Casablanca (2145)

"Of all the space bars in all the worlds, you had to re-materialise in mine!"

Generally regarded as the definitive version of this classic tale, the remake of Casablanca (starring Myra Dinglebat and Peter Beardsley) released in 2145 was another fixture in the movie rotation at The Red Knight's cinema.

A Crapola Picture Production, Casablanca was a pioneering movie in its use of a combined human, mechanoid, and waxdroid cast.

Unfortunately, also being a Crapola Pictures Production, Binglebat's name was misspelled on all the posters for the movie!

As recompense, she was granted a percentage of the profits from an "Extras Pack", sold by Crapola Inc, that allowed talking appliances, such as Talkie Toasters and Talkie Toilets, to adopt Binglebat's voice and personality.

The waxdroid of Peter Beardsley was based on the late 20th Century no-gee footballer who, primarily, played for Newcastle United, Liverpool and Everton, before turning to management.Unfortunately his coaching career ended in disgrace and it's believed that it was around this time he sold his likeness rights to a company that would eventually begin the manufacture of waxdroids.

It's unclear what Crapola Pictures saw in the Beardsley waxdroid that made him perfect for the lead role in Casablanca, but they never used him again, instead shunting him away to some off-world amusement park to live out his days in anonymity.

Skutters

Skutters are service and maintenance robots that stand at around 2 feet (61 cm) tall, appearing as motorized boxes with a single limb each, ending in a three-clawed hand with an electronic eye.

They perform menial tasks around the ship, such as sweeping the cinema floors after a movie, or painting the corridor walls.

Skutters are incapable of speech (beyond making bleeping noises), but can usually make their feelings clear.

Their hands are particularly well designed for giving "flipping the bird" gestures with one or two digits.

Operating with a basic semi-autonomous A.I., they understand voice commands, and are able to articulate more complex statements by writing them out with a pencil and paper, play some musical instruments (e.g. keyboards), engage in simple games (such as draughts, or cowboys-and-indians) etc

Their behaviour is rather more human-like than might be expected for such crudely designed robots; they enjoy watching films, are highly emotional and occasionally appear to be somewhat unstable and prone to malfunction, presumably as a result of three million years of continuous operation.

It is unknown exactly how many functional skutters remain on The Red Knight as pairs of skutters (a "male" and a "female") are capable, in extremis, of creating small replicas (baby skutters) of themselves from salvaged tech around the ship.

Under the guidance of the ship's A.I., the skutters - along with garbage droids - were responsible for The Red Knight's maintenance during its 3,000,000 year voyage away from Earth.

Unlike many other mechanicals, skutters are not fitted with a chip to make them believe in Silicon Heaven; this was to save money during production.

Due to this they find the concept comical, and only something stupid mechanoids believe in.

From The Magazine Rack: Mech's Health

Just one of many magazines available for download to the crew's personal display units, for a small deduction from their company credit.

Hudzen 10 Service Mechanoid

4000 Series Service Mechanoid

INTRODUCTION - PHASE 2.5: PREMISE

As a group you need to decide who will take what initial role in the upcoming drama (don't worry, as the campaign progresses, the spotlight will shift).

• One of you chooses to play the last remaining human (the nominal 'star' of the series);
• One of you chooses to play the holograms of a deceased crewmember (whose primary raison d'etre is to keep the 'star' in line, somewhere between a bullying older brother and a nagging mother-in-law);
• One, or more, of you choose to play anthropomorphised descendants of the star's (smuggled) pet (you will need to agree between you what kind of pet it was - the rules contains guidelines for cats, dogs, rabbits, rats, mice, and iguanas, but I'm sure we can come up with something if you want a different animal); 
• One, or more, of you can play a surviving service mechanoid, a waxdoid etc;
• And the rest of you can play random alien lifeforms that have strayed aboard the ship and - for whatever reason - have decided to stay!

None of you are rocket scientists or starship captains: the Red Knight campaign revolves around lowly 'everyman' survivors, clearly out of their depth, struggling to survive and find their place in a vast, unfriendly, universe.

INTRODUCTION - PHASE TWO

Welcome to the world of the RED DWARF RPG.

It's a retro-futuristic world of cathode-ray tube (CRT) screens, chunky keyboards, floppy discs, Betamax video cassettes, boom boxes, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), and no Internet.

And the human race is extinct. Probably. They had their chance 3,000,000 years ago and blew it.

Time moves on.

However, at least one of you is/are the last human(s) alive, stranded and lost on a massive mining ship in the butt-end of space; the rest of you can take the roles of:

• Holograms (accurate representations of deceased colleagues)*
• Mechanoid companions/servants;
• Evolved household pets (e.g. cats, dogs, ducks, rats, mice, rabbits etc);
• Waxdroids (animated entertainment units with the appearance and mannerisms of famous historical figures - e.g. Elvis, Hitler, Nelson, Trump, Churchill, Homer Simpson etc)

* The ship's A.I. only has the capacity to run one hologram at a time, as well as all the other ship's systems (life support, engines, lighting, vending machines etc).

For more ideas and to get the gist of what we're aiming for, check the Inspirations Information Screen.

Basic System Guidelines:

Task Resolution:

• Roll under STAT + SKILL on 2d6 - the larger the margin of success, the greater the achievement.
• A natural “2” is always a critical success and adds 1d6 to the margin of success.
• A natural “12” is always a critical failure - no matter how high your Target Number.

Combat:

• As above.
• Damage = (Margin of Success x Weapon’s Rating {WR}) + Damage Bonus {DB}
• Wounds = If Damage is greater than SHRUG value, then one wound, if twice SHRUG value then two wounds etc. If Damage is less than SHRUG, then target suffers -1 on all rolls for next round.

Now go to Phase Three