Vampirobot, Blood-Collecting Automaton

Seasonal villainy today in celebration of my favorite holiday.  To date this thing's been used in a two different Halloween-themed story arcs.  One saw it working for a secret outpost of alien hemovores, while in the other it was a lackey of a scientifically-inclined vampire who preferred not to risk his own neck for a meal.  I'm sure it will make a return at some point in the future, its semi-annual appearances having become something of a tradition for me at this point.  I'm sure others out there can find a use for it as well during the spooky season of the year.

Vampirobot

The Vampirobot's exact origin is a mystery, but its observed behavior is quite clear - it exists to hunt down human beings, exsanguinate them, then carry the stored blood to its master in internal tanks.  How it selects its targets is unclear, sometimes taking any available victim and sometimes concentrating solely on members of a specific sex, age, blood type, or even lineage.  It's even been known to target super-beings, although never ones that are sufficiently exotic to be considered truly inhuman.  

There have definitely been multiple Vampirobots over the years and several have been destroyed, but to date no more than one seems to be active at any one time.  Nothing conclusive has been learned from studying their remains.  The technology used in their construction is advanced but could be terrestrial, otherworldly, or even alien in origin. There appear to be supernatural energies employed in its creation that further complicate scientific examination.

Description: A skeletal figure made of gleaming steel, wrapped in a flowing bat-winged cloak made of dark segmented metal.  Its optic sensors give off a pulsing red light.  Voiceless and surprisingly stealthy, the thing is easy to lose track of in the shadows.  It sometimes carries specialized gadgetry given to it by its creator, which usually take the form of gothic jewelry and similar ornamentation. 

Gender: None           Age: Unknown             Height: 6'2"                Eyes: Glowing Red

Hair: None                        Skin: Chromium Steel                    Build: Artificial

Approach:  Leech                                Archetype:  Indomitable

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Suggestion d10, Robotic Body ("Power Suit") d8, Gadgets d6                                      

Qualities: Alertness d8, Bloodsucking Automaton d8, Imposing d8, Stealth d8

Status: Always d8

Abilities:

Hypno-Gaze (A) Hinder multiple targets using Suggestion.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, Attack one of those targets using your Max die.  

Made of Metal (I) Reduce damage dealt to you by 2.

Neural Paralyzer (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Suggestion die.  If this negates all the damage of that Attack, Hinder the Attacker and Boost yourself with that same roll. 

Seize Prey (A) Attack one target using Robotic Body.  Either Hinder the target using your Max die, or Defend yourself using your Min die and you and the target end up elsewhere in the scene.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hypno-Field (I) +10 Health.  The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, ability access, and all abilities.  Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while attempting these Overcomes, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Suggestion die.

Loyal Mechanical Servant (I) If you are in a situation involving harvesting blood, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of your dark master.

Tactics

The Vampirobot's principle goal is to collect blood for its masters and avoid any pursuit if caught while out hunting.  Its deceptively powerful robotic form lets it Seize Prey with ease when facing lone targets, while its Hypno-Gaze deals with groups of foes.  Being Made of Metal makes it quite durable, and it can further defend itself with a focused glance from its Neural Paralyzer eyes.

With its upgrade its innate suggestive abilities are greatly amplified, and its "mastery" reflects better programming or direct communication links with its shadowy creator.

Its Robotic Body power is treated like a Power Suit and grants it superhuman strength, durability, and immunity to most environmental concerns and weaknesses of the flesh.  Its primary Gadget is its bat-winged grav-cloak, which allows it fly slowly but in complete silence and achieve a degree of stealth that seems wholly unreasonable for a shiny metal skeleton-bot.  Other devices are issued it on a case by case basis, usually to aid with specific infiltration or escape schemes.

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The Maximums, Legacy Heroes

Posting a pair of connected heroes, the former of which I've used as my PC in a couple of Silver Age one-offs and one story arc in the early Bronze Age (which wound up spawning Val at the end of it) and as a loaner hero for several other new players who wanted to try the game.  The latter has been an NPC (with a much-abbreviated lieutenant-style writeup) in time-travel and cosmic adventures and a loaner hero for a various of different guest players in more modern settings.  There's a Kid Maximum waiting in the wings that I may get to use someday, but he can wait till he gets some actual table time.

Of the three I think I like Val best, and it's been neat seeing how multiple different people have roleplayed her over wildly different time periods in-game.  Each of them has contributed to her backstory and I expect her to continue to grow over time.  Building a character through the choices of several "actors" has been a nifty creative experiment.

