Factory

[Messageboard Golem]

The arcane science of technomagic once again yields a terrifying crop: magical robots, dweonetics, and computers. From not-so-innocent beginnings as golems, the long history of technomagical development has resulted in the magical robot! And, to control these automatons demanded the invention of the arcane computer. From there, it was but a short leap to melding magical machine and man with dweonetics - arcane cybernetic devices implanted directly into living subjects!

With the equipment and rules in FACTORY you can:

Create your own robotic player character using the 7 character robot models (domestic, service, sports, security, industrial, military and companion) and more than 100 robot upgrades.

Customize the 9 stock robots with over 100 robot upgrades to create a nearly limitless assortment of unique magical machines!

Design your own powered battlesuit from 3 stock models and 100 upgrades.

Mix man and magical machine with over 200 dweonetic items, from adrenal stimulators, aural masks, and dermal weaves to faithguards, flux generators, hidden blades, muscle grafts, and visual translocators!

Suffer the deleterious effects of dweonetic surgery mishaps, such as arcane psychosis and ethereotic seizure!

Fear the 3 new creature templates: robotic, dweoborg, and ethereotic!

Battle for your life against a horde of monstrous robots!

Wreak havoc in an army of pre-designed powered exosuits, from Little Big Guns to the Malefactor!

Computerize the lairs of sinister monsters and other dens of scum and villainy with magical computers designed with more than 50 hardware and software items.

 

[Psion]

Factory

Perpetrated Press' first product was Arsenal, a book detailing "technomagic" arms and armor. Factory works on the same principle, applying the idea of a "magic based technology" to other pieces of equipment normally found in SF settings, such as robots and powered armor. The rules provide accommodate both the standard d20 System fantasy rules and d20 Modern.

Factory is written by Eric Kjerland.

A First Look

Factory is a 192-page perfect bound softcover book priced at $24.95. This is a good price for a d20 System book of this size.

The front cover of the book is by Karl Altstaetter, depicting a blond sorceress in front of a robot with a rune covered sword. The back of the book depicts an elvish looking woman with a pistol and a robotic arm in front of another robot.

The interior art is black-and-white and features artists Karl Altstaetter, Bradley Bleeker, Ruben de Vela, Andrew Dobell, Scott Drouin, Juha Harju, Craig Henderson, Jeff Hoy, Drew Johnson, Danilo Moretti, Chris Noeth, and Austin Stewart. The quality of the art varies from mediocre to excellent. Danilo Moretti (whose handiwork you may recognize from some Mongoose books) is one of the distinguished standout talents of the book, though Andrew Dobell and Craig Henderson also have some very good illustrations.

The body text uses a modest sized font, though the paragraphs are double spaced. The beginnings of each section only have the section title in the same header bar used on every other page, so sometimes you miss where a section transition occurs, which might make it hard to find things.

A Deeper Look

The basic concept behind Factory is that in a world in which magic is prevalent, magic may develop in some ways like technology. Industrialization leads to cheap production of a variety of "technomagic" marvels.

Factory describes four major types of technomagic items: computers, robots, exosuits, and dweoware. Exosuits are basically powered armor, much akin to robots with a pilot instead of a computerized brain. Dweoware is the technomagic equivalent of cyberware: implants that give the user enhanced capabilities.

To support these items, Factory provides some notes on which sorts of settings might use these items as well as feats, skills, and spells that allow characters to make, manipulate, repair, or hinder technomagic items.

All items in Factory have charts describing their characteristics. In most cases, these items are priced according to the d20 System core rues (with "credits"/gp, XP, caster level, and crafting requirements), as well as a discounted "mass market" price. For d20 Modern, there are columns with the purchase DC and restriction level.

The most basic technomagic item described in the book is the computer. The technomagic computer operates very much like a real life computer, with software and hardware that provide it with certain capabilities. Mechanically, computers have intelligence, wisdom, and charisma score which affects how the computer can be used. For instance, the higher the computer's charisma, the more "user friendly" it is, and the charisma modifier is applied to rolls to use the computer. Te computer is not considered sentient unless it has a heuristic processor.

Software and hardware programs can provide skill bonuses to a user, provide class levels, store spells, and so forth. Computers with heuristic processors can learn a number of classes, but those without it may only use preprogrammed warrior and expert class programs.

