I'm playing with the idea of trying to combine the concept of a Sniper using a few drones for defence, recon, and improved visibility.

I haven't played around with Drones before, and thus I'm somewhat wondering what it actually requires, in order to get something useful out of Drones. Anyone have any good advice on what works or not, as well as any pitfalls concerning using Drones?

The vision for the character is a Sniper using Drones as a tool to improve his/her ability to engage a target from a distance.

Well, MCT Fly Spies are little tiny sensor fliers, so that's handy. If you're *really* sniping, you could be out of signal range, but everything works the same through the Matrix anyway.

You could set up a TacNet with enough (and well-modified) drones. That would help with basically everything.

couple renraku blimp drones with sat links and improved sensor packages can do wonders for tacnets, along with a couple micro-mini drones along your escape route and watching your back (remember to use cheap for those you may have to leave behind, the blimps can be pre-programmed to move to saftey for retrevial)

Can also look into taking a kanmushu and adding: specialised machinery - injector needle and chamelon coating... makes for nasty backup

A very nasty thing to do is have helicopter drones with plenty of sensor and chameleon coating... and a mounted sniper rifle for when they get around nasty corners if they don't go down after the first shot.

Ha, I assumed the character would do the sniping.

Well sure, but there's no such thing as overkill. Why not have four drones slaved to your commlink and command them all to fire as you pull the trigger on your smartgun? Just saying... five bullets to the brain are almost always better than one... unless it's your brain.

You can make a decent sniper flying drone for about 20k a pop.
30k, if you want to include the automatic repair nanites.

a 5 IP jumped in rigger would get his gunnery skill and 5 passes with the sniper rifle.
That's ton of deadly accurate damage.

Haha! I totally forgot about getting 5 IPs in VR. That's just scary... and mod the guns so they are full-auto sniper rifles? Base 18p before aiming for the head? Scary...

Recoil becomes an issue then.
With a medium drone, you can only really get about 4 points of recoil compensation.
And that's assuming your gm doesn't give you on the move modifiers, even if you're hovering.

Totally should, hovering is hard.

It's a waste of slots to make sniper rifles FA anyway, and they don't really have the clip for it. BF is fine, but still.

They could still be useful even if they miss completely, by obscuring the location of the character doing the sniping. Where did the shot come from? Everywhere.

Oh how I'd love to see that situation. All of the Knight Errant security goons trying to run through their procedures for sniper situations.
Pocedure...
1)Take cover
2)Determine where sniper is firing from
3) Move through cover to takedown

Situation...
1)Boys in blue dive behind a car
2) Begin scanning rooftops, suddenly another one hits the floor. "Where'd that one come from?" shouts of grunt. "One?! He's got five bullet holes.. on different sides?!"

What does being a sniper add to being a drone rigger? Why not just have the drones do your shooting for you?

Sniping: Very cool.

Drones: Also cool.

Being a sniper in Shadowrun? Potentially boring.

Having the ability to put a lethal bullet into someone's head from a distance using drones to help you is a cool idea and definitely going to be fun, but you also have to ask yourself, "In a game like Shadowrun, what does that mean I will be doing during the game?" In 4-8 hours of play, how often will you be squeezing the trigger? Make sure whatever concept you go with is versatile enough to enjoy all the scenes your team encounters so you won't spend the whole session camped out in an abandoned building waiting for a target so your tacnet-of-super-cool-drone-zords can help you shoot someone in the face.

Mesh

don't forget drones can be herders too, a couple combat drones can herd a group towards a kill zone and the sniper shot.

Nothing like them thinking they got away and sigh with relief then the target's head becomes a fine mist...

Very valid point. I've attempted to play a sniper before, without the drones, and when I did get to snipe it was awesome. But throughout the whole campaign I only got to use my tricked out rifle a few times. I ended up using all of my infiltration skills and just carrying a shotgun for when things got hairy.

given how you can control multiple drones I would suggest one tricked out as a sniper, a couple as recon / spotters and maybe one to use more up close.

covers most bases quite easily

And now you're a rigger instead of a sniper.

If you're letting the Drone shoot, you can send a command as a simple action to any number of drones so long as they all receive the same command.

So, you could potentially command XX drones to fire on the same target at the same time, twice a pass for 5 passes. Hell, with active targeting, you could pick multiple targets and just give an execute order. pop. pop.

Riggers are why everyone should be terrified of going outside.

if one have the time, and are in a urban area, one option could be the smart firing platform. Basically a tripod with a drone brain.

equip them with cheap rifles and things can get really interesting

heck, i sometimes wonder if its collapsible so that one could carry the weapon and the tripod as a complete package via a shoulder strap. Then deploy as needed and use the drone pilot for the skill rather then the carrier.

Just add Gecko Tips, Ruthenium coating, and Propulsion: Limping and they can reposition and hang under an eave like a Machinegun-shaped Niiiiinjaaaaa!

More fun to do that with a real drone... better recoil compensation too and ya can slap more sensors in it (and it moves faster)

course steel lynx gecko tips can be a problem with structual walls.... but imagine the look when it falls, rolls over and shoots all the witnesses as if pissed at it's humiliation

Just a note, I would NEVER make a sniper character. Sure they're pretty boss when it comes to wetwork, but having a sniper in your team means that chances are the GM is going to be encouraged to use snipers too. Nothing pisses a GM off more than when you kill a character vital to the story at 500M.

After watching the episode 'Poker Face' from Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd Gig, I am convinced that having the character only doing the shooting isn't the best idea.

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I'd favor disposable drones for sniping.

Nissan Roto-Drones + Remington 950.

Nissan Roto-Drone : 2,000 - 6 Availability
+Fixed Normal Weapon Mount w/Remote Control : 2,000 - 10F
Remington 950 : 675 - 4R Availability

That gives you a flying drone with a 5 shot magazine. 8P -1AP for a total cost of 4,675 per drone.

You could also start with a Ford LEBD-1 flying drone. That has all the necessary weapon mounts, but is 4,500 on top of the 675 for the weapon, but it's 6R. You pay 500 more and the drone itself is Restricted rather than Forbidden.

Nissan Roto-Drone : 4,675 EA, but Forbidden availability.
For LEBD-1: 5,175 EA, but Restricted availability.

Additionally, buy them in pairs and one "set" of ammo for sporting rifles and you can fill up both. You're talking around 4,700 - 5,225 per drone. That's cheap enough to make disposable. If you're sniping while using drones, you probably aren't going to be sitting with the vehicle housing the drones. 20-30k on something that is probably going to be easier to lose than a normal rigger drone seems like a bad investment.

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500M? That seems a bit low....

To be honest, I play a sniper and I've never engaged in combat at farther than 100M so far. However, if you build a sniper true to form, your character -should- be very good at physical infiltration and recon. I don't do social engineering recon, but when it comes to moving about unnoticed I'm the go to guy.

iirc, a recent thread on the sniping topic pointed out a difference between army snipers and SWAT snipers. The latter worked much closer to the target then the former.