Just how common are these things, and are they all sentient? Seems to me that the technology used to make these things would normally take very simple or attenuated ghosts to power an equally simple “dog brain” and that a sentient hull with an intact personality would be extremely rare - possibly unique.
What’s your take on this?
How common they are is up to you, when I used one it was presented as some sort of specialty equipment, like if you went to someone’s house and they had a laser cutter. Like, you’re not exactly surprised at it’s existence, but you are like, “Wow, you had the money and interest to dedicate a section of your garage to an entire laser cutter.”
In terms of sentience I think of them as spirits restricted by their mechanical shells, since the hull playbook notes that they are detached from their mortal emotions. So my personal take is that the hulls sentience is dictated by what their shell is meant for, some allowing full thought, while others are meant only for simple mechanical tasks.
In the most recent campaign I ran, Hulls were illegal, assembled in secret by mad scientists, and subject to confiscation and destruction by the Spirit Wardens. This provided criminal opportunities for the players: they helped capture the ghost of Rorick, the Crows’ murdered boss, and bring him back from the dead as a Hull.
In my current campaign Hulls are Akarosi military technology and possession of them outside of that environ is very very rare. Knowledge of how to build them is incredibly restricted. Which of course means the Leech in my game is 1/6 way towards being able to build one. 