Steve Jackson Games GURPS – Generic Universal RolePlaying System

ERRATA – GURPS Robots (First Printing) – Updated October 11, 1999

Copyright © by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.

P. 9. The Robot Brain's package disadvantages are worth -105 points. Having a computer brain with no options set has a net cost of -5 points.

P. 10. Having a Sentient brain eliminates all 105 points of mental disadvantages. This option increases the cost of the brain by 105 points.

Under the Computer Brain Table, add this sentence to the second footnote: "For mainframe and macroframe computers, "genius" multiplies cost by 20 as well; "dumb" versions still cost only 1/5 as much."

Pp. 10, 20, 22-24, 28-32, 42, 50, 52, 111-123, 128. Change all instances of "Legality Rating" to "Legality Class". Change all instances of "LR" to "LC".

P. 11. Synthia's brain costs -5 points (base cost of a computer brain) + 70 points (for neural-net) = 65 points.

In the description for Blind, add the following notes:

GMs whose players purchase blind robots that have infrared or thermographic vision should take care to roleplay the many disadvantages of only being able to see via contrasting heat shapes. That is, inability to see print, signs, read license plates or menus, use instrument panels that are not designed for direct electronic interface and so on.

A Blind robot may take Acute Hearing or Acute Taste/Smell at half point cost; dollar cost is unchanged.

P. 12. Spectrum Vision is TL10, not TL11.

Under 360-Degree Vision, delete the final sentence: "The robot may not combine this option with One Eye."

P. 13. Xadar, Imaging is TL12.

P. 14. In the Sensor Table, change the cost for One Eye to -10, and add an asterisk to the weight and cost of Xadar, Imaging.

P. 20. Claws have negligible weight (and volume), not various weight.

P. 24. The Military X-Laser Carbine has a DMG of 2d(2), not 2d(5).

P. 25. Chainguns may use grenade-launcher ammo, the APDU shells listed, or API shells that do 6d×4 damage; the API shells cost $2 each.

P. 26. Under Lasers, add this description before X-ray Lasers:

Rainbow Lasers (TL9) automatically vary their color to best damage targets and penetrate atmosphere. Rain and mist do not penalize them. Each yard of water, dense fog, or smoke the laser beam must pass through gives the target an extra DR 1. Each yard of prismatic smoke gives the target an extra DR 20. Rainbow lasers may fire underwater at half range.

P. 31. The page reference in the Self-Destruct entry should be B121.

P. 34. The requirements for the bioconverters are (Herbivore) 10 pounds/KW/day and (Carnivore) 2 pounds/KW/day. Omnivore may mix and match plant and meat sources, at the same conversion rates. All bioconverters require 1 gallon of water per KW per day in addition.

P. 28. Under Weapon Accessories, the Laser Sight has negligible weight and costs $200. Replace "halves the SS number" to "reduces the SS penalty to -1 at up to 50 yards and to -2 at 50 to 100 yards".

P. 39 In the Arms section, add these sentences: "An arm's Reach is half the square root of its area (p. 40). Arms over one hex Reach cost 10 points per arm per extra hex."

P. 40. Under Robot Structure, Submersible's minimum TL is TL5.

P. 41. Under Other in the Robot Structure Table, the Points for Submersible should be 25 to reflect the cost of the Sealed advantage, which is included for free.

P. 42. Replace the Armor, Legality and Point Cost section (including table and example) with this section, Other Armor Statistics:

Once DR is known, PD, point cost and Legality can be determined.

Passive Defense: PD is determined from DR as follows: DR 1 gives PD 1, DR 2-4 gives PD 2, DR 5-15 gives PD 3 and DR 16+ gives PD 4. Maximum PD is 2 for nonrigid armor.

Point Cost: Each point of DR costs 3 points. For all but metal armor, this is modified by armor type: Ablative: -15%, Laminate: +33%, Nonrigid: -10%, Reflex: +50%, Open-frame: -25%. PD costs 25 points per level,regardless of armor type.

Legality: Legality depends on DR: DR 1 is Legality 6, DR 2-3 is 5, DR 4-7 is 4, DR 8-15 is 3, DR 16-23 is 2, DR 24-63 is 1, DR 64-199 is 0 and DR 200+ is -1. If the robot has neither metal, reflex nor laminate armor, increase Legality by 1.

