Sergeant Freeman and the Chicago Rocket

These two started out as the first two actual player characters in my early games when we were testing the system out.  Their players have moved on to other heroes since then, but they agreed to have their old ones "retire" to reservists status and they've shown up a few times since as NPC lieutenants and once as active PCs again when their creators wanted to give them another chance in the spotlight.

Sergeant Freeman

Description: Pale gray cargo fatigues, jacket worn open over a white tee with the US flag on it, chunky black combat boots and a black web belt.  Discrete commo bud and throat mike.  Everything's reinforced to deal with his tendency to smash through walls, but the comms rarely survive a fight.  He usually has less indestructible allies carry some spares for him.  Has room for a fair amount of gear in all those big pockets but it just gets broken so there's usually nothing but some gum in there.  He can, in fact, chew gum and kick ass at the same time.

Gender: Male              Age: 42                 Height: 6'1"          Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black Buzzcut        Skin: Dark        Build: Muscular

Background: Military   Power Source: Higher Power   Archetype: Armored

Personality: Stalwart

Health (G/Y/R):  32/24/11

Powers: Vitality d10, Leaping d8, Momentum d8, Speed d8, Strength d8

Qualities: Fitness d10, Leadership d10, Army Combat Veteran d8, Self-Discipline d8

Status: Green (32-25) - d8 / Yellow (24-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d8                      

Abilities:

Green

Can't Be Stopped (A) Attack using Momentum.  Ignore all penalties and any Defend actions during this Attack, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.

Covering Move (A) Attack using Vitality.  Defend another target with your Min die. 

Keep On Fighting (A) Attack using Vitality.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.

Motivated (I) At the start of your turn remove any -1 penalties on you.

Principle of the Defender (A) Overcome in a situation that requires you to hold the line.  Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and Defend with your Min die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How do your actions put you in more danger?  Major twist: What great sacrifice did you just make to succeed?  RP: You will protect others without hesitation. 

Principle of the Indestructible (A) Overcome when you charge headlong into danger.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What goes wrong with your defenses?  Major twist: Who got hurt other than you as a result of you not being able to take damage?  RP: You ignore damage from unpowered attacks such as clubs, fists, arrows, etc.

Tough As Nails (I) Reduce any physical or energy damage dealt to you by 1 (in the Green zone), 2 (in the Yellow zone), or 3 (in the Red zone).

Yellow

Coordinated Attack (A) Attack using Strength.  Boost all nearby heroes taking Attack or Overcome actions using your Min die until your next turn.

Sudden Surge (A) Attack multiple targets using Speed.  Use your Mid die.  Hinder all targets damaged by this ability with your Min die.  Hinder yourself with your Max die. 

Red

Make It Hurt (I) Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target with your Min die.

Ongoing Surge (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die from that roll.

Save the Day (A) Overcome using Self Discipline.  Use you Max + Min dice.  Hinder all nearby opponents with your Mid die.

Out (A) Defend an ally by rolling your single Vitality die.

Character Brief: James Freeman was sergeant in the US Army up until his superpowers manifested on September 11, 2001, after which he honorably discharged per the UN Superhuman De-Militarization Agreement and "volunteered" to work with the strictly civilian Superhuman Coordination Administration.  He'd rather have stayed in uniform, but over the last twenty years he's gotten comfortable with the superhero thing.  His current, entirely voluntary and non-military assignment has him working in [campaign city] as a regional reservist for [local superteam] under SCA oversight.  He's built a good working relationship with the Chicago Rocket and shares her views on supers having a civic responsibility to use their powers for the public good.

The source of his powers is still unknown to him and his handlers, although they're assumed to be a sudden genetic expression or a reaction to some unknown energy field.  In actual fact they stem from a metaphysical entity best described as the spirit of the American national ideal.  There have been previous hosts of this power starting in 1812, but it wasn't until World War I that any of them manifested recognizable superpowers, albeit rather limited ones (the "Blue Eagle" was a pilot who gained the ability to actually fly under his own power).  Since then several supers have been secretly empowered by this force, most often developing their abilities during wartime or some other crisis.  Hosts are invariably patriotic, but not blind to the nation's flaws.  Their patron spirit calls for faith in the ideals of the country and the strength of the American people, not willful ignorance of the all too often ugly realities of the nation.

Trivia:  He was originally assigned the supranym "Captain Freedom" by the SCA but hated the name so much he managed to get it changed to Sergeant Freeman.  It's barely a code name at all, but no one else is likely to want it and there's now another Captain Freedom working out of Washington State who's perfectly content with the name.  "Captain?  Mister, I work for a living!" 

The Chicago Rocket

Description: Medium-blue bodysuit that covers most of her face as well, leaving only her nose, mouth, and hair exposed.  Red six-pointed star on a white background with a thin light blue border centered on her chest (see the Chicago city flag for colors).  Tight fitting darker blue gloves and boots.  Gray utility belt slung low on her hips, loaded with a miscellany of small tools, flex cuff tape, chemical and explosive capsules, etc.  Outfit has an integrated hands-free commo rig, basic biometric sensors and concealed tracking beacon for emergencies.  The lady knows where to shop.      

Gender: Female        Age: Ageless? (looks 24, born 1921)        Height: 5'1"       Eyes: Green

Hair: Red Shoulder Length        Skin: Mildly Sunburned        Build: Athletic

Background: Retired   Power Source: Multiverse   Archetype: Transporter

Personality: Cheerful

Health (G/Y/R):  30/22/11

Powers: Speed d12, Deduction d6, Gadgets d6, Intangibility d6, Teleportation d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Criminal Underworld Info d10, Insight d10, Hyperspeed Law Enforcer d8, History d8

Status: Green (30-23) - d10 / Yellow (22-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d6 

Abilities:

Green

Principle of Levity (A) Overcome in a dire situation where your good humor can prevent demoralization.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Who did you offend with your ill-timed levity?  Major twist: What just occurred to finally break your good spirits?  RP: Your spirit is nearly impossible to break. 

Principle of Speed (I) When you successfully Overcome you may end up anywhere in the current environment.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What physical drawbacks do you suffer from pushing so hard?  Major twist: What critical detail did you skip past earlier that's now coming back to haunt you?

Shove Through Non-space (A) Attack using Teleportation.  Either Hinder your target with your Mid die, or move them somewhere else in the scene.

Supersonic Gangbuster (A) Attack multiple targets using Speed.  Use your Min die against each.

Yellow

Evasive Strike (A) Attack using Speed.  Defend against all Attacks against you using your Min die until your next turn.

Gimmicks (A) Attack using Gadgets.  If your target survived, Hinder them using your Max die.

Push Yourself (A) Boost yourself using Speed.  Use your Max die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Then Attack using your Min die.

Red

Dash Block (R) When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend by rolling your single Close Combat die.

No Limits (I) You have no limit on the number of Reactions you can take.  Each time you use a Reaction after the first one before your next turn, take 1 irreducible damage or a minor twist.

Trade Shots (R) When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may Attack the source of that damage by rolling your single Speed die plus the amount of damage you took.

Out (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Speed die.

Character Brief

FIB Agent Jane Kelly is far from home.  She isn't even native to this universe, having been born in an alternate timeline that was running considerably behind our own.  Jane gained her powers in her 1944 when she was exposed to exotic energies during a katatron test at a top sacret research facility.  She used these powers along with her FIB training to fight crime and saboteurs as the Chicago Rocket.  During the final year of World War II the failure of the Chicago Project led to Operation Downfall, an all-out assault of the Japanese home islands in late 1945.  Every available super was called up for the initial landing attempts, and Jane found herself pushing her powers to new extremes in an attempt to save as many GIs as possible.  She took the strain - but reality didn't.  The Chicago Rocket vanished on August 6, 1945, never to be seen again.

