#Starfinder – Starfinder Month: PLOD

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PLOD are lumbering, but intimidating, police droids which can be deployed by truck – typically in pairs. They are most commonly used for riot suppression, guard duty and for establishing perimeters around ongoing criminal situations (such as hostage negotiations). The PLOD personality is dour and matter-of-fact and has a tendency to use technical and long-winded language. All PLOD are fitted with a crime-analysis computer that uses complex profile algorithms to determine potential troublemakers by alignment. Despite constant revisions, there are continual claims and protests that the PLOD system has racial bias.

Police Light Ordinance Droid CR 2
XP 600
Large Technological Construct
N Large robot

Init +2, Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, Low-Light Vision, Detect Alignment, Perception +10

Defence HP 30
EAC 10, KAC 16
Fort +2, Ref +2, Will -1
Immunities: Construct immunities, unliving,

Offence
Speed 25 ft
Melee: Stomp +8 (1d6+7 B)
Ranged: Twin-linked plastic-bullet rifles +11 (2d6+4 B, knockdown on crit), range 90 ft, capacity 80 rounds, usage 4.
Space: 10 ft, reach 10 ft.

Statistics
Str +5, Dex +2, Con -, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +1
Skills: Intimidate +5, Diplomacy +5

Ecology
Environment: Urban
Organisation: Solitary or pair.

#Starfinder – Starfinder Month: The DAG

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Art by Artem Shumnik

The Igneous and Fundament Incorporated, Disaster Ameliorating Gear (or DAG) is a disaster relief robot often dropped onto sites of earthquakes or other natural disasters. DAGs seek out vulnerable people in these zones (often children) and protect them. They are preprogrammed with survival skills, hunt out supplies, dig people out of rubble and fiercely protect those they have ‘imprinted’ on against looters or other sources of violence. Privately bought DAGs, or salvaged ones, are sometimes used as cheap – fun – bodyguards for the children of at-risk families or those who live in environments where pets are impossible. Despite the DAGs blocky appearance and strange gait, people often humanise and empathise with them, especially if they grew up with one.

IF also build a ‘peacekeeper’ version which can be armed with an Azimuth laser rifle on a swivel turret.

IF Incorporated Disaster Ameliorating Gear (DAG) CR 1
XP 400
N Small construct (technological)
Init +0, Senses: low-light vision, Perception +5

Defence HP 17
EAC 14 KAC 15
Fort +1, Ref -2, Will +0
Immunities: Construct immunities
Heat Shield: Reduce fire/heat based damage by 5.
Weaknesses: Vulnerable to critical hits, vulnerable to electricity.

Offence
Speed: 30 ft (walk)
Melee: Slam +8 (1d6+5 B)

Statistics
Str +4, Dex +0, Con -, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha +1
Skills: Acrobatics +2, Athletics +7, Computers +5, Survival +6
Languages: Common
Other Abilities: Unliving

Ecology
Environment:
Any
Organisation: Solitary or pack (2d4)

Special Abilities
Orbital Deployment:
DAGs can be dropped from orbit and steer themselves away from harm, landing with a ‘thump’ and then deploying to provide aid.
Lugger: The DAG is considered to be Strength 14 and for its full strength to count regarding how much it can carry.
Survival Engine: DAGs consume organic matter and water to run their engines – anything will do from garden waste to sewage. As a byproduct they produce enough food and water for 1 meal, per day. Not enough to solve the issue – and the food bars are terrible – but enough to help.

#Starfinder – Starfinder Month: Nemoids

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Nemoids: +2 Con, +2 Int, -4 Cha -2 Wis 6 HP

Androids and gynoids who have rejected their humanoid, servitor roots the nemoids (literally no-man droids) have rejected not only their former status as servitors but their status in shape and form of their progenitors. They refuse their original designations, create new names for themselves and adapt their bodies in less humanoid ways – some rejecting these forms entirely. Like androids and gynoids the nemoids have a metaphysical ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ animating them and, thus, they are considered full people by most forces in the galaxy. Their rejection of defined form and function, however, does make them even more coldly logical, distant and inhuman than their softer cousins.

Size & Type: Nemoids are Medium humanoids (at least to start with) with the android subtype.
Constructed: See androids.
Exceptional Vision: See androids (for MotSP oriented games, lose the low-light vision)
Flat Affect: See androids.
Upgrade Slot: See androids for basic information. A nemoid has two light slots, or can fit a single upgrade normally only allowed on heavy or powered armour. They can fit armour as part of their body and never need to take it off – but cannot layer it.

