Wiki Showcase: Redjack Robots

The final part of my military doctrine is, of course, robots, as I've previously discussed.  I had three major military-industrial "sets," and this completes the set with Redjack robots. As with ARC, I wanted to focus on "military" robots and these robots tend to stretch that definition a little, as they represent robots that assist in war more than directly fighting (with the exception of the Dredgecat, which is supposed to help at non-combat stuff, but ends up helping a lot in combat).

Redjack seeks to support asteroid miners, belters, colonists and aggressive entrepreneurship (but never space piracy!), as such, their doctrine focuses a lot on self-sufficiency and independence.  Most of their weapons double as tools, most of their vehicles can be customized and optimized for whatever specific task the owner wants, and their robots fit similar roles. Redjack robots learn to take care of themselves so you don't have to.  The downside is that they're (mostly) a bunch of surly cusses, with a few having darling hearts of gold.

You can see Redjack Robots here.

Wiki Showcase: ARC Robots Part 2

I'm on vacation, so you'll have to forgive me for missing my posting schedule.  With the announcement of a coming playtest, I've been busy putting all sorts of things on my wiki, so sometimes I forget to pop onto the blog and give you an update.

I have three ARC robots available to you on the wiki.  I discussed some of the the theory previously, but some commonalities:

• All ARC robots are attractive in some capacity. These robots are as much fashion accessories as tools, so naturally a noble would want them to look good.
• All ARC robots can talk.  Similar to their being attractive, ARC robots need to interface with people more than they need to interface with other machines.
• All ARC robots are humanoid.  Similar to the above issues, ARC robots need to relate to humans, so they need humans to relate to them.  Thus, even when they look odd, they have an identifiable humanoid quality to them.  That said, they're always sculpted and one would never mistake an ARC robot for a human.

WIki Showcase: ARC Robots

Last week I discussed robots in general.  Today, I have two new Wiki posts available for you.  One discusses robots in general (which I probably should have launched last week) and one detailing ARC robots.

I wanted to showcase both because just discussing robots would probably repeat a lot of last week's material. Instead, I wanted to discuss the "rubber-meets-the-road" reality of how I put last week's ideas into practice, and use ARC as an example.

Psi-Wars: Let's Talk Robots

When I set out to do the military doctrine project, I knew I would need to break it down into the following pieces:

• Weapons
• Armor
• Ground Vehicles
• Space Vehicles
• Robots

Realistically, I'd also add the resources and machinery that make it all possible.  A factory and the supply line is as much a part of a military doctrine as a rifle or a tank is, and those with superior factories and supply lines win wars just as well as those with superior tanks and rifles.  But given that players don't interact much with these, I figured we could push them into the background a bit (in a sense, the "corporations" providing all of these stand in for the factories and supply lines).

We've completed everything but robots, which represent a unique element to our doctrines.  Robots are fairly new, militarily speaking, though I can say with confidence that we do use robots militarily right now (there's a 21st century sentence if I ever read one), and a lot of time and research goes into perfecting those robots.  We see them more obviously in Star Wars, which has a rather unique take on robots, if I'm honest, as it integrates them directly into the military infrastructure: an R2-unit is a military robot, meant to interface with a fighter (fighters even have socked specifically designed for R2 units). It doesn't fight directly, but it definitely aides in military operations.

I wanted to mimic that in Psi-Wars.  Robots assist people in Psi-Wars like mobile, intelligent tools.  I built the ARC fighters and the Redjack fighters with the assumption of robotic assistance.  Similarly, many ARC vehicles come with med-bays, which suggests a need for a medical robot.  Thus, we can see robots as part of an integrated whole: an ARC-equipped space knight, as one example, is surrounded by tools that assist him in battle, from his force sword to his diamondoid armor to his medivac vehicle that tends to his wounds or his speeder bike that rushes him to the enemy to his fighter or his carrier that brings him to the right system, to his robot that maintains his fighter or assists him in donning his complex armor.

