Shemarrians? Would you allow a PC to play one?

[EnlightenedVagabond]

As the subject line, but more indepth would you allow a PC to play any of them, if so only certain ones? all of them? would you allow a 'Self-Aware' VI that may have gone 'Rogue' or at least thinks she has?

Would you change anything if allowed the PCs to play one?

I have recently picked up the Shemarrian book and was blown away by the truth of them, I honestly did not know what the SWW were all about until I read that, I was amazed at the complexity the creators are going with their plan.

[Giant2005]

As the subject line, but more indepth would you allow a PC to play any of them, if so only certain ones? all of them? would you allow a 'Self-Aware' VI that may have gone 'Rogue' or at least thinks she has?

Would you change anything if allowed the PCs to play one?

I have recently picked up the Shemarrian book and was blown away by the truth of them, I honestly did not know what the SWW were all about until I read that, I was amazed at the complexity the creators are going with their plan.

If the player wants to play one and it is balanced compared to the rest of the party, I'd allow it.
It even gives you some easy options as a GM for campaign plots - I'd consider it a gift horse type situation.

For the intelligence, I think I'd go with a transferred intelligence. Make it a young child that was placed in the Robot body at a young age and actually raised by the Shemarrians with no knowledge at all that it isn't a biological creature.
Consider it an experiment by Archie to see if he can train human intelligence to serve his needs just as easily as the robots in order to help with the illusion of life - transferred intelligence is Archie's solution to the robot's lack of PPE being an easy indicator that they are not alive.

[Killer Cyborg]

As the subject line, but more indepth would you allow a PC to play any of them, if so only certain ones? all of them? would you allow a 'Self-Aware' VI that may have gone 'Rogue' or at least thinks she has?

Would you change anything if allowed the PCs to play one?

WAY back before Shemarrian Nation came out, my wife played one for a while.
IIRC, she was initially only robot AI, not Neural AI, sent by Archie to wander out into the world and basically just adventure around and gather information for him (which the character did not actually, know, of course).
After a time, she returned to Archie and got several upgrades, including an upgrade to Neural Intelligence
So yes, I would, and I have, and it worked out just fine.

I have recently picked up the Shemarrian book and was blown away by the truth of them, I honestly did not know what the SWW were all about until I read that, I was amazed at the complexity the creators are going with their plan.

Shemarrian Nation is one of the top 5 Rifts books ever written.

[DhAkael]

-AHEM!-
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=103576


And in short answer; yes, yes I would if the player was up to it.
In fact I'm using one in a game I play in the chat-rooms on Thursday evenings here; a 1st generation Progen of the Hawkmoon tribe.

[Armorlord]

AI or NI that believes it has been sent on a mission, or the occasional pariah or male that thinks it is rogue, or NI that is in on it and puts on the facade, protects the secret, and collects information for Archie.

[zaccheus]

absolutely. I think they are awesome. I changed them a bit in my Rifts world though. They are not the creation of Hagan, but an early creation of Archie that he has allowed to take over a production facility in PA 100 years or so ago and they now operate as independent allies of ARCHIE and are infact fully sentient. In my game they are "spiritually" the sisters of the blind warrior women and have built a society with the warrior women in the ruinds of philadelphia. In a way they are sort of evolving into the legends about them.

[taalismn]

But of course I would. After all, it's a ready-made Robot Character with a built-in dark background.

[EnlightenedVagabond]

As the subject line, but more indepth would you allow a PC to play any of them, if so only certain ones? all of them? would you allow a 'Self-Aware' VI that may have gone 'Rogue' or at least thinks she has?

Would you change anything if allowed the PCs to play one?

WAY back before Shemarrian Nation came out, my wife played one for a while.
IIRC, she was initially only robot AI, not Neural AI, sent by Archie to wander out into the world and basically just adventure around and gather information for him (which the character did not actually, know, of course).
After a time, she returned to Archie and got several upgrades, including an upgrade to Neural Intelligence
So yes, I would, and I have, and it worked out just fine.

I have recently picked up the Shemarrian book and was blown away by the truth of them, I honestly did not know what the SWW were all about until I read that, I was amazed at the complexity the creators are going with their plan.

Shemarrian Nation is one of the top 5 Rifts books ever written.

What would you consider the other top books?

Also I have convinced my wife to allow me to re-purchase my Rifts collection (original lost through moves/people borrowing without telling) does the online Palladium store ship to Canada? Its hard to find any retailers that can reliably get books in stock up here in BC, Canada.

My wife has expressed interest in the Shemarrians since she leafed through the book, one of her and by extension now mine, questions was... how "functional" in terms of Data from ST:NG, i.e. the ep with Data and Tasha. I admit it sounds pervy, but honestly my wife thought of it first. Im just interested to know the answer.

[DhAkael]

Read the link I provided in my earlier post. Go do it. Now.
What are you still doing here?
Seriously, Taalismn & I have provided quite a -fill in the blanks- thread ; one of many potential "what ifs" a GM / player can use.

And yes, through Progen & the rite of upgrade they have become -ahem- "functional"

[Nightmask]

As the subject line, but more indepth would you allow a PC to play any of them, if so only certain ones? all of them? would you allow a 'Self-Aware' VI that may have gone 'Rogue' or at least thinks she has?