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Name: Mister Maximum

Origin:  Joe Smith was an unhappy 4F draft reject back in 1942 when he crossed paths with a cell of Fifth Columnists.  The spies had planned to use an occult ritual to sabotage the aircraft factory he was working at.  Joe not only stopped them, exposure to the weird energies they'd unleashed granted him amazing superhuman powers that lead to him fighting both at home and abroad for the rest of the War.  During the 50s he fought crime, commies, and supervillains alike as Mister Maximum.  By the late 60s he was starting to feel out of touch with the society around him, complicated by the fact his powers had slowed his aging to a crawl while his friends and family were still aging normally.  

Around the same time another supernatural encounter lead to his powers being accidentally transferred to a young woman, and he decided to retire and try to reconnect to the America he'd fought to protect for years while she carried on as Sister Maximum.  To his surprise his powers eventually returned spontaneously.  While he stayed largely inactive for years, the departure of his protege on a mission to deep space lead him to don the cape and cowl again.  Mister Maximum is back, let evil-doers beware!

Description:  Tall, athletically built man in a medium red bodysuit with navy blue utility belt, cuffed boots and gloves.  He wears a white single-piece cape & cowl that conceals everything but his mouth and eyes.  He has a deep voice and tends towards a bombastic style of speech.

Gender: Male               Age: Looks Late-Forties          Height: 6'2"            Eyes: Blue

Hair: Black, Starting To Go Gray           Skin: Caucasian                   Build: Broad-Shouldered

Background: Retired            Power Source: Supernatural          Archetype: Physical Powerhouse

Personality: Natural Leader                   Health (G/Y/R):  36/27/13 (or 32+1d8)

Powers: Strength d12, Deduction d10, Flight d6, Size-Changing d6, Telepathy d6

Qualities: Criminal Underworld Info d10, Fitness d10, Imposing d10, Leadership d10, Golden Age Icon d8

Status: Green (36-28) - d6 / Yellow (27-14) - d8 / Red (13-1) - d12

Abilities:

Green

Get Their Attention (A) Attack using Fitness.  The target of that Attack must take an Attack action against you on its next turn if possible.

Principle of Detachment (A) Overcome a challenge related to duress or fear.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Who have you just alienated with your distant behavior.  Major twist: How have you withdrawn from the current situation to cope?  RP: You are detached from emotional situations and always keep your cool.

Principle of Strength (A) Overcome a challenge using brute force.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What just broke?  Major twist: Who just broke?  RP: You do not need to roll to perform mundane feats of great strength. 

Smash! (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.

Yellow

Mightiest Of All (A) Boost yourself using Strength.  Use your Max die.  This bonus is persistent and exclusive. 

Organized Effort (A) Boost using Leadership.  Apply the bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.

Quick Save (R) When a nearby ally would take damage, Defend that ally by rolling your single status die, then move them elsewhere in the same scene.

Red

Fight Harder (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die.

Ready For Anything (A) Defend against all Attacks against you until the beginning of you next turn using Telepathy.  Use your Max + Mid dice.

Out

Inspired Ally (A) Boost an ally using single Leadership die.

Powers

Mister Maximum has spent 80 years watching the evolution of the supers community and knows his stuff pretty well.  He's naturally inclined towards taking a leadership role, but also knows how to be  a good team player and has lots of experience cooperating with the authorities.  His powers are pretty straightforward - incredible strength, reliable if not speedy flight, the ability to grow to about twice his normal size if need be (and hypothetically shrink to six inches or so, although it makes him feel odd), plus modest telepathy that he learned from a teammate way back in 1948.  He's surprisingly good at identifying and solving problems quickly and knows how to organize people even in emergencies.  Decades of experience have taught him how to cow lawbreakers and given him an encyclopedic knowledge to both mundane and powered criminals and the subculture they operate in.

Tactics

Hit them hard with Smash!  If an enemy is being a problem by trying something tricky, Get Their Attention and force them to attack you instead fleeing or carrying some dastardly scheme.  Use your great strength and fearlessness to overcome problems whenever you can.  When things start getting serious, take a moment to show them you're the Mightiest of Them All, then concentrate on helping your team make an Organized Effort while making a Quick Save of anyone who looks like they're in trouble.  In really dire straits you'll be Ready For Anything while still showing that you can Fight Harder than ever.

Outside of an action scene, Mister Maximum is a pretty good amateur detective and trouble-shooter.  He carries himself with authority and can stare down just about anyone, and his long life has made given him a wealth of practical life experience.  He isn't particularly good at connecting with people outside of his heroic identity though, and he's lacking in formal education.  He's also prone to recounting long stories of days gone by, and has a nasty (albeit unconscious) tendency to condescend to younger folks until they earn his respect.  Joe's kept in touch with things pretty well for a 98 year old and isn't as lost in his past as the few "Greatest Gen" survivors generally are.   