Jane fell through non-space and found herself in a Kyushu that wasn't at war.  She was stunned, and it took even her nearly two days of hyperspeed investigation to get a grip on the world she found herself in.  The year was 1999, the War had ended over half a century ago, and this timeline's Jane Kelly had died in a car accident forty years ago.  The 1940s of this world were eerily familiar but wrong in so many ways, and the "future" of 1999 was even more confusing.  In the end there was nothing to do but approach this world's warped version of the FIB, and after some confusion she was turned over to the Superhuman Coordination Administration for counseling and assignment.  She adjusted quickly (she does everything quickly since the katatron accident) and has spent over twenty years as a civilian super, going through several temporary team positions and lately working as a regional reservist based in [campaign city], home to [local superteam].  She's gotten fairly close to Sergeant Freeman, who's been the best partner she's had since her FIB days when she was "just" a counterespionage agent.

Trivia: Jane still regularly messes up the order of the letters in FBI, which obviously ought to be FIB ("Federal Investigation Bureau") instead.  She also can't believe they actually had J. Edgar Hoover in charge of the Bureau.  In  her original universe they threw the creep out on his ear in 1936, and she was there when they quietly arrested him in 1943 when he turned out to be a Russian spy after the secrets of the Chicago Project.

Blog Content Index

Gryla the Troll-Witch, Her Family, and Her Cat

This group of supernatural villains are based on the older Icelandic myths rather than the much less horrific modern versions, but for anyone unfamiliar with these characters the wiki page about them is still a reasonable synopsis.  There are many, many more detailed sources online and off, and I encourage anyone who's interested to do some research of your own.  If not, you can get the basics at the link, which avoids me having to explain cultural icons who are basically on par with Santa Claus (and almost as equally distorted by time and changing beliefs).  I'm assuming most people have at least heard of them at this point.

I've included a fairly generic environment that might attract this group's attention, either as a hunting ground or a site for some terrible ritual to ruin the holiday spirit and grab some metaphysical turf for their own legends.

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Gryla

In the SCRPG, Gryla is by far the most proactive and outright villainous of her family.  They're all androphagic supernatural monsters, but she's the only one who really works at it effectively.  As a troll-witch she's also reasonably adept at magic and her schemes will frequently revolve around taking steps to keep her myths from either fading away or changing beyond recognition.  She's deeply resentful of the slow modernization and "gentling" of the tales about her, and has no desire to be transformed from a terrifying child-eating menace into something more consumer-friendly.  She can reverse the trend through suitable rituals, which just coincidentally also involve horrible public displays of cannibalistic violence that are bound to attract the attention of superheroes in the vicinity.

Of course, she might also just show up with her family to punish some idiot who's decided to use them as the basis for a range of adorable plushy dolls.  She's seen what happened to Cthulhu.  Gryla ain't going out like that.     

Description: Stooped, hungry-looking troll-crone dressed in ragged peasant clothing.  She'd almost be a pathetic figure if it wasn't for the palpable aura of hungry menace she exudes along with the scent of blood and rotting meat.  Well, that and the fact that she's seven feet tall and has a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth and hands that end in hooked iron claws.  Kind of saps the pathos thing, that look.   

Gender: Female        Age: Millenia Old & Looks It      Height: 7'7"      Eyes: Black

Hair: Scraggly Blonde        Skin: Wrinkled Leathery Hide         Build: Hunched & Emaciated

Approach:  Relentless

Archetype:  Formidable (Weakness: Lightning, Sound of Bells)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d10, Presence d8, Shapeshifting d6                                  

Qualities: Imposing d10, Ancient Troll-Witch d8, Stealth d8, Persuasion d6                                

Status: No Weakness Mods - d12 / Both Bonuses and Penalties - d8 / Only Penalties - d4

Abilities:

Ancient Evil (A) Boost using Presence.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Remove all penalties on yourself.

Terrifying Hunger (A) Boost using Presence.  Use your Max die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Attack using your Mid die.

The Old Magics (I) Whenever a nearby opponent would Attack you, you may destroy one bonus on yourself or one penalty on that opponent to reduce the Attack by the value of the destroyed mod.

Trollish Might (A) Attack and Hinder one target using Strength.  If target status is d4 or d6, use your Max + Min dice  If target status is d8, use your Max die.  If target status is d10 or d12, use your Mid die. 

Upgrades & Masteries:

Come Help Your Mother, Boys (A) Replenish your Yule Lad minions up to the number of heroes in the scene. 

Magical Mastery (I) If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.

Tactics

Gryla greatly prefers to feast on the young and helpless, but if she's forced into a fight she'll use her inhuman strength and knowledge of ancient trollish magic to their fullest.  She usually opens with Terrifying Hunger, licking her cracked lips before taking a quick bite.  This is followed by selecting a weak-looking foe and using her Trollish Might against them repeatedly, defending herself with The Old Magics as need be.  If canny foes reduce her status die by exploiting mythological troll vulnerabilities she'll pause her onslaught to call upon Ancient Evil powers to restore herself.

Her upgrade lets her call on an endless supply of her malicious offspring, and her mastery can actually get them to work together to do something right for a change.

Her powers and qualities grant her a bit of arcane skill, mostly involving minor shapeshifting and glamours to conceal her (and her family's) real nature until it's too late.  She's much better at lengthy ritual magic that isn't really useful in a brawl with superheroes.

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Leppaludi

About the only way you'll run into Leppaludi is with the rest of his family in tow, although if you somehow find yourself in their lair he might be more or less alone there, sleeping or gorging himself on leftovers.  He's nowhere near motivated enough to do much on his own, and he wouldn't be very good at accomplishing anything beyond loafing even if he tried.  Pretty much just going to be around to keep the heroes from interfering with whatever Gryla is up to, either by hitting them till they stop moving or by telling his lads to do it for him.

Description: A shambling, dumpy-looking troll in ragged filthy clothing.  He stinks like a trash heap, and tends to yawn a lot even while he's fighting.

Gender: Male       Age: Younger Than Gryla, Like Most Things      Height: 7'10"     Eyes: Black

Hair: Unkempt Black          Skin: Filthy Grayish Leather           Build: Flabby & Potbellied 

Approach: Focused                            Archetype: Bruiser

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d12, Stinking Breath d8                                        

Qualities: Imposing d10, Close Combat d8, Lazy Oaf d8

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

Abilities:

Belch (A) Hinder one target using Stinking Breath.  Use your Max die.  Attack that target using your Mid die.

Flailing Block (R) Defend against an Attack that only targets you by rolling your single Strength die.  Boost yourself by using the amount of damage reduced.

Grand Slam (A) Attack one target using Strength.  That target cannot Defend or use reactions against this Attack.  Attack multiple other nearby targets using your Min die.

Stop For A Drink (A) Defend yourself using Imposing.  Use your Mid + Min dice.  Recover Health equal to your Max die.

Trollhide (I) Reduce damage from physical and energy sources by 1 (in Green status), 2 (in Yellow status), or 3 (in Red status). 

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

It's A Big Family (A) Replenish your Yule Lad minions up to the number of heroes in the scene. 

