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Kagetenshi
Drones dodge on TN Handling. That's often TN 2 for a dedicated rigger. Drones dodge with control pool (with a rigger, of course), but they can use combat pool for attacking. VCR-3s do much, much more than Wired-3, and are thus more likely to be had. Sensor-enhanced gunnery can lock onto a target before LOS is acquired.

In a straight-up fight with no other advantages, Sams lose and big time, even indoors. The advantage to sams is their versatility.

~J
Cynic project
Roles,and such are short commings.If you make a character who can be summed up in a quick tittle you are most likely making a character that can be easily countered. The medic, is not that useful in a lot of places, the gun bunny ain't going to save you when you need to use more of a smile,and less of a stick.

You should make charcter who at least can in a pinch filling for three or four roles.The medic doesn't need to be as good as the decker in the matrix, but sometimes you need to jack into a simple system in a pinch.The face doesn't need to out fight the street sam, but sometimes they will have to go some place alone,and things can go south.

Lastly when was the last time you saw someone who was only good in one feild? When was the last time you thought that characters would be fun, if they came off as flat,carbon copies of old stereotypes?Or when was the last time you were in a game with someone who was playing a social "god" in street level game, trying to talk his way out the bug hive, cause guns are bad?Or a Troll who couldn't add numbers witht the help of a computer,but could shoot evry gun in the world and had a big stick?-.^
The White Dwarf
Characters with multiple roles was the original point of the thread.

As for the Steel Lynx... its the size of a motorcycle. Its not going to manuver well inside a building, especially in an office or similar setting setting. And even if it were to get inside, the 34,500 nuyen drone can easily be dropped in a single shot by a 1000 nuyen Greatdragon ATGM.

The point being, any drone small enough to have a wide operational range inside buildings and such is small enough that a sam will soak better. And any drone big enough to take hits is too large to be of use in that setting. Theyre not cost-effective in a combat role. As has been said before, drones are best used in the 'cover fire while we escape' role, or the 'intelligence/surveillance' role. People need to get over the eye candy stats and look at the practical value of things in a realistic run setting.
Necro Tech
QUOTE (Arz)
Also overspecialized characters tend to get antsy when they are not involved. This leads them to doing stupid or distracting things.

Possibly the most important statement in this thread.

notworthy.gif

Seriously.

"I'm bored. I think I'll go to a club and start some trouble."
Kagetenshi
QUOTE (The White Dwarf)
And even if it were to get inside, the 34,500 nuyen drone can easily be dropped in a single shot by a 1000 nuyen Greatdragon ATGM.

And thirty days of Hospitalized lifestyle costs ¥30,000 plus thirty days you could have been earning money. Only takes a few ¥2 bullets, too.

~J
The White Dwarf
A sam at 9 boxes physical can be bioteched down to 3, then magically healed at least one box. Which leaves him free to sleep off a light wound at home. Good sams are hard to top for anything combat related, as they should be. Drones are too costly to replace, at least every single time Ive seen them employed. Im curious if anyone has found a cheap or at least cost effective way around that. It might change my stance on this. But until then theyre firmly cover fire or intelligence/surveillance.
toturi
Body 4 Walkers with Armour.
Edward
the steal lynx only has armor 9 now (12 in SR2)

i thaught a drone could use non sensor enhanced gunery even without being jumped in. do you have a referance that would counter this.

also i would be tempted to compare the sami with a cool mill in kit all starting charictr avaliable to any 2 starting charicter avaliable armored combat drones without the riger jumped in. let sy the two modified jobs i recomended before. there is very litle the samy can do that will more than scrach the paintwork) and the drones have biger guns. (great dragon ATGM is an exeption but there not usualy caryed around and you have to set them up on a tripod.

after customisation i am looking at about 50K for an efectiv combat drone. i can esaly have several and if i loose one there not that hard to repoace. compare that to cyberwear stress.

the value of a street sam is in his versitility, improvisational skills, repeated short encounters with weapons in the 16S-20D range.

it takes a damage code of 20 to harm a steal linx. a trole brick shithouse build will give you maby 10 balistic and 18 body. your looking 1-3 sucseses on the soak roll. with a base damage of D for every such weapon i could find. i wouldnt be in such hury to walk out infront of that if i was you.

Edward
Kremlin KOA
Uh white, reread your data on steel lynxes from the first time they were mentioned till today, the steel lynx in popular for indoor use due to the simple fact that their wheels are on "legs" that can alter position allowing the steel lynx to fit in a standard passenger elevator. if you want I will try to send you the pic.
The White Dwarf
Fitting in an elevator != manuvering around a cubical laden office space

All Im saying is, theyre not a substitute. In some uses comparable, but not replaceable. So the rigger cant fill the sams roles, tho perhaps overlap in some. Rather he is best in his own roles as stated above.
Kagetenshi
Exactly. But straight-up combat isn't the place where the Sam shines.

~J
mmu1
QUOTE (Kagetenshi)
Exactly. But straight-up combat isn't the place where the Sam shines.

~J

...which is one of the many problems with SR.

The more I see them in action, the more I hate riggers and the rules for riggers. (But I forgive the people that play them wink.gif)

I think it's ridiculuous for the setting to push an archetype as the "ultimate killing machine" when a lot of the time a samurai is of marginal use to a team that plays it smart, and comes in a distant second (if that) in terms of combat ability.
Kremlin KOA
okay firstly your 1million nuyen sammi dies against a great dragon ATGM as fast as a steel lynx does..
2 as I said get a good look at a steel lynx's picture maneuvering around corners is easy for it ad human speeds
3 for about 100 000K you camn get the Ares Guardian which has armor 12 and is a VT designed for indoor office cubicle invasion a well made rigger can do 90% of what a sammi can do and is more versatile in the long run.
Kagetenshi
Heh. As a rigger, I'd disagree heartily.

Even a heavily-armed and obviously-wared sam has a better chance of being ignored than a drone does (Kid Stealth legs, balance tails, and other massive structural alterations notwithstanding). If you're going to try to get anywhere near the diversity of a Sam, you're going to need a lot of different drones, which ups the chances of being discovered (small drones really can't carry much, and the big ones aren't so good at being sneaky). If I need someone taken down quietly or nonlethally or if I want a maglock bypassed or a camera deactivated, or if I want to question the person we're about to grab before the shooting starts, I know who to call.

~J
Kremlin KOA
one high sig body 2 crawler with mechanical arms... hell anm arthroform if you are raiding a cyberzombie clinic
given half the drones I use have a better sig than the sami I will agree for extractions you need to custom build drones. but with 4-5 drones you can be combat effective, do long range surveillance and sniping, cover the party's escape and pen etrate most corporate structures, pair this guy with a combat decker and...
Necro Tech
Only problem you run into with assualt drones is the reactions of the NPC's. Six guys, no matter what they are carrying do not provoke the same response as a guardian "flying-tank-minigun-platform" drone roaring through the building. Head shots can take down troll bircks but you need missles to take out a guardian.
Kremlin KOA
humming not roaring sig 7 is quieter than a non stealthing human
Aehri
Haven't read this entire thing in a couple days, but aren't drones a bit more succeptable to ECMs than say your average sammy. Also remember the sammy can switch weapons and equipment on the go as well as get into places without making a scene a lot easier than a combat drone. Flexibility helps a lot, that and you are less likely to get looked at funny than the Steel-Lynx trying to sneak across a parking lot.

I think both have their place. But in a gunfight gone bad only one of them is going to escape through a manhole, vent or small gap between buildings.
mmu1
QUOTE (Kremlin KOA @ Oct 22 2004, 07:45 PM)
humming not roaring sig 7 is quieter than a non stealthing human

"The signature rating indicates a vehicle's vulnerability to electromagnetic or thermal detection and serves as the target number for sensor and missile to-hit tests made against the vehicle." SR3 p.133

What does that have to do with how easy something is to see and hear with human senses? Are you saying that a signature 5 Ferrari Appaloosa capable of carrying six fully armed soldiers and running on jet fuel is going to have as easy a time hiding inside a building as a troll?
toturi
QUOTE (mmu1)
Are you saying that a signature 5 Ferrari Appaloosa capable of carrying six fully armed soldiers and running on jet fuel is going to have as easy a time hiding inside a building as a troll?

That is correct if you are using CCSS.
Kagetenshi
*Taps the Passive Sensor Test rules*

~J
toturi
You know (back on topic and to repeat what I've stated), there aren't any roles in a team. The concept of roles is quite like the concept of CLASSES, it doesn't fit well into the free form manner of SR. You know what you need to do, how you do it or who does it doesn't matter.
Kagetenshi
I disagree somewhat. Our combat guy doesn't deck. Our decker doesn't drive. I (the Rigger) don't go in on foot to mix it up. There are roles, but they're very generalized, or sometimes large collections of smaller specialized roles.

Not that we haven't said that a few times.

~J
mmu1
QUOTE (toturi)
QUOTE (mmu1 @ Oct 23 2004, 09:07 AM)
Are you saying that a signature 5 Ferrari Appaloosa capable of carrying six fully armed soldiers and running on jet fuel is going to have as easy a time hiding inside a building as a troll?

That is correct if you are using CCSS.

