Prowling and Other Physical Skills in Robots and Power Armor

[Hotrod]

I was reading through the great gear book of Northern Gun 2 today when a thought struck me. NG2 contains a few recon-type power armors that seem to emphasize stealth, climbing, and ninja-ish acrobatics, but robot and power armor descriptions generally say little to nothing about their abilities to perform complex physical tasks like prowling, climbing, and various gymnastics and acrobatics tasks, to say nothing of tasks requiring significant manual dexterity and a sense of touch.

I don't recall ever seeing a canon answer to this question, but what kinds of physical skills and tasks can a player reasonably expect his character to perform inside a robot or powered suit? What kinds of skills and actions become impossible in a powered suit or a robot? What sorts of penalties should be assessed, if any?

[Jorick]

I was reading through the great gear book of Northern Gun 2 today when a thought struck me. NG2 contains a few recon-type power armors that seem to emphasize stealth, climbing, and ninja-ish acrobatics, but robot and power armor descriptions generally say little to nothing about their abilities to perform complex physical tasks like prowling, climbing, and various gymnastics and acrobatics tasks, to say nothing of tasks requiring significant manual dexterity and a sense of touch.

I don't recall ever seeing a canon answer to this question, but what kinds of physical skills and tasks can a player reasonably expect his character to perform inside a robot or powered suit? What kinds of skills and actions become impossible in a powered suit or a robot? What sorts of penalties should be assessed, if any?

I feel like one of the things that makes robots worthwhile is that they're weapon platforms that can move with agility. Some PA (Kittani) are explicitly ridiculously agile, which suggests others are at least somewhat so.

I feel like Rifts was written with a lot of influence from Robotech, and what that game was trying to accomplish. I think there's lots of differences, but, as players, we went from one to the other, and I always felt the writers had similar influence on their imagination. Therefore there's some implication of agility.

There's lots of mentions in the flavor text of robots being piloted with agility. I'm pretty sure there's even a clunker in the NG1 book that is described as being good at climbing. Expecting agility gives weight to comments about "top heavy"ness, etc., with some bots, that are supposedly less agile.

That being said, I think something like prowl is not possible (not just a penalty, but not at all attemptable--like trying to walk softly in a full suit of plate armor) in a robot/pa unless explicitly stated. Just as agility is mentioned in flavor, so is noise. Jets/thrusters, and things catching on trees, and other such hints at rifts-robot-reality dropped in throughout the books. Not allowing prowl gives significance to bots that ARE explicitly given such abilities.

[eliakon]

In a robot? No way.
I would allow it in a PA...but I am going to charge at least the normal penalties for heavy armor....and I will be making a case by case decision.
So sure you can use your acrobatics to maintain your balance when you get slammed by that demon. But I am not going to let you do summersaults in most power-armor....

Basically "GM is going to call it as he goes, but expect -45% or worse on attempts your allowed"

[wyrmraker]

I would personally allow prowl in robots and powered armor that were specifically designed for stealth (as in there should be some mention of stealth in it's description). Apart from that, I wouldn't allow it for a unit not modified for stealth.

[flatline]

I voted for "other".

And by "other" I mean "GM fiat".

For instance, if you're driving a pickup truck slowly down a dirt road with the lights turned off at night, you don't get to roll your Prowl skill, I'm simply going to decide if someone notices you. I might figure odds in my head and roll dice, but the odds I come up with will have nothing do to with your prowl skill level.

Nothing with turbines will fly quietly. Nothing with a nuclear reactor in it will have less than a blazingly bright IR signature. Most vehicles are not sneaky.

--flatline

[say652]

I use the robot penalty of 15% per 100mdc over 200 for Robots over 12 feet tall and -10% for Mansize 7-9 feet tall -10% per 100 mdc over 120.
Near giant size 9-11 foot range -10% per 100mdc over 200.

I voted roll by the book. No penalty, because why not.

[Tor]

I say no prowl unless it explicitly indicates you can like that cool stealth hovercycle in Lone Star or those hovertanks in NGR.

[Blue_Lion]

There are a few suits of PA that specify they can be used to prowl. The wording seams to be placing an acceptation to the rule.
Climbing with robots and PA although possible there should be some penalty do to the massive weight and possible limits based on the surface/structures they can climb. (Typically a 1 ton object can not climb trees or most sdc buildings)
Gymnastics/acrobatics would be hard in PA do to the difference in center of balance making some moves harder to do such as back flips. Large robots may have trouble with some of the fine motor control for some of the technics and both may have shapes that prevent it from doing some of them. (a spider skull walker could not do a back flip most likely do to its shape. A samas would likely have an issue doing them because of the location of the wings and thrusters.)

[Nox Equites]

Note that agile does not necessarily mean quiet. Several NG2 PAs have the ability to drop a few hundred feet and land with minimal damage. this isn't going to be very quiet. Doing jet assisted leaps isn't going to be silent. Of course if the enemy is already in a firefight you might not need to use prowl at all.

[Alrik Vas]

If we're defeating "human" perception, range has a bit to do with it. From 500m away, you might be able to hide a giant robot that's running, your success with penalties is a good indicator for any observers mistaking you for a dust devil.

Though there are plenty of other ways to determine it that don't involve prowl skill checks.

[Library Ogre]

I'd also say that the context of your prowl roll can matter quite a bit... a PA can attempt a prowl while walking, though I'm going to penalize it a bit. They can't attempt a prowl roll while screaming through the air on their jets. They can attempt a prowl roll at pretty much no penalty if they're "in place"... "We got to the location, then sat down in hiding until we sprang the ambush." That might also fall under Camouflage, but I'd allow prowl in its place.

[The Beast]

Yeah, I'm gonna agree with others and say it's situational based on the mecha unit, terrain, distance, lighting, and the actions of the pilot.