Behave Yourselves, You Brats (I) If you have complete control over your surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Tactics

Leppaludi would rather be loafing back in his cave, but if he's been dragged out of bed anyway he's game for a brawl and a bit of a snack while he's up.  He relies on his truly prodigious strength to punish enemies with Grand Slam, either grabbing a foe or some suitably hefty object and using them as a improvised weapon, putting bonuses into the Min die to amp up the splash damage.  If attacked Flailing Block prevents quite a lot of damage and a grants free Boost.  He'll mix up his pattern with the occasional Belch, mostly because it annoys Gryla.  Trollhide makes him increasing hard to hurt as his sluggish metabolism starts going to work, but he may Stop For A Drink if he's really getting bashed around.

His upgrade lets him call on his countless children and stepchildren, and his mastery occasionally gets them to cooperate long enough to do something useful.

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The Yule Cat

Of all the Icelandic mythological entities here the Yule Cat is the most likely to be found roaming around on its own, either looking for a meal or just spreading chaos.  While it doesn't have any dietary age preferences, it only devours those who haven't been gifted clothing recently.  This is a fairly well-known weakness, but ploys like frantically chucking a hand-me-down sweater at a potential victim won't cut it.  The gift clothing has to be new, and "recently" is a pretty arbitrary term as well.  The spread of cheaply-made modern clothing has really made things tough on on the big kitty, and finding suitable prey gets harder every year.  It might start only considering what you're currently wearing, so those ugly socks grandma gave aren't doing any good sitting in a drawer.  This could be a real issue for heroes, many of whom wear the same costume for years on end.

The Yule Cat's Titan challenge involves getting a collar (even if it's just a length of rope or chain or something) on the thing and then attaching a bell to it.  By remarkable coincidence (and the power of myth at play) there will always be something suitable in the immediate vicinity of the Cat when it manifests, although players who come up with their own solutions should be encouraged.  Anyone using themself as a collar with Elasticity has the right mindset for this game.

If Gryla is nearby, performing a Hinder on her by ringing a belled cat will absolutely trigger her weakness, and even deserves a bonus to the attempt if the player came up with the idea without prompting. 

Description: A coal-black longhaired cat larger than a good-sized barn.  Its eyes glow with hellish light - except when it doesn't want them to because it's sneaking up on you in the cold dark night. 

Gender: Ask The Vet           Age: Indefinite      Height: About Forty Feet At The Shoulder

Eyes Glowing Red-Orange           Fur: Black                 Build:  It's A Giant Cat 

Approach: Disruptive

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Attach the Collar 00 Bell the Cat 0)

Health: 50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Agility d10, Intangibility d10, Leaping d8, Strength d8

Qualities: Stealth d10, Alertness d8, Close Combat d8, Terrifying Mythological Feline d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Black Cat Stampede (A) Hinder multiple targets using Terrifying Mythological Feline.  You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.

Curious Cat (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone.

Toying With Dinner (A) Attack multiple targets using Close Combat.  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.

Wriggling Around (R) When you are Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one of the successes from the Titan's challenge.

You Mice Are No Threat To This Cat (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Boost (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).

Feline Chaos (I) Automatically succeed at an Overcome when you throw out all the rules during a situation that is spiraling out of control.

Tactics

The Yule Cat is about as predictable as his smaller kin but its primary motivations are curiosity and hunger.  Gryla and her children don't feed it well at all and Leppaludi has been known to eat what little food does get left for it.  

It will frequently use Curious Cat to trigger environment twists just to see what happens, or Black Cat Stampede to cross every hero's path and saddle them with bad luck while defending itself (any benefits its "owners" derive from the ability are purely accidental as far as it's concerned).  If annoyed it will switch to Toying With Dinner to damage and disrupt the heroes, and it may "accidentally" include allies in the effect for the hell of it.  While it doesn't do much actual damage, You Mice Are No Threat To This Cat makes it very hard to hurt and if heroes try to finish its challenge by belling the cat it will keep Wriggling Around at every opportunity.

Its upgrade makes it more powerful all around, and reflects the increasing number of people who believe in its legend at least a bit.  All cats innately posses its mastery, of course.

Note that despite being forty feet tall, it's still incredibly agile, absurdly stealthy (unless you happen to be allergic to cats) and can literally walk through walls to get into places it can't possibly reach.  It's also very fond of making truly prodigious leaps and can often be found lurking on the tops of skyscrapers, bridge supports and similar elevated vantage points.

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Yule Lad d8 minion 

Description: Gnarled, stunted trollish figures about four feet in height.  They vary a lot in terms of specific physical attributes, clothing (or lack thereof) and behavioral quirks, but all have clawed hands, disturbing sharp teeth, and a hungry gleam in their eyes.  There are dozens of these things, some better known than others.  The obscure ones are damn bitter about it too.

Malicious Child-Eaters: You receive a +2 bonus to Attack or Hinder any target that has a smaller status die than your own.

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Shopping District In December 

This environment represents an urban shopping district near the winter holidays - cold, a little snowy, and crowded with both vehicle and pedestrian traffic.  It could also be an open shopping plaza or a big mall parking lot, and you could probably swap in some other weather effects if your game is somewhere that doesn't see traditional winter weather.

Countless Distractions d10, Innocent Shoppers d8, Wintery Weather d6 

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Intense Snow Flurry: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all Attack actions and Overcomes that rely on vision until the start of the next environment turn using the Mid die.

Fender Bender: Start a challenge.  A minor automobile accident has occurred and is blocking traffic, which wasn't moving all that fast to start with.  A young passenger is trapped behind an airbag in one of the vehicles, and the two drivers are arguing loudly.  If the scene ends without the challenge being resolved someone will make off with the trapped passenger and both drivers will be injured brawling with each other.  Clean This Mess Up - 0

(Major Twist)

Guilty Consciences: Roll the environment dice.  Add Min dice d6 Wanted Criminal minions to the scene.  They are armed with unlicensed pistols and are hostile to everyone except each other.

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Blaring Horns & Flashing Lights: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all heroes using the Mid die as irate drivers lean on their horns and cars get in the way.  

Frightened Civilians: Start a multi-step challenge.  A group of shoppers panics in response to whatever the villain(s) are doing, or perhaps they think they've heard gunshots or seen a firearm being brandished.  Overcome to calm things down and restore a semblance of order.  If the scene ends before this challenge is resolved several people will be badly hurt in the panicked rush.  Restore Order - 00

Hostage Situation: If there are any Wanted Criminal minions in the scene, start a challenge.  One of them grabs a hostage and threatens him with a pistol.  Overcoming the challenge also defeats that minion.  Defeating the minion ends the challenge, but they receive a +6 to saves versus damage while holding the hostage and their die size does not decrease if they succeed in a damage save.  If the scene ends before the hostage is freed they'll be killed during the criminal's escape attempt.  Free Hostage - 0

If all Wanted Criminal minions have been defeated before this twist occurs, roll the environment dice and Boost all hero targets with the Mid die as a reward for their efforts.

(Major Twist)

Police Response: Roll the environment dice.  Add Mid die d8 Police minions to the scene.  They'll concentrate on Attacking any Wanted Criminal minions, then dealing with any active challenges before anything else, either by Boosting a hero who's tackling the problem or by attempting the challenge themselves (see the rules for minion Overcomes on page 156).  Their reactions to the heroes should be tailored to your game.

Red Zone

(Minor Twist)

Chaos Reigns: All active challenges require an extra Overcome success to resolve.

Last Gasp: A defeated enemy makes one last basic Attack using its highest possible status die.

(Major Twist)

Lost In the Confusion: Any active villains may successfully escape the scene and any immediate pursuit.

