Hello! Back with another newbie GM question...

As you know, all Explorators come standard with a Servo-Skull.

Do you treat the Servo-Skull (that is, in this case, a bodyguard with a pistol built into one of it's eye sockets) as it's own character, with it's own initiative? Or is the SS an extension of the person who owns it, with them giving up a half action to order it to attack?

Also, do you do the same with Servitors? What do you use to prevent someone from bringing an entire army of Servitors with them and overwhelming any battle? Obviously, social situations (where an army of creepy zombie-bots would be...awkward) would blunt this, but I can only do that so often...

L-

Servitors and servoskulls are not intelligent. They obey commands. To the letter. Have the person using them test Command to relay orders to them each time they want something new done, otherwise the servitor will continue with its last action. Complexity of the command given determines the difficulty. Servitors thus get their own initiative, along with servoskulls (depending on the use of said skull; luminator skulls aren't really capable of violence and should be considered semi-intelligent floating tools).

If your players feel the need to bring an army of servitors with them everywhere, let them. Plenty of ways to gum up the works: trekking through a jungle, that gun-servitor's tank treads aren't well suited to clambering over tree roots and through thin passages. Same issue in a desert. Ramp up the encounters as well, add a squad of armsmen to that Rogue Trader's retinue, used for the same purpose as the Explorer's. Have hereteks try to take control of them.

The most important thing to remember here is your players are the rulers of a Dynasty that spans the stars themselves. By all rights, they *should* have people do to the grunt fighting for them. Your challenge is to make the game still interesting for them with that in mind. Just being rich and powerful is only fun for so long!

Errant said:

Since they are not intelligent, I'd argue that controlling them should fall under Tech-Use rather than Command. A servitor doesn't care about your Fellowship. It doesn't care about anything, but it does follow properly given input.

HappyDaze said:

Thanks guys! Good suggestions, both! I think I will take HappyDaze's suggestion of Tech-Use rolls to get Servitors/Servo-Skulls to do anything, and Errant's suggestion of a Command roll to get Squads/Mercenaries/etc to do anything. Those seem to be very reasonable rulings...Without making things TOO easy.

L-

That's not even a house rule. The tech use skill explicitly states that tech use may be used in place of command when dealing with servitors. Add some binary chatter to that and tech priests can be truly competent commanders, as long as they're commanding servitors.