Would it be possible to do a campaign or setting where ALL the player characters were Robots of some kind?
Cyborgs?
Androids?
A mix of those three?
Or would you have to have at least 1 character that was a regular organic human being in the mix of player characters?
How would YOU do that kind of game if you were running it ?
- Ed C.
I could see this being a really good Star Wars Campaign, using standard Droids would not be much different from standard humans. I think that the RIFTS setting would work well for an all cyborg party (dropping or modifying MDC rules). The GURPS: Robots accessory may have tips for running an all robotic party/campaign, I will flip through it when I get home and see if it contains anything useful.
I don't see that it would be necessary to include a meatbag unless the TL of the setting is low or if there are laws against sentient robots.
I posted this idea before.
QuoteFactotum - a person employed to do a wide variety of jobs for someone/somebody
Setting - It's a post apocalyptic planet. Death and disease has done the deed instead of wars. Human society is now divided into wandering scavengers, plague riddled cults, petty dictatorships and bizarre collectives. The use of technology is lost in time.
Strange mutated creatures lurk in the edges of the forest and the once heavily populated cities. It's part agrarian, part forager always bartering society. The strong dominate the meek. Humans fashion weapons and tools - sometimes they function as both - from the bones of slain creatures (humans or otherwise) and bits of metal they find littering the planet. Very Dark Sun like.
They have completely forgotten how to use any of the tech, which has somehow managed to remain functional around them. Instead they use them as altars, totem poles, religious relics, crude weapons etc. They pray to gods who do not answer them.
The only other sentient life on the planet (maybe) are the the strange insectoid Thri Keen (sp). Nobody knows whether they predate human civilization, but they are now the foremost predator species. They hunt humans not for food but rather to work in their strange mines - mining for god knows what.
They keep these humans in psionic bondage, repairing their bodies when broken and working them till they fade. They have also infiltrated some of these collectives, and have subtely enslaved people in key positions og power for unknown reasons. These compromised collectives although very succesful in what they do - farming, mining, hunting etc - are in the thrall of these strange creatures. Humans, of these collectives also exhibit stange mental powers....
The PCs - The pcs are Robots from a bygone age programmed to help humans with the day to day tedium of living now reawakened by some mysterious force. These robots look like the Warforged from Eberron.
They are the only ones who can use the technology left by the ancestors of the current humans. They travel across the planet working for a time doing various jobs with the caches of technology they discover in human settlements and then moving on, taking the useless (for humans) technology with them.
The tech they find could be medical technology - scanners, drugs ect, construction equipment, communication tech, weapons etc. They build dwellings, cure outbreaks of certain disease, battle foes for these communities. They will work for a time for these people - all they ask in return is for the technology, which is useless to the humans anyway.
So, a group of Factotums may work in a village for awhile doing amongst other things, building a structure, tending to the medical needs of the people, setting up a comminication grid with another village etc.
I picture them as wanderers travelling with strange equipment, small vials of drugs, scanners, energy and martial weapons, music boxes etc looked upon by the humans as sorcerers and entertainers.
The robots could be persuaded to fight the local tyrant (they are programmed to be altruistic in nature) but their main opponents seem to be the Thri Keen and their human allies which the Factotums call the Brethren.
Regards,
David R
Quote from: Koltar;249002Would it be possible to do a campaign or setting where ALL the player characters were Robots of some kind?
Cyborgs?
Androids?
A mix of those three?
Or would you have to have at least 1 character that was a regular organic human being in the mix of player characters?
How would YOU do that kind of game if you were running it ?
- Ed C.
All those choices are available in StarCluster 2, and I'd be totally cool with it. I've had all three in various campaigns, but never more than 2 together. It just never happened that all the PCs were partly artificial.
-clash
Sure you could do it.
I could see a game where all members of "normal society", not just the PC's are cyborgs or androids.
If I was going to run such a game, I'd use either Mutant Future (which has a variety of android PC types, and is free) or Heroes Unlimited/Ninjas&Superspies which has rules for a wide range of android/robot/cyborg characters, and I already have the books.
Quote from: flyingmice;249039It just never happened that all the PCs were partly artificial.
Well, in
Puppetland all the PCs are
completely artificial, so I'm not really sure what the problem would be.