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If the Yule Cat happens to be in the scene, one of the many holiday decorations is an enormous wreath that could be used as an impromptu collar, and there are a half a dozen brass bells hanging off street lamps in the area (which might also prove problematic for Gryla).

Also, while the big cat can trigger environment twists with an action, a specific Major Twist still won't happen more than once per scene.  It can re-use Minor Twists as much as it likes.

Blog Content Index

The Other Mighty Bullfrog, Reformed Villain and Retconned Hero

I posted the villainous version of this character a while back, but he started out as a player character hero in a group that's been running semi-regularly for almost two years now and I thought it would be interesting to publish writeups of both his original hero form and his player's retcon of him reflecting events in game.  He's the only PC I've had that really had major rewrites of their character to date.  Other players have adopted brand new characters pretty frequently but when they do take advantage of a retcon opportunity they've made pretty minor changes.  Thought it would be good to show an example of how retcons can keep a character feeling fresh over time and let campaign events impact their mechanics.

"Villain Bullfrog" has made several appearances as well, once in a flashback, once during a time travel incident, and a couple of times as an "evil twin" from an alternate universe.  

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Original Hero Writeup

Name: The Mighty Bullfrog - and don't forget the "Mighty" part, pal!

Origin: Created by a botched military project that was attempting use retroviral enhancement to create supersoldiers, Bullfrog had his memories and morals thoroughly scrambled in process, as well as being turned into a giant green man-frog superfreak.  On the other hand, he also gained inhuman strength, the ability to breathe underwater and swim at incredible speeds, and a knack for leaping incredible distances at great speed and with surprising precision.

When the project was shut down and its backers attempted to make its failures disappear permanently, Bullfrog escaped and found sanctuary and a market for his new talents in the criminal underground.  He spent two years as a super-powered thug doing piecework for various employers, but eventually he picked the wrong hero to tangle with and was defeated and arrested.  His scrambled mental state and inability to explain his origins (or even his actual name - Frank Arnold?  Arnold Frank?) led to a court-appointed super-telepath digging out most of the real facts and repairing some of the mental damage he'd suffered.  After some debate it was decided to drop the charges against him in exchange for his agreeing to ongoing counseling and to join the ranks of a "heroes in training" super-school program to get a better handle on his new abilities and keep out of trouble.

Frank (or possibly Arnold - he's still not sure and his records were erased by whoever was behind the retroviral experiments) took to both counseling and super-training like a frog to water.  Sincerely grateful for the aid he'd been given, he's done his best to embrace the idea of being an "ethical super" and last year he volunteered to join a graduating superteam, which was approved by the court after due consideration.  His reputation is still a bit soiled by his brief career as a minor supervillain but his teammates and mentors have publicly vouched for him and he hopes he can live up to their expectations.  So far he hasn't found himself in a life or death situation, and he quietly worries about whether he'll pass that test when it happens.

Description: A towering man/frog hybrid with massively oversized legs and muscular arms that only look small by comparison.  His hands and feet have retractable webbing between their five digits.  The head is hairless and lacks external ears.  His face is human-like but with a very wide mouth, broad and flattened nose, and extremely wide-set bulging black-and-yellow eyes that resemble a bullfrog's.  Generally wears custom-fitted black swim trunks and an elaborate harness loaded with watertight pouches (which usually just hold his wallet, cell phone, and keys).  In cold weather or when he's attempting to go incognito he wears a tailored overcoat and fedora which do nothing to make him less conspicuous.

Gender: Male                 Age: 22 (Maybe)                 Height: 7'2"            Eyes: Creepy

Hair: None                      Skin: Mottled Green                  Build: Hulking

Background: Former Villain    Power Source: Experimentation    Archetype: Wild Card

Personality: Sarcastic                   Health (G/Y/R):  30/22/11

Powers: Leaping d10, Agility d8, Strength d8, Swimming d8

Qualities: Conviction d10, Acrobatics d8, Fitness d8, Persuasion d8, Reformed Superthug d8

Status: Green (30-23) - d8 / Yellow (22-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d8

Abilities:

Green

Downright Slippery (I) At the start of your turn, you may remove a penalty on yourself.

Hippity Hoppity (A) Take any two different basic actions using Leaping, each using your Min die.

Lucky Break (R) After rolling your dice pool for the turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire pool.

Principle of Self Preservation (A) Overcome to get yourself out of immediate danger.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Who suffers because of your actions?  Major twist: Are you willing to lay down your life to save others?  RP: You will never be caught wholly unaware of a danger to your life.  ("Frog Senses tingling!")

Principle of Strength (A) Overcome using brute force.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What just broke?  Major twist: Who just broke?  RP: Perform casual feats of strength automatically.

Yellow

Good Swift Kick (R) When a nearby hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Leaping die, then redirect any remaining damage to a nearby minion of your choice.

Grab and Throw (A) Attack a minion using Strength.  Use the result of the minion's save as an Attack against another target of your choice. 

Hopping Mad (A) Attack multiple targets using Leaping.  If you roll doubles, one nearby ally is also hit with the Attack.

Red

Big Green Hero (A) Overcome using Conviction.  Use your Max + Min die.  Hinder all nearby opponents using your Mid die.

Bounding Beatdown (A) Attack using Leaping.  Use your Max die.  Then, Hinder that target with your Mid + Min dice.

Wearing Them Down (I) Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target using your Min die.

Out

Heroes Always Win In the End (A) Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Conviction die.

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After about a year of on and off play Bullfrog's group earned their second Collection of stories and had chance to retcon their characters based on experiences in game.  The Mighty Bullfrog got by far the biggest set of rewrites, inspired by some interaction with mutant rights activists and those who oppose them in the last story arc.  While his origin story is unchanged (and he still hasn't recovered his memories, so he's still Frank-or-possibly-Arnold) he's discovered that the experiments that he underwent only activated his latent mutant genes, and he's become deeply involved with both the Mutant Rights movement while also re-forging some of the really dodgy connections he had during his days as a villain and making new ones tied to the terrorist JustX movement.  So far Arnold (or possibly Frank) hasn't gone over the line into breaking the law, but his comrades and case workers are keeping a wary on on him after this turn of events.

Mechanically, the Mighty Bullfrog's had a nearly complete rewrite, changing his power source to Genetic to reflect his newly-discovered mutant heritage and his archetype to Close Quarters Combatant to reflect what he's pretty much been doing all along.  He's a little tougher now and uses a much wider array of powers and qualities than his old Leaping focused version, and his qualities have shifted toward being more willing to leverage his scary looks and size as well as his changing social connections.  He's still recognizable as the character he was, but plays a bit differently both in and out of an action scene.

Retconned Hero Writeup

Name: The Mighty Bullfrog - and don't forget the "Mighty" part, pal!

Description: A towering man/frog hybrid with massively oversized batrachian legs and muscular arms that only look small by comparison.  His hands and feet have retractable webbing between their five digits.  The head is hairless and lacks external ears.  His face is human-like but with a very wide mouth, broad and flattened nose, and extremely wide-set bulging black-and-yellow eyes that resemble a bullfrog's.  Generally wears custom-fitted black swim trunks and an elaborate harness loaded with watertight pouches (which usually just hold his wallet, cell phone, and keys).  In cold weather or when he's attempting to go incognito he wears a tailored overcoat and fedora which do nothing to make him less conspicuous.

