Episode 14 Mutagenesis

Episode 14 Plumbing the PSH Part II - Mutagenesis

Tiny killer robots and two new ways to power your toys...

Marc - Claws

• So there’s this Peter Weller movie called Screamers based on a  Philip k Dick story called Second Variety. The story is great, and the movie was pretty good. Both have stuck with me since High School.
• In the movie the screamers are more like little burrowing creatures in design, in the story they are whirling balls of doom. Either way they are self replicating robots that were made to win a war. They hunt people based on their heart beat. These are the type 1s.
• The kicker is that the self autonomous factories that churn out these killer robots started to design new and better types: claws that look like us. 
• Type 1 Claw
• Init +5; Atk claw +4 melee (1d5); AC 14; HD 2d6; HP 8; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP Straight for the Heart, immune to mind control; SV Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +1.
• Straight for the Heart: On an attack roll of 20 instead of rolling for a critical hit the Claw has attacked the target’s heart. In addition to normal damage this attack deals 1d10 damage direct to the targets Stamina as the heart is systematically destroyed. 

James - RRP’s (RadRat Packs, Double R’s)

• Thought a new Power Source could be fun, inspired by the pet store hamster wheel
• Imagine a backpack full of irradiated, eight legged rats, that have to run on hamster wheels to power artifacts.
• A way to power high tech gear with low tech swag.
• Tech Level 1, Complexity Modifier 2
• Bulky: This pack is HUGE. Best to use when on the ground, or on a pack animal. But if worn, all Reflex Saves are made at -1D.
• Can transform 1 C-Cell worth of energy for every pound of food and pint of water that is fed to the rats encased within. 

Forrest - Enervating Energizer

• Funny, I was also thinking about a new power source, but I went the other way into super science.
• A group of unethical pre-great disaster super scientists had a problem: once they were armed, their human minions would turn on them. Not only was this upsetting to the social order, it also used up precious energy.
• So why not kill two birds with one stone? If the scientists could incentivize their minions to fight against their enemies *and* conserve energy, it would be a win-win . . . for the scientists. So they created the Enervating Engergizer.
• The Enervating Energizer is a cloak, worn by a PSH of any class. It generates energy by tapping into the normal kinetic movement of the human body and converting the kinetic energy into stored energy which would power weapons. By throwing their minions into combat with an energy source that drained them of strength, but could protect them (since the best defense is a good offense), they saved on energy costs and gave their minions incentive to fight for their lives, quite literally, while, at the same time, keeping said minions tired and hungry and sending them crawling back to their more intelligent masters after every battle. If they survived.
• Mechanically, here’s how it works: 
• A cloak is worn by a PSH or Manimal or Mutant with a more-or-less human body structure. (the skeleto-muscular system of a plantient is just plain too weird for the cloak to work properly). The cloak comes with a power cable and a lazer pistol. Since this piece of equipment was experimental and didn’t quite get perfected before the Great Disaster, it’s a bit quirky. The wearer must exert a great deal of physical activity in a short time to generate charges. Running in place, jumping rope, or dancersize will do. But this wears a body down. 
• The wearer may “burn” one point of STA or STR in exchange for 1d3 shots worth of energy to the attached lazer pistol. Because the Enervating Energizer reaches deep into the physiological structures of the victim . . . er . . . wearer, that STA or STR loss is gained back at only at the rate of 1 point every 3 days. Still, the energy is limited only by the wearer’s mortality.
• The laser pistol is especially fitted for the Enervating Energizer. To convert a different energy weapon for use with the cloak requires a result of 34 or higher on the artifact check table. The energy gained for a converted weapon should scale with the regular use of charges for that weapon in comparison with a lazer pistol. For example, a lazer rifle, which normally gets 5 shots out of a C-Cell, or half that of a lazer pistol, would get 1d3/2 charges per point of STA or STR loss. Round all fractions down. 
• Tech Level: 5; Complexity Modifier: 4