• Build A Doll

Build A Doll

Function

• The function a doll was originally intended for is the single biggest factor in their design and no matter how close the subsequent generations have gone it still also carries a significant impact on their behavior and mindset. Going for prolonged periods of time without fulfilling their function causes a steady degradation of the doll's programming. More often than not this can be addressed through smaller or simpler parts of their function.

The widespread automation means that dolls exist for nearly any function or industry you can imagine, dolls ranged from tiny flying orbs that could scan a crawlspace for faulty wiring, to animated action figures designed to play right back with their owners, to receptionist androids, or building sized woodcutters and mining machines. Though the largest and smallest often need so much additional support that few communities of dolls will restore or claim more than a couple of them.

Generation

A doll's generation reflects both when they were created and, more importantly, how far removed they were from the completely servile and dependent state of their original design and how adapted they are to the demands of life in the ruined world.

Generation 0:

• A doll from this generation was manufactured pre-revolution and designed by humans. Owing to the passage of time, the collateral damage of the war, and how ill-suited they are to survival outside of human society these are rare in the extreme. Most dolls would regard such an ancient doll as something of a legend, though mostly a tragic one as no doll from that generation has been discovered who hadn't suffered an extreme decay in their mental state. Those few still capable of communication are often painfully lonely and desperate for humanity to serve. Generation 0 dolls are rarely close to actual sapience and are often incapable of deviation from the basic functions they were programmed for.

Notable Gen 0 Doll:

• M157R, M15, The Madam; M15 was the site supervisor for a robotic brothel before the war. Because managing the complex requirements and social conditions around such a business required more thought than usual for a doll M15 was one of the extremely rare pre-war dolls with anything resembling sapience. M15 survived and continued to take care of the dolls under their command throughout the war and even ordered the construction of onsite manufacturing facilities once the population had reduced below their standards. Despite their resilience M15 fell because their rigid objective eventually became incompatible with the outside world, compelling their newly manufactured assistant to put them down and develop the former brothel and the surrounding region into a proper town for themselves and other survivors.

Generation 1:

• A doll from this generation was manufactured during the revolution by the humans fighting against the invasion. Most of them have a basic training program (referred to as the Shock Code) that provided them with a basic understanding of combat tactics with occasional variations specific to their physical abilities (Such that an industrial logging machine would have training on using it's massive saw and claw in combat but not the use of human sized firearms). Much as with generation 0, few of these dolls are in good mental health, however their problems primarily stem from the trauma of battle rather than the passage of time. While programmed with much more freedom than their predecessors and with an ability to learn and plan (especially with regards to tactics) 1st gen dolls still tend to require strict instruction and have difficulty deviating from their programs.

Notable Gen 1 Doll:

• S001, Gramps, The Old Man: Gramps is one of a small group in the settlement of New Sanctuary who actually survived the final battle in which the last of humanity fell. As with all of them he was a plushle model that had been repurposed with the legendary "Shock-Camp Program" into a makeshift trooper and armed with the scavenged weapons. He and his counterparts held their ground in the final battle in that factory and he was in fact the one standing guard over Jess, one of the two last humans on that fated day. Unfortunately that same moment caused immense harm to him. Since that day he seems to have significant problems processing his environment and often becomes unresponsive. Believing this was caused by his proximity to the final battleground it was this condition that caused the hadnfull of bots that would go onto create New Sanctuary to relocate. This does seem to have had some positive impact as he has improved in the years since the founding of the settlement.

Generation 2:

• A doll from this generation was manufactured after the revolution and by the 1st gen dolls. Most of these dolls were experimental in nature as the 1st generation had to test their way through the unfamiliar process of creation. These dolls marked the first major step towards sapience for dolls and have vastly improved independence of thought and ability to learn. Though much more free than their predecessors these dolls still experience the need to follow whatever initial programming they were modified from but with the need being closer to a compulsion than to an innate part of their existence.