Gender: Male                 Age: 23 (Maybe)                 Height: 7'2"            Eyes: Creepy

Hair: None                      Skin: Mottled Green                  Build: Hulking

Background: Former Criminal    Power Source: Genetic    Archetype: Close Quarters Combatant

Personality: Stalwart                   Health (G/Y/R):  30/22/11

Powers: Vitality d10, Agility d8, Leaping d8, Strength d8, Swimming d8

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Imposing d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Mutant Rights Activist d8

Status: Green (30-23) - d8 / Yellow (22-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d8

Abilities:

Green

Enough Tricks (A) Attack using Imposing,  Ignore all penalties and Defend actions during this Attack, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.

Get Psyched Up (A) Boost yourself using Imposing.  This bonus is persistent and exclusive.

Principle of Strength (A) Overcome using brute force.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What just broke?  Major twist: Who just broke?  RP: Perform casual feats of strength automatically.

Principle of the Underworld (A) Overcome using your knowledge of the criminal underworld or one of your contacts.  Use your Max die.  Minor twist: What shady detail makes others distrust you?  Major twist: Are you guilty of what you're being arrested for?  RP: You have a variety of contacts in criminal underworld and organized crime.

Take It And Dish It Out (A) Defend using Vitality.  Attack using your Min die.

Versatile Fighter (A) Take any two basic actions using Close Combat.  Use your Min die for each.

Yellow

Hit Harder (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.

Hopping Mad (A) Attack multiple targets using Agility.  Use your Min die.

Shrug It Off (A) Boost yourself using Vitality, then either remove a penalty on yourself or Recover using your Min die.

Red

Pushing Yourself (I) When you use an action ability, you may also perform any basic action using you Mid die on the same roll.

Never Say Die (A) Hinder yourself using Vitality.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.

Take The Hit (R) When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend yourself by rolling your single Close Combat die.

Out

Watch It (A) Defend an ally by rolling your single Vitality die.

Tactics

The Mighty Bullfrog usually opens a scene by using Get Psyched Up to establish a persistent personal bonus, and may repeat it if it's removed later.  After that he favors Take It And Dish It Out to deal damage while taking less in return (usually applying his bonus to the Min die), switching to Enough Tricks if any enemy displays a lot of defensive or reactionary abilities.  Versatile Fighter is for times when he needs to do multiple things at once, like Boosting an ally to reduce a penalty on them or Defending a vulnerable target while also Attacking or Hindering himself.  In the Yellow zone his damage spikes higher with Hit Harder and he gains a decent multi-target attack with Hopping Mad, both of which benefit a lot from bonuses.  In the Red zone Push Yourself helps his action efficiency enormously, Take The Hit gives him a very versatile reactive defense, and Never Say Die lets him regenerate a large amount of Health for a small self-hinder, which can be offset immediately by taking a free basic action to Boost himself.  His actual Health total isn't enormous, but he can be tough to put down due to his Red combos.  Even when he does drop Watch It lets him provide good protection to an ally who's still in the fight.

Outside of an action scene, he's best at dealing with the criminal and mutant activist communities and those who are opposed to both, and he's very good an intimidating people when he wants.  His inhuman appearance, scrambled memories of what being "normal" was like and general lack of introspection do lead him to roll d4s in his non-combat pools rather often, though.  The guy's great for generating twists on Overcomes, which fits both the "persecuted mutant" and "monstrous freak" tropes pretty well.  Remember how frustrated the Thing used to get with everything from finding clothes that would fit him to people's reactions just to seeing him?

Blog Content Index

Team Paragon, Investigators of the Exotic and Bizarre

This is a five-member hero group that's been used as premade PCs in a few of my one-off adventures and more frequently as NPCs that show up to aid existing PC heroes.  Thematically they're a mashup of ideas from Challengers of the Unknown, early Fantastic Four, Atomic Robo, a touch of Doc Savage and a more upbeat X-Files.  These are the people that go out and investigate the weird and unknown, and get called in as specialists by other heroes when they run into the unexplained.  I've included both full hero writeups and the much more commonly-used NPC lieutenant forms for each character.

Team Paragon

Team Paragon has been operating for almost ten years now and has a good reputation in both the superhuman community and with many national governments, and are the semi-official UN consulting agency on so-called "exotic" threats.  Several of its members have dubious past histories (eg Alchemetron's attempt to rewrite all of spacetime while possessed by an extradimensional parasite) but Doc Paragon's own spotless record has let him vouch for them and help rehabilitate their images.

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Name: Doc Paragon

Origin: Augustus Paragon was adopted as a foundling infant by millionaire philanthropists Tiberius and Magnolia Paragon and his natural parents remain a mystery.  The baby grew into a precocious child, then a remarkable young man who graduated college at 15 years of age, medical school a year later, and went on to advanced study of superhuman physiology.  This lead to an abiding interest in the broader superhuman community and the weirdness that it deals with on an everyday basis, as well as the gradual realization that he had certain mental and physiological advantages that elevated him beyond everyday people.

Following the death of his adoptive parents in a mass casualty event caused by a extradimensional catastrophe Augustus (now going as "Doc" as a nod to his medical degree) inherited Paragon Industries.  He used some of its resources to form his own private organization dedicated to investigating potential "fringe physics" threats like the one that had claimed his parents lives.  This eventually led to the creation of Team Paragon, a collection of uniquely talented specialists led by Doc himself.  The team has branched out into the study of all manner of bizarre manifestations that might endanger civilians - or the world itself.

Description: Tall and deeply tanned, Augustus Paragon has a magnificent physique that initially draws the eye, backed up by a magnetic personality and keen mind.  He foregoes heroic costumes in favor of pragmatic clothing suitable to his current situation, from evening formalwear to rugged explorer's outfits to fully-enclosed NBC gear as needed.  He rarely carries weapons, but sometimes employs exotic specialized tools in his investigations of the bizarre and unknown.  

Gender: Male                 Age: 35                 Height: 6'3"                Eyes: Deep Blue

Hair: Platinum Blonde Buzz Cut           Skin: Bronzed             Build: Heavily Muscled

PC Version

Background: Medical    Power Source: Supernatural    Archetype: Close Quarters Combatant

Personality: Stalwart

Health (G/Y/R):  32/24/11

Powers: Deduction d10, Presence d10, Strength d8, Vitality d8, Agility d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Investigation d10, Leadership d10, Scholar of the Bizarre d8, Science d8, Medicine d6

Status: Green (32-25) - d8 / Yellow (24-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d10

Abilities:

Green

Paragon Strike (A) Attack using Close Combat.  Ignore any penalties, Defend actions, or reactions during this Attack.

Principle of the Detective (A) Overcome to learn hidden information.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What important clue did you miss?  Major twist: What major secret was just revealed that you would have liked to stay concealed?  RP:  You can always tell when important information is being overlooked, even though you may not know what it is.

Right Man, Right Place, Right Time (I) When you successfully Overcome you may end up anywhere in the current environment.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What physical drawbacks do you suffer from pushing so hard?  Major twist: What critical detail did you skip past earlier that's now coming back to haunt you?

Size Up the Opposition (A) Defend using Deduction.  Attack using your Min die.

Versatility (A) Take any two basic actions using Leadership.  Use Min die for each.

Yellow

Confuse the Weak-Minded (A) Attack a minion using Presence.  Whatever that minion rolls as defense Attacks another target of your choice.

Metabolic Control (A) Boost yourself using Vitality.  Use your Max die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.

Rallying the Team (A) Boost an ally using Presence.  You and nearby heroes in the Yellow or Red zones Recover using your Min die.

Red

Supreme Versatility (I) When you use an ability action, perform a basic action using your Mid die as well. 

See All the Angles (A) Boost using Deduction.  Use your Max die.  Defend against all attacks against you using your Mid die until the start of your next turn.  Note your Min die.  Until the start of your next turn, as a Reaction you may Hinder an attacker using that value.

