Robots: Mechanical Mooks or Menaces?

[seneschal]

So, what are your favorite robotic opponents and why? Are they a genuine menace, or mere mooks?

Some possibilities:

Volkites (Undersea Kingdom, 1936) – Movie serial villains often planned to create armies of robotic troops but rarely got beyond the prototype. Atlantean tyrant Unga Khan actually built squads of “Volkites” to back up his human soldiers. These were 7-foot-tall, heavily armored automatons of the “tin can on legs” variety common in the 1930s. They carried energy rifles. Despite their clumsy movements and inability to speak, they were capable of performing military duties without direct human supervision: engaging enemy troops, arresting and detaining prisoners, driving armored personnel carriers, operating heavy equipment. Unless ordered to by a human commander, they wouldn’t attack and slaughter submissive captives. Immune to small arms fire, their chief weakness was their top-heavy design. A well-thrown chair or well-placed blow could knock them over like bowling pins.

Daleks (Doctor Who, 1963) – Originally human participants in a super-soldier program on the planet Skaros, Daleks gradually mutated into squid-like Things That Were Once Men, unable to leave their powered armor suits. Instead of merely prosecuting a war against their nation’s primary rival, they sought to enslave, then ultimately to exterminate, all humans regardless of what nation or planet they came from. While not creative thinkers, their impenetrable armor, built-in weaponry, and persistence made them dangerous foes. So many varied stories have been told about them over the show’s 50-year run that the Daleks' exact weaknesses are hard to pin down.

Cybermen (Doctor Who, 1966) – Survivors of another, formerly habitable, planet in Earth’s solar system, Cybermen were manlike beings who ultimately sacrificed their humanity to continue their existence, replacing tissue with mechanical parts until only their biological brains remained. Cold and logical, they were ruthless, treacherous foes. They reproduced by “upgrading” their human victims, harvesting and wiping the brains to install in cybernetic bodies. They didn’t want to destroy mankind but to control and maintain it as an organic resource. Cybermen carried energy rifles and pistols. While tough, they weren’t as durable as Daleks, with whom they tried and failed to form an alliance. They were vulnerable to gold, which clogged their respiratory systems.

Cylons (Battlestar Galactica, 1978) – Mechanical servants who turned on and replaced their declining reptilian creators, Cylons (like the Daleks) were determined to exterminate mankind for reasons that weren’t entirely clear. They resembled metallic Roman centurions wearing backpacks, and carried broadswords as well as energy rifles equipped with bayonets. While dangerous, they weren’t especially bright. It took three Cylon pilots, for example, to engage a single human fighter pilot. It was never quite clear whether they were wholly robotic or some sort of cyborg containing biological components. The bulky centurions were commanded by sleeker and smarter models that were clever, emotional, and capable of human-like ambition and vice.

Any others? Why not do a BRP write-up of your preferred mechanical menace?

Edited January 7, 2013 by seneschal
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[Simlasa]

I suppose I never thought of the Daleks or Cybermen as proper 'robots'. The Dalek seems like a mobile armored vehicle for the creature inside. Cybermen seem like very far gone cyborgs... or something.

My favorite robots are the varied retro-sorts from Magnus, Robot Fighter... though Richard Corben put the kaibosh on my enjoyment of the actual comics.

[rust]

In my campaigns robots are tools used by others for various purposes. There is

no specific "robot species", the properties of each robot depend on what it was

designed to be used for, so any foe who uses robots against the player charac-

ters can use many very different types of robots, depending on the environment,

the tactical situation, and so on.

[seneschal]

In my campaigns robots are tools used by others for various purposes. There is

no specific "robot species", the properties of each robot depend on what it was

designed to be used for, so any foe who uses robots against the player charac-

ters can use many very different types of robots, depending on the environment,

the tactical situation, and so on.

Quite true, but in practice villains tend to be a lazy bunch. It's easier and cheaper to mass produce a standard model (or two or three standard models -- maybe a grunt soldier, a commander, and a heavy weapons version) than to support a great variety of specialized robots. Hence, Unga Khan had his Volkites, Skeletor had his robotic knights, Doctor Drakken had his syntho-drones, the Trade Federation had its battle droids, and the extinct lizard people had their Cylon centurions, etc. The "mission" in this case is to subdue and oppress the (usually human) helpless NPC population so the PC adventurers can come to their rescue. Now, that doesn't mean the Big Bad is averse to sending a mining robot or welding drone after Our Heroes, but his police force or army will tend to be made up of similar units. Its an economy of scale thing.

So neither of you have a favorite mechanical enemy from comics, literature, radio shows, or movies?

[fmitchell]

Even though I ended up voting for Daleks -- the design is classic -- I agree that at least half your suggestions are cyborgs. I also read Asimov's I, Robot and Lem's Cyberiad at an impressionable age, so I think of robots either as neutral tools or beings no more inherently evil than humans.

The true menace of war robots, such as Robocop's ED-209 or Vanko's army from Iron Man 2, is that they're unreasoning, unrelenting opponents, much like zombies. In ED-209's case, the "glitch" makes it particularly horrifying (and darkly humorous) because it's lethal out of negligence, not malice. Daleks and Cybermen regularly get talked to death by a madman in a box; Cylons in the old series seemed clumsy and inept and in the new series at least had motivations.

Compare them to the most notorious real-world robots: drones striking precisely at the intended target, whether it's the correct target or who else might be in the way. The real world is, once again, scarier than fiction.

[rust]

Quite true, but in practice villains tend to be a lazy bunch. It's easier and cheaper to mass produce a standard model ...

I suspect that my settings are not cinematic enough for that, once a villain has

the means to throw mass produced robots at the characters, their only way to

survive usually is to flee ...

[fmitchell]

Another movie that gets robotic menaces "right" is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Despite its flaws as a movie, its a movie where giant death-ray spewing robots tear up New York, and eventually menace the world, as they follow the diabolical plan of an unseen madman.

Another variation on the "robot run amok" theme is Jack Williamson's Humanoids series, where a well-intentioned inventor creates robots to save humankind from harm. The robots helpfully take over dangerous tasks like construction work, driving cars, going outside, working, thinking ...

And then there are Saberhagen's Berzerkers, intelligent weapons with a built-in and immutable goal of eradicating all organic life. Not to create a robot utopia, or for the benefit of their makers which they killed aeons ago ... it's just what they were built for.

[soltakss]

I've never been keen on Daleks or Cybermen.

The robots from Westworld/FutureWorld and Beyond Westworld always appealed to me. They were androids but weren't super-powerful yet were still dangerous.

[seneschal]

I've never been keen on Daleks or Cybermen.

The robots from Westworld/FutureWorld and Beyond Westworld always appealed to me. They were androids but weren't super-powerful yet were still dangerous.

The Yul Brenner gunslinger from Westworld was truly scary; he'd slaughter anyone indiscriminately, even non-combatants, and just wouldn't stop coming. But the doppleganger androids from Futureworld were worse: they were you, knew how you thought, could anticipate your next move because that's what they would do, too.