[Haywire]

Don't the rules say that anyone with a comlink can control one drone?  Maybe the answer is a good comlink + microdrone and let the drone's pilot program do the shooting?

2) Any device can protect (Device Rating x 3) other devices.

It's Device rating x 2, RCC is Device Rating x 3. Anyway, you are looking at an expense in the ballpark of 20-25000 nuyen for a rotodrone, autosofts, the gun and a DR 6 commlink.

[Adamo1618]

Assault cannon

[Senko]

I just got the rigger book, the mack truck appeals to me with its low lifestyle and heavy drone armaemnt for protection. Sadly it only seats 2 and both of them are meant to be riggers to fully use its defenses. Wonder if I could modify one . . .of course its only amenities not a full lifestyle still i need to look more into what these thigns do as I've been looking for a RV for permanent traveller living.

[Marcus Gideon]

Don't the rules say that anyone with a comlink can control one drone?  Maybe the answer is a good comlink + microdrone and let the drone's pilot program do the shooting?

2) Any device can protect (Device Rating x 3) other devices.

It's Device rating x 2, RCC is Device Rating x 3. Anyway, you are looking at an expense in the ballpark of 20-25000 nuyen for a rotodrone, autosofts, the gun and a DR 6 commlink.

Core pg 233, PANs and WANs

Your commlink (or deck) can handle up to (Device Rating x 3) slaved devices, becoming the master device in that particular relationship.

For some reason, everybody thinks RCCs can support more devices. All they do differently is Autosoft sharing and quick transition between drones.

[All4BigGuns]

Don't the rules say that anyone with a comlink can control one drone?  Maybe the answer is a good comlink + microdrone and let the drone's pilot program do the shooting?

1) There's a difference between being a Rigger, and being a drone owner. Anyone can go downtown and buy a drone, and order it to shoot stuff. You don't even need a Commlink at all, except they're the cheapest way to get a high rated Firewall.

3) Back to the "not needing a Commlink" aspect, if you're relying on the Pilot program and the Autosofts to do the work for you, then all you need is to tell the drone what to do. "Shoot those guys over there" and off it goes rolling its own dice.

Good luck getting it to hit anything on its own unless you're just going on a killing spree on average Joes in a shopping mall.

[Dal Thrax]

Don't the rules say that anyone with a comlink can control one drone?  Maybe the answer is a good comlink + microdrone and let the drone's pilot program do the shooting?

1) There's a difference between being a Rigger, and being a drone owner. Anyone can go downtown and buy a drone, and order it to shoot stuff. You don't even need a Commlink at all, except they're the cheapest way to get a high rated Firewall.

3) Back to the "not needing a Commlink" aspect, if you're relying on the Pilot program and the Autosofts to do the work for you, then all you need is to tell the drone what to do. "Shoot those guys over there" and off it goes rolling its own dice.

Good luck getting it to hit anything on its own unless you're just going on a killing spree on average Joes in a shopping mall.

Compared to an agility 2 mage with 2 points in pistols?

[Whiskeyjack]

Probably more black trenchcoat than pink mohawk style steal, negotiation and limited fighting.

"Limited fighting" is a nice conceit, but doesn't bear out in play, because frankly, do it too often and it's actually pretty boring. And penalizes the people who build to fight things out.

It's a much better conceit for a video game.

[farothel]

I mostly went for a taser, a heavy pistol and a shotgun.  2 ranks in pistol, 2 ranks in longarms with specialisation in shotgun and some equipment bonusses.  That way you can carry the taser if you are in a vicinity where you can't carry anything else (high end parties for instance), take the shotgun (mostly an enfield AS-7 with drum magazine because it looks like a tommygun and I like that look) for the take-down part (I also had a car with smuggling compartment to keep it in), and the heavy pistol for anything else.  And you don't drain your resources all that much even with all three.

I must admit that my last mages were mostly ex-military or ex-cop mages, so having these skills was fitting the concept.  I managed to get around 10 dice, which was enough to keep the mooks occupied while the heavy fighters dropped the bosses.  And in one of our runs, I was very lucky to have these skills, as we were operating in a background count that made it all but impossible for me to actually do magic (-4 to -6).

But as said, take what fits your mage's concept.  ex-cop or ex-military you can take just about any weapon.  If you come from an academic background, I as GM would request a very good explanation before I would allow heavy weaponry.

[Whiskeyjack]

For some reason, everybody thinks RCCs can support more devices. All they do differently is Autosoft sharing and quick transition between drones.

You make it sound like autosoft sharing and improvements to your action economy aren't totally worth the cost.

But as said, take what fits your mage's concept.  ex-cop or ex-military you can take just about any weapon.  If you come from an academic background, I as GM would request a very good explanation before I would allow heavy weaponry.

You make it sound like the average former civilian runner in the 2070s can't buy an MP and go to a gun range to justify having the Automatics skill. Why do you think people IRL today go for semiautomatic pistols or more, ranging from gang members to civilians wanting a home defense or carried sidearm? The answer is: more shots are typically better in life-or-death situations.

