ASIMOVIC ANDROIDS: A Tweak For Mothership Androids

 

Here is a small tweak, untested, for Mothership androids that might help provide a mechanic that makes them feel more unhuman.

ASIMOVIC ANDROIDS

You are governed by the Three Laws of Robotics:

• The First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
• The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
• The Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

WOUNDS & VIOLATIONS: During character creation tie your highest-ranked skill to the THIRD LAW, your second to the SECOND LAW, and your third to the FIRST LAW.

When you are WOUNDED, remove the lowest law not already marked off. When a paradox occurs between two laws, also remove the lowest law in the paradox.

If a law is removed, the associated skill is removed due to the not-quite-understood connections of the positronic brain.

STRESS & PANIC: When your actions or verbal suggestions violate or hit at violating a law, everyone else gains 1 stress.

Maybe if the First Law is removed everyone else make a panic check.

NOTES

• Hopefully, by tying a skill to the laws, you have a reason to get repairs done which increase utility but at the expense of freedom
• I also hope that by reducing skills with the removal of laws you have a non-human with "no skills" but the ability to kill. Its the nightmare inverse of what human build robots/androids for (mostly- attack AI are different)
• Nope, I've not playtested this at all nor looked at the Mothership RPG when I was writing it out-- total hip fire-- but I think feels good

MOONBASE BLUES: After-Action Report 2 of 2

 MOONBASE BLUES 

NOW on DTRPG!

Part I Here

<!-- Let's switch fonts again for fun-->
Characters

• Marine Cmd. Dukes
• Scientist: Archeology Ysuko
• Scientist: Roboticist Iko
• Teamster: Nips <!--NEW-->

OBSERVATORY: PCs are able to break away from the fight in OBSERVATORY now with 1.0 hr to go until the strange meteor researches its zenith. They decide to retreat back to SECURITY.

By this time our PCs meeting Nips who is a new player in our game. Born high, but brought low by scandal, dropped off to pay a debt, XXX demanded someone else carry her bags. On the plus side, PCs got a new loadout.

<!--It was interesting to me that the PCs did not go to the downed drop pod for extra supplies -->

GREENHOUSE & MED BAY: Because of the strange blue light coming over the horizon, the completely transparent done of the GREENHOUSE was going to prove a problem. All prior characters were already at Meteor Psychosis Stage 1. Further exposure would not be good. So the PCs decide to hit the floor and crawl on their stomachs. Halfway across the room, Nips is intercepted by two of the light-touched Beloved. Punches were thrown, eyes were gouged, and the PCs were about to make it to SECURITY.

SECURITY: Back through the barricade, but a check of the SECURITY interior revels on floating, giggling light-touched Beloved. Furthermore, the rising blue light reveals clear-epoxy filled holes in the dome that are letting in blue light.

Iko makes a fast break for the computer terminal to insert the emergency protocol card. But in his haste, Iko didn't properly protect his eyes from the blue Truth and was overtaken by Psychosis Stage 2, blackout, but kept inserting blue pens into his body.

Yusko seeing her friend endanger charges into the room only to be overcome by the blue Truth like Iko. Both now have Meteor Psychosis level 2. Yusko blacks out but grasps and scramble for any blue object- becoming increasingly stressed that no objects can be found.

Cmd. Dukes was able to push the blue-light deranged strange away from the group and secure the area. By that time, Nips had returned with the dropped loadout equipment.

Back to the GREENHOUSE & MED BAY: The group intends to travel back across to the GREENHOUSE then up the middle to the OBSERVATORY. It is here that Nips eats the strange fruit in the GREENHOUSE and while not succumbing to the effects of the Blue Truth, does gain an altered perception. 

<!--The player rolls a "0" & "00" on that save so I figure it would be nice to reward the player-->

Alas, the group's plans were cut short as they slithered by through the GREENHOUSE. The "beloved" captured Nips and Yusko and brought them to the OBSERVATORY for conversion by exposing them directly to the blue light via the telescope eyepiece.

<!--Forcing a person to look into the eyepiece immediately causes them to gain 2 levels of Meteor Psychosis-->

OBSERVATORY & GEOLOGY LAB: With the meteor at its zenith, things quickly collapse for the survivors. Surrounded by the blue-obsessed "Beloved", Nips tries to mimic there chants and speeches temporarily earning freedom. She then slinks off to put on a vac-suit without notice to try and escape outside. Iko who hid successfully in the GREENHOUSE has gone unnoticed. Also tries to slip on a vac-suit quietly and without notice (and training)...mostly gets things correct. 

Its then Cmd. Dukes swings into action with a two-pronged plan, his left & right fists, to help by charging the Blue Prophet! Hell breaks loose but Ysuko is able to slip away to don a vac suit too. No zero-G training so she thinks she did everything correctly...maybe.

OUTSIDE THE DOME: The truest of blue fills the landscape bathing it in Truth. Iko and Yusko both have their vac-suit hold seal despite not correctly adjusting it for fit. Nips' is perfect.

<!--I had each player roll a d10: Evens = suit put on correctly; Odds = seal is poor and they start venting oxygen-->

But unfortunately, it is not their physical being that each has to worry about-- for the Blue Truth streaming from the meteor overtakes their souls. All three undo their helmets, join hands, and widen their eyes to know the Truth. Because they have seen the light and it is good.

But Cmd Dukes only sees red! Red is the rage he feels at this terrible situation. Red is the blood from these blue freaks and the smashed head of the Prophet. Red is color that pours forth as he's torn apart in a rage by the remaining Beloved.

