[DeathEatsCurry]

Originally, I wanted to post my character here for evaluation and critique, but I'm struggling so much with basic building I'll stick with sme questions instead. Inspired heavily by my binge gaming of Advance Wars I wanted to go with a CO kind of runner, partly to really utilize the new tactical rules in run n gun, partly because my team admitted they want someone calling some kind of shots (i know right?)

Figuring that drones tie into maneauvers well, I wanted to make a rigger chassis. However I m struggling to make priotiies work. Skills and gear are clearly important, at least B ish, but leaving attributes on C leaves me somewhat incapable in meatspace... And while I lile the idea of using cyberlimbs to patch that up in general, it feels a bit cheap with two other guys in the team using that same trick!

Any wisdom more experienced runners have to share? Alternatively, whats the ETA on karma or BP gen?

[SlowDeck]

I would actually put resources at C-ish for a generalist. But that's me. Rigger, I would typically go A for gear, just like a decker; both archetypes are extremely gear dependent.

[gmoney999]

You could make a ork rigger with attributes d if you are worried about meatspace capabilities.

[Aranador]

Hmm, I don't see why you would worry too much about low attributes, and C isn't all that low.  Sounds like your character wants a rig, a few tiny surveillance drones, and one smallish shooter drone.  Wrap yourself in an armour jacket, sit inside a small vehicle with no LoS to you so mages cant get you easily, and just blast out over the tac net to your team.  Use gunnery to attack with, and leadership to leaderize with.  You could even pick up enough hacking skills to defend your stuff, as your rigging kit counts as sort of half a deck (or get a full one)

Basically - play and think like a rigger, but get those commander skills as well.

[Poindexter]

dude, bioware is kinda expensive until you consider what it does. go priority A money and buy whatever stats you need. the essence cost is nothing, dude.

[DeathEatsCurry]

dude, bioware is kinda expensive until you consider what it does. go priority A money and buy whatever stats you need. the essence cost is nothing, dude.

While the essence might not be, the nuyen is. Nuyen is the only priority easily quantifiable with karma. 1 k to 2000 y. Something like muscle toner racks up 16 karma equivalent. Which is only efficient at Agi 3+.the fact that the atttribute priority is more karma equivalent, doesnt help either...

But that's me. Rigger, I would typically go A for gear, just like a decker; both archetypes are extremely gear dependent.

Really? I agree on the decker part, they have a priority B tax, minimum, and A is pretty much optimal. But for a (drone) rigger? I could just make C stretch, though B seems optimal. The extra 100k extra nuyen seems.. Overkill. I might be missing something though! An RCC+Rig is 100 to 150k ish, a decent tricked out combat drone is 25 to 40k ish?

[SlowDeck]

But that's me. Rigger, I would typically go A for gear, just like a decker; both archetypes are extremely gear dependent.

Really? I agree on the decker part, they have a priority B tax, minimum, and A is pretty much optimal. But for a (drone) rigger? I could just make C stretch, though B seems optimal. The extra 100k extra nuyen seems.. Overkill. I might be missing something though! An RCC+Rig is 100 to 150k ish, a decent tricked out combat drone is 25 to 40k ish?

That's per drone. You still need a vehicle to transport them in, you will need multiple drones, and then there's the required cyberware... Which, if you're serious about rigging, you're going to probably plop down nearly 100k on.

So, just on cyberware and RCC, you're talking probably 200k alone. Probably can go a cheap 35k on a vehicle (you may need two, with one serving as pure drone transport and one transporting the team), and then around 25-40k per drone and needing several drones. Just four drones could leave you with, out of 400k, a measely 5-10k to spend on everything else (lifestyle, weapons and armor for your rigger, etc.).

The book doesn't call rigging expensive for nothing.

[gmoney999]

You can make a awesome driver at C resources that is great at other things like face/infiltration/ranged combat.  You can probably make a flexible rigger at resources B with some drone support (like maybe one or two combat drone) skills A, Metatype C, Attributes D.  If you want to make a pure rigger go resources A.  If you want to make a generalist with one support drone, resources D.   

