The lead "villain" here isn't really a bad guy as such, but he's looking for recruits to join his interstellar fight club and doesn't like to take no for an answer. Plus he's a bit cranky about the mammoths (and his species) being extinct. Galactic geneering tech could probably fix the extinction thing, though. Maybe he should pick up some mammoth DNA while he's visiting Earth.
The other writeups in this post are less good-natured space gladiators who might show up with Neandro or as a separate threat unto themselves. They're going to be pretty contemptuous of Earthlings initially, although a few sound drubbings by local superheroes will change that right quick. Imagine them as crass, sneering tourists with a penchant for bullying the locals and you've got them about right.
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Neandro
It's been almost 50,000 years since the aliens recruited a cocky young Neanderthal to fight in the Galactic Gladiatorial Circuit (Primitives Division) and Neandro's enjoyed just about every minute of it. Didn't hurt that his contract included the usual "revivification after loss" clause and his manager chipped in for some genetic retro-therapy to toughen him up far beyond his native capabilities. Neandro gradually worked his way up through the ranks and really made a name for himself after a passing cosmic entity decided to amp up their favorite new gladiator up with cosmic energy powers that have made him a match for even the nastiest xenospecies out there.
FTL travel times and galactic distances being what they are, he's had a lot of time to pick up on how interstellar civilization works in between bouts, and knows more about the broader universe than all of NASA put together. Eventually he got curious about his old home world and hunted up the place's co-ordinates. Now he's come to check the place out while he's waiting on his next championship defense, with an eye toward recruiting some local talent and seeing if the mammoth is still as good as he remembers it being. His manager Procurator Zad (see below) is thinking about setting up a "Terra Invitational" event as a novelty show while they're here. That big ice continent on one pole of the place looks like a decent venue, hardly any locals using it anyway.
Description: A (relatively) tall and very powerfully built Neanderthal wearing silver trunks, big furry boots and fingerless hide gloves. When using his powers his exposed skin displays circuit-like patterns that pulse with deep orange light.
Gender: Male Age: ~49,000 (looks about 20) Height: 5'10" Eyes: Brilliant Blue
Hair: Bushy Black With A Mountain Man Beard Skin: Weathered Build: Robust
Approach: Prideful Archetype: Loner
Health: 35 + (5 x H)
Powers: Cosmic d10, Strength d10, Vitality d10, Flight d8
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Ranged Combat d10, Deep Space Knowledge d8, (Alien) Technology d8, Galactic Gladiator d8
Status: # of Other Allied Villains 0 - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 3+ - d6
Abilities:
Personal Challenge (A) Attack one target using Close Combat. Use your Max + Min dice. Defend yourself against all Attacks from anyone but the target until the start of your next turn with your Mid die.
Stellar Charge-Up (A) Attack using Cosmic. Use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Mid + Min dice.
Unflagging Fighter (R) When you would be Hindered or when an Attack would reduce you to zero Health, reduce the penalty to -1 or reduce the damage to 1.
Well Nigh Invincible (I) Reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Boost (I) +20 Health. Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).
Master of Superiority (I) As long as you are manifesting an effect related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.
Tactics:
Neandro has spent almost fifty thousand years putting on gladiatorial exhibitions across the not-so-civilized galaxy, and regards every fight as a chance to stage a show whether he's winning or losing. Now that he's back on his old home turf he welcomes the opportunity to try out the local talent. He's pretty good-natured about things unless someone makes him look bad by refusing to fight, or worse, by suggesting he might need their help to win. His preferred move is to pick the most interesting or enthusiastic opponent and use Personal Challenge while largely ignoring anyone else in the fight with the move's inherent Defend, Well Nigh Invincible and Unflagging Fighter. If he needs a second wind or his opponent insists on staying at a distance he'll use Stellar Charge-Up. He'll happily do an Overcome if he sees a chance to do something flashy. Play him like a cross between a caveman pro wrestler and an alien gladiator (which is what he is) and you're using him right.
He'll turn on his upgrade if it looks like he's got some serious competition (like a handful of heroes who won't agree to fight him one at a time), which also unlocks his mastery for those showy Overcomes.
Note that while he's picked up a d8 in Technology over the years, he's only familiar with alien tech from galactic civilization. Everyday 21st century Earth tech is bafflingly crude by comparison, and he's literally more familiar with stone axes and fire-sharpened spears than a smart phone or automobile. Not that he uses stone axes as anything but props these days. He's long since graduated from the Primitives Division.
