The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Intro:
Rigger3 is the end in two different ways in the life of Shadowrun. First, happily, is that it’s the last of the 3rd Edition rules expansions (Matrix, Magic in the Shadows, etc. . . ), and past this point in 3rd Edition most of the books should be in the same format as the Target:Matrix book release a few months ago. Second, and sadly Rigger3 is the last book that FASA will be making for Shadowrun before closing its doors in late April 2001 and turning the reigns of Shadowrun and Battletech over to Wizkids.

But enough of all this! You want to know about the book, not about the company making it, so what is Rigger3?

Riggers in SR are characters that control vehicles as their specialty. Riggers control tiny spider shaped drones, aircraft carriers, and everything in-between using a piece of cyberware called a VCR (Vehicle Control Rig). Rigger3 takes the bare bones information about vehicles given in the 3rd Edition Base Book and crams it full of everything else that there wasn’t space for previously.

Book Content:
‘Life in the Fast Lane’: The FASA crew did all SR players a big favor by adding this chapter to the front of the book. Like what the ‘The Matrix World’ chapter did in the Matrix book, this chapter covers the everyday use of vehicles in the SR world for normal Joe-WageSlave. GridGuide, hacking license plates, auto-navigational systems, and a flurry of other day-to-day topics are covered.

‘The Rigger’: Rigger characters are covered with new skills, suggested contacts, and edges/flaws that Riggers commonly have (the edges/flaws are defined in SR Companion). How the VCR works with a character’s brain and how it’s different than a cyberdeck is also a useful addition.

‘Sensors & Electronic Warfare’: Everything and anything you ever wanted to know about mechanical sensors and how to spoof them is the subject of this chapter.

‘Drones’: Potentially the most dangerous piece of the Rigger’s repertoire are drones. These semi-autonomous vehicles controlled by a Remote Control Deck get a thorough once over including new rules for Robots, which are smarter (and thus more dangerous) than the average drone.

‘Security Riggers’: Those riggers who jack in and run a building like most riggers run a sports car get their time in the sun here. These guys are the puppet masters of the building defenses that your runner characters butt heads with when breaking into that top secret research lab.

‘Ships & Subs’: Finally! After getting a half-hearted attempt at rules in the ‘Cyberpirates’ book there are finally solid rules for ships and submarines of all sizes. Given their size and power there is a different damage system for ships and ship weapons than standard vehicles.

‘Special Vehicle Rules’: This chapter should more rightly be titled ‘all the basic rules that don’t fit into any of the other chapters’ since that’s what this hodge-podge of rules seems to be. It starts with vehicle over-stress rules, then jumps to Lifting and Pulling Objects, and ends with miscellaneous Aircraft rules. The rules for piloting a semi-ballistic (think of a cross between an airliner and an ICBM that can go from LA to Tokyo in an hour) aren’t all that useful but the rules for fighting on one while in the passenger’s compartment will probably come in handy every now and then for GMs. As you can see this is a useful chapter for those odd situations when the company usually doesn’t provide rules.

‘Advanced Rules’: All kinds of advanced vehicle rules, the best of which is probably the ‘vehicle subsystems damage’ rules.

‘New Toys’: Guns, cyberware, missiles, and other equipment that wasn’t in the Base Book. A large number of the pieces of equipment are for ships and submarines.

‘Vehicle Design’: If you ever wanted to build your own vehicle this is the chapter for you. You can build a small skiff style sailboat, a motor scooter, an attack helicopter, an aircraft carrier, a . . . well you get the idea. Basically the only vehicle that you CAN’T build that I can think of is a tank, though there are other kinds of tracked vehicles. There are also options that only can be used when the vehicle is constructed that are listed in this chapter.

‘Vehicle Customization’: Accessories that can either be part of a new vehicle or added to an existing vehicle are in this chapter, and oh my are there a lot of them. This chapter is 33 pages with nothing but these options. Some are very specialized (only ships & subs can have a towed array sonar for example), but most options can fit a wide variety of chassis types.

‘Vehicle List’: Hallelujah! In the Rigger2 book they put all the vehicles in order not by their name, or their type, but alphabetically by the manufacturer name, which made the chapter nearly unusable. This time they’ve done a much better job. The vehicles are grouped by types, all the sedans are grouped together, as are all the boats, etc. . . Another nice touch is that each vehicle has a number of alternate names for different manufacturers, so no longer does the average Joe drive nothing but Ford Americars, now he can drive a Mercury Comet, or a Honda Accord, which have all the same stats, but definitely add flavor to vehicles.

‘Tables’: A long list of the Chassis specifications and Power Plant options for the ‘Vehicle Design’ chapter.

Review:
I think even the writers got to the point writing this book where they figured out that they’d gone a little too far in describing and defining vehicles in Rigger3. For example on page 71 there’s this line. ‘A character is more likely to survive a bareknuckle fight with a great dragon than to pilot a suborbital. However, if they do pilot one, the following special rules apply’. This tongue and cheek style of humor mixed in with serious rules is GREATLY appreciated by me as they break up the monotony of getting fed all the raw information that Rigger3 provides.

The addition of a number of new types of craft is much appreciated, especially to those SR groups who use the water and the air a lot in their gaming.

The artwork is definitely better than the previous Rigger book. While there isn’t a graphic for every vehicle, there are a number of pics for them which helps in describing what somebody’s driving / piloting. Other than vehicles I really liked the artwork, though again some is recycled. Special kudos goes to the artist of page 73, the quality of the pic is great and the content captures what I’ve always imagined the essence of a go-ganger.

Ack!! Again with the no index! FASA had the same problem with the Matrix book and like the Matrix book I won't give this style of book a 5 on content without a decent index. The book is more or less an encyclopedia on the rules and equipment for a Rigger and without an index a person is left fishing for information.

Final opinion? If you’re a GM with a Rigger PC in your group or a Rigger PC you almost have to get it. If you’re a GM and you don’t have a Rigger PC then the book is still useful for the chapters on drones and Security Riggers (good enemies) and for giving your PCs to read chapter 1. Overall it's a good addition (and finale) to the 3rd Edition rules expansion.