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View Full Version : Does this plot idea make sense? [Rogue Trader]



Dvil
2010-07-01, 12:13 PM
Anyone from my group, keep out! You know who you are.

So, a bit of background to the post. My group have found a wrecked ship belonging to another rogue trader and are exploring it. Due to the nature of the wreck (the full story's not important, but I can reveal it for those who are curious), the ship's now overrun with warp beasts and Orks. In addition to this, there's a mysterious entity that has access to the ship's public vox-systems and has been driving any crew who'll listen insane with his revelations. The remaining crew are fairly certain that it's a daemon more powerful than the ones they've faced so far, and the party seem to be going along with that assumption.

So, how about this: This entity is the ship's Machine Spirit? It knows that the crew are planning to scrap/destroy it as soon as they can, and it doesn't really want this. So it's actively trying to stop them, while also helping the party explore and survive in order to build up their gratitude, so it can ask for a skeleton staff from their crew, one who'll work to repair the ship and keep it running.

I really like the twist, but what do you guys think?

Ormagoden
2010-07-01, 12:17 PM
Sounds fun!

Can the spirit be recovered by removing the "core" of the vehicle so it can be reused elsewhere? It might try and get the party to do that instead. (Might be a reward for it too)

Or maybe they could integrate it with their ship and get a new "crew member"

Dvil
2010-07-01, 12:21 PM
Hmm, both good ideas. Maybe there's a block of some psy-active material that houses the machine spirit, and wires of this material through the ship? I guess there's nothing wrong with that, Xenos (a Black Library novel) has a very similar concept. Yeah, I think I might run with that. It makes a little more sense than recruiting a new crew (which would be thousands even on a skeleton staff).

awa
2010-07-01, 07:18 PM
i could be mistaken but i was always under the impresion that the machine spirte was depending on the situation an explantation in place becuase of a lack of understanding about how machines work in the imperium or an extremly simple automated system not a full fledged AI

The Glyphstone
2010-07-01, 07:22 PM
Full AI's are abominations, and not tolerated by the Imperium. It's never quite explained what machine spirits are, though - sometimes they're proto-AIs, sometimes they're human brains cyberlinked into machinery.

Kaun
2010-07-01, 07:56 PM
Yeah i always though the machine spirit was just a made up thing like the tooth fairy or the Varruca gnome.

Dr.Gunsforhands
2010-07-01, 08:59 PM
You could just pull on a sci-fi trope from outside of the setting and say it's a regular machine spirit that became a full AI accidentally. At this point, the thing would have a few options:

1. It might not even realize what happened. As far as it's concerned, everything it does is a natural reaction to its inputs, and it's just rolling with it like a little kid who hordes candy wrappers and steals shoes but is unable to explain why. Similarly, it'll lash out when its outlook is challenged or the ship is threatened, making for an interesting fight at the end of the adventure... unless the party Explorator talks it down instead.

2. The AI's existence is related to the warp. It's possessed, or its personality is otherwise dictated by the demons that infest the ship. As such, it wastes no time in slaughtering its entire crew and it plays cruel mind games with the party when they show up. Once the monster controlling it is dispatched, however, the computer, 'wakes up,' and tries to atone for what it's done. With its reactivated patriotism circuits, this amounts to ejecting any remaining bad guys into space and then promptly deleting itself.

3. It's a fully cognizant, intelligent being somehow. At this point, its priorities involve trying to make things work out properly for everyone without revealing this and thus getting massacred by the Imperium. Thus the cover story. Once that fails, it'll probably try to convince everyone that it's just a piece of really, really ancient human tech with a particularly friendly user interface and definitely doesn't really have a will of its own, no siree. It might not even be lying, save to itself.

The third one is the most likely to end up becoming a sort of helpful NPC shipmate, especially when you consider that this is not Dark Heresy but Rogue Trader, where abominations can occasionally get a pass if they're cool enough. This can lead to further plot hooks (such as by remembering the other ship's leads, contacts and bounties) and/or stab everyone in the back later (such as by freaking out and detonating when it realizes it's on an imperial planet, forcing the party to get a new ship).

Ranos
2010-07-01, 09:21 PM
Yeah i always though the machine spirit was just a made up thing like the tooth fairy or the Varruca gnome.

I think they started out as this, mere admech superstition, but widespread belief sort of brought them into existence.