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Name: Sister Maximum

Origin: Valkyrie ("Val") Johnson was just 19 years old when she got mixed up in a brawl between the local super-team and a band of occultists who were attempting to banish the White House (and President Nixon) to the Ninth Dimension.  When a cultist attempted to use her as an impromptu hostage she gave him a boot to the head for his trouble.  One of the supers swept down just in time to block a hex-bolt aimed at the girl by another cult member, but the magic ran wild and he found himself powerless while Val was suddenly bursting with supernatural might.  Unfazed, she proceeded to rescue her rescuer and helped subdue the rest of the baddies.  

When it became clear after the fight that her "Maximum" powers couldn't be switched back she sat down for a long talk with the former Mister Maximum and the rest of his super-team.  By the end of it America had a new superhero, and Sister Maximum was born.  She spent the 70s and 80s fighting bigotry, injustice and intolerance as often as supervillains and alien invaders.  In the 90s and early 2000s she founded several groups of like-minded supers who were dedicated to addressing social ills as well as crime and exotic threats.  This led to claims that her groups were "politicizing" the hero community, and several of the teams broke up under pressure from the reactionary part of the hero community and the general public.

That, and an encounter with extraterrestrial refugees in the 2010's led her to believe that she'd been too narrow in her goals.  American society had many injustices, but so did the wider world, and beyond that the galaxy.  Her old mentor Mister Maximum had regained his powers almost a decade earlier, and after consulting with him she made the decision to leave Earth in 2022, setting off with the xeno refugees to help them find a new and safer home.  Sister Maximum has gone to the stars!

Description: Attractive, cheerful looking young woman wearing a denim vest, a pair of blue denim shorts, a red tee shirt with a white peace symbol front, and red cuffed ankle boots and fingerless gloves.  Has a definite retro vibe to her look, including a truly fantastic afro and big golden star earrings.  When adventuring in space she wears an oxygen-generating bubble helmet that just barely accommodates her hairdo. 

Gender: Female                 Age: Looks Early Twenties           Height: 5'8"            Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black                         Skin: Medium Brown                   Build: Athletic

Background: Dynasty          Power Source: Supernatural         Archetype: Physical Powerhouse

Personality: Alluring                   Health (G/Y/R):  34/25/12

Powers: Strength d10, Intuition d10, Telepathy d8, Flight d6, Size-Changing d6

Qualities: Fitness d10, Insight d10, Persuasion d10, Acrobatics d8, Activist Flower Child d8

Status: Green (34-26) - d6 / Yellow (25-13) - d8 / Red (12-1) - d12

Abilities:

Green

In Your Face (A) Attack using Fitness.  The target of that Attack must take an Attack action against you on its next turn if possible.

Principle of Liberty (A) Overcome in a situation where you are restricted or bound.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How do you become temporarily trapped?  Major twist: How have you become a prisoner yourself?  RP: You can never truly be mentally restrained.

Principle of Strength (A) Overcome a challenge using brute force.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What just broke?  Major twist: Who just broke?  RP: You do not need to roll to perform mundane feats of great strength. 

Knockout Blow (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.

Yellow

Strong Female Protagonist (A) Boost yourself using Strength.  Use your Max die.  This bonus is persistent and exclusive.

The Moment Is Now (A) Boost using Intuition.  Apply the bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.

Think Positive (A) Boost an ally using Telepathy.  You and nearby heroes in the Yellow or Red zones Recover Health equal to your Min die.

Red

Golden Comeback (I) Hinder yourself using Size-Changing.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Min dice.

Saw It Coming (R) When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend yourself by rolling your single status die.

Out

Follow Your Instincts (A) Boost an ally using your single Intuition die.

Powers

Sister Maximum has very similar abilities to the man she inherited her powers from.  She's not quite as impossibly strong but much better at telepathy and has a sense of intuition that borders on prescience.  Like him, she can fly and alter her size from over ten feet tall to as little as four inches - and she's a lot more comfortable with size alterations than he is.  She's also extremely fit and nimble, and has a superhuman knack for reading people and convincing them to listen to what she has to say.

Tactics

Val prefers to try talking things out before using force, but she's not shy about getting in a brawl either.  She relies on sheer strength to deliver a Knockout Blow, and likes to get In Your Face against evasive enemies.  She relies on brute strength to overcome most obstacles but is remarkably good at wriggling free of any restraints she can't simply break through.  As a fight progresses she'll show that she's truly a Strong Female Protagonist, which makes her telepathic Think Positive ability much more effective.  When she intuits that The Moment Is Now she can make all her allies' efforts much more effective as well.  In the ultimate extremes she's got a great defensive reaction in Saw It Coming that she'll follow up with Golden Comeback to do a huge heal on herself.

In social scenes, she has a superhuman knack for reading people and convincing them to listen to what she has to say.  She's also agile and in great physical shape, and generally comes across as a sincere and likeable person.  Her powers have largely stopped her aging, and she looks more like a young 20-something than a 72 year old.  Val is nostalgic about her youthful hippy days and often dresses the part, but she's also much more up to date about modern youth culture than any Boomer has a right to be.  Despite that, her tastes definitely run toward the retro side of things even when she's bopping around interstellar space.

