So I've asked some folks already about this. I've read the descriptions in the books, and am having trouble figuring out exactly what to do per the rules to get the in-game effect I want.

How big would a *flying* drone have to be to be a 'personal assistant' and be large enough to pick up and carry things like dishes or clothing or packages that an average metahuman would easily be able to carry, but possibly couldn't reach? A carrying capacity equal to about Strength 1 would be plenty for the effect I want.

I've thought of putting a mechanical arm on a little flying drone, like a FlySpy, but I'm not sure if that seems too small? On the other hand a drone one size up, like the Lockheed Optic-X, seems too big to keep constantly at hand for mundane tasks like getting things from high places indoors.

What do you all think? I just wanted some opinions before I went making choices that would require +sheetchanges to fix later.

Thanks!

(Andromeda)

From what I remember, Micro Drones would be far too small to do what you wanted.  What you could do is have a small drone that's on the smaller size of things, but has all the same game mechanics of a normal small drone.

...did I say Micro-Drones? Stupid fingers.. I meant Mini-drones, which have a body of 1. Small drones have a 2. I didn't mean the *really* teeny tiny Body 0 drones.

Small drones just seem... big, to me. I don't have a problem using one set of mechanics or the other, I just want to get a feel for which set the player base thinks would be more appropriate for the concept. Why there isn't a 'personal assistant drone' in the books is beyond me... isn't that one of the first kinds of drones that would be on the retail market?

In SR4, the technology does not really exist for a floating drone that flies around all day and does chores.  This is not Star Wars, there is no anti-gravity or magnetic repulsor craft.  The only hovering in Shadowrun comes from helicopter blades (dangerous around pets and children), vectored thrust (loud, sets stuff on fire, consumes lots of fuel), hovercraft (only hovers a few inches on an air pad, loud fans involved), and blimps (large ballon:payload ratio, slow and ponderous, bad at maneuvering indoors).  You wouldn't wany any drone capable of flying in your house or hovering over your shoulder, it would not be convenient.  Of course, there are microdrones that fly around with wings, those are fine to have indoors, but they're much too small to do work for you, and they don't really hover at any rate.

The household drones you'd normally see would mostly be wheeled or crawler drones that roll around on the floor and pick things up and vacuum and stuff.  For actual chores like doing the dishes and folding laundry, you'd need a Manservant class drone, i.e. an anthroform.  Most household drones don't have rules though, they're just assumed to come with lifestyle.  If you have a middle lifestyle you probably never have to vacuum or water your plants, because your home comes with a drone capable of that.  If you have a high lifestyle or above you either have a maid, or you have a manservant drone or two to do most of the chores.

As for one that follows you around and keeps track of your appointments and stuff, that would be a huge waste of money.  Your commlink can do that, extremely well if you give it an agent.  The physical component of a drone is just not necessary for personal assistant functions.

If you can find a drone that works, then by all means the size of it shouldn't be your concern because they are size classes.  So find a small to mini drone that is capable of doing whatever maneuvering you want.  Since I am unfamiliar with all the drones I cannot say whether or not one would work in your household.

I do have a suspicion that there aren't anything but like rotodrones really capable of being flying servants and they'd likely create more mess than they make benefits.  What I'm willing to let someone fudge on is what 'size' they RP a device, so long as it still is big enough to fulfill the mechanics of that size class.

Heh.  "Master, I have cleaned the catbox, and my rotorblades scattered cat litter over only 20% of the apartment.  The cat also lost several more inches of tail in the process."

I went through this idea too. Best i could come up with was the EVO (Yamahatsu) Sparq.

It is a small Anthroform Walker drone that functions as a personal assistant and can run Matrix knowbots, but still lacks the capacity to really move things. Still, I improved her movement with Magnetic feet, Rotary VTOL (For short flight burst) and Mag-Grapplers, (My character, Doreihina Himo, Dwarf R&D Drone Builder, among other things..., he builds and modifies advanced Drones, you could say yours was a client) so she can pretty much follow me anywhere, but mostly rides on my shoulder. She compensates her ability to move things by relaying my wishes to the servant drones in the house and I have other servant drones that follow me around. She cost 47,000 but with all her mods she runs around 60,000Ny. I even made her more personable by giving her a more doll like appearance (Based on Kotoko from Chobits), hides the upgrades too.