Description and Biology
The Kaldor robots are androids, with a human form, but with sculpted metal bodies that do not hide their true nature. All of those we see are dressed in quilted tunics that appear to be genuine clothing, rather than part of their bodies – although it’s possible they are glued on or otherwise firmly attached. In most physical respects, there is little to say about them that I have not already said about human-imitating androids but the reason they are worth looking at separately is that they come in three models. (Some of the expanded media have added additional ones as ‘experimental designs’, but we will stick with the canonical ones).
The model we see most frequently are the Vocs, identified by their green tunics and colouration. These can speak but are not implied to be sentient, lacking emotion and being easily reprogrammable. The ones we see in the show are working on a mining vehicle, carrying out maintenance and operational duties and supporting the human crew, but it’s apparent that they have a much wider range of functions than this.
The Dums are stated to be the most common model, although we don’t really see them much in the TV story. That’s largely because they don’t speak, and the implication is that they carry out more basic tasks that do not require significant interaction with humans (hence them generally being off-screen). Black in colour, they interact primarily with other robots, presumably using something akin to wi-fi or Bluetooth connectivity.
Finally, we have the rare, silver-coloured Super-Vocs. Although they, too, are not intended to be sentient they do have greater autonomy and superior AI that can fake something closer to a human personality. Their function is to supervise the Vocs, acting as a hub for their control system and directing them to perform tasks as necessary. Even so, like all of the Kaldor robots, they are programmed to be subservient to humans, following something akin to Asimov’s Laws – although the plot of the TV story, and of many of the others about them, revolves around this going wrong.
Game Attributes
Being robots, the Kaldor designs do not tire, bleed, or suffer from other organic failings, although they do still require an energy source that must eventually become depleted. We are told that they are much stronger than humans, which is quite plausible for something mechanical, although their size likely limits this so that it isn’t too far off the human scale. Since they are designed for (among other things) maintenance work, they have to be reasonably dextrous, but they clearly aren’t agile, which would compensate for that in systems that, like most, combine the two into a single stat. They are lightly armoured, able to resist a thrown knife, but not a stabbing from a specially designed probe – perhaps some parts are more resilient than others.
Taking the standard Voc first, the lack of flexible thinking and limited ability to take initiative would be reflected in a lower intelligence score than an average human in most systems. The inability to behave in a fully human manner would also restrict charisma or similar statistics. On the other hand, they are presumably reasonably skilled at the tasks they are intended for, although lacking the ingenuity of a human expert. Such skills include a range of maintenance functions as well as being acting as servants to humans.
The Dums, notably, cannot speak and are likely lower on the full spectrum of mental attributes. In some limited areas, their skills may be equal to those of the Vocs, since they are just a matter of uploading programs to their computer brains, but, if we assume that their operating memory is smaller (and cheaper) each one may have a lower range of skills programmed into it at a time.
Super-Vocs are, so far as we can tell, as intelligent as humans and they have additional skills related to supervision and coordination of the other robots. We can see from the TV story, however, that they can be programmed with other, relatively sophisticated skill sets and instructions if required. For purposes of these stats, I’ll assume a typical supervisor, but this is clearly not the limit of their potential. Like all the other robots, they obey and cannot harm humans and, for our purposes here, I’ll assume that that’s actually working as intended.
5E - Voc
Medium construct, unaligned
Armour Class: 14 (thin metal plating)
Hit Points: 45 (6d8+18)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 18 (+4) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 16 (+3) |
INT 8 (-1) | WIS 8 (-1) | CHA 6 (-2) |
Skills: Athletics +6, Maintenance +1, Vehicles +1
Combat Skills: Melee +6
Damage Immunities: Poison, psychic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, exhaustion,
frightened, paralysed, poisoned
Senses: Passive Perception 9
Challenge: ½ (100 XP)
5E - Dum
Medium construct, unaligned
Armour Class: 14 (thin metal plating)
Hit Points: 30 (4d8+12)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 18 (+4) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 16 (+3) |
INT 6 (-2) | WIS 6 (-2) | CHA 4 (-3) |
Skills: Athletics +6, Maintenance +1, Vehicles +1
Combat Skills: Melee +6
Damage Immunities: Poison, psychic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralysed, poisoned
Senses: Passive Perception 8
Languages: understands human language, but cannot
speak
Challenge: ½ (100 XP)
5E - Super-Voc
Medium construct, neutral
Armour Class: 14 (thin metal plating)
Hit Points: 60 (8d8+24)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 18 (+4) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 16 (+3) |
INT 12 (+1) | WIS 10 (+0) | CHA 8 (-1) |
Skills: Athletics +6, Maintenance +1, Vehicles +1
Combat Skills: Melee +6
Damage Immunities: Poison, psychic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralysed, poisoned
Senses: Passive Perception 10
Challenge: ½ (100 XP)
BRP - Voc
STR 18 | CON 16 | SIZ 13 |
INT 11 | POW 2D6 (7) | |
DEX 11 | CHA 7 | |
Hit Points: 15 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: +1D4 |
Armour: 3-point thin metal plating
Skills: Brawl 40%, Climb 50%, Craft 40%, Drive
(ground vehicle) 60%, Grapple 40%, Heavy Machine 70%, Pilot (various) 60%,
Repair (electrical) 60%, Repair (mechanical) 60%
Robot body: Kaldor robots are immune to poison
and similar agents that affect biological beings as well as psychic attacks or
illusions that affect organic minds.
BRP - Dum
STR 18 | CON 16 | SIZ 13 |
INT 9 | POW 2D6 (7) | |
DEX 11 | CHA 5 | |
Hit Points: 15 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: +1D4 |
Armour: 3-point thin metal plating
Skills: Brawl 40%, Climb 50%, Drive (as programmed) 50%, Grapple 40%, Heavy Machine 60%, Pilot (as programmed) 50%, Repair (electrical) 40%, Repair (mechanical) 50%
Robot body: Kaldor robots are immune to poison and similar agents that affect biological beings as well as psychic attacks or illusions that affect organic minds.
BRP - Super-Voc
STR 18 | CON 16 | SIZ 13 |
INT 12+1D3 (14) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
DEX 11 | CHA 10 | |
Hit Points: 15 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: +1D4 |
Armour: 3-point thin metal plating
Skills: Brawl 40%, Climb 50%, Command 50%, Craft 40%, Drive (ground vehicle) 60%, Etiquette 40%, Grapple 40%, Heavy Machine 70%, Pilot (various) 60%, Repair (electrical) 60%, Repair (mechanical) 60%
Robot body: Kaldor robots are immune to poison and similar agents that affect biological beings as well as psychic attacks or illusions that affect organic minds.
GURPS - Voc
ST 18 | DX 10 | IQ 8 | HT 16 |
Thrust: 1d+2 | Swing: 3d | ||
Speed: 6.5 | Move: 5 | ||
Advantages: Damage Resistance +3, Digital Mind,
Doesn’t Breathe, Extra Hit Points +4, Machine, Unfazeable
Disadvantages: Electrical, Pacifism (total nonviolence), Reprogrammable
Skills: Climbing-10, Computer Operations/TL 10-12,
Cooking-10, Crewman/TL 10-14, Driving/TL 10 (as programmed)-12, Electrician/TL 10-12, Mechanic/TL 10 (as programmed)-12, Piloting/TL 10 (as programmed)-12
GURPS - Dum
ST 18 | DX 10 | IQ 6 | HT 16 |
Thrust: 1d+2 | Swing: 3d | ||
Speed: 6.5 | Move: 5 | ||
Advantages: Damage Resistance +3, Digital Mind,
Doesn’t Breathe, Extra Hit Points +4, Machine, Unfazeable
Disadvantages: Electrical, Mute, Pacifism (total nonviolence), Reprogrammable
Skills: Climbing-10, Computer Operations/TL 10-10,
Cooking-10, Crewman/TL 10-12, Driving/TL 10 (as programmed)-10, Electrician/TL 10-10, Housekeeping-12, Mechanic/TL 10 (as programmed)-10, Piloting/TL 10 (as programmed)-10
GURPS - Super-Voc
ST 18 | DX 10 | IQ 12 | HT 16 |
Thrust: 1d+2 | Swing: 3d | ||
Speed: 6.5 | Move: 5 | ||
Advantages: Damage Resistance +3, Digital Mind,
Doesn’t Breathe, Extra Hit Points +4, Machine, Unfazeable
Disadvantages: Electrical, Pacifism (total nonviolence), Reprogrammable
Skills: Climbing-10, Computer Operations/TL 10-14,
Crewman/TL 10-14, Driving/TL 10 (as programmed)-12, Electrician/TL 10-12, Leadership-12,
Mechanic/TL 10 (as programmed)-12, Piloting/TL 10 (as programmed)-12,
Savoir-Faire (Kaldor high society)-12
Savage Worlds - Voc
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d6 | Spirit: d6 |
Strength: d12 | Vigour: d10 |
Edges: Brute
Skills: Athletics d4, Driving d6, Electronics d6, Piloting
d6, Repair d8
Hindrances: Pacifism (major)
Special Abilities: Construct, Fearless
Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 10 (7) Size: 0
Savage Worlds - Dum
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d4 | Spirit: d6 |
Strength: d12 | Vigour: d10 |
Edges: Brute
Hindrances: Mute, Pacifism (major)
Skills: Athletics d4, Driving d6, Electronics d4, Piloting d6, Repair d8
Special Abilities: Construct, Fearless
Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 10 (7) Size: 0
Savage Worlds - Super-Voc
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d8 | Spirit: d6 |
Strength: d12 | Vigour: d10 |
Edges: Brute
Skills: Athletics d4, Driving d6, Electronics d6, Piloting d6, Repair d8
Hindrances: Pacifism (major)
Special Abilities: Construct, Fearless
Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 10 (7) Size: 0
STA - Voc
Control: 8 | Fitness: 12 | Presence: 6 |
Daring: 8 | Insight: 6 | Reason: 6 |
Command: 0 | Security: 0 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 2 | Engineering: 3 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 11 | Resistance: 2 |
Machine 1
STA - Dum
Control: 6 | Fitness: 12 | Presence: 5 |
Daring: 8 | Insight: 5 | Reason: 5 |
Command: 0 | Security: 0 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 2 | Engineering: 2 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 11 | Resistance: 2 |
Machine 1
STA - Super-Voc
Control: 9 | Fitness: 12 | Presence: 8 |
Daring: 8 | Insight: 6 | Reason: 8 |
Command: 2 | Security: 0 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 2 | Engineering: 3 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 11 | Resistance: 2 |
Machine 1
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