For those not familiar with Shadowrun, a rigger is basically like a drone pilot. A person is some distance away, remotely controlling a small vehicle, or bot, etc...

The reason for the post is, I have a new player who is desiring to explore such a thing. He basically wants to remotely control a droid, basically playing as the droid, but have his physical self, elsewhere.

For the life of me, I can't figure out a way to fairly implement such a thing without it becoming OP, quickly. I mean in essence, given enough funds (surely to come with play), I would have a character who could build a small army of droids for specific purposes, like a stealth droid for those mission types, a battle droid for those, etc... In addition, as a character he would rarely be in life or death danger given that his droid explodes/melts/etc.. and he just goes and makes a cup of tea. He would be back on the ship, or whatever the range allowed, and never (or rarely) be in any kind of real danger.

I have thought of taking the damage the droid took, and converting it to strain that applied to the actual character, also having that character suffer the crit chart as applicable. Most likely the route I will take, "IF" i decide to let this concept fly, but it just seems "off" to me.

I figured I'd get some community input into how to handle this. Maybe someone has a better idea then I do? Maybe I'm on target and shouldn't allow it?

The technology is certainly there, but it's never really come up for me, in a Star Wars game... ever.

What do you guys/gals think? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

To me, it doesn't feel right for the genre, but if everyone* in your group is happy with it...

• Controlling the Drone should be a non-career custom skill. Skills used by the Drone are reduced to "Pilot: Drone" rank, where they are higher. Bleeding off his XP is a fair trade, here.
• Drone Damage-to-Hooman Strain Damage seems fair (I wouldn't apply the pilot's Soak, but I would allow the Resolve talent to take effect).
• Criticals... You could say whatever the Drone suffers, the pilot suffers (biofeedback / psychosomatic). I'd say they'd be one step easier to remedy though, and heal more quickly (three days?). It may be better to build a new table entirely, though.

If things go south, have an assassin break into their ship while Drone pilot is doing his thing.

Also, communications jamming may take the Drone out of the adventure entirely - make everyone aware of this before he builds the character. If you're feeling generous, you can say it just gives a number of setback dice and/or upgrades the difficulty of all checks.

* Seriously, if it's going to piss off the other players, it isn't worth your time.

Well i would say, yes, for roleplaying fun side.

But i would say that he/she should be incapable of walking, or he/she has somekind of sickness (Like in ME series Joker has - Glass bones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteogenesis_imperfecta ), that he/she can't participate on missions. But for perfectly healthy guy/girl - well then a lot of money and lot of influence in underworld, for some nasty obligations.

I would allow player to make just 1 Droid at the start of the game and allow him to make it as he/she sees it fit.

For more fun, or complications i would say that his droid still has his own Personality which offers some kind of insight (For Iron Man - Jarvis) and/or takes care of this person when droid is back on the ship.

As for strain, i would say that there would be some kind of helmet or something similar to pod were user is in, like in movie Avatar or Surrogates. But with deeper connection, that the user can feel what happens to his Droid body and he gets same shock as he were hit.


As i was writing all this, i tought about starting stats for this kind of mix up.



Brawn 1 (droid)
Agility 1 (droid)
Intellect 2 (human)
Cunning 2 (human)
willpower 2 (human)
presence 2 (human)

WT 10+brawn
ST 10+willpower

Starting Xp would be around 125-135 (if he has some serious ilness that he cannot go out by himself.)

He still needs to sleep, eat.

as in droid body he isnt affected by toxins and poisons.



This is just scetch so there can be a lot of adjustments.

In Shadowrun riggers were a resource drain. GMs generally don't like to kill off PCs too often, but slagging a piece of gear is OK. Once a few drones are taken down, the rigger can't make enough to stay in the game. Since a big part of EotE is keeping the PCs hungry for credits and gear, I'd imagine that a SW rigger is going to have the same issues. NPC droids cost a few thousand credits each, and that can add up very quickly.

In Shadowrun riggers were a resource drain. GMs generally don't like to kill off PCs too often, but slagging a piece of gear is OK. Once a few drones are taken down, the rigger can't make enough to stay in the game. Since a big part of EotE is keeping the PCs hungry for credits and gear, I'd imagine that a SW rigger is going to have the same issues. NPC droids cost a few thousand credits each, and that can add up very quickly.

Is there an official price list for different droids? Our group has just been offerred 23k for a fully functional Droideka, which seems insultingly low given the specs.

The droids from the main EotE book are listed on Table12-1, page 409.

