Drone - Questions on Riding a drone

[Belor Yon]

I have found a few threads on drone riding and most questions have been answered but there are still a some I still have.

How is damage assigned when targeting drone/rider?

Does shape and riding style of the drone change damage assignment or cover provided if any?

Would this setup also cause some form of disadvantage for the mechanic while shooting?

The situation:

A player in a game uses a bipedal drone, player is a small build and the drone is Medium egg shaped build. The saddle is attached to the back of the drone allowing the rider to see over the top of the drone but is more or less behind the drone, think piggy back style with a saddle instead of hugging on to it. At most the head is visible enough so they mechanic can direct the drone as needed and can lean out to shoot with their pistol during combat as needed.

[BigNorseWolf]

You cannot gain a mechanical advantage like cover just from how you design your drone.

["Dr." Cupi]

How is damage assigned when targeting drone/rider?
They are not 1 target. They are 2 separate targets.

Does shape and riding style of the drone change damage assignment or cover provided if any?

BigNorseWolf wrote:

You cannot gain a mechanical advantage like cover just from how you design your drone.

This.

Would this setup also cause some form of disadvantage for the mechanic while shooting?
Nope

If the Riding Saddle mod specifically stated that the rider gains cover then yes, the rider gains cover. It doesn't, so in SFS the rider doesn't gain cover. A GM can fiat in a home game that it could work that way, though I would caution any GM from doing so as it is a pretty solid mechanical advantage.

[HammerJack]

If you want to get cover from your mount, drone or otherwise, there is a riding action for that. It just means your mechanic needs Survival skill.

[Belor Yon]

With the information in the back of the Alien Archive 3, I wanted to revisit some part of this question. Do all of the actions listed in the "Actions While Mounted" apply?

Do you still need to do the survival checks to ensure they go off, I think the answer may be yes based on HammerJack's statement but is there a difference between a free thinking creature vs. a mechanized construct that does not have free though?

What part of this section of AA3 apply currently to mechanic's drones?

[pithica42]

I'm pretty sure Joe Pasini posted an 'errata' type post about Drones recently in the Rules forum where those questions were answered.

[Nefreet]

He did, indeed!

[Belor Yon]

Thank you, that helps a lot.