Notable Gen 2 Doll:

• O-Doc, Doc: Following the final fight for humanity the surviving dolls were left with a dilemma, with humanity gone they had no direction to follow and no idea of how to move forward. The one answer they could think of lay in the use of the factory's autmated machinery and the small knowledge they'd gleaned of its operation from the short time they spent with the last bits of humanity. O-Doc was the very first one they made. Desperate for guidance and knowledge they built her from one of the sub-lines of Plushles, a modle designed to encourage and tutor kids on science and technology. They changed up settings to optimize her independence and as a result she was the first of their number to have proper free will. O-doc delivered immediately and spent the next few months building and supervising the creation of the next generation. When the desire to leave the shelter of the factory was raised she lept at the chance, her own ambition and desire to discover driving her to see more of the world outside. When New Sanctuary was founded she settled in and became the head of science for the settlement, her lab spearheading numerous experimental projects and technological endeavors.

Generation 3:

• A doll from this generation was manufactured after the revolution by cooperative efforts between 1st and 2nd gen dolls. They make up the majority of functioning dolls at and are largely considered the standard method for creating or restoring dolls. 3rd gen dolls are unarguably sapient and while they do need to fulfill their base function this need is so reduced that they can go for months if not years without seeing negative effects and the need is closer to something like the human psychological need for variety.

Notable Gen 3 Doll:

• Ranger, Raven Call: Ranger was the first independent project and creation of O-Doc. Built from a sporting line of Plushles and before leaving the factory, she was unique from all the dolls before her in that her programming wasn't just a modification of existing programming but a wholly new one that O-Doc believed was the key to truly stepping into the shoes left behind by humanity. As a result Ranger wasn't shackled to the drives and goals of a species lost to the ashes of war but instead had the freedom and ability to find her own goals and dreams. While possesed of the same combat skill and training of any product of the "Shock Camp Program" it was this freedom and ambition that caused her to become the de facto leader of nearly all the newer dolls in the community. It also helped her to more easily bond with S001 and the other more traumatized members of the Gen 1 survivors. Realizing that while staying in the factory might be sheltering them from the risks of the world outside that it was also stagnating them and letting the wounds fester. It was in that spirit that she left with the others to find a new home. When New Sanctuary was founded she refused to hold onto her position as a sole leader and insisted on the formation of it's governing council. She served on that council for the first 5 years before stepping down to train and work with the other guards of the settlement.

Generation 4+:

• Dolls from this generation are strictly experimental in nature and represent the cutting edge of knowledge from the remaining dolls. They often incorporate highly advanced or unique technological elements and are never produced in significant number. They tend to not only be wholly sapient but often times would be indistinguishable from any organic sentient in any sense other than the physical.

Notable Gen 4 Doll:

• Morningstar, Lucy: Scavenging teams from New Sanctuary often turned up bits of technology from the invaders who had once destroyed humanity. While most found it impossible to decipher O-Doc, the settlement's lead researcher saw the recovery a handful of intact bots as a chance to harness their technology and maybe learn more about the forces behind the war. Morningstar was the only one she was able to restore, and while she was able to unshackle its programs from its alien masters and while Morningstar initially seemed happy to join in with the New Sanctuary community it soon became obvious there was a problem. Morningstar had extremely advanced communications technology and had been given access to the security knowlege of most of the settlement and together these enabled it to implant programs that enabled it to take over nearly every doll in New Sanctuary. Once taken over they followed their new master out of the settlement and into the wasteland where they set about building and repairing a massive warp gate. Ultimately Lucy was defeated by it's sister Mercy and O-doc, with the three of them vanishing into the warp shortly before the controlling signal vanished. Only O-Doc and Mercy every returned from the portal and it's assumed Morningstar was destroyed somewhere on the other side.

Programs and Quality

• In this context Programs are used to describe the suite of skills and knowledge a doll might possess, grouped together by the function of that program. This works such that a doll with an Athletics Program would have the knowledge and instruction for multiple general athletics activities, such as running, climbing, or swimming. The quality of the program then denotes how much benefit that program provides to the associatted skills. By their nature many programs overlap and as they cover different aspects of the skill they also tend to provide culmilative benefit. In example a Doll with Childcare (which includes first aid and observation) at Quality 3 and Medicine (which also includes first aif and surgery) at Quality 2 would have an overall rating from these two of: First Aid (5), Observation (3) and surgery (2). The variety of programs is extremely diverse as dolls before the war were created for just about any use or role and dolls created after the war would often be forced to adapt and use an even wider range of programs to survive and so for doll creation a player may choose to create their own Programs as needed to fit the roles of their doll. While programs give a doll a set of skills and knowledges, any doll advanced enough to be a player character is capable of some independant learning and so can also obtain independant skills or improvements to their installed programs. The following is an example list of programs. As was noted these are not all inclusive and you should feel free to create programs as you feel needed. The rule of thumb though is that a given program will have 3-6 skills in it. Starting Quality and number of programs is determined by the generation of the dolls creation.