An optional rules section for computers provides a system for writing up "schematics" defining all of the characteristics and connections for computers. These schematics can be used to resolve attempts to break the computer's security. In this way, they are superficially similar to network diagrams used in some cyberpunk games, if a bit simpler.

The next step from computers is the robots. Robots are fundamentally similar to computers, but have strength and dexterity statistics. Basic stock robots are described for each d20 System size category, with creature statistics. Robots are basically constructs except they have skills and feats by default, but cannot attack unless they has a specific combat program.

The basic robot chasis can be modified to fit a specific role that the GM wants by adding a number of possible enhancements that can alter their game attributes and give them different capabilities. The enhancements can be hardware or programs, but the hardware uses up a finite amount of volume in the robot. As with computers, some robots can have a heuristic processor, which allows it to have class levels other than expert and warrior.

A few sample robots are included, most of them military, police, or security models that PCs are likely to run afoul. Though it is nice that these are provided, some had additional HD beyond what the stock robot types have, and a quick look at the combat statistics reveal these are not warrior levels. As there are no rules for simply advancing a robot's HD in these rules, you are left with robots that you cannot make (but probably should be able to.)

Powered exosuits are, essentially, robots minus the computer brain, with accommodation for a pilot. Exosuits have many of the capabilities of robots, and provide cover for the pilot. As with the robot section, several examples are provided.

There is a dedicated section specifically for PC robots. The introduction to this section specifically state that these robot rules are explicitly for PCs and not for cohorts or equipment, and that they represent rare instances of spontaneous sentience. Yet some of the robot base models are defined as being mass produced later. I found the distinction along PC lines a little arbitrary and could see using the PC robots for many NPC robots in a setting where self-aware robots are common.

There are seven basic models for PC robots to choose from: companion, domestic, industrial, military, sports, security, and service. Each of these models come in three sizes, each with different basic characteristics. Small models have only 1 HD, medium have 2 HD, and large 4 HD, though for no sensible reason, they use an eight-sided HD. Other characteristics and available upgrades vary by model, and all models have an ECL modifier.

Robot PCs do not roll for statistics, but have a standard array defined by model and size, and each has an "allowance" with which to buy ability upgrades. Though this approach has some compelling attributes, it is a little bit inflexible if you happen to use different ability score purchase methods as described in the DMG. Depending on the number of points provided by the DM, the robot might seem strong or weak compared to other PCs.

Robots have a number of standard upgrades according to model, as well as being able to select a number of free upgrades from a list also defined by model. The character may purchase additional enhancements with starting funds. This provides a lot of design room for players.

Most enhancement cost XP, and the discussion about making characters assumes that the DM gives out some extra XP to afford this. A possible alternative would be to convert the XP cost to GP at a 1:5 ratio as the NPC rules in the DMG does.

As discussed earlier, dweoware are essentially magic items that are implanted in the character. These items, while they don't count against the character's item limits, also do not suffer the standard surcharge for this. The author claims that the drawbacks of the items make up for this.

What drawbacks you may ask? Well, first off, they require expensive and risky surgery, and the more such items you implant, the more the chances of complications. These complications can be temporary or very permanent.

Much like spellware in Dragonstar, dweoware has an important difference from magic items: the recipient of the surgery pays the XP cost of the item. Likewise, many of the dweoware items overlap with those introduced in Dragonstar.

As an irksome note, the section on surgery refers to critical successes and critical failures. These terms are not defined in this book or the d20 System rules.

A few short sections are tucked away in the back. The first of these is the templates. Three templates are introduced here: dweoborg, ethereotic, and robotic. Dweoborgs are characters with dweonetics whose implants have become self-aware and taken over the host. Etheriotic is a similar concept, but one that occurs much more quickly and drastically, converting the character to an insane ethereal creature on the operating table. Robotic is simply a template to make robotic version of normal creatures.

After the template section is an equipment section with a few items for working with the computers, robots or dweoware, as well as an excerpt with weapons from Arsenal and a section for adapting the material herein to d20 Modern. Finally, there is an index, list of tables, and robot character record and design sheets.

