SEVER (Superhuman EValuation and ERadication) is a conspiratorial semi-secret organization dedicated to identifying and exploiting the weaknesses of superhuman beings with a long term goal of "freeing normal humanity from the menace of the superfreaks" by any means necessary. It has international reach but concentrates a great deal of its activity in the United States, which has a disproportionate amount of superhuman activity within its borders. SEVER has illicit ties to many national governments and law enforcement agencies, providing enough information on supervillains and rogue vigilantes to operate quietly most parts of the world. Their more extreme work (the "eradication" part of their agenda) requires covert maneuvering and plausible deniability even in the most cooperative countries.
Any superhuman is a potential target for SEVER, although they tend to prioritize dealing with weaker targets who avoid the media spotlight. Direct assaults are always a possibility, but the organization is also adept at playing so-called "heroes" and "villains" against one another and mopping up the survivors when the opportunity arises. SEVER dislikes media attention themselves, and try to remain behind the scenes even when aiding "allied" government agencies in dealing with unsanctioned supers.
SEVER's more overt paramilitary operations are planned and often executed by Commander Rico Savage, who works closely with SEVER Prime.
SEVER Prime
Dominic Strom was orphaned at the age of sixteen when his parents became casualties of a battle between [major hero team in your setting] and a group of their nemeses. He swore that he'd revenge himself on the "superfreaks" whose violent conflicts slaughtered so many "real people" and went on to devote all the resources of his multi-billion dollar inheritance to accomplishing that goal. He built up SEVER from a rabble of disorganized extremists with compatible viewpoints while researching the weaknesses of known super-beings and investing in the development of technologies designed to counter a their unnatural abilities. Eventually fringe scientists in his employ came up with a process that could grant its subject the ability to drain off a wide spectrum of energies, both exotic and conventional.
Strom underwent the process himself and became SEVER Prime, the organization's ultimate trump card against super-powered beings and bizarre alien technologies. He exterminated the scientists and destroyed all records of the process afterward, determined to ensure that no others would be tempted to duplicate his sacrifice. He was now SEVER's greatest weapon, but he'd become a superfreak himself in the process.
SEVER Prime's powers let him detect and draw off a broad spectrum of the energies used by super-beings and advanced technology, which his altered physiology uses to grant him incredible resistance to harm and rapid healing if he is injured. In battle he uses a levitating Kirbytech throne with concelaed weaponry, all powered by his own life energies.
Description: Fit-looking man in his thirties with sharply chiseled features and piercing green eyes, dressed in a trimly-fitted dark green uniform with a shell jacket and black boots. He sits securely in a high-backed thronelike grav-lift mechanism made of dull silver metal. His throne has obvious controls on both armrest and panels and ports for a variety of concealed weaponry.
Gender: Male Age: 31 Height: 5'10" Eyes: Green
Hair: Dark Brown Skin: Caucasian Build: Broad-shouldered
Approach: Disruptive Archetype: Inhibitor
Health: 30 + (5 x H)
Powers: Absorption d10, Vitality d10, Awareness d8, Grav-Throne d8
Qualities: Conviction d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Leadership d8, Superhuman Scholar d8
Status: ( # of Heroes with Penalties) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6
Abilities:
Focused Drain (A) Hinder using Absorption. Use your Max + Mid dice, or use your Max die and make the penalty persistent and exclusive.
Impairing Drain (A) Hinder multiple targets using Conviction. You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.
Revitalizing Drain (A) Hinder using Absorption. Use your Max die. Recover using your Mid + Min dice.
Wracking Drain (A) Hinder multiple targets using Absorption. Use your Max die. Attack one of those targets using your Mid die.
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
SEVER Prime concentrates on keeping heroes struggling with "power siphon" penalties as he drains their powers away, which makes him a bit of a narrow combatant. While his Absorption can interfere with technology and magic and other superhuman abilities, his penalties can't be applied against dice pools that only use "powers" that are the result of training or aren't otherwise superhuman. Which powers fall into that category is a judgement call, but basically he can mess with Superman or Iron Man just fine, but at best he can maybe affect some of the fancier toys used by Batman or Hawkeye. Mundane opponents just laugh at his drains (although he can kill your cell phone battery) but with a d10 Vitality and a flying chair he's still pretty tough to deal with.