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War-Wolves, Synthetic Lycanthropic Soldiers

War-Wolf

A War-Wolf is a formerly human individual who's been deliberately inoculated with a synthetic form of lycanthropy, the product of several WW2-era super-soldier programs.  While not as powerful as "natural" lycanthropes they also suffer less from their traditional weaknesses, with silver causing only minor allergic reactions and most of them able to retain their human intelligence even under a full moon.  They do become much more violent and bloodthirsty both in and out of their were-form, making them dangerous and somewhat unstable allies.  The War-Wolf infection is non-transmissible and requires a series of injections and weeks or months of incubation time for the full physical transformation to take effect.  There may be a cure available, although finding someone who'll admit to having it may be difficult.

While no modern-day government admits to creating War-Wolves, they do crop up infrequently in the supers community, and small units of them have been encountered executing black ops and engaging in criminal activities worldwide over the last seventy-odd years.  Very few War-Wolves operate alone, preferring to join villain teams or criminal organizations when they can't find others of their own kind to form a pack with.  While sometimes dangerous to work with, they bring enough supernatural muscle and military training to be worth the risks.     

Description: In their human form they tend to be tall, long-limbed, and leanly muscular regardless of gender or age.  Their eyes (usually blue, sometimes yellow) reflect light, giving a hint of their true nature.  In their lycanthropic form they grow a short coat of fur, a pronounced muzzle with powerful jaws and prominent teeth, wolf-like ears, and both hands and feet have short but dangerous claws.

Gender: Usually Male       Age: 20-40          Height: Above Average       Eyes: Reflective

Hair/Fur: Gray Shot Through With White           Skin: Pallid                   Build: Rangy

Approach: Relentless                         Archetype: Bruiser

Health:  40 + (5 x H)

Powers: Synthetic Lycanthropy d10, Vitality d8, Awareness d6

Qualities: Self-Discipline d10, Alertness d8, Werewolf Soldier d8, Leadership d6

Status: Green Zone Health - d6 / Yellow Zone Health - d8 / Red Zone Health - d10

Abilities:

Cull the Weak (A) Attack and Hinder using Werewolf Soldier.  If the target status die is d4 or d6, use your Max + Min dice.  If target status die is d8, use your Max die.  If target status die is d10 or d12, use your Mid die.  

Mounting Rage (A) Attack using Synthetic Lycanthropy.  If your current status is in the Green zone, use your Max die.  If your current status is in the Yellow zone, use your Max + Min dice.  If your current is in the Red zone, use your Max + Min dice against one target and your Mid die against a different target.

Supernatural Toughness (I) Reduce damage taken from physical or energy sources by 1/2/3 while you are in the Green/Yellow/Red zone. 

Unrelenting (R) After making an Attack action during your turn, use your Mid die to make another Attack against one target of the initial Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Group Fighter (I) +20 Health.  When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die. 

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

A War-Wolf will usually adopt their lycanthropic form in a fight, relying on their supernatural durability and speed to close in for melee where their strength and dangerous bite and claws will serve them well.  They prefer to use Cull the Weak combined with Unrelenting to pile damage on the most vulnerable foe first, switching to Mounting Rage when badly hurt or if they have no targets left with a d6 status die.  Supernatural Toughness makes them harder to hurt than most, although they're vulnerable to exotic attacks and will either avoid or quickly disable foes with such attacks if possible.  Battles with War-Wolves tend to be damage races, they hit hard and fast but have little in the way of active defenses.

With their upgrade they can put out damage even faster while taking a lot more work to put down.  Their mastery represents their coordinated tactics, a combination of pack instinct and military training.

Their Synthetic Lycanthropy power grants them dangerous natural weapons, low-grade super-strength and enhanced speed and endurance.  In human form they're still inhumanly resistant to injury and demonstrate greatly enhanced olfactory and auditory senses as well as low-light vision.

War-Wolves that are attempting to conceal their true nature will fight with conventional (usually military-grade) weapons, but may lose control and transform if hard-pressed.  At that point the best way to keep their secret is likely to involving eliminating any and all witnesses.   

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When you want to use a whole pack of War-Wolves (either alone, with more mundane minions, or alongside a major villain or two) treating them as lieutenants is probably a better approach.  These lesser versions are still dangerous but much more prone to specific anti-lycanthrope measures.

War-Wolves d10 lieutenants

Description: They're wolf-men, as described above.  Or possibly wolf-women, if they were created by someone who's less sexist than most deniable-asset military research programs are.

Cull the Weak: When you make an Attack action, also Hinder that target with the same die roll.  You receive a +1 bonus to the roll if the target has a d8 status die, or a +2 bonus if the target has a d6 status die.