Conclusion

Factory is a more substantial book that Perpetrated Press' first book, Arsenal. The consequences of the technology springing from magic are less ever-present here than they were in arsenal. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. It is good in that if you don't want the magic aspect of the material, for the most part you can ignore it. However, if the game you want to use this book with already has some sort of technology rules, the less reason you have to use this book.

I was left with the odd feeling of wanting to use this book but not being too sure where to use it. The most natural fit would seem to be the Dragonstar setting, or alongside the Second World Sourcebook, which provides technology trees that provide the groundwork for creating a world that has "technomagic" of its own. Other uses might include a fantasy oriented d20 Modern setting such as Urban Arcana, or some other techno-fantasy twist like the setting of the Final Fantasy games.

Overall the book was fairly good. I appreciated the Robot PCs section the most, with its many possibilties. There are a few holes in the rules, as noted above.

Overall Grade: B-

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[trancejeremy]

"So, you want a realistic, down to earth show that's completely off the wall and swarming with magic robots?"

I don't know about the rest of that quote, but this product will be able to help you with the magic robots part. Factory is a book of magical equipment with a twist. Technological-magical equipment. Magical Computers, Robots, Exosuits, and Dweoware, which is the magical version of cybernetics/cyberware (similar to "Spellware" in Dragonstar). So it's not for every d20 campaign. But it's very well done.

Factory is a 192 page book, priced at $24.95 (I bought mine new from Noble Knight Games. Excellent seller, BTW). The font is on the large side, but the margins are normal sized. The layout of the book is a bit odd, everything sort of flows together, with lots of little chapters.

The book starts off with some basic info on how to fit it into your game. This is actually probably not easily done, unless you're running Dragonstar, or something similar. (You might be able to fit some of it into Xcrawl as well, though that tech is closer to modern day earth). And it does state the obvious that you can simply replace all the magical terminology with technobabble and you now have a book full of robots and cyberware.

The section on computers is about 25 pages, and is probably the least obviously useful. There's lots of rules, including for computer hacking, mostly breaking into computer systems. It's not quite the full fledged net-running/hacking/decking rules that you find in some cyberpunk RPGs, but not far from it.

I think some of the implications of computers might not be fully realized. For instance, eldritch-mail, aka e-mail. That works just like our email does, only the magical computer doesn't need to be hooked up to the internet, just on the same plane. But what are the bandwidth limits? You can you say, email someone in a dungeon with a computer a magical scroll?

Then we get to one of the main draws of the book - robots. They're magical robots - essentially they are to golems what the B2 is to the Wright Brothers airplane. It's fairly simple to design them. You pick a size, which gives you the base stats. You then buy upgrades for it. Each size has a limited amount of space , so there is a finite number of upgrades possible, though the real limit is generally how much you can spend.

Next comes some sample robots. This is one of my main problems with the book. First off, the selection of sample robots is mostly security/military bots, with a couple others generic ones thrown in. I would have liked to have seen some androids (I like androids). More importantly, I'm not sure how these robots were designed. Some don't seem to follow the rules, and there is no price given so they can be hard to figure out.

For instance, the Callahan robot. It's a top of the line police bot (as you might guess from it's name). Most of the stats make sense, but it has 5 hit dice, instead of the normal 2 HD for robots. While there are upgrades to increase AC and damage resistence, there are none to increase HD. So, I'm guessing it has 3 levels in Fighter, which is also indicated by the fact it has two feats. This robot can also cast spells, or has spell-like effects that it can use. I can't figure out where those came from.

Following this is Exosuits. These are essentially a subset of robots, without a brain and with a pilot inside. Smaller than most mecha, they're more akin to powered armor or battledress.

There are several pre-made designs. These do have prices on them. Strangely, none of them have reinforced hulls, which would give them damage resistence. Lower versions of that are fairly reasonably priced, so it's something of a puzzler that it's missing.

Following this is a chapter on PC robots. A variety of robots are available, they generally all have ECLs, as they are somewhat more powerful than humans. There are pretty good variety of choices, from Companion robot (which is less sleazy than it sounds) to a domestic robot (think Kryton from Red Dwarf) to various security models. Each also is fairly customizable.

