Robot HERO

[Mark Taylor]

Okay, I have a question for you HEROphiles out there, any advice will be appreciated! As those who read the NGD and General Roleplaying boards should be aware, HERO system is pretty new to me!

 

I sat my players down tonight after our regular session and had them vote on what they would like me to run for the "next big campaign", from three different campaign ideas.

 

"Robot HERO" was the result. The concept, essentially, is a high-tech post apocalyptic sci-fi universe. The game is set shortly after a massive war which has devastated many worlds as well as much of the structure of interstellar society itself. Many of the ground battles were fought by powerful artificially intelligent and autonomous war robots. Enter the PCs. They are warbots "left over" from the war. They are battle-scarred both physically and mentally from their ordeals, and with no orders to follow and no war left to fight they must find new goals and purposes for themselves. For anybody who has read any ABC Warriors, these are the lines along which the PCs will be modelled.

 

My questions are:

 

1) How would you experienced HEROphiles go about building such robots? At the moment the basic idea is to make a range of different "models" available to the players, constructed along the lines of racial packages, which they can customise in the usual way.

 

2) Besides FREd and Star HERO, what HERO System books would be of most use to me in putting all this together?

 

3) Any other advice you can think of, please!

[Hermit]

Re: Robot HERO

 

Hmm, I don't know anything about ABC warriors, but it sounds cool.

 

As to the rest:

 

Originally posted by Realms of Chaos

1) How would you experienced HEROphiles go about building such robots? At the moment the basic idea is to make a range of different "models" available to the players, constructed along the lines of racial packages, which they can customise in the usual way.

Well, the "Star HERO" You already mentioned has some guidelines, or so folks tell me (I don't have it myself yet..sigh).

 

Still, if these are warbots, I'd break ideas for packages down like this.

Function:Artilery The "Energy Projector", sort of... this robot package purpose is to attack from long range with devastating power. It would not be as defended as the front line package. In addition to superior firepower, it should have good sensors to compensate for range and get the lay of the land.

Function: Front Line The "Brick" of the packages, lacking as much raw range weapon fire power as some others; it is nevertheless, devestating at simply crushing foes in front of it, and is heavily armored. Good speed so to cross ground quickly.

Fuction: Recon/Stealth Faster and more manuverable than Front Line or Artillery bots, RS bots would sacrifice some durability and overall firepower for options relating to cameoflauge and the aforementioned speed. Likely to have one major long range weapon for sniping purposes.

 

2) Besides FREd and Star HERO, what HERO System books would be of most use to me in putting all this together?

 

Nothing that comes to mind, but I'd be on the look out for package deals from FH and others that could translate nicely or at least be good examples

 

3) Any other advice you can think of, please!

 

Yes... post on the boards and see... oh, wait... you already have

 

Okay, keep getting your players input, it sounds like they like the idea of having a hand in shaping this game

[misterdeath]

The Ultimate Vehicle.

 

You'll probably want to construct the PCs as real people/characters, rather than vehicles, but I find that TUV gave me some ideas along the "artillery/tech" lines that I wouldn't have had before.

 

I'd just let people build their characters and use the characters as the basis for my "racial packages".

 

One character creates the Recon/Commando, then that's the basis for character sheets for the whole line. Ditto for the Field Artillery, Attack Flier, and whoever else toddles along.

 

D

[Mark Taylor]

Re: Re: Robot HERO

 

Originally posted by Hermit

Hmm, I don't know anything about ABC warriors, but it sounds cool.

 

ABC warriors was a cool strip that ran for years in 2000AD. There's some info on it here, and there seem to be quite a few other fan sites around. I'm not planning to model my background on it directly, just take the basic concept of robot war veterans with "problems". (The warriors were a bit screwed up in the head).

 

The packages you suggested were the kind of thing I had in mind. I also quite like misterdeath's suggestion of letting the players define the packages (with supervision, of course!)

