Mechanical Arm

Hardpoint Attached Devices

Devices attached to the vehicle by a hardpoint do not use any mod slots, but there are a few additional systems attached to a hardpoint-mounted device that use some Chassis Modification slots.

Weapon Mounts

All weapons physically attached to a vehicle must be installed in a weapon mount. These devices do not directly cost any mod slots but they can only be attached to a vehicle at a hardpoint.

Passenger vehicles and most drones start with one free standard hardpoint per three full points of Body (Body/3 rounded down). Small drones with a Body over three get one free small hardpoint instead. Standard hardpoints can be split or combined into different sizes: one standard hardpoint can be split into two small hardpoints, two standard hardpoints can combine into one large hardpoint, and three standard hardpoints can be merged into one huge hardpoint.

Weapon mounts are more than just a spot to bolt down a gun - they provide a ninety-degree arc of fire (horizontal and vertical) to the mounted weapon, and all mounts are remotely operated. The location of the weapon mount on the vehicle needs to be noted so firing arcs can be determined later (hardpoints are located wherever they need to be for this). Turret mounts may be used instead of a regular weapon mount, and they change the firing arc to 360 degrees. Turrets are available for all mount sizes, but they increase the size of the hardpoint needed by one category. Weapons need to be specially modified to operate on a vehicle, and it takes an Engineering (Armorer) + Logic (4, 1 hour) Extended test to modify a weapon for use in a mount (see p. 57, Firing Squad, for details). In addition to replacing the furniture and trigger assembly, the ammo container and capacity are changed according to the size of the mount. Due to the added stability of being hard-mounted to the mass of a vehicle or drone, recoil is less of a problem for any mounted weapon. To represent this additional recoil compensation, weapons in either style of weapon mount add two to their AR rating and halve the AR penalties for firing bursts (see p. 109, SR6).

Small Weapon Mount

Attached to a Small hardpoint. They can mount any SMG or smaller firearm, and ammo changes to 100(c) rounds of ammo using a large box magazine.

Hardpoint: Small

Weapon Size: SMG or smaller

Availability: 3 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥1,500

Small Turreted Weapon Mount

Attached to a Standard hardpoint. They can mount any SMG or smaller firearm, and ammo changes to 100(c) rounds of ammo using a large box magazine.

Any size of weapon mount can be purchased as a turreted version. This provides a firing arc while adding substantially to the cost and complexity of the mount.

Hardpoint: Standard

Weapon Size: SMG or smaller

Availability: 5 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥6,500

Standard Weapon Mount

Attached to a Standard hardpoint. They can mount any assault rifle or smaller firearm, and ammo changes to 250(c) rounds of ammo using a large box magazine.

Hardpoint: Standard

Weapon Size: Assault Rifle or smaller

Availability: 4 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥2,500

Standard Turreted Weapon Mount

Attached to a Large hardpoint. They can mount any assault rifle or smaller firearm, and ammo changes to 250(c) rounds of ammo using a large box magazine.

Any size of weapon mount can be purchased as a turreted version. This provides a firing arc while adding substantially to the cost and complexity of the mount.

Hardpoint: Large

Weapon Size: Assault Rifle or smaller

Availability: 6 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥8,500

Large Weapon Mount

Attached to a Large hardpoint. They can mount any man-portable weapon but typically those larger than an assault rifle. Ammo changes to 500(b) belted rounds of ammo or a number of rockets/missiles equal to the Body of the vehicle.

Hardpoint: Large

Weapon Size: Any man-portable weapon

Availability: 5 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥5,000

Large Turreted Weapon Mount

Attached to a Huge hardpoint. They can mount any man-portable weapon but typically those larger than an assault rifle. Ammo changes to 500(b) belted rounds of ammo or a number of rockets/missiles equal to the Body of the vehicle.

Any size of weapon mount can be purchased as a turreted version. This provides a firing arc while adding substantially to the cost and complexity of the mount.

Hardpoint: Huge

Weapon Size: Any man-portable weapon

Availability: 7 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥12,000

Expanded Ammo Bins

Each ammo bin doubles that ammo storage of a weapon mount. This comes in rating 1, 2, or 3, which is equivalent to small, standard, and large bins - and it must be the same size as the existing ammo bin. Expanding the ammo bin uses Chassis mod slots, as it is a system installed outside of the hardpoint.

Mod Slots: 0.5 x Rating

Rating: 1 - 3

Availability: 3 (Legal)

Cost: Rating x ¥400

Concealment

Left out in the open, an exposed weapon mount is quite obvious, as is the weapon mounted inside it. Since shadowrunners tend to have quite illegal things mounted on their vehicles, this can be a problem. The solution is to hide it.

There are two options for concealing weapon mounts: Blow-Away Panels and Pop-Out.

Pop-Out Concealment

This allows a weapon mount to be stored out of sight under the skin of a vehicle.

These weapon mounts and their attached weapons can be deployed on command, requiring a Minor Action, then retracted again with another command, also a Minor Action. Pop-out concealment is much harder to detect than blow-away panels, and characters need a Perception (4) test to suspect something is under the panel.

They are also completely re-usable, but the mechanisms are cumbersome and expensive, with the pop-out concealment systems requiring the same number of mod slots as the matching hardpoint.