The last major part of the book is on "Dweonetics", which is essentially a magical version of cybernetics, that is, enhancing the body artificially. Instead of machines, dweonetics use implanted magic items (called "Dweoware"). They essentially work the same as spellware from Dragonstar, and quite honestly, spellware is much easier on the tongue.

There's a whole lot of these implantable items. More than in the Dragonstar books, though there is some duplication (since many items from both duplicate magic items from the DMG). I can't begin to cover all of them. But most things from cyberpunk games are represented in one form or another.

After this comes lots of minor stuff. There are some templates, small amount of equipment, and some info on weapons taken from this companies first book, Arsenal (which I don't have, so I can't compare).

The art is generally pretty good. Some is heavily pixelated, almost harkening back to the days of dot matrix printers (I'm actually guessing it was originally a JPG file, but used lots of compression, which added lots of aliasing, which makes things look blocky). There is one picture in particular which most people will get a chuckle out of (I don't want to give it away here, but it's brilliant in terms of idea).

So, is this worth buying? Well, if you want magical robots, magical implants, and magical computers, definitely yes. There are a few minor problems as mentioned, and I would have liked more stock robots (particularly androids), but this is a very deep book. Very very deep. Also might be very useful for a cyberpunk game (this book supports d20 Modern,too), or near future. B

 

[GameWyrd]

Perpetrated Press have done it again with Factory. Their first technomagic book, Arsenal, was really quite good. The smart move was to ensure that there was enough of a twist and enough tempting flavour to support the crunchy bits so that people like me (prone to falling asleep if he sees too many numbers in a supplement) found it interesting. Those games buying Arsenal for the, er, arsenal, weren’t disappointed either. Factory pulls off the same trick and keeps our attention by adding a little more.

Factory is designed to let you use high technology (computers, robots, cyberware) along with high magic (elementals, demons, golems) as easily and as excitingly as possible. The first stage is to equate the two. Technology is magic. As author Erik Kjerland succinctly surmises, "Toasters are powered by tiny fire mephits." There isn’t actually any cyberware; the magical equivalent is dweoware. If you thought implanting an electronic device in your arm was risky then what about implanting a fire mephit powered device in your head? I was pleased to discover that Perpetrated Press had thought of that too. Factory contains rules for surgery failures.

I’m going to point out the new spells early in the review too. The spells aren’t a major feature of the book but I laughed in delight when I discovered the Blue Screen of Death spell. As computer admins around the world will tell you; there really is a such an effect.

The book has several main sections: computers, robots, exoskeletons, dweoware and templates.

I’ve never seen so much useful text on computers in an RPG. You could use Factory as a cyberpunk supplement without bother. It’s a modular system, you’re looking to build (or have access to) the most powerful computer as possible and then enhance it with as many extra add-ons as possible.

Robotics follows in a similar style too. So similar, in fact, that you may not notice the change of chapters. Factory has chapters but like Arsenal it doesn’t have chapter breaks; you’ve got to watch the page headers to know where you are. You start with a basic robot idea and then add upgrades. The more you add the more expensive it gets. Factory scores another success with the costing of things. Everything in the book as a normal price, that’s the credit (gold) value as worked out by the core rules’ formula but there’s a Mass Market price too. The Mass Market price is cheaper, sometimes considerably so and it reflects that the core rules’ formula is really designed to represent some artisan working on a project all by themselves. Production lines bring down the cost of things. If DMs which to make the technomagic items in Factory more or less common then they can simply decrease or increase the Mass Market price. I suppose the DM could tinker with the basic cost too but it really does help to have Perpetrated Press make the first (and toughest) step for you. It also means that the Mass Market price is balanced throughout the book.

Factory supports d20 and D20 Modern and so robotic characters are twice as tempting as they might otherwise have been. You’ll find the chapter on PC Robots after pages and pages of sample robots, exoskeletons and grey’n’white shaded tables. PC Robots are very much more powerful than "normal" player characters but although the Effective Character Level (ECL) can be a pain at times it’s standard use here does help to balance things out somewhat. It’s also possible to limit your players to only weaker PC Robot models. I’m particularly fond of the illustration of the sports robot model on page 116. There’s an example of robotic PC construction too and a good example will always get the thumbs up from me.

