[Lorebane24]

Which drones do you generally recommend?  I'm GMing a new game with mostly new players, and the rigger is one archtype I have very little experience with, so it's a little tougher for me to advise the one in our party.  Currently, he has a few noisesquitoes, a few rotodrones with various weapons, and a pair of matildas fitted with stoner ares (which are more feasible after a house rule buff to machine machine guns).  He's also got a van (the big GMC one, I think) that is pretty kitted out.

What else should be shopping for?

[Marcus Gideon]

Drones are the key reason why Riggers are kinda known as a Swiss Army archetype.

If you need to spy on some location, and you don't have a sneaky stealthy infiltrator on the team, send in a Fly Spy with upgraded sensor suites.

If you need crowd control, and you don't have a mesmerizing Mage, send in a Roto-drone with Suppressing Fire.

If you need an all out tank, and you don't have a chromed up Street Sam, send in a Steel Lynx.

Roto-drones are the most versatile, b/c they get extra Body to be used on customizations. So you can fit more and different kinds of toys on them than on anything else. And they're smaller, easier to handle, easier to conceal, than a Steel Lynx or Dalmation.

Duelist (or some other anthro) are good b/c you can dress them up like another teammate and bring them places where an obvious drone may not get. It's one thing to dash through a building with a miniature Abrams tank driving along, it's another to have I, Robot following you with swords or machine guns in hand.

[Rooks]

Paladin is nice for moveable cover, smoke generator is good if everyone has ultrasound/thermal, MCT Fly-Spy aircraft is good for flying around getting the lay of the land without being noticed. Dobbermen are good throw away drones for combat if you give it a m23. Neo Prairie Dog is good for jamming other peoples signals (deckers?) Whats another good thing is the Morgan its only 7500 comes with a weapon mount standard add in rigger adaptation for 1000 a weapon and smartlink away you go for about 10k you get something more viable than a dobberman and will take more of a beating than a dalmation for about the same price.

Also the Knight Errant P5 Pursuit Drone is nice if you can add a data tap or induction jack to create a wireless icon for your decker or you to hack/data spike during car chases.

[RiggerBob]

Whats another good thing is the Morgan its only 7500 comes with a weapon mount standard add in rigger adaptation for 1000 a weapon and smartlink away you go for about 10k you get something more viable than a dobberman and will take more of a beating than a dalmation for about the same price.

The weapon mount it comes pre-equipped with is manual-operated so just adding a rigger adaption won't cut it. You would have to rip it out and replace it with a remote-controlled turret (losing it's street-legality in the process...).


Btw... the Horizon Mini-Zep is a nicely inconspicuous and cheap base-model for either a long-range surveilance (and/or retrans) drone or a similar long-range weapon platform.

[Rooks]

Except you can just add a smartlink on any gun and it will fire wirelessly? also the rigger adaptation will take over the controls and the turret pivot?

[Marcus Gideon]

Whats another good thing is the Morgan its only 7500 comes with a weapon mount standard add in rigger adaptation for 1000 a weapon and smartlink away you go for about 10k you get something more viable than a Doberman and will take more of a beating than a Dalmatian for about the same price.

The weapon mount it comes pre-equipped with is manual-operated so just adding a rigger adaption won't cut it. You would have to rip it out and replace it with a remote-controlled turret (losing it's street-legality in the process...).

Except you can just add a smartlink on any gun and it will fire wirelessly? also the rigger adaptation will take over the controls and the turret pivot?

I'm not looking at the book at the moment, but unless it specifically says 'this mount is for manual operation only" then it's going to work remotely as well.

Core pg 461-462, Weapon Mounts

All weapon mounts are operated remotely and can target a ninety-degree arc of fire (horizontal and vertical). Manual operation can be added, but only for vehicles, not drones, and at extra cost.

Which means all it takes is a Rigger interface to control everything on the vehicle, including the weapon mounts.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Yeah, I never saw manual operation as completely removing remote/automated functionality. It's an addition, not a replacement. At least that was my assumption until Rigger 5.0 came along.

For the security paranoid, or those that just like the hands-on approach, manual control can be applied to a weapon. This option removes the possibility of remote, electronic control in favor of direct mechanical operation of the weapon, meaning a metahuman must physically operate the weapon, which tends to put them at bodily risk.

Note the "removes the possibility of remote, electronic control" and "a metahuman must physically operate the weapon". This seems contrary to the core rules, but newer and specific rules override older, more general so...

