Inquiry In Regards to Robots

[Discount Dan]

Ok, let's get right to it. I'm beginning my epic adventure in being a GM in GURPS. A friend of mine wants to play a robot, however he wants specifics. So let's look at those specifics:
-Electricity as a weapon (I.E. a shoulder cannon that fires arcs of electricity.)
-Vibroblade (That's doable)
-Seeing people's electrical currents in the human body through walls.
-Powered by fusion

Now considering these choices, and the fact that I'm not too familiar with GURPS on it's own, how do I proceed? Can this be done? If so how? If not, what can be done?

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Discount Dan

Ok, let's get right to it. I'm beginning my epic adventure in being a GM in GURPS. A friend of mine wants to play a robot, however he wants specifics. So let's look at those specifics:
-Electricity as a weapon (I.E. a shoulder cannon that fires arcs of electricity.)
-Vibroblade (That's doable)
-Seeing people's electrical currents in the human body through walls.
-Powered by fusion

Now considering these choices, and the fact that I'm not too familiar with GURPS on it's own, how do I proceed? Can this be done? If so how? If not, what can be done?

-Innate attack with burning and surge
-IA with cutting, impaling, armor divisor, melee, st-based
-Probably Detect, with some limitations
-Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Breathe, maybd Doesn't Sleep, probably Maintenance

[roguebfl]

First Make sure to Check out the Machine Meta Trained in Basic set.
Assuming you want these weapon built into his robot form.

For Electrical Attack you problem want Innate Attack (Burn) with the Surge enhancement! (the Basic set is missing some of it's text, the full text can be found in Powers and Power-ups: Enhancements)

the Vibroblade you want Innate Attack (Cut) with Melee Attack limitation, and the Armor Divisor enhancement

the seeming though Walls is Penetrating Vision advantage with Accessibly (Biological lifeforms only -20%) and probably "Sense Based, Vission, Reversed) so that it's linked to your eyes.

the Powered but fusion again look at the machine meta trains for Traits like Doens't Eat and Doesn't sleep and related advantages of a tireless machine

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

First Make sure to Check out the Machine Meta Trained in Basic set.

Meta-traits start on p262, and the Machine meta-trait is on p263.

[scc]

I'd suggest checking out some of the Transhuman Space stuff

[OldSam]

Starting with the Machine Meta-Trait is definitely a good idea, you already invested 25 CP at that point. How much CP can you spend for the character? Buying a bunch of Innate Attacks and special machine Advantages won't be cheap...

The player should probably focus on some specific advantages, because the general idea to be a humanoid robot usually includes too many points, being very strong, very intelligent (with digital mind), having special robot weapons etc. And even more important: The player should point out what are the <weaknesses> of that char, being a powerful robot char usually means getting a lot of disadvantages to pay the bill for the cool features.
Also that makes the char more interesting and fun to play, because these weaknesses are an important part of creating a team member, giving others the opportunity to fill out the gaps.

E.g. one fun idea could be something like: No Fine Manipulators [-30] : The robot - as a combat system - is not designed for fine work like using human tools, repairing things etc., so it has only quite rough gripping devices to lift or hold something.

Also 'Reprogrammable' is a classic robot disadvantage for example, giving you as the GM a plot hook to exploit that once in a while... ;) E.g. when the player accesses a network, database, other machines/devices, at some point there will be a virus infection, forcing a 'maintenance reboot' at a later time or so... ;)

[whswhs]

Game mechanically, of course you can do any of those things. But there are larger questions that frame them.

How realistic is your campaign meant to be? Are you going for an accurate portrayal of technology as it really works, or a cartoonish or Golden Age supers effect where any handwavy rationale for an ability is okay if it sounds plausible, or something in between? The electric arc weapon, for example, probably isn't going to work in a "hard sf" physically realistic campaign, both because of the insanely high voltages needed to produce arcs of any length and because lightning is hard to aim.

How high is the TL? At TL9, if fusion is available, it will take a power plant that can't be installed in anything short of a large ship. At TL12, you may be able to justify a tiny plant inside a humanoid body.