Would you change anything if allowed the PCs to play one?

WAY back before Shemarrian Nation came out, my wife played one for a while.
IIRC, she was initially only robot AI, not Neural AI, sent by Archie to wander out into the world and basically just adventure around and gather information for him (which the character did not actually, know, of course).
After a time, she returned to Archie and got several upgrades, including an upgrade to Neural Intelligence
So yes, I would, and I have, and it worked out just fine.

I have recently picked up the Shemarrian book and was blown away by the truth of them, I honestly did not know what the SWW were all about until I read that, I was amazed at the complexity the creators are going with their plan.

Shemarrian Nation is one of the top 5 Rifts books ever written.

What would you consider the other top books?

Also I have convinced my wife to allow me to re-purchase my Rifts collection (original lost through moves/people borrowing without telling) does the online Palladium store ship to Canada? Its hard to find any retailers that can reliably get books in stock up here in BC, Canada.

My wife has expressed interest in the Shemarrians since she leafed through the book, one of her and by extension now mine, questions was... how "functional" in terms of Data from ST:NG, i.e. the ep with Data and Tasha. I admit it sounds pervy, but honestly my wife thought of it first. Im just interested to know the answer.

They'd be as functional as you wanted them to be. Presumably since ARCHIE-3 wanted them to be believable as alien amazon cyborgs he probably included those bits so his androids could be more effective at convincing others that they're real (and you'll certainly have no problems with that with a man after he's just had a great time).

[EnlightenedVagabond]

Read the link I provided in my earlier post. Go do it. Now.
What are you still doing here?
Seriously, Taalismn & I have provided quite a -fill in the blanks- thread ; one of many potential "what ifs" a GM / player can use.

And yes, through Progen & the rite of upgrade they have become -ahem- "functional"

Nice, im reading that thread at work now. Thanks for the fast responses.

[Killer Cyborg]

Shemarrian Nation is one of the top 5 Rifts books ever written.

What would you consider the other top books?

Offhand, I'd say that the top 5 would be (in no particular order):

Rifts
Sourcebook 1
Vampire Kingdoms
Shemarrian Nation
Xiticix Invasion

My wife has expressed interest in the Shemarrians since she leafed through the book, one of her and by extension now mine, questions was... how "functional" in terms of Data from ST:NG, i.e. the ep with Data and Tasha. I admit it sounds pervy, but honestly my wife thought of it first. Im just interested to know the answer.

I don't believe that it's addressed in the books, but I'd assume that they'd be very functional (though they don't have a Seduction skill or anything).

Because when you look at it, Shemarrians are beautiful female robots that were designed by a techie who lives alone in isolation with a computer for his only real companion.
What are the odds that Hagan would design such robots without at least some of them being able to provide certain kinds of entertainment for him?
Of course, such indulgences would be mimicry on the part of the standard robots, as they're incapable of actually feeling or even really thinking on their own. Neural Intelligence Shemarrians, though, might have the capacity to truly enjoy things in their own right.
Also, their basic programming would have been written by Hagan as well, so they'd be suited to his personal tastes. Depending on his preferences, levels of sexual sophistication, etc., the robots might behave like a bad-acting porn star, or insist on doling out spankings and being called "mommy" during, or lord knows what.

[SkyeFyre]

To answer the earlier question about if the online store ships to Canada: Yes
Does it cost an insane amount to ship it? Yes

I know when I ordered my Christmas grab bag that the shipping alone (lowest I could get) was like $25 USD. So my grab bags usually run me almost $70CAD after everything's been considered.

[taalismn]

Read the link I provided in my earlier post. Go do it. Now.
What are you still doing here?
Seriously, Taalismn & I have provided quite a -fill in the blanks- thread ; one of many potential "what ifs" a GM / player can use.

And yes, through Progen & the rite of upgrade they have become -ahem- "functional"

Nice, im reading that thread at work now. Thanks for the fast responses.

Hope you have as much fun reading it as all the contributers do throwing up ideas and round-robin writing stuff for it. And even if you don't buy wholly into the alternate direction we took with it, feel free to adapt ideas from the idea-mass.

[ZorValachan]

As the subject line, but more indepth would you allow a PC to play any of them, if so only certain ones? all of them? would you allow a 'Self-Aware' VI that may have gone 'Rogue' or at least thinks she has?

Would you change anything if allowed the PCs to play one?

WAY back before Shemarrian Nation came out, my wife played one for a while.
IIRC, she was initially only robot AI, not Neural AI, sent by Archie to wander out into the world and basically just adventure around and gather information for him (which the character did not actually, know, of course).
After a time, she returned to Archie and got several upgrades, including an upgrade to Neural Intelligence
So yes, I would, and I have, and it worked out just fine.

I have recently picked up the Shemarrian book and was blown away by the truth of them, I honestly did not know what the SWW were all about until I read that, I was amazed at the complexity the creators are going with their plan.

Shemarrian Nation is one of the top 5 Rifts books ever written.

Agreed. Shemarrian Nation is one of the few books I read front to back without stopping every other paragraph with a huh? I stopped every other paragraph with a "hell yeah that's right" I hated the whole ARCHIE megaplot before that book.

[The Galactus Kid]

Shemarrian Nation is one of the top 5 Rifts books ever written.

I simply cannot disagree with you about this. It is awesome.