Just wanted to hear everyone's opinion on a new house rule i've made to get over the 'invinsible' drone effect caused by putting 6 points of armour on a drone. My Rigger is a bit angry about this change so i'll put it out there to see if i've caused a serious balance issue.

Essentially for each +4 called shot penalty you take on your attack, you can reduce the effective armour of a target by 1. This represents you carefully aiming between armour plates and at weak spots. Obviously the more heavily armoured the more difficult it is to find those spots.

I find that this gives someone without a AV or high-powered weapon at least a slight chance of getting a shot through - it's remote but with enough aiming and skill it could be done.

Can anyone see an issue with this, or does anyone think it's a good idea?

Cheers

I don't think it's a bad idea but I do think it's functionally pointless. a +4 to the TN is so huge that any rigger controlled drone is virtually guarenteed a dodge. You should run through the math on that.

Then again, I also think something with 6 points of vehicle, the same as a military APC, SHOULD bounce small arms fire, pretty much period.

I just make it that AV small arms ammo still reduces the wound level by one but instead of half armor, it uses full armor. That works quote well in gameplay, and still requires someone get their hands on AV ammo.

That just depends on how big your drone is now dosent it?

BB,

I guess it's an issue of game balance. The rest of the team seem to be at a level where they're ready to take on gangs and thugs, and the rigger is completely impervious to them. It might seem contrived if i give every group of thugs AV rounds, so i'm looking for ways to keep the rigger on her toes, instead of steam rolling all encounters. There are obviously other tricks i can pull to keep her at bay, but i'd rather her in the mix but with some risk of damage.

Unfortunately the characters are too well developed to enforce any massive changes to their gear.

Also, this gives the player characters a chance of attacking an armoured drone if they're caught without their beloved rigger's AV rockets or such. It's freakin' dangerous, but possible.

Anyone else got some house rules that would be handy?

Use imaginative anti-drone measures. You can neutralize a remote operated tank without destroying it.

example 1: hot paint with iron filings dropped onto a drone. Effect: radar useless, the visual spectrum useless, slight disruption in the remote control aspect, but not enough to worry about

example 2: open manholes with black cloth on them to deal with land-bound drones. Effect: if the drone "chases down the thug," it will go down the hole that the thug was able to step over.

example 3: direct a significant AC source into a drone (power lines or carefully set up extension cord trap) Effect: a big shock, disables most drones, can destroy some

Give your security guards Tazers. It's reasonable to think guards would have them, you might need to subdue somebody without killing them. And since they're electrical damage not only will a Tazer inflict serious damage on drones but also send a nasty ASIST spike into the rigger, causing possible serious damage to her meat body a mile away. A VCR3 rigger would take 7D from a Defiance Super Shock even if it doesn't stage up at all.

Also you could enforce the rules on upkeep, those million-nuyen worth of drones need a load of money to keep running. And if that isn't enough, enforce the fuel costs so that every time she turns on the engine it costs her a hundred nuyen in gas. That'll make the rigger think twice before sending 6 steel lynxes on a scouting mission.

Cost of maintenance isn't too bad, just costing her shy of 10k each month.

Personally i imagined tasers not being able to effect drones ... if a Rating 6 Electricity Spell can't effect a drone with 6 levels of armour, i don't think that a taser should be able to ... unfortunately!

It's quite annoying that Hardened armour protects against spells as well... (at least that's what i recall reading). Anybody?

Basically, you're describing the called-shot rule. People can call a shot for a specific effect, as determined by the GM. While I think armor penetration isn't the best choice, it's valid under the rules.

You're better off having people target specific subsystems. Hitting the main antenna, for one, can really screw over a drone. Hitting the sensor plate is another.

Is it hardly fair to cause such damage for just +4? Destroying the sensors is pretty much a fatal attack...

i would probably require some sort of vehicle knowledge test in order to figure out which knobby thing is a sensor, TN depending on the type of vehicle and my mood at the time. most days, a single shot won't be able to take out the entire sensor suite in my games. if i were feeling particularly productive, i might jury rig something out of the attribute stress rules.

The issue here doesn't seem to be the balance of the rules, but that you've allowed one character to have resources the others don't. If the rest of the party doesn't have the gear to take on more than gangers, but the Rigger's got AV rockets and security drones, then it seems to me like you've missed out wonderful friend, the Street Index. That kind of gear may seem cheap at first glance, but you have to have a damn good contact not to have some kind of markup.

I think Higital Herion hit it on the head, the rigger has equipment that is obviously beyond the scale of the opposition in the game.

Yeah, i'm well aware of this!

As i mentioned i'm past the point of 'taking away' toys from the players as they're quite established. All of them were made correctly using the points based char gen rules.

My main problem is coming up with a way of putting the drones at some risk, instead of them walking through an encounter that would otherwise challenge the other players.

It looks like i'll just have to equip my baddies with more kick-arse gear!

My shaman has been using barrier a lot lately to stop drones. If the drone is flying at a good speed and plows into a force 6 barrier it will wake the rigger up real quick, and if I remember correctly armor doesn't help the drone in the crash test, and if it takes a serious in the crash it has to make another crash test to see if it goes out of controll possibily crashing again. Works pretty well on wheeled drones also but not as good as they can only go so fast. So I cast ice sheet behind me as I run up a hill.

Do wheeled drones come with run flates? I mean some vehicles are listed with them but I don't know if any drone is equipped with them at purchase. That would help a little if the drones are riding on standard issue street tires.

What would the effects of Moltov cocktail be while it is burning away on the top of the Steel Lynx. Would the sensors work or would they haet and flames obscure the images?