Roche Hive Mechanical Apparatus Design and Construction Activity for Those Who Need the Hive's Machines

Roche Hive Mechanical Apparatus Design and Construction Activity for Those Who Need the Hive's Machines, more commonly referred to as simply Roche, was a droid-manufacturing company owned and operated by members of the Verpine species. Based in the Roche asteroids, the company struggled with entering the galactic market, achieving only limited success with its earliest, insect-like droid designs. Later designs, such as the Siak-series protocol droid, were developed with humanoid customers in mind, and thus appealed to a far larger customer base.

Despite being one of the most successful non-Human droid manufacturers, Roche had trouble competing with other, larger companies, and was thus forced to distribute nearly exclusively in the Roche asteroids and aboard Ithorian herdships.

History
Given the success of other Verpine technology companies (such as Slayn & Korpil) and the species' tendency towards technophilia, it was only natural for them to eventually branch out into droid manufacturing. Thus Roche Hive Mechanical Apparatus Design and Construction Activity for Those Who Need the Hive's Machines was founded by Verpine some time before the Clone Wars.

One the company's first designs, the J9 worker drone protocol droid, was a disaster. The droid strongly resembled its Verpine creators, spoke in a buzzy, insect-like manner, and frequently worked words such as "royal jelly" into its translations. This alienated most potential customers, especially those of mammalian species. The few J9s that were sold often ended up doing menial tasks; its "worker drone" title confused buyers into thinking it was a labor droid.

Products

 * 11-17 Mining Droid (with Slayn & Korpil)
 * 8D smelter droid
 * "Hatchling" maintenance droid
 * J9 worker drone
 * Siak-series protocol droid

Behind the scenes
Roche Hive Mechanical Apparatus Design and Construction Activity for Those Who Need the Hive's Machines first appeared in West End Games' roleplaying sourcebook Cynabar's Fantastic Technology: Droids.

Notes and references
Roche