Supernatural Allergies: If you are Hindered by silver, wolfsbane, or magical effects specifically tailored to lycanthropes, increase the resulting penalty by 1.  If Attacked by any of these, you are also Hindered using the same die roll with the same increased penalty effect.

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The Terrible Tinkertoy, A Demented Android

You're not going to see this villain's supranym get used in comics or games but some nobody's blog can probably get away with it.

The Terrible Tinkertoy

The self-described Terrible Tinkertoy is an android shell hosting an AI of unknown origin and dubious sanity, at least by human definitions.  It seems to take a demented pleasure in committing crimes and spreading chaos, and while it's not particularly bloodthirsty it shows little concern for human life either.  The entity is remarkably talented at creating all manner of gadgetry and small robotic minions, usually with a decided "toy" theme to them.  Tinkertoy has been known to work with other supervillains, organic and otherwise, but also operates "alone" with just its mechanical lackeys pretty regularly.  Tinkertoy's shell has been captured or destroyed on several occasions, but the AI code that occupies it has yet to be caught and examined.

While Tinkertoy enjoys all manner of random crimes and destructive "pranks" it displays a somewhat consistent pattern of harassing Hasbro assets whenever the opportunity arises.  This enmity appears to stem from an attempt by the corporation's legal department to sue over its choice of supranym, something the android took great offense to as an attempt to erase its chosen identity.  To date no one has been killed as a result of this one-sided feud, but it's been a close shave a few times and the company has taken to hiring super-powered security for major events and key facilities whenever possible.   

Description: Slender, androgynous figure dressed in a checkered red-and-green bodysuit with black knee-high boots and elbow-length gloves.  Its face and short-cropped hair are inhumanly white where they can be seen beneath its voluminous jet-black hooded cloak.  It has a high, clear voice and alternates between a cold, dismissive tone and frenzied, maniacal glee seemingly at random.

Gender: Unclear        Age: Unknown        Height: 5'7"      Eyes: Heterochromatic Red & Green

Hair: Glossy White                   Skin: Parchment White               Build: Pixie-thin

Approach: Disruptive                   Archetype: Inventor

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Inventions d10, Robotics d10, Leaping d8, Wall-Crawling d8                                       

Qualities: Science d10, Acrobatics d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Manic Toymaker d8

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Big Hit (A) Attack using Inventions and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice and add all your bonuses, destroying them.

Dangerous Playthings (A) Attack multiple targets using Science.  Use your Min die.  Hinder each target using your Max die.  If one of those targets rolls doubles on their next turn, they take damage equal to the penalty created.  

Gimmicks For Everything (A) Boost using Inventions.  Hinder using your Max die.  Attack using your Min die.

Terrible Tricks (A) Hinder multiple targets using Science.  You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Mook Squad (I) Gain Whistle Up Some Help (A) Replenish your Robotic Toy minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.

Master of Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.

Tactics

Tinkertoy relies on a mix of gadgetry and a seemingly endless army of toy-like robotic minions for its abilities, with various gimmicks concealed within its costume.  Its Leaping and Wall-Crawling are innate abilities of its android body, and there may be further small devices concealed within its person for emergencies.  When operating with allies (including their Robotic Toy minions) it usually alternates between Terrible Tricks and Dangerous Playthings using Robotics or Inventions in the dice pools.  If pressed by a single foe they'll use Gimmicks For Everything to gain a bonus for themselves, possibly adding more with their minions and allies, then unload a Big Hit in their next turn as a finisher.

With its upgrade Tinkertoy always has more Robotic Toy minions on call, and their mastery reflects their crazed improvisational inventions.

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Tinkertoy is invariably accompanied by at least a few of its signature minions, often concealed within the environment until called upon.  If it needs more muscle it will either build similar but larger (sometimes much larger) lieutenants like Razzle and Dazzle or the Clown Car (see below) or work with allied villains.  

Robotic Toy d8 minion

Description: Small autonomous robots a variety of forms, usually a foot or two in height but far stronger and tougher than they look.  Most resemble somewhat old-fashioned humanoid toys like nutcrackers, tin soldiers, clown puppets and porcelain dolls, although there are many exceptions modeled with animal shapes or copying more modern designs.  They invariably have concealed weapons ranging from blades, spikes, and powered drills to small firearms and tasers, as well as built-in self destruct mechanisms.

Spiteful Little Things: If you fail a save against damage caused by a close Attacker, deal the result of the failed save as physical damage to your Attacker before you're destroyed.

Razzle and Dazzle d10 lieutenants

Description: A pair of hulking 7' tall androids dressed in stereotypical clown outfits - striped pants with suspenders, loose polka-dotted shirts, comically-oversized shoes and gloves, all in garish primary colors.  They can extrude gun barrels from their mouths or "inflate" their fists into deadly spiked bludgeons.  They usually concentrate on keeping melee combatants away from Tinkertoy.   

