Character Creation

Hi! I was thinking of creating the "Face" / the talker for the party, playing a paternalistic top tier Coordination Robot, but I am pretty much flexible for other people wishes so we can have a balanced and diverse group of skills.

So what kind of info can I get on character generation without buying the book? I don't mind buying a book, but I don’t want to be tempted to read the GM section so that I can get the full experience of the game. I was thinking of buying M:YZ core to run IRL, but I'm guessing the robot character generation is pretty specific.

Specific indeed. Here are the kinds of robots that we can play:

Battle Robot: A robot designed specifically for defending and battling the enclaves enemies, in particular other empires. You are a killing machine, and will gladly destroy yourself in combat before you fail your prime directive to destroy the enemy you are programmed to kill.

Cleaning Robot: You are designed to keep things spic-and-span and are very helpful when it comes to cleaning up rot and attacking swarms.

Companion Robot: These robots are closest to humans in their design and mimic human emotions and behaviors in ways the other robots can’t conceive of. They could be used as friends, sexual companions, baby-sitters, whatever kind of companion a human could need.

Coordination Robot: You make sure stuff gets done and keep the other robots on task. If you are sent out to perform missions, you are the natural leader and can make a group of robots add up to much more than the sum of their parts.

Industrial Robot: You are built to serve in the various factories in Mechatron 7, and you always have more tasks assigned to you than you could ever carry out. Production is your key programming and you are always compelled to keep making things, even if the humans who originally wanted these items no longer exist in Mechatron 7. This would be a great choice if you want to mount various tools on your chassis or produce useful gadgets for other robots.

Protocol Robot: The Protocol robot is the brains of the operation and usually has the fastest processor when it comes to gleaning information about the other robots and human civilization.

Scrap Robot: You live in the waste Canyon and survive by reutilizing waste that other robots discard. You are not officially apart of the Collective of other robots, but you aren’t necessarily hated or despised by them either. You were created as a survivor, so you survive.

Security Robot: As a security bot, your prime focus is to enforce law and order and protect human beings, because they are so fragile compared to robots. Even though there are no longer any humans residing in Mechatron 7, you are still just as diligent as the day you were programmed.

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@KoldikSteelskin the starter guide probabily won't help you much with character generation, unfortunately. The closest that you will get from what we will play in the starter guide is in the Sky Wheel chapter. But we will play as the robots, the NPCs there, in a completely different scenario. =)

Thanks!
Fortunately I found a thread on RPG Net that talks about some of this in pretty good detail but this is helpful, it's better than just a list of names, and such.
I noticed just how different things were when comparing the two character sheets.

As an aside, this "robot kind" only determines our "special program". All robots have the same attributes and regular programs.


Regular programs for the robots replace the skills and include: Overload, Force, Assault, Infiltrate, Move, Shoot, Scan, Datamine, Analyze, Question, Interact, and Repair.

I'm attempting to update the GP sheet to something that works for Mechatron but It's likely I missed things, I'm thinking Security or Cleaning, as I best understand the concept of both of those.

Looks great!

And here is the program to skill "translation" available in Mechatron for players with the other books (there may be nuances and stuff that is lost in that translation, but anyway, it gives you an idea of what each program does):

Any suggestions on what special program would work best for a vehicle? I was hoping to play a robot who can transport others and maybe have access to traffic maps, but none of these categories fit from description alone. Maybe Protocol? Or Security, to be a taxi for humans.

We will need GM's assistance here, because there are no "vanilla" cars. We may need some house rules or, at least, some bending and guidance. There are just the kinds above.

Oh, I'm not necessarily wanting to do any house rules or anything, I'm just asking if any of these programs have anything to do with specific knowledge (like, "you know a lot about X") to do the traffic map thing, or maybe one of them boosts Move or something along these lines?

I feel kinda pulled towards an industrial robot.

Unh... We will have to be creative here. My suggestion would be a police car / officer:

In game terms maybe it could be a Security Robot as they have a special Protect program.

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Besides this special program, you have a secondary function (ie. a talent). In your case my suggestion would be:

SIRENS: You can emit a loud alarm signal, along with a flashing blue light. These signals are visible
throughout the entire district (if you are in Mechatron-7) or the sector (if you are out in the Zone)

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After that you will spend 10 points in total over all the 13 skills (Protect + the regular 12), so you can probably put 3-4 just into Move, to give you that boost and probably 2-3 into Datamine. What do you think?

Sounds great! They have a special program called ManufactureYou also choose 1 of the following talents (secondary functions):

- MASS PRODUCTION
You have the ability to quickly mass produce items.
When you Manufacture a device, you may, without
spending any extra time spent, produce D6 identi-
cal items.

- MOUNTED TOOLS
You have a collection of specialized tools for repairs and maintenance on other robots built into
your chassis. When you roll to
Repair a robot (but not other
items) you get a +1 bonus.

- RESISTANT
Your hardened chassis is built to withstand extreme
temperatures, from minus 100 degrees Celsius to
thousands of degrees of heat. Fire and mutations
like Flame Breather and Pyrokinesis have no effect
on you. This secondary function does not offer any
protection against energy weapons.

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Those are the specifics for Industrials. All the remaining choices will be the same regardless if you're an Industrial robot or not, so we will probably do the remaining steps together with everyone else

Cleaning seems very interesting. Their Clean special program - apart from making things spotless – this requires no roll – can be used to decontaminate a limited area from Rot (a nasty stuff in all M:YZ books) and attack swarms which can otherwise only be harmed by fire and explosions.

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Moreover, I think their secondary functions are where they really shine. You can choose one of:

# RUBBERIZED
You are coated in thick rubber, designed for heavy-
duty work in tough or difficult terrain. The rubber
increases Armor Rating by 2, but only against dam-
age from falling and close combat attacks.

# TRASH BLOWER
You have a built-in container with compressed air,
connected to a powerful trash blower that you can
point in any direction. You can use this against a
target up to Near distance. Roll for Clean - a suc-
cessful attack deals no damage, but the victim
immediately needs to make a Force roll. Failure
means the target misses its next action.

# WASTE RECYCLER
You have built-in components that can turn trash
and biological waste into energy. This process is
slow – it takes D6 hours to create 1 EP, and you
must have access to trash or plants of some kind.

Ooh, a wee-woo instead of beep-beep? It does sound good, although I struggle to quickly come up with a good use for sirens gameplay-wise. Maybe as an intimidation technique... or a signal if we ever split up. But it is a good match!

Can you give an example of what does Force skill do? Is it like a physical effort against a non-combatant? Would it work for things like ramming stuff?

Also, wouldn't Analyze be better for the map thing than Datamine? At least based on skill comparison, "Know the Zone" sounds more like general knowledge of the area and Comprehend more like item appraisal. (Technically, both probably would be useful for law enforcement, but just to know for sure. XD)

Awesome not sure I really get what the primary ability does yet but the secondary functions really feel like they fit what I was thinking. Since It seems FlyingSucculent is going Security I'll go cleaning, and figure stuff out from there.

I'm going to submit my character sheet now just so it's there even if it's not complete.

We're going to be a perfect duo! :D
..I wonder if it would be mechanically possible for your cleaning robot to get on top of my security car and do the trash blower attack (if you choose it) from there. Weaponized leafblower on wheels!