Int, Ego, Automatons and You

[Vanguard]

I've hashed this out with my gaming group and it still bugs me so I'm going to "The Man" to see what he says.

 

In 5th Ed, when it talks about Mentalists, it speaks of having to decided what "group" you can affect with you powers. Then later on, it talks about when dealing with machines that have no Ego, you base the effect off the Int of said machine.

 

Then along comes Star Hero. In the sample robots section, there are a few robots that have a Disad that says "Effect by Cyberkinesis" (or something along those lines) then it says they have anywhere from 10-15 Ego for that purpose only. This bugs me for several reasons. 1) There has already been a precident set in 5th Ed to govern this type of situation. 2) And as far as I can tell, there is no explaination of why they get the disad anywhere in Star Hero.

 

I'ld like to understand why they got the disad and what type of situations would warrant an automaton with 0 Ego to get that particular disad.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Van

[Steve Long]

Re: Int, Ego, Automatons and You

 

I'm not at home, and so don't have access to my books, but I'm sure it's explained somewhere (possibly in the HSB). That Disadvantage means the Automaton is affected by Mental Powers defined as "cyberkinesis" (see the USPD for some examples). As noted on 5ER 457, Automatons are immune to Mental Powers. It doesn't matter whether they're defined as affecting the Machine group or not, Automatons are immune to them. Automatons with the Physical Limitation you describe are not immune to certain types of them -- hence the Disadvantage.

 

The rule re: replacing EGO with INT for purposes of Mental Powers that affect the Machine class of minds doesn't make things that are immune to Mental Powers affected by them. It provides a way to use those powers on things that would normally be affected by them if they had an EGO, but which only happen to have INT. Since Automatons don't fall into that category, it doesn't affect them -- though it might if they have the Physical Limitation.