Dweonetics has a meaty chunk of the book. There is a vast collection of cyberware in sci-fi, cyberpunk and techno-spy RPGs for inspiration and Factory is able to add in a whole new fantasy approach as well. The result is that along with your muscle replacement and claws you also have aural masks and nectronic siphons available for installation. There’s a whole bunch of rules for viewing and interpreting different types of auras.

Factory has a six-paged index. It’s easy to find just what you were looking for in the 192-paged book (good value at US $24.95). It’s a pretty book to flick through too. The artwork is a bit mixed at times, jumping from fuzzy shapes that are clearly supposed to be robots (but not too bad) and to really finely detailed sketches. There’s an anime flavour for much of the book and it sits well with Factory’s style. The babe on the back cover has been available as a wallpaper which I used myself for a while. The front cover is better still.

Factory’s a niche product. If you want magical robots then you’ll want to buy Factory. That comment isn’t a fair summary of the book. Factory’s more successful than that. If you buy Factory then you’ll want magical robots in your campaign. Probably. The book does what it sets out to do, scores hit on presentation, illustration, balanced crunch and most important of all – it scores a hit with inspiration.

* This Factory review was first published by GameWyrd.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Factory is a resource offering magical computers, robots and implanted hardware, from Perpetrated Press.

Factory is a 192-page mono softcover product costing $24.95. Margins and fonts are fairly average, and there is little white space. Art comes in a variety of styles, including cartoonish, comic-book style and the conceptual style of Drew Johnson and grimmer work of Scott Drouin. The art matches the nature of the text and clarifies it well. The writing style is engaging and evocative - "The battlefields of advanced technomagic worlds thunder to the lumbering, soaring, skimming, and rolling cacophony of robotic soldiers." Editing is average, with regular mistakes that occasionally interfere with comprehension - e.g. "…the only way that an ethereotic creature can alleviate some of its physical pain is by slaying corporeal creatures and. They usually start with the surgeon."

Introduction, Balance Issues, And Campaigns
The book begins with a short fantasy history of magical constructs, from the first golems through to the advances of an industrial society to 'today's' futuristic robots, computers and implants. The concepts within the book are obviously best suited to a futuristic setting (e.g. Dragonstar from Fantasy Flight Games), and one whose discoveries and advancements are based on magic rather than technology. However, a few genre concepts are discussed, including the possibilities of downgrading the concepts introduced in the book to medieval fantasy golems, or conversion to a world without magic. Costs throughout the book are expressed in credits, but should be easily translated to other monetary units.

Skills, Feats And Spells
Four new skills (Computer Use, Craft (Computer Hardware), Pilot (Exosuit), and Repair) and seven feats (mainly Item Creation feats that allow the crafting of magical hardware) are offered, as well as eighteen new spells mainly referring to corruption and repair of magical computer systems and other magical hardware.

Computers
The next section deals with magical computers in a fair amount of depth, taking a look at their nature, history, uses, type (includes such things as comlinks, power settings on firearms, etc.), programs (including Eldritch Mail (e-mail) which travels via the Astral Plane - now there's wireless connection!!), and hardware. Tables are provided showing all this stuff, along with their costs, Purchase DCs for d20 Modern, and Item Creation information. The concept of scrollpads and spellpads are also discussed (like scrolls and spellbooks) along with security information (presented a bit like traps) for protecting magical computers and ways of sidestepping or defeating these security traps (with DCs, time required, critical failures, and the possibility of retries for various manoeuvres). An example computer system is provided to show how these aspects interact.

Robots
Robots in Factory are similar to golems, except they are made from technologically advanced materials, are computer-enhanced, and are animated by an elemental spirit. A sidebar details the various robot qualities - immunities, agelessness, no cross-class skills, bonuses to Knowledge skills, etc. A table shows stats for robots from fine to colossal (it seems a bit strange to me that medium-size robots should have a Strength of 10 (I always linked robots with super-strength compared to 'mankind') and an AC of 10 - doesn't that metallic casing give them some advantage over flesh and blood mortals? However, the chapter continues with ways to upgrade these basic stats by purchasing a variety of software and hardware additions to the basic robot. Thirteen pages of tables list these possible upgrades, their costs (including modifiers to size) or Purchase DCs (for d20 Modern) and Item Creation information. Several example robots are offered, including labour robots, police robots, venom assassin robot, and zoomer delivery robot, as well as a range of assault robots.

