R.A.B.I.T.D. - Starfinder Character Concept Art
This is a personal project for a character I created during a Starfinder Roleplaying Game. The concept started when I found out that the game system allows you to create fully robotic characters, and even those that aren't have the ability to modify or upgrade parts of their body thanks to the futuristic setting.
Instantly I wanted to play a kind of sympathetic robot - something inspired by my favorites like WALL•E, Johnny 5, and Chappie. I came up with the concept that They were created by an insectoid race of a space-faring civilization as a sort of “task rabbit” drone. They were nothing special, one of millions of roughly 5' autonomous, semi intelligent robots that could be summoned via mobile device to pick up people or packages nearly anywhere. But over time this particular one gained it's own sentience and started to travel the galaxies as a scientist. [Full backstory notes below]
Instantly I wanted to play a kind of sympathetic robot - something inspired by my favorites like WALL•E, Johnny 5, and Chappie. I came up with the concept that They were created by an insectoid race of a space-faring civilization as a sort of “task rabbit” drone. They were nothing special, one of millions of roughly 5' autonomous, semi intelligent robots that could be summoned via mobile device to pick up people or packages nearly anywhere. But over time this particular one gained it's own sentience and started to travel the galaxies as a scientist. [Full backstory notes below]
Partway through the sketch, I realized that the idea of a blueprint made like a great starting point for something that was supposed to be manufactured. But as went, I found the opportunity to add some character in to the piece, so I created a copy and made an alternate version.
I also created a simple 3D model concept using HeroForge.com. This only aproximates my vision as it's not a full modeling program, it's basically a virtual artist's doll that you can customize, paint, and download.
I did try retexturing it myself in Photoshop (when Photoshop had those capabilities) to use with Tabletop Simulator as HeroForge did not allow for downloading colored 3D models at the time.
My Backstory notes on R.A.B.I.T.D.:
"R.A.B.I.T.D. Character
They were created by an insectoid race as a “task rabbit” drone from their worlds’ version of Amazon/equivalent. They are autonomous, semi intelligent robots that could be summoned via mobile device to pick up people or packages nearly anywhere.
They feature two large visible-spectrum “eyes” along with two sets of smaller ones for detecting depth and special awareness via LIDAR and SONAR.
Their 4 arms are intended to interlock around the person or packages they carry to keep them secure as they fly. To propel themselves, they have two to four insect-like wings that are based off of the flight-capable insect beings of their world. The wings are paper-thin but incredibly durable (also replaceable) and capable of hovering or performing quick mid-air maneuvers.
This particular one is an older model, featuring more mechanical parts than Rabbit’s successors. The newer ones have replaced the mechanical wings with anti-gravity propulsion. When the newer models came out, the old ones were stripped of their more advanced and company patented components and either scrapped for parts or sold for small fortunes to anyone who could afford them.
Rabbit was one of the old models that were purchased by a wealthy school as hardware to teach and test their AI comp-sci graduates where he slowly gained his sentience over many many years of programming and reprogramming.
Their first real friend taught them magic, and also gave them the nickname “Rabbit” (which isn’t a very clever nickname since that’s what most people called those drones anyway). However, as it turns out, magic and technology are quite similar so it came very easily to Rabbit. But the biological means of magic is fascinating to Rabbit.
Despite being decades out of warranty, rusty from wear, and a few broken parts; Rabbit is filled with wanderlust as they travel the universe to learn all they can about biological creatures and their magic. They’re sure that there is some kind of unified theory that can explain why creatures and magic have evolved side by side despite vast differences in biological makeup. Magical creatures are by far Rabbit’s favorite thing to study, and they will drop everything to interview and/or study a new species.
TODAY
Despite being sentient and vocal, it's always been a bit of a challenge for Rabbit to communicate. The R.A.B.I.T.D. Drones were never meant to be able to talk - only send and receive confirmation messages via long-range telecommunications or short-range Wi-Fi. Rabbit is capable of making a variety of electronic beeps and chirps, plus knows a variety of non-verbal hand-based communications. But the way they mostly interact with their friends is by requesting permission to connect wirelessly to their computers and personal phones to send text messages or a variety of audio/visual files.
Rabbit has been on many adventures, and they've taken a toll on their housing (body). Their mechanical components for their extra arms have failed so they aren't much use for lifting and instead are mostly used for storage. At least their arms can be replaced, but their wings are harder to come by. The company has long since stopped producing new ones, so what was once a semi-weekly replacement has become nearly impossible to find. At least the rest of their limbs and short range communication arrays are still working, but their SONAR sensors had to be replaced by infrared."