Traveller SOLO: Leaving Krim 250-1106 and designing RUDI

 Somehow we did manage to find the evidence Vax Datos was looking for, along with what seems to be small AI that pleaded for help. Who were we to turn our backs on it? Plus it looked a lot like some of my vidcams I've used over the years: a floating sphere with a camera. But this one talked with us, and we managed to escape with it as well.

Back at the port, we have three very fancy autonomous grav vehicles in the lower bay, and a few crates and luggage for our guests in the empty vehicle bay. I walked our two guests to their stateroom and went over the emergency procedures. We launched within our launch time successfully, Watching sensors as the No Refunds moved to the jump point, I noticed a small craft that seemed to be following us: we were heading out-system and the ship was not a jump capable craft. As there were Space Patrol craft near by, we were not concerned. A few hours later we were where Captain Luax wanted us to be, and with Lando's blessing from the engineering deck, we entered jump space.

As soon as we were safely in jump space, I shut down my sensor deck, and started the meal preparation. First meal after jump was a spacer tradition according to the captain. While I was no chef, I managed to help Ewo cook up a fairly splendid feast. We even broke out some vintage wine from Nix, an agricultural world with a dense, tainted atmosphere that somehow grows some amazing grapes that produce a very well cultured wine. Our guests seemed to enjoy the repast before settling back into their stateroom for the first night.

So I made an 8 on the astrogation roll, and as there is not an actual astrogrator on board other than our uber-capable Ewo with astrogation-0, we still had nothing to worry about on that roll. We'll come out about where we expect to come out.

The week in jump I roll on the on-board ship events: one of the passengers appears to be extremely reclusive, and other than that 1st meal, the rest of the crew never sees him again. The other passenger, a woman named Carie Rezel, while we do see her, is also a bit stand-offish. In between cleaning and checking over the cargo (those are some sweet rides from Psziz!), Malik gets to know the robot.

Seeing if I can make my way through the T5.10 robot maker process. I may also see about the Classic Traveller Book 8, Robots, or see if there are any Cepheus rules for dealing with robots.

Size and form

This strangeform (non-humanoid) robot has a positronic brain, resulting in a holographic intelligence pattern begin developed in the iridium sponge. I want this to be about the size of a soccer ball or so, which turns out to be about 5.57 liters. So that will be 5.57 units, which is going to be pretty small for the rest of the robot! 

Brains

Using the brains table, we can calculate just how smart this is, which is a function of cost. The size is 2 units (leaving us 3.5 units) and for an intelligence of 10, putting it a bit smarter than your average human, will cost us KCr200. Note that a positronic brain ages, never sleeps, is self-powered, cannot use wafers, does not require air and has a natural personality.  Note that out C4 stat is 10, or A. C4 equates to human intelligence. 

Senses

RUDI (from the Jetsons, Referential Universal Digital Indexer. Not sure what he? she - rolled an even die, so RUDI thinks of herself as a she). The major senses (vision, hearing, smell) are in a single cluster. RUDI will not need smell, but her vision is the normal RGB for KCr10, plus telescopic for KCR40, as well as a vision replay screen (going with a holographic a la R2-D2) for KCr10. Hearing is on par with normal humans for KCr10 along with a replay module for KCr20. There is no touch awareness or smell. So other than telescopic vision, RUDI sees and hears as well as most humans do. It helps that Krim has a G6 star, so the visual range would be about the same as our star.

Body

So here is where things get tight. There is not a body, so no muscles. She has a extra-small arm (Arm-1) with a dexterous grasper for KCr10. These take 2 units, leaving us with a single unit left over. There is a standard skin, mostly of plastics and ultralight metal, so RUDI is no bruiser. Looking at the rules, RUDI won't have the 1st 3 characteristics (ST,R DEX, END) as she is basically a floating ball with a very small arm and grasper. 

Education

With an INT (C4) of 10, RUDI can have up to a EDU (C5) of 10. Oddly the table only lists EDU for 2,4 & 6. We'll give RUDI EDI 6 for KCr90. This allows RUDI up to 10 + 6 or 16 skill levels. Which may be very significant.

Sanity

Apparently robots have sanity checks, and a 5 or 6 is reasonable for a robot rarely facing challenges. Rolling I rolled a 9, so that seems reasonable as RUDI was asking to escape. KCr9 for that level. 

Social Characteristics

RUDI, being a robot, does not have social standing, nor caste. So her C6 stat is charisma. RUDI actually has a Charisma of 6 - she can lead and instruct other robots, but will obey most organics. 

Skills

Here is where I need to think through what RUDI was actually designed for. Seeing as the company that created her was both high-tech and engaged in corporate spying, her skills may reflect abilities for that. One half of the skill levels goes to the primary skill, which if RUDI is used to index foreign computers...2ary would be languages for 1/4 or 2. And finally, a Recon of 2 to be a bit sneaky, leaving us with 1 skill left that we'll leave open for the moment.

• Computer 5
• Language 2
• Anglic
• Trokh (Aslan)
• Recon 2

Manufacturer

Sprockets of Krim has created RUDI as a prototype spy / espionage robot to infiltrate other corporations and get industrial secrets.  Technically she is RUDI-001, a prototype

Miscellaneous not covered

As we've all of 1.5 units left over, going to make that a repulser / grav unit and a power cell. The rules don't work for this scale, so we can go with small fusion batteries that need to be topped off about monthly (water). RUDI is not particularly fast, can move at about a fast human run. The grav is limited and she cannot lift anything more than about 5 kilograms, which will also slow her down a bit. She also has no control codes, being a prototype.

Summary

RUDI-001   000A66    KCr389 

Arm-1 with dexterous grabber

Vision: RGB with telescopic vision, replay. Audio replay and standard audio range. 

Computer-5, Language 2 (Anglic, Trokh), Recon 2

4 week power charge via fusion battery, grav enabled.