Umerica Unleashes... SILVERSCREEN!!!

Here's my current DCC Umerica character rejiggered from various Transmorphotronobotic games that never got off the ground.  Consider him extra-jankified to fit into the apocalypse proper.

—

On his home planet, Silverscreen was a curmudgeonly antiquarian, archivist, and amateur holographic-arts critic [think Doc "Bones" McEbert].

Then came "The Incident", where his scoutcraft crashed on a primitive, desert backwater one fateful July night in 1947.  He hid from local law and military forces in a run-down drive-in, and stayed there for decades learning about his environs through the lens of B-movies and classroom scare films.  Armageddon led him to coming out of the literal (storage) closet to a ruined world.

(art by me)

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"The Incident"

Alt-Mode!

Reel Hatchet!

Film Canister Battle-Tote!

(commission by Jacob Blackmon)

Found In The Wild

 

by Brian Kesinger (https://www.briankesinger.com/)

"Blackmail Is Such An Ugly Word. I Prefer 'Extortion'. The 'X' Makes It Sound Cool." — Bender Bending Rodriguez

The Star Wars juggernaut is upon us, and there's no escaping it's Force-choking clutches.

My household is pretty pumped about the upcoming flick, and The Woman expressed interest in Fantasy Flight's current rpg line.

So what better way to check out the SW: Edge Of The Empire game than by making a character?

—

11-H8

Species:  Droid

Career:  Bounty Hunter

Specialization:  Assassin

Obligation:  Criminal (starting 10 points; +5 additional)

Motivation:  Ambition (Greed)

Characteristics

Brawn: 2, Agility: 2, Intellect: 2, Cunning: 3, Willpower: 1, Presence: 2

Figured Characteristics

Soak: 3, Wounds: 12,  Strain: 11, Defense:  0 / 0

Combat Skills

Brawl: 1, Melee: 2

General Skills

Athletics: 1, Medicine: 2, Perception: 1, Piloting (Planetary): 1, Skulduggery: 2, Stealth: 1, Streetwise: 1, Vigilance: 1

Talents

Enduring, Lethal Blows, Stalker

Weapons / Equipment

Vibro-scalpel, "Med Kit" (Anaesthetic (2), Avabush Spice, Neurotoxin), Binders (2), Comlink, Utility Belt, 5 credits

—

Haughty and egotistical cosmetic surgery droid 11-H8 grew to despise his vapid, dull-witted clientele, and decided to remove more from them than cellulite.  He extracted secrets from his quasi-anaesthetized patients, and began a campaign of blackmail, extortion, and thievery...

...which completely blew up in his faceplate, as his clients were some of The Empire's richest, mightiest, and most unforgiving plutocrats.

Hijinks ensued... fleeing-and-going-underground-and-turning-to-even-more-crime-to-survive-related hijinks.

11-H8 now specializes in fugitive-reclamation, leg-breaking, and assassination, gleefully using his medical expertise in ways counter to his factory programming.

—

He has "LV" engraved on his left claw-knuckles, and "H8" on the right.

"What's Nuked, Scooby-Doomsday?" — CHARL*E

CHARL*E

Hit Dice:  10
Frame:  Armature
Locomotion:  Legs (Pair)
Manipulators:  Advanced Hands
Armor:  Duraplastic (AC 5)
Sensors:  Class III (plus Night Vision)
Mental Programming:  Programming
Accessories:  Remote Control Unit
Weaponry:  None
XP:  3,100

The Carnival Helper And Robotic Labor Entities are mute constructs designed to replace human staff at Ancient theme parks and tourist attractions.  They wear sleek blue uniforms, and their optics blaze hauntingly.  Possessing a physicality atypical of most humanoid robots, CHARL*Es are exceptionally strong and nimble, and come loaded with entertainment software for juggling, soft-shoe routines, acrobatic feats, synchronized swimming, and more.

CHARL*Es leave no scent, and can't be tracked even with Increased Senses.

CHARL*Es saw limited use, as on their best days they were glitchy and responsible for numerous malfunctions (rides running backwards, foodstuff machines going haywire, etc.), and on their worst, well...they'd go full-on Westworld.  Internal turbo-modules (as the Quickness mutation, allowing speeds of 240' (80'), two 2d10 damage bludgeoning attacks per round, and the ability to torpedo through vehicles and walls) only increased their lethality.

—

[Inspired by Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode #8, "Foul Play In Funland" (1969).

And for the Savage Worlds version, click here!

