Mutant Future — Mousebots

Small robots have been around a long time. The ones that immediately come to mind are the one that Chewbacca terrified with a roar and the computer mice that swarmed Wall-E when he was in the disposal unit. The idea is one yet to be included in Mutant Future to any greate degree, so here are a few examples. As they are non-combative, they only have armor class, hit dice and movement rate.

Power thieves were a weapon used during the wars meant to weaken the opponent while strengthening one's own forces. They are only 6" long and have a cutting saw meant to chew into wires. They do not use it against flesh and in fact flee when discovered. When a live wire is tapped, the robot uses a form of broadcast power to transfer it to a central location, usually a command center or top of the line military robot. The range for this is only 5 miles so power thieves are relatively limited in use. They have an armor class of 3, 1/2 hit die and a movement rate of 180' (60').

Crawling safety boxes were used by banks to reduce theft. Instead of having labeled deposit boxes, they would have a constantly moving swarm of these robots. One signal would draw the proper robot to the bank employee and another signal would allow the customer to open it. Each can hold 5 pounds and there are still millions wandering the wastelands, hiding in the cracks and walls. Depending on the model of the robot, it may or may not have a self destruct function meant to keep the contents out of the hands of others. They have an armor class of 6, 2 hit dice and a movement rate of 120' (40').

Spy bots are usually much smaller and thus people created hunter mousebots to find and destroy them. These 4" long robots can be a serious hazard in the wastes as they destroy spare parts like real mice eat grain. They are very stealthy and it takes an Willpower check at -10 to notice them even if the robots are in plain sight. They have an armor class of 2, 1/2 hit die and a movement rate of 150' (50').

Another method of dealing with spy bots is a mousebot that finds them and does not attack, but rather hacks the feed and either causes enough feedback to fry the enemy computer or uses a preprogrammed image to fool the enemy. The first version has been destroying computers in the wastes by accident since the cataclysm but it is the latter that has had more of an impact. Computers that use wireless connections may tap into the mousebot's feed and thus the current era people think there is a vault of Ancients around. Many have explored or dug for vaults that simply do not exist. Maps may be rendered completely useless by those tricked by false images into thinking they see what the old world really looked like. These mousebots have an armor class of 5, 1/2 hit die and a movement rate of 90' (30').

Most medical robots are human sized or larger, but in triage mousebots can be used to determine injuries and conditions of many people. These 8" long robots talk and have enough sensors that many people in the wastes treat them as little doctors or even gods. None have medical equipment and can not perform any medical treatment- that is what the larger robots were for. Still, they are highly useful even to primitive healers as diagnotics are unneeded with them around. They have an armor class of 6, 1 hit die and a movement rate of 150' (50').

And then there are the pretty much useless guides. Unlike larger robots that could adapt to the changes to the world, these little ones still treat their corner as the exact same, even if they get stuck in mud, walk into walls and don't understand the current language. Some collect them for information (if they are found in fairly intact ruins) or as a source of amusement. They have an armor class of 6, 1/2 hit die and a movement rate of 120' (40').

 

Recycled Weapons Index

Recycled Weapons Index

Swords of Kos, Mutant Future, and Why I've Been Gone So Long

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