Shadowrun 5th ed Drones running silent

Question

Alright so, I titled this after running silent because that was my original problem. All I wanted to do was make a sniper who dabbled into rigging for a couple of MCT-Fly drones. So I figured I need them to run silent a majority of the time so people aren't able to tell that the bug on the wall is actually a drone.

So here is the first of many questions, if the drone is running silent but the RCC or Commlink isn't, do I still apply a -2 to my matrix actions?

On page 234 core book drones falls under the device rating 2 category, but on page 269 it says "The Device Rating of a drone is the same as its Pilot Rating, meaning all of its Matrix attributes are equal to the Pilot Rating." So which rule should I follow?

If somebody is rolling a matrix perception to see my drones icons anyway its an opposed test (INT+Computer v.s LOG+Sleaze). So on page 269 same exact sentence it says "all of its Matrix attributes are equal to the Pilot Rating." But yet again the rules contradict themselves on page 226 "Most devices(including commlinks) have only two Matrix attributes:Data Processing and Firewall. Decks and hosts have all four, including Attack and Sleaze." So am I correct in assuming I only get Device rating and Firewall at Pilot rating and 0 for the other two? Or do I not even have a sleaze attribute? Does that mean my limit for the test is 0? Something don't sit right about that one.

That being said I just went ahead and assumed I have to only roll LOG for that, and any competent hacker will beat my hits no problem. So is there any valid way for me to be better at that test, without slaving my RCC to a Cyberdeck just to gain a sleaze attribute? Would that even work since the cyberdeck has sleaze not the drone?

1. If a Drone is running silent and the RCC is not, do I take -2 to matrix actions?

2. What is a drone's device rating

3. Is a drone's sleaze zero, if so is there anyway to increase my die pool to defend against matrix perception.

Sorry about all the questions, and thank you in advance to anyone who trys to answer them for me. :)

Answer 1

There's definitely some contradiction in the book and a few judgement calls to make, but here's how I'd run it:

1) Yes, generally speaking I would apply a -2 when using the drone with a matrix action since you only get the -2 penalty when performing matrix actions (Running Silent p235). In addition, the only matrix actions this drone/device will ever participate in is the Control Device action (remote control) or when Jumped-in. Autopilots should not be affected by the reduced matrix signature, since they are dog brains housed in the drone, taking real world actions (not matrix actions) based on messages they received. Also, Control Device comes in 2 flavors, cooperative and non-cooperative (Control Device p238). If the drone is yours, the control is always cooperative and you apply the -2 IF(!) a skill test is required (basic actions often do not require tests). On the other hand if you're a decker hacking an enemy drone, then you will always make an electronic warfare test (and you know it's a hacker because the limit to this test is Sleaze) to subvert the drone. In this case I would NOT apply the -2 since the drone is a non-cooperative target and not a participant with its owner. i.e Running silent only hinders the parties using/benefiting from it.

2) I would go with page 269 for device rating. Therefore all of its (two) matrix attributes would equal its pilot rating. Reading it this way is the only way the rules are consistent. That means you have no Sleaze or Attack rating in your drone, but that doesn't mean your limit is zero. The right side of any test opposed test is the defense side and that side (either side really) only ever has a limit in cases where a skill is involved in the defense (limits, p47). That also means that your defense against matrix detection is just your logic score. If you want the benefit of a sleaze rating, the best way to do that (at least till the rigger and/or decker books come out) is to slave the drone to the hacker's cyberdeck. The Master-Slave relationship imparts all the best ratings to the salve for defense tests, including those where Sleaze is part of the defense test (p233). This understanding of the term "defense" was also confirmed by the developers: Here

3) Apart from increasing your logic or buying a cyberdeck, one easy way to help hide is to keep your drones on the public grid so that the person detecting it will either take a -2 dice penalty for being on the public grid or they'll take a -2 penalty for the target being on a different grid (Grids/The Public Grid, pg 233). You could also use a jammer to create noise penalties, but that has other repercussions. Lastly, per pg 269 drones can run cyberprograms as well as autosofts, so that may include things like a Stealth cyberprogram for a +1 Sleaze. Some may disagree on RAW here since the drone does not have a Sleaze rating to increase, so this is a GM call.

4) Your understanding of sharing, programs and noise reduction is correct. This was also confirmed by a developer: Here The device rating of an RCC is the total amount of program space (autosoft and cyberprogram) and noise reduction it can manage on its own (Noise Reduction and Sharing, p.267 and Rigger Cyberprograms p.269) Remember that at any given time a particular drone is either using only the programs loaded on it or it's only using shared the programs off the RCC. It can't do both. Generally that's 2 programs (DR3/2 = 1.5, round up = 2) for the drone (or 3 with VM) or Device rating (-noise reduction +1 for VM) for an RCC. Because of the limited number of autosofts able to be shared, it's generally best to only load the RCC for 1 or 2 types of drone, and use the same weapon on all the drones.

There's some contention on RAW, but I don't think daisy-chaining is allowed in device master-slave relationships due to the following rules: First, it breaks the intended maximum of DRx3 devices benefiting from the master's ratings and second, it contradicts the explicit model for a PAN and the singular wording regarding the network master, "The group consisting of your slaved devices and plus your master...is called a... PAN" (PANs and WANs pg 233). So, I would say it's not within the rules to have a network containing drones with an RCC as their master and a cyberdeck which is also master of the RCC.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

1)If a Drone is running silent and the RCC is not, do I take -2 to matrix actions?

Not if you are taking the action. You aren't running silent, the drone is so it would take the penalty to an action it takes (autonomous actions). If you jump into the drone it is now slaved to the RCC and not running silent anymore. If you then switch the RCC to silent mode you do take the -2.

2)What is a drone's device rating

Use the rule of device rating equal to pilot. Pg 421 in the gear section calls out that anything that doesn't explicitly state its device rating uses that table. The drones call out specifically that device rating is equal to pilot on pg 269 so they use that value instead. If for whatever reason you had a drone without a pilot, then it would follow the table. What happened? Catalyst fails at editing cuz no drone out there comes without a pilot rating. This is what makes it a drone. Generally if you run into something like this use the specific rule in the text over the tables. The tables lie. Frequently.

3)Is a drone's sleaze zero, if so is there anyway to increase my die pool to defend against matrix perception.

Yup. Get a hacker. Or a cyberdeck. Cuz that is how 5th ed is built, with the idea that every team will have a hacker...sorry, decker and everything will be slaved to his cyber deck to take advantage of its far better attributes and the hacker's...sorry, decker's leet skillz. Don't have a hacker...sorry, decker? Too bad. Guess your expensive gear gets bricked. Oh what fun.

4)What is an RCC limit to programs it can have running, how does this effect sharing and noise reduction.

An RCC gets to split it's device rating between NR and Sharing (pg 267) to run autosofts. Sadly they don't say if you can run anything else with that sharing value. I have it in mind that somewhere it says non cyber decks (commlinks, RCC, etc) can run a number of programs equal to half its device rating but I can't find the actual rule so it be something I made up to fix yet another glaring hole in the rule set. Drones can run a number of autosofts equal to half the device rating (pg 269) so that may be where it came from. So to answer the actual question, you don't get to run any programs unless the half device rating thing is an actual rule. You can only run Autosofts with the sharing attribute.