Hyperspatial Broadcast Drone

[BoloOfEarth]

I'm introducing Firewing to my campaign world - up until about four years ago there were no supers or aliens on Earth, and there have now been supers (including the player characters) but no aliens.  That's about to change.

 

I decided that my campaign's Firewing will be broadcasting the battles he'll have on Earth back to his home planet of Malva with an AI-controlled anti-grav drone that follows him around.  Kinda like Booster Gold's Skeets, without any attack ability or even skill assistance but making comments about the fight.  I'm trying to think of the best way to do this (rules-wise).

 

I know someone would say that the best way is to create the drone as a separate character (probably as a Follower), but I'm wondering if it would really be worth all that work, let alone the attendant cost.  And yes, I know as GM that points don't really matter, but I like to try to keep things relatively balanced anyway.  Even a 250-point automaton Follower (which frankly is on the low side of what I think such a character would cost) would cost 50 points, which is frankly way too much for what is basically just a flying camera making snarky comments.

 

My current idea is High Range Radio, Megascale (1 m = 1 LY; +4 1/4), Transmit Only (-1/2), OAF (-1).  I figured the AI (who is just controlling where the camera is and adding color commentary during the fight) is basically just part of the SFX of the power.  And the OAF is a breakable focus (13 rPD / 13 rED based on 63 Active Points).  So yes, if Firewing starts throwing around Fireballs and other AoE attacks, he may damage / destroy his own drone.  (Since he'll be paying 25 points for it, I figure if that happens he doesn't have the drone the rest of that adventure, but he'll just rebuild it for next adventure.)

 

Alternately, I could just hand-wave it and not even write up the drone at all, not have Firewing pay any points for it at all, just say it's there.  But as I said, I like to have a writeup of some sort to keep things on the up-and-up.

 

So does this sound okay?  Or does anybody see any potential problems with it that I'm just blind to right now?  Any better ideas?

[Lord Liaden]

What is the purpose of the drone in the game? Just color, to broadcast and snark? If so, what would the detriment be to Firewing if it was destroyed, other than to ruin his broadcast? Does it provide him any other benefits? Would he have to go back to Malva to replace it? Is there any advantage to the players to attacking it?

 

If it's really just a flavor element, but you feel you need to give it game stats, I would suggest adding Desolidification so it can avoid the fallout from most battles. This is Malvan tech, it can do nearly anything. That way, there can be an actual story beat added when it's finally inadvertently hit with whatever you decide it isn't Desolid to.

[Stanley Teriaca]

Forget buying the drone as a follower, buy it as a character. Firewing doesn't control it directly after all. And the comments will probally be in Malvan anyways, cause these broadcasts are for the folks at home, not for stinking Terrians.

[BoloOfEarth]

30 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

What is the purpose of the drone in the game? Just color, to broadcast and snark? If so, what would the detriment be to Firewing if it was destroyed, other than to ruin his broadcast? Does it provide him any other benefits? Would he have to go back to Malva to replace it? Is there any advantage to the players to attacking it?

 

If it's really just a flavor element, but you feel you need to give it game stats, I would suggest adding Desolidification so it can avoid the fallout from most battles. This is Malvan tech, it can do nearly anything. That way, there can be an actual story beat added when it's finally inadvertently hit with whatever you decide it isn't Desolid to.

 

Cool idea about the Desolid.  Thank you.  

Yes, the drone's purpose is just to broadcast and snark, maybe accidentally provide the heroes with some incidental background along the way.   I was actually thinking of Firewing having brought a Malvan scientist with him, who can repair the drone if need be.  I plan to keep the scientist (and his ship) in the deep background unless the heroes explicitly go looking for them.  Then again, it could just have self-repair nanobots that bring it back to operation albeit with a relatively long down-time.  That would probably be easier.

 

I'm hoping for some kind of interaction between one of the heroes and the drone, perhaps digging for info on Firewing, and why he's there while the big bad himself is proclaiming his superiority and beating on the other heroes.  I'm starting a long-term story arc involving two other alien races using the Earth as a proxy in their centuries-long war, with Firewing aware of them having done so with another planet in the past.  (Blatantly stealing the idea from my very first Champions GM way back in 1983.)  Having a friend (of sorts) in Firewing's camp could prove very useful to the heroes later on.

[BoloOfEarth]

13 minutes ago, Stanley Teriaca said:

Forget buying the drone as a follower, buy it as a character. Firewing doesn't control it directly after all. And the comments will probally be in Malvan anyways, cause these broadcasts are for the folks at home, not for stinking Terrians.

 

Y'know, I never even thought of having it be a fully independent character.  That's an idea worth pursuing.  With it having Desolid, as LL suggested.

 

Though I'm thinking that rather than just transmitting to Malva, it will also translate to those backwater Terrans and their primitive forms of media, so Firewing can dishearten Earthlings as he beats their strongest warriors one by one.  So while it will transmit in Malvan, it will also transmit (and speak) in English.

[Stanley Teriaca]

5 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Y'know, I never even thought of having it be a fully independent character.  That's an idea worth pursuing.  With it having Desolid, as LL suggested.

 

Though I'm thinking that rather than just transmitting to Malva, it will also translate to those backwater Terrans and their primitive forms of media, so Firewing can dishearten Earthlings as he beats their strongest warriors one by one.  So while it will transmit in Malvan, it will also transmit (and speak) in English.

Sounds like an excuse to give it Universal Translator to me.

[Lord Liaden]

40 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Cool idea about the Desolid.  Thank you.  

Yes, the drone's purpose is just to broadcast and snark, maybe accidentally provide the heroes with some incidental background along the way.   I was actually thinking of Firewing having brought a Malvan scientist with him, who can repair the drone if need be.  I plan to keep the scientist (and his ship) in the deep background unless the heroes explicitly go looking for them.  Then again, it could just have self-repair nanobots that bring it back to operation albeit with a relatively long down-time.  That would probably be easier.

 

I'm hoping for some kind of interaction between one of the heroes and the drone, perhaps digging for info on Firewing, and why he's there while the big bad himself is proclaiming his superiority and beating on the other heroes.  I'm starting a long-term story arc involving two other alien races using the Earth as a proxy in their centuries-long war, with Firewing aware of them having done so with another planet in the past.  (Blatantly stealing the idea from my very first Champions GM way back in 1983.)  Having a friend (of sorts) in Firewing's camp could prove very useful to the heroes later on.

 

This made me think of a possible homage to classic Champions, which could lead to interesting NPC interaction. Remember Quasar, the leader of the Protectors hero team from To Serve and Protect?  In Scott Heine's campaign that was the source for that adventure, Quasar was originally Firewing's slave, whom the gladiator brought with him to Earth. If you wanted an even more explicit parallel, there's a humanoid winged alien race in the official CU, the Thrinu.

[Steve]

Probably wouldn’t be a Malvan scientist given their extreme racial ennui, but I could see an AI android or gynoid acting as his tech helper. Obedient but filled with snark. Perhaps running its own reaction channel like a YouTuber during fights.