Lend me your electric heart

With a bunch of friends, I wrote a game last summer! It's right below, for free (the file is just a placeholder and the character sheets). But it's kinda ugly. So if I earn 50 bucks with it, I'll whip up a nice layout for it!

A TTRPG co-written by Côme Martin, Eugénie Bidet, Milouch, Virgile, Thomas Munier and Nicolas Folliot in August 2024, with the help of kF for the number distribution and of Kobal. Published in December 2024. For exactly 4 automatons and for 1-2h sessions. You’ll need 30 six-sided dice (5 for each player).

Humans have disappeared very long ago. Of the planet the automatons once roamed through, only an infinite heap of ruins remains. The automatons are a mass of odd objects which real function has progressively been forgotten. They spend the time they have left asking questions about their existence and trying to overcome their programmation to access their dreams…

Preparation

Players each choose one of the four available automatons: the military automaton, the household automaton, the farming automaton or the office automaton. They put their dice on the different zones of their sheet, hiding it as well as they can from the other players: they have to put a dice on each greyed out square, with the indicated value face up. For instance, if an automaton has three greyed out squares in the “Action” zone and a “5” is indicated there, it means they should put 3 dice in that zone, which will all show a 5.

The zone in which there are 3 dice corresponds to the automaton’s programmation, what they are made for even if it might be a bit too constraining for them. At the opposite, the zone in which there is no dice corresponds to their deepest desire: what they don’t really understand but would like to approach.

Once the dice are put on the sheets, players go around the table and describe their character’s appearance. Each automaton is made of a pile of heterogeneous objects which are all a bit damaged and not really up to their initial function, and are aggregated around a heart that represents their deepest nature.

Finally, a player is randomly chosen to speak first in the first discussion phase, which is detailed below.

The automatons’ emotions

Each automaton is defined by the objects it is made of but also by the four zones corresponding the four main emotions its programmation include, to various degrees. The human programmers who coded them have used narrative terms to call them:

Action: when things move, when things happen fast, when things and people are hit, when you act before you think.

Investigation: when there are shadows to clear, a mystery to solve, when you trace back the logical connection between things and take your time (and sometimes risks) about it.

Contemplation: when you try to understand what lives inside you, when the inside world overcomes the outside world, or when the simple nature of things seems like poetry in itself.

Drama: when the relations between entities are complex, when we try to understand what bonds are forming and why, when our emotions are contradictory or impossible to express.

A value between 1 and 6 corresponds to each zone: you can only put dice showing these values in that zone.

Phases of play

The planet on which the automatons are slowly spins around a dying sun, and is plunged in darkness most of the time. When the automatons are surrounded by the dark, they talk together, ask questions to each other, tell stories, trying to understand how the programmation of the others, which is necessarily different from their own, functions.

When the planet is briefly and weakly lit by the sun, the automatons have a chance to act, offering pieces of themselves to another automaton, so it can better feel what the other feels they lack.

What that means in game terms is that the players will alternate between phases of discussion and phases of gifts, in the following way:

Discussion phase 1 -> Gifts phase 1 -> Discussion phase 2 -> Gifts phase 2 -> Discussion phase 3

Discussion phase

During a discussion phase, the automatons ask each other deep questions about the world and their own existence, expressing them in a way that showcases their programmation and without necessarily mentioning any human presence.

The first player to talk (a different one in each discussion phase) expresses a thought through their automaton and develops it as much as they like. It can be a completely made up reflection, or the player can roll 2 six-sided dice and compare their sum to the table below (just be careful to replace the dice in the right zone and with the correct face up!).

Each player, in turn, gives their automaton’s opinion on the question: the other automatons can react, bounce, comment or criticize the others’ opinions.

When everyone has given their opinion, the game moves on to a gifts phase (or, after the third discussion phase, to the end of the game, explained below).

To answer to a thought or give their opinion about it, a player must follow their automaton’s programmation, meaning they have to express, one way or another, the 4 emotions that it’s made of.

An emotion with a value of “3” should be something that is insisted upon, fundamental for the character; emotions with a value of “2” are important; the emotions with a value of “1” must be expressed but are quite minor; lastly, an emotion with a value of “0” (without any dice) exists and must be expressed but in a way to make the others understand the automaton finds it without value or incomprehensible.

2. Are we the last existing automatons? What have the others become?

3. When will the sun go out? What will happen to us next?

4. Should we repair the objects we are made of? How were we made, exactly?

5. What’s the most important in a fictional story? What tale has been inserted into our programmation code?

6. What would happen if we took out our heart? What do we feel when we look at it?

7. Are there other life forms on this planet? What is happening elsewhere, on other worlds? 

8. Should we leave this place? How could we do so?

9. Can we change our fundamental nature? If we can, what do we dream of becoming?

10. What is our purpose now that our creators have disappeared? Should we willingly turn ourselves off?

11. Have we been forgotten here? Should we send a signal outside of this planet?

12. Is robotic life superior to biological life? Could the latter be reborn one day?

Gifts phase

When the sun briefly rises on the planet inhabited by the automatons, they can offer each other gifts, meaning parts of themselves (symbolized by the dice). It’s never an obligation and a player can choose to offer no gift during this phase.