Humanoid robots with body volume between 0.5 and 5 cf can wear human body armor; the DR is additive, but the PD is only that of the worn armor. If a robot cannot wear body armor, then increase armor Legality by 1.

Maximum Legality is 6.

EXAMPLE: Synthia's nonrigid DR of 15 costs 15 × 3 × 0.9 = 40.5 points, its PD of 2 costs 50 points. Total armor cost is 90.5 points.

Under Armor Slope, a 30-degree slope gives +1 PD, and a 60-degree slope gives +2 PD. Sloped armor has point cost as follows, for each side:

[(sloped PD - unsloped PD)*25 + (sloped DR - unsloped DR)*3]/6

P. 45. Under Other Surface Features, Suction Pads have a point cost of 25.

P. 46. Under Strength replace the paragraph that begins "Average the robot's" with these:

Point Cost: Find the cost of Body ST 14 or less from the table on p. B13; use the table below for Body ST 15+. If a robot has no arms, or has only striker arms, reduce the cost of Body ST 11+ by 40%. Body ST 0 (see above) is worth -100 points.

For a robot with arms, having an Arm ST greater than Body ST is an advantage, priced as follows:

For each arm: 30% of the difference between the cost of the Arm ST and the cost of Body ST.

For each pair of arms with the same ST: 50% of the difference between the cost of the arms' ST and the cost of Body ST. This is additive if the 'bot has even more arms.

If either of the two highest-ST arms is weaker than Body ST, this is a disadvantage. Calculate this as above, but now the difference is negative.

EXAMPLE: Synthia pays 175.5 for its Body ST of 31 and (175 - 175.5) × 0.5 = -0.25 for its Arm ST of 30. Net cost is 175.25.

Keep the table, but drop the line about ST 0 immediately following it.

Pp. 47, 48. Under Health and Aerodynamic Flight, all weights are loaded weights.

P. 47. Under Flotation, a change "60 lbs. × its volume" to "62.5 lbs. × its volume".

P. 51 Synthia's stats are adjusted as follows: Brain costs 65 points, not 70. Armor costs 90.5 points, not 40. ST costs 175.25 points, not 175.5. Model Point Cost is 610 points, not 564.5. (Note: final fractional point costs are always rounded off; only skills are allowed to have half-points.)

Pp. 77, 80. Under Short Lifespan, replace "halves" with "reduced by 1/4 (rounded down)". It costs -10 points per level.

P. 91. Under Magical Aptitude and in the Robot Mages sidebar, a robot brain must be of Complexity 5 or higher to have Magery, as per the Create Mana Co-Processor description.

P. 93. Under Fatigue and ST, insert this sentence at the beginning of the paragraph: "Robots don't have a Fatigue score." and add these to the end: "A robot may not use Extra Effort. If a robot is overtaxed, decrease the interval between maintenance checks and increase power or fuel usage."

P. 97. In the Hit Location Table, Head should be -5** and Sensors should be -10**.

Pp. 110-123. Here are the changes to the various sample robots.

Bomb Disposal Robot

"Manta" Deep Sea Robot

"Argus 1" Aerial Spybot

"Blue Steel" Police Robot

"Marius Mk. IV" cargo Mule

"M19 Vanguard" Warbot

"Rover-8" Security Robot

"Streethawk" Urban Battlesuit: Battlesuits do not normally have point costs.

"Johnny Appleseed" Colonial Agrobot

"Kobold-D" Space Worker Robot

"Muramasa 7" Commando Robot

"R5S Samaritan" Rescue Robot

"Ulysses Mark 2" Planetary Explorer

AAV-1 "Vulture" Autonomous Attack Vertol

"Cerberus" Security and Patrol Robot

"AA-20 Gabriel" Robot Trooper

"Furbot" Robot Pet

"Hellspider" Infiltration Robot

"Lemon Angel" Android Companion

"Omicron-15" General-Purpose Humanoid Robot

"Paladin" Robot Horse

"Prometheus 3000" Android

"S-3 Servitor" Housebot

"M-4 Thor" Main Battle Robot

"T-64 Tinkerbot" Technical Robot


"Scorpio Alpha" Robot Warrior

"Arachne II" Zero-G Worker Android

Doberman IV "Dog-Soldier"

NI-3 "Selkie" and NI-4 "Neried"

P. 125. Under Movies and Plays delete the last sentence in the Lost in Space entry.

Back Cover. Delete the reference to the "instant robots" section.