Does Veeky Forums want to help me roll up a few locations for an Engine Heart game? We'll start by using the tables in the book to create one location, then once it's finished we can make a couple more and maybe figure out some ways to connect them all together.
To start with, someone please roll a d10 for the average building condition in Location A.
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Rolled 2 (1d10)
Sorry, had to take a phone call.
OKAY! Looks like this place is pretty much destroyed, as the average building can charitably be described as "rubble". Not a lot of opportunities to find shelter around here, and all that rubble leaves a lot of open spaces This will give us a -4 modifier to the next roll, so please roll another d10 for average building density in Location A. To roll with a penalty, use this syntax:
dice+1d10+-4
Just gonna dump the next tables because I'll be away for a little bit again.
...
FUCK YEAH ENGINE HEART
>reddit shart
Rolled 4 - 4 (1d10 - 4)
Going to roll here since nobody else has
It appears that Location A consists of a single building that's mostly just rubble. Maybe it was a castle, maybe it was just a utility shed. Whatever it was, it's the only structure (or ruins of a structure) in the immediate area. Doesn't seem like there's much going on, and there's a good chance that the power is off for good (if this place ever had power to begin with).
But let's find out for sure. Somebody please roll to check for working power outlets:
dice+1d10+-5
Rolled 4 + 5 (1d10 + 5)
Seconded! I missed this game.
That plus-five should be a minus, so that's a big negatory on having any available power draws around these parts. Looks like Location A is off the grid for good! Or at least until somebody gets the lights back on again.
Anyway, this lack of electricity means that any working robots have little reason to visit this place, although it's possible that some might just be in the area while passing through to somewhere more glitzy. Let's roll another d10 to find out the quantity of robots in the area, and if there turn out to be some around we can figure out their quality later.
Put this in the Options field:
dice+1d10+-5
Rolled 6 - 5 (1d10 - 5)
Ah there we go. Didn't see the minus sign.
A valiant effort, but one pip too low to have even a single robot lurking about.
But that's all right, because we've still got two locations to go! Starting off with a really low roll like that first 2 means that the odds of having much around are slim to none, but it never hurts to check.
>Location A:
>A single building, reduced to rubble, with no available electricity. If there were ever any other structures around here, they're totally destroyed.
Time to head down the road and see what else we can find! Someone please roll a d10 to find out how well-preserved Location B will be!
Gonna bump
Rolled 2 (1d10)
This area seems pretty desolated, because the only thing up the road from that pile of rubble is some more rubble!
The buildings might be destroyed right down to the basement windows, but we still don't know how many buildings used to be here, so someone please roll
dice+1d10+-4
to find out how many buildings there are in Location B
Rolled 2 - 4 (1d10 - 4)
Low rolls are truly worse than atomic weapons when it comes to making sure there's no trace of mankind around. Okay, so up the road from Location A, a single building reduced to rubble, is Location B, a single building reduced to rubble.
Here's hoping that the next town up the road has a little more going for it, but since we're stuck here for the time being, let's check and see if any of these exposed wires are still live.
Somebody please roll:
dice+1d10+-5
and we'll find out if this place has any juice.
Rolled 10 - 5 (1d10 - 5)
>dice+1d10+-5
Does that +- work like you think it does?
Really, since it doesn't show the result, you don't even have to bother and we can just do the math ourselves. The dev probably only made a script to handle bonuses correctly.
Anyway, WOW! A 10!
Even with the -5 to the roll, that still means that there is at least one place where you can plug in and recharge around here, but according to this, there's at least one robot lurking around here, and what's worse, he's hoarding our juice!
Somebot roll:
1d10+1
to find out how many robots there are around here.
Should have said to roll
dice+1d10+1
...
Bump
Rolled 10 + 1 (1d10 + 1)
>Rolled 10
Two 10s in a row? The dice are making amends and then some, it would seem.
