PC Starting Droids

[Zarm R'keeg]

As I compile a list of species/droids ideas for new players to the RPG (not super familliar with the EU), I want to provide a sampling of droids. Thanks to the fan-made sourcebook, I have stats for plenty of droids... but I'm probably not going to let a player be a probe droid, an IG droid, a binary load lifter, or a slicer droid (barring special circumstances); I'd avoid them by the same token I'd avoid a Teek, or a Shi'do, for species- some creatures are too rare or powerful (or in the case of droids, specialized/of limited manufacture) to make good templates. There are certain droids less common or playable than others.

The standard RPG just follows the film model and suggests astromechs and protocol droids. Both are good categories with a lot of different sub-models, but it got me wondering... what other 'categories' of droids might be good to include as potential PC options? Obviously, I wouldn't put, say, RA-7 on the list, because that's already covered under 'protocol.' A Treadwell unit, I might- depending on where I judged it's 'sentience' level to fall.

So what do you think? For a sample platter of droids (or droid-types) for a starting player to make a character out of, what selections would you put on the list?

And what would you add on the 'special circumstances list, if players request' (I.E. 'Zed police unit- but only a manumitted unit that has had its tranceiver array removed' or 'An Eliminator 434, but only if the built in weapons have been replaced by standard starting pistol-equivalents')?
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Hard core OT, all the way!

[DougRed4]

I'd be pretty open. The WEG book "Droids" has a whole section on droid PCs, and is well worth looking at, for both that and all of the hints and tips it gives.
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[garhkal]

Not sure why, but i rarely find players even thinking of being a droid for a PC. Mostly cause of the whole if they ever got a memory wipe, skills they spent CP on unless HARDWIRED in would be wiped back to factory defaults, and hardwiring new skills is pricier than just getting a software upgrade. Plus the whole 3rd class citizen issue.
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[Zarm R'keeg]

Don't think I've ever run across Droids- is that the Cynbar's Guide book?

Either way, I'm all for being open- but with players as EU newcomers, it would be a lot more helpful for me to give them a series of examples rather than say 'I am open to any of the classes of droid (which you don't know any of), so feel free.' Hence soliciting ideas for good droid suggestions.

garhkal - I've likewise found it rare to have a droid PC. (the one I had, an RA-7, didn't survive the first campaign... issues with a 'cross the narrow bridge over a canyon' obstacle ), but hope springs eternal. Way I figure it, I could at least entice them properly by offering a good selection.
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Hard core OT, all the way!

[Zarm R'keeg]

Okay, technical question. The 2E rulebook says, under droid programming, that a character can program a droid with a new skill if they have at least 2D higher (pending successful role), after which a droid character can improve itself using CP. But, page 26 of Cynbar's, 'upgrading skillware,' says that the skill must be improved 1D higher than the attribute (rather than +1 higher) before the droid can begin improving with CP. (Which seems designed to railroad droids or droid-owners into buying skillware modules and make the +1 bump basically useless).

Am I missing something? Have any of you ever dealt with this? If so, which version did you go with?
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Hard core OT, all the way!

[garhkal]

I go with Cyndabars.
As for what types, just look at which are more likely to be used.
R2s, r5s, r7s, 3pos, 2-1bs, Fx-7s.. maybe even some combat droids.
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[DougRed4]

Yeah, I was referencing the Cynabar's Fantastic Technology Droids book.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Zarm R'keeg]

Thanks! I guess what I should have said is something like 'droid classes'; I ended up making a list comprising Protocol Droids, Astromechs, Information Droids (as if! ), Medical Droids, Worker Droids, Repair Droids, Exploration Droids, and Security Droids, with pictures of three or four each to give an idea of some models in the class; if anyone expresses interest, I'll then delve deeper into the models available in that droid 'type.'

In terms of the Cynbar rules- where does that leave droid programming, then? Does it become a useless skill? Does it mean that someone with sufficient skill can make three different droid programming roles of increasing difficulty over a length of time to bring it up by 1D, so that the droid character can start improving by CP?

(I ask because the cynbar rules seem to inconvenience an already-restricted class- no wonder PCs never want to be droids- and taking away the ability to get more skills at creation (because just a pip or two to establish a skill is no longer enough to reach the threshold for them to improve it one their own) and the ability to have people with programming skill enter in new data, forcing them into a pay-money-for-each-new-skill approach, seems to increase the burden and undesirability of being a droid even further than the lack of attributes and 3rd-class-citizen and any-offense-can-get-you-mind-wiped-if-you're-captured nature of a droid already does...)
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Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!

[garhkal]

Nope. The skill is still useful, just not so much for droid PCs. Many players seem to love having loads of droids, and its usable for them. Plus if you want to get software engineering for droids, to make your own programming, you need droid programming as a prerequisite.
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[Zarm R'keeg]

On a somewhat different topic- so, a droid with combat skills falls in with a Rebel team and, eventually, wants to join the rebellion as a soldier. (I am trying to think if there is any precedent with this, but none comes to mind; droids in the rebellion tend to be in droid roles- even R2 units which play a large role in x-wing combat are more akin to K-9 units partnered with their trainers rather than officers or soldiers themselves).

While acceptance of the droid would vary from person to person, any thoughts on what the general response would be? "Sure, we'll take any soldiers we can get"? "Of course not, you're a droid- we can put you to work fixing equipment..."? "Why is this machine talking to me- where are its owners"? Something else entirely? The rebellion seems pretty easygoing on droids... but treating them like organics or giving them an organic's role in the organization? Not so sure about that one.
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Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!

[garhkal]

Even the rebellion doesn't really regard droids as full sentients with equal rights.. right up to the time of the Xwing novels. IIRC some of their droids were looked at in that fashion.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bobmalooga]

Over the years I've had a couple of droid PCs in my games. the first was a highly modified protocol droid that was armored and weaponized for 'hostile negotiations' this was in the days just before the droid book hit the market, which afterwards it was like giving a kid a J.C. Pennys gift catalog...LOL.

THX-1138 (yes we did...) was a siak protocol droid who had been designed as a bodyguard for a droid designer, who in a drunken fit of stupidity lost him to a player in the group during a sabacc game. the droid was played for a couple of years before hitting an apex and I got the idea to do a pinocchio story line with him where his memory core was hardwired into human replica droid that was acting as the cyborg chasis for a human's brain. (which when we did the story line, the brain was offline in stasis...) Eventually the human brain went online completing the pinocchio story line when he became the human and gained force sensitivity.
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No matter where you go, there you are...

[Darth Torquemadus]

In my graduates years (a long time ago !) One of my players started as an Imperial protocol Droid (the one seen in the death star with bulbous eyes) who was taken by comic circonstances with Rebel players (their first meeting).

He had to stop call them "Rebel Scum" (even in a polite way) : a big roleplaying time !

After many adventures he tries and goal to ride of the Asimov laws and took his destiny (after some desillusion to be have full citizen statut even with the rebellion)

He finally took the dark path of Rogue Droid, armoring et weaponing himself becoming an infamous Bounty Hunter.

He even duplicate his own brain to have some kinf of immortality in case of destruction (holy s*ht ! Ultron is here !)
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[Zarm R'keeg]

The one droid PC I had was the same type of droid! I wonder what it is about those guys... I'd call it sheer magnetism, but based on ANH, seems like even astromechs have that...
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Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!

[DougRed4]

I think you guys might be referencing RA-7. If that's the case, there was also one on the sandcrawler.

Re: him calling the other PCs "Rebel scum", that's awesome, Darth Torquemadus! 8)
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green