 

Thanks for the suggestions, and keep 'em coming if anything occurs to you! No doubt I'll have plenty more questions about this thing before I'm done.

[Chris Goodwin]

Question: Are the PCs people who drive the robots, or are they the robots themselves?

[Lord Liaden]

You might draw inspiration and concrete examples from Ron Miller's excellent website on post-apoc gaming, "Wasteland Hero:"

 

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/3440/rpgs.html

 

I'm thinking that the section on Androids could be particularly helpful.

 

BTW, it still kinda boggles me how someone with over 3,500 posts on these boards can still describe himself as a "HERO newbie."

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by archer

Question: Are the PCs people who drive the robots, or are they the robots themselves?

 

They are the robots themselves. They are artificially intelligent and autonomous and so don't need to be 'driven'. This isn't going to be a 'mecha' campaign. What I wanted to do (and what the players seem to be enthusiastic about) is have the players play artificial intelligences who may (due to their basic programming) have decidedly different outlooks on life compared to human beings. These are all experienced roleplayers who are definitely up to the challenge.

 

(Edited to add more info.)

[Fireg0lem]

I would define certain things that all the players have, and just give them for free (maybe setting a lower point total). IE everyone gets Total Life Support, Lightning Calculator, &c.

 

Hey, and while we're at it, here's my own robot PC from a now defunct game. A couple notes: low INT/EGO is intended to represent limited self-awareness and narrow reasoning, not being "slow." Low PRE comes from the way he is designed to act and appear, plus he has no real personality. The GM gave for free the automaton ability that he cannot make PRE attack except with intimidation, but also cannot be PRE attacked (since this ability was listed for automata, but not costed).

 

EDIT

 

I apologize for the godawful ugliness of the plaintext format. There were originally two columns, the left one described individual power SFX. If you make sure to keep them divided, you should still be able to read it, but it gets a bit confusing.

 

Also, I forgot to explain the funny use of Continuing Charges on the claws. The idea is that he activates the charge, and the claws stay out for 1 minute, not that he hits someone and they take damage for a minute. I realize that this doesn't quite work legally, but the GM agreed that it wasn't worth doing it a more complex way b/c this gave a reasonable cost structure, legal or not.

 

EDIT

 

M.A.R.C. (Marc Smith)

Name/SFX Cost Effect

39 STR 33, 0 End on all Strength Lift 2400 kg. 6½d6 damage, roll 16-.

84 DEX 38, roll 17-, CV 13

46 CON 33, roll 16-

10 BODY 15, roll 12-

-2 INT 8, roll 11-

-4 EGO 8, roll 11-, ECV 3

-10 PRE 0, roll 9-, 0d6 presence attack

-2 COM 7, roll 10-

3 PD 10

3 ED 10

0 REC 14

-33 END 1

0 STUN 49

12 SPD 6.0

-1 Swim speed 1"

-4 Run speed 4"

0 Leap 6½"

4 0 END on running

Robot Immunities 32 Self contained breathing (Always On, -½), "eats"

(recharges) 1/week (Always On, -½), i.e. cannot simulate real breathing/eating, and will thus register as "dead" to anyone who checks him carefully. Safe in high radiation, "ages" (wears out) slowly x4, must "sleep" (maintain computer) 8hrs/week, immune to all poison and disease.

Metal Skin 34 Armor 10 PD/10 ED, 7 PD/ 8 ED is Hardened

Protected CPU 9 Mental Defense 16, Always On (-½)

Inert Metal Body 9 Power Defense 14, Always On (-½)

Perks 9 Anonymity, Access to Federal Databases, U.S. Special

Agent.

Computer Abilities 6 Absolute Range Sense, Absolute time Sense, Bump of

Direction, Eidetic Memory, Lightning Calculator, All with

Concentration (0 DCV throughout, -1)

Object Sensor 22 Enhanced Senses, Detect Physical Objects, Sense,

Targeting, Active. No simulated sense group.

