[daynen]

Okay so let's get the obvious parts out of the way: I haven't gotten to play nearly as much Shadowrun as I'd like so I have only a general notion of what's optimal or not... but the idea of a pixie with a rigger's cocoon inside a humanoid drone disguised as a person is hilarious to me and presents some interesting advantages, challenges and weaknesses.  Is it optimal for anything?  probably not.  Would it lead to some strange, unusual and hilarious situations?  Almost certainly.  The first big question that comes to my mind is: assuming the GM and table even buy into it, what do I DO with such a setup?  Do I turn it into a street sam with all sorts of hidden pistols and reloading slides for nonstop bang bang?  Do I turn it into a grappler with steamers to gas my prey with some narcoject?  Do I make it a face that can pass off all the metal as regular 'ware and still get their way despite the social penalties?  Or do I just get it some cyberfingers with lockpicks and infiltration gear?  Maybe I just get a car and drive the team around manually...through my drone.  Like I said, the concept gives me all sorts of chuckles, including playing out the weaknesses and surprise factor.

Has anyone ever run this successfully?  If so, what did you do?  What kind of build did you go with and what kind of fun happened with it?  Also, what rules gave you a particularly tough time figuring out or getting approval for it?

[Xenon]

Not really a concept that ever came up at our table. And probably also never will. But I wish you the best of luck :-)

... a humanoid drone disguised as a person ...

Note that even though there are some realistic looking anthropomorphic drones out there (Shiawase I-Doll comes to mind) it will still always be immediately obvious for an astral observer that the drone is a drone and not a living person.

[daynen]

Well, like I said, the weaknesses are part of the fun.

[KarmaInferno]

This was pretty much one of my characters in 4th/5th edition Shadowrun Missions. (Prime Missions in 5th as for that edition metasapients were not allowed in the main campaign). Missions did not allow rigger cocoons in drones so I used a smuggling compartment with the life support option.

It is kinda overpowered especially with a mystic adept. You get a character that can tank all their physical stats putting all their points into mental, because they rely on the human suit to handle all the physical. Casters can install Mage Sight cabling so they can cast out of the suit but are immune to a lot of magic targeted at them since they're inside a vehicle. You look like a mundane drone pretty much on the astral, or maybe like a minimal Essence cyborg.

[daynen]

Yeah I have next to no first hand experience and literally zero with missions so I don't really have much context there.  I'm more interested in fascinating and amusing character archetypes.  I like subversion and surprises--two things which I find are woefully rare in this day and age.  Didn't think about combining a smuggler's compartment with life support though; an interesting alternative.

Given that drones' body scores are basically their size and the I-doll sits at a 3, presumably going for the ubiquitous 'petite Japanese woman' look, how big you figure a directionssekretar would clock in at 4 body?  Big Swedish woman named Helga?  Small Ork?