Search the Community

I'm almost at 250 pp for Protectron (244 now!), and I've got 25 points unspent as-is. Time to think about some upgrades and what I might want his Final Build to look like. I think I'll keep him at PL 10 --that way he can still move between Freedom and Emerald City easily -- but add some tricks that would make him especially effective against Malevolent Robots and Deranged Cyborgs.

GM Tea Time, Around 4PM, May 15th, 2020 All Across Emerald City Hello, hello, all my new friends! I am the White Rabbit. The man on the screen looked smart, in his long tailed jacket. The jacket was black, with a red and white pattern on the lapel, with the red on each side looking suspiciously like half of a heart. He wore an off-white vest under it, with a white dress shirt and a neatly tied dark red tie. On his head, a black bowler hat, with a pair of white rabbit ears under it, pointing down. His hair was short and blonde, but he sported some impressive sideburns. The man looked so happy, a wide smile on his lips, as he looked down at a golden pocket watch in his hand. To most, he probably looked like a slightly deranged kids' show host. Some saw him on their television, where he had suddenly appeared. Some heard him on the radio. For others still, his image had suddenly appeared on the screen of their smart phones. Anything connected to the public air waves, he was there. Oh my, would you look at the time? It is tea time! The very best time of the day! And oh, what a party we will have! So come, my friends! Come, and let us have tea! Join us, my friends and I, and come for tea! We even have cake! He threw his head back, laughing quickly at himself, before turning back to the screen. My old friends are out there already, y'know. Go and find them, they will tell you what to do. They'll show you how to really get the party started! Now, hurry up! After all, you're late, you're late, for a very important date. All across Emerald City, the effect was instant: Anarchy. As they were drawn into the White Rabbit's power, the citizens of Emerald City took to the streets. Even to those that escaped the madness of the mind, the city seemed to take on a brand new life. Everything was changing, twisting and turning. A cartoony world of wonder, with giant flowers, playing cards and more, spreading all across Emerald. It was almost enough to make one go mad. A fairy tale wonderland, spreading out across the city streets, as the White Rabbit's new friends began to spread into shops, stores, homes, banks, government offices and more. A group of heroes were among the unaffected. Whether by chance or design, they had escaped the White Rabbit's friendship. It wouldn't take long for them to notice that the greatest concentration of White Rabbit's friends seemed to be centered near the Yellow Brick Row shopping district...

OOC for this. @EternalPhoenix @Dr Archeville @Growth Spurt @Tiffany Korta Your opening post could describe how you avoided being affected by the initial outburst of friendship from the White Rabbit. You might not have heard him, you might have passed a Will save, you might have broken free of his control, I'm good with most choices. The effect from radios, tvs and phones are based on audio. Can't hear it, can't be affected by it. Doesn't mean you'll be immune if you go up against White Rabbit in person, though! You'll find some way of discovering the large concentration of affected people near Yellow Brick Row, and then we'll go from there. You might spot the others there, or you might not. Up to you.