Morphic Weaponry 35 70 pt. Multipower Reserve, Restrainable (-½, body part

Various body parts varies by weapon), Side Effect (Acquires Psychological

Turn into weapons. Disadvantage: Will Not Surrender (Uncommon, Total) for the

Activates program- remainder of any fight in which Multipower is used, (-½).

-ing to prevent cap-

-ture of technology.

Electromagnetic Blast 2u 4½d6 RKA, Beam, No KB, No Bouncing. 6 boostable

Fired from right elbow, recoverable Charges.

after front of arm shifts.

Left Metallic Claw 1u 2d6+1 HKA (4½d6 w/Strength), Linked (full effect only).

1 minute recoverable charge (dulls with use).

Right Metallic Claw 1u 2d6+1 HKA (4½d6 w/Strength), Linked (full effect only).

1 minute recoverable charge (dulls with use).

Electroparalysis 2u 4 DEF/3d6 BODY Entangle, works vs. EGO, not STR,

Fired from left elbow, (+1/4), transparent to physical attacks (+1/4), backlash

after front of arm shifts (+½), No barriers, dousing in water ends effect, 8

recoverable charges.

Foot Blades 2u 1½d6 HKA (3d6+1w/Strength), Ranged, 0 End, Autofire 3,

3 blades pop out of right Beam, No KB, No Bouncing.

foot, shoot out, and are

instantly recreated by body.

Fix 2u 3d6 Body Regeneration, 3 Body/Turn, 0 END, Persistant,

Cables pop out of Self Only, 1 Turn.

shoulders and repair

damage.

Energy Shield 1u Missile Deflect/Reflect, any attack, Str based, full effect

link

Shield Flash 1u 4d6 flash vs. sight, 0 end.

Hands exude an energy

field which reflects

attacks with a burst of

light.

Radiation Blast 2u 7d6 EB, NND vs. Life Support, High Radiation, 6

Blast shoots from right boostable, recoverable charges. No bouncing or targeting

knee after lower leg

shifts.

Flamethrower 2u 2d6+1 RKA, AoE Cone, No Range, No KB, 6 recoverable

Jaw drops, flame blasts charges.

Tactical Antimatter Bomb 1u 2d6+1 RKA, Explosion, MegaRange, MegaRadius, Full

Blast shoots from left Turn (post-segment 12), Incantations throughout "Firing

knee after lower leg the Missile Now!," 6 Boostable charges, Noisy (radiation).

shifts.

Muscle Enhancement 2u 37 STR with 0 End. Ended by disconnecting cables that run

from chest to arms when this is active.

Shield 2u 14 PD/ 14 ED Force Wall, No Range, Self Only. 5 minute

fuel charge (-1/2).

Left forearm generates

shield.

Recharge 3u +35 REC, ended by detaching cables running from neck to

chest, Visible.

Plug In 1u 14d6 Mind Control vs. Machines, range based on STR,

Cable shoots out of reduced range, subject to range modifier, based on CV, not left foot, hits target, ECV, no mental awareness, 2 recoverable charges.

and allows hacking

of their computer.

Basic Combat 10 Martial Block, Legsweep, Martial Grab

Tactical Programming 6 Tactics 11-, Teamwork 17-

Basic Machinery 2 Electronics 8-, Mechanics 8-

Movement Program 6 Acrobatics 17-, Stealth 17-

 

Disadvantages

10 Made of metal (Distinctive, Unconcealable, Hard to Detect, Major Reaction)

10 DNPC's Doctors Alexis and Luther Hamner, creators. (Normal, useful skills, 8-)

20 Hunted by Mechanon (More powerful, 11-)

5 No Taste/smell group

5 Distinctive Feature: 361 written on left shoulderblade

25 Superpatriot (Common, Total)

20 Usually obeys orders from superiors (Common, Strong)]

15 Social Limitation: Must hide true nature

25 Subject to severely dangerous orders

15 Very bland and unnoticeable, easy to overlook or forget about.

0 Treated as an automaton for Presence Attacks (immune to them, but can only make fear/intimidation based ones himself)

 

