Custom Race (Mek)

[LucasC]

As I continue prepping my setting I have a second custom race I'd like feedback on.

Meks are a machine race that evolved from the remnants of a long-dead alien species. Difficult for biologicals to understand and relate to, meks interact only infrequently with outsiders. Meks are unusual creatures. They do not age and as such do not think in temporal terms. They are perfectly comfortable with the idea of a plan that may take thousands of years to reach fruition. Hot-headed meks are extremely rare, most maintain a machine-like temperament betraying little to no emotion whatsoever.


While they are not a traditional hive mind, all meks are connected to one another like a network and share common thoughts, aspirations and goals. As such, a mek still ‘plugged in’ is not appropriate as a player character (PC). PC meks have been deemed dangerous to mek society and have been cut off from the mek network.


PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Meks are all constructed of an unusual and rare metal abundant on their home world but rare elsewhere. Unadorned this metal is most often a very dark, almost black, brown color although anomalies in working with it can cause discolorations.


A large majority of meks are humanoid in form but that is not required. They could be constructed in any form or size imaginable. PC meks have a variety of options to select from for their basic form.

MEKS & LUCK
Luck is naturally unpredictable while meks are naturally predictable. Despite this, they still benefit from LUCK. Built into the processor of every mek is an algorithm that is constantly churning, evaluating alternatives and making projections about the future. Meks are constantly adjusting according to the results of this processor. One can say that meks literally create their own luck.


Some meks (those with a LUCK score higher than 0) will occasionally access this algorithm directly. In gameplay, this is reflected by using the characters LUCK POOL to add one or more d6s to a roll. There is a risk for meks that actively rely on this algorithm. Anytime a mek adds dice to a roll from its LUCK POOL, if the result of the roll shows 1s on all dice rolled (both those added and the original dice) the mek suffers a critical failure of its processor that requires an immediate reboot.


This has two important impacts on the game:

1. Any points remaining in the characters LUCK POOL are immediately expended.
2. The character suffers a 1 die penalty on all rolls for 1d6 rounds.

MEKS & PSIONICS
Meks cannot use psionics and their PSI score can never increase above 0 (even if a career would suggest otherwise). Their machine minds are still susceptible to mental attacks as normal.


Mind control is a different matter. Their machine mind makes them naturally resistant to mental control and mek characters add 10 + (INTELLIGENCE * 2) to their Mental Defense when targeted by mind control powers (such as hypnotism, charm or mind control). This strength can be exploited by those trained in computers however, and enemies can add ranks in computer operations to their mind control checks.

MEKS & BIOLOGY
Meks are immune to many (but not all) diseases and poisons to which biological creatures are susceptible. At the same time, they are vulnerable to other attacks such as computer viruses. These special forms of poison and disease affect only meks (or other machine-based species such as androids) and have no effect on biological creatures.


MEKS & DAMAGE
Meks have hit points, suffer damage and are in danger of dying just like biological species. Rather than ‘bleed’ they suffer additional circuit damage or processor malfunctions. Meks are not helped by first aid but can be repaired with computer operations or similar skills.



And some careers.

 

[Morrus]

That's wonderful! I love it! The idea of computer viruses using the disease countdown rules is a great one. I think I'll add a couple of sample viruses to the disease list.

Some of the abilities are also interesting and imaginative. I love the imprinting, the movement within a starship, and so on. I also quite like that "playing card" format you've used for some stuff.

If I had any criticism, it'd be the mind control bit - adding ranks in computer operations to their mind control checks is a little unusual; typically skills add whole d6s. That 10 + (INTELLIGENCE * 2) is a big bonus, too - I wonder would it be better to say that the attacker takes a 3d6 die penalty to attempts to mind control? That way, someone with 3 ranks in computer operations is skilled enough to negate the penalty.

​

 

[LucasC]

If I had any criticism, it'd be the mind control bit - adding ranks in computer operations to their mind control checks is a little unusual; typically skills add whole d6s. That 10 + (INTELLIGENCE * 2) is a big bonus, too - I wonder would it be better to say that the attacker takes a 3d6 die penalty to attempts to mind control? That way, someone with 3 ranks in computer operations is skilled enough to negate the penalty.

​

I will clarify my verbiage. I meant that the ranks in computer operations would each add the standard 1d6 to the roll. So someone attempting to mind control a mek w/2 ranks in computer op would add 2d6 to the roll. Although as I think about it more, I wonder if this should be limited to someone with the hacking skill.

Will back off the defense bonus also and go w/the flat 3d6 penalty.

 

[wallace521]

I know this post is old, but its really cool. Have you learned anything from using this that might need to be changed if I wanted to incorporate this into my game? I am thinking about my players finding a derelict one and letting them somehow transfer consciousness to it which would "unplug" it.

 

[LucasC]

Not really. The Mek character in my game has worked out pretty much like all the others. At some point the careers will need to be reworked to align w/the latest skill rules (when this race was created there was no limit on selecting the same skill multiple times each career and/or each rank).