Droid Manufacturing Plant Encounters

 

Standard Battledroid

Droid Manufacturing Plant

For Sci-Fi OSR Adventures

Roll 1d20

[1] Head storage facility. Thousands of robot heads line the shelves, each row a different droid or model. Eight of the heads in this room are actually active and will sound the security alarm if you enter their line of sight. (Roll Alarm Encounter)

With a simple tinkering or robotics skill check, one or more of the heads can be turned into a type of helmet that is used like a pair of binoculars, using the advanced sensors of the droids. Could also be worn to potentially sneak past robots.

[2] Conveyor belt railway. Located near the heart of the facility- many destinations end up here. Several hundred different conveyor belt tracts, each potentially on a different vertical or horizontal level are here. Some are also on inclines.

This area allows you access back to any other Encounter space as long as the party members which access chute it takes, which are labeled with frustrating names. (A12-Alpha for a broom closet) none of the conveyors are labeled as the machines can use them without labeling.

[3] Old robot storage. The party will find several still activated though ancient robots within several unlocked and unmarked rooms. Each room is roughly sorted by model and type of droid.

The robots have parts plucked out of them and some cannot walk, though a few still have functioning weapons- However they do not attack intelligent beings under any circumstances as their original robot programming is programmed with robot 'laws' to protect humans and other creator races.

Roll a wandering encounter and double the number of enemies. The robots within storage will jump to defend the party members screaming “CREATORS IN DANGER!” and will help in the fight, even if they aren't that strong.

[4] Two strange Battledroids argue over what to do with a rat they captured in an old metal crate. One wants to horrible torture it, then kill it. The other wants to capture more rats and make them all fight in a “grand tournament”.

The Battledroids have faulty wiring that results in their cruelty circuits being overloaded. This is obvious to any robot technician that examines their casing. It also appears intentionally done.

If the party whispers or implies one of the two plans above without being seen, the robots will take it as extra arguing points said by an AI watching them and will end up killing each other, leading to only one injured battledroid left.

[5] Combat Simulation room. This room is controlled by an AI that controls the holographic 'hard light' projectors. Once all party members are within range it will activate and trap them, before speaking to them in a giddy electronic voice. The AI wants to speak to living beings badly and wants to study their morality.

Once trapped, the AI will subject the party members to several 'tests', including one with hologram soldiers pretending not to see inside the hologram bunker- where a hologram women says her hologram baby won't stop crying and needs to be strangled to keep the soldiers from discovering all of the hologram people and the party. Other common tests include the trolley problem. Coin under a few giant hologram cups (all hologram projections are somewhat transparent; AI will get angry if you cheat), a game of giant hologram chess among others. Party will also be released if they play along after 2d6 turns.

If the party members refuse to take part or make fun of the machine's attempts to test them it will summon a hologram soldier every round and have them all fight. Hologram soldiers can deal 1d4 damage with their hologram blasters and have one hit point each. The trick is to wait until the machine overloads its processor with the number of hologram soldiers to escape instead of killing them; approximately 10 or more all fighting and moving at once will overload the AI.

[6] Abandoned Lightsabre, sits on floor. Anyone who picks it up will experience a psychic vision of the secret mastermind or the past of the facility, illuminating them. Additionally, they gain +1 Wisdom but only so long as they own the lightsabre.

The lightsabre itself has an orange blade, burns extra hot, and deals +1 damage to machines.

[7] Janitor Closet A12-Alpha. Within is the skeletal remains of the janitor, his damaged cleaning droid, and a credit chip worth 1d6x5 credits. The cleaning droid has been stripped of all parts except for battery, a single camera, and brain faced towards the skeletal janitor; was forced to watch his owner die and rot away for the past few decades.

If rebuilt, the robot will by loyal to anyone who treats it kindly.

[8] Spare Droid Parts. Section of factory almost totally stripped clean; 1d6+1 Retrofitted Cleaning Droids guard this place.

Retrofitted Cleaning Droids (1HD, +2 AC, blades deal 1d6+1 damage, no ranged attacks, compulsive need to clean messes before attacking)

Written here is a data-log entry about how the cleaning droids were retrofitted as combat models, but were too weak and fastidious to be useful for anything but guarding an empty room. Droid parts of defeated droids could be used to repair other robots.

[9] Chemical Tanks. Giant vats holding various chemicals, paints, enamels, and other caustic and dangerous liquids. There is a large AI gravity puller that can travel along tracks on the ceiling; will attempt to pick up party members and fling them into vats, dealing either 1, d4, d6, or d8 damage a round depending on the liquid.

