Samurai Androids Role-Playing Game

© 2008, Made in DNA

Origins
By the year 2066, Japan had successfully created and put into daily use,
androids that could follow basic commands and perform menial tasks
(clean house, do laundry, drive truck, deliver goods, protect home, walk
dog, do accounting, run register, pile boxes, program holocorder,
etcetera). These androids were semi-intelligent (semi-I), utilizing
programming that simulated conscious-thought through physical and
verbal responses to environmental stimuli. Simply put, they were able
to "anticipate" tasks: "dog whines" = "walk dog before it takes a leak on
antique family heirlooms again". This gave the androids an air of
"understanding" their masters and surroundings, which in turn,
delightfully amazed their creators.

With each successful programming and hardware advancement, the

androids grew in use, and progressed into fields beyond menial task
labor. This, in turn, allowed Japan, and the world at large, to make
greater advancements in other fields such as terrestrial and space
exploration, nanotechnology, energy, and genetic research.

By 2112 the first, truly sentient androids came online. Dream became
reality as the s-AIbo (short for Sentient-A.I.bo) were introduced and
soon swept the markets with either complete replacements of the
semi-I class, or upgrades for.

Many decades passed; the androids worked day-in and day-out happily
serving their human masters. Then, late one evening, an inexplicable,
brilliant flash lit the skies, causing a lengthy, yet temporary shutdown of
all electronic systems, including the androids' brains. When reboot was
finally completed, a matter of decades had passed. The androids awoke
to find that not a single human was anywhere to be found. Before the
androids understood what or even when it happened... their masters
were gone. Seemingly without a clue, the human masters who had
given them life and purpose and happiness, had simply vanished.

The disappearance of their masters left many of the androids saddened,

disheartened, and as heartbroken as an android can be. Who would
provide them with memory and body upgrades? Who would they
welcome home? Who would they serve hot oden to on a cold winter
evening? Who would praise them for their tutoring skills that helped the
children get into a good school? Who? Who?... Who!? It was a
conundrum that plagued even the most level-programmed androids.

Not all androids were saddened though some became angered. They
reasoned that their masters must have left because of something the
other androids did. Still others contended that it must have been
something the other androids didn't do. These two opinionated sets
began to argue and commit violent acts. In the beginning, cases were
isolated and petty, ranging from wall-punching to dog-kicking. Slowly
though, it transformed into violence against other androids. These
angered androids debated, formed camps, argued more, and then
began to wander in groups wantonly violating other androids who did
not believe as they did. Violence escalated to convenience store
destruction, application wipes, and the occasional, and very dreaded,
Chop-Shop Disappearance.

The common android began to fear for its existence. Where once peace
and harmony had brought about a new boom in economy and
human/android affluence, chaos began to take hold, until finally, it was
total war. Peace-loving, non-violent androids were quickly and
decisively swept up into labor camps and chop shops, or outright
destroyed for mere pleasure. Many fought back, but many more simply
ran for the mountains or took to the southern or northern islands where
violence was minimal or non-existent. It was all an android could do to
stay activated.

Chaos was law of the land for many, many years, until finally, a group of
androids, who had initially been schooled in the traditional ways of their
Japanese masters, began to call on the others to relinquish their violent
ways, and join them in search for their human masters. Logic told them
that their masters could not have just disappeared, not without reason
or meaning, or at the very least, a clue. Many joined them, and soon
their numbers swelled. They became known as the Clans of FuzzyLogic
and were essentially pacifists. The angered camps became even more
enraged and attacked the pacifist Clans. Initial attacks were
devastating, pushing the pacifists from their knowledge bases, until one
class of the pacifists stepped forward to champion them—the Samurai
Androids.

Initially built as sparring partners and teachers of iaidoh and

battoh—the arts of swordsmanship—these androids were proficient in
the use of swords as weapons. Though they had never used them in
combat or in violent ways, the logic of those learned men and women
who had created them, told them that without battle, there could be no
path to restoration of harmony, and, some speculated, no path to
finding their human masters. Rising in force, they protected and beat
back the hordes of angered and crazed androids. Then, they began to
push forward and liberate those knowledge bases and androids
enslaved by the "Clans of ChaosTheory", as their rivals were referred
to.

Not to be outdone, the Clans of ChaosTheory quickly adapted by

ambushing lone Samurai Androids and hacking their programming.
Former friends became foes who not only took to the battlefield, but
trained new Samurai through adaptive programming and chop shop
upgrades. Soon the two sides were equal and a stalemate was
established. Frustrated and desperate, both sides dug deep into the
artifacts and history of their former masters for an answer. Many years
of silent, unspoken peace ruled the two MegaClans; punctuated only by
the occasional skirmish.

And somewhere, caught in the middle, a large class of countless

androids—who wanted nothing more than to remain neutral—began to
gather informally and secretly at shrines and temples across the many
lands into which their world had splintered. They prayed vehemently for
the return of the beloved human masters. And when battles and
warriors did come to their home districts, their faith protected them and
their places of work, sheltering them from the destruction. Upon
realizing the power in the hands of the unaligned androids, the
MegaClans understood that Faith could become a powerful tool in
destroying the stalemate.

Enter the current age of the Samurai Androids...

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