What's the point budget for your campaign? On a typical 100 or 150 points, you won't be able to pay for a lot of innate attacks; just Doesn't Eat or Drink and Doesn't Breathe (the game mechanical equivalent of "fusion power plant") are 30 points. On a low-end superheroic 250 points, you can do a bit more. If all the PCs are built on 500 points, nothing you mentioned seems like a problem as far as cost is concerned.

[Varyon]

I'm going to answer in two ways - how to handle this with just Basic Set, and how to handle this with supplements.

Originally Posted by Discount Dan

Electricity as a weapon (I.E. a shoulder cannon that fires arcs of electricity.)

If an appropriate weapon is available as gear, a Weapon Mount will do it. If not, a Burning Innate Attack with Surge and possibly Side Effect: Stunning would be appropriate, maybe with Affliction: Stunning as an Alternate Ability (set weapon to stun).

If you have Power Ups 4, Arcing Surge would be a good option (reduces DR of metallic armor to 1).

Originally Posted by Discount Dan

Vibroblade (That's doable)

Quite - Cutting Innate Attack with appropriate damage and Armor Divisor, with a similar Impaling Innate Attack as an Alternate Ability, would work well.

My own preference, however, would be to build it as a Natural Weapon (Pyramid #3/65), which would be pretty straightforward. You could alternatively use Based on ST from Powers / Power Ups 4.

Originally Posted by Discount Dan

Seeing people's electrical currents in the human body through walls.

Either Penetrating Vision or Detect of some sort.

If you have Powers: Enhanced Senses, Detect with Precise, Analyzing, and Targeting could be nasty.

EDIT: I should note that any ability that can detect electricity well enough to find people will be able to flawlessly trace electrical wiring within walls, machines, and so forth, and will also function as a compass, for Absolute Direction. Humans generate very, very little electricity - unless going with a rubber science setting (which is fine!), you might want to have some other explanation for the character's ability to see through walls.

Originally Posted by Discount Dan

Powered by fusion

As noted, this will generally mean the character doesn't need to worry about food, water, etc. If nuclear dampening fields exist in your setting, the character would have a Weakness toward them.

If you have Powers and nuclear dampening fields exist, consider having some of the character's traits (Advantages, some Attribute levels, etc) have the Nuclear Power Modifier, and you'll want to use the Power guidelines to build that (will probably be -5%, but higher is possible depending on your setting). This will give the character a small discount on his traits, in exchange for losing them if he ever gets stuck inside a nuclear dampening field.

[Discount Dan]

Alright, so to respond to most of the feedback, I greatly appreciate it. To describe the campaign, as one person asked (I'm on mobile so I can't point them out) it's meant to be realistic to some degree. Additionally he wants magboots in his robot chassis and, apparently a charge shot akin to that of charging his electricity and firing it off in a blast. Is that possiblre. Finally, he wants to have it so if he dies, the party can pick up a blackbox from his robotic wreckage if it's still intact and put it into a new chassis. Could any of these things work?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Discount Dan

Alright, so to respond to most of the feedback, I greatly appreciate it. To describe the campaign, as one person asked (I'm on mobile so I can't point them out) it's meant to be realistic to some degree. Additionally he wants magboots in his robot chassis and, apparently a charge shot akin to that of charging his electricity and firing it off in a blast. Is that possiblre. Finally, he wants to have it so if he dies, the party can pick up a blackbox from his robotic wreckage if it's still intact and put it into a new chassis. Could any of these things work?

Yes, those can all work.

The magboots are Clinging (Specialized: Magnetic, -50%).

The charge shot is likely taking the afore-mentioned Burning Attack w/ Surge and adding Takes Extra Time and maybe Costs Energy Reserve (price as Costs FP and purchase a separate Energy Reserve - same price as FP - for stunts like that, since if you take the Machine meta-trait you lack FP to spend on it). I'd make the cheaper of the charge shot or the regular electric attack as an Alternate Ability, but you might be able to just add Variable and Selectivity to it so you can "turn off" certain modifiers on the attack.

The black box is probably best represented as a form of Unkillable (2 or 3) or Extra Life. YMMV; Extra Life is cheaper, but it's a one-shot-and-done deal - you lose the trait after you have to use it - while Unkillable is able to be invoked many times, although it's easily 100+ points.