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.
Glad I found your blog. This game is amazing... needs more love. I look forward to diving into your content.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Big fan of SCRPG as well, if it wasn't obvious. :) Probably my favorite supers RPG at the moment, and I've tried most of them over the years.
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