Out (A) Defend an ally using Presence.

Tactics

Doc Paragon is primarily a close combat guy with broad menu of attack options even in the Green zone.  He's also got quite a bit of action efficiency that lets him do what he needs when he needs to, using abilities like Versatility and (down in the Red zone) Supreme Versatility and See All the Angles.  He'll usually use Metabolic Control to get a persistent bonus running early in the Yellow zone, and then clean up surviving minions with Confuse the Weak-Minded or provide some Boost and Recovery support for his allies using Rallying the Team.  

He is notably lacking in Reactions and lacks movement powers, although the latter is partly offset with Right Man, Right Place, Right Time (which is a reskinned Principle of Speed).  Doc generally has solid but not amazing dice pools and can expect to roll a lot of d10, d10, d8 pools.  His health is also pretty solid and his abilities let him take Defend actions pretty easily.

NPC Version 

Doc Paragon d10 lieutenant

Resourceful:  You gain a +2 bonus to Overcome actions. 

Versatility:  When you take your turn, you may take two different basic actions using your single die roll for both.

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Name: Alchemetron the Astounding

Origin:  Alchemetron was built in 1935 by Ernst Neumann, a secretive practitioner of Hamburg school of magische wissenschaft ("magical science") and former classmate of Albert Einstein.  Neumann was killed later that year while attempting to flee Germany and the Nazi Occult Research Group, which had already hunted down the other members of his small order of technomagi.  His dying act was to instruct Alchemetron to seek out Einstein in the US and offer him its services in the hope that it would someday free his homeland from Hitler's reign.

Alchemetron reached the US after various trials and tribulations, only to run a foul of the FBI and spend several years being examined and interrogated by their agents.  It was eventually allowed to meet (under heavy security oversight) with Einstein, who was nonplussed by its offer to serve him as instructed.  After several lengthy conversations the physicist asked only one thing of the fantastic construct - that it no longer be a slave to another's will and do what it thought was right instead.  In a strict sense Einstein was Alchemetron's arcane master at that point, and his "command" was in fact its manumission.  For the first time in its existence Alchemetron was a free agent.

In the long decades since then Alchemetron has done many things.  It aided the Allies throughout World War 2 by countering much of the ORG's own stolen science magic.  It spent much of the 1950s helping with government investigations into UFO sightings and other unexplained phenomena.  During the 1960s it was a security consultant to NASA following attempts at supernatural sabotage of the space program, followed by membership in several somewhat obscure superteams during the 1970s and 1980s.  In the 90s Alchemetron was possessed by an evil extradimensional parasite for years, very nearly destroyed the spacetime continuum, and was forcibly shut down and placed in containment after it was defeated and the parasite purged.  Over a decade passed before a series of unlikely accidents saw Alchemetron reactivated and later freed under the supervision of Doc Paragon, the famed superhero scientist and adventurer.

Description: Alchemetron is very obviously an artificial, mechanical life form.  While its design has varied quite a bit over his long career the current "look" is that of a humanoid robot with an impassive, immobile mask of a face and prominent ball-shaped joints on its limbs and hands.  The overall aesthetic is vaguely out of date like something from a 1960s science fiction movie, which is reinforced by a gleaming chrome finish.  Alchemetron doesn't wear a costume (or clothing, for that matter) but is generally festooned with a plethora of amulets, pendants, and medallions that serve as technomagical tools.  On rare occasions it's been known to carry a staff or wand designed to augment its powers for some specific task.

Gender: None                 Age: 87                 Height: 6'1"                Eyes: Glowing Electric Blue

Hair: None                      Skin: Chrome       Build: Inhumanly Slender   

Background: Created    Power Source: Mystical    Archetype: Sorcerer    Personality: Distant

Health (G/Y/R):  22/17/8

Powers: Electricity d10, Metal d10, Transmutation d10, Teleportation d6

Qualities: Technology d12, Magical Lore d10, Master of Science Magic! d8, Otherworldly Lore d8, Science d8, Finesse d6

Status: Green (22-18) - d10, Yellow (17-9) - d8, Red (8-1) - d6

Abilities:

Green

Bonds of Iron (A) Hinder using Metal.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack using your Mid die.

Forked Lightning (A) Attack multiple targets using Electricity.  Use your Min die against each.

Principle of Magic (A) Overcome against a mystical force.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What weird curse is now following you around?  Major twist: What mystical backlash has changed your life?  RP:  You can sense magical energies in the area.

Principle of Science (A) Overcome while applying specific scientific principles.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What surprising effects did leveraging science have in this situation?  Major twist: What just blew up?  RP:  You are up to date with modern scientific theories and can easily quite from them.

Yellow

Alchemical Effusion (A) Boost or Hinder using Transmutation and apply that mod to multiple nearby targets.

Corrective Electroshocks (A) Overcome an environmental challenge using Electricity.  Use your Max die.  Either remove any penalty in the scene or Boost equal to your Mid die.

Explosive Transmutation (A) Destroy one d6 or d8 minion.  Roll that minion's die as an attack against another target.

Red

Grounded Recharge (I) If you would take damage from Electricity, ignore that damage and Recover that amount instead.  Use the value of that damage to Boost yourself. 

Overload & Reset Functions (A) Attack up to three targets with Electricity, one of which must be you.  Assign Min, Mid, and Max dice to these targets as you choose.

Instantaneous Alchemy (R) When you are Attacked and take damage, you may ignore that damage completely.  If you do, treat the value of that damage as a Hinder against you.

Out (A) Boost an ally with your Red status die (d6).

Tactics

Alchemetron's abilities make it quite good at crowd control, rapidly thinning down minions even in Green status and efficiently handing out penalties on harder targets.  It's also got a lot of Overcome options (particularly against environmental effects) and a nice multiple target Boost/Hinder once in Yellow status.  What's lacking are hard-hitting attack options, as well as defensive tricks and reactions outside of the Red zone.  It also has terrible health and a lousy Out ability if things go really badly.  

On the other hand, when Alchemetron does hit Red status it has an obnoxious combination of abilities that will make it pretty hard to finish off.  Instantaneous Alchemy will block one big hit each round with no roll required (but watch out for attacks that don't allow reactions) at the cost of taking a penalty.  Overload & Reset Functions generates offense while zapping yourself to heal and Boost yourself with Grounded Recharge.  Expect to bounce between Red and Yellow repeatedly with those tricks, unless you're hit so hard you go straight out from the Yellow zone before getting a turn in Red.

NPC Version 

Alchemetron d10 lieutenant

Alchemical Effects: When you Attack, Boost or Hinder you may affect two nearby targets with your single die roll.

Master of Science Magic!: You gain a +2 bonus to Overcome actions that involve scientific or magical principles.

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Name: "Natty" Jack Doyle, aka the Chronologist

Origin: Jack Doyle was born strange, but it wasn't until his teens that he'd had enough practice with his odd abilities to understand and exploit them.  Simply put, Jack is slightly disconnected from the normal timeline, and continually perceives past, present and future.  As a young child this mostly caused confusion, resulting in terrible grades and "counselling" from teachers and social workers that did more harm than good.  As he grew older he got a better handle on his powers, but by then he'd developed a deep-seated dislike of authorities and contacts with criminal subculture.  His powers made passing the GED tests easy and he soon departed school and slipped into a life of crime, using his advantages for burglary, confidence schemes. and eventually some quite serious blackmail.  It's easy to find the skeletons in the closet when you can see the past as clearly as today and so many people have things to hide.