What is CCSS, so that I can make sure not to use it?
Kagetenshi
Closed Circuit SimSense, or turning a building into a giant drone network. The drone sensors will test against the Signature. However, that in no way keeps the audio and visual portions from seeing the vehicle just fine, just like a Sig 20 miniblimp hovering in front of my van at noon on a sunny day would be obvious even though I might not be able to get a sensor lock to save my life.

~J
Kanada Ten
[slow]
Kremlin KOA
CCSS aka closed circuit simsense, allows sec riggers to become the building the way a vehicle rigger becomes the car, sort of.

Advantages Team decker cannot make the building his biatch. Higher quality Maglocks. nastier weapon emplacements as they can be rigger controlled.

downsides, stealth drones can make it in, team rigger can fight building rigger for control.

CCSS is usually combined with a building decker to watch the building matrix and a sec magician to watch the astral defenses in a command room in the facility. add in the usual compliment of sec guards and paranimals and most teams die against such integrated security.

true as far as vision goes, but given the patterns sound on a high sig electric drone would be better than a low sig sports car (also turbochargers lower sig and IRL don't produce a heat increase hot enough to justify it... thus I figure sound and other non visual senses that can increase footprint would be affected) hey high sig, electric fuel celled, ruthenium painted, Ares guardian... or should I call that ares Whisperdeath?
mmu1
Ah. I thought it was a reference to sensor rules from a book I didn't have, or something.
Dakhran the Dark
QUOTE (toturi)
You know (back on topic and to repeat what I've stated), there aren't any roles in a team. The concept of roles is quite like the concept of CLASSES, it doesn't fit well into the free form manner of SR. You know what you need to do, how you do it or who does it doesn't matter.

I don't see team roles as being in any way like a "class" from That Other Game. It merely defines the skillsets you will need on the archetypal shadowrun. Mr. Johnson's not going to hire a crew to do a stealthy B&E on a research facility to obtain that billion-nuyen prototype if all they've got is mercenary muscle and a magically-adept rock star. Each run is going to require a different mix of skills, equipment, cyber, magic, and contacts. Guess what, not everyone can have all of those at a high level starting out -- the rules were made that way on purpose, you know. There's no such thing as generalists in the shadows. Everyone picks something they're good at, and maybe a few things they can sub for if the expert bites it. And each combination of skillsets and resources can be thought of as a role that the character plays in the group.

It's not like we're analyzing it from the character template view -- if you want to get picky about the "classification" of Shadowrun, it should be over templates like "Street Samurai" or "Troll Mercenary". And in that case, I'd say you're right, nobody really uses those templates after their first character or two, it's too limiting in a skill-based system, and too much like classes. But you also can't argue that no matter if it's a templated sammie or an off-the-wall akimbo gunfu adept, they both fit a role on the team, and that role is putting alot of lead downfield at the OPFOR. Not typically something you'll be asking that pacifistic healer Snake shaman to do, although said shaman may also fill one or more other roles on the team.
Siege
Fine - think of them as "occupational specialties."

In the d20 system, classes are a rigidly defined system of what you can and can't do. A role is a generic description matched to what it is you (or your character) does on the team.

Are you a generalist? A little bit of everything? Are you a specialist? Do you really excel at one particular field or skill?

I call someone a samurai - fine. That tells me they do the combat thing. In tactical planning, I may need to know how they go about doing the combat thing, but that is entirely at the discretion of the player during character creation.

-Siege
Dakhran the Dark
Siege, are you replying to me? Because it sounds like you're agreeing exactly to what I just said... smile.gif

Toturi, the point I tried to make in my rambling above is that a role isn't like a class, it's not something that a character is locked into -- it's less something required of a particular character, and more something required of a particular job. Whether or not your crew has the ability to fit the roles required is entirely up to how you put your characters together.
toturi
OK, first of all from the way I see things being done in most SR teams, is that once someone is into a certain Role, he is expected to do so again and again.

A Face is expected to talk and talk and talk, there might be someone to back him up but he is locked into that role. When was the last time you saw a Sam get a Computer skill? Or a Mage (or anyone else for that matter) a high-enough-to-take-over-from-the-rigger-if-he-gets-wasted Vehicle skill?

I am not disparaging specialisations; it is the wat to get things done in SR but I am philosophically against having roles because of the fact that people get caught up in their roles and end up with classes.
Kagetenshi
Then I guess we're talking about different definitions of "role". I'm a rigger, but I can deck. Our decker's got some mean weaponry and the skill to back it up. Our streetsam is starting to learn how to use the drones in Captain's Chair mode, and is learning a fair bit of Electronics.

Just because we don't always work inside them doesn't mean we don't have roles.

~J
Dakhran the Dark
I guess it depends on the players you have. Some players are more comfortable with the whole "I fit a role, I will embody it" mentality from other games. However, with my current group, real life often interferes with game scheduling -- maybe they have to work the weekend, or don't have a babysitter, or whatever. So, when that player is gone, their character can't affect the outcome of the game, and it would be unfair (not to mention impossible) to require that all players be present for us to run the game. So, as karma has been dished out, the characters have been branching into fields normally covered by other players, just so they can have a second string if the expert's not there.

