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Full Version: rigging from the matrix, can it be done?
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Oro
my groups last game was star wars in which i covered all the techi bases. I'm new to SR so i dont know the ins and outs of the rules very well/at all. i was trying to create a character that could double as a rigger and decker. if you pawn the B/R skills off on some level 2 contacts it frees up more than enough skill points to cover the minimums of both archetypes. limiting yourself to two vehicles (rotor and car) and understanding that you will never leave your safe house frees up even more skill points. things were going great!

...but then,

you cant deck and rig at the same time and it would take a long time to switch from one to the other. oh horror, my first SR character in 4 years is broken before hes made!

im not asking for total control of both simultaneously but a smoother transition must be possible.

so...can you create a program that will allow your RC deck to "follow" you through the matrix, essentially making your drones matrix controlled and set up a big nasty fire-wall around them so that you could effectively deck and rig at the same time?

im not even sure if this is the correct folder to be posting this.


"if you wana be stupid, you gotta be tough"
FrostyNSO
Have you thought about hooking up two datajacks? One to the Cyberdeck, the other to the remote control deck. Then you could in theory, switch over, from one to the other.
Oro
i havent really thought of any of it, to be honest i havent even looked at the SR book for 4 years, just sifted through it yesterday, trying to come up with a character for a game starting soon here in bremerton WA
Oro
just looked at it and it does seem to be the easiest solution.

page 105 SR3 lists activating cyberware as a free action so i suppose you could do it this way but it would take 2 free actions to actually switch from one to the other. if the RC deck were matrixised then you could possibly switch from one to the other with a free action
Club
There is a bit on rigging with a cyberdeck in R3, and a tiny bit more in SOTA:63. Basiclly, it can be done, but you need a bloody expensive chip, it's limited in what you can rig, and you lose any bonuses.

When you get to the topic of linking a Cyber and RC deck, no cannon rules. Just use both seperately through different jacks.
Oro
thanks for the replies!

that about wraps this one up.
mfb
the other way to do this is to get the Remote Control program for your 'deck. with it, you'll be able to control drones from captain's chair, though you won't be able to jump into them. however, with enough IVIS pool, that's less of a problem than you'd think.
Oro
well hey, if i cant jump into the drones then i wont need the VCR and i can be a mage with two datajacks!

with knowledge psychology so he can diagnose his own split personality disorder.

heck, i cant seem to spend a million newyen anyway, might as well buy some fetishes and spell points too.

thanks
mfb
indeed.

another problem you'll face is that there actually aren't any rules for alternate means of communicating with drones. there's no data, for instance, on how much Mp any of the three channels takes up. the only canon way to control drones from the Matrix at all is to use Electronics B/R (Linking to Devices B/R) to wire an RC deck into your Matrix connection somehow. and even that isn't really spelled out; you're supposed to figure it out yourself, or somesuch.
Crusher Bob
It's more than 60 years after plug and play, USB, and so on. You plug it in and it works. Total costs: about 3Y for a cable, and a few minutes waiting.
mfb
all knowledge of plug and play technology was wiped from everyone's minds during the crash. also, wireless tech. sheesh, didn't you read the history section at the front of SR3? everyone knows that!
Oro
maybe its better that i keep the two seperate anyway, if i ever get booted from the 'trix or have to scram then id lose my drones as well, then im in suck-city
Oro
another idea along the same lines:

you skip the RC deck, control the drones from already established transceivers like: cell phone, grinlink im not sure what others but heck, theres a lot of them today, itll only get worse. youd have to modify the drones with a scanner and rigger adaptation "black box" with a spread spectrum transceiver so that it could communicate with whatever "repeaters" you find in the area.

that way, you could control your dones from anywhere in the world.
Nikoli
Also, if you end up going with 2 datajacks and a low end VCR, you'll need to add in the reflex trigger as for some reason the simsense portion of the VCR fudges matrix feeds something fierce.
Oro
no reflex trigger needed for a high end VCR?

maybe it would be easier to just buy a level 3 decker contact and make a rigger.

the main reason im doing this is that my whole gaming group loves combat monkeys so im stuck being the brain all the time. i have to cover everything that isnt combat or directly related to it.
mfb
how about making a rigger with a high computer (programming) specialization? computer (programming) helps you convey instructions to drones, and also allows you to have a pretty high-end agent that can handle much of your decking.
Oro
know nothing about agents, only have the base book.

maybe i should teach my gaming group a lesson and make a troll thrasher...but thinkers are so much fun.

le sigh
mfb
you should definitely try to get Matrix and Rigger 3 Revised.
Nikoli
No you need it for that as well, if you intend on decking and also have a VCR implant. But from the original post, is seemed as though rigging was secondary, so there was little value in a rating 2 or 3 rig.
Cain
QUOTE (Oro)
maybe i should teach my gaming group a lesson and make a troll thrasher...but thinkers are so much fun.

