Dreadnought
Context
Dreadnoughts are a class of fairly powerful humanoid combat robots. They first appeared in 1967 as enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D., but their cool design allowed them to endure beyond that. Over time they may have become mostly Iron Man foes.
These are older technical notes, not a full profile. Stats for dreadnoughts are so handy to have (most gamemasters need combat robots on a regular basis) that these were written up early. In fact, I’m fairly sure that this profile is simply a conversion of their official stats in the old TSR’s Marvel Super-Heroes Advanced Role-Playing Game .
They’d thus have to be revised, to better represent the variety of dreadnoughts in terms of armament, armour quality, etc. over the decades.
Background
- Height: 8’ Weight: 2200lbs.
- Eyes: White Hair: None
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Powers and Abilities
Dreadnoughts are big, heavily armoured, and programmed with an excellent level in American boxing. Their arsenal includes :
- Gauntlet-mounted flamethrowers.
- Eight gunpowder-launched knuckle spikes.
- A bodywide electrical field.
- Gamma ray particle beam projectors in eyes.
- Refrigerated freon gas dispenser in mouth.
- And, well, that’s it.
History
Dreadnoughts are combat robots created by HYDRA. The first working Dreadnought was used in an attempt to kill Nick Fury, which almost succeeded.
While HYDRA is the main user of Dreadnought robots, Madame Masque stole the designs a few years after the attempt on Fury’s life. As a result, they were soon available to the Maggia. Maggia attempted to improve on Dreadnought robots by creating what they called Silver Dreadnoughts, but AFAIK it wasn’t much of a success.
There’s also a newer, bigger and more powerful generation of Dreadnought called Dreadnought 2000, built by AIM, on which I have too little data.
Description
See illustration.
Personality
They’re robots.
DC Universe History
Dreadnoughts could easily used by any mid-level criminal group such as the HIVE.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Dreadnought
| Dex: 06 | Str: 09 | Bod: 12 | Motivation: N.A. |
| Int: 02 | Wil: NA | Min: NA | Occupation : N.A. |
| Init: 010 | HP: 000 |
Powers:
Density increase: 03, Energy blast: 09, Flame project: 09, Ice production: 10, Lightning: 11, Projectile weapons: 05, Self (link) Gadgetry: 11
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Density increase is Always On and already factored in.
- Flame Project has an 1 AP Range (-1).
- Ice production has Ammo: 02, Lightning has No Range (-1).
- Projectile weapons has Ammo: 08.
Skills:
Martial artist: 07.
Advantages:
None
Connections:
N.A.
Drawbacks:
None
Shoddy Dreadnoughts
Sometimes, Dreadnoughts are powerful combat robots as outlined above. But sometimes they’re much more fragile and less efficient/ Presumably the writer just needed a combat robot and didn’t look up the actual characteristics of the Dreadnought class. “Shoddy” Dreadnoughts have the following stats :
| Dex: 04 | Str: 08 | Bod: 06 | Motivation: N.A. |
| Int: 02 | Wil: NA | Min: NA | Occupation : N.A. |
| Init: 008 | HP: 000 |
Powers:
Density increase: 03, Energy blast: 09, Flame project: 08, Ice production: 08, Lightning: 10, Projectile weapons: 05, Self-link (Gadgetry): 10, Skin armor: 04
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Density increase is Always On and already factored in.
- Flame Project has an 1 AP Range (-1).
- Ice production has Ammo: 02.
- Lightning has No Range (-1).
- Projectile weapons has Ammo: 08.
Skills:
Martial artist: 06
Source of Character: Marvel Universe.