Of CP and droids.

[garhkal]

Ok. We know droids do not have CPs to spend, unless they are pcs. We also know some people love building up droids they have bought, in their piloting.

Bring that when a person dodges (ship reactive piloting), it is only THEY who can spend cp to increase said 'dodge roll', while anyone can add cp in to the hull roll.
BUT what happens when it is the npc droid of a character doing the piloting?
He has no cp to spend??
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Ray]

And thus we see one of the reasons that Droids are inferior pilots of Biological NPCs.

[Boomer]

Indeed.
This is why TIE droids were not used by the Empire until the World Devastators felt they needed them to be mass produced.

Droids just plain can't do some of the things a person can, unless you spend either a LOT of time and/or money on them.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[Hellcat]

[garhkal]

Well, three-pio and Artoo are both 'heroic npc's too. And not indictive of regular droids....
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Hellcat]

But that's my point. As NPCs their extradinary droids and I think droids which are extradinary examples of their types rather than being typical do get CPs and FPs. Which means very few NPC droids.
_________________
FLUFFY for President!!!!

Wanted Poster

[Boomer]

Indeed, R2 and 3p0 have been around a while, and probably would count as player droids in their own game.
They have experience, and more.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[garhkal]

[Endwyn]

PC's get character point and PC droids get character points; NPC have experience and character points that reflect their use and "experience" over time.

Your average NPC is Joe Nobody that is a filler backdrop, and Joe has little to nothing in the way of CP's and FP's. Next step up is mass produced armies, like storm troopers - they are a lttle better having some combat experience, but their just a step up. You keep moving up the ladder to characters like Kenobi, Vader, Yoda, and Palp - which are close to if not the top of the pyramid for their time. The characters as written in the movies would make Palp an NPC villian before the story starts and Anakin a PC who fell and become a GM's villian. But Palp has lots of CP's and FP's; Vader continued to advance after being taken by the dark side (GM).

The true answer to droids and CP's is not about the NPC being a droid, but the droid's past, present, and actions and experienes over time. Most droids are going to be on the bottom rung with Joe Nobody because they never advanced much beyond factory standard or because their advancement was crippled by memory wipes. (A very common practice.) IG-88 is a good example of how a droid that decides to activly interact with the galaxy can and will grow over time.

Droids that interact to that degree in the galaxy are rare, and I would limit them to three catagories: PC, PC's droid, and Special Case/Story element. I think that the PC's droids, if used as an active part of the story, can grow just as if they were a PC; but at a slower rate. (Unless the droid is treated like a PC in all ways and has as much growth and development opportunity as a PC.) I would reserve the third catagory because you never know when you're going to need to create a better than factory droid with lots of experience. It's just basicly my GM's perogative built into the my rule.
_________________
Luke, I am your father.
That's impossible!
And Leia is your sister!
That's improbable?
And the Empire will be destroyed by..EWOKS!
That's...highly unlikely.
The Force? Bacteria called midichlorians.
If you don’t take this seriously I'm out.

[garhkal]

But npc droids, just treated as regular droids, not true characters, how would they deserve cp?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Endwyn]

They would be like the "Joe Nobody", the name I give to the people you bump into that are more backdrop than anyhting else. The people in a movie who's character doesn't have a name and they stand in a crowd.

The way I figure it is like this:

If the character doesn't have a name because they aren't important: 2CP's max, no FP's.

If the character is an average of something or just important enough for a name - Average stromtrooper, average militia, The doctor at a hospital that I named because he is treating a PC or NPC the PC's are involved with - 5CP's max, 1 FP.

If the character has a name, and it means something to someone else, they get CP's and FP's equivilant to the range of noterity. Country, Continent, Planet, System, Sector, Region, Galaxy wide. This area is more of a feel through than solid. Does that help explain what I do? I do the same for any NPC regardless of species or make.
_________________
Luke, I am your father.
That's impossible!
And Leia is your sister!
That's improbable?
And the Empire will be destroyed by..EWOKS!
That's...highly unlikely.
The Force? Bacteria called midichlorians.
If you don’t take this seriously I'm out.

[garhkal]

Ahh... Thanks
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Akari]

Droids with a sufficiently advanced matrix (anything above simple) are able to learn and progress. As C3PO mentioned in Episode 3 he was starting to learn the piloting skill even though I'm sure he was never programmed to do that. So yes, in my opinion, a droid can earn character points as any other NPC.

However, with Memory Wipes everything is set to hardware base. Any skills that haven't been programmed into the matrix will be cleared, as well as any memory the droid might have, so character points he might have accumulated are deleted as well.

[Vanion]

I'm probably stepping a little out of bounds here, but... correct me if I am wrong, but aren't CPs a minor manifestation of the force when used to temporarily boost a roll? If that is the case, are we saying that droids who use CPs in such a way are using the force?

Also... did I hear right that a PC can boost the hull code of a ship using CPs? (I didn't know that)
_________________
"Life is not measured in years, but by deeds"

[Endwyn]

The problem you run into is that while using a CP in that way is a small manifistation of the force (or luck, fate, desperation, cinematic edge); the CP's themselves are awarded as experience. It ends up being a logic problem in the end if you accept both as is. If they aren't experience, the PC's shouldn't get them for completeing adventures, only for becoming closer to the force. Han would never get any that way since he doesn't believe in that hokey religion. Then on the other side, if it's just about manifistations of the force; then how come you become better at skill by expending force energy? If that was the case, all Jedi should be gods among men from day three. Just continuously tap into the force energy they can feel and access; and route it permantly and directly into themselves.

The truth is that CP's and FP's are somewhere in the middle. They are awarded as experience (or cinematic heroism) and can be used to become more experienced or saved to be used for more heroics.

To answer your question more directly, I see them as pure experience. A PC who burns a CP to improve a roll I see as pushing themselves past what they are caple of through one of the following: blind luck, fate, karma, or the Force. After all, the force concept is supposed to be a universal representation of all those type aspects and more. I see the above examples being the character's perspective, and possible truth since the force either is, or guides these aspects. If you must make it all part of the force directly, use the living force aspects to have the force reach it's goals through allowing droids to use CP's in certain situations.

But ya, the problem arrises out of the fact that the CP's represent two very different concepts at the same time.
_________________
Luke, I am your father.
That's impossible!
And Leia is your sister!
That's improbable?
And the Empire will be destroyed by..EWOKS!
That's...highly unlikely.
The Force? Bacteria called midichlorians.
If you don’t take this seriously I'm out.