Rogues Gallery: Junker Exo

Something like this but with more taped-on scrap metal

Boss fights are a staple of traditional fantasy RPGs. As you may have noticed, I heavily lean towards science fiction rather than fantasy but the concept of a boss fight sometimes has difficulties making that transition. Especially in games like GURPS where the fragility of individual humans is relatively constant, boss fights will often tend towards one of two extremes. Either the fight is an anticlimax, with the Big Bad going down from a few well-placed shots like most people do; or the Big Bad seems perfectly fine after taking a full power cell's worth of laser shots to the chest, ruining the players' suspension of disbelief that they are in fact a regular human and not some kind of thinly-disguised killbot. Although a thinly-disguised killbot would actually make a pretty good boss fight...

But there's an idea that I've had brewing in my head for a while that allows a little bit of both and it involves Ultra-Tech's exoskeletons, relying on them to provide the two things that make many traditional boss fights: an enemy that's both big and tough.

This fits best into settings or locations with a slight post-apocalyptic or junk-tech vibe. Pandora from Gearbox Software's Borderlands series is a perfect fit, as is any abandoned mining world, out-of-contact industrial world, or criminal-ridden mining colony. I'll go through the process of designing and making the enemy but if you're just here for the statblock, scroll down to the bottom.

Big
This one is simple. The heavy exoskeleton (Ultra-Tech, p. 181) is an imposing eight feet tall (SM+1) and gives the human inside it a substantial boost to strength: Lifting ST+12 and Striking ST+8. The operator has to have a certain amount of skill to wield it effectively and is also Ham-Fisted regardless, though this fits in nicely with the brute archetype. That increase in striking ST, along with greater size, will allow some pretty nasty melee weapons. The Lifting ST is what we rely upon for the next step...

Tough
With all this strength to spare, you can start strapping on armour plate. A ST 10 human inside the heavy exoskeleton has an effective lifting ST of 22 and thus a Basic Lift of 97lbs. But we're going with the brute archetype, so swallowing the encumbrance penalty they can go to double that – 194lbs. Checking in with my old friend Eidetic Memory: Low-Tech Armour Design, we can build up scrap plates of titanium bolted and welded to the frame.

Since we're dealing with scrap metal, it provides three-quarters normal coverage. This represents crappy quality material, bad angles, dents and holes, etc. Covering the entire SM+0 torso of the operator with DR 45 scrap-quality titanium weighs 95lbs. Covering the arms and legs similarly with DR 20 weighs 63lbs, for a total of 168lbs of armour. This leaves 36lbs free for weapons. If you want a melee junker exo, likely choices are size-adjusted two-handed axes, swords or mauls, all improvised from sharpened scrap metal and rebar. Given it's origin as mining equipment, a heavy laser torch (p. 80) is perfectly feasible and makes a nasty improvised weapon. The heavy exoskeleton is also equipped with a fire extinguisher, which can be used for distraction or blinding. If it's feasible for miners or scavengers to get their hands on, any ranged weapon up to 36lbs is good: dinosaur lasers, light machine guns, chainguns or miniguns.

Junker Exo

ST: 22        HP: 10        Speed: 5.25
DX: 10       Will: 10       Move: 4
IQ: 10        Per: 10
HT: 11        FP: 11         SM: +1

Dodge: 8   Parry: 10    DR: 45/20  (see notes)

Axe (12): 3d+4 cut, Reach 1-3*. Cheap.
Brawling (12): 1d+4 cr, Reach 1.
Greatsword (12): 3d+4 cut or 2d+2 imp, Reach 1-3 or 3. Cheap.
Heavy Laser Torch (12): 4d(2) burn, Reach C-1.
Maul (12): 4d+3 cr, Reach 1-3*. Cheap.

Traits: Combat Reflexes; Ham-Fisted; High Pain Threshold. The exoskeleton itself has DR 10, HT 11, HP 23, and Injury Tolerance (Unliving).
Skills: Battlesuit-12; Beam Weapons (Projector)-12; Brawling-12; and one of Guns (any)-12, Two-Handed Axe/Mace-12 or Two-Handed Sword-12.
Notes: Split DR; use the higher value for attacks to the occupant's torso and the lower for attacks to the arms or legs. When the DR is hit, roll 1d; on a 5-6, the DR has no effect. Increase DR by 20 against any swinging attack (do not roll 1d for this). Targeting the exoskeleton has the normal bonus from Size Modifier, whereas targeting the SM+0 occupant has no SM bonus.

Post-Mortem
The junker exo nicely fills the roll of a brutish boss. It's slow, heavy and not particularly skilled but it packs a punch like a freight train and takes a lot of punishment to bring down. While those melee damage values might look pretty nasty, ultra-tech armour defangs it somewhat. The axe or sword can be painful if you're wearing reflex but nanoweave will stop most of the damage, though the maul is still deadly. Clamshell laughs at those kinds of damage values without an armour divisor... but never underestimate the power of knocking an opponent down and smashing a maul down like a hammer upon an anvil.

The laser torch on the other hand can be a potent close-range weapon. The junker exo fits easily into a TL9 game and the 4d(2) burn damage can be quite lethal against TL9 armour, especially in close combat where shooting back is difficult, or in a setting where lasers are rarely employed as weapons so PCs won't tend to wear laser-resistant armour. The ablative armour (p. 174) can just about hold the torch's damage off... for a few shots. Ballistic armour like reflex or nanoweave is all but useless against it and an ill-prepared party might find the junker exo deadly even without a chaingun.