Well, this is pretty interesting. Even though there are no buildings around here and only the crumbled foundations of a single structure, there are not only hundreds of robots hanging around, but also enough places to charge your battery that all these hundreds of robots can stay operational all at once. Maybe instead of a city, it's some kind of electrical relay station out in the middle of nowhere, where there aren't any buildings but there's still a working power grid in the immediate area. Or maybe there used to be a factory here and now the only thing that's left is an industrial generator that's still running, and hundreds of robots have accumulated here since they're all looking for a place to plug in.
Anyone else have thoughts?
Anyway, the last thing to do is see what kind of organization has arisen among all these robots that are improbably camping in the woods. Somebody please roll:
1d10+3
and we'll find out their social structure. Maybe it'll give a clue about why they're all here in the first place.
Yea
Yeah
YES
Dice goes in the Options field like this
dice+1d10
Rolled 2 + 3 (1d10 + 3)
I can't do it
You did it!
And you got the best result, Ochlocracy! This literal mob of hundreds of miscreant robots is lurking in the middle of the wilderness, and has no qualms about taking a traveling robot for all it's worth. I'm getting some strong bandit camp vibes here, what with the hidden power supply that the locals don't tell you about and the hundreds of robots lurking and waiting to rob you of your loose screws and human fossils.
Location A might have been nothing to email home about, and Location B turned out to be deceptively deep. What might lure the players into a false sense of security ("Oh boy, another single building in ruins with no power sources in sight") could turn out to be a very formidable challenge.
If there are any robots in Location C, they might already know about the Bad Bots of Location B, and possibly even have dealings with them, but that's a big "if" right now, so let's get started on the last third of this area.
Somebody please roll a d10 to find out the average condition of the building(s) in Location C.
Rolled 9 (1d10)
I dub thee “Hoarding bot” as “Mighty Electron”, a warlord of raiding bots!
>Rolled 9 (1d10)
>I dub thee “Hoarding bot” as “Mighty Electron”, a warlord of raiding bots!
You might get your wish! Even though the hundreds of ill-programmed robots are squatting in the woods of Location B, there's at least one well-maintained building not too far away in Location C that could be ripe for the picking! Whether it's because of some kind of super-material that's allowed it to resist weathering in pristine shape, or it's still being tended to by some custodian is yet to be determined.
Somebody please roll 1d10+1 to find out how many move-in-ready properties are on the market in Location C!
Actually, I guess there's at least two or three buildings since the roll has a +1 modifier.
Rolled 7 (1d10)
I forgot modificators, is this fine?
That 7 becomes an 8 and we're suddenly looking at an entire city of new or nearly-new buildings, somehow preserved in time since the age of the humans with only one or two broken windows in the whole place!
But why would the hundreds of robot raiders in Location B choose to live in the woods and not in this perfect 1:1 museum of the creator race? Could it be that this City by the Location C is inoperative and without power? There's at least one working power outlet somewhere in the city, and at least one active robot, but the existence of both might be a closely-guarded secret.
Let's crack open this mystery and find out how much electricity this city can muster! Somebody please roll:
dice+1d10+3
and we'll find out if the city council has been paying their power bill.
Rolled 6 + 3 (1d10 + 3)
My bet it’s because they are in slums nearby of this little almost perfect city.
Looks like free power is not an easy thing to come by around here, so you might be right about Bandit Camp B being a squatter camp in the bright shadow of City C. There are definitely at least a few live robots in the city, but either there just aren't many places to plug in, or the locals are somehow able to control access to either power, or the city itself.
Maybe there are some kind of automated defenses or barriers that keep outsiders outside of the city walls, and the squatter camp is actually just huddled around the edge of the city and using those outlets that you sometimes see on the exteriors of buildings. Maybe we'll be able to state a little more about this city once we figure out how many robots are active in Location C, so somebody please roll
dice+1d10+2
and we'll get a head count.
Rolled 1 + 2 (1d10 + 2)
Yea
Rolled 9 + 2 (1d10 + 2)
Lest roll!
Damn.
Even with that bonus, a 1 is a 1. Turns out that in this entire city, there are so few robots running around that their presence is barely more than a rumor, yet somehow the city is maintained in almost pristine condition. There's definitely some electricity in working order, but not enough for both the handful of locals AND anyone else to share.
