Book 9: Robot

[AndrewW]

From the characterful and sophisticated droids of film to simple drones, this book will allow players to construct and play a variety of robots covering all Traveller universes. From the Third Imperium to Judge Dredd, robots rapidly become ubiquitous items on high technology worlds, and this book will allow you to construct, outfit and modify robots of any type with a simple to use yet comprehensive system.

Shipping date: October 2010

 

[OddjobXL]

Hmm.

I'd think an Aliens book should be in the works next but maybe they're developing more robust world generation tools first? I appreciated Flynn's guide but a system with more tools for creating varied cultures and culture specific careers for char gen would be nice. Also some fluff tables for quick and dirty appearance and behavior/quirk generation might be nice too. More abilities and powers would be good as well. I did like Flynn's approach to building off the creature and UWP system in Traveller though. Made great sense.

But robots? Hm. Less attracted to them as player characters than equipment and additional complexity might not be a boon there. I reckon I'll see what the reviews say. Could well be Mongoose will find a unique take on the subject I'll need to see for myself.

 

[apoc527]

As a GM, I like this book. Nothing better than hordes of robots trying to kill the players at every turn.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Would this cover the Culture notion of robots - highly intelligent entities with hi-tech equipment all the way up to the (massive) Minds that drive the GSVs etc?

 

[rinku]

Yeah, I also agree that this is a needed book before more Alien stuff. I can manage aliens from my own OT stuff and/or publicly available information, but robots are well overdue an update.

 

[Dave Chase]

Hmm, robots.

Hope there are also the everyday, you don't see them unless you look robots.

Vendo machinces that take your order and make it on the spot.

Auto taxis, Street sweepers, general maintenance bots,etc

Dave Chase

 

[kafka]

Hmm, robots.

Hope there are also the everyday, you don't see them unless you look robots.

Vendo machinces that take your order and make it on the spot.

Auto taxis, Street sweepers, general maintenance bots,etc

Dave Chase

So what you are saying is that Robots are the Immigrants/foreign-born of the future. Yes, I could see that...

But, I also see Robots as just part of things people take for granted like we today with things lightbulbs, running water, public transit, etc. Only when things breakdown...would people curse the TransNet. Hundreds of semi-automous robots making the future work much like the present but without people actually freeing up their time to persue different lifestyle choices believing the 4hr day at the Office/Factory/Field to plain drugery but someone has to it.

 

[SJE]

Incidentally, why does the Imperium tend to avoid robots and androids? It doesnt seem to have had a Butlerian Jihad, and the Virus is yet to happen in a parrallel timeline, so why at TL15 doesnt it have a lot more robot soldiers and AI-driven ships?

SJE

 

[OddjobXL]

Yeah, I also agree that this is a needed book before more Alien stuff. I can manage aliens from my own OT stuff and/or publicly available information, but robots are well overdue an update.

I'm not particularly interested in an another OT themed Aliens book but a broader system for designing or adapting original alien races like Flynn's guide but with some more meat on the bones. I'd rather a system that "teaches a man to fish" as it were and, in particular, could help just knock out quickie minor races (or one-shot original alien races for player character creation) with enough detail they feel like fleshed out beings with histories and easily RPed traits and proclivities.

That said, I'll probably pick up the robots book on general principle. Mongoose hasn't really failed me yet and I'm sure I'll have my eyes opened as to the utility of robots in storytelling as well as good systems to go along with that.

 

[Dave Chase]

Yes to what kafka said too.


SJE
Because the Foundation series avoided them.

Dave Chase

 

[AndrewW]

A major reason of bots to be rare in the "player parts" of the 3I was always the relatively low efficiency of power plants. This restricted their operational time between recharge/refuel to days at best. So a "TechBot" was not the stuff to replace your engineer with. You might end up with a dead power plant and a robot "Scotty" in dire need of recharge...

Power drain shouldn't be too bad for them. Though a holographic one could take more. Please state the nature of the engineering emergency?

 

[rinku]

Incidentally, why does the Imperium tend to avoid robots and androids? It doesnt seem to have had a Butlerian Jihad, and the Virus is yet to happen in a parrallel timeline, so why at TL15 doesnt it have a lot more robot soldiers and AI-driven ships?

SJE

The real answer is that GDW didn't get around to publishing Robots until the very end of Classic Traveller (MegaTraveller was launched later in the same year IIRC). There was an article in JTAS (reprinted in Best of the Journal Vol.1) that allowed you to do them, and some of the adventures had some robots (i.e. Research Station Gamma), but they pretty much overlooked. Most of us just didn't bother with robots because they weren't on the equipment list.

May have been due to some strong opinion of the designers (or just Marc Miller), or it may have been a deliberate decison to keep common AI out of the setting so that the players wouldn't be able to just buy all the expertise they needed.

AI was involved in the first adventure (Kinunir) for what it's worth, though that was a solitary freak ripped off from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[Cyphr]

Hmm, robots.

Hope there are also the everyday, you don't see them unless you look robots.

Vendo machinces that take your order and make it on the spot.

Auto taxis, Street sweepers, general maintenance bots,etc

Dave Chase

And don't forget the TL 15 Talkie-Toaster with Synaptic processors
"I toast; therefore, I am"


I wonder if there will be rules for cyborgs.

Addendum:
Would there be more advanced rules for computers? This for making advanced comm-units and handcomps with robotic brains. (See Box in Starcops)

 

[justacaveman]

I would like rules for cyborgs. I mean, a cyborg is just meat with robot parts.

I had a favorite robot that I built for one of my CT characters. It looked like a tiger, and had a laser rifle that it could fire through it's open mouth. We used it for shipboard security. It was real fun to use! Heck of a roar!
:lol:

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

I wonder if there will be rules for cyborgs.

Cybermen?

 

[rinku]

I expect Robots will touch on cyborgs, but I think the existing rules in the basic rules work fine for most settings. If you pay for it you can have armoured skin, +3 stats, bionic eyes and lungs, extra skills and a computer in your head. There's other stuff in Agent and CSC.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I believe it was:

2x Bionic Legs
1x Bionic Arm
1x Bionic Eye OR 1x Bionic Ear (not both).

Oh, and the bionic skin doesn't tan...

(How sad am I that I remember that kind of crap?)

 

[AndrewW]

availabel both in "male hunk" and "shapely female" (costs 15 percent extra) packages?

Was also available in a younger package.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

I take it one could have contrasting skin/nu-skin coloration?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Maybe you need to buy the Camo option...

I think the Augment rules in Traveller do a good-enough job of defining the possible cyborgization of someone.

If you want a more transhuman feel to your game, just lower the TL and allow multiple augments on the same body part.

And yes, you COULD create cybermen with the Traveller rules. Of course, Daleks will require the Power Armour book...