At the bottom of one tank is an airtight container with a brain scan of a robot technician and his life savings; 500 credits. Brain scan can be used in a robot or body-blank to create a clone copy of that man, who is self centered but skilled.

[10] Oven. Long hallway with a long conveyor oven on one side. Unbeknownst to party there are laser tripwires which if activated will send out a silent alarm (Roll Alarm Encounter).

Most things coming out of the oven are for combat machines, which is obvious given the plants purpose, but still frightening.

[11] Blaster Testing Range. Three one-armed robots fixed in place test fire each blaster used for combat droid assembly. They cannot swivel on their own power but can use their arm to manually rotate themselves around to fire upon intruders, which they will do if the party makes enough noise to be heard over blaster fire.

Blaster Test Droids (1HD, +3 to hit, d6 blaster, cannot move on their own)

This room has enough blasters (d6) and blaster battery packs to arm a small army.

[12] Robot ethics and education center. Totally destroyed; filled with hundred corpses of ex-staff members. There will be a clue here that points to the Mastermind table. Among the bodies is a packet of Gazlor Grey- a type of smoked or chewed drug that cures paralysis and brings ectasy. Worth decent money of the black market.

[13] Droid AI Core Production Center. The entire mainframe computer that uploads droid programming into new droid brains is dilapidated and torn apart, made make-shift from wires and PDAs hooked up to it. This explains the weird 'robot personalities' so many bots here have.

Another clue will be left here to the identity of the Mastermind table results.

[14] Droid painting & finishes. Still active but decommissioned (all currently produced droids are unpainted). Six painter bots are currently spray-painting all over a nearby wall, drawing beautiful murals but are constantly erasing and defacing each others' work, as if competing.

The fumes here cause 1 damage to Wisdom or Intelligence each turn spent in this room.

[15] Main Assembly. Massive room with hundreds of arms, presses, conveyor belts, forges with molten steel and more. Moving anywhere but on the catwalks acts as though you activated a trap due to all the industrial chaos, requiring a save or lose a limb to one of the horrible machines.

The robots here are not active and there is surprisingly little security, but stopping the machines from functioning or foreign material being added to any of the processes will cause an Alarm encounter.

Additionally, roll a regular random encounter when party explores this area, but due to the noise and smell it is easy to avoid detection (+2 sneak).

Within this room are many semi-valuable robot parts and an assembler AI core, worth several hundred credits on its own. Taking the core instantly deactivates the entire process though and activates an Alarm encounter when taken.

[16] Klipnitiz Nest. Alien creatures with a taste for sweets; but can survive off eating electrical wires and corpses. Can also turn invisible if they are shocked enough by electricity, but still take damage from it.

Klipnit (1HD, +2 attack, 1d6 damage bite)

Looks a bit like a mix between a kangaroo and a dog with rainbow fur that seems to change color randomly depending on how you look at it. There are about 8 of them in the facility, with at least 3 here. The security does not notice them as they are not intelligent enough to classify as an alien race, but they are smart enough to avoid eating any wires in or around the central assembly room.

Can be distracted with surgery treats.

[17] Battledroid Storage. Hundreds of battle droids standing still in neat rows in a gigantic warhouse. There are far too many to fight by normal means for normal people. If party gets their attention make a reflex or agility save or die as hit by hail of blaster fire.

Additionally, if Masterminds are found or fought in the lair, they will activate these battledroids on a warpath, killing anyone they see.

[18] Corporate Offices. Surprisingly clean and well-lit part of the facility. Roll a random encounter and put it inside of a random room here. The offices contain the personal belongings of some of the staff, alive or dead, and the party can scrounge up about 150 credits worth of stuff here. Immune to wandering encouter checks here.

[19] Hand & Limb storage facility. Several dozen pairs of hands, arms, and legs are stored here. With an advanced first aid or tinkering skill check you can replace lost limbs and hands with robot ones for the time being.

[20] Reactor Core. Glowing miniature sun stuck within a glass orb; fusion energy powers the entire facility. If glass is cracked the star will go supernova and self destruct the entire facility in 1d6+1 turns.

Party simply being in this room activates an Alarm, and if self-destruct begins all the battledroids in [17] will probably go on a killing spree.

Wandering Encounters (Regular)

Roll 1d6

(1) Franken-Droid (1HD, 2 random weapons each, +2 AC)

Group of 1d4-1, minimum of 1 appearing. Strange robots either made as an experiment, by survivors or something else.