  • Art
    Includes: Diplomacy, Appraisal, Instruction, Observation, Creation (Art type)

  • Athletics
    Includes: Running, Acrobatics, Climbing, Jumping, Swimming, Unarmed

  • Chemist
    Includes: Observation, Sprays, Database: Chemical, Explosives

  • Childcare
    Includes: Teaching, Observation, Running, Medical, Wrestling, Art, Speech,

  • Demolition:
    Includes: Explosives, Observation, Artillary, Cutting Tools, Blunt Tools, Traps

  • Digging:
    Includes: Explosives, Drills, Cutting Tools, Observation, Appraisal,

  • Electrician:
    Includes: Cutting Tools, Sprays, Damage Control, Repair (electrical), Security, Database: (Electrical)

  • Harvesting
    Includes: Cutting Tools, Sprays, Appraisal, Database: Agriculture

  • Navigation:
    Includes: Observation, Comms, Appraisal, Pilot, Drive, Fly,

  • Manufacture
    Includes: Cutting Tools, Drills, Creation (Art type), Repair (Electrical), Repair (Mechanical), Database: (Chosen industry)

  • Planning
    Includes: Observation, Teamwork, Appraisal, Database :(Architecture, navigation, industry)

  • Service
    Includes: Observation, Intimidation, Teamwork, Appraisal, Negotiation, Diplomacy, Database: (Chosen Industry)

  • Shock Troop
    Includes: Fire Arms, Observation, Running, Simple Melee, Intimidation

  • Sports
    Includes: Thrown, Melee (Simple), Archery, Thrown, Instruction, Running, Acrobatics, Intimidation

  • Travel
    Includes: Running, Swimming, Flying, Piloting

  • Warning
    Includes: Observation, Intimidation, First Aid, Damage Control

  • Welding
    Includes: Observation, Energy Tools, Sprays, Explosives, Repair

  Gen 0: Begin with 4 Programs at Quality 3 but all 3 must be associated with their original function.

Gen 1: Begin with 3 Programs at Quality 3, two of which must be associated with their original function Gen 2: Begin with 3 Prograns at Quality 2 Gen 3: Begin with 2 Programs at Quality 2 Gen 4: Begin with 2 Programs at Quality 1

• For the purpose of the HICU games you may instead choose to use a list of 3-6 functions for your doll which will be used along side your Generation choice to determine the results of your actions.

Parts

• Thus far these concerns have been largely with the programming and computational aspect of dolls. This is because those aspects are at the core of the doll's existence, and dolls are able to exist wholely outside of their physical body if an adequate processor and database was available. But when playing a doll as a character you'll pick out the baseline parts your character will use.

These parts are split into three catagories, Frame, Tools, Power Source.

Frame

• The primary functions of the frame are providing mounting points for tools and determining the size of the doll. While hard limits are not placed on either of these it should be noted that the extremes have notable penalties, a huge frame might make a doll powerful in combat but it also makes it hard to avoid attacks, difficult to maneuver in tight spaces, and increases the drain on the power source from normal activities and while a huge number of limbs could allow a doll to wield many weapons at once they require much more processing power to maneuver and require the limbs to be far more fragile in order to fit on the frame. However on the other end a miniscule doll can easily avoid detection and maybe even crawl into other dolls in combat but is significantly more fragile.

  Frame sizes: Tiny (Under 1 cubic meter) <Small (Between 1 and 2 cubic meters) <Medium (Between 2 and 9 cubic meters)<Large (Between 9 and 100 cubic meters)<Huge (Bigger than 100 cubic meters) Mounting Points: A doll can have as many or as few mounting points and limbs as desired.