Spiteful Big Things: If you fail a save against damage caused by a close Attacker, deal the result of the failed save as Electricity damage to your Attacker.

The Clown Car d10 lieutenant

Description: A miniature copy of  an old Volkswagen beetle about four feet long, painted in a wild patchwork scheme of clashing colors with an infinity symbol on its license plates.  It looks adorable at first, then the concealed buzz saws and gun barrels pop out. 

Full of Clowns: If you fail a save against damage, add a number of Robotic Toy minions to the scene equal to your die roll.  They start out as d6 minions rather than d8 and cannot act until the next round.

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Stormseer, Mysterious Super-Mage

Name: Stormseer

Origin: Nobody knows.  He's clearly into some occult stuff, and that mystic eye of his seems to mean something to some arcanists but exactly what they aren't saying.  He woke up in a deserted rural house  a few months ago, spent a while wandering around trying to figure out who he was and how he got there, and eventually fell in with a local hero team during a confused brawl with some super-villains who might have been looking for him.  Or not.

We'll probably learn more as time goes by.  In the interim he's fascinated by the supers community, which he doesn't remember at all.  Doesn't really have a civilian ID and uses "John Smith" when he has to pretend to be mundane.

Description: Tall, slender man with a wild tangle of flowing storm-gray hair and beard that's constantly blowing in the winds that swirl around him.  His features are sharply chiseled with a beak-like nose and prominent bushy eyebrows.  One eye is pale gray, the other is obviously artificial, a silvery orb of metal that displays ever-changing arcane runes.  He wears tight pants, a tunic-like shirt, and sturdy boots, all in darker shades of gray and black and wrapped in a flowing blue-gray hooded cloak bordered with patterns of white sigils.  Can use petty magic to adopt a more nondescript appearance if need be, although it makes him stand out like a sore thumb to those with unusual senses or their own arcane talents.

Gender: Male                 Age: Forties?          Height: 6'4"            Eye: Gray

Hair: Wild Gray Mane                Skin: Pale                Build: Lanky

Background: Blank Slate               Power Source: Nature                Archetype: Marksman

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

Powers: Electricity d10, Awareness d8, Eye of the Unknown d8, Transmutation d8, Weather d8

Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Ranged Combat d10, Alertness d8, Insatiably Curious d8

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

Abilities:

Green

Caught In My Gaze (A) Boost using Eye of the Unknown.  Use your Max + Min dice.  This bonus can only be used against one chosen target, and is persistent and exclusive against that target until it leaves the scene.

Principle of Amnesia (A) Overcome in a situation where a completely fresh perspective is useful.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: You have a flash of a former life that momentarily distracted you - what was it?  Major twist: A shocking detail of your past life changes the current situation - how does it affect the scene?  RP: Your past is lost or obscured, others have immense difficulty in keeping track of you.

Principle of Knowing the Unknown (A) Overcome to learn hidden information  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What important clue did you just miss?  Major twist: What major secret was just revealed that you would rather have stayed hidden?  RP: You can always tell when an important piece of information is being left out or obscured, though you might not know exactly what it is.

Twisting Runes (A) Boost using Magical Lore.  Create one bonus using your Max die and another using your Mid die.

Whirling Mists (A) Hinder using Weather.  Use your Max die.  You may split that penalty across multiple nearby targets.

Yellow

Empowering Bolt (A) Attack one target using Electricity.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Boost yourself and that target with your Mid die.

Enchanted Strike (A) Attack using Magical Lore.  Boost another hero using your Max die.

Sudden Response (R) When a new target enters close range, Attack that target by rolling your single Ranged Combat die.

Triumphant Surge (R) When you defeat a minion, roll that minion's die to Boost yourself.  That bonus must be used on your next action.  

Red

Apocalyptic Bolt (A) Attack using Electricity and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Destroy all your bonuses, adding each of them to this Attack first, even if they are exclusive.

Inescapable Gaze (A) Attack using Eye of the Unknown.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Ignore all penalties on this Attack, ignore any Defend actions, and no Reactions can affect it.

Transformative Defense (R) When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may ignore that damage completely.  If you do, treat the value of that damage as a Hinder action against you instead.

Out

Lingering Runes (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Magical Lore die.

Tactics

Stormseer opens actions scenes with versatile boosts generated using Twisting Runes, followed by selecting a key target with Caught In My Gaze, which may be used later with Whirling Mists to impair a foe that proves to be more durable than expected.  Once in the Yellow, Empowering Bolt is the go-to power, pumping out big damage and granting bonuses to himself (and the target, if it survives).  Enchanted Strike offers a way to bypass electricity-resistant targets or to provide an efficient Boost to allies if need be.  Triumphant Surge makes spending time swatting minions a little more worthwhile, and Sudden Response helps dispose of reinforcements from villain upgrades and abilities.  In the Red, a quick Apocalyptic Bolt with stacked bonuses offers enormous damage potential.  Transformative Defense offers a strong defense and Inescapable Gaze is a workaround  for the resulting penalty.  He's still going to be lucky to last two turns before going Out but he can dish out a lot of hurt in that time.  Lingering Runes lets him keep boosting away after dropping.

