This post is designed to give new game masters an easy-to-run team of very basic low-tier supervillains for use in simple action scenes or as support for a single more potent villain. They're fairly weak individually but use squad tactics to cover for each other as much as possible, and can punch above their weight if the players let them control the fight. Splitting them up with abilities or overcomes that let you force movement is very effective, and every loss the team takes will hurt their status dice.
You can use as many Purple Gangers as you like when building a scene, but having less than four in a scene will make them a bit less effective, while five or more will make them harder to take down. Each one counts as a single moderate difficulty element, so a typical five-player game would let you take four plus an active environment or challenge - more if you're running a difficult scene and trade down for some extra moderate elements.
The Purple Gang
Four (or more) power-armored former mercenaries with considerable battlefield experience and just enough training to use their tech to good effect. Where they got their suits is up to the needs of your campaign. They might have been stolen from a high-tech lab, purchased from some underground arms dealer, provided by their current employer, or something more exotic.
Since acquiring their armor the Purple Gang has mostly continued working for other villains and shady organizations like they've always done, but their pay is a lot better now. The team has pulled the occasional job on their own, usually simple robberies for cash. They spend a lot of time in their civilian identities (which haven't been tied to their villainous ones as yet, at least outside the criminal underworld) spending their money on various vices, although they're never far from their suits and wear homer rings that allow them to teleport directly into their suit in an emergency.
The Gang is at their best when executing fairly simple jobs where speed and firepower count more than stealth or subtlety. Smash and grab robberies, mass destruction or hostage taking as a distraction for other activities, that's their kind of work. Like most mercenaries they're prone to withdrawing rather than taking heavy casualties, often using their Teleportation power to do so. It's not very powerful but they try to scout out nearby locations that are safely out of sight before going into action. Heroes might still be able to track them down quickly using clever Overcome actions, but they're harder to catch than a bunch of guys in 7' tall purple power armor ought to be.
Description: A team of villains with identical suits of purple-hued power armor. The suits are headless, hulking, hunchbacked designs. They sport oversized gauntlets with knuckle-mounted energy projectors and have bulky thruster boots that allow them to fly, albeit somewhat clumsily.
Their game stats are identical, but the individual operators are as follows:
Callsign Alpha - Kurt Wolff - Male, 34 years old, white hair, blue eyes, albino skin, 5'6" tall (barely fits his suit), arrogant and cold, but really sensitive about his height. Thinks he's the leader.
Callsign Beta - Abraham "Shorty" Klein - Male, 36 years old, light brown hair, hazel eyes, fair skin, 6'2" tall, boastful and overconfident. Willing to humor Kurt about who's in charge, but likes to call himself Shorty (which is roughly what Klein means) just to annoy him.
Callsign Charlie/"Chuck" - Charles Braun - Male, 32 years old, shaved head but an amazing mustache, brown eyes, 5'11" tall, seems friendly and loyal but ruthless towards outsiders. Often gets confused about his callsign and everyone but Kurt has given up and just calls him Chuck even in the suit. Thinks Kurt is the leader.
Callsign Delta - Andor Nilsen - Male, 45 years old (claims he's 35), shaved head and a truly pathetic mustache, blue eyes, 6'2" tall, quiet but always watching, always listening. Closest thing to a techie in the group, does most of the basic suit maintenance. Pretty sure he's the brains of the operation but lets Kurt have his way almost all the time.
Add more as desired.
Approach: Underpowered Archetype: Squad
Health: 15 + (5 x H)
Powers: Power Suit d8, Charge Gauntlets d6, Flight d6, Teleportation d6
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Criminal Underground Info d8, Veteran Mercenary d8, Technology d6
Status: (# of Other Villains) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6
Abilities:
Full Auto (A) Attack multiple targets using Ranged Combat. Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using the Min die.
I've Got Your Back (R) When another villain is attacked Defend against that Attack by rolling your single status die. Boost yourself by using the amount of damage reduced.
Overload Gauntlets (A) Attack using Charge Gauntlets. Use Max + Mid dice. Take irreducible damage equal to the Min die. On doubles, this ability cannot be used again this scene.
Tactical Scanning (A) Boost using Technology. Boost another target using your Max die. Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using your Min die.
Wild Swing (A) Attack using Power Suit. On doubles add both those dice to your Attack. On triples add all three dice to your Attack.
Tactics
In combat, Gangers try to stay near each other unless they're taking a lot of multiple-target attacks. They'll usually open a round by using Tactical Scanning to hand out a bonus to the next Ganger, who then uses Overload Gauntlets, Full Auto, or (if in melee) Wild Swing to attack. They try to reserve I've Got Your Back reactions for Gangers who aren't already self-defending with Tactical Scanning or Full Auto, but they'll always try to use their reaction each turn at some point to benefit from the Boost it grants.
If there's space for it they'll try to avoid melee with their Flight power, but unless pressed or they see a tactical opening where being airborne would help they prefer to keep their boots on the ground and keep shooting. They tend to reserve their Teleportation for emergency escapes, which can be mechanically executed through Overcome actions (a Risky one will let them 'port out with nearby allies) or as the result of heroic twists. Once two or more of them has been taken out of action they'll generally try to retreat from the fight, taking their allies with them if possible.
Trivia that might come up while Bantering: None of the Gang are much on history and have no real knowledge of the original Purple Gang, they just thought the name sounded good. References to the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, Prohibition Era organized crime, or Detroit will just leave them confused, particularly Chuck. Kurt (who's a neo-Nazi on top of all his other nasty traits) would be particularly aggravated if he knew his history better - but of course neo-Nazis never do.
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