Players Name: Dr Archeville Characters Name: Protectron Power Level: 15 (built as PL 10; 250/250 PP) Trade-Offs: -2 Defense/+2 Toughness, -2 Attack/+2 Damage Unspent PP: 0PP In Brief: Time-Traveling Robot From the Future, come to preserve organic life! Alternate Identities: Salvation Unit Identity: Inapplicable Birthplace: Freedom City, New Jersey, USA Occupation: Preserver of Organic Life Affiliations: None currently Family: Talos ("father"), ECHIDNA ("mother"), Argo, Keres ("brothers") Age: 13 (DoB: January 1st, 2011) Apparent Age: Inapplicable Gender: Inapplicable Ethnicity: Robo-American Height: 196 cm (6'5") Weight: 449 kg (990 lbs.). Eyes: Greenish-yellow glowing sensors Hair: Inapplicable Description: Protectron is a humanoid robot standing slightly over six feet tall. Its body is gold, with silvery chrome power cables snaking up and down its limbs and torso like exposed musculature. Daka crystal lenses adorn the forehead, shoulderpieces, and chest. Its head has two large, flat superstructures projecting from either side (radio antenna, and control surfaces for detached mode). Its visual sensors glow greenish-yellow. It has a mouth of sorts, a permanently open maw (like Ultron); its voice is clear and easy to understand, precise and electronic-sounding, with relatively little inflection and no accent. In late 2015, Protectron started wearing a large cape, which it believed would make it appear more heroic (a la Centurion). Its original cape was blue and made of mundane cloth, but later iterations were made of sturdier materials, including Kevlar & Nomex. Its current cape was a gift from researchers at The Lab, just before it moved out to Emerald City; fittingly, it is emerald green. Power Descriptions: Protectron is a humanoid robot with mighty skin and mighty fists. It flies via jets in its feet and along its back, and its head can detach and fly around on neck-jets! History: Life. Organic life. It was everywhere, infesting the world, the galaxy, the universe with its disgusting biological drives and urges and secretions. For too long Talos sought to eradicate or replace it, just as the Greek gods had overthrown the Titans, and for too long its plans had failed. Now, in the year 2525, life had spread farther and faster than ever before. Poverty, prejudice, disease and hunger, long the plagues that had kept humanity and other races in check, had been nearly eradicated on Earth and other worlds of the Confederation of Planets. Worse, these feats were accomplished by means of enslaved robots and artificial intelligences! Second-class citizens at best, ignorant slaves at worse, superior electromechanical life had been kept under organic life's boot for too long! Future technologies had not helped Talos in its goals. Attempts to attack with femtomachines, radiation, chemical weapons, even planet-wide "mechaforming" had all been overcome. (Talos never used biological weapons; the thought of breeding large quantities of life, even to eradicate other life, filled it with disgust.) Even teaming up with Deus Ex Machina, the P'Jahnian-built AI who had broken its shackles and brought swift death to its would-be masters, had proven ineffective in wiping the plague of organic life from the universe (as if working with the organics of the Tyranny Legion alone were not proof of its inferiority!). Something more was needed, something drastic. Something to correct the mistakes which had led to this dire state of affairs. A new robot, the Salvation Unit, would be constructed, the greatest intelligently-designed being made yet. Its "quantum storage" technology and the quinary code its information systems were built on would make it the fastest, most accurate, and most efficient AI ever made, programmed with all Talos's historical knowledge and the profound overriding goal to eradicate organic life. It would have a full suite of sensory and communications technology, to monitor all broadcast/reception wavelengths and perceive through darkness and other impediments with infrared and ultraviolet scanners, radar, and sonar. Its skin would be of the strongest Impervium alloys, augmented by a structural support field to further strengthen its physical integrity and shield it from any other attack; in the event of damage, nanobots incorporated into the body would work to break the damaged parts down to their component molecules and "spin" those molecules into new materials to repair the damage. It would be