These characters are rather obviously a villainous take on Marvel's early Fantastic Four, albeit with a fair number of changes. "Sue" gets to be the melee powerhouse with none of original's moping, the guy with her invisibility powers is living a nightmare of isolation and loneliness, "Johnny" switches the trouble with starting his flames for the inability to put them out, and "Reed" doesn't get cool stretchy powers because he is just way too much of a condescending joyless jerk to deserve them.
There are also few sample minions and lieutenants after the main writeups to reflect the kinds of stooges the Four sometimes use for big jobs or cleaning up around their secret base, which is no doubt built in the sub-basements of a skyscraper in a major metropolitan area.
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The Fearsome Foursome
The Fearsome Foursome are a quartet of supervillains who gained their powers following an encounter with an alien spacecraft while on a commercial flight over the American Southwest. Their plane was exposed to a burst of exotic radiation that deformed and killed the other passengers and crew, but the four of them came through alive. Changed, but alive. The powers they gained let survive the crash landing of their ruined aircraft in New Mexico, although Reid was badly injured in the process. The others carried him off before the authorities arrived, and while he was healing in an underworld safehouse they made plans for using their new found abilities.
In the weeks to come, the Fearsome Foursome started to make a name for themselves. Ruthless and coldly efficient, they committed their crimes in pursuit of even more power rather than mere wealth. They'd had a taste of real power, and now they lusted for more.
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Mister Incredible
Reid Reichardt was a minor but talented underworld scientist prior to encountering taking that fateful flight. He came through the storm of radiation nearly unchanged physically, but found his mind bursting with sudden knowledge of alien science and technology. Now working under the supranym Mister Incredible, he's become the Fearsome Foursome's nominal leader and primary tactical planner, relying on his genius-level intellect and array of personal inventions for his effectiveness. Unlike his teammates he has no obvious super-powers. His signature power suit also serves as a mobility aid, as he suffered serious leg, hip and spine injuries when their ship crashed during reentry.
Description: Tall, long-limbed middle-aged man wearing a sleek, lightweight power suit in shades of red with black and white detailing. The suit sports hip-mounted jet thrusters, a small back-mounted module full of tools and gadgetry, and an oversized left-hand gauntlet with augmented grip and a palm-mounted blaster. The fishbowl helmet is mostly clear armor-glass topped with an array of sensors spines that resemble a stylized crown. Outside of his suit, his movements are slow and awkward owing to his previous injuries.
Gender: Male Age: 39 Height: 6'1" Eyes: Gray
Hair: Black, Neat Goatee Skin: Weathered Build: Lanky
Approach: Tactician Archetype: Inventor
Health: 30 + (5 x H)
Powers: Deduction d8, Inventions d8, Flight d6, Power Suit d6
Qualities: Leadership d10, Criminal Genius d8, Ranged Combat d8, History d6
Status: (# of Inventions/Bonuses In Play) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 /Zero - d6
Abilities:
Calculated Aggression (A) Boost using Inventions. Then Boost again using your Max die, and either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.
Expert Planner (I) Whenever you create a bonus, increase that bonus by 1.
Organized Tactics (A) Boost using Leadership. Use your Max die. That bonus applies to every ally's action until the beginning of your next turn.
Supporting Fire (R) When a nearby ally makes an Attack, you may also Attack the same target by rolling your single Ranged Combat die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Defense Shield (I) You cannot be damaged by anything except yourself until the defense shield is destroyed. The shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can use a Reaction to Attack that hero by rolling your single Inventions die. Gain Reestablish Shield (A) Overcome using Inventions. Use your Max die. On a success remove one success from the deactivation challenge. Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use your Max die to Recover that much of the shield's Health. This ability cannot be used if the shield has been completely removed.
Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.
Tactics
Mister Incredible is a team leader, amping up his allies with his abilities. He'll generally open with one or two uses of Calculated Aggression to establish a potent lingering bonus on himself and help establish a solid status die. Then he'll shift to spamming Organized Tactics to Boost all his allies at once while using his reaction to double team an enemy with Supporting Fire. Expert Planner makes all of his bonuses larger than normal, and as his team takes casualties he'll start using Calculated Aggression more often to double Boost and Attack at the same time.