<!--To end off the final stand, I had the player roll a d10 and the result was the number of cultists he killed in the last stand each death narrated differently by the player-->

//END OF REPORT

CHARACTERS

• Marine Cmd. Dukes (deceased)
• Scientist: Archeology Ysuko (questionable)
• Scientist: Roboticist Iko (questionable)
• Teamster: Nips (questionable)

MOONBASE BLUES: An After-Action Report 1 of 2

<!--Let's switch fonts to add to the sci-fi mood-->

 MOONBASE BLUES 

concept by D. Shugars
written by I. Yusem
art & layout by W. Denning

itch.co NOW!
DTRPG NOW!

BEGIN REPORT: The crew of the Skiff-class ship Sparrowhawk:

• Marine Cmd. Dukes
• Scientist: Archeology Ysuko
• Scientist: Roboticist Iko

<!--All randomly generated by Saker Tarsos MOTHERSHIP character generator -->

Under the unscrupulous leadership of former corp-union smasher Cmd. Dukes, the three were charting a course to a small lunar facility, AZURE BASE, known in these parts for conducting some sort of clandestine geological work. Dukes was hoping for a quick snatch-and-grab of some valuable intel and a tidy payday.

The three awake in the Security station groggy. All have new clothes on, but only Ysuko has her duffle bag [laser cutter, hand welder, crowbar, body cam, laser cutter (!), mag boots, bioscanner, vacsuit, & other goodies]

<!--I'll try to be brief for each section -->

SECURITY: Automated AI clicks on to assign them AZURE BASE tasks including making the beds in HABITATION and to bizarrely look up in 4 hours. Player divide up equipment, download both FACILITY MAPS, and head to the GREENHOUSE.

<!--MOONBASE BLUES comes with a single page spread of the two interior maps for player use as an "in-game" object-->

GREENHOUSE & MED BAY (glass-domed): Players witness one figure being mutilated in the Auto-doc while a second "surgeon" conducts this grisly procedure. 

The figure in the Auto-doc has his cavity split open. Various blue painted mechanical parts are being put inside. The "surgeon" over seeing this butchery blue wires running through his head, neck, eyes, and mouth in a grisly halo.

Horrified by the butchery, Cmd Dukes tries to halt the process. Ysuko jumps in with the laser cutter. Meanwhile Iko explored the hydroponics and stole a tranq gun from another pair of strange figures. 

Their leader has both eyes replaces by prisms with blue paint seeping from the wounds.

All three characters fend off an attack and make for HABITATION. Iko hot-wires the door control shut and Ysuko curses her luck at poor laser-cutter handeling at point-blank range. 

HABITATION:Before entering Iko hot-wires the door controls again to only permit entry after a certain amount of time. Collecting themselves, Cmd. Dukes loses it- the horrible sights of the disfigured people and Auto-doc mutilation- has caused him to fail his Panic Check and gain a phobia of Auto-docs <!--player specified-->. The other two keep it together- mostly. 

Once through the door, the players are greeted by two groups of the Devoted (as they call themselves): Two figures staring off through the open shutters at a bizarrely blue-lit horizon; two figures viciously stabbing themselves in the arms yelling about their unnatural red blood-- "BLUE! BLUE! NOT RED! BLUE!"

Player make it up to the second floor to both unclog the toilet in restroom B (as asked by the AI)and ransack the living quarters (but make the beds as ask by the AI). New gear as follows:

• 2x foil space blanket
• 1x mouse
• 1x jury-rigged shotgun
• 2x AZURE BASE security protocol punch-card

<!--MOONBASE BLUES also comes with a "I Search the Body" d100 chart-->

Before leaving, the two Devoted staring off into the turquoise horizon warn the characters in unison: "You will see the Truth. You will know the Truth. We will make you. All of you."

OBSERVATION & GEOLOGY LAB: More dismay as the characters are confronted with 5 devoted huddled around the telescope in prayer lead by a woman with a face painted blue and one eye replaced by a prism (The Prophet). Seeking to the right, the characters enter the Geology Lab and are immediately struck by the blue light of a meteor fragment. All three players fail a Sanity save sending their characters reeling with early Meteor Psychosis-- the meteor and its light filling their mind's eye. Even Cmd. Dukes' mouse ran up to it.

Ysuko recovered first and blasted the meteor with the laser cutter. Blue dust, one atomized-mouse, and screams from the Devoted filled the air: "The Heretics have destroyed the ORACAL! Bring them to the Truth!". Two figures jumped Cmd Dukes trying to both crush his skull (20 total health lost) and subdue him with a tranq. gun. Iko had stumbled back to the door out of OBSERVATION but fired off a quick tranq. gun shot into one of the cultist who dropped into a heavy sleep <!--Critical 33 vs 34 COMBAT-->. Ysuko seared off the face of the second Devoted.

 AND WE ENDED IT THERE...PART II

<!--Notes to self for the future and to you the reader-->

• Give the players time in the opening (and prompt them if needed) to: (1) get a sense of their surroundings; (2) divide up the one load-out kit.
• Keep describing the Devoted (both singular & groups) as unique. Really layout for the players how wrong these people have become. If the player gag, cringe, or make a face- I've hit the mark.
• I wish I had prepped a little more about what was in each area. Just to ensure I had enough in-game "stuff" around to help players solve problems since guns are low and they start with nothing. Player-driven solutions using in-game stuff is awesome.
• Keep the stress coming! Drop by drop.