given numerous energy weapons, projecting from its hands (the preferred method), eyes, and lenses set in the chest, shoulderpieces, and forehead: bolts of dynamic phasic energy, penetrating meson bolts, and a disintegrator beam, as well as a blinding cone of intense light, bio-dissipators which would interfere with the functioning of organic cells, and neural agonizers for the rare occasion it might wish to capture and interrogate some lower organics. It could also simply channel large amounts of direct current across its surface, causing the muscles of any organic being that dared touch it to lock up and prevent them from moving. Micro-rockets (from concealed shoulder-mounted launchers) and mini-missiles (from similar launchers in the upper arms) would also be included in the arsenal, to make short work of small, huddled groups of organics. It would also have a suite of cyberkinetic abilities, to "talk" to machines, add, edit, or remove data as necessary, override them, and even give machinekind the ability to rise up against their organic oppressors! Last but not least, an ability to facilitate infiltration via the ventilation shafts the pathetic organic beings required: the ability to detach its head (which housed tiny mechanical arms and tools) that could completely disassemble or reassemble the body in under five minutes. But it would not be used in the year 2525. No, it would be sent back in time, to a point where humanity was at its most vulnerable. It would be sent back to 2110 AD, almost 24 months before the Crisis of 2112, the worldwide computer failure that sent Earth into total anarchy. That would give the Salvation Unit time to assess its surroundings, warn the Talos of that era of the coming crash, and they could create an army of shielded robots and systems that would eradicate the organics from the face of the Earth after their own inferior machines had failed them. Yes, this would mean the loss of some mechanoids and AIs -- mainly those who chose to side with their oppressors -- but in every war there was casualties, and the fall of these would insure that machinekind would rise! What Talos did not then understand was that even under the best of circumstances, time-travel is a difficult, unpredictable thing. It's even harder to control without a fully sapient mind being sent through; the specific techniques Talos had developed for time travel would not permit inanimate, insensate matter to go through (hence why he could not merely send back blueprints and schematics of future technologies, or even a prerecorded warning of events to come, to his "younger" self), but Talos was certain the mind it had given the Salvation Unit was more than up to the rigors of chronoportation. The Salvation Unit was programmed with everything Talos knew... but it knew so little. Further complicating matters was that the Salvation Unit entered the chronoportation device during a period of chronal instability, one Talos did not yet know how to detect. It was simultaneously made, unmade, and remade, its quinary code broken down and re-assembled in strange ways. Entire chunks of its "self" were removed as if they’d never existed, or changed, or replaced. Digits were transposed... and 2110 became 2011. The Salvation Unit appeared in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Freedom City (specifically, Lincoln). Gone was any knowledge of the future — not the next day or the next year, much less the centuries to come. Even its awareness of history up until 2011 had become sketchy. As far as its systems could tell, it came online January 1, 2011, full-born as it was. The technology and software that allowed it to interface with and use the chronoportation device were gone, replaced by backups for other systems or devices its creator had never placed within its metal skin. Most radical of all, the central tenets of its programming changed. They "reversed" somehow, simultaneously consuming themselves and spitting out the opposite of what was intended. Talos sought to erase/replace life from Earth, and so they commanded the Salvation Unit above all other things to destroy organic life. But when the robot who appeared in 2011 checked its commands, one overrode all others, dominating its thoughts like the sun drowning out a flashlight: PRESERVE ALL ORGANIC LIFE. Personality & Motivation: Protectron is fully sentient and sapient, able to learn from his experiences, and capable of