This article proposes a streamlined handling for riggers in SR4.
Driving vehicles and the associated rigging are not clearly explained in the source book. The whole rigging chapter seems to be broken, yielding little usable information. There are too many vehicle ratings (e.g. adding the acceleration has not done any good). Clearly, a revision is in order.
Rigging with rigger gear requires a comlink. Only users with a cyber comlink can drive in virtual reality mode (always hot sim), all others have only AR. Rigger control cyberware always adds +2 dice, in every mode. As attribute, Reaction is always used, even when in VR.The following table shows a typical chronology of a drive in the park.
| Action | Attribute | |
Skill | |
Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drive vehicle | Rea | + | Vehicle | : | e.g. spirit accident power |
| Drive by pilot | Pilot * 2 | |
|
|
|
| Look | Int | + | Sensor | : | Rea + Infiltration |
| Look by pilot | Pilot | + | Sensor | : | Pilot * 2 |
| Shoot vehicle | Agi | + | Firearm | : | Bod + Armor |
| Shoot by pilot | Pilot * 2 | |
|
: | Bod + Armor |
| Shoot tires | Agi - 4 | + | Firearm | : | Bod |
| Ram vehicle | Rea | + | Vehicle | : | Rea + Vehicle |
| Ram person | Rea | + | Vehicle | : | Rea + Dodge |
| Avoid crash | Rea | + | Vehicle | : | 3 |
Handling and acceleration are dropped. AR brings no benefit, VR (always hotsim) +2 dice. Drone autosofts are eliminated; instead, Pilot * 2 is rolled for all occasions. Signature is also eliminated (but one can still buy thermo camouflage etc. against specific sense ware).
In shooting, vehicles cannot evade at all (but the shooting character gets -2 dice for a moving target), rolling Bod + Armor directly. Getting shot at gives -1 driving dice for the rigger (same as rough terrain). Shooting at small drones (micro and smaller) gives -4 dice for the attacker (but the drone cannot evade). Shooting tires get also -4 dice, and the vehicle can resist with Bod only, as tires cannot be "armored" in the classical sense.
Unless one has a vastly faster vehicle than the other (and terrain is free), it is impossible to shake off a pursuer, provided both manage their drive tests. The evader can choose how many dice are subtracted from both tests, by choosing how wild to drive.
Driving remains a complex issue. Some stats and items could be simplified, but vehicle customization possibilities limit further simplification efforts.
EOF: Sep 2008