By Rasher
Description: Small Quad-Copter like flying drone with a sensor array on the front and two small lasers underneath. A super villain might add cosmetic elements to theme them after various things if desired.
How to play: These drones serve two main purposes, one is to act as mobile spies for the who or what ever owns them as flying cameras, and to act as ranged support for other enemies. Hanging back at a distance to lay down laser fire with the damaging red beam, and attempting to blind enemies with the flashing yellow beam when they become targeted themselves. As an AI they can make their own decisions and are considerably less of a risk-taker than some other drones might be. They may split up, following any small groups of other enemies around or if specifically ordered by a handler go off on their own for reconnaissance.
| ST: 6 | HP: 7 | Speed: 5.75 |
| DX: 12 | Will: 10 | Move: 0 (ground) 10 (air) |
| IQ: 10 | Per: 10 (+1 on Vision rolls) | Basic Lift 7.2 |
| HT: 11 | FP: N/A | SM: -4 |
| Dodge: 8 | Parry: N/A | DR: 3 |
Red Laser Blaster (12) 1d-3 Burning Damage, Acc 8+1, Range 160/420, Weight 3.7/1, RoF 3, Shots 180(3), ST 4, Bulk -2, Recoil 1.
Yellow Blinding Beam (12) 0 Damage, linked to HT-5 Affliction vs being Blinded for minutes equal to the margin of failure (this requires the target to be looking at the drone). Acc 0, Range: 330/1000 (1 Yard Cone), Weight 1/2B, RoF 1, Shots 3600 (3), ST 1, Bulk -2, Recoil 1. Notes: affliction becomes a flat HT roll if the target has Protected Vision or is wearing Ray-Band Sunglasses or better.
Traits: Machine; AI; Flight; No Legs (Aerial); DR 3 (Can’t Wear Armor); Acute Vision 1; Telecommunication (Radio, secure, plus video); Electrical; Restricted Diet (Power Cells); No Manipulators (Arms are just weapon mounts); Enhanced Air Move 1.
Skills: Red Laser Gun (12); Yellow Laser Gun (12); Observation (11 +1 for acute vision); Aerobatics (10); Electronics Operation (sensors) (11); Dual Weapon Attack (laser guns) (12); “Off-Hand” Weapon Training (laser guns) (12).
Variants
The Red Laser and Yellow Laser are just weapons found in "GURPS Ultra Tech" Section on "Beam Weapons" (Starting on Ultra Tech Page 113) and you can easily swap them out for any of the same, dazzlers to blind, electro-lasers to stun, microwave weapons to cause agony, neural weapons for a while range of effects and lots of other extremley high damage options for higher point campaigns. Just keep in mind that the robot's basic lift is 7.2 pounds meaning your hardly going to strap a flame thrower or carbine to these things and any recoil more than 1 might be too much for the drone to handle.
If you want to force the party to fight them directly you could add the "Sealed" Advantage to prevent water from shorting the robot out.
You could Replace "AI" with "Automaton" and link them to a remote controller with a monitor and use them as a piece of high tech equipment in the hands of an antagonist hidden in radio range.
You can give them all different kinds of sensory advantages such as Protected Vision; Parabolic Hearing; Telescopic Vision; Inferred Vision etc, as well as giving them Stealth (12) for a variant more geared toward stealth than combat, giving them a stunning weapon instead of the blinding beam.
Adventure Ideas
These guys make a fun addition to the cannon fodder henchmen of any high TL science based super villain, as well as simple low-level ranged robots for any scifi setting but they could be used in more or less any setting where npcs have access to TL 10-11, such as time travel or dimension hopping campaigns.
Power Surges and Malfunctions Table
Its important to note that these guys lack the "Sealed" advantage meaning that liquids entering their mechanical workings can cause a power surge, based off a robot malfunction table by reddit user "throwaway612179" I have house ruled what can happen if these things get wet.
If the robot becomes wet, make a HT roll for a splash of water, -3 for being totally soaked in a spray or cone of water/being half submerged, HT-5 for being fully underwater.
If they fail the HT roll than roll 2d, a result of 2-5 is a Major Malfunction, 6-10 is a Minor Malfunction. and 11-12 is a Catastrophic Malfunction.
Minor: Requires Mechanic-2 for 2d seconds to fix.
Effects: roll 1d
1-2: Can’t Hover in place, instead moving the direction it faces unless it turns.
3-4: Loses Enhanced air move and takes a -2 dodge
5-6: 1d-2 damage (Ignores DR)
Major: Requires Mechanic-5 for 2d minutes to fix.
Effects: Roll 1d
1: Can’t Fly, Crashes if it fails a DX-4 Roll to make an emergency landing
2: Can’t take the Aim maneuver -6 to ranged skills, no more duel attacking
3: Disables the primary (Red) laser or secondary (yellow) laser if the primary isn't functional
4: Loses Sensors, becoming blind and deaf (can attack blind at -10)
5: 1d Damage (Ignores DR)
6: Roll 2 Minor Malfunctions
Catastrophic: Requires Engineering-4 for 2d hours to fix.
Effects: Roll 1d
1-4: Shuts down outright, must be gutted and rewired (will crash if it was mid air)
5-6: Explodes, must be rebuilt (in a cinematic explosion, deals no damage to anything else. In a realistic campaign the explosion may deal burning damage see (B. 414) for details)