Celebrating the start of October with a cousin of the Hollywood Vampire, this time a cinematic villain from the camp scifi genre.
Pharaoh Robo-Tet
Pharaoh Robo-Tet is fictional even within the context of the game, being a character drawn from the cult classic 1951 B movie "Curse of the Mechanical Mummy!" He's most likely the result of some mad scientist or a reality warper like Super-Fan, but however he's manifested the mad robot has a villainous script to follow and intends to carry it out - and he's got the raw power to do it if the heroes don't intervene.
Robo-Tet happily monolog about its origins to anyone who hasn't seen the film, explaining that he was built for planetary conquest on the planet Vulcan 65 million years ago. Caught in its explosive destruction of his home planet during the final war with the Martians and thrown into space, he eventually fell to the primitive planet Earth and became trapped under countless tons of rock. He was briefly awakened in 2580 BC by ancient Egyptians quarrying stone for the pyramids and immediately began his program of conquest, installing himself as Pharaoh Robo-Tet and beginning to train his new subjects as an army. Sadly, the primitives were quick to learn the rudiments of his own pyramid-powered technology and managed to return him to stasis, entombing him like one of their inferior organic leaders.
But now his rest has been disturbed again by foolish modern scientists. Pharaoh Robo-Tet has risen to claim rulership of the Earth again!
Description: A thoroughly unconvincing robot, easily mistaken for a cheap costume and mostly concealed by a layer of sagging bandages like a mechanical mummy. The top of its cylindrical head is pyramid shaped, and its face consists of a blank visor and speaking grill that flickers erratically with light when speaking. Clearly native to a cheap black & white film, it has no color to it at all, only shades of gray. Its voice buzzes with distortion but still manages a recognizable West Coast accent.
Gender: Presents Male Age: 65 Million Years Height: 6'2" Eyes: Blank "Metal" Visor
Hair: None Skin: "Metal" Mostly Hidden By Mummy Wrappings Built: On Vulcan
Approach: Ancient Archetype: Inventor
Health: 40 + (5 x H)
Powers: Inventions d12, Lightning Calculator d10, Teleportation d10, Robot Body ("Power Suit") d8
Qualities: Science d12, Technology d12, Deep Space Knowledge d10, History d8, World-Conquering Alien Robot d8
Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6
Abilities:
Computed Cunning (A) Boost using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max die. Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.
Emergency Displacement (I) If you would be reduced to zero Health and don't have a penalty, roll your single Teleportation die and become that Health.
Sub-Atomic Curse Emitters (A) Hinder multiple targets using Inventions. Use your Max die. Attack each of those targets using your Mid + Min dice.
Superior Alien Technology (R) Discard one of your bonuses to Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn, using the bonus value as the value of the Defend.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Dampening Field (I) +10 Health. While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' powers of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size. In the Yellow zone all of the heroes' powers of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total). In the Red zone, all heroes' power dice are treated as d4. Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a power until this upgrade is removed.
Master of Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.
Tactics
The Pharaoh Robo-Tet is a fictional alien automaton from a black & white 1950s monster movie, but that doesn't make him any less dangerous. In a confrontation he relies heavily on cycling between Computed Cunning to generate bonuses to fuel his Superior Alien Technology reaction and his stunningly effective array of Sub-Atomic Curse Emitters for offense. If saddled with lasting penalties he'll generate new bonuses to clear them as efficiently as possible, preserving his Emergency Displacement ability for a final defensive measure. If defeated he usually self-destructs in a somewhat unconvincing special effect, but he might easily return in the future using another copy of his film.
Robo-Tet will only have his upgrade if he comes from an exceptionally good print of Mechanical Mummy, possibly a fan re-master. In this form he gains a new passive means of hampering heroes, as well as more freedom to improvise with the script using unused footage.
Design Notes
While fully as tongue-in-cheek as the Hollywood Vampire, Pharaoh Robo-Tet is a much greater threat even to a team of supers and needs to be taken more seriously. He might show up in a scene with other celluloid menaces from his own movie or others, as well as challenges representing his fictional but weirdly effective reality-warping technology, most of which has a vague Hollywood-Egyptian theme and a pyramid aesthetic. Players might be able to weaken his hold on reality by confronting him with original props, film crew or actors from the movie - or Robo-Tet might be able to empower itself further by increasing the "view count" of both "Mechanical Mummy" and himself. Rumor in the lost media community says there may be an uncompleted sequel out there. What chaos might "Bride of the Mechanical Mummy" wreak upon the heroes' plans?
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