Thursday, August 18, 2022

Super-Fan, Annoying Interdimensional Cheerleader

Several variations on the same concept, that being a "helpful" alien being from another dimension who's your hero's biggest fan despite being three feet tall.  I'm including writeups for the character as an NPC pseudo-villain bent on making the heroes' lives more interesting, a lieutenant version of who's just there to help the baddies a little bit, a swarm of minion-grade duplicates to be an annoying distraction, and even as a potential PC hero.

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Name: Super-Fan

Origin: Used to be an "irritating cosmic imp" style villain who'd show up from another dimension every ninety days to annoy whatever super they were obsessed with that month.  After getting banished back to their native spacetime a few dozen times they decided heroes were awesome and they were now determined to help by being the best sidekick ever.  Most heroes would rather have less of that kind of help.

Description: Looks like a caricature of whichever super they're currently cosplaying as.  There's rarely only one of them.  Sometimes they'll duplicate a whole team so you can get parodies of several heroes at once.  When in their "secret identity" they go by Naf-Repus and generally try to act like their idea of a cub reporter from the 1940s, dressed in an ill-fitting green suit and orange bowtie.  It wouldn't be a very convincing act even if they weren't three feet tall and remembered to consistently pay attention to gravity.

Gender: Just Faking It (and not very well at that)   Age: Transfinite   Height: Three Foot Nothing

Eyes: Usually   Hair: Sometimes   Skin: Almost Always   Build: Cartoonish Imp

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Villain Form

Approach:  Disruptive                         Archetype:  Legion

Health:  15 + (5 x H)

Powers: Duplication d10, Presence d10, Flight d8, Illusions d8

Qualities: Creativity d10, Banter d8, Conviction d8, Extradimensional Imp d8

Status:  # of Legion Minions: 0 - d12 / 1-2 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 5-8 - d6 / 9+ - d4

Abilities:

Having Fun Yet? (A) Hinder using Presence.  Use your Max die.  Recover using your Mid + Min dice.  

Not In the Face! (I) Whenever a Legion minion larger than a d4 rolls a save against physical damage, if its save is successful it splits into two dice of one smaller die size instead of being reduced by one die size and you take 1 irreducible damage.  If it fails its save, the minion is only reduced by one die size instead of being destroyed.

Sic 'Em, Boys! (A) Roll your single status die.  Deal yourself that much irreducible damage.  Create that many d6 minions.

Utter Chaos (A) Hinder multiple targets using Creativity.  You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.

Who's In Charge Around Here? (I) Whenever multiple Legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all of their dice at the same time and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion's result on that action.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hard To Take Seriously (I) +10 Health.  The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status dice, ability access, and all abilities.  Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist, you may use a Reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Presence die.

Master of Total Chaos (I) Automatically succeed at an Overcome when you throw out all the rules during a situation that is spiraling out of control.

Tactics

This version of Super-Fan shows up alongside more serious villains and "helps" make the heroes' exploits more "interesting" by swarming the scene with duplicates of themselves and causing general mayhem.  They're not really on anyone's side most of the time, and may mess with the actual villains as often as the heroes.  They'll open with Sic 'Em, Boys! to pump out Legion minions until there's a dozen or so of them, then use Having Fun Yet? to heal up and mess with whoever seems most uptight.  They rely on Utter Chaos for further amusement, and may arbitrarily change their definition of "nearby ally" each time they use the ability.  Not In the Face makes their minions quite a bit harder to remove with physical damage, but Who's In Charge Around Here? means those minions are going to want to spread out and mess with as many targets as possible, Boosting, Hindering, Defending or even Overcoming (very, very badly) as the whim takes them.  If you ever make an actual Attack with an NPC Super-Fan or any of their minions, you're doing it wrong.

Feel free to have irate villains waste a turn stomping Super-Fan and their duplicates flat out of sheer annoyance, although I wouldn't bother actually rolling dice for NPC vs. NPC fights.  Maybe if you've got a hero who's Out you could have their player make the roll for the villain?  Otherwise just narrate what happens (probably just some Super-Fan clones getting squished and the rest leaving in a huff).

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When you want an NPC Super-Fan to be less important a feature in a scene, use the following lieutenant writeup instead.  More than one of them might show up at once, and they might be further accompanied by the minion versions below.  Make sure you bring some other villains for them to work with.  You could also bring some along to a scene where there's a full villain version of Super-Fan around, where they're most likely to sacrifice to give their "big brother" version extra actions over time.

Li'l Super-Fan d8 lieutenant (average, could be anywhere from d6 to d12)

Description: Looks like whatever Super-Fan looks like at the moment, or like something else if they feel like it.  They're entirely (some might say excessively) free-willed, and their original doesn't control them at all.

Gravity Is For Chumps: You may move as though you had Flight d6.