An assassin droid is listed for 65,000 credits. Even a basic B-1 Battle Droid (Roger, roger) is 6,500 credits.

The new droids from Enter the Unknown are priced in that book as well.

The droids from the main EotE book are listed on Table12-1, page 409.

An assassin droid is listed for 65,000 credits. Even a basic B-1 Battle Droid (Roger, roger) is 6,500 credits.

The new droids from Enter the Unknown are priced in that book as well.

Thanks!

Another thing I just wanna throw in because I don't think it was mentioned yet: Ionization Blasters.

What good is an army of droids against 4 Troopers or other scum equiped with those? Of course in the begining of the PCs career such weapons are unlikely to show up, but as the PC grows and maybe gets a reputation for himself his enemies should become more likely of preparing themselves for the PCs style of action.

Ionization Blasters are also a good tool if you feel like the PCs has become too strong. Don't overdo it though, imo feeling overpowered is the base of some of the greatest fun to be had with RPGs

Were it me, I would just have the player make a droid as if the Droid was the PC, and treat the character's physical body as just RP flavor. If you go this route, I would definitely encourage the physical debilitation angle that Embery had suggested. You could stat up the physical body, but talk to the player and make sure they know that that the emphasis should be on the "drone". This way the player is focused on keeping the droid character alive.

An interesting point, here - has anyone had a droid player ask to be able to plug their memory core into different (task-orientated) chassis?

Another thing I just wanna throw in because I don't think it was mentioned yet: Ionization Blasters.

What good is an army of droids against 4 Troopers or other scum equiped with those? Of course in the begining of the PCs career such weapons are unlikely to show up, but as the PC grows and maybe gets a reputation for himself his enemies should become more likely of preparing themselves for the PCs style of action.

Ionization Blasters are also a good tool if you feel like the PCs has become too strong. Don't overdo it though, imo feeling overpowered is the base of some of the greatest fun to be had with RPGs

Ionization blasters at least leave the droid salvageable. Blaster carbines/rifles are more typical and just reduce the droids to scrap. They are also useful against non-droids. I'd say ionization blasters are only going to be used if someone plans to capture/steal the droids. for everything else, just stick with regular blasters.

Ionization blasters at least leave the droid salvageable. Blaster carbines/rifles are more typical and just reduce the droids to scrap. They are also useful against non-droids. I'd say ionization blasters are only going to be used if someone plans to capture/steal the droids. for everything else, just stick with regular blasters.

Don't the bad guys like loot? Ionized drones sound like good loot.

Ionization blasters at least leave the droid salvageable. Blaster carbines/rifles are more typical and just reduce the droids to scrap. They are also useful against non-droids. I'd say ionization blasters are only going to be used if someone plans to capture/steal the droids. for everything else, just stick with regular blasters.

You are absolutely right.

The point I was trying to make is that imo Ionization Blasters would present the bigger threat to a rigger-type character for the following reasons:

- Ionization Blasters are cheaper than Heavy weapons and relatively easy to wield which makes them viable for even the smallest of smug

- Ionization Blasters have the disorient 5 quality

- Ionization Blasters deal the highest DMG of all Light weapons

Furthermore I think that a disabled droid is something that baddies would love to steal from the PCs. I could even imagine them going out of their way just to get some of that shiny metal.

I don't see those following reasons...

...secret reasons?

...secret invisible reasons?!

Love Shadowrun riggers. That being said I'd have a hard time integrating the high level, "jacked-in" flavors into a Star Wars setting. I have an Outlaw Tech in my group, and he could very well do a Bao-Dur type of thing where he controls a few npc droids, much like the low level riggers. Interesting idea though. I might have to give this some thought.

In a universe of limb replacements and advanced cybernetics, there is little reason I can see for an individual to remotely operate a droid.

The only exceptions to this are things that would be within the purview of the government, such as bomb squads or other situations where delicate work is needed but the environment or situation poses a grave risk to the operator.

The other exception would be military application. Drones and remotely operated droids would be more effective in combat than their droid counterparts, except for the most advanced of assassin droids.

The empire already prohibits combat droids, and it would logically be necessary to prohibit remotely operated droids as well to avoid a huge loophole. What makes a combat droid is it's programming, and a remotely controlled droid doesn't need programming--it simply does what it's told to do by the person controlling it, whether that's walking in circles or picking up a blaster.

TLDR: Individually owned remotely operated droids would be highly illegal.

The empire already prohibits combat droids

Running Escape from Mos Shuuta and Long Arm of the Hutt I have assumed as much but would love an exact reference!

