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hisham
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 Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:41 pm Post subject: HK Droid Template Ideas |
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I have a request for a HK assassin / protocol droid template from a potential player. Although I have the stats for the various HKs in the KOTOR Campaign Guide conversions, they are all too overpowered to be played as starting characters, and I am not familiar with the actual KOTOR game to reverse engineer a basic HK droid template, something that isn't as juiced up as HK-47, but the player wont think he's being gypped.
This is my first draft of the sucker, based on the HK-50 droid. Any errors or suggestions?
| Quote: | Template Type: Czerka Corporation HK series droid
Dex 3D Blaster 3D+1
Kno 2D Intimidation 2D+2
Mec 2D
Per 3D
Str 2D
Tec 1D Security 2D
Equipped with:
- Walking locomotion
- 2 hand appendage
- 2 tool appendage
- Improved sensor package (+2 to search)
- Infrared vision (see in dark up to 30m)
- Translator unit (+1D to languages)
- Vocabulator
- Durasteel battle armor (+1D physical / +1 energy to resist damage)
Move:10
Height: 1.8m
Cost: Not available for sale
Altogether there should be 18D already allocated into the template, which gives the player another 7D to be put into skills and attachment. |
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Raven Redstar
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Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:35 pm Post subject: |
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I believe in the main book, there's a template for a protocol droid, count up the number of attribute dice, and then simply allow the player to allocate the skill dice appropriately. Also, there's Cynnabar's Droid book which has a lot of useful info for classification of droids, and costs for increasing skills through programming.
Edited:
I looked up the protocol droid, and you look good for attribute dice, but underneath special abilities it has Skills: you start with 17D to allocate to skills, but may not place more than 2D in any one skill. So, I would give him more skill dice to play around with, so he can be versatile but not "too skilled" in any one particular area. |
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Rerun941
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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I agree, good stuff in the Cynabar's Droid book. If the HK is an Assassin/Protocol hybrid, it's almost certainly going to be like 4-LOM. 4-LOM was a protocol droid who eventually picked up bounty hunting skills.
I doubt an assassin droid would ever be programmed (or self teach) protocol skills.
Droid: "I'm here to kill you, sir. Oh, and would you like some tea first?" 
On the other hand, the Espionage Droids are built with protocol as a cover for their operations. But those are built for avoiding combat, rather than surviving firefights.
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cheshire
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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They've actually got what is supposed to be a playable version of the HK in the KOTOR Campaign Guide. I'm pretty sure it was converted, but it was never advertised as a template. I'll take a look at them and see which it is and post it as a template here.
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Ankhanu
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Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Rerun941 wrote: | I agree, good stuff in the Cynabar's Droid book. If the HK is an Assassin/Protocol hybrid, it's almost certainly going to be like 4-LOM. 4-LOM was a protocol droid who eventually picked up bounty hunting skills.
I doubt an assassin droid would ever be programmed (or self teach) protocol skills.
Droid: "I'm here to kill you, sir. Oh, and would you like some tea first?"
On the other hand, the Espionage Droids are built with protocol as a cover for their operations. But those are built for avoiding combat, rather than surviving firefights. |
Actually, if I recall correctly (perhaps from the Ultimate Characters guide, or from the Star Wars RPG Sourcebook), the reason why droids are distrusted, and, for example, weren't allowed in the Mos Eisley cantina, is due to this very thing; assassin droids masquerading as properly programmed protocol or other function droids. They'd need the skills for exactly the same reason an espionage droid would. Technically, assassin droids are designed to avoid combat as well... kill their mark, yes, but not to engage in combat. That's what combat droids are for  . The only difference between an espionage droid and an assassin droid is whether it's designed to gain information, or gain information and kill a mark.
More closely related to the thread, I could see an HK droid being too powerful to play... most assassin droids are not playable as characters, by the rules (<=25D), I can see HKs falling into this category. Of course, the HK series seems to be a piss-poor effort at concealing their primary function; they're pretty obviously not protocol droids, though they do have some programming in that vein.
Droids don't tend to be "templates" in the classic vein. You get the off the factory floor model as the "template" and add from there (if there are dice left over that is).
