It was as though all the dreams and hopes of '50s science fiction had come to pass.
Naturally, it didn't last. Something happened. Nuclear war, or disease, or a planet wide catastrophe of another sort, wiped humanity off the face of the earth. But, they left something behind: machines. Small and large, sophisticated and simple, the robots were left. The meek inherited the Earth.
This is, more or less, the premise to Engine Heart, a short, simple, quirky little game put out by Viral Games (their only title to date). It can be found for purchase or free PDF here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/ViralGames
Mechanically the game is suspiciously similar to the Storyteller systems we all know from World of Darkness. And, when I say suspiciously, I mean that except it doesn't have separate skills and attributes, instead opting for a simpler and shorter division of abilities. Oh, and it includes defects to get more points in character creation (which, to my knowledge, WoD has avoided).
It's a good simple system, although I feel like putting together dice feels rather off for the setting. Still, it gives low chances for success which is good when you're playing a Roomba.
I never saw Wally, but this game basically seems to be the same idea.
Even more though, it reminds me of a story by Ray Bradbury, "There Will Come Soft Rains" (a great story, look it up sometime), and it has the same kind of melancholy slow doom and sadness about it.
The example of play is an action sequence, and the reference to advanced AI's trying to take over and reprogram lesser robots also reminds me of 9 to some extent, but without some of the more cringe worthy moments in that movie.
Personally I'd aim more for "There Will Come Soft Rains" where you have the sad little robots still going about their old business, and maybe occasionally coming to greater awareness to survive this world, but ultimately even the most self aware and advanced are still lost and purposeless without the human masters.
Moreover, though it has put a horribly sad image in my head, and it's fairly strange:
A sexbot lost in a ruined city.
Yeah. A sexbot.
Let me explain:
I think the first thing that captures my attention is that a robotic product designed for sex would be incredibly lifelike and human looking, which in some ways makes it easier to sympathize with. The image in my head is a gyndroid, though android would be just as sad, I suppose, although I must confess I'd expect a smaller market for the male version.
Further, the sexbot is something designed for a very simple function, but one that requires a great deal of capacity for interaction with a human being in a convincingly lifelike way. It does not, however, contain any of the skills necessary to survive in the world. It's compliant, weak willed, and designed for one simple act. It's simple mind and programming make it childlike in many ways, and its reliance and trust of others would only heighten this.
On the other hand, it actually looks human, and can easily interact with the world the humans left behind, and probably has weight of command to those robots sophisticated enough to be programmed to obey humans.
What makes it a particularly sad and melancholy image, though, is that such a robot is designed specifically to interact with humans, not with the human infrastructure, so its purpose is truly and utterly gone, and this is melancholy because, on the one hand, it was just a sophisticated sex toy, but now it's nothing at all.
Just a lost little robot.
And, by the time robot street sweepers are common, humans will definitely have invented these. We already built Roxxxy, after all.
I want to play this character (even though I'd probably have to invent a Feature to cover looking human, probably at a solid 20 cost).
Unfortunately, I'm far more likely to end up running the game.