[RiggerBob]

see above... it just wrote exactly the same thing.

I should really stop opening multiple windows to reply then write long texts one by one 

[Damian Knight]

Dear Lorebane24,
We here at Ares Macrotechnology advise investing into any drones with the Ares name brand.
Each drone is crafted with quality parts manufactured on-site, and is assembled by a diverse workforce with a knack for small margins of error.
If you had the misfortune of purchasing a drone or, understandably, a vehicle that is not Ares name brand, bring it on over for any upgrades, repairs, or other installations.
It should be noted that we here at Ares Macrotechnology do not install weapon mounts of any kind on civilian vehicles or for civilian customers.
-Damian Knight, CEO and President of Ares Macrotechnology

[Blue Rose]

Rotodrones, while versatile and dangerous, are notoriously squishy.  Be aware that if you field a swarm of rotodrones, you are going to wreck house, but you are also going to lose a lot of money.

Even on top of drones being generally vulnerable, keep in mind on the ground, you have cover and lines of fire.  There will be a lot of, "Well, this cop doesn't have a clear line of fire to the squishy mage who he really wants to shoot, so not all the cops are focusing fire on the mage."

With a rotodrone above the battlefield, it's unlikely to have any cover of any sort, especially outdoors where you're most likely to use them.  And anyone who doesn't have a clear line of fire to their preferred target has a clear line of fire to those rotodrones cutting loose with very flashy full auto fire, and can take pot shots.  Even a pot shot or two can wreck your drone.

Deploy with caution.

[Pap Renvela]

Rotodrones, while versatile and dangerous, are notoriously squishy.  Be aware that if you field a swarm of rotodrones, you are going to wreck house, but you are also going to lose a lot of money.

Even on top of drones being generally vulnerable, keep in mind on the ground, you have cover and lines of fire.  There will be a lot of, "Well, this cop doesn't have a clear line of fire to the squishy mage who he really wants to shoot, so not all the cops are focusing fire on the mage."

With a rotodrone above the battlefield, it's unlikely to have any cover of any sort, especially outdoors where you're most likely to use them.  And anyone who doesn't have a clear line of fire to their preferred target has a clear line of fire to those rotodrones cutting loose with very flashy full auto fire, and can take pot shots.  Even a pot shot or two can wreck your drone.

Deploy with caution.

Which is why I prefer a sniper rifle on rotodrones... less people have the range to hit them... doesn't help aganst mage LOS however

[Coyote]

Rotodrones, while versatile and dangerous, are notoriously squishy.  Be aware that if you field a swarm of rotodrones, you are going to wreck house, but you are also going to lose a lot of money.

Even on top of drones being generally vulnerable, keep in mind on the ground, you have cover and lines of fire.  There will be a lot of, "Well, this cop doesn't have a clear line of fire to the squishy mage who he really wants to shoot, so not all the cops are focusing fire on the mage."

With a rotodrone above the battlefield, it's unlikely to have any cover of any sort, especially outdoors where you're most likely to use them.  And anyone who doesn't have a clear line of fire to their preferred target has a clear line of fire to those rotodrones cutting loose with very flashy full auto fire, and can take pot shots.  Even a pot shot or two can wreck your drone.

Deploy with caution.

Which is why I prefer a sniper rifle on rotodrones... less people have the range to hit them... doesn't help aganst mage LOS however

Agreed. My mage prefers to run a drone with a Remington-950 (to keep it cheaper than the real military rifle options), with a Silencer, and run Improved Invisibility on it. Invisible sniping from above keeps the squishy drone pretty safe, it's quite accurate with a rating 6 Autosoft, and since the targets rarely have an idea that sniping is coming down, they don't get to use defense pools. It doesn't have the utility of a machine gun spraying lead rain, but it does a good deal of damage and is a lot safer (and thus, cheaper to run long-term).

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

I'm also assuming (via Rigger 5.0 rules) that you have pilot 6 as well. Would hurt to get the smartlink (can't remember actual name) so the drone can run a smartgun system as well.

[Adamo1618]

Probably the Chainsaw Roto-Drone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Viwwetf0gU

[Blue Rose]

I'm also assuming (via Rigger 5.0 rules) that you have pilot 6 as well. Would hurt to get the smartlink (can't remember actual name) so the drone can run a smartgun system as well.

Now that's expensive. Especially since the availability is so high.