I'd say if they want to play an assassin droid, it should be crippled in some way to reduce its power/usefulness. Broken hardware, damaged software (reduced/missing skills) or what have you can reduce a powerful droid to playable levels. Regaining lost abilities or getting physically repaired could be part of character development and even story arcs.
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hisham
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Location: Malaysia
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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Yes. Exactly. We have to take into account everyone else starts with 18D + 7D. Can't expect the HK droid PC to start off with 6D in blaster, 5D in intimidation, 4D+2 in grenades, 5D+1 in sneak and 6D+2 in security. It has to be underpowered, though skills and attributes can increase normally (+credits) as the campaign progresses.
Once we have a template, then we can determine how many remaining dice to be allocated to the skills and attachments, and we should be good to go.
Also, I believe we have to inform the player off the bat that a lot of people will go nuts if they know the character is an assassin droid... so he has to be discreet about what he is.
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Orgaloth
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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Doesn't droid character creation work: Add the 18D attribute to the 7D skills for a total of 25D to be placed how the player wants? I could be wrong, I don't have the book with me.
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hisham
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Orgaloth wrote: | | Doesn't droid character creation work: Add the 18D attribute to the 7D skills for a total of 25D to be placed how the player wants? I could be wrong, I don't have the book with me. |
Aye, I believe that is the bare basics of it if you want to come up with a droid from scratch.
So what I did with the above template is put 18D in attributes, skills and attachment, which leaves the player 7D to customize the startup droid character.
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Rerun941
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Orgaloth wrote: | | Doesn't droid character creation work: Add the 18D attribute to the 7D skills for a total of 25D to be placed how the player wants? I could be wrong, I don't have the book with me. |
There are two ways in the main rulebook: Build an original droid design using the typical 18D-7D method. Or select a Droid template, count up the number of dice. If it is less than 25D, you may add Skill dice and Attachments (but not Attribute dice) until the total is equal to 25D.
Cynabar's also has a monetary method, so the GM could say "Here's 10,000 or 15,000 or 20,000 credits... purchase your droid PC traitware, skillware, attachments, etc."
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cheshire
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| Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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I looked at the Kotor Campaign guide, and this is what they have for a playable HK (directly converted to D6):
| Quote: |
Dex 2D+2
Blaster 4D+1
Know 2D+1
Mech 2D+1
Per 2D+1
Search 6D
Str 3D+1
Brawling 4D+1
Tech 2D
Computer programing/repair 4D+2
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That's 15D in attributes and another 7D in skills.
Use that as a basis if you want, though I think some of the skill levels are a little high. Also, the HK comes standard with a translator unit. That doesn't port over particularly well for direct conversion, but I'd put in at least 1D in languages.
If you were using this as a template, that would leave you with a single leftover 1D for skills. But personally, I think that having so much search on a beginning level HK is a waste, the computer programing and repair is also just strange, and there should be some expression for languages.
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Ankhanu
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:47 am Post subject: |
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| Orgaloth wrote: | | Doesn't droid character creation work: Add the 18D attribute to the 7D skills for a total of 25D to be placed how the player wants? I could be wrong, I don't have the book with me. |
It CAN work that way, when creating a new droid type... However, droids, as a general rule, are less attribute oriented and more skill oriented than biologicals. Your average droid has <10D for Attributes and everything else in skills and add ons. It's one of the ways that droids differentiate from biologicals. Biologicals are generally good/ok at most tasks, and pretty darn good at a few. Droids on the other hand are really good at a couple tasks, and functionally inept at those they're not designed to handle (ie. almost everything else). This is reflected in their general lack of attributes and high skills.
When designing a droid, one should keep this in mind... or why play a droid at all. All you're doing if you abandon the idea is making a shiny biological character, taking all the flavour out of being a droid.
When playing an existing droid model, as has been mentioned, you take the stats of the basically new from factory droid, and add additional skills/attachments to bring it up to a total of 25D of attributes+skills+attachments. If it's already at 25D, you just get the default droid. If it's beyond 25D, chances are your GM isn't going to let you play it, unless the biologicals are given additional skill dice too.