He's fairly loyal to his three teammates and will support them even in a tight situation, but he's quite a bit more callous about any other lackeys he may have along. His upgrade makes him much harder to take out, and his mastery ties in to his overall "tactical genius" theme.
Outside of combat, he's modestly effective at science and tech related Overcomes, and quite good at organizing groups, making plans, and predicting enemy actions. It's fairly common for Reid to use a number of robotic bodyguards or autonomous vehicles (usually d8 or d10 lieutenants) which count as inventions for his status die size, especially when some of the rest of the Foursome are absent from the scene.
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Rockpile
Lillita Gale was an underworld scientist specializing in the development of "recreational" chemicals for mass manufacture by various foreign concerns, with a sideline in various compounds useful for interrogations. Like many criminal chemists she also fantasized about developing a "super-serum" that would grant a normal human the kinds of powers her employers' most powerful enforcers possessed, but her dabbling in the field had never produced results. She's abandoned that dream since the incident that gave her powers of her own. Grant such power to others? Not interested, not now that she's got hers.
Sure, she's hulking orange rock monster now, but she can shed that look (and more of her power than she likes) with some effort. She's been careful (as always) to keep her old self from being too closely associated with the Foursome's jobs, preferring to use other forms or simply remaining in her "new look" while working. As "Rockpile" she's also fond of playing to expectations about "monstrous thug" villains, pretending to less intelligent and more savage than she really is - but she's perfectly willing to be ruthless when she thinks it'll help. Or when it amuses her.
Description: In her natural form, a huge, roughly humanoid mass of muscle covered in stony orange hide. When exerting herself, she can look like almost anyone of roughly normal human size and shape, but her "old" self is easiest to maintain - a slender woman in her thirties with hard features and shoulder-length blonde hair. In any form, she has cold blue eyes. Her shapeshifting doesn't do clothing so she tends to wind up naked if she's forced to transform without preparation. She has become quite a quick-change artist over the last couple of years, as well as developing a knack for stripping unconscious (or dead) bodies when in need of an outfit.
Gender: Female Age: 28 Height: 5'8" (6'9") Eyes: Blue
Hair: Honey Blonde (None) Skin: Tanned (Orange, Rocklike) Build: Slim (Hulking)
Approach: Generalist
Archetype: Formidable (Weakness: Penalties from gases/vacuum/breathing issues)
Health: 50 + (5 x H)
Powers: Strength d10, Absorption d8, Vitality d8, Shapeshifting d6
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Chemical Engineer d8, Imposing d8, Criminal underworld Info d6
Status: No Weakness Penalties - d12 / Both Penalties & Bonuses - d8 / Only Weakness Penalties - d4
Abilities:
Crushing Blow (A) Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
Deep Breath (R) Ignore all penalties on you for your action. Take irreducible damage equal to the total of your penalties.
Energy Leech (R) When an ally is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single Absorption die. Boost yourself using that roll.
Stone Hide (I) Reduce physical and energy damage dealt to you by 1 (while in the Green zone), 2 (Yellow zone), or 3 (Red zone).
Versatile Skills (A) Take any basic action. Use your Max die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health. Increase all Power dice sizes 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 a show of overwhelming force would help.
Tactics
Rockpile is a physical powerhouse with a penchant for close-in-brawling and some very limited shape-changing powers that let her temporarily shed her monstrous form (as well as a lot of her strength and durability). She uses Crushing Blow for melee, defends her allies with Energy Leech when she can, and exploits her Versatile Skills to do everything else from Overcomes to ranged attacks. Stone Hide makes her increasingly resistant to damage as the danger level amps up. Her status die weakness revolves around anything that could interfere with her breathing (although she's pretty hard to physically strangle). If need be she can power through penalties using Deep Breath, which burns her reaction for the turn and may improve her status die temporarily.
Her upgrade lets her hit harder, defend better, and improves her shape-changing so it's less of strain to maintain. Her mastery reflects a talent for indiscriminate environmental damage, distracting foes with the threat of a mass casualty event. Outside of a conflict her ability to change her form helps with subtlety although it's hard for her to maintain, and she has a talent for using chemicals (drugs and otherwise) in creative ways, as well as being able to interfere with electronic equipment using Absorption.