So I wanted to take some time to stop and revisit robots.  I've talked about them already back in Iteration three and looking back on that material, it's pretty good.  Sometimes I look at old material and cringe, but sometimes I look back and go "Oh, I need to remember that" or "Oh, that's actually pretty useful."  This was the same here, so I found myself reusing a lot of material.  Over the next few weeks, I'll touch on some of those topics and expand them.  Today, I'm going to talk about some polling I've done of the community, why I took the route that I did with my design and what some other routes might be, and how I broadly see robots fitting into the integrated Psi-Wars setting.

Patreon Poll: Trader Tech 2

Continuing from the poll earlier this week, I have a new set of polls for Trader Tech.  These cover the elements of their military technology that lie outside of the individual.  This includes:

• Trader Military Land Vehicles (do they even bother?)
• Trader Military Spacecraft
• What makes Trader Hyperspace Technology unique
• Trader Military Robots

This poll is open to all Patreons of the Companion ($5+) tier.  As usual, please leave a comment as to how you see their doctrine working or what nuance you'd like to add.  I definitely take comments into account.

I know I've not yet released the more detailed robot rules, but hopefully you'll have a sense of what you can do with robots and how they might serve the Traders militarily.  You guys seem very interested in giving the Traders robots, so I hope that particular poll will be useful to you even without worked examples of robots from other cultures.

Robot Design Revisited

Psi-Wars needs robots.  Star Wars has its droids, and cute sidekick robots and ominous kill-bots clutter up Pulp Space Opera.  They tell you that you're in a sci-fi world, and they occupy an interesting niche between tool and character, especially in pulp space opera.  They let us waive the complex technobabble by having a robot do it ("Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" becomes "No, shut them ALL down!").

We have a few things that we need Psi-Wars robots to do.  They need, of course, to be trusted allies, someone our fighter ace counts on to keep his starfighter in tip-top shape, or someone our noble trusts with his agenda.  People will also want to play as one, because they've already been asking.  In both cases, we need to know the point totals involved.  Finally, people will want to buy robots, like picking up a hireling.  Sure, you can have that trusted Tech-bot fixing your starfighter, but if you don't care about your starfighter all that much and you don't need to be on a first name basis with your robot, won't any robot off the market do? In which case, how much money do you spend on your robot? So, we need to know a price for our robots.  If we're honest, we also need to know the weight and power-consumption of our robots too, at least in broad terms.

Patreon Post: Modular Robots

Hello, dear reader.  I've been hard at work finishing the Rebellion of Grist based on our vote, oh, last month and one of the choices I offered, that people took, was combat robots.  I don't have combat robots!  Well, I do: Ultra-Tech has combat robots (about 2), but if I use those, then I'm using the same ones over and over again.  I knew I wanted to look at robot design eventually, as I wasn't happy with the robots I had on hand, by I thought I would wait until I took a look at the Cybernetic Union, but no such luck: I needed that system now.

So, that's what I have for you today!  For today, for all $1+ patrons, I have a modular robot design system, inspired by the Modular Mecha pyramid article, including a design journal discussing why I made the choices I did.  If you're already a patron, go check it out!  If you're not a patron, hey guys, it's $1!  That's less than a pyramid article, and you get access to all of my other $1 articles, including the recent tech-week.  Check it out!

Combat Robots

Now that we have aliens worked out, we can look at the other sci-fi staple: Robots! This is a topic I’ve already touched on previously, so it should be fairly easy going to rebuild it. While we’ve adjusted the robot costs since our last iteration, robot stats remain the same, so all we need to do is ponder our previous design and add a little more complexity… if we want it!

Robots Revised

So, we've updated how DR works, which means we need to revise all the point-costs for robots.  I've also noticed that I've been handling Modular Abilities wrong.  After looking at both, I've made some substantial revisions to Robots, noted below.

Battle Bots 1.0

Troopers and thugs represent our human opponents.  What about robotic opponents?  We've already touched on a template for battle-designed androids, but what if we went deeper and looked at even nastier opponents.