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Ankhanu
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:58 am Post subject: |
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Some conversion/homebrew stats that have been available for an HK assassin droid can be found in (gasp) Gry's droids book:
| Gry's Droid Stats book wrote: |
Type: Czerka Corporation HK Assassin Droid
DEXTERITY 4D
Blasters 6D, blaster artillery 5D, dodge 5D, melee combat 5D, melee parry 4D+2
KNOWLEDGE 2D
Intimidation 5D, languages 5D, tactics 4D
MECHANICAL 2D
PERCEPTION 2D
hide 5D, search 6D, sneak 5D
STRENGTH 3D
TECHNICAL 2D
Computer programming/repair 3D, demolitions 5D
Equipped With:
-Encrypted comlink
-Locked access (the droid’s shut-down switch is secured or internally located)
-Improved telescopic sensor package (+2 to search. The droid’s visual sensors include a long-range capability)
-Infrared vision (can see in the dark up to 30 meters)
-Motion sensors (+2 to search rolls against moving targets)
-Sonic sensors (+2 to search rolls that involve sound)
Move: 10
Size: 1.8m
Cost: N/A
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As you can see, the stats add up to (unless I screwed up in my quick addition) 44D+2... trimming an HK unit down to 25D could be a bit of a challenge  If its programming were wiped completely and you got it down to attributes only, it's sitting at 15D, plus another 2D in sensor hardware, leaving 8D to allocate to skills. To preserve some semblance of "protocol droid" and "assassin droid", maintaining some skill allocation to Languages, Blaster and Computer Programming/Repair would be wise. Coming back to full functionality could be a fun campaign arc, really. It's a workable concept if both GM and player are up for it.[/quote]
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hisham
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:22 am Post subject: |
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OK based on everyone's input. I would like to lock down this version of the HK assassin droid template as such:
| Quote: | Template Type: Czerka Corporation HK series droid
Dex 3D Blaster 3D+1
Kno 2D Intimidation 2D+2 Language 3D
Mec 2D
Per 3D Search 3D+2
Str 2D
Tec 1D Computer programming/repair 1D+1
Equipped with:
- Walking locomotion
- 2 hand appendage
- 2 tool appendage
- Motion sensor package (+2 to search for movement within 30m)
- Infrared vision (see in dark up to 30m)
- Translator unit (+1D to languages)
- Vocabulator
- Durasteel battle armor (+1D physical / +1 energy to resist damage)
Move:10
Height: 1.8m
Cost: Not available for sale |
The motion sensor package will detect if anyone is moving using "micro changes in air density" as Ash of the Nostromo once said. If there is motion, there is a chance the HK will sense it somehow.
There is no sonic sensor for this version of the HK right off the shelf.
I removed the Security skill and replaced it with Computer Programming / Repair, and split the 1D into a +2 (put in Search) and +1 into Computers.
I thought all the models in the KOTOR Conversion book had armor, so the basic model would have it. Plus it would help in damage resistance. 2D from the Strength is a bit too weak. I don't want to tweakStrength higher at startup in lieu of the extra dice to customize skills and attachments.
Finally I put an extra 1D into Languages skill which will be augmented by another +1D by the translator software. A basic roll of 4D in all.
So, after an extra 1D spent, compared to the original template, you have a total of 19D used. So, the PC, when he selects the HK template, will have an extra 6D to allocate into skills and attachments. (19D + 6D = 25D)
Again, the purpose of this is not to emulate HK-47, but to have a playable startup droid template that feels like it's HK-47's little brother with similar skills, but not as proficient or experienced.
Thanks, all.
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cheshire
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:09 am Post subject: |
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Good deal. I'm glad you've found something that you're happy with.
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Ankhanu
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| Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:07 am Post subject: |
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Doesn't look too bad to me.
We've also used an HK unit as a PC a couple years back... but I can't remember what we did for stats. Unfortunately, I don't think I have his sheet here. I also don't recall how we reconciled having an almost 4000 year old droid model running around in the Imperial Era. Chances are we just left it to "who cares" and just played the game
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