Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign Commentary - Dragon Issue #113 Sept 1986 - Hunter Class Robots vs Aliens, Creatures, & Mutants

 Looking through the classic Dragon magazine issue#113 Sept 1986  for an NPC idea for our  post apocalytic White Star & Warriors of the Red  rpg powered campaign last night. I came across an old classic article for Gamma World 2nd edition. 

 The classic second edition  Gamma World rpg article 'Cold Steel' by Scott A Hutcheon  details the Hunter class of robots. These cybernetic organisms have appeared in my campaign time & again.  Since we're almost done with the Red Shadow faction. Perhaps it's time to introduce the players to another rather nasty NPC. 

Hunter-class robots for Gamma World (Bruce Mackley, Dragon 113, September 1986)
via the old school tumbler here. 

We've used these cybernetic organisms before to call them simple robots is a disservice to these entities. In our games over the years we've given them personalities, motives, and goals because these things are equipped to take on full blown mecha and survive. Sure their no match for a Gamma World second edition death machine. But these things can & will take out mutant demi gods with little issue. And when your dealing with experienced players there should be entities way above your party's paygrade. The Cybohunter is a beast ;'TYPE: Cybernetic Hunter/Tracker NUMBER: 1 ARMOR: 1 HIT DICE: 30d10 CONTROL: D/G SENSORS: A/B/D/E/F (Scent) POWER: A/D200 MS: 1d4 + 12 IN: 1d10 + 11 DX: 1d10 + 11 PS: 5d10 + 30 SPEED: FEET = 24/1800/72 STATUS: Rank' 
Monsters like Magic Pig Media's Star Kraken or the Cosmic Behemoth are capable of ruining a party's day from  Outer Space Raiders Volume 2: Aliens, Creatures & Foes. So entities like the Cybohunter are not that far off base when it comes to higher level encounters. 

A post apocapytic solar system is one that will be frought with perils and the Hunter series takes this into account. According to 'Cold Steel's author; "Take, for example, the Hunter series of combat robots, which was founded on one basic concept: The bigger they are, the harder they hit. Although not as powerful overall as Death Machines or Warbots, these devices provide much more challenge to an overconfident adventuring group than Security Robots. Note that some specimens of these devices have been modified in the postholocaust years to take into account mutational powers possessed by animals, plants, and humans. Numerous variations on these basic designs may also exist." 
Surely I'm being unfair with such a powerhouse of a series of cybernetic entities?! Well yes & no, let's turn the clock back to 2015 when Ivanhoe Unbound was publishing material. And Aliens, Androids, & Aberrations slid across my desk. 

As you can see it doesn't take a genius to combined these various resources and AAA gives yet another perspective rpg resource to this campaign. Combined with the mecha rules from White Star Galaxy Edition then the threat of the Hunter class doesn't seem so far fetched 

Next time forbidden technologies, The Mutant Future connection, and more coming up.