Don't Fear the Repo Bots

[LostOne]

Sorry, had to have a little play on Don't Fear The Reaper.

A couple questions about Repo Bots, one I know has been addressed elsewhere on these forums, but it's all speculation that isn't really important until you ask the next question.

1. How much is a Repo Bot worth? I'm assuming very expensive, hundreds of thousands to millions of credits.

2. How many Repo Bots would you GMs say need to be destroyed before Naruni gives up on collecting a debt because it's too expensive? I realize that Naruni is likely to send more Repo Bots than it is worth in hopes of collecting the debt and avoiding an unhealthy precident ("that uber-powerful guy got away, all he had to do was kill 10 repo bots and Naruni decided it was too expensive to collect from him, he's the exception to their rule of all-debts-get-paid-or-you-get-dead"). So at what point does Naruni give up? Say the bots cost $5 million each, and you are refusing to pay on a debt of $5 million. If you kill even one, they've doubled their loss on you, kill 9 and they've lost 10 times as much on you as they would have if they would've just given you the money. See where I'm going?

[Braden Campbell]

1. Take however much money your PC party has, add three zeros to the end, and there you have a resale value of a Repo-Bot... with no brain. Just the chasis.

2. The Naurni never give up. It would set a bad precident. If too many Repo-Bots die, they will just cut costs by hitting the offending party with anit-matter weapons... which will have a three mile blast radius within the atmosphere of any planet, and cost about 750,000 credits a pop. Case closed.

[Braden Campbell]

I forgot where, but it also mentions that Naruni equipment has a pretty WIDE profit margin built into their products (might be in the Hartigal section of DB5 IIRC).

It is mentioned in Anvil Galaxy as being either 65 or 67%.

[Aramanthus]

It makes a lot of sense. But those that can afford it have what they can afford. Including Repo-Bots.

[LostOne]

so for you econ majors would that 15% cover production plus bringing it to market ?

I'd say yes, simply because they can manufacture the item, figure out all the costs for production, transportation/delivery, then mark it up to the 85% profit margin. Since they have the power to have a near-monopoly (and any upstart companies that would have a chance to eat into Naruni profits are probably bought out or quietly eliminated through various industrial sabotage, etc).

[Vrykolas2k]

Thing is, they probably send the things in teams of ten, likely with a tank or two as well.
You MIGHT get one.
But you're dead afterwards.
Against governments... well, they DO have their own army, after all.

[KLM]

2. How many Repo Bots would you GMs say need to be destroyed before Naruni gives up on collecting a debt because it's too expensive?

Consider, that the NE built a reputation, that they ALWAYS collect
their debt. How much that reputation worths?

Also, NE Debt Collectors are fairly good at tactical assessment and
also, they tend to think in terms of centuries. With the proper interest
rate, of course...

Adios
KLM

ps.: Just my two cents, of course

[devillin]

I'd say yes, simply because they can manufacture the item, figure out all the costs for production, transportation/delivery, then mark it up to the 85% profit margin. Since they have the power to have a near-monopoly (and any upstart companies that would have a chance to eat into Naruni profits are probably bought out or quietly eliminated through various industrial sabotage, etc).

I had one of those situations in my campaign. The group had to figure out who was sabotaging the factory of a potential ally. Turns out there were three repo-bots, one disguised as the secretary of the security chief. The best part was, they used all of their standard sensors, but none could pick up that she wasn't what they thought she was. It wasn't until later that they figured out that if they had made her take a bath, her density would have given her away. After that, they invite everyone they don't know to take a "luxurious bath" before they will deal with them.

[Aramanthus]

That is one way to find out if the new hire is a cyborg.

[Aramanthus]

You could always have a device which measures mass when someone steps on it. I'm sure the RepoBoth are quite dense!

[devillin]

You could always have a device which measures mass when someone steps on it. I'm sure the RepoBoth are quite dense!

We thought about that, but I seem to remember that Repo-Bots have built in CG generators to make their weight seem normal.

[Aramanthus]

Maybe a combination of mass detector and a contra-gravity scanner that is placed in an place where most visitors wouldn't see notice it.

[KLM]

IMO Repo-bots are NOT infiltration units. They are built and used for
shock effect.

This does not rule out, that NE has infiltration cyborgs, of course,
thought in the Megaverse of MDC beings, I guess an MDC converted
human for example is way more suitable for these jobs, than a
mascaraded full borg.

Adios
KLM

[Aramanthus]

That could be that they are confused, Gadrin. And you are right about carrying the scanners in ones pocket. Although I could see some major businesses being equiped with something like what I proposed at their entry points. And those points being monitored from a central location.

[Aramanthus]

Those are all great observations Gadrin. But the cruise ship in Fifth Element probably was interfered with by jammers. Of course it was the storyline the writter wanted.

I was still thinking that major headquarters in the Three Galaxies would have a fairly decent security to cover such things. As violent as that world is, I suspect that their security is quite high.