Good fraggin' luck, right? I'm making a character for Kesslan's On the Job run, which has some notable
character generation alterations: namely, 300 BP, several starting skills, and the ability to initiate (and I assume, submerge) out of CG. The pre-gen skills set up a character for a regular beat-cop position, and therefore mid- to close-range combat. Originally, I wanted to make someone who commanded a small group of drones to assist in combat, because drones are very useful, and a futuristic police force would probably agree. However, jumping in and even using Command seems to be contrary to the beat-cop mentality of getting into the action on the fly. That means the drones would have to be autonomous. With automatons, the skills of mechanics, artisans, and the otherwise technically inclined come to the forefront, and allow for the allocation of more combat-oriented points. However, just having a higher Hardware skill or using more resources for drones seemed like a cop-out, no pun intended.
I was searching online for some character ideas, and thought that making a Dronomancer, a drone-focused Technomancer, seemed really cool. However, the focus was still on rigging. I came across some posts on a different site about how Machine sprites interact with drones. The corebook is vague on the subject: do they jump in, do they use Command, or do they simply replace the drone's pilot rating? Replacing Pilot made the most sense to me, but a rating 6 Machine sprite can only take 2 autosofts as optional powers; way too few to effectively operate a combat drone. Someone posed the idea of using two sprites: one to operate the drone's movements, and one in the drone's smartlinked gun. This allowed a splitting of Maneuver, Defense, Targeting, and Clearsight autosofts, to name a few. Someone also proposed using three, to take advantage of the really cool Diagnostics power.
And thus I came to my current idea: A high Charisma, high Resonance Elven sprite compiler that can make drones more powerful than mundanely possible. Using sprites to automate the drones allows my character to jump into the fray without actually jumping in, and also makes him/her suitable for a social role that is somewhat lacking in the rest of the team. This opens up avenues for more contacts (anywhere from 12-14 free contact points from a houserule) and roles like interrogator. For background, I want to make him/her a technoshaman who follows Daedalus, or maybe 01. The benefits of technoshamanism outweigh dronomancy for fluff and crunch, in my situation; technoshamans venerate sprites, have access to Machine and Paladin sprites (useful for matrix defense), and use a Charisma-based Fading stat.
The problem, of course, is the expense of technos in general and the dichotomy of the design: you're supposed to stuff the decker in the janitor's closet, and the techno is supposed to stuff himself in the executive bathroom. With 300 BP, can you make a character like this? And if you can, can you make them even possibly Matrix worthy outside of Tasking? And if you can't make them Matrix worthy, can you at least make them less vulnerable? And should I take that level 5 debt to submerge?
So, a list of questions to be asked:
- What attributes should I buy? I think the options for Charisma and Resonance should be 5 with submersion (for a total of 6/7), 6 without submersion (for a total of 6/6), and 7 (for a total of 7/7). At least a total of 6 should be required: This allows for three two-manned drones or two three-manned drones.
- What CF's should I take?
- If I submerge, which echo should I take? Widget crafting seems sensible to me, because of the multiple functions (Rendering, in particular).
- What skills will I need?
- Should I drive the van?
Ultimately, I would like to see my character, after some hefty karma gains, as operating in an anti-drone capacity as well. It would be really cool if my character could use something like Mesh Reality to jump in the fray, hack an enemy drone with my own hands
(using the Skinlink echo), compile or use a registered sprite to man their drone, and use their drones against them. This would require some good Dodge dice, utilization of martial arts, and some levels of submersion.
All insights appreciated.
-PP