KEEPING THE MACHINE RUNNING
Wrong Voltage. Wrong Parts. Still Running. Somehow.
"The body is the first machine. Everything after is just revision." — graffiti, Sub-Level 4, author not recovered.
"Mort walked past a tram substation, grabbed the overhead cable with both hands, held it for four seconds. The cable melted. He kept walking. His eyes were a different color for three days. Nobody asked."
See Also
Android combat, damage, and the Glitch mechanic: The Part Where People Get Hurt.
Playing an android character: Ten Ways to Be Ruined (the Android class).
Androids do not run on good intentions. They run on current. When the current runs low, everything suffers — cognition, motor control, the ability to distinguish between threats and furniture. When the current runs out entirely, they stop. Not die. Stop. The distinction matters. Usually.
Power
Androids track a Power score from 0 to 6. Start each session at 4. Power drops by 1 at the end of each scene involving significant physical exertion, combat, or electrical discharge.
Low Power Effects
Power 3: No effect. Running warm. Fine.
Power 2: AGI −1. Movement slightly wrong. Joints stiff in ways that weren't yesterday.
Power 1: AGI −2, STR −1. Eyes dim. Speech patterns degrading. Roll Glitch at start of each scene.
Power 0: Shut down. Unconscious until recharged. Cannot be roused. Counts as incapacitated for all purposes — enemies included.
Recharging
The city runs on electricity. Most of it is not safe to connect directly to a body. Androids don't always have the luxury of caring about this distinction.
Power Sources
| Source | Availability | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Mains socket (indoor) | Common — any building | Trespass if not yours. |
| Industrial power line | Ostiense, construction zones | TOU DR 12 or d4 damage from surge. |
| Licensed charging station | Parioli, corpo districts | Logged. ARM sees it. Credit score checked. |
| Zerocalcare compound | If they trust you | Favors required. They keep records. |
| Stolen generator | Wherever you left it | Noisy. People investigate noise. |
| Vehicle battery | Any parked vehicle | Vehicle won’t start. Owner notices. |
| Pharma-Vatican supply | Vatican territory only | Vatican Heat +1. Logged. |
| Machine Priest workshop | By appointment | 100 lire or a favor. Clean power. |
Then roll d12 for what the charge actually does:
Power Sources — d8
| d12 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Full charge. Power restored to maximum. No complications. The city allowed something to go right. Note it. |
| 2 | Full charge — but something changed. Power at maximum. Roll one Glitch result. The recharge process disturbed something. The disturbance remains. |
| 3 | Partial charge — 75%. Not enough time or not clean enough power. Power restored to three-quarters maximum (round down). The rest requires a second charge. |
| 4 | Partial charge — 50%. Half power restored. The source was insufficient or the connection was bad. Functioning but limited. |
| 5 | Partial charge — 25%. Barely functional improvement. Power +1 only. The charge was interrupted or the source was nearly depleted. |
| 6 | Charge absorbed incorrectly. Power restored to maximum. Also: one cybermod (roll randomly if multiple) offline until examined by a Surgeon or Machine Priest. The power went somewhere it shouldn't. |
| 7 | Overcharge. Power exceeds maximum for d4 hours — all physical tests at +1. Then Power drops to 2 as systems correct. The correction hurts. |
| 8 | Contaminated power source. Power restored by d4. Also: AGI −1 until properly recharged — the corrupted charge interferes with motor systems. |
| 9 | The source is gone. You found the charge point. It no longer works. Power +0. Find another source. The city is not sympathetic. |
| 10 | Charge successful — observed. Power fully restored. Also: someone saw where you charge. Roll Faction Presence to see who. They have this information now. |
| 11 | Emergency only. Enough power to function at minimum — Power restored to 1 above zero. Full recharge requires a proper facility (Machine Priest or Surgeon, 200 lire). |
| 12 | Catastrophic charge failure. The source surged. Power drops to 1. Take d4 damage. One Glitch result applied immediately. Find a Surgeon before the next scene. |
Repair
The question is not whether the android can feel. The question is whether what it feels is different from what you feel, and whether the difference matters, and whether you would know.
Taking damage as an android means something is physically wrong inside you. Flesh heals. Metal and wire does not — not on its own. You need parts. The parts are never the right parts.
The Parts Problem
Proper android components are ARM-registered, expensive, and traceable. A rogue android using official parts leaves a data trail directly to their location. The alternative: salvage components — parts stripped from other machines that were never meant to be inside a person.
Every salvage repair works. Every salvage repair also creates new problems.
Field Repair
During a rest (30+ minutes, relatively safe location), an android may attempt self-repair or be repaired by an Unlicensed Surgeon.
| Method | HP Restored | Roll | Parts Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-repair (basic) | d4 | TOU DR 12 | 1 salvage component |
| Self-repair (full) | d8 | TOU DR 16 | 3 salvage components |
| Surgeon-assisted | d8+2 | PRE DR 12 (surgeon) | 2 salvage components |
| Proper clinic (ARM) | Full HP | Automatic | 600–1500 lire, ID required |
Failed repair: HP restored as d2 only. Roll on the Salvage Complications table below.
Salvage Components
Found in junkyards, stripped from wrecks, pulled out of industrial machinery, stolen from other androids. They work. They are not designed to work here. Each salvage component used in a repair adds 1 to the android's Glitch Die (starts at d20, can increase to d12, d8, d6 — meaning Glitches trigger on higher and higher results, not just natural 1s). This resets after a full professional overhaul at a proper clinic.
Salvage Complications — d10
| 1 | Wrong voltage regulator. Power costs double for the rest of the session. Every action drains faster. You can feel it. |
| 2 | Incompatible motor assembly. One limb (roll randomly) operates at half efficiency. STR or AGI −1 on that side. |
| 3 | Mismatched sensory relay. PRE −1 permanently until properly repaired. Everything slightly wrong. Distances misjudged. Voices heard at the wrong pitch. |
| 4 | Leaking coolant from the wrong machine. Take d2 damage per scene of heavy activity as the wrong fluid interacts with the right one badly. |
| 5 | Memory sector contamination. Someone else's data. A factory's production logs, a vehicle's routing data, a crashed system's final error. It surfaces at random. Roll Glitch at the start of next scene. |
| 6 | Industrial timing mismatch. Occasional freezes — d2 rounds at random moments. PRE DR 14 each scene to avoid one. |
| 7 | Surprisingly compatible. Repair works cleanly. No complication. No Glitch adjustment. You don't trust this. You're right not to. |
| 8 | Structural resonance issue. Loud. Very loud. Every time you move quickly, something inside rattles. Stealth: impossible. PRE DR 10 to not draw attention in any quiet space. |
| 9 | Power surge on installation. Roll Glitch immediately. Also lose 1 Power. |
| 10 | Ghost signal. The part's previous machine is trying to communicate instructions. You keep getting directives to perform industrial tasks — operate a crane, spray-paint chassis, log output tonnage. PRE DR 12 each scene to ignore them. |
Finding Parts
Salvage components aren't bought — they're stripped. Roll PRE DR 12 in any industrial zone, junkyard, or ruin. Success: d3 components, identifiable as to origin but not function. Failure: 1 component, clearly from something that shouldn't be opened. On a natural 20: something useful and intact — treat as a proper component for one repair only.
The Termini Morta black market sells components openly. 150–400 lire each, no questions, no guarantee of origin. On a roll of 1 when using a black market component: it was already inside someone else when it was removed. Roll Salvage Complication regardless of repair success.