OP's scenario sounds more like a full-on AI, a very advanced remnant from the dark ages of technology, which can be plenty of fun too. After all, what self-respecting rogue trader wouldn't want to get their hands on that kind of forbidden technology ?

Talkkno
2010-07-01, 09:28 PM
It'll all be fun and games until the Admech or the Inquisition comes and terminates you with extreme prejudice. :smallamused:

Kaun
2010-07-01, 09:34 PM
Keep in mind if it starts singing "Daisy Bell" your players may hang you.

chiasaur11
2010-07-01, 10:52 PM
Keep in mind if it starts singing "Daisy Bell" your players may hang you.

Or Durandal.

And really, if it says anything like "P-p-p-a-thetic Hacker" or mentions cake, they probably'll be killing it no matter what it says.

Grumman
2010-07-01, 11:23 PM
I'd definitely say go with the uncorrupted, legitimate AI. It might have a one-track mind, but there are examples of machine spirits in the canon that can think of this kind of scheme, like the Land Raider machine spirit that kept on fighting after its crew was killed, up to and including luring the enemy inside, shutting the doors and gassing them all.

pasko77
2010-07-02, 02:54 AM
If I was a player there, I would think that a demon entered the AI.
I wouldn't find believable not finding influence of Chaos.

paddyfool
2010-07-02, 03:29 AM
Another way to get a "ghost in the machine" would be:

Perhaps this rival rogue trader has been messing around with Eldar tech looted off some wreck or battlefield. In this case, somewhere on this ship, you might have the wraithbone core of an Eldar ship, wraithguard or dreadnought, which has in turn taken over the automated systems of the vessel and is trying to drive off humans, orks and warp beasts and signal its home craftworld for help.

Talkkno
2010-07-02, 03:37 AM
Another way to get a "ghost in the machine" would be:

Perhaps this rival rogue trader has been messing around with Eldar tech looted off some wreck or battlefield. In this case, somewhere on this ship, you might have the wraithbone core of an Eldar ship, wraithguard or dreadnought, which has in turn taken over the automated systems of the vessel and is trying to drive off humans, orks and warp beasts and signal its home craftworld for help.

How would that work out though? Physic engineering isn't exactly straight up compatible with Imperial tech.

Zen Master
2010-07-02, 03:49 AM
Did you ever play the System Shock games?

They were completely wonderful things from a plot perspective - even if they were both using somewhat dated technology, even at the time of their release.

In the first one (as far as memory serves) a crazy administrator removed the moral blocks on a space station AI so he could pursue his mad plans for scientific progress and the involuntary cyborgification of everyone on the station. You get to defeat the villian, the AI and any number of mutants and cyborgs - finally jettisoning a part of the station into deep space.

In the second, you awaken from hypersleep to discover things have gone terribly wrong on a colony vessel you were assigned to. Having arrived at the planet to be colonised, various advanced lifeforms have been discovered, and brought aboard. Also, a technological artefact of possible alien origin has been discovered on planet. This, of course, is the memory core of the original AI. Et voila - you get defeat the AI once again. Maybe.

Look the games up - their Wiki entries are filled with inspiration.

paddyfool
2010-07-02, 03:58 AM
How would that work out though? Physic engineering isn't exactly straight up compatible with Imperial tech.

I take it you mean "psychic" engineering? How about a mad scientist did it? (While trying to test some bonkers theory about how Eldar tech worked, he inadvertently enabled it to bridge the divide).

Also, on the original machine spirit idea... isn't the machine god actually one of the C'tan?

Grumman
2010-07-02, 04:03 AM
If I was a player there, I would think that a demon entered the AI.
I wouldn't find believable not finding influence of Chaos.
But that's boring. You deal with a Chaos-corrupted AI the same way you deal with a Chaos-corrupted anything else: you find it and kill it. An uncorrupted machine spirit offers something different to the norm.

pasko77
2010-07-02, 04:24 AM
But that's boring. You deal with a Chaos-corrupted AI the same way you deal with a Chaos-corrupted anything else: you find it and kill it. An uncorrupted machine spirit offers something different to the norm.

You are right, as a DM, but I said "as a player" that is, I would not believe it, and I'd burn it for good measure :)
That's what usually happens, first fire then ask...

pasko77
2010-07-02, 04:25 AM
Also, on the original machine spirit idea... isn't the machine god actually one of the C'tan?

Heretic!
Burn the heretic!