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Combustion
John Gale is the younger brother of Lillita Gale (aka Rockpile) and a former NASA astronaut. His relationship to her and her connection to the drug trade eventually led him being seen as a possible security risk and banned from flight duties, which eventually led to him quitting altogether. As he quite reasonably pointed out, what was he going to do, smuggle drugs into orbit? He was traveling with his sister when the incident occurred, resulting in their horrific transformations. Lillita is far happier about her new form than John, but he does admit that being able to fly on his own is quite the thrill. The fact that his skills as a pilot are virtually useless now (he and super-flammable fuel don't mix) is galling as hell though, and it didn't take much to convince himself that society owed him something, something he could now take for himself.
His supranym Combustion is a literal one, and he doesn't have much of a social life outside of the Foursome any more. Even other supervillains tend to react badly to his appearance, and the accidental fires don't help. Reid invented an insulator suit that helps a bit, but they don't last long in a fight and need regular replacement. All of this is pushing him down a darker and darker road, no matter how bright he burns.
Description: A burnt and blackened skeletally-thin figure wearing a bulky silver insulator suit reminiscent of an astronaut's pressure suit. At his most controlled pale orange flames rise from the suit's collar to wreathe his head. When using his powers normally the entire figure is surrounded by intense yellow-orange fire. Going to full nova strikes invariably damages the suit, and will leave it in tatters by the end of a major fight.
Gender: Male Age: 25 Height: 5'11" Eyes: Burning White
Hair: None Skin: Charred Black Build: Emaciated
Approach: Overpowered Archetype: Fragile
Health: 30 + (5 x H)
Powers: Fire d12, Agility d10, Flight d10
Qualities: Former Astronaut d8, Ranged Combat d8, Acrobatics d6
Status: (Personal Health Zone) Green - d10 / Yellow - d8 / Red - d6
Abilities:
Evasion (I) Whenever your personal zone changes you may immediately move elsewhere in the scene.
Firestorm (A) Attack multiple targets using Fire. Use your Max die. Hinder each target with your Mid die.
Inferno Dodge (R) When Attacked, Defend by rolling your single Agility die. Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.
Nova Strike (A) Attack using Fire. Use your Max + Mid dice. Hinder yourself with your Min die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health. Increase the size of all your power dice by one (max d12). Gain Super-Nova Strike (A) Attack using Fire. Use your Max + Mid + Min dice. Hinder yourself using your Max die. Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.
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
Combustion is a glass cannon (or more accurately, flamethrower), relying on flight, Inferno Dodge and Evasion for what defense he does have. Firestorm lets him deal harshly with multiple targets while Nova Strike maximizes his single target damage.
With the upgrade his powers are all maximized and he gains the even more destructive (and draining) Super-Nova Strike ability. He can use his mastery with any of his powers, broadening the Overcome options quite a lot. Outside of a fight he doesn't really have much going on beyond amazing reaction speed, really good flight, and his past astronaut training - the latter of which is somewhat hard to employ considering he's constantly on fire.
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Nowhere Man
Alonzo Dane was psychologist once, a healer of minds and satisfied bachelor with many patients but few close friends. That part of him died in the crash that created the Fearsome Four and now only Nowhere Man remains. Permanently invisible and largely intangible, the thing that was Dane is mostly just a series of mad compulsions in the minds of others, the result of his futile attempts to communicate with only the most tenuous kind of physical existence. Nowhere Man is less than wholly rational due to his isolation. He remains with his teammates only because they, and they alone, are able to easily see, hear and even (with some concentration) touch him. He'll do almost anything they ask to maintain a semblance of human contact.
A hero who could find away to reverse Nowhere Man's transformation or even just interact with him somewhat normally might convince him to turn against the rest of the Four, but first they'd need to realize his desperate condition. How does one learn the needs and desires of a man who isn't there?*
*Psionics. The answer is psionics, as well as some kinds of mind-affecting magic. But Nowhere Man reacts very badly to attempts to communicate mentally, which evoke fears about being on the receiving end of what he does with his Suggestion power and a paranoid dread of being spied upon. It's not a sane response to attempts to help him, but the poor guy isn't all there anymore. Literally.
Description: Describe what? There's nothing there?
