[Anarkitty]

I thought I had seen the rules once, but now I can't find them.  I may be confused, or I may have been hallucinating.

Is it possible for a cyberlimb to be a drone?  I thought I had seen this in the Modular Cyberlimbs section of Augmentation, but it only has rules for cyberhands being drones.  I am thinking of an entire arm being able to be disconnected from DNI and controlled by either a rigger or a Pilot, Agent, or Sprite.

Now that I am typing this, I'm fairly certain I am just confused, so as an alternate question, is there a way to do this within the rules?



The concept that inspired this question is an extreme combat drone rigger (note: I am going for flavor, more than efficiency).  He carries two machine pistols or SMGs, and has two cyberarms configured with boosted Agility and RC.  In combat, he loads the appropriate Pilot programs and TacSofts, and disconnects them from his DNI, allowing them to each move and fire independently while he concentrates on controlling his other drones, dodging return fire, and otherwise acting as a living mobile weapon platform.

[Mantis]

Pg 139 of Arsenal covers drone limbs and pg 46 of Augmentation covers drone hands from cyberlimbs. Is it possible you are confusing these two rules? I don't think you can remove an entire arm but you can get modular hands that come off and can be controlled as a drone.

[Carz]

If you find you can't Rig cyberarms the way you want, I remember an armor mod that lets you put an automated weapon arm onto the armor - for got what its called, but I remember thinking at the time I read that, that it could be rigged.

Heck at the time I was thinking of having a Sam's armor equipped with that so the rigger could offer instant fire support at the Sam's position whenever needed.

[Falconer]

You're confusing page 43 Augmentation.   Articulated Weapon mounts which explicitly function as Smart Firing Platform drones mounted to your shoulders.

They're not cyberlimbs, but cyberweapon mounts attached to cyberarms/torsos.

Cyberlimbs themselves are not and never have been drones.  They are not rigged, nor remote controlled.  Nor do they have 'pilot' programs, and sensor ratings.  You do not 'subscribe' them and need to have your matrix icon present in them to control them.   You can control more than one at once organically without giving the same order to all of them as a group.  In no way, shape, or form games mechanic wise do they function as drones.



Essentially you'd make a rigger with two arms like normal.   Then you'd use 7 capacity in each arm to install an 'external mount' on each shoulder.   You'd put up to a SMG size weapon in each mount... they'd function as independent drones while you still have the normal use of your arms.   (smart firing platforms are drones, just an immobile drone).  So yes your idea is doable, just not quite in the manner you thought.


You can put manipulator-arms on a drone... and that drone can take some cyberlimb accessories with GM approval... but the drone does not get a 'cyberarm'.   A bod 4 large drone only has 0.4m ==40cm ~= 1.5 foot long 'arms'.

It's simply a way to build an arm into a drone and utilize some existing cyberarm equipment which makes sense like a cyberspur or cybergun or cyberarm gyro.   Things like attribute enhancement don't make sense because drones don't use agility and the attributes they do have don't function in any way like metahuman attributes.

[Kiirnodel]

If you really want to use a limb as a drone, you could ask about modifying it with Rigger Adaptation. Unwired (and to a limited extent Arsenal/Core) talks about some "more creative engineers" outfitted devices other than drones and vehicles with the capability to allow a Rigger to Jump In to them. The examples they give are cameras, gun emplacements, and repair or medical facilities.

[Anarkitty]

Thank you for all the helpful answers.
I was looking at articulated weapon mounts, but the problem is that they don't look like normal cyberlimbs, they're obviously submachineguns mounted on your shoulders or arms.

I may never actually play this character, it was as much as anything a thought experiment, but if I were going to, I think I would talk to the GM about just adding Rigger Adaptations to the limbs.  From there, I can either control them through DNI like normal cyber limbs, or rig them as required, also through the same DNI pathways (I assume if a hacker can get into a cyberlimb via DNI, I can rig it through the same connection).

The entire idea started with the thread about using two Smartlinks.  In this case, each Smartlink is being used by an independent Pilot program and "Drone" so they should be able to use both.  It also means neither gun is an "off-hand" weapon for the same reason.

[UmaroVI]

The rules on making cyberlimbs into drones are very sketchy, but the rules on making guns into drones actually aren't. You can use Pilot + Mobility weapon upgrades to make a riggable gun pretty easily.

[Falconer]

That's not a half bad idea Umaro... you're going to need GM approval for the whole deal anyhow... so why not go for over modification of the gun.

Get a gun... give it drone upgrade.. plus that... then give it gecko grips and put it on your shoulder like the weapon mount.   Or stick it to the ceiling like a turret by taking it off...


Or you could simply start with a small drone... probably one of the smaller crawler drones like the aztechnology crawler...  modify it with a single weapon mount... then stuff a gun into it... and wear it somehow (gecko tips... + weapon mount...).

[Red Canti]

Anarkitty, what exactly do you intend to use a Drone Arm for?

Cause I  might be misreading something, but it sounds like you want an Augmented variant of Thing.

[Anarkitty]

Ooh, what if they were modular and detachable at the shoulder, with GekkoGrip pads?  I could take my arms off and stick them to a wall, and have them provide covering fire.

...I'm starting to think this idea would work better as stand-alone drones shaped like arms, and I can just stick them to my shoulders when I want.  Damn the lack of drone creation rules!

[Shaidar]

So your original concept was to leave your cyberarms attached to your body and let a pair of dog-brains move your arms to target and shoot for you while you Captain Chair your other drones?

Why not partially Biodrone your-self/-arm?.

[Anarkitty]

Ooh, very interesting idea...  Put a Stirrup Interface in each arm. 
Heehee, I could play a Nartaki Drone Rigger, and have all four arms set up that way.  Four arms, four guns, and I am not directly controlling any of them so no dice pool splitting, and my concentration can be focused entirely on rigging something else or even Hacking.

I doubt I would ever actually play this character, but it's fun to think about what could be done.