[FOCI]
Cypher System Rulebook 1e
Your near-mutant brilliance is mechanically focused, and it allows you to create artificial entities who accept you for who you are. As an added bonus, they do what you command without complaint. You're not entirely sure you've arrived at nirvana by surrounding yourself with artificial beings, but it'll do for now.
Because your robots don't have an opinion, you're not too concerned with your appearance. You tend to throw the same shop coat over whatever you happen to be wearing beneath.
Paradoxes are most drawn to this focus, though sometimes vectors build robots, too, because they appreciate allies in a fight.
The word "robot" is used globally in this focus, though the robot you create might look very different from one created by someone else in a different Weird Science recursion. In Ruk, your artificial assistant is a cybernetic chrysalid that incorporates both biological and artificial parts. The nature of the robots you build and can interact with depends on the technology of the recursion; if this focus is offered in a different recursion, robots built there could be primarily metallic, organic, cybernetic, or crystalline, or use some other high technology.
Clothing appropriate to your recursion (in Ruk, a bodysuit and an umbilical), shop coat, robot spare parts, robot tool kit, weapon of your choice, and an account with 10 bits.
Minor Special Effect: The robot jolts your foe, which modifies any action taken by the foe on its next turn by one step to its detriment.
Major Special Effect: Your robot takes an an immediate extra action that you choose.
A level 2 robot of your size or smaller (built by you) accompanies you and follows your instructions. You and the GM must work out the details of your robot. You'll probably make rolls for your robot when it takes actions. An assistant robot in combat usually doesn't make separate attacks but helps with yours. On your action, if the artificial assistant is next to you, it serves as an asset for one attack you make on your turn. If the robot is destroyed, you can repair the original with a few days' worth of tinkering, or build a new one with a week's worth of half-time labor.
Robot assistant level 2; health 6; inflicts a minor wound (2 points)
You are trained in tasks related to building and repairing robots. For the purposes of repair, you can use this skill to heal robots that use similar technology.
You use your knowledge of robot command and control (and possibly devices that transmit on the proper frequency) to affect any mechanized system or robot of level 2 or less within short range. You can render several targets inactive for as long as you focus all your attention on them. If you focus on just one target, you can attempt to take active control of it for one minute, commanding it to do simple tasks on your behalf while you concentrate. Instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty, you can apply Effort to increase the maximum level of the mechanized system or above the normal limit), you must apply two levels of Effort.
Action to initiate.
Your artificial assistant increases to level 4.
Improved robot assistant level 4; health 12; inflicts a moderate wound (4 points)
You modify your artificial assistant with one new capability. Standard options include the following. Work with your GM if you prefer a different capability.
Action to reconfigure; action to return to normal robot configuration.
You can choose another upgrade from tier 4, or you can take Robot Fleet. If you take Robot Fleet, you build up to four level 2 robot assistants, each no larger than yourself. (They are in addition to the assistant you built at first tier, which has seen a few upgrades since then.) You and the GM must work out the details of these additional robots. If a robot is destroyed, you can build a new one (or repair the old one from its parts) after a week of half-time labor.
You can choose another upgrade from tier 4, or you can take Robot Evolution. If you take Robot Evolution, your first artificial assistant increases to level 5, and each of your level 2 robots increases to level 3.
Evolved robot assistant level 5; health 15; inflicts a moderate wound (5 points)
GM Intrusions: A robot is hacked. A robot wakes up with a mind of its own. A robot struck in combat unexpectedly detonates. A robot becomes jealous of your living allies.