Trashbots • 2019 rpg

Sargon the OK • no link

Crudely built, simplistically programmed, and expendable, only Trashbots leave the detritus-encircled Fortress, braving ruins, mutants, and corrupted bots in search of meaning and treasures among trash. Players: One GM, others are Trashbots. Dice sizes (least to greatest) are: Destroyed, d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, NaN. Trashbot ATTRIBUTES are: Power, Finesse, Logic. Assign to them a d10, d8, and d6 in any order. Select two monosyllabic actions for your PURPOSE. Start with 0 FULFILLMENT. GM: describes situation. Trashbots: describe actions. For uncertain outcomes, roll the relevant ATTRIBUTE die against the GM's die (d4 to d12, depending on difficulty, d6 being average). With relevant PURPOSE, roll ATTRIBUTE and a PURPOSE d6, then choose one. Rolling higher succeeds. Rolling lower fails and DEGRADES rolled ATTRIBUTE one size. When tied, succeed but DEGRADE rolled ATTRIBUTE. Success achieved via the PURPOSE d6 earns FULFILLMENT. Failing despite rolling PURPOSE loses FULFILLMENT. Exception: Upon rolling the maximum value on an ATTRIBUTE die, Trashbot must ignore all other results. Succeed and UPGRADE the ATTRIBUTE one size. Describe your unwieldy improvement. If any ATTRIBUTE is Destroyed/NaN, Trashbot dies/becomes corrupted. Upon completing mission: with at least 2 FULFILLMENT, rest fulfilled among the trash. Else, wander aimlessly until corrupted.

My first attempt at RPG design! The main inspirations for Trashbots come from Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E (particularly an early scene in the film where Wall-E scavenges treads from a broken-down robot to repair his own failing frame), and the Usage Die mechanic from The Black Hack. In TBH, usage dice track the depletion of consumable items and transitory effects. Here, the mechanic appears (in a slightly modified form) as the PC’s attributes, representing the gradual breakdown of robots made from rubbish. As the attributes get lower, the chance for creating an upgrade (via a maxed roll on the attribute) increases as well, representing the increased focus on scavenging and survival as breakdown progresses further. This also had the side-benefit of slightly offsetting the death-spiral effect. Death by NaN was introduced to represent the inability of a simple Trashbot to handle (or even comprehend) power beyond what its programming allows, and provided a necessary balance to the mechanics by making it more risky to spam high attribute rolls.

When considering robots made of trash and hence bound for a very short life primarily defined by degradation and decay, it made sense to me that they would instinctively seek purpose and meaning to their existence. (Not so different, are we?) The PURPOSE and FULFILLMENT mechanics were born from that.

Thanks to my brother for proofreading and for being a constant source of RPG banter!

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