Assuming he's got actual powered foes to deal with, he uses Impairing Drain to keep himself and his allies safe or Wracking Drain to deal a bit of damage himself, both of which target multiple heroes with penalties. Single foes who attract his attention get hit with Focused Drain, taking the persistent penalty option when his Max die is high enough to reach a -3 mod or better. When his health starts getting low SEVER Prime will use Revitalizing Drain against whoever's hurting him most while also healing pretty fast, but he'll also be looking for an escape route. His upgrade and mastery dovetail with each other, and make all his abilities very strong.
___________________________________________________________________
SEVER Agents d10 lieutenants and d8 minions
Description: Ordinary humans in baggy olive-green boiler-suit uniforms with snug hoods that leave just their faces exposed. They carry a variety of Kirby-tech weapons and wear black utility belts hung with gadgetry and restraints designed to deal with superhumans. Their outfits have the organization's signature "struck-through S" logo on their left chest in white. Lieutenants have fancier weapons and gear but are otherwise identical.
All Sever Agents have the following ability:
Specialized Restraint Gear: When you Hinder a superhuman target, you may make that penalty persistent and exclusive.
Lieutenants will also have one or two of the following additional abilities:
Call For Backup: Roll your status die and add that many SEVER Agent d8 minions (to a maximum of H new minions) to the scene nearby. They have the Specialized Restraint Gear ability and cannot act until the next round.
Coordinated Takedown: When you Hinder a target, any number of SEVER Agent minions who haven't acted this round may also roll their die and add them to yours to determine the total for establishing a penalty. Those minions cannot act until next round.
Rally: When you Boost you may target all nearby SEVER Agent minions, and you may increase each minion's die size by one (max d8).
Whatever It Takes: You may reroll your die when taking an action, but your die size decreases by one after the reroll.
___________________________________________________________________
ACE Rigs d10 lieutenants
Description: Armored Combat Exoskeleton rigs are bulky 7' tall power assisted frames operated by elite SEVER agents and carrying heavy armor plating and oversized weaponry. The machinery is an overall dark gray with some olive green accents. ACE rigs are built for heavy combat against superhumans and are only used when remaining covert is no longer an option.
Heavy Duty: When you take an Attack action, you may also Defend yourself or a nearby ally with the same roll.
Fantastic! Thanks for this blog - I'm a new GM to the system (been gaming since '77) and have been overwhelmed by things like creating Environments. I'm using my own world, too.
ReplyDeleteHope the content's helpful for you. I started with RPGs in '79 and games like SCRPG really drive home how much things have changed over the decades. Much more freeform and story/character driven than anything back then, where early supers rules like Villains & Vigilantes and Champions both pursued a much more simulationist approach. I still like both styles of game design, but they're very different experiences and what works great for some groups will be ahard fail for others.
DeleteI'm loving what you've created here. While I'm a fan of the Sentinels universe and own a bunch of the original sets, I prefer my own stuff, and you have definitely shown it's doable. I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I cut my supers teeth on V&V (still the only supers I've played, which dismays me) way back when. My group has been playing Blades in the Dark this year (and just wrapped up Descent to Avernus, which I was running on Roll20 for two years), so the idea of basically creating what you're doing out of your imagination is appealing to some of us. A couple of the players are still trying to min-max and I hope we get past that.
SCRPG is pretty resistant to mini-maxing IME, although there are a few combinations of tricks that recur a lot owing to effectiveness. Mostly Red abilities, which are the place where you have the most freedom of choice (unless you've done Method 3 character gen, of course). The gap between a real min-maxed powerhouse and a run of the mill PC isn't as wide as it can be in V&V (or Blades, for that matter) and you have to kind of push to make a truly ineffective hero. Doesn't hurt that getting knocked to zero health isn't the end (unless the player wants it to be) and recovering health post-action scene is pretty quick, so losing a fight is a story event, not a TPK.
DeleteAlso not always the worst thing to start an action scene all beat up. You're closer to a KO, but having immediate access to Yellow (or even Red if you're really mauled) abilities is a big deal. With some good healing or defensive tricks in the team it's certainly not vital to start at full health. That's a big difference between this game and almost all the other ones out there.