Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Urdroid

As opposed to the Warlock's inspiration from other media, the initial concept behind the Urdroid stemmed entirely from the original setting of my campaign. I had an early discussion with my players about the differences between the Demiurgic tribes of androids and the intelligent machine races unavailable for player characters. I ended up summarizing the distinction:

-Demiurge encompassed groups of synthetic people that are both physiologically equivalent to human requirements as well as psychologically and sociologically compatible. Other machine races do not share these qualifications.

From there, I concluded that in order for an intelligent machine to be both distinct from Humans & Demiurge and still be playable, it would have to be an example of one with physical requirements that are comparable to living people (but not equivalent), and be psychologically and sociologically equivalent (but not necessarily compatible).

In short, a playable mechanical creature should have different ways for needing to restore hit points and staying fit/rested as well as different rules to represent their motivations. Otherwise it's just "a human that looks like a robot".

That goal brought me to the Urdroid: an ancient type of self-sufficient machine that adhered to strict rules of thought and behavior, which brought its goals parallel enough to living people to exist along side them, and directly with them in situations of peril or shared threats to survival.

 My first priority was plotting their repair and recharge abilities to the point a player character was free from 'organic needs'. This gave the class a hardy and defensive feel. After that, I wanted them to have a unique sense of morality and mysticism that would come into frequent play.

That that end, I have for now heavily borrowed from the Compendium's Monk player class, particularly by using a separate set of options (here dubbed 'Ethos') instead of simple end-of-session motivations. A few of these have been tweaked more than others, and I'll likely replace Ethos of Shadow once I come up with a more setting-appropriate option. but for now it'll suffice for playtesting.