Process for building a Robot

After a few years of making tweaks to Robots as Spaceships, I think we've arrived at the end goal: the ability to make a robot from the spaceships book fairly simply and easily. Right now, all the pieces are there, but we need to put them together. What follows is a guide, but it will also serve as an index to all of those articles.

These are the steps for using Gurps: Spaceships (and a little bit of this blog) to build a robot in gurps:

• Select a Weight for the Robot. Take note of the ST, Base Cost, and SM. 
• Select a Chassis for the Robot. Take note of its Cost factor, move, and remaining weight.
• Alternatively, build the chassis yourself using Pyramid 3/34 and find its cost factor, move, and remaining weight . You can also this site's terrestrial, aerial, or aquatic motive systems to supplement Pyramid 3/34, and look into if you want to use our responsive movement option.
• If the robot will be armored, decide what type and how many systems of armor the robot will need. The prebuilt chassis comes with a single system of cost factor 5 alloy armor. Remove that if needed, and add the Cost Factor of the new armor to the cost factor of the whole system, and reduce the remaining cargo by 5% for each added armor system.
  
• Decide what armor options this robot will be using, and lookup the DR a single system grants on the Small Spaceship Armor Table. 
• Multiply the single system DR by the number of armor systems, then divide it by three, for the robot's average DR. If you have five or more armor systems, you can multiply that DR by the bonus given on page 4 of Pyramid 3/34. 
• Use the average armor, or move it around using simple armor facing, standard humanoid armor facing, or "Armor by Facing" from pyramid 3/34. If using Armor by Facing, use 6 times the robot's average DR rather than "adding the subassemblies together and multiplying by two" (though both methods give the same number). This is our spaceship's DR.
• Add any arms that the robot will need, including weapon mounts. Be sure to add the cost factor of the arms to the chassis's cost factor and to subtract the weight of the arms from the chassis's remaining load.
  
• Multiply the Cost Factor of the robot by its Base Cost to get the cost of the Chassis
• Multiply the weight of the robot by the remaining load to get the load in lbs.
• Add a Computer from the Ultra Tech or High Tech Books. You may want to look ahead at robot attributes and at the robot skill options. Subtract the Computers weight from the remaining load and add its cost to the cost of the robot.
  
• Decide what attribute and skill options you will be using for this robot, or look up what has already been set for this campaign.
  
• Purchase Attributes and Skills for your Robot using the options you looked up above and the computer you have for this robot.
  
• Add Sensors and Comms. Subtract their weight from the remaining load and add its cost to the cost of the robot.  
• Purchase any additional gear you might need. This includes weapons, tools, and just about anything else a Gurps character may wish to buy!  Make sure you don't overload the robot, and note the added cost!
  

We now have a custom robot, complete with all the stats you need to run a game with it! 

I'm really happy to have compiled this list, as it represents quite a bit of work. While I will probably add more here and there, Robots as Spaceships is now complete. I'm looking forward to using it, and I know I will be returning to this page again and again.