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I keep reading the Riggers section and from what I understand you need to have an implanted Control Rig (which gives you all the AR & VR options including Matrix Initiative) and you can get a RCC to be able to slave together (and operate) more than one Drone or Vehicle.

If all that is correct why does the Drone Rigger Archetype not have a RCC and why does her matrix (Rigging) initiative appear to be calculated using her Commlink and not her Control Rig?

I just need help breaking this down so I can make sure one of my players character is made correctly.

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Because you might not always have the money built in to your character at char gen to put into buying an RCC. It is not a REQUIRED piece of hardware for a rigger. In fact, riggers can rig just fine with only a commlink. It's just that it becomes a lot harder to control an entire group of drones, or multiple drones, or give them extra abilities. It's not unheard of, it's just rare.

My suggestion to you is to always have an RCC for your rigger. Characters generated in the example section is supposed to be more of an inspiration then a full-out, well made character. If you are going to be a rigger, you should be putting high priority into money anyways, so this should never be much of an issue. But, I have seen adept riggers too, and they'll only have the data port to jack into a vehicle (usually a car or plane or something) and rely on adept powers and bonuses to do better driving or flying.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Are you "required" to have the Implanted Control Rig? It appears to be written that way in Rigger section. Additionally, what is the best way to beef up/protect a RCC or Commlink against enemy Hackers? \$\endgroup\$ – Aric Jun 6 '14 at 0:26
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    \$\begingroup\$ To your first question, if you want the benefit of jumping into a drone, you need a control rig. Normally, you can command drones all day long without a control rig. But the rig allows you to Cold/Hot jump into a drone. To your second question, you have two options. RCCs are made so that you can scramble and protect them well enough, so you don't need to worry too much about them. But, to increase the protection, you can slave your RCC to the decker's PAN. But, I would just take the needed programs to scramble and get a lot of ECM and ECCM with electronic warfare. \$\endgroup\$ – CrystalBlue Jun 6 '14 at 11:07
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Example Characters often are built weirdly

To my knowledge there are a few reasons to use a commlink rather an implanted rig. For example, a it might have better stats, longer range, a better firewall. Further, you can ditch a commlink where a hacked implant is much, much harder to ditch.

To my knowledge in SR5 your matrix initiative is based on your Response, so if the commlink has better response than the control rig you might use that instead of the rig. The whole 'wireless world' chapter could not be more poorly written.

That said, example characters are often put together at the last minute, by someone not familiar with that section of the rules. They often make weird choices, in some cases are illegal characters (dnd, i'm looking at you).

RCC + Control Rig = Operate multiple drones at once sounds right, though. You can give general orders to multiple drones, so it's not mandatory, just a 'good choice'.

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