RPPR Illustrated: The Printed House

The Printed House

A map suitable for modern, superhero, and post-apocalyptic games. A prototype mansion built with 3d printers controlled by AI. Somehow it all went wrong.

Concept: The Printed House was envisioned by a billionaire tech venture capitalist as a prototype of the future of housing. The billionaire knew houses were machines to live in, but why not make them more easily modifiable? The house is a metal framework with embedded industrial 3d printers and arms, so that the house can be modified. Cutting-edge AI systems controlled the 3d printers. Unfortunately the 3d printers had insufficient safety protocols and the billionaire was killed in an accident.

The house was abandoned as lawsuits swirled over it. The family fought with investors and business partners for the Printed House and its technology. No one fully understands the technology in the House. The family thinks they have shut the AI system off, but that isn’t entirely correct. 

In a modern day game, the House is switched off, but security guards never venture inside. It is relatively easy for stealthy characters to enter the House and attempt to steal its technology or hide there. The AI may detect them and activate security systems. 

In a post-apocalyptic setting, the House weathered any crisis extremely well as its renewable energy systems and maintenance protocols kept it intact. As long as its reservoir of raw materials holds, it will survive. Security protocols may kill or maim intruders. A skilled engineer or hacker could take over the AI and turn the House into a fortress. 

In a superhero setting, the billionaire was obviously a super-scientist of some kind and the technology is beyond cutting-edge. Local authorities shun the house and only super-powered characters have a chance of defeating security systems. 

The embedded 3d printer system: There is a single massive room dedicated to 3d printing house modifications. A massive reservoir of raw materials is beneath the 3d printer room. A system of robotic arms can move anything from the 3d printer room to its final location and install them. Smaller 3d printers are located throughout the house on robotic arms for repairs and small modifications. 

Security systems: The House’s AI main mission is to preserve the House and protect its technology. Intruders are seen as threats. Its ability to tell who is a legitimate visitor and an intruder is flawed. It has four levels of threat reaction:

1. Warning - verbal and visual warnings are displayed through speakers and screens throughout the House. Intruders are told to leave. 

2. Deter - Loud noises and flashing lights blast intruders with sensory overload equal to a flashbang grenade. Other responses (throwing smelly garbage on intruders with robot arms, blasting them with water from sinks or toilets etc) 

3. Isolate - the House attempts to trap intruders into a single room. Arms will seal up doors or build new walls to lock intruders. The AI may or may not attempt to tell local authorities about the intruders. Once the intruder suffocates or starves to death, they will dispose of the corpse.

4. Murder - The House builds death traps and uses robot arms to kill intruders. 

Areas of note: The House’s exact design varies because of its nature, but some of the following highlights can appear. Not all highlights appear in the illustrated example. 

1. The ‘waterfall’ staircase - an error in printing made this staircase a mess that resembles a waterfall of garbage. The AI does not realize it is flawed. 

2. The Mannequin room - A room with a few dozen bizarrely posed and shaped 3d printed mannequins. If someone controlled the AI, they could easily print a disguise to blend in with the mannequins…

3. Embedded furniture in the living room - The house printed the furniture of the living room into the walls and ceiling. 

4. Window sculptures and death traps - The House can print in glass and used abstract sculpture model files where the windows go. They are beautiful and very sharp and nearly invisible because glass. 

5. The Spaghettied intruder - a dead intruder covered in 3d resin strands, a horrific example of what the House can do. 

6. Wrong proportioned rooms: Some rooms have incorrect proportions - too large or small. Doors could be narrow slots leading to a 2 foot square master bedroom suitable for a doll. 

7. Partial walls and bleedthrough rooms: The House overlaid two rooms so they overlap. A bed could just become a cabinet. A shelf merges with a table and chairs. A half-built wall only partially separates the bathroom and linen closet. 

Some Death Traps: The House has a large library of death trap model files. Fortunately it cannot build them correctly, so there’s always a flaw or two that intruders can exploit to escape. 

1. Concealed pit trap with glass spikes. The trap door is poorly concealed and easily detectable though. The glass spikes break on first contact but are very sharp. 

2. Resin choking dust sprayed through vents. The HVAC systems fills a room with resin dust that can suffocate a person in minutes. However, this trap is never implemented in a reinforced room, so characters can burst out of the walls or at least open air holes if they have tools or high strength.

3. Spring-loaded spike traps built in doors. If an intruder turns the door knob on a trapped door, but does not open the door, they hear a loud clicking sound. If they open the door after that, a powerful spring launches a spike on a stick upwards from the floor at the intruder’s head. 

Art by Patsy McDowell. 

Thank you for your support this month! I will post a schedule of patron games soon and get to work recording the next episode of After Hours.