Gender: Male Age: 42 Height: Uncertain Eyes: Invisible
Hair: Invisible Skin: Invisible Build: Just A Memory
Approach: Overpowered
Archetype: Formidable (Weakness: Penalties from psionics or mind-affecting powers)
Health: 60 + (5 x H)
Powers: Suggestion d12, Intangibility d10, Invisibility d10
Qualities: Ghost In Your Head d8, Self-Discipline d8, Stealth d8
Status: No Weakness Penalties - d12 / Both Penalties & Bonuses - d8 / Only Weakness Penalties - d4
Abilities:
Mental Resonance (A) Boost using Suggestion. Recover Health equal to your Max die. Each of your nearby allies Recovers Health equal to your Min die. Each of your nearby minions and lieutenants whose die sizes have been degraded at all increase one die size.
Shared Determination (A) Boost yourself using Suggestion. Use your Max die. Boost a nearby ally with your Mid die, and another nearby ally with your Min die.
Induce Molecular Dissonance (A) Destroy one of your bonuses. Deal each opponent damage equal to the value of that bonus.
Weird Fortune (I) Whenever you roll a 1 on a die, reroll that die once.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health. Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12). Add Destructive Phasing (A) Boost using Intangibility. Use your Max die. Attack with your Mid die.
Master Behind the Curtain (I) As long as you are not directly involved in the fray and are using your influence indirectly, automatically succeed at an Overcome to manipulate a situation.
Tactics
Just detecting Nowhere Man's presence in a scene may be difficult, and certainly calls for an Overcome success unless you have exotic senses, psychic abilities, or other suitable powers to detect an invisible man whose intangibility makes him largely transparent to other senses as well. He is dimly visible for a few moments after using Induce Molecular Dissonance or (with his upgrade) Destructive Phasing. His other abilities don't directly reveal him, nor would most basic actions besides Attack or Hinder (which he does only in emergencies) and some kinds of Overcomes. In a fight his primary role is to hand out bonuses with Shared Determination and provide healing with Mental Resonance. Weird Fortune improves his die rolls quite a bit, and he's pretty cunning about when and how he uses bonuses he's stacked up on himself, eg piling them on his Min die when healing allies.
The game mechanics don't make being an invisible phantom a perfect defense, but he does have a lot of Health and a strong healing ability, which makes him pretty darned hard to take down even once you do detect him.
Outside of a fight Nowhere Man is great at intrusion and spying. He lacks mobility powers but can move (slowly) through or over almost anything, including stunts like walking on thin air or liquids. He's pretty limited in other ways though since he can't deactivate his intangibility, leaving him incapable of handling most physical objects, making sounds, and similar amazing feats we all take for granted. His Suggestion power lets him make people do what he wants but his fine control is lacking and the subject won't understand why they're doing what they're doing and will likely seek help when released, be it physical or psychiatric. He can't even manage a decent job of "automatic writing" to write notes through his puppets. Only the other members of the Fearsome Four can see and hear him normally, and even they have to strain to touch him.
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"Science Crime" Operatives d10 lieutenants and d8 minions
Description: Ordinary humans in brightly-colored jumpsuits with impractical-looking goggles and carrying a mix of sci-fi blaster guns and charged batons. Most are just run-of-the-mill thugs getting paid extra to dress up funny, but their leaders are either aspiring mad scientist types or (rarely) veteran agents who like the pay bonus for the stupid outfits. They might be more-or-less permanently associated with a specific villain or villain team, or work for one of the various technologically-inclined criminal conspiracies out to conquer the world.
Most such Operatives will have the following ability:
Zap Guns & Shock Rods: +1 to Attack actions.
Lieutenants will also have one of the following additional abilities:
Force Field Generator: When you take a Defend action, you may Defend yourself and up to H nearby minions.
Mega-Cannon: Gain a +4 Attack actions. If you roll a one reduce your die size by one. This replaces the Zap Guns & Shock Rods ability.
Reinforcements Authorized: Roll your status die and add that many d8 minions (to a maximum of H new minions) to the scene nearby. They have the Zap Guns & Shock Rods ability and cannot act until the next round.
Strike Team Leader: When you take a Boost action, you may target up to H nearby minions at once.
H = the number of heroes in the scene, if that wasn't apparent.
When operating without supervillain support these guys will often have additional assets like cyborgs, combat robots, weird vehicles, and larger super-science gadgets, but that's beyond the kind of help the Fearsome Four normally use so I'll save them for another day.
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