NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

[KA.]

I had an idea for an NPC, and I would like some input.

 

First:

This is a Four Color Campaign, so please try to think of things on that basis.

This NPC will be unpredictable, but will never be on the way to blow up a busload of nuns or murder the Mayor. (Through genre conventions, or possibly through a Psychological/Physical Limitation "Cannot Willingly Harm Sentient Beings")

 

Second:

I am trying to shoot for "impossible to contain" not "impossible to stop". In other words, it should be possible (but not easy) for the Players to stop Minion from doing something harmful, but it should not be possible to just lock him up in a vault somewhere and not worry about him anymore.

 

Okay, on with the show:

 

Minion is some type of artificial life form (he could be an actual metal robot, a lifelike android, a shapeshifting nano-construct, or something really weird like a holographic projection) he should be able to appear more or less human, or at least be non-frightening.

 

Minion was created by either an alien race or a very advanced, but naive, Scientist. He is physically very powerful, in the move things, break things, not get damaged, sense, but he does not necessarily have an array of destructive weaponry, although he could have powers that could be used that way

(like a 'cutting torch' that is bought as an RKA w/ No Range).

 

His most basic function is to do exactly what he is told.

 

The problems with that function are:

 

a) He has random 'command intervals'.

Due to a problem in his programming or perhaps some type of control device that is lost/stolen/broken, he only accepts commands at seemingly random intervals. There is some visual or verbal signal that he is ready to accept commands.

(A light on his head comes on, and he says "Command me", something.)

 

Once he has been given a task he will not accept any other instructions, until the next programming interval. After he has completed his task, he may just move around in a random, but harmless, fashion, until it is time to accept his next task. (He won't be walking in front of moving cars causing wrecks or running through the walls of buildings, he just moves around in a random pattern. But he is elusive and hard to track. He needs some type of movement power (Teleportation? XDM?) that would make it hard to just follow him around.

 

c) He will not say what his current task is, and there is no easy way to "read his mind' and find out, either through some computer skill or through telepathy.

 

 

Here is a bit of backstory as I have sketched it out, but feel free to add/change things.

 

Minion was created by a cranky scientist as a lab assistant. The Scientist had grown tired of having to listen to constant questions and distracting chatter, so he designed Minion to just shut up and do what he was told, without asking questions. He never really imagined Minion as having to function in the outside world, or interacting with anyone other than him, so he did not build in a lot of higher logic functions. However, over time Minion may have 'grown up' a bit, so who knows what is going on in his mind now.

The scientist was paranoid enough that he did not want anyone spying on his research by probing Minion's mind, so he is very well shielded as far as telepathy/hacking.

He also did not want anyone to follow Minion around, so he built in a sophisticated system to detect and destroy tracers, bugs, etc. that could be planted on Minion.

(Since he was thinking of technology rather than magic, some type of tracking spell might work, if the PC's think of it.)

At some point the Scientist either angrily issued a command like "Go away and never let me see you again.",

or forgot about Minion completely (Isn't he still in the Storage Room? I have to get back to my work!) ,

or lost/damaged the Remote Control Unit,

and Minion made his way into the world.

 

Conclusion:

Minion is not intended to be a major factor in the campaign. He is more of a background/side-quest type thing. He might show up due to an Unluck roll, or just as a Random Encounter during a patrol.

 

The main things I am looking for are:

1) It is very hard to stop Minion, and the worst part is, you may not want to.

He could just as easily be performing the task:

"Hurry to the Drugstore to get Insulin for Grandfather."

or

"There was a horrible train accident, go and rescue the survivors."

as

"Bring me all the money from the vault in the First National Bank on Elm Street"

and there is no way to tell.

 

2) There is no practical way to just shut Minion in a box and forget about him. (at least not long-term)

 

3) Minion generally, even though it may just be through luck, does more good than harm, so he may have a certain popularity with the public (at least as they become aware of him).

 

4) Minion is hard to track and hard to follow, and may go for days/weeks/months without hitting a "Command Interval", so just following him around is not really practical, you could spend your entire superheroing career doing it.

 

5) It is possible that somewhere out there the Remote Control exists, and if it does, someone could use Minion as a fairly powerful force for Good, or Evil.

 

6) Minion is self-repairing to the point where it would take something really major to destroy him.

 

Thoughts, suggestions, questions,

 

KA.

[Chuckg]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

Darkness To all the electromagnetic sense groups except Normal Sight, 1-hex Area Of Effect, 0 END Persistent Always On, No Range, Invisible Power Effects.

 

Also, Invisibility to Radar, Scent, and most of the other common sense groups used for tracking, No Fringe, 0 END Persistent Always On.

 

That's his advanced jamming and stealth technology. Makes trying to put pretty much any kind of bug on him save a magical tracer spell (as you describe his origin as a technological construct, magical invisibility isn't within his special effect to justify) absolutely futile. The Invisibility is advanced stealth systems that make him invisible to every kind of sensor except the Mark I Eyeball and the Mark I Ear (and heck, if you want the full Romulan cloaking device package, throw those in too). The Darkness is a jamming or damper field that prevents tracers stuck on him from phoning home, even if they're actively trying to transmit. (The IPE on the Darkness is called 'it's not an active noise jammer, so it's not giving away its own location'.)

