Aliens-like Synthentic?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Mentally I don't know if they actually have digital minds, they could very well be analog artificial brains given how emotional they get. Definitely seem prone to developing obsessions with their mission goals.

I'd say that sounds intentional on the part of his programmers.

[Polkageist]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I think Bishop doing the knife game in this clip is meant to show that he has superhuman reflexes, though I don't recall if it's demonstrated much in the rest of the movie.
https://youtu.be/hJtYFoKeh1I
So I'd be tempted to go above DX 14.
Note that he mentions he's Asimov compliant at the end, so you'd need to add Sense of Duty (Humans) and maybe Pacifism of some sort.

David can shoot hoops while riding a bicycle here, which also means a high DX, but maybe not so superhuman.
https://youtu.be/sSGsVqRU4Kg

The capabilities of the synths in the franchise are kinda all over the map, which pretty much comes from the writers giving them whatever abilities they need to make the movies interesting.

In universe however, it probably means that there are several manufacturers that create synths in a wide variety of capabilities and programming, with similarly complex laws governing how they are able to act.
Ash is an amoral monster but not overly powerful, Bishop is quite capable but pacifistically programmed, Call is very independent but does her best to look and act like an ordinary human because she's considered an enemy of the state (post-android uprising?)

AVP wiki has a writeup of a bunch of different synths, which might inspire you: https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Synthetic
Everything from armored combat juggernauts to near-perfect imitators.

I suspect that a synth could easily programmed to feel pain (or respond to damage as pain, a distinction without a difference) so that it'd have an authentic reaction. Dyes and fakery could mask the internal fluids from appearing as something other than blood. Only a close medical inspection would reveal their non-human status, and oddly enough they just don't get sick or need to see a doctor. Heck, it's quite possible to go full Blade Runner and develop a synth that doesn't even know it's a synth!

Oh, right. That doesn't quite answer your question about a template. Since it's a horror one-shot, is it for a PC to play? That'll matter, because NPCs don't need nearly as detailed of writeups, just stats and behavior notes really.
A PC that's similar to Ash would be great with Tyneras' template earlier. I'd drop the power supply stuff unless the time scale of the one shot would make that matter. Looks like it's somewhere around 250-300 points for the template, sans skills? Might want to throw some more disadvantages on it: Social Stigma(s), Callous, Compulsion (mission), Vulnerability (electrical damage or similar), Secret (omg huge), things like that. Synths in the Aliens universe seem not to be well liked by humans so I'd play that up to offset the point value of the advantages in a PC.

[AlexanderHowl]

I would actually model them as bioroid shells that use perflubon blood and have an internal computer than ruins a digital intelligence.

[Tyneras]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I would actually model them as bioroid shells that use perflubon blood and have an internal computer than ruins a digital intelligence.

Except synths from the Aliens universe have no living tissue in them at all, no part of them is grown.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

I'd say that sounds intentional on the part of his programmers.

I think one real world experiment with artificial emotions as a way to create more human-like interactions led to a robot physically blocking a researcher's exit. It had become "obsessed" with the human.
So obsessive behavior may be a natural, hard to avoid problem with artificial emotions.
Or the company is just all dumb and self-sabotaging like Umbrella Corp of Resident Evil fame.

[Rolando]

some of the obsessions in the movies (and comics) are in part programmed.
Synths have this important directive that preserving alien life forms take priority over the crew well being. It's not a glitch, it is a feature.

it makes it horror to have a secret synth as a crew member.

Edit: not all synths, but some synths used by at least one corporation have the programmed obsession.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Except synths from the Aliens universe have no living tissue in them at all, no part of them is grown.

Not actually true. They have no organic tissue. They do have vat-grown silicon colloids for their muscle tissue over a carbon fiber skeleton. So basically they're nearly as squishy as a human although their brains are just AI computers. They are almost entirely non-metallic in nature the main exception being their power source, which keeps them from having to eat or breathe.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

Neither has nor uses FP
400 day power supply with 3 day recharging period

Still not sure why we don't define fuel/power storage as FP

Is it something like we don't want androids spending their fuel to be more accurate with Warp?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Plane

Still not sure why we don't define fuel/power storage as FP

Is it something like we don't want androids spending their fuel to be more accurate with Warp?

FP is a resource that is expended when doing energy-intensive activities, like fight, running, etc, and that must be restored by resting. Machines generally don't have anything like that - realistically, they do burn through more fuel for energy-intensive activities, but they don't need to rest to recover*, and they can just "eat" more to keep chugging along (although GURPS doesn't track that - humans eat 3 meals a day regardless of if they're just sitting around camp or fighting the entire day, and machines consume the same amount of fuel idling as they do in continuous use). Also, a big (albeit a bit cinematic) use of FP is Extra Effort, and machines typically don't have the option of "pushing the envelope" in that manner (and when they can, the potential deleterious effects on the machine are different, so it would be better to build such a "red-lining" option as some sort of Advantage with a Backlash or similar).

*One could potentially look at machines building up heat as similar to humans expending FP, as both can result in needing to take a rest, but the effects of overheating and being fatigued are too different. Also, most well-designed machines shouldn't be at risk of overheating with continuous use.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I think Bishop doing the knife game in this clip is meant to show that he has superhuman reflexes, though I don't recall if it's demonstrated much in the rest of the movie.

He's also the only one that can pilot the reserve shuttle remotely, but whether that's "humans can't" or "these humans can't" isn't clear. Ripley had been certified to serve on a spaceship, but if I remember right was communications officer (and her license was revoked and possibly based on obsolete equipment). Nobody else still alive was likely to have had any sort of relevant training. It's very possible that Ferro could have done it if not for a severe case of being dead, but if you do something interesting with it, nothing seen on screen explicitly confirms or refutes "synthetics can remote pilot a shuttle from orbit to ground and humans can't."