Day 10: Rouge the Speed Freak
#CharacterCreationChallenge
The final entrance in the “Technical” series of characters is a classic Rigger, with more of a vehicle focus than on drones (but there’s plenty of drones still). As a Rigger, she can “jump into” a vehicle and control it as if it was an extension of her own body, and aside from transportation, her main role in the team is to act as support for the others - either fire support with vehicle and drone weapons, or as a medic, of sorts.
Appearance and first impression
Rouge is a fairly unassuming dwarf with mousy brown hair, even smaller than most dwarves and usually has a sniffle and a slight tremor to her hands. She never carries any weapons, but often has a few small (and armed) drones hovering around her. She usually wears dark red clothes.
Backstory
Growing up in Quebec, Rouge’s had parents that were well-off but distant, buying her toys instead of spending time with her. Her constant health issues meant she preferred to spend time in the Matrix and otherwise indoors, at least until she was old enough to get her first drone and control rig - she took to it like a fish to water and spent almost all her time either racing her drones and vehicles, or modifying and upgrading them. Eventually she started getting into a friendly competition with a local Go-Gang, which turned less friendly and led to her hurried move to Seattle…
Priorities
Another fairly straightforward priority selection - Resources are right at the top, Skills are also important, Attributes can go to C because we only really need Mental attributes, and Metatype goes on D (and Magic/Resonance, of course, on E):
A: Resources (450,000)
B: Skills (24)
C: Attributes (12)
D: Metatype (Dwarf, 4)
E: Magic/Resonance (Mundane)
Attributes
There’s a bit of a twist here - normally, piloting tests are linked to Reaction, but when jumped into a vehicle, a rigger replaces their physical attributes with mental ones, and Reaction gets replaced with Intuition, so that takes the top spot. We also need reasonably high Logic since that is used with Engineering (both fixing/modifying the vehicles and shooting vehicle-mounted weapons) and acts as Agility when jumped in and Willpower because it is used to resist Dumpshock (damage from being involuntarily ejected from VR, such as if a jumped-in vehicle gets destroyed or otherwise disconnected). We also want a little Body for resisting actual damage in case of a crash, and a bit of Charisma and Strength just in case. At this stage, Agility and Reaction get ignored because we are unlikely to use them much in the real world, so we have:
Body 2
Agility 1
Reaction 1
Strength 2
Willpower 4
Logic 5
Intuition 6
Charisma 2
Edge 2
Skills
Piloting gets mixed out because that is the main skill for driving/operating any vehicle. Engineering is the runner-up because it is used both for modifying them and using vehicle-mounted weapons.
A bit of Cracking and Electronics covers electronic warfare like jamming and hacking other vehicles, Outdoors includes navigation, and we want a bit of Perception and Stealth. For now we have:
Piloting 6
Engineering 5
Cracking 4
Electronics 3
Outdoors 2
Perception 2
Stealth 2
Knowledge Skills
Our high Logic gives us a number of free skills, but since our native language is French, 3 of the 5 go into English (Expert) so we can actually talk to people (not that we want to very often, but…). The other 2 cover Vehicles and Quebec because, well, we would know about those.
Qualities
Analytical Mind is cheap and gives bonus points for Logic-related tests for 3 Karma. Yes, I use it a lot, because it’s frankly too good for its cost.
Juryrigger costs 12 Karma and gives us bonus Edge for getting broken devices to work for a short time, which seems suitable.
Gearhead costs 10 Karma and helps with repairing vehicles in a more long-term sense.
Unsteady Hands means we can’t use Edge on tests using Agility, Weak Immune System makes it harder to resist infections of any kind, and Insomnia means we have to roll a test every day to get any rest (but thanks to the Sleep Regulator augmentation, the test is fairly easy).
As a Dwarf, Rouge also has natural Thermographic Vision and Toxin Resistance both of which do just what you would expect.
Vehicles and Drones
Technically, those fall under “Gear”, but they are so important for a Rigger, they get their own section.
The Van
A Nissan Strider van is pretty good out of the box - it comes with some armor and fairly high performance. It also has a default of 8 seats and about 6 cubic metres / 1200 kg of cargo capacity.
As a Rigger, Rouge of course needs a Rigger Interface that allows her to “jump in” (note that Drones have this as standard). She also installed a Rigger Cocoon in the back, which protects her when she is “driving” in full VR (i.e. most of the time). The drivers seat also has a Metahuman adjustment (dwarf) for the rare cases where she is physically at the wheel (or to allow a dwarf teammate to sit in comfort), and two of the other seats have been converted into one Troll-sized seat (in case there’s a Troll on a team), which leaves only 7 (but that should be plenty).
About one cubic metre of cargo space has also been modified as a hidden Smuggling Compartment, which is useful for transporting some of her… less than legal gear.
Electrochromatic Paint allows quick colour changes.
For combat purposes, there are two Standard Turreted Weapon Mounts, both with Pop-Up Concealment (because law-enforcement frowns upon that kind of thing) sporting Ares Alpha assault rifles. One of these is loaded up with Regular Ammunition, the other with Gel Ammunition for a less-deadly option. Each of them also has a built-in Grenade Launcher, with a selection of micro grenades available (Stun, Smoke, High Explosive and Fragmentation). The grenades need to be reloaded by hand, so there’s only six available per rifle.
Finally, the van has two Medium Drone Racks that can quickly launch drones - usually carrying the Rotodrones (see below).
The Rotodrones
Two MCT-Nissan Rotodrones are medium-sized, flying drones each equipped with a weapon - they can be deployed from the van as mobile fire support or taken along when leaving the vehicle behind.
