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Rigger Skills Questions

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Tarislar

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« on: <02-08-19/1015:17> »
I have a few questions for all the experienced Riggers out there.

How often do you use the skills in the Cracking & Electronics groups?

I hear Electronic Warfare is pretty important for Riggers but what about the other 5 skills?

Is it worth putting Skill Group points into either of the skill groups?

Can a Drone Rigger just sitting in a Van do double duty as a Decker?


Say your looking at the top 3 priority build skill slots.... Where would you invest the 10-5-2 skill group points as a Rigger?


Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #1 on: <02-08-19/1107:22> »
Riggers have been my favorite archetype since 1st edition, so I'm happy to offer some opinions on their state in 5th.

I have a few questions for all the experienced Riggers out there.

How often do you use the skills in the Cracking & Electronics groups?

I hear Electronic Warfare is pretty important for Riggers but what about the other 5 skills?

Computer is one of the more useful skills around.  IMO every runner should have it, riggers included. It's the Type O universal legwork skill... a Matrix Search is always applicable to whatever it is you're trying to learn/discover.  Even beyond legwork: Computer is the skill you use to set file protection on your files on your commlink/RCC. You don't want people learning your kinks by looking through your porno stash, and you REALLY don't want people seeing where you live or where you've been in your GPS history. And your teammates and contacts would appreciate you keeping their identities and contact numbers confidential, to boot.

Electronic Warfare: Increasing and lowering Noise is highly relevant to a rigger's interest, although the latter can rarely be a problem due to the abilities of a RCC.  Still, allowing your RCC to go full-in on Sharing is extremely useful to a drone rigger.  Also, Perception allows you to sub in relevant skills like Sneaking to spot someone sneaking, or Palming to notice someone picking your pocket, etc.  A non-dick GM should be allowing you to use Electronic Warfare (Sensor Operations) in place of Perception when looking for things through your little buddies' sensor feeds.

Hardware: Get it. It's mandatory.  Not only do you use it to repair matrix damage, you'll be called upon to use it to modify your vehicle/drones in certain ways.  Plus, it really helps the team (not just yourself) to be able to change ownership on stolen/looted items... so that you can keep them or have your face re-sell them for higher than the fixer's "no questions asked" rate of 5% per loyalty rating. Even better still, since you'll already have Hardware, adding Locksmithing means you could offer the team a way to get past maglocks without needing a decker/technomancer to hack them.  For funsies put some little drone arms on your wall-climbers and remotely pick locks!

Software: 5th ed didn't give many reasons to take the Software skill. The ONLY thing it's useful for is setting databombs.  So like if you want evidence of your porno stash to be even safer than putting a password on it, I guess there's a reason for Software.  But only if you have Skill/Karma points you literally can't think of anything better to spend on, though. Only then.

Cracking & Hacking: RCCs can't mount Attack/Sleaze dongles, making their viability extremely dubious.  If you don't plan on being a hacker, the only matrix action governed by these skills you're likely to want to use is Remove Mark, but you can do that for free by ordering a reboot in your last pass of the turn. If you're not trying to build a rigger/decker, you do not need these skills.  At all.

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Is it worth putting Skill Group points into either of the skill groups?

Electronics: Probably.  I'd sooner put skill group points into Influence.  It'd depend on the rest of your character... you're probably juggling which will be less useless for your character: Software or Leadership.  (usually the answer is a no brainer: Software!  But maybe you're doing a 1 Charisma character or something...)

Cracking? Hells to the no. Unless you're trying to hack, then see below...

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Can a Drone Rigger just sitting in a Van do double duty as a Decker?

I'm working on a Rigger/Decker hybrid concept myself.  He's a driver rather than a drone rigger, so it's not exactly the same thing but very, very close.  (my rigger will be less reliant on remote operations than a drone rigger normally is)

The primary obstacle to combining a Rigger with a Decker is the sad truth that a RCC can't get an Attack or Sleaze attribute, and a Cyberdeck can't perform Sharing.  And if you have the money to buy both, there's the annoying truth that cyberprograms have to be bought independently for each since RCCs use special, RCC-only versions of cyberprograms.

