Classic Review by Crothian
It is nice to see an expansion of a setting that does what the setting needs. When I read through and reviewed Bulldogs I noted that it needed a bit more. This is the type of expansion I like to see for setting. It takes a area and covers it nicely. But the book is not just good for Bulldogs or even d20. The rules in it are few and the information is great and useable in many sci fi games that have robots. It does deal with specifics of the Bulldog Universe so if one where using it in say a Star Wars game then these details will need to be changed.
Bulldogs Robots is a PDF by Matt Carter. It is published by Silven Publishing. It comes in two versions one for printing and one for one screen viewing. The lay out and art are okay, and there is a lot of information packed into this ninety eight page book.
The first chapter deals with robots in the Universe. This is very setting specific but robots in Bulldog do not seem to be treated any better or worse then other sci fi settings. Robots are property and do jobs that others do not want to do as well as being computers with feet. It starts with a nice history of them and some good details on how they came about and just some nice easy reading. It deals with how they are manufactures as well as what their life so to speak is like. Then it goes into some of the work that robots do. These deals with the jobs other do not want, war, hospitality, information and other areas. One great section that rarely gets addressed is legislation dealing with robots. I really liked this section as it was obvious the writer took a lot of thought and did a nice job on these. The laws here dictate the robots behavior and are a nice good range of them and now just the more typical three laws of robotics.
The next section deals with the parts and power of a robot. There is a good amount of info on things here if only the book would have given examples. It is nice to read a bit on the cooling systems and the memory systems but I would have liked to see different parts and the good and bad on them to aid in the eventual construction of different robots and help with parts and making robots. The d20 system makes construction of things pretty easy and I was hoping to see a bit more on that in the book. The book does go into traits of the robots and designing a robot character. There are some good mechanics later in the book but it could have been a bit more well connected to this section of the book.
The robots personality and behavior are next. This deals with the robots code, how it accepts orders, identity and other areas. This also deals with reprogramming the robot and classes that a robot can have though actual mechanics are later on. The character classes are talked about and are shown some great versatility.
The fourth chapter deals with the mechanical application of creating a robot. There is a created point based system that has some basic options for the base line robot. The chapter has a large list of feats and skills and languages that a robot would want. There are plenty of options here. Some of the skills and feats have been altered some as a robot has a few things that work different then a normal characters. There are also plenty of ways to upgrade a robot with costs and simple to use mechanics.
The book deals with cybernetics next. It starts with laws of the universe and culture of cybernetics. Again this is good detail and is as well covered as the robot section before it. There are plenty of feats and options for them as well. There are some nice nano systems and personality transfers and brain mapping. The cybernetics here are a bit more well rounded in their options then one usually sees.
The book does a really nice job of presenting robots in a full light. I like the way it shows how they fit into the society y and how the society deals with them. It seems in many settings robots are just there and there is not a lot of depth to their existence.
