Metal Cannibal : the first cannibalistic robot rpg

[Nathan]

Howdy there,

I've done an early draft of my next rpg that I plan to push. It is very much a sister game to Eldritch Ass Kicking -- Metal Cannibal the roleplaying game. In MC, you play a robot gone haywire, filled with a gnawing hunger that YOU MUST FILL. Imagine a former home robot camped out on the edge of town, sneaking into the industrial sector at night to attack and dismantle other robots. Imagine a team of crazed robots, pulling off heists at large robot part warehouses. And so on...

Does it tickle anyone's fancy? :)

http://www.mysticages.com/metalcannibal.pdf

Let me know what you think of the rough draft, but particularly, I would love feedback on a couple of concepts.

1) The Human Element. Initially, I'm not sure what to do with humans. The essential mode I take is that humans don't matter to the robots except for an occasional tune-up or to get what they want. In essence, robots only care for other robots, and mostly, they want to beat them up and dismantle them... Yet, I could see stories arising where robots grow fond of humans, or humans try to track down the evil bots and destroy them. Should the game be more of a robot versus human thing? Or is robot versus robot with humans stuck in the middle fine?

2) Very much a B movie feel. Anyone have any suggestions of other games (free or not) that also shoot for a B movie feel? I'm interested in other mechanics that could help me induce a bit more campiness.

Also, another title I am considering is... "When Robots Go Mad"... But, I don't know. Metal Cannibal sounds fun too.

By the way, no combat mechanics yet.. or character sheet... But character creation is essentially done and the main mechanic is there.

Thanks,
Nathan Hill

[iago]

I dig the high concept, but I'm not much for piece-characters-together-from-spare-points style games, by and large.  Lists of buyables start to make my vision blur.  But I know I'm a freak!

In terms of 'the roles of humans', I like the idea of turning things on their ear and deciding that humans are there to service robots, rather than the other way around; make humans something you have to buy as well -- 'Trusty Mechanic', 'Military Commander', etc.

[Thomas Tamblyn]

My initial thoughts are that you should cut down on the  number of similar gadgets - especially the precision motors X.0s.  

Also, unless humans end up playing a major part in the game, the cookery gear and CD player would be next-to worthless.

Plus I'm not too clear on what the personality stat is for.  Is it just human interaction or does it include intewracting with other robots?

Just from reading the game, I'd assumed that the robots live in a human-dominated world but just hang about in the junkyards/mech quarters/whatever - and i think thats what you should go for.  But thats just me.

Hope this doesn't sound too negative.  Mostly I'm liking what I see.

I wondered about hacks - at the moment they seem to work like gadgets with penalties (I might be reading it wrong) - what if they were a temporary thing, say you're in a fix so you activate your circuit splice to pump your speed but take a lasting penalty on whatever the stat circuit gets spliced from?

Just thoughts.

[Mike Holmes]

Make humans limiters on action. Basically they are what has to be gotten around in order to get out there and do what you want to do. So they prevent the game from just being nothing but a hack fest.

So, my robot Bob wants to go out and find him some tasty little cleaning bot to munch up tonight. But the family he works for is expecting company! So he has to try and wheedle his way out of it somehow. Maybe if he's got the chef unit he can make enough hors'dourves ahead of time to keep the guests fed. If so, he can get out. If not, that little street-sweeper he's been eyeing up may have moved to another part of town before Bob can get out there.

Later Bob slays a helpless vaccum robot of the family next door. They catch Bob in the act, and want reparations. Will Bob's family junk him? Or, worse, "fix" him? He'd better be able to talk his way out of this.

Say that robots have the Assimov rules going in terms of humans. But that through a glitch they have become canibalitic. They just have to be that way on the sly. Then humans become a fun obstacle to avoid.

Mike

[Nathan]

Thanks for the comments.

1) The sort of pick -n- buy character system seems logical. Robots are just a number of components. I could take it farther - you choose a logic board, body, and then other units - but that would create more lists (yea or nay). Another factor that will fit in with that is that robots do not "advance". Advancement is essentially a better component stolen from a factory or another robot.

