We're starting up a new game, and i am playing a rigger, and it is one character type that i have never played so i was wondering if anyone could help me make an optimized build. I don't even know where to start. We are doing a 400 BP build, but the availability cap has been raised to 16 instead of 12 for gear. I was looking at stuff like a simsense booster for cyberre, but i wasn't sure if i needed it as a rigger. My character is going to be a dwarf, and i was thinking of having my guy have a steampunk theme by adding the pimped ride mod to most of my drones to change their appearance to look steampunk. our GM has given us a step van ad 10,000 nuyen extra to mod it. i don't even know where to begin on building this so any help would be appreciated.

First you need to decide on the type of Rigger you are going to be:
Drones, Drones, Drones
Vehicles/smuggler
rigger/hacker

You have a step van, and 10k that's very nice.
I recommend getting mechanic: ground vehicle skill
I also recommend getting Armorer.
This way you can do your own mods.
You're going to need multiple mechanic skills, if you plan on working on drones with different movement modes.

Spring for the "lighter than air" mod for your van, then you can get Aorcraft mechanic instead. Zeplins are waaaayyyyy cooler than a stepvan, no matter how much it is tricked out.

I advise you to read the chase combat rules a few times before you mod the van - improving the Handling will give you extra dice to escape, whereas improving the speed/acceleration ... won't.

If you wind up buying drones, remember to upgrade their sensors to 6. The rule is, you need to figure out how many sensors are in the package, and buy Grade 6 versions to replace all of them. Sensors is your primary targeting stat when you're in VR.

Check out the rules for recoil in Arsenal - either drones/vehicles negate recoil entirely, or they get Body worth of free recoil compensation. Automatic weapons are your friends.

Invest in a PersonaSoft - your Drones are going to get nearly as much (if not more) screen time then your Rigger, so make sure they're fun to play. HK-47 is a good place to start from, as is Bender.

Check out the nanotech section of Augmentation - there is a nanotech Control Rig Booster and a Logic Booster, both of which will help your guy rack up the bonuses.

Have you considered TM dronomancer? Also, for ideas, start here.

What a great looking resource.

There goes all my free time this afternoon.

This is a stack of brilliance.

Apologies to Ancient History who originally posted this (and much, much more) here.

Merging multiple topics

Our group has a dedicated hacker so they way i want to play it is to be all about the drones, i also want to do it all with ware instead of being a technomancer. those kits that were posted are definitely useful for building a starter character, but the way our group plays i'm definately going to need to make the most out of all of my starting BP to hang in there with everybody.

Riggers offer a large number of choices. To Optimize one of the first things to look at is what are the dice pools you are likely to use.

Typically(For Drone you can substitute Vehicle)
Autonomous Drone = Drone Pilot + Drone Autosoft
Physically Driving = PC Attribute + PC Skill
Jumped IN = Drone Response + PC Skill
Remote Control = Command Program + PC skill

From your choice in operating a drone/vehicle, you can look at what items boost the pools you use, and figure out what secondary activities you may wish to focus in.

For example, a Rigger/Hacker would tend to go with Remote Control or Autonomous. Or you could go with physically driving and provide backup street sam muscle skills. Or you could go Jumped In, and buy up response in your drones.

Some not so obvious items are Tacsofts and Tacnets from Unwired, and the More Then Metahuman Quality.

Depending on what you want to optimize, there are plenty more options.

we have a decent sized group, so i think i can afford to specialize in just rigging and jumping in. Our group consists of a dedicated hacker/face, a red hot nuke, a mage, a sneaky adept with a lot of combat skills, a street sam that also has some sneaking abilities, and my rigger. so i shouldn't have to worry about covering any roles except my rigging roles, so i will probably spend a lot of time jumped in.

oh and our campaign is a mercenary group in berlin, so i won't have to worry as much about stuff like concealed armor on my vehicles and drones.

This, basically. To play a rigger, you're going to want good drones - or even full vehicles, like a getaway van - and the skills and passes to back it up.

Technomancers can be versatile riggers, and unmatched in actions with a few initiations, using Macro and Overclocking. They can also slap sprites in drones, and thread their command program to high levels to remote control things very effectively. Sprite autosofts - such as through machine or tutor sprites - are also much better than regular pilot autosofts because they're not limited to rating 4.

Let's talk skills.
You want piloting skills, and aircraft skills if you want to fly. (and high as it can go, because it limites infiltration)
You want mechanic skills if you want to modify your shit - and if you're a good rigger, you do!
If you want to modify the guns on your drones, you want armorer!
You want Infiltration, because its used to sneak vehicles past sensors.
You want Gunnery, because its used to shoot stuff with anythign vehicle mounted.
You want Perception, because its used for sensor checks.
You want dodge, because it used to not get your drones shot up.

Being effective:
Passes and dice

Software junk:
You need VR, which needs simsense, which needs DNI, if you want to Jump In. Jumping in is good.
You want a high Command, Encrypt, and ECCM. More specifically
To fuck with other peoples drones, you want Scan, Sniffer, Trace Decrypt, Exploit, Spoof, Defuse
To protect your stuff, you want Data Bomb, Encrypt, Stealth.
To boot people out of drones, you want some sort of attack program - attack is good, and works against anything.
If you're going to go the jumped-in route, Biofeedback Filter.

Gear:
Jammer. Always have a jammer. Or a spare device with high signal to jam on the fly with(unwired)
Guns: Drones get extra recoil, and weapon mounts get 250 round belt feeds, and some extra recoil compensation. LMGs are your friend
Sensors: Sensors are your drones lifeblood. They're your dice pools for attacking stuff, treat them well, and customize the loadouts(arsenal. Errata saves sanity)
Passes: No matter where you get them, more is better. Its a good idea to spend one each turn controlling the drone, or else you risk crashing(Its also worth mentioning that using Edge to get an extra action can be used to do that in a tight pinch.) 5 Pass riggers are badass. the Macro echo deserves a special mention here, because it, essentially, lets you off-hand(at the -2) a second matrix action. And rigging is a matrix action.
Cyber: Control rigs are great. Smartlinks too. Hot sim deserves a special mention, because the +2 applies to stuff you do while rigging

edit: typos.

also, a note on specialisations.

the gunnery(ballistic) is a pretty obvious specialisation to take unless you plan on almost exclusively mounting rockets and grenades.
the less obvious one is <any non-exotic pilot skill; they all have it> (remote operation), assuming your GM interprets that to mean operation of a vehicle while you aren't in it (if your GM interprets that to mean using the remote control method of driving vehicles, not so much... but if there's one for remote controlling, logically there should be one for rigging as well, though no such specialisation is listed).
infiltration has a vehicle specialisation.
iirc, so does dodge?

note that specialisations are more cost-efficient to buy with karma than with BP, however.

finally, have you considered the possibility of being a rigger adept? adept powers can now function for matrix actions, so it's something to think about, though if you don't want to it is not by any means the only route.

Thats really wow thats just really awful.

it's the only way we have to get zeppelins that aren't massive cargo-haulers or small drones.