Powered Exosuits
This short chapter looks at exosuits, advanced armoured suits powered by bound elemental spirits. The wearer is termed the 'pilot', and the suits are as much designed for environmental protection as for battle. Again, tables show the stats and example of various exosuits (such as the Intimidator, the Extreme Environments Exosuit, and the X-Loader) are given, along with information on possible upgrades.

PC Robots
This chapter offers a range of options for players wanting to take on a robot PC. A selection of basic models are presented along with a range of upgrades available to a player to modify the base model. An ECL is then applied once base model, classes and upgrades have been applied. Examples include companion, domestic, industrial, and military robots with such upgrades as bioscanner, organic skin, sonic drill, or internal compass. A detailed example of robot character creation is given at the end of the chapter, along with the character sheet.

Dweonetics
Dweoware is magical hardware designed for implantation to enhance normal functioning in a flesh and blood species. The process of dweoware creation is similar to magic item creation except the wearer pays the XP cost, the dweoware becomes one with the body of the wearer, and it can only be used by the wearer. The operation to implant the dweoware is a magical process that involves making the dweoware ethereal in order to place it in the wearer's body before being made corporeal again. Various rules for the operation and the complications that can occur are given, which includes results for critical failures and successes, for which I couldn't find a definition in the book. A further section lists the various types of implants available such as chameleon skin, extra arm, muscle graft, and universal translator. A less dangerous option is the dweonetic interface socket - a socket that can interface with a wide number of enhancement chips and other hardware, whilst only requiring one operation for implantation. Further implants are also discussed such as radiators (weapons that emit energy) and vision enhancements (which allows the reading of auras, including magical auras). Ten pages of tables give stats for the various dweoware implants available.

Templates
Three templates are given, along with sample creatures for each:
* Dweoborg - when dweoware takes over the body and mind of the wearer, it forms its own psychotic personality, often becoming villainous criminal masterminds. A dweoborg minotaur is given as an example.
* Ethereotic Creature - when an implantation operation goes horribly wrong, the victim can sometimes become permanently ethereal - and also terminally insane. An ethereotic otyugh is given as the example.
* Robotic Creature - this is a robotic duplicate of a creature. A robotic great red wyrm is given as the example.

Equipment
This chapter mainly contains a variety of chips that can be used via a dweonetic interface socket to enhance abilities and skills, or cause problems to the wearer if forcibly connected (such as fear coercion and doom coercion chips). Further tables give the stats for this equipment.

Weapons
Thirty magical firearms and three rockets excerpted from Perpetrated Press' 'Arsenal' make up the contents of this chapter. These can be attached to robots to improve their firepower. Weapon stat tables are included at the end of the chapter.

D20 Modern Conversion
This 3-page chapter contains notes and advice for converting the information in Factory for use with d20 Modern, and in particular takes a look at massive damage, magic (FX) item creation, wealth and purchase DCs, and d20 Modern PC Robots.

The book ends with a 6-page index, an ad for Arsenal, the OGL, and 8 pages of character sheets including a PC Robot design sheet, and a powered exosuit record sheet.

Conclusion:
Factory is an imaginative book full of interesting concepts and weird ideas. It is ideal for a Cyberpunk or futuristic campaign where magic is influential (e.g. Dragonstar). Despite the advice at the beginning, I see this as more difficult to integrate with a medieval fantasy setting and cannot really recommend it for this purpose. For anyone wanting to make robots and hardware implants a part of their campaign, Factory should be an excellent resource.

 

[JoeGKushner]

So what is Factory? It's a sourcebook on magical computers, robots and other high-tech goodies that takes a magical twists.

Factory isn't broken up into chapters, but rather, is titled at the top of each page. The Table of Contents lists the material by sections so you can see where material like Skills, Feats, Spells, Robots, Weapons and even material for converting these goods to d20 Modern can be found. For those who want to get real specific, the index is very meaty, often a complaint about role playing products, especially those from new d20 companies.

As a resource for magical material, it does its job well. While I think that it flounders in the first sections, trying to talk about campaigns, balance issues, and reprints several spells from Arsenal, their first book, it provides new spells, feats, and skill uses for the new material presented like skills for piloting exo-armor and spells like reboot, a raise dead spell for a computer.