2) Upgrades/Gadgets/Hacks

Essentially, you can only have one type of upgrade at a time for each part of the robot. You can only have one reflexes upgrade, one personality uprgade, and so on. Therefore, hacks come into play. If your robot finds the best upgrades possible, what's next? Overdrives and stuff.... MUST GO FASTER... Gadgets are essentially weapons and tools.

3) Humans

Make humans limiters on action. Basically they are what has to be gotten around in order to get out there and do what you want to do. So they prevent the game from just being nothing but a hack fest.

I love it, Mike. You are my hero.

Here is what I figure -- Robots can be owned or runaways. Runaways have the tougher time. Robot hunting K9 units are constantly prowling for runaway bots to bring them back in for refurbishment or destruction. I would figure too that there exist a few hidden robot camps, where these runaway robots hang for mutual protection. I also figure that there are "wild" robots, who escaped during preproduction and essentially are running in packs across the wildland. When brought in, they are uploaded with appropriate software and domesticated. (Ha!) Being a runaway bot however makes it easier for you to drift into some random town, devour an unsuspecting cleaning bot, and move along before anyone realizes....

Life is easier as an owned bot. You have humans who care for you, grease your joints, and make sure you firmware is all nice and new. Of course, you have to hide your uncontrollable appetite from your masters. How many times will the family lose their family robot cat before they get suspicious? :)

I love it.

Next question is this though -- how do we get robots together in a group? A runaway campaign might be different than a family campaign. Perhaps, then, robots are created together in a family campaign - each robot fills a different job. In a runaway campaign, it would be more of a create whatever you want and go with it (maybe with more of an emphasis on all out war). I could still see hungry robots from a particular neighborhood gathering in a secret location (the kids' clubhouse?) at nights to plot and protect their hunger from others. A bit more diplomatic, conniving of a campaign?

Rock and roll!

Thanks,
Nathan

[Madcat]

Howdy there,
Also, another title I am considering is... "When Robots Go Mad"... But, I don't know. Metal Cannibal sounds fun too.

How about, "When Robots Attack!!"

[Rich Stokes]

Howdy there,
Also, another title I am considering is... "When Robots Go Mad"... But, I don't know. Metal Cannibal sounds fun too.

How about, "When Robots Attack!!"

What about "Candid Cambot"?

[Mike Holmes]

I was thinking maybe a PvP game. Each player has a bot from a different household (or a runaway, cool), and has to compete for the meager resources of the neighborhood. Make actual PvP fights so potentially damaging that they rarely are profitable. Then they'll only happen when diplomacy breaks down, and the bots figure that they'll need to destroy another player to gain territory or something.

Or, perhaps whatever glitch makes cannibal bots cannibals also makes them unwilling to eat each other. So they all sneak out at night and get together to take down big bots like the streetsweeper that comes by at midnight. Basically they've eaten all the available small bots, or there's nothing in the small bots that's profitable. So they want to go for the big scores, which require them to work as a team.

The fun part is afterwards as the bots have to figure out who gets what nifty parts from the looted prey.

I dunno, it's your game, you think of something. :-)

Mike

[ThreeGee]

Hey Nathan,

Nothing to do with the game itself, but you should decide if the pdf is meant to be read on paper or on-screen. The text is nice and large for easy reading on a computer screen, but you put it in narrow columns so that only a couple words fit on a line and you have to scroll up and down to read the page on-screen. Until you have the game in rough form, I would recommend formatting the document for easy reading on a computer by putting the text in one column.

Personally, I like the idea of building a disfunctional robot from components. I would like to see even more and different stuff. Clearly, the concept is low rather than high, so putting a lot of literary stuff into the game would seem like unnecessarily pretentious baggage. You have a great, easily grasped concept, and now we just need to know how the game actually works.

Keep up the good work.

Later,
Grant