What might potentially work is using the Smoke-n-Mirrors program (from Data Trails).  It offers a ridiculously OP benefit of +1 to +5 Sleaze at a cost of the same amount of Noise for yourself.. since RCCs have 0 sleaze instead of NO sleaze most GMs should allow you to add that value to zero and gain a Sleaze Limit, opening up those Matrix Actions. And Sleaze is by far more useful than Attack in hacking. There's no comparable 'rules hack' to get a (useful) Attack value, so without a proper Cyberdeck or an expensive Attack Dongle for a commlink you'd just be stuck without being able to do Attack-based Matrix Actions. If you don't plan on engaging in cybercombat, like most hackers, that's almost fine.  But removing marks and cracking file protection are both Attack actions, and being unable to do either puts a real limitation on your ability to succesfully hack.

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Say your looking at the top 3 priority build skill slots.... Where would you invest the 10-5-2 skill group points as a Rigger?

Couldn't say without a wider context about concept.  But generally, my philosophy is you spend skill group points on secondary/tertiary stuff rather than primary stuff.  (you can't start with specializations in skill groups).  So most likely I wouldn't be spending skill groups on rigging stuff at all.

EDIT: A drone rigger? Engineering.  I'd absolutely consider spending on the Engineering group to more cheaply cover lots of different types of drones.  Not only is it a bigger value (4 skills for the same price as 3) it's something you'll likely even use. Why pay someone else to mod/repair your various drones when you could do it yourself instead?
« Last Edit: <02-08-19/1118:34> by Stainless Steel Devil Rat »
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Mirikon

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« Reply #2 on: <02-08-19/1128:04> »
How often do you use the skills in the Cracking & Electronics groups?

I hear Electronic Warfare is pretty important for Riggers but what about the other 5 skills?

Is it worth putting Skill Group points into either of the skill groups?

Can a Drone Rigger just sitting in a Van do double duty as a Decker?


Say your looking at the top 3 priority build skill slots.... Where would you invest the 10-5-2 skill group points as a Rigger?
As Stainless said, Cracking is damn near useless for pure riggers. Just don't even bother. Purchase Electronic Warfare as a solo skill.

Electronics is a solid choice. Computer and Hardware are big winners for riggers. Software is less so, but still might have some usefulness if rules for writing your own programs are released. But really, a rigger could get by with just Hardware, especially if there is a hacker in the team already.

Arguably a better choice for riggers would be the Engineering group, since that covers maintaining and modifying your drones and vehicles. Add in the Armorer, Hardware, and Demolitions skills, and you have the basis for a solid 'hands on' tech person.

Without shit tons of money, special qualities, and the like, the answer is no, a Rigger can't double as a hacker. Two exceptions to this would be Technomancers with the proper submersion and AIs with the Piloting Origin quality.

Forget about Priority A for skills. If you're playing a Rigger, you want that as either Resources, Resonance (if a TM), or Metatype (if AI). For 5, I would go with 3 Engineering/2 Electronics. For 2, go with 2 Engineering.
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Tarislar

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« Reply #3 on: <02-08-19/1200:51> »
Thanks guys.

So, playing with #s, would the following work fairly well for a purely drone rigger trying to use Skills-C?

Group-Engineering-2
Electronic Warfare-6 + Specialization
Hardware-6 + Specialization
Gunnery-6 + Specialization
Pilot/Rotorcraft-6 + Specialization
+ Some L1's purchased w/ Karma at Chargen & more over time.


Skills-B would drop the specializations & add in stuff like Computers, Lockpicking, Demolitions, or Perception at higher levels, but I'm wondering if Skills-C is viable if if those selections would get it done for a couple runs at least?