“My positronic brain has several layers of shielding to protect me from power surges. It would be possible for you to remove my cranial unit and take it with you.”—Lieutenant Commander Data

Your player character (PC) is comprised of hardware components that contribute to your character's parameters (ability scores), patterns (skills & knowledge) and processes (special abilities).

Artificial humanoids were commonly referred to as androids—but this is a sexist term, as it derived from άνδρας (andros), Greek "man." They are more properly called anthroids: machines that look like humans*,* from the Greek άνθρωπος (anthropos), "human."

Anthroids—bipedal humanoids—are not the only possible design. Quadrupoids (four-legged), trochoids (wheeled), petagmoids (flying) and even disembodied artificial intelligences are all potential PC archetypes or embodiments, each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages. This book focuses on the creation of anthroids.

Players use a point-buy system to construct their characters. Design points (PTS) are used to select different components to fill different required and optional modules. Each component's properties inform the final parameters of the anthroid. You start with 14 points with which to buy components.

Creating your character

[Images of Character Sheet here]

Sentients offers a traditional PDF or printed character sheet as well as a digital character builder web app. Both are valid ways to play, so do whichever you prefer! The character creation instructions in this chapter focuses on the traditional character sheet, but they both use the same concepts and rules.

Using the character builder

If using the character builder app, there are only a few differences:

• You’ll need to create a free account with an email address and password.
• The first section you’ll see is the “Components” section. This is where you browse for and select components for your PC by dragging and dropping. This is equivalent to the traditional character sheet’s second page.
• The next section is “Character,” where you can fill in optional backstory data and items and equipment.
• The last section is “Overview,” which combines everything you need to play onto one page: parameters, current status, patterns and more. This is equivalent in many ways to the first page of the traditional character sheet.

Using the character sheet

Your anthroid’s character sheet has 3 pages:

Page 1

The first page lists the parameters, status, processes, imprints, neuroses and patterns you will commonly need to refer to.

Parameters: These values describe your sentient’s physical characteristics. The categories  Age and Affect are set by you at the beginning, while all other parameters are copied from page 2 after component selection is complete (see below).

Status: Your current status values, such as Stress, Charge, etc. These may fluctuate frequently during gameplay, so they are all collected here in one place for ease of use.