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

As far as getting away, Desolid, Teleport, or Tunnelling (or all three!) are very quick easy ways to get out of most situations.

 

Tunnelling might be easiest given his origins - his first task was to tunnel out a new underground lab for his creator.

[CBikle]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

If Minion was created by an alien race, the anti-sensor stuff makes more sense.

 

Seems like that'd be an odd thing for a naive scientist to incorporate into his robotic lab-assistant.

[Chuckg]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

Depends on who his superhero scientist arch-nemesis is. If your regular dancing partner is Reed Richards, failing to put every anti-trace measure known to man on your Awesome Android is the equivalent of e-mailing him the Google Maps directions to your secret lair, complete with satellite photos.

[KA.]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

If Minion was created by an alien race, the anti-sensor stuff makes more sense.

 

Seems like that'd be an odd thing for a naive scientist to incorporate into his robotic lab-assistant.

 

Naive might not really have been the right word. Oblivious to the outside world might have been closer.

I was thinking of the type of guy who would never even consider that this thing might somehow get out of his lab, or what the consequences might be if it did.

But also paranoid enough about his own work that he wouldn't want anyone else to be able to 'spy on him'.

Maybe Overconfident or Delusions of Grandeur might be more descriptive.

Think a little more Silver Age.

It may well be that the only worthwhile thing that this guy ever created was this robot, but he was so worried about his other work (Perpetual Motion? Cold Fusion? A Beer that both Tastes Great and is Less Filling?) that he has lost track of the robot itself.

 

Also, I didn't really think of the creator as a criminal mastermind or anything like that. More of a crackpot scientist that was blind enough to just assume that nothing could possibly go wrong with building a powerful robot that will listen to orders from anyone, and carry them out.

 

As to the other suggestions:

 

The Anti-Tracking Powers sound fine. I was also thinking of something that could detect the bugs themselves, and then some type of little torch would just come out and fry them.

 

Tunneling is perfect. That combined with a small amount of Teleportation,

could make something practially impossible to follow.

 

Minion is moving down the street. He memorizes a floating location every so many meters as part of his programming.

After he has accomplished his goal, he realizes that he is being followed.

He tunnels until he is fairly far underground, filling the ground in behind him.

At some point, he Teleports to the floating location, leaving any tunnelling heroes behind him literally 'in the dust'.

By the time they get their heads back above the ground, he is gone.

 

KA.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

BTW, was trying to come up with a good acronym for "MINION" but was having problems. However...if you do him as being created as a lab assistant, howabout the name I.G.O.R. (Integrated General Operations Robot) ?

[KA.]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

BTW' date=' was trying to come up with a good acronym for "MINION" but was having problems. However...if you do him as being created as a lab assistant, howabout the name [b']I.G.O.R. (Integrated General Operations Robot)[/b] ?

 

I like that a lot.

 

Rep for you!

 

KA.

[Trained Chicken]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

I repped him for that, too. Consider calling him Igor, the Minion in the Silver Age tradition of a name and descriptor as title.

 

The random input acceptance matrix sounds a lot like another form of life- humanity . If an absent-minded but monomaniacal professor built him, and used his own "brainwave patterns" as a basis for the open-ended programming of this model, the random input acceptance matrix (RIAM) would practically self-organize. I would build it in game terms though, perhaps with an Accidental Change (GM's fiat) between two states: Subservient and Aloof. This bizarre and total personality trait would be worth at least 15, and probably 20 or 25.

 

I like the idea of the robotic assistant. His catchphrase might be, "I'm here to help." His costume and look might resemble Metamorpho's- clearly nonhuman, but humainoid, and not particularly scary (except in the "resembles-a-clown" kind of scary way). I'm thinking green and red, almost a court jester motif, with bluish-white "skin" on his hands and face, and no hair. His face doesn't need to be terribly expressive, almost like a mask, but with human features. If anything, you might be able to portray him as a creature of great pathos, magnified by its own incomplete self-awareness. Something like Data from Star Trek.

 

As far as power go, you can certainly make him very durable (takes no STUN seems perfect, as well as either Armor or DR), faster than a human, smarter than a human, and I like the idea of tunnelling more than XDM or Teleportation or something. Also, being able to conjure simple gadgets from his insides can go either way- I'm not sure if it's necesary. Certainly, the invisibility and darkness powers are winners in my opinion.

 

So far, so good. I think you've got a real winner of a character here.

 

I wonder why the PCs would want to follow this thing? And would he eventually make a good member of the team?

[Manic Typist]

Re: NPC Concept that needs fleshing out: Minion

 

I don't think he could be incorporated in any lasting manner in a team barring reprogramming or location of the Master Minion Remote (MMR).