Sentry Robot - How Would you Stat it?

[kronovan]

I don't see anything robotic in either of my AToW books, but I can't believe they didn't exist in the IS. Anyhow I want to have one in my next adventure, so I'm going to take some creative license if they didn't exist in the IS cannon. I'm not sure how to stat one though. Like my automated sentry turret, this would also be automated with a reasonably threatening support weapon on it, but would also have mobility. It's an adventure for new players though, so I don't want it to be too formidable a support weapon.

Anyhow, any thoughts on how to do this would be much appreciated.

[Mendrugo]

We have had two canon security robots in BattleTech products.

The first, from MechWarrior 1E, was a Star League era design intended to provide perimeter security at SLDF bases and interior security in Castles Brian.  They are six-ton hovercraft with one ton of armor and two small lasers in a turret, capable of 12/18 movement with a Class 30 fusion engine, and autonomous with .3 tons allocated for robotic controls.

The second, from a Kell Hounds scenario, is a far larger, but more primitive security robot - moving about 1 hex every ten turns, it mounts at least 10 tons of armor, has treads instead of legs, and packs two arm-mounted machine guns.  It was deployed by House Marik to supplement the garrison in a bunker for storing nuclear warheads, and performs best in tight quarters.  It is intended to be guided by an operator, but proved prone to systems malfunctions, resulting in it attacking anything that moves, rather than relying on IFF systems.

[kronovan]

Awesome - my adventure is set in the Duchy of Oriente in the FWL! Even better, it's in the lowest floor of a Castle Brian on planet Fletcher. Wow, lucky canon guess on my behalf; maybe I've been reading more of the canon lately than I'm willing to admit.  :)) 

What I had in mind sounds like it's sits somewhere in between in capability, but is considerably smaller than both.  I was thinking only 1 ballistic support weapon (needs to be ballistic due to an event around environmental details) on it, so that might just be about right. I'm thinking my robot is only 1-2 tons, does that sound reasonable?

[Mendrugo]

There weren't formal construction rules at the time, but the MW1E designers seem to have used the following formulas for the control equipment:

Military: 5% of total weight allocated to control equipment (0.3 tons for the 6-tonner, fractional accounting allowed)

Civilian: 10% of total weight (rounded up to the nearest whole ton) allocated to control equipment (16 tons for the 160 ton Large Agricultural Robot, 8 tons for the 80 ton Small Agricultural Robot, 3 tons for the 25 ton Mining Robot)

Other than that, you design them as standard vehicles.

[kronovan]

There weren't formal construction rules at the time, but the MW1E designers seem to have used the following formulas for the control equipment:

Military: 5% of total weight allocated to control equipment (0.3 tons for the 6-tonner, fractional accounting allowed)

Civilian: 10% of total weight (rounded up to the nearest whole ton) allocated to control equipment (16 tons for the 160 ton Large Agricultural Robot, 8 tons for the 80 ton Small Agricultural Robot, 3 tons for the 25 ton Mining Robot)

Other than that, you design them as standard vehicles.

Many thanks for the details. The challenge for me, is that my robot will only be used on character scale fighting PCs; hence it's lighter tonnage. So whatever I come up with, has to built based on rules in AToW, as opposed to the TW or AS rules. The same is true for the automated sentry turret in my other post.

[BiggRigg42]

There are rules for what you want to do. Those rules are in Interstellar Operations, and they start on page 134: Robotic and Drone Systems Multiple Eras). You should be able to transfer this stuff to AToW.

[kronovan]

There are rules for what you want to do. Those rules are in Interstellar Operations, and they start on page 134: Robotic and Drone Systems Multiple Eras). You should be able to transfer this stuff to AToW.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I don't own Interstellar Ops and aren't looking to buy it before my session.

I'm thinking I'm just going to play it simple and give my robot an appropriate BAR, a reasonable Barrier Integrity, 1 or 2 support weapons that fit and an appropriate movement speed. And of course it'll have a Support Weapon skill. That way the PCs can whittle away at in in the combat encounter, while they duck for cover. I love the KISS factor when I GM.   :)

[idea weenie]

I'd be tempted to use Tech Manual to make a support vehicle that is 1-2 tons in mass.  You build it as a standard BT vehicle, then convert the armor to AToW scale.  The weapon would have the mass from AToW anti-infantry weapons instead of using the BT scale small laser or MG.

Since it will be player scale, it might only need 4/6 speed (~43 kph / 65 kph), and that will make it plenty fast to chase characters with.

Here are a few weapons that you might want to choose from:
Light Support Machine Gun
Semi-Portable Machine Gun
Semi-Portable autocannon
Support Machine Gun

Weapons that may need some modification:
Heavy Grenade launcher - figure out a way to do large drum, or a belt fed version similar to the Mk 19
Spitball Gas Capsule pistol - not sure if you can make this rifle style, if not just mount a brace of these and go full auto with chemical agents (tear gas and similar).  It is a drone, why should the operator care if the atmosphere is hard to breathe?

[truetanker]

You could use any thing from here:

https://bg.battletech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/TechManual-v3.0-Infantry-Tables.pdf?x64300

While not current, it is but it isn't : there's some new / older weapons needing to be added from AToW and AToW-C. You could also make use of the Pintle Mount ( carries up to .5 ton TW-scale ) on the body locating left or right side, allows you to fire side and front/back like a semi-turret.

TT