Hey Gents,

Did a quick search of this forum and could not find the answer for my question - maybe You could help me out.

Would droids roll a fear check?

I intend to run the Ice station Zulu and it would suck if they're immune to those.

cheers!

From all the movies/tv shows/animated ones they do fear.

They are so developted AI, that they know they exist and can be "Killed", but not enough smart to take over everything and see rest of Organics as useless.

Basicly in SW universe Droids are like children. Smart enough to get around, but not enough to rule.

In Star Wars and Space Opera in general, androids and robots are sentient, living creatures, with feelings and thoughts in some form or other.

Even Data in STNG, who claims to have no human emotion, proves to have many and a rich personality, time and again.

What is the brain if not an advanced computer and data processor and the human body if not a machine? flesh or metal, who cares?

"I think, therefor I am." + "I, robot" = Life.

Droids are like children. Smart enough to get around, but not enough to rule .

And I thought I was the only one who described children like that...

I would say: In terms of roleplaying they have fear when the storyteller/player wants them to have fear, and maybe if they have a "fearchip" or something, to understand human behaviour.

In game rules, they could have "stress", a player battle droid probably wont have "fear" if he sees darth vader, but because of the reactions of his organic friends, and his own "overwhelmed situation analyizer" he has to roll a discipline check, like every player has to

C-3PO. It's pretty much half of what he does.

C-3PO. It's pretty much half of what he does.

I like to think that he rolled 4 Despairs on a fear check while leaving the Tantive IV and is now grasped by unspeakable fear for the remainder of the campaign.

Thanks for all replies.

There is a whole order 66 podcast episode dedicated to fear checks - but they didn't say anything about droids.

there is little information indicating one way or another in the character creation section as well. They do not eat/breath - and some models are prone to personality quirks but that does not equal actual emotions? I was thinking involving strain

( cannot compute! ) but honestly not sure what to do *sigh*

cheers

Thanks for all replies.

There is a whole order 66 podcast episode dedicated to fear checks - but they didn't say anything about droids.

there is little information indicating one way or another in the character creation section as well. They do not eat/breath - and some models are prone to personality quirks but that does not equal actual emotions? I was thinking involving strain

( cannot compute! ) but honestly not sure what to do *sigh*

cheers

Being an actual character option, indicates life, thoughts and emotions in my opinion.

Droids above a certain intelligence level obviously show self-preservation. R2 did, 3PO did, the battle droids in the PT and TCW show understanding that whatever's about to happen is going to be bad. Even the little mouse droid in A New Hope did when Chewie growled at it. Even if they don't suffer a morbid fear, they react with self-preservation. Only the simpleist droids, or those combat droids fresh off the factory line will not show fear in a situation. Most servant/utility drodis come with one from the factory simply to save costs.

It's shown that droids who don't undergo a memory wipe will start to develope a personality of sorts, and I think some are designed with one ahead of time. I presume that any PC droid will be one of those that's gone without a memory wipe and will probably have a much greater preservation instinct. If you have a protocol or other non-combat droid, then you can justify it as I said. High-end combat droids can be justified by having been programmed for self-preservation, and time has exagerated that to have them react as a living being would, to some degree. Low-end, fodder battle droids that have survived long enough without a memory wipe could develop the same.

They do. Threepio, R2 & other droids displayed it in the movies.

whether you want to believe they have fear as we see it or not, they do have a sense of self preservation. So though they may not always 'fear' the same things we do, they will still react in a manner similar to 'fear' in humans given the right motivation.

therefore they still make the check.

Mouse droids run away from Chewie and the Gonk screams in terror at being tortured (and the dungeon overseer gets off on torturing droids). Saying that they don't fear is clearly counter to what we see in the movies.

Basically, the longer a droid goes without a memory wipe, the more "human" it becomes (it develops more and more complex emotions and thoughts). As fear is a very basic emotion, I would say it is developed earlier in the process, though even this will take some time. This being said, PC droids are those that have gone some time without a memory wipe and thus have developed a personality (otherwise they would not be PCs), and thus would feel fear.

The mouse droid is a good example of a droid that probably never misses a memory wipe appointment and still has something resembling fear.