While extremely hard-hitting Stormseer is rather fragile, with modest health and no defensive ability until in the Red.  He also struggles to deal with multiple targets, is not great at Overcome actions in general (it's hard to generate those big 8+ results) and has no innate healing at all.  The hero is very much a shooter and prefers to keep his distance, if need be using Weather to bear him into the sky for short periods or trying fancy Overcomes to otherwise make a getaway when crowded.

His ability dice pools are pretty versatile but will almost always include either Ranged Combat or Magical Lore.  His Awareness represents a sort of True Sight-style mystical vision, as well as general sensitivity to occult goings-on.  Transmutation can quickly dissolve solid objects into mist, congeal thin air into razor-sharp stones that he hurls with winds generated by Weather, or perform other feats of magical alchemy, albeit more slowly.  Weather generates or controls winds, rain, and fog, and can double as cut-rate Flight or clumsy Telekinesis briefly if he's not using it for other things.  The Eye of the Unknown is his Signature Weapon and improves his other powers by several orders of magnitude - he's much weaker without it.  It also may be why he's amnesiac about his past life, but that remains to be seen.

Outside of action scenes, Stormseer is supernaturally observant and knows quite a lot about magic and the occult.  Physically he's painfully mundane, his grasp of most modern technology and recent history is nearly non-existent, and his social skills are lackluster - although sometimes his insatiable curiosity and obvious awkwardness works as well as Persuasion or Insight might.  He's also surprisingly good at ferreting out secrets and is weirdly talented at basketball and tennis.

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Johnny Crisis, Herald of Disaster

This post features a "villain" who's more of a herald of disaster and doesn't seem to mind losing to our heroes.  There's also a suitably dangerous environment for him to manifest in and a selection of minions associated with it.  He was very much inspired by fjur's Time Cataclysm environment at the link, which would also be a great opportunity to use him.  Just the kind of party Johnny Crisis shows up for.

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Johnny Crisis

The motivations of the entity who calls himself Johnny Crisis are poorly understood, but owing to his behavior he must be treated as major threat.  He appears only at times when a critical threat to reality as we know it is impending, although he denies being the cause of such threats and insists his actions are merely those fated to occur.  Defeating him won't generally stop whatever the crisis is in and of itself, but he'll vanish immediately if a definitive solution is found and disaster is averted.  Johnny doesn't seem to hold any particular dislike for the heroes he battles, and has even expressed regrets for doing so on occasion, excusing it as just doing what has to be done.  He's also attempted to persuade heroes to "just let it happen" in the past, claiming that change is inevitable and it's all for the best in the long run.

Johnny's abilities all revolve around the ongoing crisis of the moment, and could almost be mistaken for coincidence rather than his active interference.  He also perceives reality very differently than people bound to linear time and three-dimensional space, and sometimes uses these powers outside of action scenes to "nudge" others into taking actions that trigger the crisis he's manifesting for.  Spotting him in the company of a villain, fringe research scientist, or dodgy mystic is a sure sign that something bad is on the horizon, although he rarely makes such appearances more than a few days at most before the worst occurs.

It's worth noting that there are a few villains that have been encountered along with Johnny more than once, and seem to be on familiar terms with him.  Notable examples of these are the Reckoner, Ymum the Undying, and Doctor Mordecai Mentallax, all of whom have come close to shattering reality on multiple occasions.

Description: An unremarkable blonde man, usually dressed in anachronistic clothing that doesn't fit the current surroundings.  Anything from medieval tunics to Sixties hippy fashions to a natty 1920s pinstripe suit or a futuristic silver body stocking is possible, but he always stands out from the locals.

Gender: Male         Age: Apparently Mid-thirties         Height: 5'9"          Eyes: Gray

Hair: Sandy Blonde                      Skin: Caucasian, Many Small Scars                  Build: Slender

Approach:  Creator                          Archetype:  Domain

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Intuition d10, Postcognition d8, Precognition d8, Awareness d6

Qualities: Alertness d10, Conviction d8, History d8, Nonlinear Existence d8, Persuasion d8

Status: (# environment targets and challenges) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Critical Moment (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice.  Attack every target in the scene (other than yourself) with those dice.  Remove those minions.

Make Things Worse (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.

Martyred (R) When one of your minions is destroyed, roll its die and Recover that much Health.

Mistaken Target (R) When Attacked, redirect the Attack to an environment minion.

