Critter

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Critters

Critters are NPC life forms with simple behavior patterns. They come in a variety of forms, ranging from benign to horrific monsters that will destroy you instantly. Critters do not take damage in the same way humans, cyborgs and monkeys do. They are immune to stun, temperature, and atmospheric conditions. They can move through space as if they had a jetpack and can safely stroll through a blazing plasma fire. The only way to harm a critter is through brute force damage or lethal guns, such as energy guns or phasers. Because many hostile critters can quickly overpower a human at close quarters, the latter is generally the only safe way to engage them.

Some critters appear normally on the station, such as George the dog, the chef's sidekick Remi, RD's Heisenbee, the docile bat Dr. Acula in medbay and the captain's lovable pet cat Jones. Rock worms have a way of showing up around miners. Skeletons can pop up when a wizard or wraith descends on the station. Bats tend to follow when there's a vampire around. Telescience can summon critters through teleport accidents, and other beings lurk in the various dark corners of space on other z-levels. And of course, critters can also be spawned by a bored admin.

Critters can appear in varying degrees of quality. It will be part of their name. The best of their breed will sparkle to indicate that they're a pretty big deal in the space animal kingdom. Food made from these critters will retain their full name, e.g. healthy cockroach-meat taco.

Robust NPCs

These are a subgroup of critters who are more evolved than your stock cockroach. Robust NPCs are mobile humans who operate by the same rules of existence as human players. They take damage like humans, drugs work on them, and they can be grabbed, disarmed, restrained and dressed like human players. They're advanced enough to pick up anything they find lying around, and they're violent jerks so they'll try to kill people with it. The only thing that doesn't work on them that works on regular people is borging and cloning.

Robust NPCs come in many forms. Among other things, they can appear from telescience accidents, they can be summoned from certain items and they can be created using chemistry.

Because of how dangerous they can be, you should avoid making these guys unless you're an antagonist.

Other NPCs

Some creatures fall outside the previously mentioned groups. They are humanoids affected by the same things as players, but they're not robust enough to have wills of their own. This includes monkeys and a few named humans. They exist either for scientific purposes or to really tie a place together like a good rug. The monkey pen in genetics would for instance not be quite the same without monkeys. One your first stops on the way to space adventures in a pod is the space diner. It is the adopted home of Shitty Bill and Father Jack, a rather talkative couple with rich personalities and the inclination for drugs and alcohol.