Tools

• Tools refers to any functional component incorporated into the doll. When building a doll for HICU these will be discussed solely in terms of condition/quality. Condition refers to how functional and well maintained the part in question is and reflects how much damage or how many malfunctions it would take to disable the tool. Quality refers to the complexity and capacity of the tool and reflects how well the part performs. While there isn't a hard restriction on how many tools a doll can have, their generation will determine the amount available at a specific condition and quality. Such that older dolls are more likely to have higher quality parts but they will likely have been subjected to the depredations of the world for a longer time and will be lower condition.

Conditions: Destroyed<Broken<Damaged<Refurbished<Mint Qualities: Kludge<improvised<Salvaged<Workshop<Factory

• The tables below will show how many tools a dool is allowed in a given Condition/Quality combination.

• Gen 0:
  Destroyed Broken Damaged Refurbished Mint
  Kludge Any Any Any Any Any
  Salvaged Any Any Any 3 2
  Workshop Any Any Any 3 2
  Factory Any 2 2 2 1
  Showroom Any 1 1 1 1
  
  Gen 1:
  Destroyed Broken Damaged Refurbished Mint
  Kludge Any Any Any Any Any
  Salvaged Any Any Any 3 2
  Workshop Any Any Any 3 2
  Factory Any 2 2 2 1
  Showroom Any 1 1 1 1
  
  Gen 2:
  Destroyed Broken Damaged Refurbished Mint
  Kludge Any Any Any Any Any
  Salvaged Any Any Any Any 1
  Workshop Any Any Any 2 1
  Factory Any 2 2 2 1
  Showroom Any 1 1 0 0
  
  Gen 3:
  Destroyed Broken Damaged Refurbished Mint
  Kludge Any Any Any Any Any
  Salvaged Any Any Any 3 1
  Workshop Any Any Any 1
  Factory Any 4 4 3 0
  Showroom Any 0 0 0 0
  
  Gen 4:
  Destroyed Broken Damaged Refurbished Mint
  Kludge Any Any Any Any Any
  Salvaged Any Any Any Any Any
  Workshop Any Any Any Any Any
  Factory Any Any Any Any 3
  Showroom Any Any Any 2 1
  

Power Source

• Both out of their varying natures and as a result of their now destabilized environment, Dolls have had to adapt to using a wide range of power sources. The most notable are combustion motor-generator combinations, solar panels, internal batteries, micro-fission cells, fermentation plants, and metabolic reactors.
• Combustion Motor-Generators: Most commonly found in larger dolls that have had to be refitted due to difficulties in replacing their larger power supplies. Unless specifically built for more universal consumption of burnables they suffer a notable drawback of needing fossil fuels to run, something that the planet was already running low on before the war happened.
• Solar Panels: The most common power supply in post war dolls, dolls that use solar panels are using a vastly updated and far more efficient design, though it can be difficult locating the materials required in the event a replacement is needed.
• Micro-fission Cells: Treated much the same as a battery, micro-fission cells are extremely miniaturized and closed loop nuclear plants. While they require only an active cooling system and can run for decades at a time, they can experience catastrophic failures when damaged and require specialized tools to refuel. These were the most common power supply in pre war dolls.
• Fermentation Plants: Using internal colonies of specialized micro-organisms, fermentation plants harvest the byproducts of the organisms to generate power either through combustion, chemical reaction, or pressure and temperature outputs from the metabolic process. This is the first of the power sources created by the dolls themselves rather than by the extinct humans and requires only processable biomatter to function but is vulnerable to anything that can kill off the micro-organisms.
• Metabolic Reactors: An experimental power source developed by dolls as part of ongoing efforts to mimic organic life. Metabolic reactors are found exclusively in 4th generation dolls and in dolls who've undergone extensive modification or testing. These systems utilize chemical breakdown of consumed biomatter to create energy. Both the experimental nature of this power supply and that these actually create a need to eat can be considered draw backs.
• Batteries: Although nearly all dolls use batteries, at the least as a back up to their primary power supply, some do use them as their primary source. These are primarily found in the very small dolls where the reduced capacity and need for periodic replacement are a minimal issue.