Revenge Served Hot (R) When one of your minions is destroyed, roll its die and deal that much damage to another target.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hindered By Crisis (I) +10 Health.  The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, ability access, and all abilities.  Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while attempting these Overcomes, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Intuition 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

Johnny Crisis is all about manipulating the environment, particularly minions created by it.  He really shouldn't be used without an environment in play and if it's one that doesn't generate minions with twists he should have some allied minions along as scene elements, perhaps lackeys of allied villains.  He only uses his own dice for basic actions, and will spend most of his time using Make Things Worse to do exactly that, concentrating on putting out minions to fuel his other abilities.  If directly assaulted Mistaken Target will shift the Attack to a minion.  If a minion is destroyed, he'll either heal using Martyred or deal some damage with Revenge Served Hot.  If he manages to get a fair number of environment minions into play at once he'll burn them all at once to do a huge Critical Moment Attack, then start rebuilding their ranks to repeat the process.  While he doesn't always appear to directly control environment minions, they never act against him and at worst ignore his presence.  

His upgrade makes it harder for the heroes to use their most powerful abilities and actually lets him roll one of his own dice once in a while, while his mastery reflects how he's at his best when the world is falling to pieces.

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Catastrophic Dimensional Conjunction

A potentially world-ending event where two or more separate dimensional planes are at risk of merging into one another, resulting in massive and unpredictable changes in the fabric of reality on a universal scale.  They are never entirely natural occurrences, and are usually the result of ill-advised scientific or magical tampering, deliberate attempts at cross-planar invasion or the direct action of an entity of godlike power.  Conjunctions are invariably preceded by the appearance of beings native to the overlapping dimension(s), with their numbers increasing as the danger mounts.

Nigh-Infinite Crisis d12, Fracturing Space-Time d10, Altered Physics d8

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Bizarre Visitor: Add one environment minion (see below) to the scene.

Mirror Images: Roll the environment dice.  Defend one target using the Max die .

(Major Twist)

Not In Oz Anymore: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of new locations to the scene equal to the Min die, and move any number of targets to any of those new locations.  These locations should be appropriate to the dimension(s) intruding into normal reality and may offer a way to reverse or delay the conjunction.

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Dimensional Intrusion: Roll the environment dice.  Add Mid die environment minions (see below) to the scene.

Forced Out of Phase: Roll the environment dice.  Start challenge.  Stabilize Quantum Signature 00  Hinder one hero with the Max die.  This penalty is persistent and exclusive until this challenge is Overcome.

Transdimensional Flux: Roll the environment dice.  Defend all environment minions with the Min die until the start of the next environment turn. 

Twisted Physics: Roll the environment dice.  Boost one target and Hinder another target using the Min die.  These mods are persistent and exclusive.

(Major Twist)

Unstable Conjunction: Start challenge.  Dampen Dimensional Resonance 000  Until the challenge is completed, add Min die environment minions (see below) to the scene each time the environment takes its turn.  When completed, remove all environment minions from the scene.   

Red Zone

(Minor Twist)

Invaders From The Rift: Roll the environment dice.  Add Max die environment minions (see below) to the scene.

(Major Twist)

Utter Chaos: Roll the environment dice.  Boost all environment minions using the Max die.  Hinder all heroes using the Mid die.

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The following are some sample minions to use with a CDC environment.  Some conjunctions will only use one type of them, while others might see two or three (or more, if you make your own) involved all at once.  They each have a loose theme to them, with Dimensional Dopplegangers being a likely result of a mad science-induced conjunction, Otherworldly Invaders showing up for actual cross-planar invasions, and Strange Entities being more mystical. 

Dimensional Doppelganger d8 environmental minion

Description: They look just like someone you know, but they're actually physical duplicates from a parallel dimension with very different personalities and motivations.  Some may sport outlandish clothing and hair styles that give away the fact that something's off about them, while others are nearly indistinguishable from the original person.

Spread Confusion: When taking Hinder actions, gain a +2 to the die roll.  When rolling saves against Attacks from heroes, add +2 to the die roll.

Otherworldly Invader d10 environmental minion

Description: Varies wildly based on the creativity and energy of the artist.  The lazy approach gets you generic uniformed humanoid soldiers with unusual skin tones (often orange, green or purple), carrying vaguely retro scifi weapons.  More ambitious efforts will have exotic body shapes, strange weapons, and generally look much more alien.

Phase Technology: When taking Defend or Overcome actions, gain a +2 to the die roll. 

Strange Entity d8 environmental minion

Description: Amorphous and indistinct, like a half-remembered dream.  As their dimension nears conjunction their features become more distinct.  It doesn't make looking at them one bit more pleasant.

Merge: Sacrifice yourself to increase the die size of another Strange Entity minion by two steps (max d10).

Slither: You may move as though you had Wall-Crawling d6.

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