The Black Campbell

[Spoilers abound, so gamers in my campaign, don’t read this post!]

Of course the Cylons were never coming back…they’ve been gone, what, 40 years or more? We’re much more careful with our programming of the robots the government allows us to build, our networks are robust with excellent firewalls and virus-sieves. Why worry?

Here’s a few ideas for infiltration the Cylons might try in addition to the Command Navigation Program — I envision a society that is on the verge of making the exact same mistake they made a few decades back. Roslin, in the show, wants to network computers, Baltar is being interviewed about lifting a ban on artificial intelligence research, Pegasus had a lot of automation…it’s a modern world with ubiquitous computing, self-driving cars, expert system computers (but not sentient.) And much of that stuff is accessible via the various planetary datanets. You can see what I’m getting at (read Robopocalypse for a better idea of some things you can do to cause mayhem when the Cylons strike…)

The new combat Centurions (new show style)  are just as they are in the core rulebook, but I added the trait Enhanced Perception d4 — my Cylons are going to have IR and enhanced hearing…just to make them that much more dangerous. They also gain a Perception skill of d4.

They won’t be the only machines on the battlefield:

Spyders

These are six-legged non-sentient surveillance robots designed to enter structures or hazardous areas and provide data to the centurions. (Think the spider bots from Minority Report.)

Agility d10   Strength d6   Vitality d6   Alertness d8   Intelligence d4   Willpower d4; Life Points 10, Armor 2W, Initiative d10+d8

Traits: Enhanced Locomotion d4 (can climb wals, etc.), Enhanced Perception (IR, UV, other sensors) d6

Skills: Athletics d6, Covert d6, Perception d4

Bugs — the Cylons employ various artificial insect-like critters to do surveillance. On their own, they are not particularly dangerous other than they are wirelessly connected to the centurion units running them, but in a swarm, their bites can do some damage.

Physical d2 Mental d4; Life Points 4, Armor 1W, Initiative d2+d4

Traits: Swarm (d2S damage per/10 bugs attacking)

Skills: Athletics d4, Perception d4

Motocenturion — out of an urban environment or if speed is needed, the bipedal design is impractical, hence the hybrid centurions created to operate off-road or in difficult environments. The following represent a motorcycle hybrid (think the Terminator motorcycle terminators.)

Agility d6   Strength d10   Vitality d10   Alertness d6   Intelligence d6   Willpower d8; Life Points 18, Armor 2W (no physcial stun), Initiative 2d6, Speed 150mph

Traits: Reconfigurable d8 (motocenturions are two-wheeled, but they can raise their torso section from the engine frame and use their arms); 7mm machineguns in arms (d8W, autofire, 250 rnds each.)

Skills: Athletics d6, Guns d6 (machine gun d8), Perception d4

There is a tracked version that has the same stats as the new centurions, and they can operate in wooded and hilly conditions better than the regular bulletheads, but they are badly designed for urban environments (stairs, etc.)

Phalanx — this is a tracked tank/APC hybrid that, like the heavy raider, is a Cylon itself. It can carry six centurions or two motocenturions, plus a ton of gear. It has a 105mm main gun and a 7mm machinegun for personnel suppression. It uses reactive armor making it one tough bugger. these often operate as command and control elements for centurion fire teams assigned to it. It is vehicle scale for damage purposes.

Agility d2   Strength d12   Vitality d12   Alertness d6   Intelligence d6   Willpower d10; Life Points 22, Armor 6W, 4S, Initiative d2+d6, Speed 80 mph

Traits: Enhanced Perception d4, 105mm cannon (d12W, 40 rnds), 7mmMG (d8W [personal scale], 500 rnds)

Skills: Athletics d4, Discipline d6, Heavy Weaponry d6, Perception d6

Next up, the humanoid Cylons…

With the reboot of my Battlestar Galactica campaign, I decided I wanted to break from the new show a bit and take a fresh look at the Cylons. There will still be the clankers from the First War and the bulletheads from the new, but I was thinking about the non military and other sorts of Cylons that might have been seen in the First Cylon War…

So…here’s a bunch of the old Basic Cybernetic Life Nodes (Cylons) — these were humanoid robotic lifeforms that served in various civilian functions:

Agility d6   Strength d12   Vitality d12   Alertness d6   Intelligence d6   Willpower d6; Life Points 18, Armor 2W, Initiative 2d6

Skills (Construction): Athletics d6, Craft d6, Mechanical Engineering d6, Technical Engineering d6; (Rescue) Athletics d6, Mechanical Engineering d4, Medical Expertise d6, Survival d4

Caretaker Cylons: these were either obviously mechanical robots or simluated humans (android/gynoid) designed to interact with people on a regular basis. The androids had realistic silicon skin, facial features and responses, but were still easily distinguishable from people.

Agility d6   Strength d8   Vitality d12   Alertness d6   Intelligence d6   Willpower d6; Life Points 18, Initiative 2d6

Traits: Duty d6, Uncanny (d2 added to social tests when attempting to pass as human)

Skills: Athletics d2, Craft d6, Knowledge d4, Performance d4, Planetary Vehicles d4, Survival d6 (First Aid d8); (Sex Robots [you know they had ’em…]) add Influence d2, Performance d6

Here’s the Model 0005 Centurion:

Agility: d6   Strength: d12   Vitality: d12   Alertness: d6   Intelligence: d6   Willpower: d6; Life Points: 18   Armor: 4W (no stun from physical attacks), Initiative: 2d6

Skills (Basic Centurion): Athletics d6, Covert d2, Discipline d6, Guns d6 (Rifle d8), Heavy Weaponry d6, Mechanical Engineering d4, Melee Combat d6, Perception d6, Technical Engineering d4, Unarmed Combat d6; (Pilot Centurion) add Planetary Vehicles d6, Pilot d6

Model 0006 Infiltration Cylon — These were improved version of sexbots, designed to be as close to realistic as possible. They still suffered from having synthetic skin and twitchy responses — they were still fairly easy to spot, but were good at infiltrating crowded areas where they did not have to do much interacting with people.

Agility d6   Strength d10   Vitality d10   Alertness d6   Intelligence d6   Willpower d6; Life Points 16, Initiative 2d6

Traits: Uncanny d2 (counts against them in social tests)

Skills: Athletics d6, Covert d4, Guns d6, Influence d4, Knowledge d4, Technical Engineering d6, Unarmed Combat d6

RUMORED: Near the end of the war, the Cylons were attempting to perfect the 0006 by encasing them in human skin. These versions were never seen and it was thought that the flesh casing would be difficult to maintain and would rot over time. These hybrids are considered urban legend.

Next up, the new toasters…