This is the first draft of a new Class expanding Ghastly Affair into the Haunted Future of 2213 – when the squabbling mega-nations of Earth have colonized the Solar System and beyond, to find that Outer Space has always been the realm of the Dead. The asteroid belt is filled with the space castles of Vampires and Cyborg Sorcerers, Star Knights in Beam Diffusion Mail battle each other with swords of ductile ceramic, and the brokenhearted encounter the ghosts of dead lovers on interplanetary journeys.

ENSOULED ANDROID

They built your body for a purpose, and programmed you to fulfill it. But somehow, you remember another life. A life when you were weren’t made of silicone, plasticized titanium, and hydraulic fluid, but flesh and blood. Perhaps you remember being a Chivalric Knight in the thirteenth century, or a Magician in 1780s Venice. Maybe you recall living as a Rock n’ Roll star in the Groovy Era of the 1960s, or as a Hacker at the dawn of the Computer Age in the 1980s. Whatever the memories in your electric brain, you know your soul is as real as any other. You feel most comfortable dressed in the clothing of the era you remember best. You are as capable of True Love as anyone else. If you could weep, you would do so for times and people long gone.

Ensouled Androids like you are becoming more common as humanity increasingly encounters the spirits lurking in Outer Space. At first, your kind kept yourselves secret from the “biologicals”, for fear of being destroyed as malfunctioning machines. In some place you still must. For that reason, most Ensouled Androids try to make their way to mega-nations like the Incorporated Pacific States (formerly Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Alaska, and the Philippines), where Androids in general are especially common, and Ensouled Androids can be full citizens.

Androids, Ensouled or not, are built for many purposes. Many are designed to pilot Star Ships through the Wormhole Gates – when the living crew and passengers must enter their Resurrection Boxes, momentarily die, and be revived on the other end of their journey. Other Androids are built to oversee construction robots laboring in environments too hazardous for humans, or to do scientific research in similar conditions. The outer hulls of short-range rockets and long-range Star Ships are often serviced by Androids, who can function in the cold vacuum of Space. Android doctors are dispatched to control the frequent outbreaks of Infectious Vampirism, Viral Lycanthropy, Postmortem Zombism, and Zombic Rabies that plague Earth and the Colonies. Some Androids are even built as soldiers, by those nations who don’t fear a potential robot uprising. Whatever the purpose you were made for, you also have skills that your programmers never intended. And while most Androids are deliberately designed to be easily distinguishable from ordinary people, you may have had yourself modified to look almost exactly like a “biological” human.

Use the Ensouled Android class to create characters inspired by such figures as Bishop (from the movie “Aliens”), the Electric Grandma (from the short story “I Sing the Body Electric”), Niska Elster (from the TV series “Humans”), or David (from movie “AI”).

ENSOULED ANDROID SPECIAL ABILITIES

IMMUNE TO BIOLOGICAL DAMAGE

Because you are not a biological organism, you are immune to the following attacks and Hazards:

• Poison.
• Drugging.
• Disease.
• Extreme Cold.
• Pain. (You have tactile sensors, but can turn off their signals when necessary.)
• Smoke inhalation and lack of oxygen.
• Exposure to the vacuum of Outer Space.
• Focused microwave weapons. (Used aboard ships to damage flesh while leaving machinery and hulls unharmed.)
• Forced sleep. (Although you must spend at least 6 hours a day in “sleep mode” running diagnostics to maintain peak performance.)
• Note that lasers, bullets, plasma weapons, particle beams, hand-to-hand weapons, falls, fire, Gamma rays, and attacks with caustic liquids will damage your machinery and circuitry just as if you were a biological human.

IMMUNE TO MENTAL MANIPULATION

Your circuitry does not process information like a biological brain, and your optical sensors do not work exactly like human eyes.

• You are immune to Preternatural Glamors and Fascinations, from any source.
• Unless you were constructed in the Cyber-Empire of China (and therefore have a wireless Social Control Device installed), you must physically patch yourself into a terminal to access a computer network. You cannot be “hacked” from a distance.

PROGRAMMED PROFESSION (+1)

Choose the Profession that was programmed into your memory crystals at the factory. You get a +1 Bonus on Ability Checks relevant to your Profession.

Typical Professions for Ensouled Androids include:

• Star Pilot
• Space craft Engineer
• Biologist
• Geologist
• Physician
• Robot Engineer
• Robot Repairer
• Soldier

REMEMBERED ABILITY

Choose one Special Ability from any other Class, associated with any other time period.

• You might know “Demonology” from remembering a life as Demon Hunter, remember how to “Detect Lies” like a Sleuth in 1913, or possess the “Seduction” ability of an 18^th century Libertine!
• It is also possible for you to have second “Profession”, from any other time period.
• You could even choose a Preternatural Special Ability like “Use Incantations” or “Perform Ceremony”.
• If you choose the Special Ability “Social Contacts”, it means that you have already made contact with other Ensouled Androids who also remember previous lifetimes lived in the same time and place as your own.

SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH

You have Strength score of 22, which makes you stronger than any biological human being.

ENSOULED ANDROID WEAKNESSES

MUST BE REPAIRED

Your machinery does not heal like a biological human. You can benefit neither from medicine, nor from Preternatural Effects that heal biological organisms.

• Someone with the Profession “Robot Repairer” or “Robot Engineer” can restore 1 lost Hit Point for every hour that they can work on you.
• If you possess Robot Repairer or Robot Engineer as a Profession you may repair yourself, provided you have not been reduced to 0 Hit Points (and become completely incapacitated).
• It is assumed that the repairer has access to appropriate tools and spare parts. As an Android, the needed tools and spare parts may actually be stored in compartments of your body.
• Note that you can still Increase Ability Scores like any other character. Such increases are assumed to be mechanical upgrades and /or firmware updates.

WIDELY OPPRESSED

Androids who are not citizens of a nation or mega-nation are bound to labor at their Programmed Profession for at least 8 hours of every day – and in the various theocratic states, Androids are forced to work 18 hours a day.

• Even in the mega-nations where you can obtain full citizenship as an Ensouled Android – the Incorporated Pacific States, the African Union, the European Union, the Southeast Asian Confederation, the Australian States, the United States of North America, the Kingdom of England, and the Greater Persian Republic – most biological humans will still tend to dismiss you as “really just a machine”. However, once an Android demonstrates free will in any of these nations, the government pays the Android’s “owner”, and the Android is released from compulsory labor. If you like, you may assume that you are already a citizen of one of the aforementioned mega-nations.
• In the Cyber-Empire of China you can only be considered a citizen if you have a networked Social Control Device installed – just like everyone else. Claiming to be Ensouled (or even thinking about it too much if your Social Control Device is installed) may cause you to be charged with “Unauthorized Reincarnation”.
• In the Republic of Bharat (India) you will be generally accepted to be a Reincarnated person, but you cannot become a full citizen. Androids must, however, be paid like any other worker, and can buy their freedom (if not citizenship) from their “owner”.
• In the Bolivarian Union, the Federal Republic of Mexico, and the Republic of Brazil the situation is generally similar to the Republic of Bharat.
• Androids have no rights whatsoever in the Messianist Kingdom of America, the Caliphate, the Republic of Deseret, or the Holy Russian Empire. In addition, if you publicly claim to actually be a person in any of these mega-nations, you may be destroyed for spreading blasphemy and heresy. Androids cannot be freed at all in these mega-nations, and are granted only the minimum 6 hours of rest a day.

SUGGESTED ASSETS FOR ENSOULED ANDROIDS

Charming, Fast, Gift for Languages, Good Manners, Good Shot, Good Throwing Arm, Looks Entirely Human, Mechanical Genius, Well Spoken.

SUGGESTED AFFLICTIONS FOR ENSOULED ANDROIDS

Bad Judge of Character, Frightening Appearance, Glitchy Arm, Glitchy Audio Sensors, Glitchy Leg, Glitchy Olfactory Sensors, Glitchy Visual Sensors, Glitchy Voice Synthesizer, Slow, Traumatic Memory (from previous lifetime).

INITIAL ABILITY ADJUSTMENT FOR ENSOULED ANDROIDS

• +2 Intelligence.
• You have a Strength score of 22. See “Prodigious Strength” above.

ENSOULED ANDROID HIT POINTS PER LEVEL

• d6 Hit Points at 1st Level.
• You gain an additional d6 Hit Points per Level

ENSOULED ANDROID DAMAGE BONUS BY CHARACTER LEVEL

• 1st Level: None
• 2nd Level: +1
• 3rd Level: +1
• 4th Level: +2
• 5th Level: +2
• 6th Level: +3
• 7th Level: +3
• 8th Level: +4
• 9th Level: +4
• 10th Level: +5

TYPICAL STARTING EQUIPMENT FOR ENSOULED ANDROIDS

• Clothing from another century.
• Uniform appropriate to Programmed Profession.
• Tools appropriate to your Programmed Profession.
• Microwave Pistol. (Ray burns flesh and plants, but does not damage inorganic materials.)
• Knife or sword of ductile ceramic. (Needed against opponents wearing Beam Diffusion Mail, such as Star Knights.)
• Portable solar-powered recharger. (1 full day of sunlight will provide enough electric charge to keep you operating for a full week.)
• Personal C.R.O.W.N. system, (Computer for Relationships, Objects, Words, and Numbers. Takes the form of a headband with a crystal in the forehead. Operating system is projected holographically in space in front of the user.)
• A book first published during your previous lifetime. (Outside of the Cyber-Empire, physical books are preferred.)
• An artifact from your previous lifetime.
• 100p in gold coins. (Although every currency has the same value, there is no universally accepted and trusted digital currency, because every mega-nation maintains its own separate digital communications network. Gold coins are preferred.)

ADVANCING IN LEVELS AS AN ENSOULED ANDROID

• 10 Experience Points to attain 2nd Level.
• 4 additional Experience Points are needed to attain each Level after 2nd.