XP 4

Spent 0

Origin: Roughly 50 years ago, an alien spaceship crash landed in an isolated Massachusetts forest. The government quickly reached the area, sealed off the crash site, and carted off the remnants. During the next 20 years, various tests were used to try and discern the origin of the spaceship and the workings of its technology. It was determined that the inhabitants were definitely not human, most of them were robotically enhanced, and that the principle recoverable technologies all involved very highly advanced robotics. At about the time it was all figured out, Doctors Luther and Alexis Hamner, a pair of brilliant young scientists, were put on the project. They analyzed what the technology could be used for, and managed to get the Department of Defense to agree, somewhat reluctantly, to fund a project with the goal of creating robotic soldiers to serve as elite troops and anti-paranormal agents.

30 years of intense work later, a prototype was completed. Labeled M.A.R.C. (Manlike Automated Robotic Combatant)-361, he went far beyond normal human technology. In addition to combat capabilities on par with many paranormals, he was capable of independent decision-making. Although he still has a somewhat limited ability to understand and adapt to new information, he does possess the comprehensive abilities of a typical human, in addition to unusual mental abilities associated with computers. He is also capable of learning.

However, a few factors prevented "Marc Smith" from being an ideal weapon. While his unpredictable consciousness had its advantages, it also meant that M.A.R.C. would not necessarily follow orders if he had a better idea. Also, M.A.R.C. developed an inexplicable attachment to the Hamners, equivalent to what a human might feel towards a parent.

Therefore, when the M.A.R.C. project was completed, the government decided to just let the prototype out for now, and reserve judgement on whether or not to turn out further units.

Unfortunately for him, M.A.R.C. has acquired one serious enemy: the mechanical terror Mechanon. Mechanon considers the fact that M.A.R.C., one of the most advanced machines on the planet, willingly serves organics to be an abomination. He seeks to either capture and reprogram M.A.R.C. to serve him, or at least give him a merciful death, free from human control.

 

Quote: " Assessing threat level. Evaluation: 0."

 

Personality:

M.A.R.C. is very straightforward and efficient. He will take the most logical manner of solving a problem as he can, and will pursue it until it becomes unfeasible. In whatever civilian identity he is assigned, he is quiet and efficient, but not so efficient as to become suspicious. He is very goal-oriented, and tends to ignore or attempt to quickly circumvent problems with an intended course of action.

Powers/Tactics: M.A.R.C has an impressive array of morphic equipment, which appears as soon as one of his body parts alters itself into whatever weapon or tool is needed. He is also exceptionally strong and tough, and while his reaction time is only fairly high, his ability to act without hesitation makes him the equal or better of many superhuman speedsters. As a robot, he is also totally untiring.

Against those he does not consider a threat, M.A.R.C. will use his basic abilities to quickly take them down. Against serious enemies or groups, he will use the various weapons at his command to try and take them down as fast as possible. He will try to vary the attacks he uses, to keep his enemies confused as well as to look for weak points.

Height: 155 cm/5'7", Weight: 80 kg/176 lbs (looks like he should weigh less, Sex: None (male), Age: 1 year (appears to be middle aged), Race: Robotic (appears to be Caucasian human)

Appearance: M.A.R.C. was given a specially developed and researched set of features. He appears to be a slightly overweight middle-aged man with no distinguishing features. He does not look particularly athletic, has a head with receding brown hair on top and no beard or mustache, wears glasses (not needed), and has dark green eyes. However, the psychologically tested appearance, voice, and mannerisms that were given to him have one remarkable quality: they extremely hard to accurately remember. As a result, M.A.R.C. is quickly forgotten by anyone he interacts with, unless he leaves a strong impression. To all appearances, he is an uninteresting and totally typical normal man, not worth remembering for longer than necessary. When he needs to anonymously fight crime, he will don a makeshift mask. He does not concern himself with how it appears, just that it works.