I'm just going to flip your roll over and use it as the next result, which is for the social structure that's developed in this mysterious city. Nine minus five gives us four, which seems to indicate that this city's remaining autonomous workforce has been keeping up appearances and going through the motions of daily existence. What's more, their protocols don't allow for sharing power with outsiders.
Rolled 7, 3, 2, 4, 7, 9, 9, 9, 8, 5, 5, 1, 8, 8, 8 = 93 (15d10)
That completes this area. To review:
>Location A
>The rubble of a single building, with no working power outlets and no other robots residing in the area.
>Location B
>The rubble of a single building, but there are hundreds of robots nearby, as well as working power outlets, but the locals don't share electricity freely with outsiders. In fact, the mob of robots actively works to exploit outside robots when it will benefit them. May or may not be incited to raid others by a warlord bot named Mighty Electron.
>Location C
>A small city (but a city nonetheless) in almost perfect condition, largely untouched by the ravages of time and malfunctioning robots. While there are only a handful of robots found within this city, they require more electricity than the city can easily provide them, even though they're still performing all the jobs that the city forehumans instilled and installed in them way back when.
I really like user's idea about a squatter shantytown built up around the outer edge of the glitzy perfect city. Maybe all these hundreds of robots have pried off enough panels of the city's outer walls that they've been able to rig up a makeshift power grid of their own, and that's what's causing the dutiful robots within the city to suffer from a lack of reliable electricity?
I might roll up another area all at once and fill it out later just in case. This was fun.
Rolled 10, 6, 1, 9, 4, 7, 6, 2, 3, 10, 4, 4, 3, 6, 6 = 81 (15d10)
>7, 3, 2, 4, 7
>A few poorly-maintained buildings, enough to provide shelter from the wind and rain but not much more. None of the outlets work. There are no robots here.
>9, 9, 9, 8, 5
>A very large, well-maintained city with common and abundant power supplies. There are at least a few hundred robots active in the city; however, order is enforced by a single ruler, and every local robot knows its place in the city's hierarchy. Any robots that step out of line become permanent volunteers after a quick lobotomy.
>5, 1, 8, 8, 8
>A single building that's falling apart. There don't seem to be any working power outlets around, but that's only because of a problem that could be easy to correct if the right robot knew about it. If the problem could be fixed, this place would have working power again (at least for a while). Whatever happened to disable the power supply might have been fairly recently, because there are a few robots lingering in the area. If the power gets fixed, the local robots will cooperate with each other to pretend their shared place of employment isn't on the verge of literal ruin.
I love doing these!
Rolled 10, 10, 9, 10, 7, 9, 5, 3, 5, 3, 1, 4, 7, 2, 6 = 91 (15d10)
>10, 6, 1, 9, 4
>A new-looking city, so well-maintained that it's like all the humans vanished last night. Power is available, but hidden. There are at least a few hundred robots in the city, but they only cooperate due to someone being able to withhold power to the robots that refuse to obey it.
>7, 6, 2, 3, 10
>A poorly-maintained small town, with a disabled (but potentially working) power supply. If there were any robots around before the power stopped working, they're all gone now.
>4, 4, 3, 6, 6
>Two or three collapsing buildings, with no permanent power sources to be found in the area. There is a single robot dwelling here, possibly with an atomic battery or solar panel that lets it continue operating off the grid. There is no law and order around here, and the sole resident is just as liable to help you as hijack you.
>10, 10, 9, 10, 7
>A very large, clean and new city with seemingly endless amounts of power, populated by equally huge amounts of robots. However, all the robots have been reprogrammed to serve a single master. Any strangers entering the city will likely be targeted for reprogramming if they catch the ruler's attention.
>9, 5, 3, 5, 3
>A well-maintained small town, with a hidden power supply (hidden to outsiders, anyway) and at least seen or eight robots in the vicinity. The rule here is very much "law of the jungle", where even if you discover where the hidden power source is, you'll have to shove someone else out of the way and fight for the right to plug in.
>1, 4, 7, 2, 6
>A totally flattened building with no electricity and no robots around.
I bet this megacity and the one here are rivals.
Last one from me. Somebody else can do one.