Monday 23 April 2018

RPGPundit Presents #19: Frantabulous Gonzo Robot Generator (Honorary)

RPGPundit Presents #19: Frantabulous Gonzo Robot Generator was written by RPGPundit, with artwork by Michael Clarke, svetlin, JuliannaMillion, studiostoks, and JoeBakal. The publisher is Precis Intermedia.

Although not advertised as a Dungeon Crawl Classics product, readers of RPGPundit's blog will know that he runs (or ran) a gonzo post-Apocalyptic Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign known as the "Last Sun". This is not post-Apocalyptic in terms of our world having undergone an Apocalypse. Or maybe it is. It is difficult to tell.

Because not all of the RPGPundit Presents series are compatible with Dungeon Crawl Classics, and none of them are printed under the compatibility license, I shall do my best to list them when I believe they are designed for use with DCC. Others are more generic, or designed to be used for other games (in particular Lion & Dragon).

Adding to this confusion, the sample robot, BOLT-o, definitely appears in RPGPundit's Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign. Nonetheless, the product itself is essentially system-neutral, and the statistics given for BOLT-o would need to be reworked to some degree in order to be used with DCC. For instance, BOLT-o's Hit Dice (needed for determining critical hit results) and save modifiers are not provided.

This is a useful product for judges running games in Mutant Crawl Classics, the Umerica of Crawling Under a Broken Moon, Crawljammer, or similar settings.

The generators included are:

Random Robot Names: Includes a d30 table for model, as well as a d30 table for prefixes and a d20 table for suffixes, to name your robot. For instance, IBID-Max is a Jacintian Fem-Bot model.

Random Statistics: Includes Robot Form (d20 table with 10 options), Hit Dice (d20 table with 8 options), Initiative (d20 table with 9 options), and AC (d20 table with 10 options).

IBID-Max was created by selecting 15 on the previous tables, so, keeping with that, our robot is a box on wheels with a 30' base movement, has 10d8 Hit Dice, causes 2d6+2 damage with an unarmed attack, has a +2 bonus to Initiative, and an AC of 20.

Random Weapons: A d20 table, with 10 options. The table refers you to RPGPundit Presents #3: High Tech Weapons for more information, but I am going to assume that the reader has access to Crawl! fanzine #8, High Caliber Hijinks, The Umerican Survival Guide, or Mutant Crawl Classics rather that create a listing for that volume.

Our robot now has an energy blade (2d8 damage, ignores 4 points of AC).

Random Special Qualities: A d20 table with 20 options. Our robot has a recording device to record and play back audio and/or video.

Other Random Qualities: Includes Robot's Creator (a d20 table with 20 entries), The Robot Is... (d30 table with 30 entries), The Robot Wants (d20, 20 entries) and Robot Hobbies (d20, 20 entries). Our robot was created by Sky-Nazis, is 40% mithral (immune to non-magical attacks), wants to perfect a time machine, and raises chickens as a hobby.

One could see how this process not only creates potential for encounters or long-term play, but also creates hooks by implying, for instance, that Sky-Nazis were (and perhaps are) a thing. Or that they might make a box-on-wheels as a fem-bot.

The product also includes BOLT-o as a sample robot.

Randomly generate robots, androids, cyborgs, and other artificial entities for gonzo-themed OSR (or other fantasy) games. Whether mindless machines or intelligent bots, this collection of random tables can produce a variety of model designations, names, forms, and other qualities.

Get It Here!



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