This post is part 4 of a series. You can find part one here, part two here, and part three here.

Today we’re talking about robots. Specifically in relation to the origin story and gameplay potential of a robot main character in Fallout 4. This particular playable race has a lot of interesting possibilities. To start with, it is possible within the Fallout universe for a robot to be sentient, although many are not. The character Codsworth, in the game itself, is essentially a person-he has a full range of human emotions and desires, and the other characters treat him as such. So, the possibility of a story centered on a robot protagonist is not as crazy as it might sound.

I imagine that playing as a robot would be a radical departure from the human norm: for starters, you would not have access to normal weapons and equipment-the player would have to build or find modifications to insert into its own body. Choosing the type of robot you play would have some effect on this-after all, a Protectron probably can’t support a minigun mounted onto one of its arms the way a Sentrybot could. This could also affect the story opening (again, you wouldn’t find a Sentrybot anywhere but at a military facility, and most homes would not have a Protectron), although one possibility for a robot protagonist might be the ability to upload its consciousness into other robots, and either make copies of itself or transfer from host to host (I envision making copies to be a perk the player could take, rather than an ability from the get-go).

Anyway, robots should function differently than human or ghoul characters: if the player is a large robot (ex. Sentrybot) they wouldn’t be able to enter tight spaces until transferring to another body. Hacking should not be done at a terminal-a robot would be able to interface directly with the security systems of buildings and other robots, remotely controlling turrets and terminals. I imagine a robot would have a hard time persuading people of anything, without possibly installing a special persuasion interface (perhaps it could be an upgrade the robot could build, equip, and swap out, or a perk instead). Robots are naturally immune to radiation, but highly vulnerable to pulse fields and electrical discharges. Similarly, a robot player would be vulnerable to being hacked by certain enemies-I envision that, rather than being under the enemies’ thrall, the hacking causes certain systems to go haywire or shut off until the robot either fights off the attack or kills the hacker. Robots don’t need to eat, but I think they should need power, whether from fuel or batteries. If the player has them, they use fusion cores to power their systems, or they use oil if they don’t. Should the player run out of power sources completely, they die (similar to starving in hardcore mode). Since oil and fusion cores are somewhat rarer in the game than foodstuffs (and have other uses) avoiding starving to death would be a constant worry for a robotic player.

Story-wise, although Codsworth seems like a logical starting point, I will outline another character instead. The main character of this story is a police Protectron in a subway station, who I’ll call Copper. Copper’s story begins before the war, patrolling the subway station during the evenings, stopping petty criminals and making minor repairs to the station. Then, he returns to the charging pod one day, and doesn’t get awakened until 210 years later by some raiders who are now squatting in the ruined subway station. Copper makes short work of the raiders, but realizes that something is seriously wrong. He decides to seek out the local police station for reinforcements, since his wireless communication lines aren’t functioning. He encounters the Brotherhood of Steel at Cambridge police station, and helps fight off the ghouls. Unlike most other races (ghouls, super mutants, synths), the Brotherhood has no particular bias against robots. They inform Copper of the state the world is in, and try to recruit him to help with their mission. Whether Copper joins them or not, he has a knowledge of the wider world, and the ability to make choices not originally planned for by his creators. For the first time in his life, he is free. Copper can then proceed with the story, joining with any faction except the Institute (he is, to them, just a malfunctioning piece of equipment).