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Alien Space Gladiators
The following are a collection of alien space gladiators from the same Galactic Gladiator Circuit that Neandro is part of. Unlike him, they're definitely not from around here, here being Terra. They vary quite a lot in power, from serious contenders for the championship belt (full-on villains) to run-of-the-mill second-string fighters (lieutenants) to mooks (minions) kept around to make the rest look good. I'm sure they all have backstories as nuanced and involved as Neandro does, but since their main interactions with the heroes are going to involve beatdowns I'll leave it to someone else to develop them.
Their most obvious use is as part of Neandro's story arc when he visits Earth, perhaps as participants in the Antarctic Invitational Tourney if that happens, or as hangers-on who've come to along to see his old homeworld. They could also be encountered by heroes who operate out in the wider galaxy, or by "alien abduction" victims roped into arena fights, or as escapees from the GGC or various space law organizations that come to Earth to hide out for a while. You could also re-skin them into low-grade alien invader types bent on taking over the Earth or shipwreck victims sought by villainous (or government) types interested in their technology.
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Voon the Savage
Description: A graceful blue-skinned humanoid with a slender prehensile tail. His sharp-featured face has four shark-like eyes, which glow with white light when using his energy leeching powers. His only garments are a snug pair of "biker" shorts, low boots and gloves on his four-fingered hands, all made of metallic silver smart fabric.
Gender: Male Age: 45 Space Years Height: 6'6" (Tail adds another 6')
Eyes: Dead Black Hair: None Skin: Cyan Blue Build: Long-tailed Humanoid
Approach: Prideful Archetype: Predator
Health: 40 + (5 x H)
Powers: Absorption d10, Strength d10, Vitality d10, Flight d8
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Conviction d10, Fitness d8, Imposing d8, Space Gladiator d8
Status: # of Engaged Foes 0-1 - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 4+ - d6
Abilities:
Display Supremacy (A) Boost yourself using Conviction. Use your Max die. The bonus is persistent and exclusive. Defend yourself against all Attacks until the start of your next turn with your Mid die.
Enervating Aura (R) When an opponent ends their turn near you, you may roll your single Absorption die as a Hinder against them.
Life Leech (A) Hinder using Conviction. Use your Max die. The penalty is persistent and exclusive.
Vicious Attack (A) Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max die. If the target has a penalty created by you or is in the Red zone, use your Max + Mid dice instead.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Skillful Fighter (I) +20 Health. Increase all Quality die sizes except Space Gladiator by one (max d12).
Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where an overwhelming show of force will solve the problem.
Tactics:
Voon is a showman in combat, playing up his prowess for any onlookers even outside of an arena. He usually opens with Display Supremacy, then uses either Enervating Aura or Life Leech to make an opening for a Vicious Attack with improved damage. He's not as canny as he thinks he is and definitely likes attention, so it's not too hard to sucker him into leaving himself open while showing off. Outside of a fight he's vain and aloof, especially towards primitives from backwater planets.
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Umma the Unstoppable
Description: Powerfully built young woman, remarkably human-looking except for her green skin, brilliant orange eyes and four muscular arms. Well, that and she's usually twenty feet tall. Wears an unadorned black singlet that shows off her physique to its best advantage. She almost always has a grin on her face, especially in a fight and when talking down her opponent's fighting skills.
Gender: Female Age: Young Adult Height: Varies, between 5-20' Eyes: Bright Orange
Hair: Jet Black Skin: Pale Green Build: Athletic Four-Armed Pseudo-Humanoid
Approach: Prideful Archetype: Indomitable
Health: 45 + (5 x H)
Powers: Size-Changing d10, Strength d10, Vitality d10, Leaping d8
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Fitness d10, Banter d8, Self-Discipline d8, Space Gladiator d8
Status: Always d8
Abilities:
Mighty Grasp (A) Attack using Strength. Either Hinder the target with your Max die, or Defend yourself with your Min die and you and the target end up elsewhere in the scene.
Height Advantage (R) When a nearby hero rolls a 1 on one of their dice during their turn, you may roll your single Size-Changing die as an Attack against them.
Immense Durability (I) Reduce damage dealt to you by 2.
Untiring Fury (A) Attack using Vitality. Use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Group Fighter (I) +20 Health. When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also Attack with your Mid die.
Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where an overwhelming show of force will solve the problem.
Tactics:
Umma prefers to remain at her twenty foot height unless there's a real need (or advantage) to being smaller, in which case she can compact herself down to about five feet tall. She exploits her variable size with Height Advantage to punish any mistake an enemy makes, while relying on her Immense Durability and Untiring Fury to keep her in the fight longer than most can manage. Her favored maneuver is to use Mighty Grasp to drag smaller foes around or subject them to painful holds or takedowns. She's a pleasant but snarky person outside of a fight, although she can't hold her alcohol well and tends to look for a good fight when drunk.
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Octrox the Eightfold Menace
Description: A 5' diameter spherical alien with eight tentacles evenly spaced around its surface. The surface of the sphere is studded with dozens of compound eyes but otherwise featureless. The limbs split into four flexible tendrils at their ends, which can form bludgeoning fists or act as clumsy manipulators. Each tentacle can extend to as much as 10' long or contract into the body so that only the "hand" is showing. The creature's only garment is a harness of silver fabric that encircles the root of each tentacle and forms an open web that leaves its many eyes clear. Its telepathic "voice" is remarkably loud and tends toward the bombastic.
Gender: Maybe? Age: Unknown Height: Varies, ~6' to 9' Eyes: Neon Green
Hair: None Skin: Dark Red Build: Profoundly Alien
Approach: Prideful Archetype: Bruiser
Health: 45 + (5 x H)
Powers: Flight d10, Strength d10, Telepathy d10, Elasticity d8
Qualities: Acrobatics d10, Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Imposing d8, Space Gladiator d8
Status: Current Health Zone Green - d6 / Yellow -d8 / Red - d10
Abilities:
Agile Onslaught (A) Attack one target using Acrobatics. Use your Max + Min dice. Defend against all Attacks against you by all other targets until the start of your next turn with your Mid die.
Mighty Tentacles (A) Attack one target using Strength. Use your Max die. Either Hinder the target with your Mid die, or Attack another nearby target with your Mid die.
Threat Response (R) When Attacked, use the amount of damage taken to Boost yourself.
Triumphant Hit (A) Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max + Min dice. If the Attack causes the target to change zones, Boost yourself with your Mid die. This bonus is persistent and exclusive.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Lashing Limbs (I) +20 Health. When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also Attack with your Mid die.
Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where an overwhelming show of force will solve the problem.
Tactics:
Octrox relies on strength, agility and raw aggression in a fight, as well the advantages its alien physique and many flexible and perfectly coordinated tentacles given it against more humanoid foes. It prefers to focus on dishing out damage as fast as possible by switching between Agile Onslaught and Triumphant Hit. Threat Response lets it benefit from taking damage, and Mighty Tentacles can either deal with a second foe or seriously impair a single enemy. In or out of the arena Octrox is an arrogant jerk who's particular contemptuous of humanoid species, and his "loud" telepathy makes him especially grating to "listen" to.
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Medu-Ssa the Merciless
Description: A humanoid torso, arms and head atop a serpentine lower body, adorned with a mass of fanged serpents as "hair" running down the full length of the spine and forking out to form a "tuft" of snakes at the end of the tail. The face is more snakelike than human with prominent fangs and slit-pupiled yellow eyes, features shared by the countless lesser serpents. Legion minions are temporarily shed serpents acting on their own, which can be swiftly regrown if lost before they reconnect.
Gender: Female? Age: Unknown Height: ~6' Tall, 22' Long Eyes: Ochre Yellow
Hair: Coiling Serpents Skin: Deep Green Build: Androgynous, Serpentine
Approach: Prideful Archetype: Legion
Health: 20 + (5 x H)
Powers: Agility d10, Part Detachment d10, Vitality d10, Strength d8
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Finesse d10, Alertness d8, Ranged Combat d8, Space Gladiator d8
Status: Number of Legion Minions 0 - d12 / 1-2 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 5-8 - d6 / 9+ - d4
Abilities:
Flashing Strike (A) Attack using Agility. Use your Max + Min dice. If the Attack causes the target to change zones, Boost yourself with your Mid die. This bonus is persistent and exclusive.
Invulnerability (I) Reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.
Spawn Serpents (A) Roll your single status die. Deal yourself that much irreducible damage. Create that many d6 Legion minions.