Don't give up on combat just yet. Get a hold of Cannon Companion, and load up on the Great Dragon ATGMs; they're highly necessary for antivehicle combat. Combined with heavily armored drones, your rigger can become the 800-lb gorilla of the team.

You'll need Rigger 3 [Revised if possible], and Matrix as a nice addition. Man and Machine offers several useful bits of cyber for your "thinker" role. A well-prepared rigger offers more versatility and overall usefulness than anyone, with his only weakness being magic.
hobgoblin
page 44 of rigger 3 have about the only canon info on controling drones from matrix that i recall. and that text there isnt much to go on either.
Oro
this just in, this just in...
my gm has put his foot down and said "no deckers" what-so-ever with be played by the pc's...he says they are too powerful.

so im left with this choice:

shaman conjurer/rigger with VCR level 1 (alfa or delta ware) i say yuck, a rigger with spirits helping out, hes the lord of the little people, everyone ive asked about this says im a moron, even the lady at BurgerKing that was taking my order.
-or-
a straight rigger with some "extra" stuff
Cain
A hermetic mage/rigger would be disgusting; get ahold of Magic in the Shadows and look up Watchers. A watcher attack pack™ uses the Friends in Melee rules for astral combat, making them disturbingly effective against astral opponents. Even without watchers, six elementals plus drones makes your character into a walking army.

A "straight" rigger can be almost as ugly, especially if you branch into communications and command. You can stay safely back in the van, and use one action a turn on Small Unit Tactics (in Cannon Companion). That can give your team quite the edge.
Oro
why hermetic and not shamanistic? i think a rat or mouse shaman+rigger would just be gross, i wish the city spirits had movement as one of their abilities.

sorry, im dumb on SR3, maybe i should go back to d&d3.5 and rifts.

lol

with magic/rigger whats a decent tradeoff with the VCR and magic stats?
Cain
QUOTE (Oro)
why hermetic and not shamanistic? i think a rat or mouse shaman+rigger would just be gross, i wish the city spirits had movement as one of their abilities.

Hermetics have the advantage of commanding a whole stable of elementals at once. A shaman can only have one "active" spirit at a time, excluding advanced extras such as Watchers and Allies. Hermetics may have up to Charisma in bound elementals, and may command them all as a single action.

I was running a game, and one character had a hermetic conjuror with an ally, six bound elementals, and six watchers on tap. I had set up a force-8 Toxic spirit as the big bad guy for the run. With a single "Get 'em, boys", the big nasty toxic spirit got stung to death.

Basically, with a few drones plus a stable of spirits, your character would be a walking army. You'd be able to outnumber the opposition by yourself. Six assault drones + six elementals = Big Nastiness.

QUOTE
with magic/rigger whats a decent tradeoff with the VCR and magic stats?

If it were me doing it? I'd go for a VCR 1 alpha, plus datajack and some other useful cyber, keeping the total under 2 points. I'd then geasa the magic loss (see MITS for details), selecting Domain and Talisman as my limits; as a pure hermetic conjuror the limits wouldn't be crippling.
Oro
all i have is the base book SR3 so im stuck with whatever is in those pages
hobgoblin
deckers to powerfull? whats is your gm smokeing? we all know that a mage is the powerbuild foundation of the game, even better if he allso is albino and nightone or something...
Cain
QUOTE (Oro)
all i have is the base book SR3 so im stuck with whatever is in those pages

Even with only the base book, a conjuror with a VCR 1 alpha plus datajack can be effective. That's only two points lost, which can be made up later. You won't be summoning spirits with Force over 4 much, anyway.

If your GM has MitS, borrow it from him and look it over. I'd highly suggest learning about Geasa; as a pure conjuror you can work the limits so they're not crippling.
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