John Connor : Does it hurt when you get shot?

The Terminator : I sense injuries. The data could be called "pain."

That`s exactly what pain is, signals interpreted by our brains. The same with fear and emotions. Signals interpreted by the brain and sent back instantly. The brain is a computer and droid computers are brains.

In space opera, robots are alive.

John Connor : Does it hurt when you get shot?

The Terminator : I sense injuries. The data could be called "pain."

That`s exactly what pain is, signals interpreted by our brains. The same with fear and emotions. Signals interpreted by the brain and sent back instantly. The brain is a computer and droid computers are brains.

In space opera, robots are alive.

That's a mighty simplistic view on emotions, but this is a game board not work, so go with it.

John Connor : Does it hurt when you get shot?

The Terminator : I sense injuries. The data could be called "pain."

That`s exactly what pain is, signals interpreted by our brains. The same with fear and emotions. Signals interpreted by the brain and sent back instantly. The brain is a computer and droid computers are brains.

In space opera, robots are alive.

That's a mighty simplistic view on emotions, but this is a game board not work, so go with it.

It`s a scientific and true description of what emotions and senses really are. Doesn`t make them any less complex or less important, it makes them more real and interesting. The brain is amazing!

Not trying to get off topic, but emotions are only electrical signals and chemical reactions if you believe in an entirely material existence (in other words, no mind, soul, spirit, or whatever you want to call it). Science cannot prove there is no such thing as a soul, so please do not ascribe words like "scientific" to things within the realm of philosophy.

I'm going to push back and argue that the mouse droids probably don't get memory wiped all that often. They aren't all that sophisticated, and have limited functionality, so if one did go crazy, it wouldn't be the end of the world. More importantly, imagine an imperial base or Star Destroyer. There'd be dozens of those things at least, and the droid technicians would probably have more important things to do.

John Connor : Does it hurt when you get shot?

The Terminator : I sense injuries. The data could be called "pain."

Wrong movie!

In Star Wars, Droids show fear and spaceships make noise in the vacuum of space. It is what it is. And, Lucas has always taken the position that once he'd established a fact he needed to be consistent and stick to it. These are established facts in the Star Wars universe. Nonsensical? Maybe. But, its the world we're working in.

In Star Wars, Droids show fear and spaceships make noise in the vacuum of space. It is what it is. And, Lucas has always taken the position that once he'd established a fact he needed to be consistent and stick to it. These are established facts in the Star Wars universe. Nonsensical? Maybe. But, its the world we're working in.

Being realistic in a story sense has nothing to do with realism in the real world. All stories exist within their own universe and have their own rules of realism. As long as stories are not breaking their own established rules, they are being realistic within the sense of the story.

...

But dude..

.. Lucas has always taken the position that once he'd established a fact he needed to be consistent and stick to it...

You make me laugh.

Not trying to get off topic, but emotions are only electrical signals and chemical reactions if you believe in an entirely material existence (in other words, no mind, soul, spirit, or whatever you want to call it). Science cannot prove there is no such thing as a soul, so please do not ascribe words like "scientific" to things within the realm of philosophy.

I don`t get why the truly fascinating science of and facts about the brain and electrical signals contradict any of that.

In Star Wars, Droids show fear and spaceships make noise in the vacuum of space. It is what it is. And, Lucas has always taken the position that once he'd established a fact he needed to be consistent and stick to it. These are established facts in the Star Wars universe. Nonsensical? Maybe. But, its the world we're working in.

Being realistic in a story sense has nothing to do with realism in te real world. All stories exist within their own universe and have their own rules of realism. As long as stories are not breaking their own estabblished rules, they are being realistic within the sense of the story.

...

But dude..

.. Lucas has always taken the position that once he'd established a fact he needed to be consistent and stick to it...

You make me laugh.

In this case, George makes you laugh. What I wrote is almost a verbatim quote. The example he always brings is spaceships making impressive sounds as they shoot around in the vacuum of space. However, I do not think realism means what you think it means. A world can have a sense of verisimilitude due to internal consistency and still be wholly unrealistic. To describe the SW universe as "realistic" requires an ironic unmitigated gall that few can carry off, and no sane individual would believe.