"B" is for "Blimpborg"

Blimpborg  ("Gasbag")

Hit Dice:  15
Frame:  Biomorph
Locomotion:  Legs (Pair), Rotor
Manipulators:  Pincer
Armor:  Alumisteel (AC 4)
Sensors:  Class IV
Mental Programming:  Programming
Accessories:  AV Transmitter, Loading Mechanism, Self-Destruct System, Weapon Mount
Weaponry:  Flamethrower, Grenade Launcher (with 12 Grenades)
XP:  6,900

Considered ridiculous and primitive even by The Ancients, blimpborgs are clunky, rust-prone, man-sized robots designed to float over and into enemy terrain.  Their torsos contain "atmospheric helium converters" that inflate bladders for limited flight.

Blimpborgs are equipped with arm-mounted flamethrowers, chest-mounted grenade cannons, and head-mounted navigational systems. They are programmed to explode when surrounded by 4 or more foes, or when within 20' of an enemy vehicle.

Blimpborgs saw limited battlefield use, as they were too dependent on environmental conditions to be effective...and thanks to floating back into their own territories, the robots ultimately inflicted more friendly fire deaths than enemy kills.

The Guys Of Wrexus Are Upon You — Meet Mattress Mech!

Mattress Mech
Salesborg

Hit Dice:  25
Frame:  Armature
Locomotion:  Legs (Pair)
Manipulators:  Basic Hand (1), Claw (1)
Armor:  Neovulcanium (AC 2)
Sensors:  Nerve Web
Mental Programming:  Artificial Intelligence
Accessories:  AV Recorder, Holo-Screen, Self-Repair Unit, Universal Translator, Vocalizer
Weaponry:  See Below
XP:  25,000 (+ 4000 per additional weapon)

Description

In Ancient times, the Gallery Furniture business empire spread across the planet and The Colonies...and finding human salespeople wholly deficient (due to pesky "empathy" and the capacity to take "no" for an answer), The Powers That Be rolled out an army of unstoppable salesborgs.  These hulking, fission-fueled juggernauts of commerce possessed neural-nets and craggy flesh-faces cloned from company founder, Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale.  Sales skyrocketed.

In the Mutant Future, Mattress Mechs still prowl their ruined showrooms, single-mindedly intent on procuring tresspassers' currency in exchange for (overpriced, time-ravaged) furnishings.  Savvier models utilize holo-screens to appear human, engaging in snappy sales repartee before resorting to (literal) strong-arm tactics.  Insane models only bellow, "Gallery.  Furniture.  Will.  Save.  You.  Money.  You.  Have. Twenty.  Seconds.  To.  Comply!"

Mattress Mechs strike twice per round with fist (1d12 damage) and claw (2d10), but as the borgs were designed to juggle cumbersome objects with ease, they do 1d12+6d6 damage when attacking with sofas of opportunity.  And the more unhinged specimens have arrays of scavenged, self-installed weaponry....

Mattress Mechs clangorously plod after "customers" at 60' (20'), but hyper-hydraulics allow them to make standing horizontal leaps of 250' / vertical leaps of 100'.

Rumor has it that the original Gallery Furniture site, located mere miles in the doom-bayous south of Gunspoint, has a trove of pristine relics guaranteed to add style. luxury, and comfort to even the most bomb-blasted of bunkers...and the cryo-corpse of Mattress Mack himself!

Meatier Prototype Model

"O" is for "Octosaw"

Octosaw

Hit Dice:  4
Frame:  Armature
Locomotion:  Legs (Multiple)
Manipulators:  None
Armor:  Alumisteel (AC 4)
Sensors:  Class II
Mental Programming:  Programming
Accessories:  AV Transmitter, Magnetic Feet
Weaponry:  Rotating Blade (2d6+1)
XP:  300

Octosaws are 3' long, battery-powered robots with blocky bodies, 2' chain-blades, and spindly, springy legs.  They attack in swarms of 2d4 units, and doggedly skitter after foes at a rate of 90' (30'), even along walls and ceilings.

Octosaws inflict 2d6+1 damage with each strike.  Anyone slashed suffers an additional 1d4 damage per round for 3 rounds from blood loss.

Too fragile for battlefield use and too loud for assassinations, The Ancients utilized octosaws in sadistic gameshows and penal bloodsports, or combinations thereof (like ¡Viva Texecution!:  The Lone Star Justice Hour).

Mutants In The News — "It's Like They Merged Dr. Zoidberg And Bender B. Rodriguez" Edition

According to the Associated Press, a surgical robot named da Vinci is under scrutiny for assorted problems and deaths, including "hit[ting] a patient in the face during a hysterectomy" and not "let[ting] go of tissue grasped during colorectal surgery".

Here's some pics of that li'l scamp.

