Hi, I'm trying to build an AI character that can shift to another body at will or when the current shell is damaged, and was wondering two different things 1) if an AI is sentient would you need to buy programs or just skills and 2) how to build the Automatons  so that the AI is the brain 

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things.

 

Good questions!

 

1. If you’re going to use the AI as a character (be it PC or NPC), build it as a character, not like a Computer. So he has all the Characteristics, Skills instead of programs, and so on. You may need to use Complications to reflect the drawbacks of having a robotic form.

 

2. In this case, I’m assuming you mean that you want to buy an AI (we’ll call it MegaBrain) that rides in a robotic body (called RoboForm) and “runs” it. Here again, the best and simplest way to do this is just build it as a character, using Complications (and possibly some specific power purchases) to represent the robotic form. But if you absolutely, positively, have to have the two things separate — perhaps because MegaBrain won’t always ride around in RoboForm — then you build MegaBrain as the character (or as an AI if you must) and build RoboForm as a Vehicle for him.

 

Make sense? If I didn’t cover what you need to know, please PM me or post a follow-up. You might also want to check out The Ultimate Vehicle for ideas and other information that could help you create the character you want.