This came up in a recent game, can you take called shots on drones? Either to ignore the armor or for increased DV.

If you can, then would you need some type of knowledge or skill to justify it? such as mechanic or armoror?

If that is the case then why is First Aid or something like that required to make the called shot on metahumans?

---Just trying to see what other people are thinking here, Myself and my friend take turns GM'ing, and we have a....difference of opinion... on some things.

Personally, I don't see why you'd need First Aid as a skill to make a called shot to a person's head. It's common knowledge that a bullet to the head makes you really dead.
If you go for specifics I might ask if your character has a background to identify e.g. weak spots in armour or something like this, but I usually wouldn't make it a roll either. You know it or you don't.
A background knowledge skill in anatomy, or an active skill in armorer or medicine would suffice, in my opinion.

Considering drones however, the going gets more difficult.
Easily identifiable weak spots would be a sensor cluster on the outside, maybe wheels, turbines, tracks or something like this. An ammo feed. Again, imo, if you're aiming for specifics, yes, your character should have background knowledge about the topic.
Skills I can imagine would help would be e.g. armorer, mechanic, hardware or vehicle skills according to the drone's type.

Honestly? Do you really think players need specific knowledge to deal with most drones?

Is it treaded like a tank? Common knowledge says shoot for the treads. Is it a helicopter-like rotordrone? You can be damn sure blowing away a part of the rotor system is going to hurt it. Is it an anthroform? Take out the joints of the legs like any walker. Does it have wheels? Blow them out. Can you see the camera or sensors? Blind it. One spot has visibly thinner armor? Punch through there. Rockets or ammo bin distinctly visible? Fire a burst of explosive rounds and get more bang for your buck.

These are all fairly obvious concepts - probably even moreso in a future world where drones are everyday presences that do everything from monitoring traffic from the air, to showing up in all the most popular trideo flicks and shows, to standing guard and patrolling corporate properties, to delivering pizza, etc.

~Umi

With all due respect... in an abstract game like this. The called shot mechanic is perfectly fine without needing to force players to do wierd crap. It's a nice abstract mechanic which keeps the balance quite nicely between mundanes and magical types.

It could simply be aiming at a sheet of the armor which is square to you instead of obliquely angled to maximize the chance of penetration... taking the time to aim well instead of a quick snap shot. Aiming at the wierd sensor cluster which looks like a bunch of eyeball grapes on the spirit. Or partially bypassing armor by hitting an arm instead of an armored chest (yes I know hit locations aren't generally in the game... but it really doesn't matter).

No
That's what I said. If the player simply wants to bypass armor or stage up the DV, he can go for it without having skills.
If, however, he tells me "I want to shoot out the CPU and transmitter, so I can salvage the thing later", I will tell him, that he needs to know exactly where those things are.