There are many fun things you can do with spirits and drones, especially if you tool up the fun ones with gear.
First of all remember that your drone/spirit body does not need fuel – you as a spirit can fly using you ‘body’ – for simplicity and not to bog down into logic vs magic we do as we do with people, they will need to rest.
To represent rest they have the same ‘operation time’ as normal people (as im sure even spirits need to relax in some way) which would be between 8-12 hours, a little more than usual vehicles but not unbalanced.

Hunter Killer Drone with Anti-Vehicle weaponry (welding laser etc)
1: ECM rating 10
1: Chameleon Coating
2: Mechanical Arm – Grapple X2

Get your spirits force to 5

Give your spirit the following powers from start
-Movement (1)
-Concealment (2)
-Poison (1)
-Guard (0,5)
-Accident (0,5)

You have now created ASSASSIN BOT the free spirit and the drone will have the following stats:

Handling: 1 (6)
Accel: 3/15 (8/20)
Speed: 30 (35) (With movement it will be 175 meters per combat turn)
Body: 1 (6)
Armor: 1 (6)
Pilot and Sensor are not physical attributes and will not be affected.

Any visual perception tests will be at a -9D6 (Concealment -5 and Ruthenium -4) to see the little bugger when he zips forward to inject a target with STR 6 poison. If he needs to go into regular melee his strength will be BOD/2 which is 3 and that is darn good for something the size of a small field mouse.

Oh, lets not forget his constant jamming of communications wherever he goes...

But yes, the inhabitation rules ARE a bit wonky.

Lets get crazier.

Have three players work in unity.

One player is the free inhabitation spirit and the other is the AI ihabiting the system of the vehicle the spirit is inhabiting.

The third player is the rigger who's living with them and making runs together.

Their name...TRIFORCE

For a little investment it's worse if you take a Type-0 Clone, give it bioware, Infect it with Vampirism, and then Inhabit it. That is the BBEG of a run I've been developing for a while. You've read my Inhabitation/Free/Ally spirit thread, right?

How would that work? Can the spirit ignore the vampirism bit or would the 'shell' suck essence from the spirit if it does not feed its body or what? Link?

This time we take the Caterpillar horseman with the mechanical limb upgrades.
Vehicle Upgrades
-walker mode (2)
-Ruthenium Polymers (1)
-Armor 12 (1)
-Theft Protection (Electro Shock)

Replace the Poison power with Silence so that it walks with an area effect silencer at -5 to sound based perception
So, let’s recap. Invisible mecha with area effect silencer that gives you electric shocks if you touch it and it has guard and accident as well. Now we give it a heavy weapon...

Oh yes, it can also take people for a ride - it's the safest taxi you can find.

Im thinking of these guys when it comes to size:

[img]http://www.starshipmodeler.com/rv/k3-4rside.jpg[/img]

Just a Quick doubt. How would the spirit activate the drone's systems if it, by raw, cannot make use of any "software controled" part of the drone, like the Ruthenium Coating, the Theft Protection and the ECM?

Install manual controls.

Like a bank of toggle switches.

Just have them be on the inside where only the spirit can operate them.






-k

It states that the spirit can manipulate the vessel within limits of its function and gives an example of a car being driven by a spirit possessing it.

Yeah, but giving it manual controls removes any grey areas one might use to argue against allowing it.




-k

well, that part is really open for interpretation.

If a vehicle has X amount of functions installed then that can be classified as its function and not only that its a flying drone so the spirit can make it fly - and literally nothing else. Personally i dont think physical buttons/buttons switches is neccessary for the spirit to control its 'body'.

Limits are of course drawn to sensors, pilot rating and matrix functions as they are not mechanical in nature or the spirit cannot utilize it - I have no problem with it using an electrical conduit to activate a mechanical function (like activating a jammer.

I'm not talking about manual controls. If the vessel is a telescoping spear, the spear can telescope normally. If it is a car, it can steer, open/close doors, and roll (at the least, probably use most of the peripherals as well). If it is a flying drone with a weapon mount, it could fly and fire the weapon. It cannot use its sensors to target - it would have to rely on normal sight/astral sight. Street Magic, page 102, Possession And Vessels sidebar, Dead or Inanimate Vessels.

Very true, but that also depends on what kind of hardware the vehicle is made up of. And what exactly can a spirit DO? It's very simple to try and convert human actions to say a car (manual shift-stick, steering wheels and wheels that turn) but how tiny manipulations can a spirit do? Can it coax electrical currents or manipulate nanite sized switches inside the drone, I would say yes since it is essentially its own body?

The ECM is rather simple, it is a vehicle upgrade and thus a mechanical device, we can assume the spirit can activate it. A commlink installed inside a vehicle could also be used, it could be turned on and off but the spirit would not be able to read the screen or perform any matrix action.

The spirit would be able to ACTIVATE sensors but it cannot comprehend or use them as they usually require a matrix interface or the ability to look at a screen to interpret results.

Personally, I assume a spirit can only perform physical actions.

Doing stuff like closing an internal circuit is... arguable. Especially if it's a solid state switch like those that route optical signals.

Putting in a mechanical switch means I don't have to face such arguements nearly as often. It's not as questionable or based on a grey area.

I hate grey areas in rules.



-k

Agreed, that's why I try to have as many clarification house rules in order to avoid misunderstandings.

But the fun question remains - is SIZE a limitation for an inhabitating spirit? A BOD 0 drone, essentially a NANITE DRONE could be inhabited and used.

Ie, a very small drone.

So we could take a single hard nanite Cutter and insert a free spirit inside it. Now we have a nigh invisible and undetectable drone with movement, STR 6 poison attack with accident that has all its attributes increased by Force...

Now, do vehicle drone upgrades exist in Nanoscale size?

Not to mention, a STR 6 Nanite Drone...Can it toss people around?

I can see it now, the Johnson leans over the table and points at a marked X on the table and gives the team a magnifying glass.."Right, I want you to meet your new partner, his name is Ginormus..."