Second Skin Driver Move: Does it Apply to Drones?
Pretty straightforward. Does second skin work with drones, and if not (or the drone user doesn’t have second skin) how do you adjudicate drone actions?
Do you Mix it Up using your meat score if you are piloting a drone (perhaps from a position of safety)? Should this be treated similar to Jack In, where the user is at -1 to all rolls for working without the advantage of the speed of thought?
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Daniel Lugo 🙈
The section on drones on page 135 says “The same general advice for vehicles applies to drones.” Since the immediately preceding section on vehicles references Second Skin, that says to me that yes, that move applies to drones (though I would think that anyway, since the driver not getting to use that move for drones wouldn’t make much sense to me).
If you don’t have that move, just use the appropriate basic moves; you just don’t get the numerical bonuses that Second Skin gives you. The consequences can apply to either you or the drone as appropriate.
James Etheridge its hard to get a bonus from a stat they don’t have. This is the crux of the issue, as drones do not receive the same profile as vehicles.
Not all vehicles receive that profile either – look at the Pusher’s sleek vehicle. I believe the book says that you ought to make up stats if it becomes relevant. If you have a Driver, and the Driver uses the Pusher’s sleek vehicle, then it’s relevant. (p. 134 is where this rule is). Page 135 says the same rules apply for drones. Make a profile if you need to – say, if the Driver is trying to really get a lot out of using the drone.
I’m not sure if profile in that context just means a completely defined drone instead of just the frame/motive/role basics, or if it actually means a capital-P Profile in the vehicle sense. They each have different rules for assigning strengths and weaknesses, so I’m fairly inclined to say it’s the former. But that’s just me.
Either way, at a minimum Second Skin lets you substitute Synth for Meat when you Mix it Up with drones, so there’s still some benefit.
Does anyone else feel like having the cyberware is what should qualify you to use the altered stats while the move is what should allow you to add the drone/vehicles bonus to the roll? I can’t see a strong argument for not using synth for a mix it up using a remote controlled drone.
Hamish Cameron Formal ruling on this?
Thanks, Daniel Lugo. I missed this one! Yes, second skin applies to drones. Drones don’t have a profile by default, so all the profile additions are zero, but its a simple custom hack to give them a full profile if you want that feel in your game (or in a specific instance–like a cutting-edge military drone that you want to lure the Driver with! [1]).
My reasoning is that (1) being physically plugged into a car is very fast (so that’s why Drivers are pretty awesome at those things while they’re in a car) (2) I want to see drivers being awesome in their cars. So when controlling something remotely they’re not as powerful as they are in a car, but are still fully capable of engaging with moves without penalty through their drones. Not getting the profile bonus is the remote action limitation/”penalty” (really a lack of a bonus rather than a penalty).
If you want a game where a Driver with a drone is as totally awesome with drones as they are with cars, then give drones profiles. (Yes, James Etheridge and Charlie Vick, “profile” in that sentence (p.135) means capital-P Profile (power, looks,weakness, armour), but its not as clear as it could be, sorry!)
This means that you roll Synth to mix it up with a Drone, as steven swezey suggests.
[1] This question has come up before, so I’m going to include this in The Mission Files, probably with said cutting-edge military drone!
I’m also sympathetic to steven swezey’s point that the cyberwear could be what qualifies you to add the bonuses to to roll. I hadn’t consideredwhat happens if someone with a neural interface but without second skin plugs in to a vehicle. If I had to come up with something on the fly, I would model it on the Matrix rules for jacking in without jack in (access to all the moves, but at -1 rather than +stat). That would reflect inexperience driving a jacked in vehicle with your mind, which i imagine would be quite the radical learning curve! This could definitely change based on the setting: e.g. in Freewaytown, the Los Angeles setting that’s coming soon, it’s illegal to drive your own cars, so average people probably just can’t drive at all, whereas a setting where everyone regularly plugs in and drives a flying car (say in a Fifth Element-style vertical sprawl) everyone might be able to use their full stats with just a neural interface.)