This continued for years, until eventually Jack tried to extort money from the wrong man and ran afoul of a superhero who had temporal manipulation powers of their own.  Unaccustomed to violence, he was easily taken into custody and convicted, although his sentence was light and he was out on parole within the year.  By this point his criminal contacts were aware that he had powers, although they were unclear as to how they actually worked.  After being unexpectedly approached by a number of wanna-be minions who offered their services to the "new supervillain in town" an embittered Jack foolishly agreed to don a costume as "the Chronologist" and lead his "gang" in a series of high profile burglaries.  His "black cape" career was a brief one, and on their fourth job he and all his henchmen were defeated by a pair of violent vigilante heroes, one of whom attempted to kill several of his minions.  The Chronologist might have made his escape but he chose to save his endangered "friends" instead, only to find himself beaten and threatened with summary execution himself.

It was at this point that Doc Paragon intervened.  He'd been following the crime wave himself and witnessed the night's events, and quickly talked the two killer "heroes" down before all three of them  turned Jack and his crew over to the police.  Jack was thrown back in jail for parole violations and his powers were thoroughly examined while he awaited trial for his actions as the Chronologist.  To his surprise, a Paragon Industries lawyer approached him with an offer before his trial began.  If the DA could be convinced to cooperate (and Paragon Industries is very good at eliciting cooperation) would he redeem himself by joining Team Paragon and using his temporal abilities to help Doc study and contain exotic menaces the world isn't ready to confront?  Jack agreed before the lawyer could even finish asking.

Description: A handsome fireplug of a man, generally dressed in well-tailored gray suit unless working in the field, where he adopts more practical and rugged clothing.  Habitually wears a watch on each wrist and carries at least one pocket watch, and can often be seen checking the time on his phone.  In his Chronologist days he adopted a dark gray bodysuit that covered his head as well, with black boots and gloves and a stark white mask with a clockface motif with the numerals scrambled and altered and the hands set at 13 o'clock.  But he doesn't wear that any more.  Honest.  

Gender: Male                 Age: 29                 Height: 5'8"                Eyes: Green

Hair: Red, Curly, Fantastic Mustache     Skin: Pale, Heavily Freckled     Build: Short, Stocky

Background: Criminal   Power Source: Training   Archetype: Reality Shaper   Personality: Jaded

Health (G/Y/R):  28/21/10

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

Qualities: Criminal Underworld Info d10, Alertness d8, Finesse d8, History d8, Smooth (Ex-)Criminal d8

Status: Green (28-22) - d10 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d8

Abilities:

Green

Foreseeing My Success (A) Boost using Precognition.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles you may also Attack using your Mid die.

Principle of History (A) Overcome a situation involving archeology, history, or puzzle-solving.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How did your obsession with the past cause an issue?  Major twist: What ancient force is now making itself known in the present?  RP: You have many contacts in the archeological, anthropological, and historical fields.

Principle of the Tactician (A) Overcome when you can flashback and show how you prepared for this exact situation.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What one variable did your plan not allow for?  Major twist: What major threat is revealed that invalidates all your plans?  RP: You are constantly assessing your situation, making and revising plans and backup plans.

Repeating Your Failures (A) Hinder using Postcognition.  That penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Yellow

Bound Timelines (R) When you are Attacked by a nearby enemy, the Attacker takes an equal amount of damage.

Instinctive Strike (A) Boost yourself using Intuition.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Then, Attack using your Min die.  You may use the bonus you just created on that Attack. 

Time Stutter (R) When a nearby enemy would create a bonus or penalty, you may remove it immediately.

Red

Read Your Files In the Future (A) Overcome using Criminal Underground Info.  Use your Max + Min die.

Time After Time After Time (I) You have no limit on the number of Reactions you can take.  Each time you use a Reaction after the first one each turn, take 1 irreducible damage or a minor twist.

Out (A) .Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

Tactics

Jack generally opens a scene by Boosting himself with Foreseeing My Success then using the bonus to apply a lingering penalty to a key target with Repeating Your Failures.  Once in the Yellow zone he relies on Instinctive Strike for offense and usually reserves his Reaction for Bound Timelines, switching back to Repeat Your Failures as needed to keep enemies under severe penalties.  Thanks to Time Stutter the villains and even the environment can pretty much forget about keeping unwanted mods in play as well.

NPC Version 

Jack Doyle, not the Chronologist d10 lieutenant

Still In the Loop:  You gain a +2 bonus to Overcome actions that involve criminal activities or contacts.

Repeating Your Failures: When you Hinder a target, that penalty is persistent and exclusive.

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Name: The Tourist From Yuggoth, aka Sound-of-Stars-Burning-In-the-Deeps

Origin: Sound-of-Stars-Burning-In-the-Deeps landed in New York City's Central Park eight years ago, triggering a minor panic followed by a flash mob when it became clear that the new visitor to Earth wasn't hostile, even if it was horrific looking.  Things got out of hand quickly as parts of crowd argued over whether the alien should be welcomed, quarantined, arrested, or left to its own devices, and eventually several superheroes and a few opportunistic supervillains arrived on the scene.  The resulting riot swirled around the alien at the center of it all, and during its height a daring (or possibly just foolish) pair of tabloid reporters manage to get themselves an exclusive (albeit largely telepathic) interview.  Their subsequent story was set new readership records for the Daily Inquisitor.  It also established a new nickname for the bemused alien visitor - the Tourist From Yuggoth, later shortened to just "Tourist" after objections from the Lovecraft estate.

Doc Paragon entered the picture when both the UN and US government called him in as a consultant.  After meeting with the Tourist (who was still "sightseeing" in NYC, accompanied by a rotating team of government sanctioned supers) Doc saw a kindred spirit, as the alien had come to Earth simply in to see what there was to see.  It took very little effort to convince the extraterrestrial to continue its tour in the company of Team Paragon, and even less to convince the government to allow Doc to play babysitter for this troublesome entity.

To this day little is really known of the Tourist's origins or full capabilities.  It readily admits to being an engineered life form by human standards, although it insists its creators don't reproduce "at random, slopping together strands of DNA like you humans do" and they may be "artificial" themselves.  Disturbing as its appearance is, the Tourist was made to fit in on Earth and make the natives as comfortable with it as possible, which says a lot about just how different its makers must be.  It appears to be quite content with its semi-official role on Team Paragon, with no goals beyond seeing more of the world and interacting with its fascinating natives.  After some time it decided that supers are better companions than non-powered humans, in large part because they're less fragile and don't startle as easily.

Description: (Basic Form) A distorted caricature of the human form composed of a glossy black substance that pulses and ripples erratically.  The head is a featureless spheroid, and the number of fingers on its hands change as they separate and recombine, seemingly at random.  The thing hangs in mid-air, casually defying gravity. (Contraction/Expansion Form) The base form remains unchanged, but it either shrivels into a tiny homunculus or swells into an elongated gargantua.  (Dispersed Form) The creature dissolves into an irregular cloud of black globules and wriggling worm-like strands orbiting an irregular mass that throbs and bubbles in a disturbing fashion.  (Hyperlight Form) The base form twists and elongates into a wickedly streamlined form, the head narrowing to a knife-edged wedge and the limbs warping into angular fin-like shapes.  Its movements are jerky and hard to follow, seeming to jump from point to point without covering the intervening space.    

Gender: Qun-Qun-Dra               Age: Unknowable                 Height: Variable            Eyes: None?