Harmless But Annoying: You gain a +2 bonus to Hinder actions, but cannot take Attack actions.

Your Turn At Bat: Sacrifice yourself to let a villain (or hero) take an action during your turn.


NPC lieutenant versions of Super-Fan will often be accompanied by minions who use the following stats.  It's probably best not to bring these to scenes where the full villain form of Super-fan is in use, since they'll cause no end of confusion with the Legion minions that form spawns.  

Super-Fan Copies d6 minion

Description: They look like whatever Super-Fan looks like at the moment, or like something else if they feel like it.  They're entirely (some might say excessively) free-willed, and their original doesn't control them at all.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Whenever you make a saving roll against damage, if you succeed, sacrifice yourself and put two d4 minions into play.  If you fail, put a single d4 minion into play instead then leave play.  These d4 minions may move as though they had Flight d6 but have no other abilities.

Gravity Is For Chumps: You may move as though you had Flight d6.

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PC Hero Form

Background: Former Villain         Power Source: Extradimensional        Archetype: Gadgeteer

Personality: Cheerful                  Health (G/Y/R):  28/21/10

Powers: Presence d12, Duplication d10, Illusions d8, Flight d6                                    

Qualities: Conviction d10, Banter d8, Creativity d8, Extradimensional Fanboy d8

Status: Green (28-22) - d10 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d6

Abilities:

Green

Drag 'Em Down! (A) Hinder using Duplication.  Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and the penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Principle of the Sidekick (A) Overcome a challenge that has already flummoxed a more senior teammate.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Which hero needs to rescue you from your current predicament?  Major twist: What serious lesson that you ignored is now getting you in big trouble?  RP: You always seem to be where the trouble is; you're never too far away when a crisis strikes the group you sidekick for.

Principle of Voices In Your Head (A) Overcome against a challenge that involves information that you have no real way of knowing.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How did the voices in your head just distract you?  Major twist: What are the voices demanding of you now?  RP: The voices tell you things that may be true or false, but they sure do seem to know a lot.

Rah-Rah Sis Boom Bah! (A) Boost using Presence.  Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and the bonus is persistent and exclusive.

Watch It, Pal (R) When you would take damage that would change your personal zone, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Conviction die.

Yellow

Funhouse Mirror (A) Turn any bonus into an equivalent penalty, or vice versa.

Get 'Em Boys! (A) Attack multiple targets using Duplication.  Then take irreducible damage equal to the number of targets hit.

Take That, You Big Jerk! (A) Attack using Presence.  Use your Max die.  Hinder the target of that Attack with your Mid die.  Hinder yourself with your Min die.

Red

Reschedule Your Appointments (A) Boost another hero using Presence.  If that hero has already acted for the round, use your Max die and that hero loses Health equal to your Min die.  That hero goes next in the turn order.

There's More Where They Came From (A) Hinder yourself using Duplication.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.

You Can Count On Me (I) When taking any action using Presence, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out

You Can Do It! (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Presence die.

Tactics

Super-Fan is usually plural thanks to Duplication, pretty much ignores gravity thanks to Flight, tends to "doodle" on his surroundings with Illusions, and radiates a reality-warping aura of cheerful optimism with their cosmic-scale Presence.  Taking damage will frequently KO some of the duplicate fanboys, often accompanied by hammy death scenes and Wilhelm screams.  

In a crisis they'll aid the other heroes with Rah-Rah Sis Boom Bah and annoy the heck out of bad guys by swamping them with clinging duplicates using Drag 'Em Down!  If they get beaten on Watch It, Pal will help keep them going a bit longer.  When things start getting serious he'll lighten the mood with Funhouse Mirror or help even the odds against minion swarms with Get 'Em Boys!  If a villain seems to be singling them out for attention they'll repay the favor by crushing their will with comedic yet devastating attacks using Take That, You Big Jerk!  In really dire straits Super-Fan gets more reliable (a low bar, to be sure) thanks to You Can Count On Me and will often use Reschedule Your Appointments to let their favorite hero really shine.  If not, they'll take a moment to flood the scene with more duplicates and restore their Health with There's More Where They Came From.  Even when they decide they're taking a break for a while they'll cheerlead from the sidelines with You Can Do It!

Outside of an action scene, Super-Fan is remarkably bad at dealing with "normal" situations and people and seems to take positive glee in making things "interesting" by generating twists with Overcomes they really shouldn't be doing.  On the other hand, they can generate some pretty good dice pools if they're imaginative about using their powers - Illusions and Presence have a lot of uses and they can always have a lot of hands to do any job that needs doing.  As an Extradimensional Fanboy they know endless trivial factoids about the entire supers community (some of it even accurate), know more about nearby dimensions than most Earthling physicists, and can often sway people with sheer enthusiasm.


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