This character is an SCRPG port of the very first villain my group defeated in Villains & Vigilantes back in Eighties. The game was set in the Golden Age with WW2 raging, and Z-Man was an enemy super-soldier. The guy was a bit of a chump even back then and might actually be a bit stronger here than the original, although not by very much. Going by the old canon, he should definitely have the Upgrade here since his V&V incarnation's big schtick was carrying a bunch of mooks into combat and I really didn't want use Creator or Overlord or Legion with him.
The Colossal Z-Man
Heinrich Zeppler was born in 1901. Obsessed with aircraft and the glamor of flight since he was a child, he served with the German air force at the age of 16 but was assigned as a mechanic, not a pilot. Following the German defeat, he attended university where he proved to be a savant at chemistry and biology but hopeless at math and engineering. Denied a chance to earn an aeronautics degree, he fell in with a group of fringe scientists who were exploring the boundaries of biochemistry. With their assistance he pursued a different goal; he would still reach for the skies, but not with machinery. He would find a way to grant man the power of flight under his own power!
By 1929 his prototype compound was ready. The "Zeppler Gas Compound" would relax the grip of gravity on its subject, but his fellow scientists feared there would be side effects. Lab animals had floated, yes, but they had also died in strange ways, bloating up into livid purple corpse-balloons. Undeterred, Heinrich tested the gas upon himself.
Ten years later, Hitler's armed forces invaded Poland. Accompanying them was one of the first Nazi supersoldiers - a purple-skinned giant soared through the skies, larger than any aircraft, outfitted with custom-built automatic cannon and carrying shocktroopers to battle in armored transport cylinders. Z-Man would rule the skies of Europe!
Description: A gigantic purple man dressed in a black costume that looks like pulp scifi artist's idea of a spacesuit, complete with accordion joints and clear helmet shaped like a vacuum tube. He carries a dozen large brass cylinders on a heavy belt and three more on his back, all linked with a network of black rubber tubing. The suit's breastplate sports a large "Z" in gothic script.
Gender: Male Age: 121 (looks 28) Height: 5'10" (max 200') Eyes: White
Hair: Dark Purple Skin: Pale Purple Build: Average
Approach: Underpowered
Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Identify Z-Gas Cells 00 Cut Off Z-Gas Feeds 0)
Health: 40 + (5 x H)
Powers: Size-Changing d8, Flight d6, Inventions d6, Strength d6
Qualities: Science d10, Close Combat d8, Flying Ace d8, Imposing d6
Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8
Abilities:
Defensive Swat (R) When a hero takes a minor twist in the Titan's challenge, in addition to the chosen twist, roll your status die and deal that much damage to that hero.
Full Force Smash (A) Attack using Size-Changing. If you roll doubles, add both dice to your Attack. If you roll triples, add all three dice to your Attack.
Incredible Size (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).
Seize (A) Attack using Size-Changing. Use your Max die. The target can either be Hindered with your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.
Strafing Run (A) Attack multiple targets using Flying Ace. Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn using your Min die.
The Power Of Science (A) Boost using Science. Use your Max die. Hinder using your Mid die. Attack using your Min die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Mook Squad (I) +0 Health. Gain Debark Z-Troopers (A) Replenish your minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.
Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area of capture civilians.
Tactics
Given his choice, Z-Man stays airborne and at full size throughout a fight. He generally opens with The Power of Science and then relies on Strafing Run using his specially-fitted machine cannon gauntlets and the odd thrown bomb, switching to Seize or Full Force Smash against particularly annoying single targets. His Incredible Size makes him hard to take down until his Z-Gas supplies are cut off (at which point he starts slowly shrinking) but he'll resist this as best he can with Defensive Swat. If he has his upgrade he'll pause to unload more Z-Trooper minions when their numbers run low, dropping them off from transport cannisters strapped to his back.
If he's forced to shrink down to more modest proportions he loses access to Seize (unless his target is very, very small due to shrinking), his Incredible Size resistance should be reduced by half, and he'll be forced to leave his troop-carrier cylinders behind.
Weird Conversion Quirks
The SCRPG powers don't work perfectly with Z-Man's original concept, but you can get close by adopting the following tweaks: His Size-Changing only works for growth, not shrinking, and his Flight is connected to his size. Between 10- 20' tall he can only make bounding leaps. At 25' he can manage true flight, and his carrying capacity increases with size up to his roughly 200' maximum, at which point he can carry an array of custom gadgets, chemicals and weapons including a bomb or two, along with a several squads of fully-equipped Z-troopers riding in armored transport cylinders and equipped with parachutes and drop-lines. Other cylinders contain pressurized Z-Gas that feed into his armor-glass helmet, helping boost and sustain his powers.
For reasons known only to comic book editors his costume and gear change size along with him, although any troop cylinders and their living contents do not, so he's forced to drop (literally - they have their own parachutes) some or all of them if he dips below the 50' mark. Usually he stays as big as the battlefield allows. If he reduces himself to 20' tall or less he treats his status die as d6 and his Flight becomes Leaping, going to d4 status and no Leaping if he adopts a size below 10' tall. Changing height would be part of his movement, not an action.
Not perfect, but it approximates the V&V version pretty well.
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Z-Troopers d8 minions
Description: WW2 era German soldiers dressed in a comic artist's idea of SS uniforms, lugging submachine guns, Luger pistols and potato masher grenades. They inexplicably tend to speak in erratically-accented English leavened with a smattering of mispronounced German words.
Achtung! : When hit by an Attack that targets more than one enemy, add +1 to save rolls against the damage.
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Z-Troop Commander d10 lieutenant
Description: Same as his troopers, but with a snazzier hat and a monocle.
Schnell! Schnell! : This lieutenant and any nearby Z-Troopers can move to a new location in a scene and still take any basic action in the same turn.
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