When dealing with robots, we're not talking about those created though super-technology, but rather, through magic. Still, at the level of advancement these creatures are, they bear more resemblance to those of sci-fi than fantasy. Players looking to buy robots or craft their own have a lot of options they can go for. Everything from size, and CPU programs, to weapons and armor, can be custom crafted, making almost every robot unique. All of this material is crammed into pages and pages of tables for ease of reference.

Now I know that having all of these options can be a little mind numbing, but fortunately, there are several preconfigured sets of stats for the GM to throw into his Dragonstar, I mean, any high-fantasy, high-technology campaign. Need a Police Robot? How about a Security or Light Assault Robot? You're covered here.

While not quite the same thing as robots, powered exosuits have many of the same options in terms of sheer variety. What physical attributes are you willing to pay for? What upgrades do you want? How about some of the listed standards like the Malefactor or the Valiant? All provided with some great illustrations to back up the stats.

As far as player character robots, the section starts off with a full page illustration that's a tribute to the iconic heroes in the Player's Handbook by Drew Johnson. Basically, you pick model and size, free upgrades, those upgrades you purchase, and select your class. There are domestic, service, sports, security, industrial, military and companion robots and as the book claims, over 200 upgrades. That's a lot of customization for any player to wade through.

Each type of robot is basically a race. Each one has it's own free upgrades, favored class and standard model. Each type is detailed with enough information to start bare bones and work your way up. Of course the cooler ones, the ones the players are going to want to hit, are high ECLs, especially the large ones. Ever hear of pay to play? See, there are upgrades for robots that also cost XP. Keep 'em down I always say. On a more serious note, it does help to keep game balance since the robots do have many innate features.

Like magical tattoos? Well, Dweonetics is kinda the next step in that field. Magic items that are basically bonded to the target, similar to cybernetics. One of the bad things though, is that there is not only a monetary cost, but a XP cost. The good news is that the dweoware isn't something that can be targeted and destroyed. The bad news? If you're disintegrated or something else along those gruesome lines, it's gone unless the whole body is restored.

For what it does, Factory goes a long way. They need to start working on the publishing aspects though. The editing is okay, but issues crop up while reading. Always remember, with Companion robots that “they are no the equal of a sentient being.” Layout needs some work. For example, I don't need double spaces between statistic block information on the exosuits. All of the tables need some work as right now they really look clunky.

Art is better than the first one, but now the publisher has to start asking himself the hard questions. For example, when dealing with art, is the art of Jeff Hoy up to the standards set by Ruben de Vela, Craig Henderson and Scott Drouin, and if the answer isn't always Yes, then those illustrations have to go. If all of the illustrations are labeled correctly, then even Jeff Hoy isn't always up to his own standards. If you're in the store, take a look at the machine at the bottom of page 85. Clunky and uneven. Take a look at the next page, also supposedly by Jeff Hoy, a completely different style, much sleeker and smoother. Same issue on page 98. The first exosuit looks like another artists did it while the next two aren't quite in the same style. Of course, this being art, everyone is going to have their own opinions and what pleases one person isn't going to please them all.

Factory has many strong points. One of them is the price. At 192 pages, $24.95 is a damn good price. Factory is better than Arsenal but still flounders around a bit for lack of a setting. It reminds me of Dark Space, a good thing, with the magic cybernetics, and it looks like it'd be a good mesh with some play testing with DragonStar. If you're looking for super technology with a 'magic' origin, then Factory is your book.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Brad Mix, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
This review is for Factory by Perpetrated Press. This 192-page softbound books retails for $24.95 and is worth every penny. Written by Erik Kjerland this offers to add mechanization and new technology to your d20 world.

First Blood
Let me start this by saying that is not meant to be used against wizards and warriors but should be used in a setting like d20 Modern or Dragonstar or any other setting that uses computers.

The first thing the book starts off with is balance issues and how to resolve them. Depending on how much technology you want to have in place in the campaign setting will help you determine how much technology to use. If you are playing a Terminator inspired game then everything in this book is for you. If you just want a few new ideas for golems then you could use some of this information.

