Today I have a follow up to the first part of my piece on Synthetic Life that might be applicable to various science fiction games in addition to Mutant Future and Gamma World.

The Ancients built androids for many reasons and one of the most advanced was used for off world operations. Station squids were human sized machines that attached themselves to asteroids and Kuiper belt objects and turned them into space stations. The process took decades even with an abundant energy source but the result is most of the asteroids in the system have the capacity to support Earth life.

While that project was ongoing, some were looking to use such technology on planets, including Earth. Instead of building cities, they could be grown. This was just in the planning stages when the cataclysm occured but it still exists. Some synthetics hold programming that will allow them to become urban seeds. As the programming is incomplete, any resulting cities will be either very strange or very simple. The android may or may not be consumed in the process but it will take centuries of growth as there is no guidance or easy access to vital raw materials.

Basic and synthetic androids that have access to a synthetic city (or node) can tap into its mind and power source. This can result in information (which may be false if the mind wishes), reprogramming for the android, aquiring new upgrade or mutation modifiers or even a completely new body. It is obviously hazardous to tap a node, but the results can be likewise wonderous.

And a bit of a spin off. Most artifacts are devices the Ancients built for various purposes. They are whole in of themselves. But there is another kind of artifact- parts of much larger machines. These may be vehicles, buildings, nodes or even landscape tech (devices meant to provide observation and modification to the landscape). Cutting out a part of such a machine and using it for something is perfectly acceptable in most places in the wastes. Even androids will do so, though only to dead or enemy machines. What these parts can do, well that is up to their original function and the GM's call. But I suggest that they be much more diverse than the gizmos in the MF rulebook.