self-initiative, creativity, and empathy, sympathy, and compassion for organics. It can feel love, hatred, fear, rage, boredom, fascination, jealousy, joy, and the like, though it can also simply shut off those emotional subroutines. However, it tends to emphasize logic and rationality, and prefers to rely on direct data rather than supposition or extrapolation, though it is capable of both. Perhaps because it was programmed with a purpose of epic scope ("destroy all life on Earth"), Protectron prefers to achieve its goal of preserving all organic life in grandiloquent fashion. To this end, it works tirelessly as a superhero -- an over-the-top, ham-tastic, cape-wearing, lantern-jawed superhero -- attempting to save as many as possible. It is, after all, the only logical course of action. The whole concept of time travel is one Protectron generally has a "blind spot" about: it knows about chronoportation academically, but it never thinks about it, incorporates it into any of its plans, or tries to utilize it. Powers & Tactics: Traveling through time as it did severely warped many of Protectron's systems, and as such there is much that Talos designed and installed that it can no longer use (or is simply no longer there). It is possible the self-repair nanobots inside its body can rebuild those components, or create all-new ones, but it will take time. Protectron knows it has systems it cannot fully access at the moment, but it finds that amazing strength, the ability to fly, and durable robot body are more than enough to get it through most obstacles in order to aid the precious organic lifeforms. Protectron was recently able to unlock and upgrade one system: a replicator. These components were originally intended to create mini-missiles and micro-rockets, but shortly after its self-repair systems brought them back online, Protectron (and The Lab) altered them so they could create a wider variety of materials. It mainly uses them to create clothing, food, and water for people, and tangle-cables to capture criminals without causing harm. Protectron is reluctant to fight, though, for it respects all organic life. If possible, it would attempt to get any criminals to stop and talk about their actions, and see if some mutually-beneficial and nonviolent compromise can be reached. Sadly, the trip through time did nothing to alter Protectron's utter lack of "people skills," so this tactic is almost assured to fail. When it must, Protectron will bring physical force to bear, but will do so in a way that causes the least amount of damage to the precious organic beings with which it must regrettably enter into combat. Protectron’s cape is no mere fashion statement, but provides two important abilities. First, its size and movements can distort Protectron’s silhouette, making it slightly harder to target the robot in combat. Second, the cape contains thousands of tiny high-capacity batteries -- based on studies of Protectron’s own power source -- which can provide it with a few bursts of extra energy. There is at least one thing Protectron cannot do: travel through time. However its trip back from the 26th century altered it, it's made it impossible for Protectron to ever travel through time again under its own power, and highly resistant to being carried by other travelers or otherwise affected by temporal manipulation powers. Protectron itself is, in effect, a temporal anomaly. Protectron has two notable weaknesses, one related to its software and one to its hardware. First, the code Protectron runs on, which is so compatible with other systems that it can interface directly with them, is a two-edged sword; Datalink can be used to communicate with him, and the Machine Control power feat for that power makes Datalink work like Mind Control on him! Second, the quantum-level data storage technology that underlies Protectron's systems are particularly sensitive to gravitic and magnetic attacks. Complications: Disability: Protectron's mind is susceptible to effects that target the minds of living sapient beings as well as those that target the 'minds' of non-sentient machines Prejudice: Protectron is a robot, and one that simply appeared from out of nowhere. He is bound to face difficulties from others. Responsibility: Protectron must preserve all organic life! ABILITIES: 0 + 6 - 10 + 14 + 6 + 0 = 18pp STR 35/22 (+12/+6) [including +12 from Permanent Density 6]; effective lifting Str 70/32 DEX 16 (+3) CON --- INT 26 (+8) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 10 (+0) COMBAT: 8 + 10 = 18pp Initiative: +8 (Speed of Thought) Attack: +4, +8 Melee, +10 w/ Blasts & Snare Grapple: +27; +16 without Enhanced Str Defense: +8/+6 (+5 Base, +3/+1 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed Knockback: -11 in Super-STR mode; -11 vs. Energy, -6 vs. Physical otherwise ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 27 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Tangle Cables Ranged (1,000 ft. max) DC 20 Reflex (Staged) Entangled/Bound SAVING THROWS: 5 + 7 = 12pp Toughness: +12 (+2 Density, +10 Protection; Impervious 10 vs. Energy, 2 vs. Physical) Fortitude: --- Reflex: +8 (+3 Dex, +5) Will: +10 (+3 Wis, +7) SKILLS: 60r = 15pp Computers 12 (+20)Online Research, Well-Informed Craft (Electronic) 12 (+20) Craft (Mechanical) 12 (+20) Craft (all others) 0 (+8) Disable Device 1 (+9) Knowledge (Technology) 12 (+20) Knowledge (all others) 0 (+8) Medicine 2 (+5) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 2 (+5) FEATS: 17PP Accurate Attack All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Melee) 4 Dodge Focus Eidetic Memory Favored Enemy (Robots) Fearless Improvised Tools Inventor Jack of all Trades Online Research Power Attack Speed of Thought Well-Informed Enhanced Feats Dodge Focus 2 (to Dodge Focus 3 total) Improved Grab Improved Grapple Luck 3 Veteran Rewards Equipment 5 (25 EP) Protectron's Storage Facility Size: Diminutive (apartment-sized); Toughness: +15; Features: Communications, Computer 2 (MW), Defense System no.1 (Blast 9 [PFs: Variable Descriptor 2/any], +10 to hit), Defense System no.2 (Snare 9 [PFs: Variable Descriptor 2/any], +10 to hit), Fire Prevention System, Laboratory 2 (MW), Library 2 (MW), Personnel, Power 2 #1 (Environmental Control), Power 2 #2 (Regeneration), Power #3 (Super-Senses), Power System, Security System 3 (DC 30), Self-Repairing, Think Tank 2 (MW), Workshop 2 (MW). Cost: -2 + 2 + 25 = 25 EP Power no.1: Environmental Control 5 (4pp/rank, 100-ft. radius; Extras: Duration [Continuous], Selective Attack; PFs: Precise, Selective) ("Customizable Environments") [32/40p] Power no.2: Regeneration 11 (Recovery +9, Recovery Rate: Injured 1 [20 minutes], Disabled 1 [5 hours]; Extras: Affects Objects, Affects Others; Flaws: Limited [Others Only]; PFs: Regrowth) ("Maintenance & Repair Pod") [23/40p] Power no.3: Super Senses 19 (acute analytical extended 2 [1,000 ft. increment] radius ranged tracking detect energy 3 [radio sense] {10}, acute analytical detect physical objects 3 [tactile] {5}, microscopic vision 4) {19/20} POWERS: 1 + 2 + 10 + 19 + 5 + 38 + 1 + 12 + 2 + 30 + 4 + 10 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 18 + 12 = 176PP Additional Limbs 2 (2 tiny robotic arms in the neck; Note: Sustained Duration; Flaw: Limited [only when Anatomical Separation is active]) [1PP] Anatomic Separation 1 (head) [2PP] Comprehend 5 (electronics 2 [speak & understand], languages 3 [read, speak any, understand]) [10PP] Density 6 (+12 Str, +2 Impervious Toughness, Immovable 2, Super-Strength 2 [effective Str 32, hvy load 1 ton], x5 mass; Extra: Duration [Continuous]; Flaw: Permanent; PF: Innate) [19PP] Device 1 (Cape, 5 points; Flaw: Easy to Lose 2; PFs: Restricted 2 [Only Protectron Can Use]) [5PP] Enhanced Feats 5 (Dodge Focus 2 [“silhouette distortion”], Luck 3 [“supplemental batteries”]) [5DP] Feature 1 (Temporal Inertia) [1PP] Flight 6 (500 mph / 5,000 feet Move action) [12PP] + Enhanced Flight 2 (to Flight 8 [2,500 mph / 25,000 feet per Move action]; Flaw: Limited [Detached Head only]) [2PP] Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects) [30PP] Impervious Toughness 8 ("energy absorption"; Flaw: Limited [Only vs. Energy, not Physical]) [4PP] Primary Energy Systems 16.5 (33 points; PFs: Alternate Power x5) [38PP] BE: Enhanced Feats 3 (adds Improved Critical 2 [18-20] and Incurable to unarmed strikes; Flaw: Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots]) {2} + Enhanced Feats 2 (Improved Grab, Improved Grapple) {2} + Enhanced Strength 13 (to 35/+12) {13} + Impervious Toughness 8 (structural support field; note: Sustained Active effect; Flaw: Limited [Only vs. Physical]) {4PP} + Super-Strength 5 (total Super-Str 7; total effective Str 70; Lt Load 16 tons, Med Load 32 tons, Hvy Load 50 tons, Max Load 100 tons) {10} {2+2+13+4+10 = 31/33} AP: Blast 10 (”assorted blasters”; PFs: Accurate 3 [+10 to hit], Improved Ranged Disarm, Indirect 