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

You might draw inspiration and concrete examples from Ron Miller's excellent website on post-apoc gaming, "Wasteland Hero:"

 

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Park/3440/rpgs.html

 

I'm thinking that the section on Androids could be particularly helpful.

 

At first glance, that does indeed seem to be a helfpful site, thankyou!

 

BTW, it still kinda boggles me how someone with over 3,500 posts on these boards can still describe himself as a "HERO newbie."

 

I mean that I am a newbie in terms of practical experience with HERO System gaming. I've had my copy of FREd since March this year, and before that I had zero exerience of HERO System. In other words, when people post technical system stuff I may still say "eh?" and have to go scrabbling through my copy of FREd.

[BobGreenwade]

I'll second getting TUV, and for more reasons than just the obvious (that is, more than being one of the authors). Spacer's Toolkit sure wouldn't hurt either -- it's a bit heavy on starships, but the weapons, ground vehicles, and other personal equipment are nothing to sneeze at.

 

For character construction, I'd recommend giving everyone a selection of Automaton Powers -- Cannot Be Stunned, Does Not Bleed, and Takes No Stun strike me as specifically appropriate. Whether you charge the players for them as part of a Package (while making sure they have the points to buy them) or call them "everyrobot abilities" is up to you.

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by Fireg0lem

...Lots of stuff...

 

*Says "eh?" and goes scrabbling through my copy of FREd*

 

Seriously though, thankyou, practical examples are probably the best source of inspiration.

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade

I'll second getting TUV.

 

I'm fairly sure my FLGS has at least one copy on the shelf. Spacer's toolkit was already on my list (Should have mentioned it. Doh!)

[farik]

I also encourage you to use TUV. Have you considered having the characters make the AIs as characters without bodies (I believe cyberhero had guidelines for this) and then creating their bodies as vehicles? It may be the cleanest way to avoid dealing with healing.

[zornwil]

I read the ABC Warriors a very long time ago, excellent idea.

 

If you can find it there's an old Cyber Hero book for 4th edition which you may gleam some things out of, but I wouldn't pay much for it, it's useful but not terribly so.

 

I don't have much to add beyond what's written here in way of suggestions. But do let us know how it goes when you run this.

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Realms of Chaos

Seriously though, thankyou, practical examples are probably the best source of inspiration.

 

Come to think of it, there are a few examples of robots written up in the HERO System Bestiary, all of which include a package of basic "robot powers." There are only three fully written examples, so I'm not sure it would be worth getting just for them, but if you have it it's definitely worth a look. (And IMHO the Bestiary should be a "must have" for HERO gamers anyway - it's one of the most widely useful books in the line.)

[Mark Taylor]

Originally posted by Hermit

Completely off topic mind you....

but Jake 2.0 might be making me tempted to play a cybertelepath

 

Well okay I know you posted this in a completely different thread, on a completely different board, but somehow I feel it might posses a strange relevance to THIS thread.

 

I was already strongly considering allowing psionic powers to at least one or two PCs. Inspired by Deadlock, I thought it would be cool to have PCs with some kind of extraordinary powers (beyond those normally ascribed to technology) but I thought psionics would be more appropriate for my setting than magic. Having said that, what's the best source of psionic abilities for HERO system?

[Lord Liaden]

Best source of psionic abilities for HERO System? First, The Ultimate Mentalist. Written for 4E, but almost all the rules elements are essentially the same, and several of the core concepts have made it into 5E (since Steve Long wrote both that's no shock). Not a lot in the way of pre-built powers, but plenty of suggestions for using psi in various kinds of campaigns, the appropriate Powers/Modifiers to use, and quite a few optional rules to help flesh things out.

 

Second, Michael Surbrook's excellent Kazei 5 manga/anime cyberpunk campaign sourcebook. Psionic abilities are a significant part of his setting, and he goes into a fair bit of detail on how to fine-tune them especially to suit manga and anime conventions. You can find more about the setting here, including his psionics guidelines:

 

http://www.devermore.net/surbrook/kazei5/kazei5.html

 

BTW, both of these fine books are available in Hero Games's Online Store in .pdf format. (Thursday's "To Do" list: "Shill for Hero Games" - Check.)

[Crimson Arrow]

Hey, cool idea.

 

When I was 13 I had a two day project to do. You could choose to do the project about anything. I created an RPG based on the ABC Warriors.

 

I created three new warriors. On was a female robot, actually very similar in appearance to Morrigan (or whatever her name was). Another was a "shady" robot. He wore human clothes and was an expert in the seamier side of life (he was essentially a spiv and profiteer). The final one was spherical, as I wanted to avoid having every single robot anthropomorphic. I think my inspiration (ie, what I ripped off), was Cutie from "Robo-Hunter" (another "2000 AD" strip). This one was a "Smiley" (like this ). I don't recall him being a combatant, more of a database.

 

Don't ask me about the system. I was 13. I wrote it in two days.

 

My recollection is that the stats were inspired by Champions, but were done as percentages. One thing each robot had was an Armour statistic. Steelhorn had 100% Armour.

[Crimson Arrow]

Hermit had some nice ideas.

 

Maybe the best thing to do is consider field roles and what robots might be programmed to fulfill.

 

Taking the ABC Warriors as inspiration, how about:

 

Type 1 Robot: There are very few of these left. They are prone to breaking down and computer failures. They are a little stronger than the average man and have considerable endurance. They can be programmed to fulfill simple field duties and mainly operated as foot soldiers. Some survivng Type 1s have been upgraded, one or two operating on themselves. These robots have increased INT, STR, Armour and maybe built-in weapons, from simple blades welded to their bodies, right up to concealed cannon.

 

Type 2 Robot: Similar to the Type 1s, but a lot more reliable. Better, faster, stronger (no, hang on, that was the Six Million Dollar Man) than their predecessors. Again, these can be programmed to take on a variety of roles. Their more versatile AIs can be set to act as medics/mechanics, artillery gunners, pilots, etc. They were often used as infantry too. There are a lot of these still around.

[Crimson Arrow]

Combat Model: This is an all-round soldier. It has built-in weaponry, both hand-to-hand and ranged. They typically carry additional weapons as well, for greater range and/or firepower. This covers both Hammerstein and Mongrol (before he was rebuilt by Lara).

 

Sniper: These have built in range calculators (range levels), plus Telescopic vision, often augmented by the computerised scopes on their top-of-the-range rifles.

 

Heavy Gear: Large robots, used to move large items of equipment. High STR, but possible a bit slow in terms of SPD (their size and/or tractor treads/wheels mean their overall movement rates do not suffer). Some Heavy Gear robots have built in heavy weaponry, such as mini-guns and even artillery in some cases.

 

Protocol/Human Relations: This covers a wide range of roles. It also largely assumes humans were around at some point. There could be interpreter droids (maybe there are different machine languages, for example enemy robots might have been programmed differently), chaplains (odd idea, but maybe there is a robot church created by humans as another tool for keeping the robots subjugate), pleasure robots (probably human looking, but again maybe the robots have pleasure circuits as another way of keeping them in line and the only way they can get pleasure is through interfacing with a pleasure droid. The pleasure droids were strictly controlled by the humans, of course).

 

Unique Droids: You might not want these, but a lot of the robots in the ABC Warriors did not seem to have any peers. Deadlock and Steelhorn both fall within this category.

