Can you bring a Robot in the Shadows adventure?

[Spinward Scout]

I was wondering if a Robot can explore with you in the Shadows adventure? What could protect a Robot from the atmosphere or would it even need protection? I would think Exploration Scouts would have had to deal with this situation at some point. A Robot should be much sturdier than a VACC Suit, I'd think.

What are your ideas?

 

[Grav_Moped]

Based on the Referee's Notes on p. 3, probably not (it's not in the ship's locker, and the allowed equipment sources don't include robots).

The scenario explicitly uses the insidious atmosphere as a hard time limit. If a robot is allowed, it shouldn't have any greater durability than a Vacc Suit in that environment.

But this mostly depends on the context. If it's a narrative exploration using a single character, why not? It provides a "Star Trek 'Red Shirt'" expendable NPC to use to demonstrate the danger of the situation without killing off the protagonist. If it's an accessory for a PC party you're refereeing through the scenario, I'd say no. At best, I'd allow something like a current-day commercial-off-the-shelf quadcopter drone (maybe antigrav for the SciFi effect), or a semi-autonomous RC car (but tracked) with a camera, that'd last 1D+2 hours* before succumbing to the atmosphere. Be sure to account for line-of-sight issues for telemetry.

This is largely a matter of changed technology assumptions since DA1 was published. These days, of course you'd have bots and drones and cubesats stacked up in the ship's locker -- they're small, and cheap enough to almost be expendable. In 1980? Not so much. Why would an ordinary scoutship need Star Wars droids?



*maybe (2D/2)+2 hours, so the middle values are more likely?

 

[Spinward Scout]

I was thinking of just one Explorer Scout.

I thought the TL limit was only for stuff you had to buy - not what you brought with you. If the crewman already owned it...

If you're running a subsector campaign, Yorbund is probably half-way through the subsector

If it's a humanoid shaped Robot, it can just fit in a VACC Suit like David8 in Prometheus. But if it's like R2-D2, would it need protection?

 

[Grav_Moped]

It's written for 2-8 PCs so you need to have at least one NPC along if you're running it solo -- and if you want that NPC to be a robot, why shouldn't it be?

An R2 unit can operate in vacuum. It isn't harmed by immersion in a swamp. But is it built to handle corrosive atmospheres?

I'm pretty sure the limits on pp.2-3 (all you get is what's in the Ship's Locker and a budget-limited 10-minute shopping run through LBB1, LBB3, and the Available Equipment Table on p.3, and don't know what you're prepping for) were there for play balance. Are you planning to take on the scenario as it was expected to be played in 1980, or to take advantage of the 41 years of technological (and RPG) innovation since then to do a "speed run" of it?

 

[aramis]

The robot is likely to be even more succeptible - most metals aren't durable in acids.

Plus, acid at the joins means current flows...

NNow, it it's all polymers, they still have to be ones not overly affected by the temperatures, acids, and hazards.

I generally have disallowed robots unless they are specifically designed for insidious atmospheres... or can fit a vacc suit.

More than one player was way-annoyed when they found out their precious TL14 Tailored Vacc Suit was in need of replacement. They'd be even more annoyed to have to repair the repair bot...

 

[Grav_Moped]

A robot issued by the IISS would probably have some degree of environmental hardening.

It looks to me like he's planning to run the scenario on a solo/self-refereed basis, using the robot as a plus-up for a single player character in a scenario meant for 2-8 PCs. Also, I suspect that for campaign/narrative purposes, he doesn't want to add one or more human (or alien) NPC(s) to the party for later sessions.

In that context, I'd figure it's ok as long as it had limitations similar to those of a human NPC in this environment (no grav locomotion, normal-range stats and skills and damage resistance, no more than 8 hours durability in an insidious atmosphere, and so on). Basically, it'd be an NPC that could be parked in a locker unless needed for a particular pre-written adventure.

It's not something I'd allow in most other contexts though. A robot sophisticated enough to replace a PC is almost always going to be an NPC run by the ref, not by the player.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I was thinking: 'What does that Detached Duty Scout do if the Scout/Courier doesn't need a crew?'

Plus I wanted to run it Solo.