Now, obviously there's a difference since I don't think MPs are generally civilian legal today (correct me if I'm wrong; I mean, a certain particular group of people openly carry ARs into Target these days just because they can, so maybe carrying an MP isn't out of the question), but the point still bears out in a more consumerist world with generally fewer restrictions like the 2070s.

[Marcus Gideon]

For some reason, everybody thinks RCCs can support more devices. All they do differently is Autosoft sharing and quick transition between drones.

You make it sound like autosoft sharing and improvements to your action economy aren't totally worth the cost.

No no, I agree there are excellent benefits for a Rigger to use an RCC. Autosoft sharing is great, so long as you make sure all your drones are compatible. Since you can't share out and also let the drones run their own, you basically have to use a fleet of identical drones to make it worthwhile. Quick transitions are nice, otherwise you waste 2 actions to get between drones. And I forgot to mention reducing Noise in several ways, another handy perk.

My point was just that I keep seeing people who say that RCCs can Slave more devices than a Commlink or a Deck could. That may have been the case in older editions, but SR5 lets all devices protect the same amount. In which case, Commlinks are the most cost effective means of providing Firewall protection. Especially if you add a Sleaze dongle, so your Slaved devices are better at Running Silent too.

[Whiskeyjack]

Ahh, gotcha.

[insert yet another eternal scream about how dongles are bullshit here]

[MijRai]

The laws in the United States aren't so much about what the gun looks like (excepting the 'assault weapon' fears, don't get me started) so much as the actual capability for automatic fire; an automatic weapon (or suppressor) is illegal unless you go through the process to get a stamp (it is cheap (the stamp is $200, the price was decided back when a Thompson SMG and some cars cost less than that), but quite time consuming and takes a bit more thorough background checks).  Those AR-15s you see slung on peoples' backs?  Most are semi-automatic. 

The concept of a machine pistol is gray nowadays.  Sure, it could look like a Mac-10 or an Uzi or something (Skorpion, perhaps), but if it is semi-automatic, it is legal.  In Shadowrun, things are not so gray.  Most machine pistols (most automatic weapons short of a machine gun, actually) are R, not F, regardless of fire rate.  Therefore, they can be acquired pretty easily.  In the dystopic future, they don't care how many bullets your gun can spray, apparently (given automatic fire outside of suppressive fire and certain weapons is basically a waste of ammo anyways, it makes sense). 

I still suggest machine pistols for those folks who don't want to pack full-sized heat, but need to put out the lead when things get hairy.  Automatics is generally a more flexible skill and you're more likely to be able to pick up a gun from an enemy and use it if you run out of ammo.  Shotguns are another option, but getting an automatic shotgun goes straight into the Forbidden zone, where you could get busted worse for having the gun than whatever you did with it. 

[Haywire]

Don't the rules say that anyone with a comlink can control one drone?  Maybe the answer is a good comlink + microdrone and let the drone's pilot program do the shooting?

2) Any device can protect (Device Rating x 3) other devices.

It's Device rating x 2, RCC is Device Rating x 3. Anyway, you are looking at an expense in the ballpark of 20-25000 nuyen for a rotodrone, autosofts, the gun and a DR 6 commlink.

Core pg 233, PANs and WANs

Your commlink (or deck) can handle up to (Device Rating x 3) slaved devices, becoming the master device in that particular relationship.

For some reason, everybody thinks RCCs can support more devices. All they do differently is Autosoft sharing and quick transition between drones.

Oh, for me it's because in rigger section specifies DRx3, so I assumed it was better than other devices. My fault for not having re-read that part 

[Senko]

I mostly went for a taser, a heavy pistol and a shotgun.  2 ranks in pistol, 2 ranks in longarms with specialisation in shotgun and some equipment bonusses.  That way you can carry the taser if you are in a vicinity where you can't carry anything else (high end parties for instance), take the shotgun (mostly an enfield AS-7 with drum magazine because it looks like a tommygun and I like that look) for the take-down part (I also had a car with smuggling compartment to keep it in), and the heavy pistol for anything else.  And you don't drain your resources all that much even with all three.

I must admit that my last mages were mostly ex-military or ex-cop mages, so having these skills was fitting the concept.  I managed to get around 10 dice, which was enough to keep the mooks occupied while the heavy fighters dropped the bosses.  And in one of our runs, I was very lucky to have these skills, as we were operating in a background count that made it all but impossible for me to actually do magic (-4 to -6).

But as said, take what fits your mage's concept.  ex-cop or ex-military you can take just about any weapon.  If you come from an academic background, I as GM would request a very good explanation before I would allow heavy weaponry.

How''d you get ten dice if you don't mind me asking since i doubt your mages agility was 6.

[MijRai]

I don't know about his mage, but the Aspected Conjurer I played for a while had a pool of 11 for his TMP:
+4 Agility
+3 Automatics
+2 Specialization
+2 Smartgun/link Wireless

It let him lay down Suppressing Fire for his team while his spirits did their jobs. 

That said, if he had an Agility of 4 he'd have a pool of 10.