Bot Mooks

Battle Bots

ST 13
DX 10
IQ 8
HT 10
Basic Speed 5.0, Basic Move 5 (No Encumbrance)
Dodge NA Parry NA

DR: 25 (all locations)

Blaster Carbine (12): 5d (5) burn sur, Acc 10, RoF 3, Bulk -3, Rcl 1
Carbine Butt (10): 1d+2 cr, C
Punch (10): 1d cr, C

Traits: Absolute Direction, Computer Brain (Military Programming), Doesn't Breath, Machine, Protected Vision, Radio (Burst, Secure), Sense of Duty (Master), Gullible (9 or less), Heartless Machine, Honesty, Slave Mentality, Truthfulness,
Skills: Savoir-Faire (Military)-10, Soldier-10,

Class: Robot

Notes: Battle-Bots are certainly mooks, and they suffer from cinematic robot combat rules besides: They never dodge, never charge, never take cover and they advance at a steady walk heedless of fire.  Also apply Paint on the Sensors and Cinematic Knockback on them (both UT 34).

On the "plus" side, they cannot be intimidated and they cannot be negotiated with.  They will blindly follow orders no matter what (and will do nothing if no orders are given), though they can be easily fooled thanks to their literal-mindedness. They can use nearly any combat weapon at Skill-12 (this version is set for Beam Weapons (Rifle)).

Battle Bots will typically step and attack, taking shots at the first person they will see.  They do not aim. They do not lay down cover fire.  They do not defend or fight in a tactical manner. They make up for their lack of quality with sheer quantity.

Battle-Bots cannot wear armor.

Elite Bots

Assassin Bots

ST 13 (HP 20)
DX 12
IQ 10
HT 10
Basic Speed 6.0, Basic Move 6 (No Encumbrance)
Dodge 10 Parry (Unarmed) 11

DR: 5 (all locations)

Vibro-Claws (14): 2d+1 (5) cut, 1d+1 (3) imp, C
Grapple (14)

Traits: Absolute Direction, Computer Brain (Physiology), Doesn't Breath, Machine, Protected Vision, Radio (Burst, Secure), Chameleon +8 (Extended: Infravision), Infra-Vision, Sense of Duty (Master), Gullible (9 or less), Heartless Machine.Tactical Programming
Skills: Running-12, Stealth-14, Shadowing-12, Tracking-12,

Class: Robot

Notes: An Assassin-Bot is definitely a Worthy: It is only removed when it reaches zero HP.  It does not suffer from Robotic Cinematic Combat rules: It can and does take cover, defend, and fight tactically.  Additionally, like the Battle-Bot, it cannot be negotiated with or intimidated.    Its programming requires it to follow all laws of war.  That is, it can kill, but only as would be legal (in defense of a human, as a legal execution, during a legal war, etc).

It prefers to lie in wait, with its chameleon cloaking up, then ambush its target, making strikes to the vitals (which it always knows, thanks to is Physiology programming) or simply slashing cuts if it must defeat heavier armor.  It prefers to avoid stand-up fights.  If it sees it cannot kill its target, it'll track it and keep its distance, reporting back to its master.

Heavy Battle-Bot

ST 20
DX 13
IQ 8
HT 12
Basic Speed 6.0, Basic Move 6 (No Encumbrance)
Dodge NA Parry NA

DR: 100 (all locations)

Blaster Carbine (15): 5d (5) burn sur, Acc 10, RoF 3, Bulk -3, Rcl 1
Heavy Plasma Gun (15): 3dx5(2) burn ex, Acc 8+3, RoF 3, Bulk -6, Rcl 2
Gatling Blaster (15): 7d(5), Acc 10, RoF 12, Bulk -6, Rcl 1
Weapon Butt (13): 2d+2 cr, C
Punch (13): 2d cr, C
Grapple (15)

