler with a winch and one of those grapple guns setup in it. but you'd need a way to disengage it.

use a claw that grips and ungrips rather than a grappling hook.
Moonstone Spider
I'd imagine any drone with mechanical arms could climb stairs/ladders. One of my character's has a Toyota S&R Guyver robot and has it carry her around all the time so she can move and still be rigging. So you'd basically need 6CF for the drone's seat for the person, and 4CF for mechanical arms. Any drone with more than 10CF can therefore probably handle it.
Sunday_Gamer
Hey Legs!

Ok guys, I'll chime in, what with being Legs magical support. Our problem is our GM is in love with sewers (yes, you, you're reading this, I know you are, sewer lovin drekhead) now me, I'ze da monkey, I can handle myself in the sewers...

Could a drone move around in the sewers? what kind of drone? Obviously I'm not looking for spy drones, I'm looking for something well armored and armed. We bring 2 and sandwhich you in the middle Legs =) Consider I have a lev 4 and a magic finger 4 as well as an animate 6 to help this thing move around if that can help.

Troll sized anthromorpy...ness?andro?mormons? The humanoid one! Well one of those would be so bad now would it legs? I mean, Chuck-Chuck always gets around fine right and he's a troll, a big one at that yes?

Anyways, just thought I'd chime in about the spells available to help this thing move around... Bad enough we have a lazy decker who would rather stay at home than go trudging through the sewers, narrowly dodging an explosive fiery death only to become trapped in a collapse with the room filling with water to be forced through water filled tunnels to break through into a dry tunnel which is an ambush which after you fight your way out of you walk into another... I mean, what's wrong with THAT guy? Stay at home lazy decker...I'm babbling...carry on...

Kong
Crusher Bob
Just get a MBW system and add rigger adaptation to the MBW processor, loads of fun for the whole family grinbig.gif . Write some siple agents for stuff like 'walking, climbing, and whatever, then just rig yourself. Lets you pay much more attention to the datastream without all the bother of a troll sized exoskeleton.
Digital Heroin
QUOTE (Crusher Bob)
Just get a MBW system and add rigger adaptation to the MBW processor, loads of fun for the whole family grinbig.gif . Write some siple agents for stuff like 'walking, climbing, and whatever, then just rig yourself. Lets you pay much more attention to the datastream without all the bother of a troll sized exoskeleton.

What. The. Fuck?
Crusher Bob
The MBW give a computer control of your muscles, add rigger adaptation to that computer. So "computer: move arm" can also be just like rigging a drone. The movement commands to the MBW would be 'just like' the movement commands to an anthro drone. This way you don't need to worry about the extra bulk of a duplicate set of muscles etc that any drone you could 'sit' your meatbody in. Write some robotic pilots for your MBW computer (like the ones on the aforementioned anthro drone) so that you don't need to be 'jumped in' all the time. You just captains chair, with your meatbody as one of your drones. The robotic pilot keeps it with the team.
mfb
for sheer going-places power, you're probably best off with a skimmer. alternately, you could make a small rotor drone with the smart materials option, and give it bumblee wings as opposed to the more traditional-style rotors. this'd save you a lot of space. give it a high-end pilot rating with some of the pilot-enhancement options from R3, and you can pretty much run it like another character.
Kagetenshi
On a tangent, DH, what's the significance of the string in your sig? I haven't been able to make any particular sense out of it... 00 100 111 10 1 101 10 111 011 11 111 010 000 0 1010 111 100 0 doesn't seem to come out to be anything particularly sensical...

~J
RangerJoe
It's morse code for "I don't know morse code."

And in a rigger thread, too.... sigh.
Kagetenshi
...I should've thought of that.
Ah well. Can we spot the decker?

~J
RangerJoe
Gritz-- CAS Ork Decker Extraordinaire. *Tips hat* Moonshine?
Amir
hmmm...

my say is, go see "ghost in the shell", then get yourself a couple of Tachicomas. (big spider-like wheeled drone).
Mutie
QUOTE

You just captains chair, with your meatbody as one of your drones


basiclly it boils down to if i wanted my meat body down there unassisted i'd walk. Legs is Soft squishy dwarf( don't tell him i called him a dwarf) who would prefer several inchs of steel tween him and anything he may encounter not to mention the fact you try to cram one more wire into his body an there better be a cybermancer nearby. permanant brain damage and massive seizures aside it's a neat idea though. (although i wonder what the cheese value might be of MBW(1) with vcr(3) in combat situations).



QUOTE
So you'd basically need 6CF for the drone's seat for the person


Hmm, heres a good question are there not different cf values for adding seating based on race ? I would assume that trying to add seating to a drone ( or a car for that matter) would take up a different amount of space for a dwarf than a troll but for the life of me i cannot find any such rules.



Nikoli
Bucket seat rules in R3 revised. 6 CF and somethign like 100 Kg wieght
Mutie

Yup I knew about the bucket seat values , I just find it odd that its a one size fits all proposition, just because a troll in a dwarven bucket seat will feel like a football player in a child safety seat. Good visual but a little off.


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