In some situations it seems clear when to use a pilot skill. You're behind the wheel of a car/boat/plane, you're teleoperating or jamming a bulldozer, etc. You'll always use your own perception and weapon skills, I imagine. But I'm a little iffy on certain examples.
If I jam a plane, my skills replace the AI's. Do I use pilot or flight? If I want to avoid gunfire, do I use fray or pilot? I want to avoid detection, do I use infiltration or pilot?
If I am in an exoframe and want to run, do I use pilot or freerunning since the frame is an extension of your body?
On the one hand, I could see replacing most skills with pilot if you're teleoperating. It's like playing a video game, it uses a different set of skills than actually performing the act. But when jamming, it's different, and if you just max out your pilot skills you could be a badass at everything.
So how do you handle it?
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Pilot skills
Thu, 2012-08-09 08:59
#1
Azathoth
Pilot skills
Thu, 2012-08-09 14:07
#2
DivineWrath
I've have in the past asked
I've have in the past asked for a books covering skills in more detail. There is sufficient gaps in the current system that allows for skills to overlap (in ways that are not clear), become redundant (2 or more skills do the same job), or simply be missed (hard to predict what is missing).
I'll try to answer your questions though.
For shell jamming, you are effectively operating the machine as though it were your own body. You use flight if you are a bird, pilot: aircraft if its a plane or helicopter. If you were operating by remote control, you would probably use a pilot skill regardless of other circumstances.
I think you use fray if you are using flight, and you use pilot if you were piloting in the first place. I need to review the rules though. I wouldn't rule out needing to roll both skills for one action (avoiding gunfire for instance), or rolling one skill with a penalty.
It says in the gear section, that a person wearing an exoskeleton moves as normal since its mimicking the person's movements. If you were shell jamming, you still move as normal since you are functioning as though you were sleeved. In both those instances, you should use your freerunning skill.
A person remote controlling an exoskeleton uses the pilot skill, and may have to also roll freerunning or suffer a penalty to the pilot skill test.
I consider shell jamming to be very similar to being sleeved in the said morph or vehicle. You can use the said vehicle as though it were your own body, sitting in the driver's seat, or as close to that as possible. Operating something by remote control is less intuitive that your own body. You will likely suffer difficulties translating some action that is simple for a sleeved individual to something that a remote control machine can do (by default, you suffer a -10 penalty to said actions).
I suppose you can also handle it like forking. There are ways to deal with them if you know how. For jamming or remote controlling, disrupting communication methods are one way to disable a remote tank (or force it to use a less skilled AI).
Plus, part this game's nature is dealing with new technologies and the whole paradigm shift that goes with it. To some extent, players and GMs are encouraged to exploit what is available, to get a significant advantage over those who have yet to embrace advanced technology. So yeah, a skilled remote pilot can be a dangerous enemy.