The only place you really need a RCC is resources A with multiple drones.  It really only seems to come into its own if you have multiple drones of the same type (shared programs and orders). 

Also consider there are at least five key skills to a rigger: pilot ground craft, pilot aircraft, electronic warfare, gunnery, sneaking.  So you need at least skills B to optimize. 

[RHat]

The only place you really need a RCC is resources A with multiple drones.  It really only seems to come into its own if you have multiple drones of the same type (shared programs and orders).

Not only does that configuration not REQUIRE Resources A, but it's pretty much mandatory for a properly effective Rigger.  The RCC is also huge for managing many different drones, because it makes jumping between them much easier, and that's big when things are happening - for example, if you need to jump between a combat drone and your vehicle while you're in a chase.

[gmoney999]

Not only does that configuration not REQUIRE Resources A, but it's pretty much mandatory for a properly effective Rigger.  The RCC is also huge for managing many different drones, because it makes jumping between them much easier, and that's big when things are happening - for example, if you need to jump between a combat drone and your vehicle while you're in a chase.
[/quote]


Yeah I take that part back. 

[RHat]

Incidentally, the rigger's key skillset size is not unreasonable - it's actually in line with the other archetypes.  They do benefit from a wide set of skills, though, with the pilot skills, the mechanic skills, hardware, and many other things under Logic being very attractive options for them.

[gmoney999]

Incidentally, the rigger's key skillset size is not unreasonable - it's actually in line with the other archetypes.  They do benefit from a wide set of skills, though, with the pilot skills, the mechanic skills, hardware, and many other things under Logic being very attractive options for them.

Would you agree they need to go at least skills B?  Or do you see it differently? 

[RHat]

Incidentally, the rigger's key skillset size is not unreasonable - it's actually in line with the other archetypes.  They do benefit from a wide set of skills, though, with the pilot skills, the mechanic skills, hardware, and many other things under Logic being very attractive options for them.

Would you agree they need to go at least skills B?  Or do you see it differently? 

"Need" is a strong word.  They can benefit from it, but as I said, the number of skills they NEED is about the same as that number for everyone else (combat types, who can get away with fewer, and technomancers, who need more, aside).  You can make a Rigger work on Skills C, in point of fact, I've done just that; it's all a matter of tradeoffs.  With Resources A and Attributes B (plus a couple of 2's paid for with Karma), the character gets very solid dice pools for driving (at Reaction 7, even a pilot skill of 1 can get him 11 dice if he can jump in).  At 9, his base B/R pools may not seem great - but he's got the Special Work Area and the Shops to make up for that.  Logic 8 also leads to pretty reasonable dice pools for low skills.  The result is that the only R6 skill he has is Pilot Ground; even Automatics is only at 1 (the badass cyberarm and implanted smartlink help there, though, putting the actual pool at 12).  Had I tried to build this character at Attributes or Resources C, he'd be significantly worse (notably, his rigging-relevant attributes are all chargen maxed - Logic 6 ( 8 ), Reaction 5(7), Willpower 5, and Intuition 5) - hell, as it was I had to give up on a lot of the stuff I wanted to buy at chargen.

If you're really willing to pare things down - if you know what you're willing to sacrifice - you can make even skills C or D work.  Part of it is you've got to know what you can afford to have at, say, 1 - and you've got to pay for that with Karma.  A bigger part is that when you sacrifice your skill points, you use that to benefit the character in other ways that nicely make up for it.

[gmoney999]

Cool, thanks, I think that will help the op.

[RHat]

Cool, thanks, I think that will help the op.

Now, there is a trick to that priority set - it can function as a generalist, but specifically in context of those areas where his attributes are lined up.  Logic leaves a lot of options open, but it would be hard to, say, get him B&E ready because of how low his actual Agility (as compared cyberarm Agility) is, along with his physical limit (only a 5).  However, new skills are only 2 Karma.  It's very, very easy to use Karma to pick up a bunch of rating 1 skills, and that helps a generalist out greatly.

The 5 Edge doesn't hurt either.