Small Pop-Out

Mod Slots: 0.5

Rating: -

Availability: 2 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥1,500

Standard Pop-Out

Mod Slots: 1

Rating: 1

Availability: 3 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥3,000

Large Pop-Out

Mod Slots: 2

Rating: 2

Availability: 3 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥4,500

Huge Pop-Out

Mod Slots: 3

Rating: 3

Availability: 4 (Illegal)

Cost: ¥6,000

Blow-Away Panels

These are simple coverings designed to be jettisoned away from the weapon mount just before the weapon is triggered. Blow-away panels can be triggered as a Minor Action, and the concealed weapon underneath is immediately ready to use. Once blown away, the weapon is left exposed and obvious, but this method is both cheap and easy.

Blow-away panels are hard to blend into the outline of most vehicles and tend to stand out. A successful Perception (2) test reveals that there’s something covered, but not what it is (but it may not be hard for someone to guess).

Blow-away panels do not use any mod slots, but once used, the panel is discarded, and a new set of panels must be installed for the weapon mount to be concealed again.

The rating of blow-away panels are equal to the size class of the covered hardpoint, going from one (small) to four (huge).

Mod Slots: -

Rating: 1 - 4

Availability: 2 (Illegal)

Cost: Rating x ¥100

Drone Racks

Attached to a vehicle through a hardpoint, drone racks are devices that allow for storage, transport, and quick deployment of a drone (or drones in some cases). Classed by the size of the drone they are designed to deploy, a standard drone rack is generally enclosed within the skin of the vehicle with a hatch or sliding panel. This makes devices like the pop-out concealment of weapon mounts unnecessary. Racks designed for smaller drones include enough built-in storage to carry several drones of the same size that can be launched one after the other. The drone storage can also be expanded on any drone rack, but this costs Chassis mod slots in addition to the monetary cost.

A drone rack may only carry the size of drone it was designed for, but racks holding multiple drones may carry an assortment within the same size class. Any drone stored in a drone rack can be deployed with a Minor Action. Drone racks will also dock and store a drone as a Major Action with a threshold of three on a Piloting Test required to position the drone correctly. Drone racks carrying multiple drones can launch several drones or dock one drone in a single combat turn but may not do both. Drone racks can be mounted on drones if they have an available hardpoint of the correct size, but the attached drone rack must always be for drones at least one size smaller than the one it’s mounted on, regardless of the available hardpoint size.

Mini/Micro Rack

Hardpoint: Small

# of Drones: 5

Availability: 3

Cost: ¥1,000

Small Rack

Hardpoint: Standard

# of Drones: 3

Availability: 3

Cost: ¥2,000

Medium Rack

Hardpoint: Large

# of Drones: 1

Availability: 4

Cost: ¥5,000

Large Rack

Hardpoint: Huge

# of Drones: 1

Availability: 6

Cost: ¥10,000

Expanded Drone Storage

Additional drone storage space may be added to any drone rack, but it may only expand the storage of the drone size that the drone rack is designed for. Expanding drone storage uses chassis mod slots as it is an accessory system installed out- side of the hardpoint.

Mini/Micro Storage

Mod Slots: 0.5

# Extra: 5

Availability: 3

Cost: ¥500

Small Storage

Mod Slots: 1

# Extra: 3

Availability: 3

Cost: ¥1,000

Medium Storage

Mod Slots: 1

# Extra: 1

Availability: 4

Cost: ¥2,000

Large Storage

Mod Slots: 2

# Extra: 1

Availability: 4

Cost: ¥5,000

Mechanical Arm

This represents the basic style of arm that people see every day on utility vehicles and construction drones, appearing on everything from garbage trucks to rescue drones to research submersibles. They have a limited range of motion and are only useful for basic operations like moving boxes around or shifting rocks on a construction site. They can be mounted on a rail system or a fixed point on the interior or exterior of a vehicle, but the location must be defined when the arm is installed.

When attempting to use a mechanical arm for any task that requires fine motor control, the operator’s attribute that is used for control is halved (Logic if the operator is working in VR). A vehicle-mounted mechanical arm has a size and Strength proportional to the Body of the vehicle it’s mounted on, with a total working length equal to Body x 20 centimeters. The Strength is equal to the vehicle’s Body / 2 (rounded up), and base Strength sets the arm size class. The bigger an arm is, the larger the hardpoint it needs for attachment. Mechanical arms can be upgraded to the next size class for the price of that larger size if the correct hardpoint is available. When doing so, it becomes the lowest Strength available in that new class size.

A mechanical arm can make a melee attack against any target within range if it is remotely operated or if the vehicle has a [Close Combat] Targeting autosoft. When making a melee attack, the dice pool is resolved with Close Combat + Sensor.

Ram Plate

Ram plates come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and they must be attached to a standard hardpoint. When making a ramming attack, add the vehicle’s Body to the dice pool of the attack and halve the DV of the return damage suffered for the collision.

Mod Slots: -

Rating: -

Availability: 3 (Legal)

Cost: Body x ¥250

Winch

These can be found mounted to ground vehicles, rescue rotorcraft, or on the decks of sea-going vessels. A winch must be attached to a standard hardpoint to be effective.

The basic rating 1 winch has a steel cable that wraps around a powered drum and ends with a latching hook. It comes with about one hundred meters of cable and can support a load of up to ten tons, provided the vehicle itself is heavy enough to support this. If wirelessly enabled, the winch hook can be released remotely.

An enhanced rating 2 winch is generally found in heavy industrial or rescue vehicles. This winch replaces the hook with an advanced system using a combination of gecko-grip technology and magnetism that can attach to any surface on its target without the need to manually place a hook. The system can be activated or deactivated remotely with a wireless command.

Mod Slots: -

Rating: 1 - 2

Availability: Rating x 2

Cost: ¥750/4,000