For example, the stealthy sammie is branching out into covering melee combat as well as gunplay, and has started a career as a decent field medic as well. The face/decker has spent on vehicle skills and the deck hardware to sub as a rigger, and the rigger has branched into the negotiation skills. Two magic types, one combat oriented, the other stealth & illusion based, but they've started to overlap their spell picks a little. Starting out, each character could only cover one or two roles. Now, the team is varied enough to start (and finish) jobs even if the team isn't up to full strength.
Canid13
A reasonable example of cross training, which is what Kage and Dahkran were talking about, is my current character. I'm the GM, so it's rare I get to play, but I do have a character and from time to time one of my players will GM so I can play for a little while.

He's a Wolf shaman, but he's not as good a magic user as the regular team shaman. He can also handle reasonably heavy weaponry, but not as good as the sams in the group. He can handle close combat in a pinch, but not as good as the Razorelf decker or the brawler/rigger. He can do a whole range of things, but none of them well - but he's still part of the team and when the drek hits the fan he can either cover for a down/missing team member.

Course, that's just how my players play. All of them started out as fairly one dimensional characters - they all had some skills from other major roles but the sammie was still a sammie. But they've cross trained - the odd three Karma after priority skills gets thrown into a cross trained skill. My Wolf Shaman is beginning to look at some of the Cat Shaman's specialist spells and vice versa. Perhaps they'll not have identical spell lists or abilities, but they can cover each other in a pinch.

Those who 'become' the role do things different than my group, and perhaps as an individual PC my group's may not be as tough as someone who doesn't cross train, but a the typical four person team in my group can handle anything I've ever thrown at them - including mil-spec armour and dragons and bugs.
FSBO
On a lot of teams we generally had a lot of overlap, but we also had a lot of over watch. We had our mage moving with the team and then we would have our astral mage following in an astral overwatch, same with deckers one decker would be primary with a second following looking for reaction with in the system that would not be be overtly noticeable to the primary. With our sam's it was the same the bullet sponges would lay a base of fire to allow the long arm sams to set an overwatch to cover their exodus. We were big fans of bounding overwatch disengagements.
Edward
I agree entirely, the sami is far more versatile. He can throw weapons in a dufle bag and only be a little bit suspicious walking down the street. He can open dors without using grenades, bypass locks, climb ladders, use computers, talk to people also he is harder to subvert to enemy control (but it can be done) and jamming leaves him with useful decision making facilities. And is still a pretty dammed good combatant. C drone can be moderately stealthy and fight. When it is fighting a combat drone is better than the sami but that is almost all it can manage.

Last time I suggested a phismage/riger/deker/investigater my GM nearly wept from the pain. But in general multy role characters are good. Just now I am playing a cyber combatant with a trace of Decker and enough social skills to make up for the lack of a face. These roles will be improving with time. I also dabble in electronics and can drive a car or light fixt wing aircraft (not close to rigger grade). These are roles but they do not limit my character. if nothing else you nee a skill set people hire you for and to tell the teem whet hay are working out a teem plan.

Edward
Siege
A certain amount of cross-training is almost required - having only one medic really sucks if (s)he goes down in the field. And sometimes a trauma patch isn't gonna cut it.

Only one character with a vehicle skill and transportation really hampers legwork and background snooping.

Electronics and Computers are two fairly universal skills that almost always crop up at some point - using the same person for surveillance operations with gear that requires Electronics to operate can be just a tad complicated and tiring. If "Sprawl Survival Guide" is to be believed, you need a minimum Computer skill to just open the fridge.

As for social skills - you can't always trust the Face will be handy when Conversation happens.

Dak, I was replying to Tot - although I wasn't being paid by the word. grinbig.gif

-Siege
Edward
You don’t need a computing skill to open the fridge. It uses an intuitive icon based interface that even children and old fart can use. The time when you cant open the fridge is when the power goes out or somebody has hacked your home host to be annoying. Also this done not apply if you don’t have luxury high or some medium comforts on your lifestyle.

On the first aid cause there should be at least 2 people that can get people running again on the teem. That could include a mage with heal and a medic, a medic and somebody with reasonable biotech. And everybody should know where the slap patches are kept.

There should also be several backup escape plans that don’t involve the primary driver. These may or may not involve somebody else manually driving a car but should not all rely on the presence of your primary getaway vehicle.

Edward
Siege
Sorry, I didn't mean to bury the <humor> tags so deeply on that one.

-Siege
Edward
Well that’s what I get for posting before I wake up properly.

Edward
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