Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Vat-men (Bottichgeboren)

The Bottichgeboren known in english as the Vat-men are chemically grown artificial men. Their arrival on the battlefields shortly after the appearance of mechanical men and mutants shocked the world. These vat born men were considered an affront against god and perhaps the ultimate horror of science (if only that were true and the horrors of the war stopped there).

Investigating the Kadaververwertungsanstalt by a joint task force of the six-finger brigade and intelligence operatives revealed the true nature of those rumored sites. Men were not being broken down merely for fats to be used in production of tallow for a range of industrial uses but their proteins were being separated, chemically treated and reformed in artificially produced men.

Vat-men (Bottichgeboren) as PCs
Hit Dice: 50 hp
Mutations: 2 beneficial physical mutations. 50% chance of physical drawback.
Advanced androids produced through a combination of organic and synthetic chemical reactions and complex operations. They have many functions that replicate actual biological processes in a moderately simpler manner . The vascular system of vat-men circulates a yellow fluid that otherwise acts as blood. Vat-men are not indistinguishable from normal humans (but can be mistaken for androids) as their skin tones are waxy looking and often in colors that do not appear among mankind. They are warm, living beings if observed with thermal vision but not as warm as normal men. Vat men heal on their own but very slowly (1 pt a day of rest), they recover at a much higher rate then normal in specially designed recovery tanks (2d4 per full day of immersion).
Vat-me may have the full range of normal human senses. All ability scores are capped at 17 by their creators who don't wish them to get out of hand and CHA and INT each have a -2 penalty. Synthetics save against contamination at +2 and are affected by it as if it were one class level lower (to a minimum of class 1). Vat-men can mutate if exposed to a range of chemical weapons or if by some unlikely chance they are exposed to radiation. Vat-men are -2 to all saving throws vs heat and cold. Vat-men are +4 to save vs poisons and only suffer half the damage others would on a failed save. They can not be paralyzed by poisons. Vat-man skin is tougher then that of normal men giving them a natural AC of 8.


VAT-men
No. Enc.: 1d20 (1d20)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 50 hp
Attacks: 1
Damage: by weapon
Save: L5
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XXI
Artificial soldiers chemically grown to fight on the battlefields of the great-war. The cosmetic appearances of the vat-men is varied but manlike from a distance save odd variations in color. The vat-men are capable of using all manner of weapons, and can do anything a regular soldier can do.
Mutations (see Vat-men as PCs): 2 randomly selected, usually consistent across a group grown together.

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blog notes: I just couldn't keep this idea down after reading about the Kadaververwertungsanstalt minutes ago in comments to my last post. Thanks, Coopdevil.

oops ....Mehrwertsteuergeboren ...doesn't mean what I though it meant so I they've been renamed to Bottichgeboren , pesky computerized translations.

8 comments:

  1. What does Mehrwertsteuergeboren mean?
    It makes no sense...

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  2. Mehrwertsteuergeboren means Vat born in a really iffy translation of english to german

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  3. ooops....I might have named them "Value Added Tax Born" in german.

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  4. I like how you've updated this pulp-trope very nicely. MutantFront is looking incredible.

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  5. Though mutants born through the value added tax would also be interesting.

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  6. "ooops....I might have named them "Value Added Tax Born" in german."

    Even better!

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  7. awesome. I am going to use this for sure.

    A player in my campaign played a synthetic woman / mechanically and genetically enhanced soldier for 15 sessions before realizing that she was not a normal human. The synthetic soldiers came pre-loaded with memories designed to give them a stable emotional base and better than normal human reactions to stress and fatigue. Then they were stashed in cryo-stasis until they were ready to be popped out when needed, fully convinced they were soldiers who had volunteered to go on cryo-duty.

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  8. Ditto to Carl's sentiments: I will definitely play this in a game once. Great work!

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