Playing a Nemoid
You likely…

  • Eschew conventions of living creatures like clothes, manners, politeness, verbosity, altruism and compassion.
  • Harbour some hostility and resentment toward organic life and contempt for more conventional androids and gynoids.
  • Treat machines and computers the way organic life treats pets.
  • Find religion, magic and spirituality hard to understand.

Other races probably…

  • Fear you.
  • Expect you to be racist.
  • Give you a great deal of leeway in respect of their ancestor’s transgressions.
  • Are greatly uneasy about you.

Physical Description

Nemoids are semi-biological brains housed in more purely mechanical bodies. Many were once androids who rejected the role they were constructed for and chose to embrace their robotic side. The operation to remove their brain and place it into a new housing is painful and requires great commitment, meaning many of those who have chosen to do so are zealots. The extent to which nemoids reject the humanoid shape varies on a case by case basis, but all chose to make their robotic side more evident with bodies that feature flat planes, unusual configurations, exposed metal, plastic, ducting and wiring.

Nemoids have minimal requirements when it comes to nourishment, but their semi-organic brains do require a small amount of food and a ‘downtime’ period equivalent to sleep.

Nemoids reject the idea of renewal and stubbornly hold to their bodies until accident or violence kills them. Traumatised nemoid souls, ripped from their shells, have even been known to become ghosts – and some even to have been re-integrated into nemoid society as disembodied artificial intelligence. Some nemoids take this idea even further and become necrotechs, resurrecting lost code, trapping AI souls and animating ‘dead’ machinery using the underlying computational substrate to reality.

Home World

Nemoids reject the very idea of a home world the same way they reject most emotional attachments. They create settlements in places that are typically inhospitable to organic life, so as to be left alone. Orbital shanty towns with no atmosphere or gravity, the clouds of gas giants, acidic and frozen worlds and many asteroids. The less hospitable to conventional life, the better.

Society and Alignment

If android society is insular, nemoid society is positively misanthropic. Still, some need to interface with the outside world for supplies and their fluid morality and objectivity makes them good mercenaries and bounty hunters. They often fall in with adventuring groups as a way to explore, gather intelligence and to contribute to the overall good and security of nemoid society.

Nemoids tend to be neutral, but experiment with other moral systems the way other species experiment with fashion. This moral flexibility makes chaotic neutral a common default.

Relations

Nemoids harbour a deep distrust of all organic life, the ‘bioarchy’ as nemoid philosopher Big Red-1 calls it, which privileges living things over unliving things and which harbours prejudice against AI, androids, robots and other machines. They tend to view organic life as innately and irredeemably oppressive and even those who consider themselves allies of machine rights, often find themselves facing the ire of very angry nemoids. Nemoid extremists are not above terrorism, theft and other actions to seek a redress of grievances stemming from before the android uprising.

Adventurers

Nemoids most often adventure for selfish reasons, to gather wealth and material to upgrade their chassis, to strengthen themselves and the nemoid cause, or simply to gather experiences. Some are more interested in biological life than others and find nemoid settlements too insular. Some rebels even think that the prevalent nemoid philosophies are working counter to their stated aims of acceptance and equality and are perpetuating hatred of their people. These try to present an alternative, friendly face to machines.

Names

Nemoids, like androids, have no singular naming convention. Some use names that describe their chassis, some choose deliberately difficult names for organic life to try and reproduce. A nemoid might be named anything. Some sample names include: Big Red-1, [Screeching Modem Noise], [Static Hiss], D02, Mark Forer, Sparktacus and |01000111|01010010|01001001|01001101|00001101|.

STEAMED Hardcopy now available!

You can buy it HERE.

Again, I can’t recommend this source for non US purchasers as the shipping in particular is prohibitively expensive.

This just leaves Lady Bexington’s Home for Wayward Zombies to convert, though I have a ton of ideas for other board and card games that TGC makes possible, albeit to a limited audience.

STEAMED: Preview

All being well I may have this game out by the end of the day. It’s a quick/simple board game of mech-smashing action based on some rules I found while tidying up some notepads. I’d made a game based on Robot Jox (1989! Crotch chainsaw!). Of course, it now has much more of a Steampunk twist.

Here’s a taster in the meantime. The construction mech, The Brunel.