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| Image: Fria Ligan. |
This is post number 29 in the series “30 Days of Tales from the Loop,” a celebration of the game set in an 80s that never was.
Robots are a significant part of the Tales from the Loop setting. Even a casual glance through the art book would tell you that, and the rulebook includes more robot background info and features robots prominently in at least one of the adventures.
If that’s STILL not enough robot content, then I’m here to help. Below you’ll find four robots to use in your game. These robots are intended for you to drop into your game in a variety of ways. Here are a few examples of how your Kids might encounter them:
- The Kids find the robot already in their Hideout. (Remember: don’t throw Trouble at the Kids in their Hideout. This encounter would be for a friendly robot.)
- Someone finds the robot in a junkyard or other abandoned location.
- The robot follows a Kid home, or to school, or to wherever else they’re headed.
- One or more of the Kids follows a suspicious trail that leads to the robot. (For example, a beeping sound, or a column of smoke over the trees, or a radio signal that turns their Walkman into a tracking device.)
The Wrecker
“<CRUMPLE!> <CRUNCH!> <THUD!>”
A local junkyard is now employing a two-story-tall bulky industrial robot to compact cars, appliances, and other large metal refuse into tidy cubes. This robot wrecker is slow-moving but incredibly strong and tough (metal might 3). The machine is normally obedient, but lately has come to believe that its mental abilities are going to waste in its current job, and is looking for a way to prove it is more than a simple laborer. The wrecker cannot speak, but perhaps it can communicate its wishes through its chosen art form: metal sculpting.
The Foreigner
“Mayotte imasu. Tetsudatte kuremasu ka?”
This poor robot has become separated (or escaped) from its owners far away and is trying to either get back home or make a new life for itself here. It is roughly human-shaped, though a bit small, and seems timid and frightened. It also doesn’t have a language in common with the Kids. If they learn to communicate with the foreign robot, will it ask for help, or will it tell them something frightening it learned from its original owners?
The Janitor
“Ah! A broken radio!”
The school’s newest addition to its employee roster is a robot designated J0, called “Joe” by the teachers and students. Although some parents object to having a robot working so near their children, Joe gets along well with the kids, and the school has never been cleaner. Joe also really likes his job, and especially likes the opportunity it gives him to add to his collection of discarded electronics and bits of local culture (such as toys and photos torn from magazines).
The Pet
“Weeeeeoooooooooo. WooooooOOOO?”
This cute little bugger is smaller than a football and had big, friendly, innocent-looking eyes (or cameras, or infrared sensors, or whatever he uses for vision). And that low-frequency vibration he’s putting out is very similar to a cat’s purr. Where did he come from? What was he made for? Perhaps he’s a messenger sent by someone else, or he (knowingly or not) contains data that is valuable to a less-friendly third party. And what if this cute form he’s in is not his only one…