During the gifts phase, each player can express themselves only once, by giving one or two dice to one or two automatons (they can give a single dice to another automaton, give two dice to a single automaton, or give one to two different automatons). Giving a die means offering it to another player, who has to take it and try to put it on their sheet, without changing its value.

The player giving the dice explains, by talking as their automaton, why they think this gift will make the existence of the automaton they’re giving it to better: they describe which object of their automaton and which emotion is linked to this dice, how they remove it and how they put it on the other automaton. They strike out the given object from their sheet.

In response, the player receiving the gift looks at their sheet: if one of its four zones shows the value of the gifted dice, they put it there, describing how it changes their automaton. They write the name of the given object where appropriate on their sheet.

If a player receives a dice that can be placed in the zone corresponding to the same emotion as the one it comes from (for instance, if a player gives a dice with a value of “4” from their Action zone and the player receiving it can place it in the Action zone of their character), it’s a perfect match: the automaton harmoniously integrates the object and better understands this emotion. The player can show this evolution with a short sentence.

If a player receive a dice that can be placed in another zone than the one it comes from (for instance, if a player gives a dice with a value of “4” from their Action zone and the player receiving it can only place it in the Investigation zone of their character), it’s an adequate match: the automaton integrates the object as best as it can, even if it doesn’t correspond to the same emotion for them. The player can show this change of emotion with a short sentence.

If a player receives a dice that can’t be placed in any of their zones, it’s a failure: they place the dice in the middle of the table (it won’t be used again for the rest of the game) and describe how the given object doesn’t fit the automaton: it fully breaks, overheats, shatters to the floor…

The dice given and received by the automatons will make their emotions evolve: a zone without any dice will receive one or two; at the opposite, a zone can have no dice following a gift. These evolutions should be shown in the future discussion phases, during which the automatons will express their emotions differently and be able to comment the addition or removal of some of them.

End of the game

Following the third discussion phase, each player describes the current appearance of their automaton. After observing a moment of silence, the players end the game.

The characters

MILITARY AUTOMATON

Objects: caterpillar tracks - flamethrower - radar - projector - siren

Heart: armor plates

Attributes: Action 3 - Investigation 1 - Contemplation 1 - Drama 0

Zones values: Action = 1 / Investigation = 2 / Contemplation = 3 / Drama = 5

HOUSEHOLD AUTOMATON

Objects: kettle - vacuum cleaner - television - microwave oven - telephone

Heart: washing machine

Attributes : Action 1 - Investigation 1 - Contemplation 0 - Drama 3

Zones values: Action = 1 / Investigation = 4 / Contemplation = 6 / Drama = 2

FARMING AUTOMATON

Objects: plowshare / chainsaw / sprinkler / voice box / grain dispenser

Heart: tractor

Attributes: Action 1 - Investigation 0 - Contemplation 3 - Drama 1

Zones values: Action = 4 / Investigation = 2 / Contemplation = 5 / Drama = 3

OFFICE AUTOMATON

Objects: speaker - fax machine - architect lamp - reclining chair - pneumatic

Heart: multifunction copier

Attributes: Action 0 - Investigation 3 - Contemplation 1 - Drama 1

Zones values: Action = 4 / Investigation = 3 / Contemplation = 6 / Drama = 1

Playing aids

Phases of play

Discussion phase 1 -> Gifts phase 1 -> Discussion phase 2 -> Gifts phase 2 -> Discussion phase 3

Gifts and matches:

Value present in the same zone as where the dice comes from: perfect match

Value present in another zone: adequate match

Value not present: failure

Possible questions

2. Are we the last existing automatons? What have the others become?

3. When will the sun go out? What will happen to us next?

4. Should we repair the objects we are made of? How were we made, exactly?

5. What’s the most important in a fictional story? What tale has been inserted into our programmation code?

6. What would happen if we took out our heart? What do we feel when we look at it?

7. Are there other life forms on this planet? What is happening elsewhere, on other worlds?

 8. Should we leave this place? How could we do so?

9. Can we change our fundamental nature? If we can, what do we dream of becoming?

10. What is our purpose now that our creators have disappeared? Should we willingly turn ourselves off?

11. Have we been forgotten here? Should we send a signal outside of this planet?

12. Is robotic life superior to biological life? Could the latter be reborn one day?