[Fireg0lem]

Be careful about making the "models" too rigid - I would recommend you think more along the lines of the Mechwarrior Mechs (except no pilot) - lots of types, and they are customizable, but there are certain limitations on how they work and what types exist.

[Crimson Arrow]

I agree entirely with Fireg0lem on that.

 

What I forgot to put in my posts (although it was hinted at) is that you take the basic type, then add points to it. Each model would have its own built in functions that would be found in any robot of that type (for example, every Combat robot would have Levels in Combat, every Sniper will have Range Levels, Levels with Ranged Combat and Telescopic Vision) and then you would add functions, just as you would build an ordinary character in the HERO System.

 

I think that was what you were after anyway, Realms, judging from your initial question.

[Farkling]

I would advise AGAINST giving the PC's the typical STUN/BLEED powers from the Automaton suite. IF they are all self aware systems they can just as easily retain the appropriate stats that PC's would be built with. The ability to ignore those kind of injuries would be a customized add on for the PC's IMHO. Defined either as the actual automaton powers or as Armor/PD/ED/Damage Reduction. I would want to reserve those automaton powers for machines that ARE automatons. Like Mutant Alloy Devouring Zombies or the dreaded MechanoLeech which thinks no further than the next available power source to be drained...

 

Instead of Paramedic, I advise a similar skill of Robotrauma or CyberMedic (ParaCyberMedic?)...Bleeding in the case of an andriod/robot would be fluid or POWER loss...short circuits from the damage draining the power source or fusing circuits. STUN loss is confused input/extraneous information/damaged information pathways/invalid input provided to the central processing system.

 

Don't believe me?

Sit down and watch the Terminator movies again. Those robots are nearly self-aware evolving systems, and they DO suffer from STUN and unconsciousness (especially in T3).

[Crimson Arrow]

I think the PCs should have STUN. The ABC Warriors (which I admit you are not trying to follow slavishly) could feel pain. I think that would be a sensible design choice for two reasons.

 

First, it gives robots an incentive to avoid injury. While I can see one argument for having unfeeling killing machines, that might be wasteful of resources. Given the choice I think having robots feel pain is more "cinematic" and also better for the game.

 

Second, it would give humans another way to have controlled the robots. Perhaps they had cicuit scramblers or somesuch, which inflicts pain on robots, by interefering with their wiring.

 

If you want to keep the mood fairly like the ABC Warriors, I'd go for Armour, rather than Damage Reduction. This is because the robots were often shown as suffering "BODY" damage, if their electronics were damaged, but to do that, something had to penetrate their armour. A small amount of Damage Reduction might reflect a well-constructed robot, Hammerstein might well have had it (judging from the incident with the Ten of Swords) and Steelhorn (and indeed the Mess) might have had Damage Reduction at higher levels, although maybe Steelhorn just had lots of Armour and PD, probably Hardened at least once.

 

Tough robots should also have high BODY. I'd be tempted to give Hammerstein 30 BODY, plus Armour, plus possibly Damage Reduction. In many ways, he seemed to be the toughest Warrior and survived things which would have finished off at least four of the original other six Warriors.

[Mark Taylor]

Thanks for all your suggestions. It's great to have gotten so many from so many different people. I think giving the PC STUN is a good idea and in keeping with the feel I want to go for. I don't to make the models too ridid anyway. They will be like racial packages with plenty of points left over for the players to "customise". I also like all the suggestions for robot types and generations, and the suggestion of the "robot church" gives me the idea that the robots' human masters might have experimented with various different methods of control, adding to the problems and confusion of the PCs.

 

I'd also like to model some way of giving warbots a kind of vulnerability to virus-like destructive programs which disguise themselves as "command codes" and interfere with the robots' brain functions in randomly destructive ways. These would be used very infrequently in the actual game, if ever, but they'll serve to provide a nice explanation for PC's quirks and eccentricities (psychological limitations) as these viruses would have been used during the war and could have permanent detrimental effects. Any suggestions along those lines?