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Fallon Kell
Commodore
Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1846
Location: Tacoma, WA
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 Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 9:57 pm Post subject: "Kraken" Droid |
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I've been rolling this one around in my head for awhile now, and I decided it was time to write out the stats and share it.
Edited to adopt gharkal's suggestion:
| Quote: | Type: "Kraken" Droid
Dexterity: 3D
Dodge: 4D
Knowledge: 2D
Tactics: 5D
Mechanical: 3D
Astrogation: 6D
Starship shields: 5D
Starship sensors: 5D
Perception: 2D
Strength: 5D
Brawling: 6D
Technical: 2D+1
Droid Repair: Kraken Droid: 5D+2
Droid Engineering: Kraken Droid: 3D
Scale: Capital
Size: 100m body length
Cost: Not available for sale. (Valued at 850,000 credits)
Hyperdrive: x2
Space: 6
Shields: 1D
Hull: 5D
Equipped With:
• 6 100m Grappling tentacles (+2D to Brawling: Grappling)
• 4 Clamping arms (+2D to brawling damage for an immobilized target)
• 8 Fine manipulator tentacles (used to disassemble and scavenge starships)
• Hypospace-Realspace sensor array:
Passive: 30/2D
Scan: 60/3D
Search: 75/3D+1
Focus: 5/4D |
The idea here is this droid travels about in hyperspace, finds a spot it thinks would be a nice place to hunt and reverts to hypospace rather than realspace. (I just came up with hypospace for this thing. You can call it hyperspace if you dont' want to deal with it.) Its passive sensors can detect ships in realspace, so it lays in wait for a ship to approach near enough to be detected then reverts to realspace and wraps the target craft in it's tentacles. Then it jumps to hyperspace, carrying a large chunk (or maybe even all) of the target craft with it. Meanwhile the clamping arms and fine manipulators disassemble the prey craft as the droid "eats" the ship. It keeps any useful parts it finds and adds them to itself, also draining the ship of fuel and energy reserves.
I think it's handy for sudden "sea monster" attacks, old spacer's tails and random sightings to make your player's characters appear insane.
I haven't come up with any background story for these things, but I'd say they're really old and probably designed to fight a guerilla war between two civilizations that no loner exist...
As always, feel free to use it yourself, change it in any way you see fit, and have fun wit it!
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier
Complete Starship Construction System
Last edited by Fallon Kell on Mon May 30, 2011 1:14 am; edited 1 time in total |
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jmanski
Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 2065
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 11:32 pm Post subject: |
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I like the idea, but maybe make it a creature instead of a droid, that way their ability to hypospace (or hyperspace) or whatever can be explained as adaptation.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16178
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 12:31 am Post subject: |
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On a similar note, a "kraken" type space monster mentioned in the Tales of the Jedi series are the Stargrazers, which were capital-scale fictional / legendary creatures that attacked starships.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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Esoomian
High Admiral
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Posts: 6207
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 12:42 am Post subject: |
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You might want to check out the Foreign Intruder Defense Organism as a possible source of inspiration.
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Fallon Kell
Commodore
Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1846
Location: Tacoma, WA
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| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 1:13 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the feedback! I'm pretty sure I want this think to be a droid that can be mistaken for a creature, but don't let that keep you from adapting the stats to be a living creature for your own purposes!
Esoomian, I remember the FIDO from when I was a kid flipping through the pages of the Essential Guide to Droids! Mine's a similar concept on a grand scale, so maybe I can dig up a useful detail or two to steal... 
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier
Complete Starship Construction System |
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Bren
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Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Posts: 3868
Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 9:11 am Post subject: |
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When I started reading your post I thought you were going to write up the kraken machines from the Matrix. I like what you did better though.
The Lando Calrissian Adventures by L Neil Smith had a starfish shaped droid, Vuffi Raa, that had been created by a very ancient race of sentient replicating computers/droids who were explorers created by a long dead biological race. Either making the krakens self repairing, self replicating explorer droids (see von Neumann machines) created by an ancient race or go with an ancient war engine (see Saberhagen Berserkers) seems like it could work. Perhaps the original progenitor kraken was somehow damaged and does not itself remember its original purpose. They could even be extra-galactic in origen. |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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Interesting. I would though, think to add in some sort of (A) engineering skill to make use of those 'additions' and poss even have some weapons already added in.
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Fallon Kell
Commodore
Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1846
Location: Tacoma, WA
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| Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 1:08 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Interesting. I would though, think to add in some sort of (A) engineering skill to make use of those 'additions' and poss even have some weapons already added in. |
I can't believe I forgot to add the engineering skill!
I wanted it to be unarmed except for, well, its arms... But you have pointed out it's glaring shortcoming!
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier
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garhkal
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| Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks..
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ZzaphodD
Rear Admiral
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| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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I dont really get the point of this droid. Is it a kind of piracy droid? Why would anyone make a droid several hundred meters long to attack ships with its arms?
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Bren
Vice Admiral
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Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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| ZzaphodD wrote: | | I dont really get the point of this droid. Is it a kind of piracy droid? Why would anyone make a droid several hundred meters long to attack ships with its arms? |
Always good to ask the point of a new creature/species/device/etc. My read is it's the Star Wars equivalent of a fantasy game sea monster. The arm attack is because the poster wants it to be a robot space kraken.
If I were to use it, I would probably make it a relic of an ancient race that created Van Neumann machines for exploration. Possibly the creators were not at all warlike and didn't equip their explorers with lasers, blasters, or missiles. The arm "attack" is really a function of the droids original resource gathering for self replication. In line with a more pacifist technology I would add Mon Calamari-like redundant shielding and maybe some type of energy drain device that could absorb a certain amount of blaster/laser energy as an alternate power source to refuel and power the self replication.
Last edited by Bren on Tue May 31, 2011 5:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16178
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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| ZzaphodD wrote: | | I dont really get the point of this droid. Is it a kind of piracy droid? Why would anyone make a droid several hundred meters long to attack ships with its arms? |
IMO, it's essentially an exotic form of space mine, but also one that will play on the psychological fears of the superstitious (which includes a lot of sailors).
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16178
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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Also, rather than use hypo-space, I would suggest using subspace, which is already an established part of the EU.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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garhkal
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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As a linked q.. IF someone managed to stop it taking them into subspace/hypo space, and then neutralized it (eg mass ion damage), could they then figure out what part of it allows said 'shifting' and take it themselves, to allow them to incorporate it into their ship?
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Bren
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| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | As a linked q.. IF someone managed to stop it taking them into subspace/hypo space, and then neutralized it (eg mass ion damage), could they then figure out what part of it allows said 'shifting' and take it themselves, to allow them to incorporate it into their ship? |
Interesting question. If I were the GM I might let them. Of course incorporating the ship would require much integration of the new alien tech systems. Make this reasonably difficult, require spaceship engineering, droid and/or computer programming and repair, and a high navigation. Then if they are successful with all that, the droid comes back to life taking over their ship and tries to eliminate the biological vermin infesting its new body. MWAHAAHAHA!  |
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