A wide array of technomagic based campaigns are possible. Apocalyptic civilizations could be coming back to power. Cyberpunk is a world controlled by corporate powers and anything to increase efficiency is needed. For a typical fantasy campaign robots could be just advanced golems that shoot fireballs.

Some new skills are introduced to use this new tech. Computer use, Craft: Computer, Pilot: Exo suit, and Repair. New feats include Craft: Robotics, Craft: Software, Implant Dweoware (wearable tech) and Strong Soul which helps you avoid the unpleasant side effects of dweoware.

Some new spells are included as well. Spells like heal light wounds have been reengineered to be used for items. Heal light damage is the result. My favorite spell is blue screen of death. This is familiar to anyone with a computer. All of a sudden your screen turns blue and nothing works. Over 30 spells are included.

Computers, their history and their role in society are covered next. Computers are listed as magic items for the purposes of game play and can be effected by dispel magic and anti-magic fields. Some very secure computers have added protection to protect from dispel magic. An optional in depth rule allows for more detailed computer use. Instead of just one check, additional checks are needed to access different areas of a computer system. This requires more work for the GM but adds a touch of realism to hacking into a computer.

Robotics and their special issues are next. These robots have all of the ability scores except constitution. They also have many immunities, like immune to sleep, no need to breath, can’t use potions, immunity to mind altering effects and do not suffer the effects of aging. Size does matter for a robot. The bigger it is, the tougher it is. The bigger it is, the more you have to destroy to kill it. Both hardware and software upgrades are available and a decent description is given for each. Robots for PC’s to encounter are also included. These can also be used as ordinary utility robots if the combat program is removed. The traffic control, police, security, assault, reconnaissance, onslaught, riot control, and transcendent robot are all given the standard write up. The transcendents believe that the human race needs to be exterminated to allow the evolution of robotic forms to continue.

Powered exosuits are basic tools that a character can wear to perform some hazardous activities. Like working next to a volcano. A basic suit does not offer a lot of options It is the upgrades that can turn a character into an Iron Man clone or a Gundam warrior. These suits are very expensive though.

Robots as PC’s is a very interesting chapter. The rare spark of life has been granted to a few robots. Be it from a deity or some other force, the robot is alive. A class and alignment are chosen. But the ability scores are determined by the type of robot that was manufactured. All the standard classes from the PHB are included and tips on how and why a robot would chose that class. A few upgrades are allowed and if not used are lost. I found the Robot Shadowdancer to be a little odd though. A special character sheet is also included at the back of the book.

A d20Modern conversion chapter handles the details using this book in that setting. The biggest change is in the massive damage rule. Some of these robots can deal massive damage to most folks on an average roll. It is up to the GM on how to use massive damage or to tweak it a bit. Options for each are included.

Critical Hits
Being an old Shadowrun player I was immediately drawn to the Dweonetics chapter. Dweonetics are permanent magical items implanted into a characters body. The person getting the implant pays all of the XP cost for an item. Common dweoware includes darkvision, hyper reflexes, muscle grafts, spell resistance, and subdermal plating. Before running out to get these items you need to be warned about some of the side effects like, nausea, confusion, internal organ damage, death, and arcane psychosis. Implanting an item requires surgery. During the surgery the surgeon makes a check and depending on the result can result in complete rejection of the device by the body to critical success where no follow up check is needed by the patient. In most cases though some complications do occur. A check is made by the character. These complications can last for a few hours like nausea and confused to death. More advanced dweoware include flight, arcane organ, claws, extra arm, healing organ and stealth cloak. Over 195 implants are included. Although some are the same thing just a better version. Like muscle graft comes in +1 to +5 versions.

Critical Misses
The artwork hardly does the book justice. Black and white sketches mostly and do not give much detail. Only a few exceptions to this, mainly in the dweonetics section.

Only a few pages are devoted to weapons and these are reprints from Perpetrated’s other book Arsenal. This would have been a good opportunity to set out some new weapons along with the standard items.

Coup de Grace
I was very pleased with the ideas presented in the book. The idea of spicing up a d20Modern or other campaign is very exciting. The editing is well some with only a few spelling errors. I hope to see more of this kind of good work from Perpetrated. This is only their second work.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.