Androids and Robots as player characters...(4/e of course)

[Qoltar]

Hello....

Its been a while.

I have an old regular player who would love for me to start up a new GURPS campaign. So after a minor 'Dungeon Fantasy' debacle I'm trying to get back into GURPS.

Here's the thing - she loves androids and robots and for years we've talked about making a character who appears Human - but is actually an Android.

Help here?

How do I do that? I am really rusty with my 4th edition GURPS knowledge. Please, please point me in the right direction.

Like I said above - its been a while.

What Tech Level? What is the best way to make a Robot as a playable character in GURPS?
What is the best or preferred way to make an 'Android' as a playable character in GURPS 4/e?

Oh and the TV show "Westworld" the past year or so also had me thinking about how to do all of that.

Thanks in advance for any advice and help.

- Ed C.

[weby]

Ultra Tech has fairly good rules and templates for androids at TL 9-12.

[Dragondog]

I would buy the traits with points as normal, with Android being a racial template.

How do these androids compare to humans?
* Are they stronger, smarter, and healthier?
* Do they need to sleep or eat?
* Do they have DR or Injury Tolerance?
* Can they do advanced math without a calculator?
* Is there a backup body or mind on storage somewhere?
* Are they slaves?
* Can they be reprogrammed?
* Any rules they just have to follow?

[Imion]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

(...)
What Tech Level? What is the best way to make a Robot as a playable character in GURPS?

What is the best or preferred way to make an 'Android' as a playable character in GURPS 4/e?
(...)

IMO, TL is somewhat irrelevant since your 'robot' can justifiably be based on a number of technological or magical principles. Golems, warforged, clockworks, androids, or robots are just different names for quite similar concepts.

That said, the best start would be the Machine Meta-Trait (B263). Everything else depends rather heavily on your campaign and your interpretation of what a 'robot' is.

[A Ladder]

Here's what I base my Android templates off of:

Advantages: Absolute Timing [2], Digital Mind [5], Doesn’t Breathe [20], Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30], Injury Tolerance (No Blood, Unliving) [25], Intuitive Mathematician [5], Computer Interface Jack [1], Photographic Memory [10], Racial Skill: Computer Operation [1], Vacuum Support [5].
Disadvantages: Electrical [-20], Reprogrammable [-10], Social Stigma (Subjugated) [-20], Unhealing (Partial, requires maintenance) [-20].


I then add traits as needed for flavor in campaigns.
Typically some form of Sealed, Doesn't Breathe, Damage Resistance, and/or Mundane Background (for making it impossible for Androids to learn Psi powers, the "Force", or whatever the other form of Space Magic(TM) is in your games).

[Qoltar]

Originally Posted by Imion

IMO, TL is somewhat irrelevant since your 'robot' can justifiably be based on a number of technological or magical principles. Golems, warforged.....

Nope, no 'Magic' ever shows up in my science fiction campaigns or settings. I leave that in the Fantasy or Sword & sorcery settings.

Most of my regular players know that I have that rule for myself.

- Ed C.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Nope, no 'Magic' ever shows up in my science fiction campaigns or settings. I leave that in the Fantasy or Sword & sorcery settings.

Most of my regular players know that I have that rule for myself.

- Ed C.

That's a neither here nor there, but you never really specified what sort of campaign you want to run.

That you want to let your wife have an android of some variety does not tell us about the game you want to run, and some people were making the suggestion (since you had mentioned a DF game) that 'hey you can get an android in a fantasy setting by calling it the following'.

I think that in order to help you more we need to hear more about the game you want to run and then we can give you some aid in fitting an android in (unless you want to MAKE the game about androids)

[Qoltar]

Wife?

What wife? - I never mentioned having a wife.

However, my most loyal player is a woman - but she is married to someone else who is not 'me'.

She is more like an older sister at times. In my GURPS Traveller campaign she was designate that captain of the IMS Margaret Thatcher. In the GURPS: Star Trek campaign that I ran she was the First officer of the USS Cochise NCC-530.


- Ed C.

[Kelly Pedersen]

For playing a sci-fi-style "robot who appears to be a human" android, you'll probably want Ultra-Tech. "Machines as Characters" (Ultra-Tech Revised pp. 27-37) has some extensive discussion of the topic, including a variety of meta-traits to represent various possible combinations of robot bodies and minds, advantages, disadvantages, and skills that are important to them even if not absolutely required, and some discussion of how to handle things like robots being hacked in play.

Ultra-Tech also has racial templates for different robots in various places where appropriate, such as recreational and personal robots (p. 41) and combat robots (pp. 167-168), among others.

[AlexanderHowl]

It is really up to you to define your robots, but I would suggest first deciding if your robot is capable of self-healing or not. If it is, you might want to look into bioroids as a workable alternative, as they can benefit from biological and cybernetic implants that make them superior to any normal android.