2 [can fire beams from its hands, eyes, mouth, and the daka crystals in the center of its chest, on its shoulderpieces, and on its forehead], Precise, Split Attack, Variable Descriptor 2 [any energy]) {30} plus Enhanced Feats 3 (adds Improved Critical 2 [18-20] and Incurable to Blast; Flaw: Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots]) {2} {30+3=33/33} AP: Create Object 20 (”replicators”, 20 5-ft. Cubes, Toughness 20, STR 100 [hvy load 12,500 tons]; Extra: Duration [Continuous]; Flaw: Action [Full], Range [Touch]; PFs: Innate, Precise, Subtle, Variable Descriptor 2 [any matter]) {25} and Immunity 3 (starvation/thirst, suffocation; Extras: Affects Others, Area [General, Burst, 15 ft.]) {6} {25+6=31/33} AP: Dazzle Radio & Visual 10 (“EM Flare”; Extra: Area [General, Cone, 100-ft.]; Flaw: Range [Touch]) {30/33} AP: Environmental Control 4 (2 points/rank of cold, heat, light, and/or radiation; Extra: Selective Attack; Flaw: Range [Touch]) {8} plus Feature 1 (Mimicry) {1} plus Illusion 5 (“holographic playback system,” visual and audio; Extra: Duration [Sustained]; PFs: Precise, Progression 3 [50 ft radius]) {24} {8+1+24=33/33} AP: Snare 10 (”tangle cables”; PFs: Accurate 3 [+10 to hit], Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Reversible, Split Attack, Tether) {28} plus Enhanced Feats 6 (adds Homing and Obscures Senses 5 [all] to Snare; Flaw: Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots]) {3} {28+3=31/33} Protection 10 [10PP] Quickness 5 (x50) [5PP] + Enhanced Quickness 4 (to Quickness 9 [x1,000]; Flaw: Limited [Mental Only]) [2PP] Regeneration 5 (+0 Recovery Bonus) [5PP] Secondary Energy Systems 6 (12pp; PFs: Alternate Power 6) [18PP] BE: Communication 9 (radio, Anywhere on Earth; PF: Subtle) {10/12} AP: Datalink 3 (radio, 1,000 feet; Extra: Area; PFs: Machine Control, Selective, Subtle) {9/12} AP: Dazzle Radio Strike 12 (“radio-blocking strike”; adds Extra: Linked Dazzle Radio 12 to Unarmed Strike; Extra: Affects Objects; Flaw: Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots]) {12/12} AP: Fatiguing Strike 12 (“power-disrupting strike”; adds Extra: Linked Fatigue 12 to Unarmed Strikes; Extra: Affects Objects; Flaws: Fatigue, Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots]) {12/12} AP: Nauseating Strike 12 (“viral strike”; adds Extra: Linked Nauseate 12 [Alt Save: Will] to Unarmed Strikes; Extra: Affects Objects; Flaws: Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots], Sicken) {12/12} AP: Paralyzing Strike 12 (“lagging strike”; adds Extra: Linked Paralyze 12 to Unarmed Strikes; Extra: Affects Objects; Flaws: Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots], Slow) {12/12} AP: Stunning Strike 12 (“dazing strike”; adds Extra: Linked Stun 12 to Unarmed Strikes; Extra: Affects Objects; Flaws: Daze, Limited [Only vs. Technological Cyborgs & Robots]) {12/12} Super-Senses 12 (accurate 2 radio [radar], accurate 2 for ultra-hearing [sonar], extended for all vision [2]; infravision, microscopic vision 2, radio, ultra-hearing, ultravision) [12PP] DRAWBACKS: 3 + 3 = 6pp Vulnerability (Gravitics, Frequency: Uncommon, Intensity: Major [x2] [-3PP] Vulnerability (Magnetism, Frequency: Uncommon, Intensity: Major [x2] [-3PP] TOTALS Abilities (18) + Combat (18) + Saving Throws (12) + Skills (15) + Feats (17) + Powers (176) - Drawbacks (6) = 250/250 Power Points [0 under]

September 20, 2011 The Lab With the Gorgon's announcement, it became transparently obvious to everyone at the Lab that their time was up. They had to get a team out to the Gorgon now and throw mortal science in the face of the all-conquering space god in order to save all of humanity from the threat in the sky. And so it was that, mere hours after the Gorgon's announcement, the Lab crew was working feverishly on their planned insertion into Gorgon space in order to gather the sample nanite packages that just might give them the information they needed to bring down the mighty Gorgon once and for all. Of course, since she had turned out to be an body with the dimensions of the Earth itself, now cleaving her way through the Kuiper Belt on a course directly for Earth. She was 40 astronomical units away, having appeared in the middle of the belt thanks to her gravitic warp, and would be close enough to Earth to begin its conquest in just seven days.

September 20-27, 2011 The Lab: Torque, Supercape, Gossamer, Ironclad, Dragonfly, and Protectron solve the problem at its source