I would say it depends. f you're robots are like Real Robots™, than no, as they'd be really boring to play. But if your talking Star Wars style Droids (who were less robotic then the human actors in those movies), than that would be totally fun!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/StormBringer757/Pics/CyborgCommandoCover.jpg)
It's been done.
A couple of times I've considered starting a one-shot or short campaign with the words, "It's 2039 and Skynet won." Though I've never been quite sure where I would go from there. Perhaps Skynet then starts a purge of older model cyborgs who lack some sort of newly refined programming, and the players play those older model machines try to survive as Skynets new targets.
Quote from: KrakaJak;249050I would say it depends. f you're robots are like Real Robots™, than no, as they'd be really boring to play. But if your talking Star Wars style Droids (who were less robotic then the human actors in those movies), than that would be totally fun!
That's a good point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Warriors
An all cyborg / robot game would be quite interesting. Here are some considerations...
Fuel - what resource keeps the bots going? how often do they need to recharge?
Damage - will they have general HP or do they suffer specific system damages that degrade performance?
Healing - do they self-repair? do they need spare parts?
Brains - do they have organic human brains? How old are they? how perfect is the brain/body connection? How does the human deal with lack of touch and smell or do they have that? If not human brains, what are their brains? Fresh grown? Preprogrammed with human memories? Positronic chips? Do they dream of electronic sheep?
Upgrading - how do they improve? How do they learn? Do their positronic brains simply learn like humans? Or do they need to buy upgrade chips? If so, does wealth trump XP in the game?
Shape - are they humanoid? Why do they have a head?
Weight - are they two ton chunks of metal or made of uber-not-heavium? Do they exist in a world built for them...or do they have to think twice about exceeding weight limits?
Quote from: Joshua Ford;249068http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Warriors
My complete lack of familiarity with the comics world leads me to ask: Is 2000AD like Heavy Metal, without the gratuitous nudity?
I think a lot depends on the campaign idea beyond what kind of characters you play. After all, Transhuman Space expects cybershells /bioroids and so on.
I think you can do an excellent supers campaign, or a modern Espionage campaign with the idea. (Read the novel Cyborg, the inspiration for 6 million dollar man..its an espionage book..)
It's basically just the same thing as running an all elf-party.
Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;249137It's basically just the same thing as running an all elf-party.
Um...NO it isn't.
Robots don't have pointed ears.
I also suggested a possible 'mix' of Androids, Cyborgs, and robots.
- Ed C.
In GURPS: Robots (3rd Edition) pages 101-110 there is a short section about robots and campaigns, its pretty bare-bones, but might give you some ideas.
I believe that Spacemaster also had a robot supplement that might have some useful information in it.
Quote from: Koltar;249138Um...NO it isn't.
Robots don't have pointed ears.
It depends on what kind of robots they are.
You could run a
WestWorld type game where the pcs are robot elves in a fantasy role playing world who malfunction and start hunting the human tourist/players.
Regards,
David R
Quote from: Koltar;249138Um...NO it isn't.
Robots don't have pointed ears.
I also suggested a possible 'mix' of Androids, Cyborgs, and robots.
- Ed C.
Hehe...I think it likely I can find pointy eared robots...like say Optimus Prime.
Seriously:
(http://mattcbr.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/optimus-prime.jpg)
Quote from: David R;249149It depends on what kind of robots they are.
You could run a WestWorld type game where the pcs are robot elves in a fantasy role playing world who malfunction and start hunting the human tourist/players.
Regards,
David R
Quote from: Silverlion;249152Hehe...I think it likely I can find pointy eared robots...like say Optimus Prime.
Oh, come now. It's the God given right of every GURPS player to have their pseudo-outrage over standard fantasy tropes. :)
Quote from: wulfgar;249047If I was going to run such a game, I'd use...Heroes Unlimited/Ninjas&Superspies which has rules for a wide range of android/robot/cyborg characters, and I already have the books.
That was my thought. Give everyone the same budget, pull stuff from HU, TMNT, N&S and go to town. I see it going down in a very Bubblegum Crises sort of way.
Yes. As long as it's mind-process is imaginable for player there's no problem with playing it.
Transformers? Ding! We have a winner!
There's always Exalted: the Autobots. Alternatively, I believe the fourth edition of Metamorphosis Alpha has rules for both robots and cyborgs.