Wow.  There is NOTHING about "Dr. Stab-bot, M.D." there that isn't terrifying.

The Guys Of Wrexus Are Upon You — Meet The Notorious B.O.T.!

The Nortorious B.O.T.  ("BIG*E")
Synthetic Superstar

NPC
Character Type:  Android
Alignment:  Neutral

Level:  6
Hit Points:  50
Armor Class:  3 (2+1)
Movement:  120' (40')

Abilities
STR:  14
DEX:  6
CON:  10
INT:  14
WIL:  16
CHA:  14

Modifiers
) To Hit / Damage (Melee):  +1 (+3)
) To Hit (Missile):  -1
) AC:  +1
) Technology Rolls:  +5%
) Reaction Adjustment:  -1

Saving Throws
Energy Attacks:  13
Poison / Death:  10
Stun Attacks:  12
Radiation:  11

Implants (Mutations):  Energy Ray (Sonic), Killing Sphere, Toxic Weapon (8d6)

Attacks / Weapons / Abilities
)  2 attacks per round

) Warp-Field Sword (1d8+16, treats foe's armor as +2 AC worse)
) Energy Baton (2d6+15)

)  +2 damage in melee combat (Level Bonuses, factored in to Modifiers)
)  Immune To Poisons / Paralytics
)  Immune To Sense-Based Stun and Blinding Effects

Equipment
)  LazAb Armor (AC 2)
)  Android Repair Kit
)  2d10 Drugs / Chemicals / Medical Devices
)  A Loyal Cyborg Crew

XP:  73,400

Description

The Ancients were awash in mass-media-driven "celebrity culture", but the concept lost all meaning as anyone with an implant-cam and a cerebro-link instantaneously broadcasted their antics throughout the known worlds.  The Hollywood-Military complex couldn't profit from these "independent artists" the way they did in the glory days of contractually-bound entertainers, so The Powers That Be literally made celebrities of their own...or, more accurately, re-made them.  They cloned and robotized and digitized long-dead stars of stage, screen, song, and stadium into programmable, controllable cyber-chattel.

The Notorious B.O.T. (a.k.a. BIG*E) is one such construct, a portly fabricant as deadly with a rhyme as he is a blade.  He awoke angry and ambitious from the celebri-storage tanks beneath The Syn-Hell Pavilion (an accursed prison-slash-graveyard for Ancient artificial beings), and he's obsessed with reforging his musical empire.  Thanks to exhaustive data-chips on Ancient chemistry, The Notorious B.O.T. subsidizes his endeavors by dealing in rare pharmaceuticals.

In combat, BIG*E usually lumbers into melee, cutting down the weak and the wack alike.  He also manipulates deadly sonic waves (Energy Ray, Killing Sphere), and launches narcotic finger-syringes (Toxic Weapon) up to 30'.  Though he strives to maintain a pristine appearance, his synthe-skin is often battered and tattered from hard living.  BIG*E abhors primitive firearms, and single-mindedly attacks (Morale 12) anyone who points one his way.

Rumors suggest The Notorious B.O.T. is actively recruiting a gang of other revived MCs ("MusiConstructs"), which include such cryptic unit designations as O-D-B, SH0K-G, KRS-1, 2L-C00L-J, ICE³, FLAY-V, BZ-MRK*E, and 3R1C-B.  And he may have a bloodthirsty archenemy, a renegade sentient hologram called 2P4Q.

"V" is for "Vacuuvore"

Vacuuvore  ("Suckbug")

No. Enc.:  0 (1d3)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  0' (0')
        —Fly:  75' (25')
Armor Class:  4
Hit Dice:  22
Attacks:  1 (vacuum)
Damage:  See Below
Save:  L11
Morale:  10
Hoard Class:  XXII + 2d00 junk
XP:  13,000

Flying via "jets" attached to their abdomens, vacuuvores are glowing, bioengineered beasts as large as Ancient commercial airliners.  They were created to clean hazardous spills and floods, draw oxygen from raging fires, and collect mineral-laden dust from off-world surfaces.  They are utterly immune to all known diseases, toxins, and environmental conditions.

Vacuuvores cruise along about 100' off the ground, siphoning up all loose materials and liquids in a 150' radius.  Anyone thus sucked is deposited in a tank-like stomach, and buffeted and battered by flying debris for 1d12 damage per round.  The creatures tend to go on vacuuming binges lasting hours at a time....

When "full", vacuuvores excrete their inert payloads in convenient 15' x 15' solid bricks.  Their Hoard Class represents items chiseled from their leavings and/or contents of their stomachs.