The empire already prohibits combat droids, and it would logically be necessary to prohibit remotely operated droids as well to avoid a huge loophole. What makes a combat droid is it's programming, and a remotely controlled droid doesn't need programming--it simply does what it's told to do by the person controlling it, whether that's walking in circles or picking up a blaster.

Depending on how much of this you take as canon:

1. In X-wing Alliance, the Imps were using waves of remote controlled TIEs, with pilots aboard nearby assault transports.

2. In Dark Empire, the World Devastators made legions of droid TIEs.

"4th Degree Droids: Such units are illegal for most systems. Fourth degree droids are designed for military and security operations. After several accidents involving the manufacture of these "mechanical soldiers," the use of fourth degree droids was prohibited, except for certain models designed for legitimate military use. Although publicly denouncing the use of lethal droids for any operation, the Empire (as well as several underworld organizations) use fourth degree droids in an assassin capacity. Defense droids, like the like G-2RD, are fourth degree droids." --Cynabar's Fantastic Technology-Droids

Basically, after the Clone Wars, the victorious Empire banned the manufacture and use of battle droids to help prevent the possibility of insurrections. Security droids such as those fought in Escape from Mos Shuuta are legal but restricted. They probably aught to have been armed with stun-only blasters though. Assassin droids have always been illegal for a multitude of reasons. The Imperials of course still use combat droids like the Viper probe droids, but that's their prerogative, being the ones that make all the rules.

Not sure that Star Wars does the same things as you see in Shadowrun. They don't do drones because they have actual droids. The cybernetics that you see seem limited to replacing or enhancing an individual (Vader, Lobat, General Grievous). Even the battle droids that you see in Episode 1 are limited brains controlled by a larger, centralized brain (which was undone in later versions due to Anakin's actions in Ep 1).

So, you could have someone that was a good pilot and such, but either droids are doing the work (R2 flying the X-wing in a limited capacity) or a meat person is doing the work.

Security droids such as those fought in Escape from Mos Shuuta are legal but restricted. They probably aught to have been armed with stun-only blasters though. Assassin droids have always been illegal for a multitude of reasons. The Imperials of course still use combat droids like the Viper probe droids, but that's their prerogative, being the ones that make all the rules.

Thanks! I've been hanging a lot of my campaign on the fact that Teemo

SPOLERSSPOLERSSPOILERS

will stir up **** and upset the Hutts delicate balance with the Empire with his battle droid scheme. Making Jabba very angry with his nephew. It seemed logical but good to know it's a fact.

First off, I agree with the sentiment of this may not be Star Wars and getting the viewpoint of the other players first. But, if you wish to do this, here are some ideas.

Remote control in general (joystick with a view screen) could impose a hefty 2 difficulty increase for any tasks. Perhaps some things could be more or less affected by remote control - surgery versus driving a car.

Getting one of those nifty brain implants or a helmet with brain sensors to help you control the remote object with thoughts decreases the added difficulty to only 1 extra die. But, this opens you up to taking Stress when the remote object takes wounds. Critical wounds on the remote object could lead you to being immediately knocked unconscious, suffering setback, losing connection with your robot, etc. Perhaps a new critical chart is needed?

If you want to go all out, make sure your remote object has the same morphological shape as you. As in if you are human, the robot you control needs a head, two arms, two legs. Next, purchase a remote control station that has a complete exoskeleton for control. You move your legs to make the robot move its legs. Same with arms, turning head, etc. That sort of thing. You can control the robot just as if you were, "there", thus losing the 2 difficulty increase completely. The kicker is you can now take some wound damage. If your robot takes 6 damage, you take 1/2 of that in Stress (3), but also 1/2 of that (3) in wound damage as your exoskeleton control cage batters you about in bio-feedback.

This would need playtesting of course to adjust the ratio of Stress and Wound damage.

As an evil GM you can also throw in some added details:

What happens when you lose connection with your robot? It automatically goes into defense only mode and immediately starts making its way directly back to the remote controller all while the bad guys give chase. A few minutes later your damaged robot shows up at the ship with the tusken raiders behind it.

Personal interactions through a remote robot may have poor results. Threats/Despair can result in the person you are trying to negotiate demanding to see you in person or being completely offended and not wishing to speak to you at all.

Make the cybernetic brain implant (can't remember the name, what Lobot users) a requirement to effectively interface with the droid control unit and voila! Expensive requirement that also makes the PC susceptible to ion hits.