Keep looking for Anti vehicle rounds.

I took some runners up the acrology last night and acutaly the drones were not a big problem. It was just the first part of the adventure and I send only groups of 2 drones at the runners. All players could damage the drones but the most effective were the tank of a troll and the crack shot with a custum sporting rifle.
I had some problems with determining the TN for the drones though. Not knowing when exactly to apply the modifiers for sensor assisted gunnery... cover LOS.. ect. ...are they allowed to dodge shots with their pools?
.. and close combat with drones in full darkness... ? .. do I just do a sensor test and then roll 4's ?

The drones lack of karma pool also makes them less lethal.

I had them meet each of the drones seperately and focusing on the atmosphere of the arc. Now than I know the teams capacities... I will match them with drones and security guards further up

You might thing about using the drones with stunning force rather than lethal - there is nothing like waking up in a zombie room with your scalp feeling itchy...

Did anyone see last Friday's (July 23rd) episode of Battlestar Galactica? It ran exactly like an encounter in the Arcology: extremely lethal drones pursuing nigh-defenceless PCs through shadowy corridors as same PCs try to hunt down "explosive rounds," the only thing capable of damaging the mechanical monstrosities. Great atmosphere and a perfect (IMHO) representation of what a group of runners without AV ammo would do in the Arc.

Run screaming for their lives, praying to find one round--just one round--of viable ammunition. That's what we call good TV.

I have another question about the Shutdown....how did it end? In the RA:S book it doesn't say anything about the resolution of the shutdown, but in SOTA:64 it talks about the arcology being handed over to the Metro Guard and mentions tha the arc is mostly safe. How does it end up being resolved in SR canon?

Oh, and any ideas for getting a team of runners into the arc in the first place? My group is magic heavy, 2 adepts, 2 shamans, 1 rigger, 1 decker, though the rigger character might be thinking of switching to a street sam.

Oh, and about the Deus drones, keep this in mind.

In a book I just finished reading, the author makes a good point. If you armored every little wire, joint, and antennae on a helecopter, it would be too heavy to fly. If your runners have trouble with the drones, have one shut-down in a firefight after a runner scores a hit on it. If they get the chance to examine it tell them that they hit a power cable or something. I wouldn't do this too often, just if they are really in a bind and you need a logical reason for them to destroy one of the drones, and they can't get past the armor.

The shutdown was resolved in the book Brainscan.
Short story, Deus isn't in the arcology anymore. Long story, read/run the book.

If you can find it new or used, Brainscan is worth the investment, IMO. Good read, decent adventure (with a little tweaking) and a solid resolution to the arcology scenario. Plus, it sets up the events detailed in Threats 2 nicely.

What ChaosEsper said? Don't do that. There are a lot of other ways to remove drones from the fray (including being called away for other duties or whatever) that doesn't involve blatantly breaking rules.

~J

Early on in our game, before we knew about the arcology. We developed EMP spells, basically Slay(machines) (single target and AE), to deal with drones and other such troublesome things. Our GM was so upset when she got the RA:S book, she started strictly enforcing the AE range. Lost alot of cybermonsters that way. Never did get to do the Arc though.

how about wreck(drone). One of my players has that, is in the arc, and is grinning ear to ear as the rest are counting ammo.

Then that player should really read the rules about combat spells affecting non-living objects. She would've been at least as well off with powerbolt.

she has been doing pretty well with it. The main thing I think is that the drones don't get a chance to resist. Since they're so hard to hit in the first place, this way, all she needs is one success.

Actually, woman is some version of man. Not some version of a male individual, but "man" is a generic term for the human race in general. Whether or not this ought to be the case is up for discussion; whether or not it is currently correct is not.

~J

Actually, yes it does make it right. However, since "man" isn't a pronoun, the rest of your post is beyond irrelevant.

In the interests of sticking to my "[/HIJACK]" promise, I'll ignore these posts (though no disrespect is intended). PM me if you want to continue.