Mutations:  Aberrant Form (Xenomorphism—"Vacuu-Tubes"), Epidermal Photosynthesis

"T" is for "Thicket Phantom"

Thicket Phantom

No. Enc.:  1 (1)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  45' (15')
  —Fly:  240' (80')
Armor Class:  3
Hit Dice:  13
Attacks:  2 (claws)
Damage:  1d8 / 1d8
Save:  L13
Morale:  10
Hoard Class:  XVIII
XP:  8,700

Thicket phantoms are 10' tall entities (it's unclear if they're flesh-and-blood creatures, or robotic constructs) with bulbous, glowing eyes and spindly arms that end in razored claws. Their mirrored cloaks shimmer with uncanny luminescence.  Thicket phantoms haunt deep woods, jungles, and swamps, and move completely unmolested through even the most dangerous mutated flora.

Three times per day, a thicket phantom can discharge a 30' long, 20' wide cone of orange mist from its hands.  Those caught in the spray suffer the same effects as those of an Irritant Gas Grenade [per p. 119 of the Mutant Future Core Rules], but at double the duration. Thicket phantoms are immune to the effects of this gas, and seemingly all other chemicals/toxins.

To fly, a thicket phantom transforms into a 10' diameter sphere of crackling red energy.  Only Mental Attacks affect it in this state.

Mutations:  Control Light Waves, Empathy, Possession, Reflective Epidermis (Lasers/Light), Toxic Weapon ("Vile Vapor")

Dr. Gori Unleashes... THE SHOCKING SPHINX-MACHINE

Sphinx-Machine
All-Terrain Vehicle

Air Speed:  775 mph
Land Speed:  50 mph
Water Speed:  25 mph

Length:  240 ft
Width:  63 ft
Height:  66 ft

AC:  -2 (Megastonium Armor)
Hit Points:  2000

Sensors:  Nerve Web
Programming:  A.I.
Accessories:  Any / All


—

Ahhh, the all-terrain Sphinx-Machine...truly, my greatest invention.  Only the unparalleled brilliance of Gori could meld stone and steel so as to turn mankind's crumbling wonder into a technological marvel of ruination.  And, oh, what a surprise awaits those who dare try to destroy it....

By land, by sea, by air...your doom is assured, humans, for there is nowhere to hide!!!  BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!!!

—

Mutant Future Version

At some point during The Times Before, parties unknown transformed The Great Sphinx Of Giza into a nuclear-powered vehicle capable of traversing by air, sea, and land.

The Sphinx-Machine's flight-mode can break the sound barrier.

On water, it cruises along the surface.

For traversing the landscape, the Sphinx-Machine becomes ambulatory, and extends gripping claws and armored plating.  It crawls along on all fours, barreling head-first into buildings and structures.  Destruction (in the form of a 10d30 Trample attack) follows in its wake.

The Sphinx-Machine is roomy enough to hold a full-sized flying saucer (or equivalent vehicle), a company of ape-troopers (garbed in traditional Arabic thawbs and headwear), and some mummies.

The Sphinx-Machine is equipped with innumerable artifacts, and has a full sensory suite that specializes in radiation-detection technologies.

The Sphinx-Machine has self-repair units, so it's virtually indestructible.  And even if destroyed, it reactivates in pristine condition 1 full turn after being rendered inoperable.

But if the Sphinx-Machine is destroyed a second time, a shocking fail-safe kicks in:  the now-wrecked vehicle transmogrifies into a living, flesh and blood, bipedal feline-beast!  The transformation takes place only after all crew members have fled the interior.

There is no explanation behind this mind-boggling feat.  It is unknown if the equipment contained within the Sphinx-Machine is still operable—or even actually still exists—after the metamorphosis.

—

Sphinx-Beast

No. Enc.:  Unique
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  150' (50')
Armor Class:  0
Hit Dice:  3000 hp
Attacks:  2 or 1 (2 claws, or trample)
Damage:  10d12 / 10d12, or 10d30
Save:  L30
Morale:  12
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  200,000

The Sphinx-Beast is a 250' tall, leonine, biomechanical hybrid of metal, stone, and flesh that arises upon the (second) destruction of the Sphinx-Machine vehicle.

It's combat tactics involve punching and Trampling.  So very, very much Trampling.  [Consider the creature a 21+ HD monster for Attack Table purposes.]

As a construct, it is immune to all toxins, diseases, and radiations.

Mutations:  None

[The Sphinx-Machine (aka just the Sphinx and Sphinx-Monster in the U.S. and Japan) appears courtesy of Episodes 38-39 from the 1971 TV series, Spectreman.]