Reclaim Vitality (A) Remove any number of Legion minions from play. Roll their dice and Recover that much Health.
Tangled Coils (I) Whenever multiple Legion minions take the same action against the same target, you must roll all their dice at the same time and use the lowest result amongst them as each minion's result on that action.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
A Multitude of Coils (I) +20 Health. When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also Attack with your Mid die.
Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where an overwhelming show of force will solve the problem.
Tactics:
Medu-Ssa relies on playing a balancing act between putting out minions with Spawn Serpents and regaining Health and improving her status die with Reclaim Energy. She'll generally use her minions to perform a wide variety of actions on different targets (including herself and any allies for Boost and Defend actions) while reabsorbing any excess ones and keeping their numbers down around four to eight deployed at once. When pressed or her status die is d8 or better she'll strike directly with Flashing Strike, relying on Invulnerability to keep her from taking too much damage. Medu-Ssa is cool and calculating at all times, preferring to keep silent and remain watchful for any advantage she might garner.
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Procurator Zad, Sleazy Chickladorian Manager d10 lieutenant
Description: A humanoid all in shades of pink (skin, hair, teeth, triangular eyes and all), dressed in whatever the locals use as natty business attire, so three-piece power suits on Earth most of the time and a sleek silver body glove out among the stars. If he winds up in a fight he's likely to tear his outfit off the reveal a black wrestler's singlet and an impressively muscular physique, but he generally prefers to stay out of direct combat.
Teleport Access: As an action, roll your die and add a number of Mooks & Jobbers minions (see below) to the scene equal to the result. They cannot take actions until next round.
Teleport Egress: As an action, roll your die. You may remove yourself and a number of nearby allied villains equal to the result from scene.
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Second String Gladiators d10 lieutenants
Description: A motley collection of alien arena fighters. Some are nearly human except for unearthly skin, hair and eye colors. Most are broadly humanoid with various added features like tails, tentacles, extra arms, more or fewer eyes than Terran norms, and other anatomical quirks. A few are more radically alien types with exotic body plans. About half of them carry melee weapons and a few wear impractical looking armor, while the rest rely on their inhuman physiology for both offense and defense. Many have flashy but not especially potent energy projection powers. All prefer to fight one on one when they can, and tend to showboat in combat even without an appreciative audience.
Select a mix of one or two different abilities for them from the list below, with most having only a single choice. If you're using a lot of second-stringers, try to give them distinctive names/appearances so it's easier to remember which abilities belong to each.
Backlash: When you fail a save against damage from an Attack, the Attacker takes damage equal to your save result.
Desperation: +4 to saves against damage when your die size is d4.
Erratic Luck: Roll your die twice when taking an action or saving against damage. If you roll doubles, add both dice together for your result, otherwise use the higher of the two. For each die that rolled a one or two, reduce your die size by one (minimum d4).
Outmaneuver: Attack or Hinder a single target, then you and the target move to somewhere nearby in the scene.
Pain-Driven Fury: +2 to Attack actions when your die size is smaller than d10.
Punishing: Attack a single target, then Hinder that target with the damage inflicted on it after any damage reduction or redirection effects, eg Defend actions, Reactions, etc.
Regenerating: If you roll the maximum result on your die for an action or a save against damage, increase your die size by one (max d10).
Sense Victory: +2 to Attack any hero in the Red zone.
Showy Moves: Boost yourself, then Attack a single target using that bonus.
Tricky: Defend yourself and Hinder a single target with the same die roll as your action.
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Mooks & Jobbers d8 minions
Description: Much like the second-stringers above, but less imposing to look at and thoroughly interchangeable. Even the most unusual of them manages to feel generic somehow, and they rarely have translators so what little dialog they might get is pure alien gibberish to Terrans. They're used to losing fights, and take pride in being able to do so with style. Interestingly, the Wilhelm Scream appears to be a universal constant regardless of language or culture.
These chumps don't really need other abilities, but if you want a couple of very appropriate ones are shown below. I'd recommend using Tag In sparingly, but any mook can Go Out With Style if you want. It's written to prevent heroes from accidentally killing themselves with multi-target minion-sweeping abilities.
Go Out With Style: When defeated by an Attack that only targeted you, your Attacker takes damage equal to your failed save roll.
Tag In: Sacrifice yourself to prevent a single Attack from damaging a nearby villain.
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