One of them has another Ares Alpha assault rifle with Regular ammunition and High-explosive grenades for versatile fire support.
The other has a Panther XXL assault cannon which is one of the heaviest weapons available, for when you want to take down a tank or something along those lines.
The “Ambulance”
An Ares Packmule large drone is a four-legged walker drone equipped with a MedevacModification and Valkyrie Module that allows it to carry and treat a (sedated) injured metahuman. It also has another Ares Alpha rifle on a turret (which, just like the ones on the van, is concealed with a pop-out system).
The Eye in the Sky
The Federated Boeing Sky Commander is a small flying observation drone with high-end sensors, stealth features and a built-in jammer that can be directed at a target. Good for flying high above a target area for observation, or to mess with other Riggers by jamming their remote controls.
The Small Ones
For stealthy spying and as a replacement for personal weapons, Rouge also carries three smaller flying drones.
The two Cyberspace Designs Dragonfly-Alphas are quad-copters primarily designed to destroy other drones, but can also be used against metahuman targets. They have a beak lined with mono-filament teeth for close combat attacks, and a modified Remington Roomsweeper short-barrelled shotgun. Each Roomsweeper has four barrels and needs to be reloaded once all four have fired; they are loaded with regular and flechette ammunition for some versatility.
The Whispering Death is highly illegal but also very concealable - it is a small, very quiet disk consisting of a single fan… and four extending monofilament wires that it can spin around itself, cutting anything and anyone that gets too close.
Gear
Weapons
None whatsoever - at least not any that are used by Rouge directly. Her Dragonfly and Whispering Death drones are what she would normally use in personal-ish combat when it is unavoidable.
Armor
An Armor Vest with Chemical Protection and Fire Resistance, alongside a Helmet that has some visual enhancements built into its visor is her normal go-to gear.
Augmentations
A rating 3 Control Rig is what makes Rouge a Rigger - it allows her to “jump in” to a vehicle, increasing the dicepool and simultaneously reducing the threshold for any vehicle operation tests by 3, and providing a bonus point of Edge.
A smartlink (installed directly into the eye instead of as part of a cybereye in this case) lets her use smartlinked weapons properly. This includes… all the weapons on her drones and vehicles, conveniently.
Rating 4 Reaction Enhancers increase her Reaction from 1 to 5 when active, just in case she does want to manually control a vehicle at some point for some reason.
A Sleep Regulator means she can get by on 3 hours of very restful sleep per night, and also makes the Insomnia easier to deal with.
And finally, an Implanted Rigger Control Console (specifically a Maersk Spider) allows her to control up to 12 drones simultaneously, including sharing out up to 4 autosofts (see below).
Autosofts
Autosofts effectively act as skills for independently operating drones (i.e. ones not directly controlled by a jumped-in rigger - cars on autopilot count as drones for this purpose). Each Drone can run up to half it’s Pilot rating rounded up itself (usually 1-2), and the RCC (see above) can run up to 4 that can be shared by various drones. Switching autosofts is a Major action, so it can be done fairly quickly when required. Rouge has the following autosofts available:
Maneuvering autosofts acting as a Piloting skill for a specific type of vehicle - she has them for all five types of vehicles she has.
Stealth counts as the Stealth skill for a specific type of vehicle - she has them for the Dragonfly-Alpha, Whispering Death and Sky Commander drones.
Targeting counts as a weapons skill for a specific kind of weapon. She has them for the Ares Alpha, the Ares Alpha Grenade Launcher, the Panther XXL and the Remington Roomsweeper.
Close Combat acts as a Close Combat skill, which covers both the beak of the Dragonfly and the monofilament attacks of the Whispering Death.
Clearsight acts as a Perception skill for drones.
Electronic Warfare acts as the Cracking skill for jamming and overcoming ECM.
Evasion is used to avoid incoming attacks.
Other stuff
We have a lot of the usual equipment, alongside an Engineering Shop (i.e. a very well-stocked work area) and an Electronics Kit (portable and less well-stocked).
Adding it all up
Altogether, our equipment costs 470,170 Nuyen, which is even more than the 450,000 we had, so we have to spend 11 Karma and start the game with 1,830 Nuyen.
The augmentations use 4.8 Essence, leaving us with 1.2.
Spending our Karma
After qualities and gear, we have 30 Karma left.
That goes into one point of Athletics and specialisations in Piloting (Ground Craft), Engineering (Gunnery), Cracking (Electronic Warfare), Electronics (Hardware) and Outdoors (Navigation).
Finishing it up
Contacts
All contacts have Connection 2, Loyalty 2.
Francis Leroy, a fellow Quebecois mechanic and vehicle dealer.
One-Tusk, an Ork and member of the Crimson Crush Go-Gang. He may be able to get his hands on some weapons every now and then.
Windrider is a Salish smuggler.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Dragonfly-Alpha Beak: 10
Dragonfly-Alpha Roomsweeper: 11/10/6/-/-
Whispering Death: 14
Ares Alpha rifle: 6/12/11/9/4
Ares Alpha grenade launcher: 6/12/8/4/-
Panther XXL: 3/11/14/10/8
Defense Rating
Physical: 5
Vehicle: 12 (14 for ground vehicles)
Initiative
Physical: 11 + 1D6
Jumped in (hot-sim): 12 + 3D6
Notable Dice Pools
Jumped-in piloting: 17/15 (Ground/other)
Jumped-in gunnery: 16
Autonomous attack with Dragonfly-Alpha(gun): 9
Autonomous attack with Dragonfly-Alpha(beak): 8
Autonomous attack with Whispering Death: 7
Vehicle repair/modification in “shop”: 11
Condition Monitors
Physical: 9
Stun: 10
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for Day 10 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT