Search and rescue drones aren't villains - but they do get hijacked by them sometimes.
Savior RSRD
The Savior Remote Search & Rescue Drone system is an experimental new emergency response tool for dealing with disasters, major accidents and other potential mass casualty events - including some superfights. The humanoid Savior drone itself serves as an on-the-scene control and communications relay for a whole network of specialized rescue drones. These drones are operated remotely by experienced former firefighters, EMTs, hazardous material handlers and others, most of whom have gotten a little too old for field work anymore. Working safely from a distant HQ, these professionals use their drones to carry out quick and efficient rescue work, first aid and medical transport, and containment of fires, dangerous chemicals, and structural collapses. While expensive, a city with a Savior system in place is overall a much safer place to live. Most of the time, anyway.
The Savior system isn't cutting edge technology by super-tech standards, and its security protocols (both physical and electronic) just aren't up to snuff when it comes to super-criminals. While not designed for combat, the specialized drones are equipped for clearing debris and breaching structures in search of injured victims, evacuating them swiftly and safely afterward. Those same capabilities make them useful for all manner of grandiose heists, penetrating security, cracking safes and "evacuating" loot or kidnap victims with the same efficiency. This has led to multiple cases of villains and criminal organizations temporarily hijacking a Savior system to carry off a specific job or just go on a crime spree. Both heroes and the authorities have learned to be wary around Savior drones, keeping an eye out for them suddenly going rogue.
The worst incident to date followed a major earthquake that left a large part of [campaign city of choice] damaged and burning. Three different Savior networks were scrambled to help deal with the disaster - only for all of them to go berserk. As heroes and emergency services personnel struggled to deal with things, the rogue drones seemed to go crazy, starting to loot one building only to suddenly stop and turn to new targets without finishing the job. A small team of supers discovered there were multiple signals overriding the legitimate Savior control systems, each apparently with conflicting goals. Quickly tracking the coded transmissions to a secret lair on the fringe of the city, they found an ongoing three-way battle between the villains Doctor Robotico, Miniac and Horde, all of who had the idea of exploiting the Savior drones for opportunistic larceny as the city burned. The heroes attacked, only to see the feuding villains unite against them and call in a virtual army of hijacked drones for support. It might have ended in a crushing defeat, but at the last moment an unidentified fourth party* seized control from the villains and turned the Savior networks back to rescue work, leaving the three tech-villains to receive a well-deserved beatdown while the drones helped save thousands of lives.
Description: A chunky, barely humanoid robot almost four feet wide with a rectangular head, body and limb segments. It sports a large cluster of antennae and multi-directional camera lenses on it blocky head and spinning emergency lights on each squared-off shoulder plate. The whole thing is painted red and white to evoke an ambulance feel. It speaks with a loud PA system that can also double as an ear-piercing siren.
Gender: None Invented: 2023 Height: 5'6" Optic Sensors: Dull Black
Antennae: Chrome Chassis Plating: White & Red Configuration: Blocky Humanoid
Approach: Generalist Archetype: Overlord
Health: 40 + (5 x H)
Powers: Robotics d10, Awareness d8, Part Detachment d8, Sonic d6
Qualities: Medicine d10, Persuasion d8, Repurposed Emergency Response Drone d8, Finesse d6
Status: (# of Minions & Lieutenants) 9+ - d12 / 5-8 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 1-2 - d6 / 0 - d4
Abilities:
Improvised Offense (A) Roll all your minion dice and combine the result to Boost yourself. Attack using Robotics and use that bonus.
Optimized Safety Protocols (I) Whenever your roll a one on a die, reroll that die once.
Protective Intervention (R) When an ally is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single Part Detachment die. Boost yourself using the same roll.
Network Control (A) Boost using Repurposed Emergency Response Drone for all your minions until the start of your next turn.
Resilient Frame (I) Reduce physical and energy damage dealt to you by 1, 2, or 3 when the scene is in the Green, Yellow, or Red zones respectively.
Summon Rescue Drones (A) Use Repurposed Emergency Response Drone to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die. The starting die size of for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Subsonic Projectors (I) +10 Health. The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, ability access, and all abilities. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist while attempting these Overcomes, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Infernal die.
Master of Total Chaos (I) Automatically succeed at an Overcome when you throw out all the rules during a situation that is spiraling out of control.
Tactics
A Savior RSRD system is not designed for combat, much less supervillainy. When hijacked for such inappropriate functions, it relies on Summon Rescue Drones to call in help, most of which isn't very good in a fight either. Once it has enough support it relies on Network Control to make its drones quite a bit more effective and it can keep them in a fight longer with Protective Intervention. Its own Resilient Frame makes it tougher than it looks, but it still fights directly only when hard-pressed. Its most effective Attack is to pool Robotics and Medicine, deploying a jet of biostasis gas or anesthetic injectors as an Improvised Offense. Optimized Safety Protocols improves its overall performance even when operating as an impromptu crime machine.
With its upgrade, the Savior RSRD activates the subsonic projectors carried for calming panicking crowds, while its mastery reflects the unpredictable antics of whatever villain is behind the joysticks.
______________________________________________________________
Savior drones of all types may appear as environment targets or hero allies when they haven't had their controls overridden by villains.
Emergency Response Drones d4-d12 minions (see Summon Rescue Drones)
Description: A bewildering variety of robotic drones optimized for search and rescue work, some built for firefighting and clearing rubble and wreckage, others for locating and safely extracting disaster victims, and still more for field treatment of casualties or medical evacuation. All are brightly painted in white and red with rotating emergency lights and powerful siren/PA systems.
Adaptive Mobility: You can move as though you had Flight d6 or Swimming d6 or Wall-Crawling d6 as needed to navigate the scene of a disaster or accident.
Specialized Rescue Drones: You receive a +3 bonus to Overcome actions involving search and rescue, emergency medical treatment and disaster response activities, although they still follow the minion rules when dealing with challenges (see page 156). When you take an Attack action, roll your die twice and take the lower of the two results.
Savior RSRD d10 lieutenant
Description: This is the lieutenant version of villain above, primarily for use when the the ER drone network is performing properly and not being hijacked by criminals. Replace it with the full villain writeup if it turns coat during a scene.
Drone Network Controller: Any nearby Emergency Response Drone minions may reroll ones rolled on their dice once.
Enhanced Disaster Response: As your action, you may roll your die and add that many d8 Emergency Response Drone minions to the scene.
______________________________________________________________
*The "unidentified fourth party" was La Chatarerra, but she's not talking about it because it would spoil her rep in the villain community. Tonia may be greedy and gleefully violent at times, but her family and friends lived in that broken, burning city those other three sociopaths were letting die while they hijacked the rescue drones that should have been helping. She'd have stopped them sooner if the quake hadn't half-buried her own lair in a scrap tsunami, but the minute she got herself dug out she took steps. First she subtly pointed the heroes at the source the interference, then she did some hijacking of her own while her "peers" were distracted. Showed them whose tech is just junk, even if they'll never know it.
There might even have been some mysterious junk-bots helping fight fires, stop gas leaks, handle downed power lines and carry people to safety that day, but no one looked into those rumors too closely and Tonia's fine with that. She's not some idiot hero, after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment