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high_cost_of_electronic_living

High Cost of Electronic Living

The first thing to consider when creating any robot hero is its cost. Somebody originally paid for the robot, and therefore owned it. The more advanced and powerful the robot, the more that owner paid for it.

Robot heroes of any kind begin play as the property of another unless they can pay their own cost to their owner and purchase their freedom. Heroic robots who cannot afford to pay for themselves must choose to either serve their master or go rogue. The master may be another hero or a GM-controlled character or organization, as agreed by the player and the GM.

Those robots who serve a master obviously face certain challenges, responsibilities, and limitations. They must follow any commands from their owner and authorized operators to the best of their ability. Depending on its master and the role it serves for that master, a heroic robot may find itself severely limited in its choices and its ability to fully participate in adventuring. Both the player and the GM should understand and agree about the nature to the robot hero’s servitude and its relationship with its master. One way of dealing with this is to have another hero or perhaps the entire group of heroes purchase the heroic robot, which presents some very interesting opportunities and complications for all parties.

Those robot heroes who choose to go rogue may face an even more difficult path. While it may seem romantic at first blush to play a rogue robot, the player should very carefully consider all the implications. A rogue robot faces pursuit by its owner's and their agents, bounty hunters, and so on. Rogue robots also generally forfeit any rights protections they would normally have under law, and will likely be pursued by law enforcement agents. Rogue robots who are captured generally face depowering, reprogramming, and or destruction.

The more expensive a robot, the more severe the implications of either of these paths. A more expensive and thus more powerful robot can expect to face greater demands from an owner, while a rogue robot can expect both the level of pursuit and the consequences of capture to be commensurate to its cost. Finally, more powerful, and thus more expensive robots will likely have to take a level adjustment.

high_cost_of_electronic_living.txt · Last modified: 2021/12/04 00:38 (external edit)