Traits: Absolute Direction, Computer Brain (Military Programming), Discriminatory Hearing, Doesn't Breath, Extra Attack (Blaster Carbine), High Pain Threshold, Infra-Vision, Machine, Protected Vision, Radio (Burst, Secure), Sealed, Silence 1, Temperature Tolerance 20, Ultra-Hearing, Vacuum Support, Sense of Duty (Master), Heartless Machine, Honesty, Slave Mentality, Truthfulness, Weapon Mount, Cannot wear armor.
Skills: Observation-12, Savoir-Faire (Military)-10, Soldier-10, Stealth-12

Class: Robot

Notes: A Heavy-Bot is definitely a Worthy, but consider making it a full-on boss, if you really want to terrify your players with it.  It does suffer from Robotic Cinematic Combat rules. It will not defend, it will stagger if hit, and it prefers to grapple/strangle at close range rather than punch.  It follows the same strictures as a battle-bot: It has no initiative of its own, it cannot be negotiated with or intimidated, it simply moves forward carrying out all orders to the letter.  It does lack the stupidity of the smaller Battle-Bot model, and is extremely perceptive: Its ultra-hearing, discriminatory hearing and its infra-vision means it will find you (Treat his combined senses as Perception 15, if you need a simple value), and its Silence and Stealth makes it decent at ambushes, though it tends to only ambush when ordered, and usually by simply waiting in silence, or by crashing dramatically through a wall.

The blaster carbine is shoulder mounted and can be fired in addition to whatever hand-held gun it carries into battle.

War-Bot

"I have a bad feeling about this"

-Han Solo

ST 40
DX 12
IQ 8 (Perception 13)
HT 12
Basic Speed 6.0, Basic Move 9 (No Encumbrance)
Dodge NA Parry NA

DR: 75 (all locations) 200 (Semi-Ablative Force Screen)

Heavy Plasma Gun (14): 3dx5(2) burn ex, Acc 8+3, RoF 3, Bulk -6, Rcl 2
Gatling Blaster (14): 7d(5), Acc 10, RoF 12, Bulk -6, Rcl 1
Missile Launcher (14), 6dx10 burn sur exp, Acc 3, IR Homing Skill 15
Kick (12): 2d+2 cr, C
Slam (12): 8d cr

Traits: Absolute Direction, Computer Brain (Military Programming), Enhanced Move 1 (Ground), Extra Arms 3 (Weapon mounts), Extra Legs (4 legs), Doesn't Breath, Extra Attack 1, Infra-Vision, Machine, Protected Vision and Hearing, Radio (Burst, Secure), Super Jump, Sealed, Telescopic Vision 1, Vacuum Support, Sense of Duty (Master), Heartless Machine, Honesty, Slave Mentality, Truthfulness.  Cannot wear armor.
Skills: Observation-15

Class: Robot

Notes: A warbot is a terrifying engine of death: It is certainly at least a worthy, but could easily be a boss.  As with all other combat robots, it follows the the Robotic Cinematic Combat rules: It never defends, only moves forward and attacks with its multitudes of heavy weapons: It may attack twice per turn with any two weapons of its choice.  It has a defensive force screen that provides it with an additional 200 points of DR, making it virtually invincible on a small-scale.  Its superior vision and perception provide it the ability to acutely record its targets (for simplicity, treat it as having a Perception/Observation of 18 when it comes to vision).  It can move at a startling 18 yards per turn on a full run, and it can leap 22 yards.

The War-Bot's preferred tactics are to identify a threat and then engage.  It will definitely aim, announcing which target is aimed at (with laser sights if necessary).  Add +1 to all aimed shots (telescopic vision).  If opponents close in on its position, it will scurry away at alarming speeds.  If it must approach, it will rush its opponents and all-out slam (for +4) to smash its target to the ground and then lay down a hail of withering fire from its new position.

Understand that, as a threat, a War-Bot is somewhere between heavy infantry and a tank.

Bonus Post: Modifying Robots

Ultra-Tech gives us plenty of robot templates, but what if you don't like any of those templates? Where are the vibro-clawed assassin-bots, or the elegantly chromed and exquisitely crafted androids? We have no “robot design system” in the sense of being able to put together advantages and getting a cost out of it. However, we can use Ultra-Tech's gadget modification system to at least tinker with existing robots!