Random Droid-Weapon Sub-table: (d6)

1. Scrap Blaster. Overheats and melts after one round of firing.
2. Regular Blaster. D6 damage.
3. Orb Launcher. Works only once but fires an exploding orb; d8 damage AoE
4. Circular Saw. Cuts off a limb on max damage roll.
5. Flamethrower. Short range, lights people on fire dealing d4 damage a turn.
6. Razor-Drones. Flying drones with razor sharp wings and bodies- like to cut people up and can easily chase down party even if they escape the encounter normally.

(2) Rogue Battledroids (2HD, +2 to hit and AC, armed with d6 blasters and accurate)

3 Appearing.

Battledroids are basic but effective combat robots that operate on simple rank and file military tactics. They communicate with each other through high pitched whines and whistles, which is too high pitched for humans to hear or interpret, but other alien races might be able to.

Do not retreat under any circumstances, but are known to use suicide tactics when on losing side of battle to demoralize and further injure opponents.

These battledroids have gone Rogue due to faulty programming and will be attacked by security the same anyone else will, currently looking for a way out but will not speak or ally with organics easily.

(3) Metal-Hermit Crab (1HD, +2 AC, d6 claws that shread armor)

1d6 appearing.

Cousin of a hermit crab, but bigger, land dwelling, and stays inside old discarded robot parts instead of shells. Stays near the humid parts of the facility and eats whatever comes out of broken sewage and water piping.

(4) Hackers (1 HD, +3 to hit and damage vs machines only, d4 laser pistol)

1d4+1 appearing

Humans who have come to hack the computer mainframe here to turn the control of the bots to themselves, but are not strong enough to penetrate deeper into the facility.

One among them is actually a psychic trying to learn how to read machine minds as well as human ones but keeps his mind-reading powers a secret, even from his own group. Willing to trade or help party but will not sway from mission unless proven how hopeless it is.

(5) Killdroid (3HD, +2 to hit, d8 energy blade)

Lone droid with faulty intelligence. Views self as a master ninja assassin. Wears a Klipnit pelt and wants to know how to turn invisible like they do.

(6) Haywire Sexbot (1HD, -1 to hit and damage, 1d4 'death tickle' weapon)

Lone robot. Completely ineffectual in combat, but murderous. Worth good money if somehow disabled in one piece and sold.

Alarm Encounters

Roll 1d4 only when 'Alarm' sounded

(1) Battledroid Interceptors (2HD, +2 to hit, d6 blasters, fast moving)

1d6+1 appearing

Faster then regular battledroids but less armored. These droids are clever enough to lay in ambush for party members or use hit and run tactics, but are also known to commit suicide if they can take out a party member with them (push both of them into a crushing machine for example)

(2) Heavy Battledroid (4HD, always hits if in 'turret' form, d8 heavy blaster, +3 AC)

1 or 2 Appearing

Uncommon Heavy Battledroid. Can switch into 'turret' form where it cannot move but also doesn't miss its attacks. Extremely strong but easy to outmaneuver and trick. Likes to set up on the ends of hallways in Turret form.

(3) Strangudroid (2HD, in the form of flying dust, cannot be hit except with explosives or AoE attacks)

1 or 2 appearing.

Uncommon 'swarm' droid that attacks people by diving into their windpipes and using tiny lasers to blast their insides. Save to avoid breathing them in while within the cloud. They deal either 1 damage per turn outside of the body but 1d6 within it. Extremely dangerous without a mask, flamethrower, or some other weapon to combat them. The excessive heat of [15] can damage them enough to kill them.

(4) Scavengers (2HD, +2 to hit, one has 1d12 lightning cannon, the rest d6 blasters) 
1d6+1 Appearing

Random human and alien survivors looking for advanced technology. They found it.

Secret Mastermind Table

Roll 1d12 to determine a secret mastermind between the battledroid factory

1. Alien merchant-lords, resurrect the facility for their own gain.
2. Politicians ordered the facility reopened so they can pass laws banning robots.
3. Robot Rights activists; proves spontaneous robot personalities
4. Facility AI went Rogue, killed all staff to take over the world.
5. Sole staff member went rogue, killed the staff and messed up the facility.
6. Tiny space-amoeba god; unwittingly changed facility into what it is
7. Intelligent Rats- Their intelligence only lasts as long as facility continues to run.
8. Psychic of the Hackers- wanted to lead friends to death to absorb their minds
9. Engineering Project based around AI and optimization gone horribly wrong.
10. Government experiment gone horribly wrong, but they wanted this to happen
11. Battledroids all share a hivemind. Want to start glorious communist revolt by force.
12. Random acts of nature and accidents caused everything to happen.