[Types]

Android

You were manufactured, not born. Some might say that makes you superior to living people, especially those born without the benefit of strict genetic oversight. And even people who have used genetic engineering lack your ability to upgrade yourself as needed to deal with new situations, jobs, and wherever your curiosity might lead. Your integument and frame are tougher than skin and bones, and you have a way with other machines that most living things never will.

You were manufactured, not born. Some might say that makes you superior to living people, especially those born without the benefit of strict genetic oversight. And even people who have used genetic engineering lack your ability to upgrade yourself as needed to deal with new situations, jobs, and wherever your curiosity might lead. Your integument and frame are tougher than skin and bones, and you have a way with other machines that most living things never will.

As adaptable as you are, you can take multiple different roles on your team over time, including serving as a frontline combatant. You’re equally useful in other situations, especially when interfacing with nearby machines. But even that pales in comparison to your android capacity to dump old skills and take on new training in something important to an emerging situation or upcoming mission.

Background Options

• You just discovered you were an android, built to mimic humans, and now you want to find your maker and ask them some tough questions.
• You were sold as a “nanny bot” to a family to watch their children, which you excelled at until the dissident bomb. Now repurposed, you hope to one day bring retribution to the offenders.
• You had an earlier existence, but as you learned a few weeks ago, your memories were erased to give you your current identity.
• One of thousands of military androids that fought in the planetary wars, you ran away.
• Raised by the institute, your life has been protected and serene. Now you’re looking for adventure farther away from the civilized worlds.
• You toiled for years to pay off your manufacture bond and were finally emancipated a few months ago.
• You’ve always loved space travel. One day you hope to upgrade yourself to become a shipmind capable of faster-than-light travel yourself.
• You were the target of a crime against artificial people a few years ago.

Android Abilities

You gain all of the following benefits:

• Able to take two more minor wounds and one more moderate wound
• Add +1 to Might Pool
• Add +1 to Speed Pool
• Add +2 to Intellect Pool
• Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice
• Freely use all weapons
• Freely use all armor Gain one weapon of your choice
• At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Science Fiction Genre Abilities list

To know what the details in an ability description mean, see Understanding Character Abilities.

Repair tasks to successfully treat (remove) your minor, moderate, and major wounds are level 1, level 3, and level 5, respectively.

Built to Hack (2+ Intellect) Enabler

When you roll to hack an unintelligent computer or machine and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don’t get a GM Intrusion if you roll a 1.) Hacking tasks—which you can initiate using your ability to wirelessly network or by directly connecting to the target machine—include breaking into secure databases, taking temporary control of remote turrets, unlocking electronically secured entrances, and so on.

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

At tier 3, the minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Flex Skill Enabler

Choose one task (other than an attack or defense skill) on which you will concentrate. For the rest of the day, you’re trained in that task. You can’t use this ability with a skill in which you’re already trained to become specialized. This ability refreshes when you use a ten-hour recovery.

Androids using Flex Skill usually accomplish the training by expanding data they already downloaded, compressed, and stored in their system, though in some cases accessing a specialized skill might require connecting to an external data hub.

Machine Not Flesh Enabler

You are a sophisticated, intelligent machine with a generally humanoid shape; work with your GM to determine specifics. This gives you the following benefits:

• You gain an additional +4 points to permanently distribute among your Pools.
• You gain an additional +1 Edge in one Pool of your choice.
• Your nonbiological body is immune to standard poisons, diseases, and the vacuum of space, and you do not need to eat, drink, or breathe (though you must still rest and take recoveries).
• If you can connect to an electrical conduit, charging station, or similar location that can provide you with power, you can take an extra one-action recovery each day.
• You ease any hacking tasks you attempt.

Your machine nature also comes with some downsides:

• Instead of using healing, treatment of your wounds requires engineering. Accelerated healing methods developed for biological creatures (such as the Prepared Medic ability from the Medic type) don’t work on you at all.
• If you cannot connect to a suitable power supply during your ten-hour recovery, you lose your normal one-action recovery and your bonus (connected to power) recovery until you do so.

Some biologicals look down on androids. At the GM’s discretion, your positive interaction tasks with such individuals are hindered.

Android Equipment Bundle

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment

A heavy blaster, three weapon energy packs (50 shots each), appropriate clothing, spray-on impact armor (ten uses), extra clothes and accessories for disguise, an armored bodysuit, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, and the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, a first aid kit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.