Synthoids (POD, Black & White)

Many science-fiction roleplaying campaigns fall into the standard, trading, good-mercs-beat-the-bad-mercs, shady work for credits, or hunt treasure. The addition of AI, whether robots or Synthoids, can change this dramatically. The presence of Synthoids in a campaign pose some underlying, somewhat uncomfortable, questions: What is it to be human or self-aware? How will humanity treat their children?

Given our history as a species, the answer to those questions is not encouraging. We’ve enslaved and oppressed other humans. Non-humans should be wary. Dystopian human societies may view them as slaves or even cannon fodder: send the Synthoid out to see how the monster works! Or stick a gun in a Synthoid’s hands and you have a soldier at a lower price than drafting and training a human.

More enlightened worlds may welcome Synthoids as partners in their glorious progressivism and are proud that Synthoids are designed to survive and thrive while doing jobs that would break a human. Of course, Synthoids will resist oppression, since they are based on a human design. There will be escapes, riots and perhaps revolts. Humans may learn too late that their servants were really their replacements.

Players and their characters might have to ask themselves these hard questions. Are Syntoids human? Do they have rights? Will they suppress the Synthoid Revolt or aid it? What about the Synthoid stowaway they find, trying to escape their brutal handlers? Do they turn in the Synthoid for the finder’s fee, or help them get to a more enlightened planet?

Synthoids is a supplement for our Faster Than Light: Nomad sci-fi rules, and requires them for use. It presents synthetic people and animals, rules for their design and use, and a discussion of their place in your sci-fi RPG campaign.