How would you handle a techno-magical construct (brass plates, gears & clockwork, powered by a magical core, with an endearingly loyal but hopelessly inept personality) that’s been upgraded into a terrifying killing machine by the very best dwarven engineering and arcane spellcrafting money can buy?
What could it do?
What kinds of limits would it have?
What kinds of easter eggs would dwarves and wizards build into it for its owners to discover later (to their delight or dismay)?
I have some ideas of my own, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I believe there’s been a couple of playbooks for this. Check out the Engine of Destruction from Grim Portents #1, perhaps?
I definitely should have been more clear in the original post, my mistake!
I’ll definitely look those over for ideas, but the group I GM for wants to upgrade a construct they found a few sessions back – its current abilities are limited to “carry up to 10 weight”. I’m trying to pull together monster moves, hireling skills, tags, or even just descriptions and fluff for an NPC.
At the climax of the session they found him in, they managed to overload his power systems using an unrelated magical gem, and unlocked a slew of secondary combat systems: lasers, additional limbs, various blades, he roughly quadrupled in size, etc. The gem made the construct extremely unstable, so they removed it before he went nuclear, but their current aim is to spend approximately a dragon’s hoard of gold on researching this construct in order to permanently and reliably unlock those hidden functions.
My inclination would be to treat it like a Hireling with a variant of the Heritage rules to cover its weird special stuff. Something like,
“At the start of a session, or whenever the construct is fed suitably exotic fuel, roll plus loyalty(?). Ten plus, hold three, seven to nine hold two, miss hold one plus whatever the GM says (e.g., “Easter eggs”). Spend hold to perform any of your monster moves.”
Probably three moves, maybe one more if they upgrade it appropriately. I wouldn’t go any farther than that, or it starts outstripping what PCs can do. If a PC dies or something and wants to play the construct, all bets are naturally off.
How can it even be called dwarven-made if it doesn’t have a hidden booze dispenser? 😛
ya make it a hireling and give it warrior 3 protector 3. loyalty 3 and make a custom move or two after they upgrade it
when you call on the massively destructive powers of the brass construct roll + nothing. on a 10+ destroy all opposing hordes or swarms and deal 1d10 damage to other opponents. on a 7-9 destroy half of any hord or swarm and the construct loses power until you make camp. on a 6- the construct overloads with mystical energy and damages itself, opening the party up to a great threat or misfortune
when the brass construct is given time or cause to ponder it’s own existence roll + loyalty. on a 10+ The construct remains content. on a 7-9 the construct develops a strange habit or obsession ie. collecting tea cups, or referring to others as meat bags. on a 6- the construct loses 1 loyalty. if the construct loses all loyalty then it demands it’s freedom from servitude… violently
when the brass construct asks a philisophical question out of the blue and a PC answers it. roll +CHA. on a 10+ the construct understands and accepts the answer.+1 loyalty. on a 7-9 the construct thinks the PC is wrong and works to prove it. on a 6- the construct comes up with it’s own answer and the party wont like it.