Hair: None        Skin: Glossy Black        Build: Variable        Q-Helix Node: Type 7/7    

Background: Created   Power Source: Alien   Archetype: Form-changer   Personality: Impulsive

Health (G/Y/R):  32/24/11

Powers (Base Form): Vitality d12, Telepathy d10, Density Control d8, Elasticity d8, Flight d8

Qualities: Fitness d12, Acrobatics d8, Citizen of the Cosmos d8, Finesse d6 

Status: Green (32-25) - d6 / Yellow (24-12) - d6 / Red (11-1) - d8

Abilities:

Green (All Forms)

Basic Morph (A) Take a basic action using Elasticity, then switch to any available form.

High Energy Morph (A) Attack using Elasticity.  Use your Max die.  Then change to any available form.

Principle of the Indestructible (A) Overcome when you charge headlong into danger.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What goes wrong with your defenses?  Major twist: Who got hurt other than you as a result of you not being able to take damage?  RP: You ignore damage from unpowered attacks such as clubs, fists, arrows, etc.

Principle of Space (A) Overcome while in space or similar conditions to space.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Who can hear you scream?  Major twist: What caused you to drift off into the unknown?  RP: You are unaffected by the rigors of space.

Yellow (All Forms)

Augmentation Pulse (A) Boost all your nearby allies using Telepathy.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself with your Min die.

Boundless Versatility (A) Attack, Boost, Defend, or Hinder using Vitality.  You and all nearby heroes in the Yellow or Red zone Recover using your Min die. 

Red (All Forms)

Reactive Morph (R) When attacked change to any available form before resolving the Attack.

Solution For Everything (A) Overcome using Vitality in a situation that requires superhuman physical capability.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Boost all nearby heroes using your Mid die.

Sudden Interposition (R) When an opponent attacks you may become the target of that Attack and Defend by rolling your Fitness die.

Ultimate Multi-morph (I) At the start of your turn swap two of your power dice.  They stay swapped until changed again or the scene ends.  Note: If not in Hyperlight Form your powers must have d12, d10, d8, d8, d8 assigned between them.

Out (A) The hero who goes directly after you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll their dice pool.

Alternate Form Powers

Green

Contraction/Expansion Form (A) Defend using Size Changing.  Use your Max die.  Remove all penalties on you.  Powers: Size change d12, Telepathy d10, Elasticity d8, Flight d8, Vitality d8

Dispersed Form (R) When an opponent would Attack you in close combat while you are in this form, you may Attack or Hinder them first by rolling your single Part Detachment die.  Powers: Part Detachment d12, Telepathy d10, Elasticity d8, Flight d8, Vitality d8

Yellow

Hyperlight Form (A) Attack using Teleportation.  Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn using your Min die.  Powers: Flight d12, Teleportation d12, Telepathy d10, Elasticity d8, Vitality d8

Tactics

The Tourist is a form-changer, which makes it one of the more complex archetypes to play.  Its basic form is durable and uses its Yellow and Red zone abilities efficiently, as well as being able to vary its density when it might help with Overcomes or narrative effects.  The Contraction/Expansion form has a strong Green defensive power and can shed annoying persistent penalties with ease, as well as having cosmic-level size-changing powers for when it needs to be very large or very small.  In Dispersed Form it gains a powerful Reaction against attacks, making it very good at Hinders and pumping out damage both in and out of its turn, as well as being just generally creepy to look at.  Hyperlight Form is only available once in the Yellow zone, and has a power that combines a strong attack and full-turn defenses, as well as being the most mobile form by far, flying at absurd speeds and able to teleport by slipping in and out of hyperspace.  Narratively, this form is how it got to Earth in the first place - no spaceships for the Tourist.

In the Red Zone it can innately swap power dice around to optimize itself for whatever it's doing each turn regardless of form, as well as gaining a defensive Reaction that lets it intercept and Defend any one Attack.  It also has a very potent Overcome and ally Boost ability, which partly compensates for how rarely you'll get to actually use Principle of Space outside of its narrative effect.  The Tourist technically lacks ranged attacks, but between Elasticity, Part Detachment, Size Changing, and both Flight and Teleport it's pretty easy to get in range to sock any target you want.

NPC Version 

The Tourist d10 lieutenant

Alien Physiology:  You gain a +2 bonus to saves against damage.

Supreme Mobility: You may move anywhere in the scene on your turn either before or after you take your action.

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Name: Alien Abductee Jane Doe, aka AA Jane

Origin: The woman who goes by AA Jane adopted her name from files Doc Paragon found next to her bio-stasis pod in a long-deserted private lab in [REDACTED], New Mexico.  She'd been in the pod for at least fifteen years, possibly much longer, and was identified only as "alien abductee Jane Doe" with a note that she'd been "re-acquired" at a latitude and longitude near Las Vegas.  "Jane" is definitely human, speaks slightly dated English and Spanish with a pronounced Southwest American accent, and remembers having a calico kitten when she was very young.  Beyond that her personal memory is a blank, and she's not too hot on world events either.  

Instead she knows a lot about extraterrestrial technology, and has what appears to be a good grasp on "local" interstellar civilizations, politics, and the general biology of many xeno-species.  Her depth of knowledge is remarkable even in the supers community and exceeds that of many actual extraterrestrials, in a way that parallels the difference between an ace mechanic and the average automobile driver.  How she ended up this way remains unclear, but she willingly joined up with Doc's team and has been immensely useful as its resident expert on our spatial neighbors and the kinds of technology they seem to carelessly leave behind on Earth so often. 

"Jane" either doesn't miss her original memories and identity as much as one might expect, or she's sublimating her desires in an obsession with both alien technology and extraterrestrial visitors.  Her behavior is frequently impulsive and has put her (and the team) at risk in the past, but the others keep an eye on her more closely these days and it's been almost a year since the last time she decided to try disassembling an alien warbot during a fight.  She is receiving therapy to attempt to recover lost memories with little success beyond recalling some musicians she used to like (none more recent than the Eighties).  Privately, Doc has begun to suspect that she may actually be an alien artificial intelligence running on human wetware and merely emulating her humanity, but the jury is still out on that.

Description: Strong-featured adult woman of African-American descent, usually dressed in a baggy silver full-body suit covered in pouches and pockets.  The suit is made of durable alien smart fabric and has snug-fitting retractable gloves and toe socks as well as a hood that can be extended into a sealed bubble helmet that acts as a one-way mirror and provides short term life support.  She'll almost always be fiddling with some weird gadget or another, none of which are wholly terrestrial in origin.

Gender: Female           Age: 45 (looks about 30)             Height: 5'7"                Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black, Cropped Short        Skin: Brown       Build: Slight   

Background: Retired    Power Source: Genius    Archetype: Gadgeteer    Personality: Naive

Health (G/Y/R):  30/22/11

Powers: Inventions d12, Lightning Calculator d10, Deduction d6, Robotics d6

Qualities: Deep Space Knowledge d10, Technology d10, Alien-Obsessed Tinkerer d8, Creativity d6, Science d6 

Status: Green (30-23) - d6 / Yellow (22-12) - d6 / Red (11-1) - d12

Abilities:

Green

Deploy Adaptable Suppressors (A) Hinder using Inventions.  Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make the penalty persistent and exclusive.

Principle of Amnesia (A) Overcome in a situation where a completely fresh perspective is helpful.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: You have a flash of your former life - what did you recall?  Major twist: A shocking detail of your past changes the current situation - how does it affect the scene?

Principle of Discovery (A) Overcome when you would gain further knowledge that puts you at the forefront of discovery or invention.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What does you new discovery cause you to reconsider?  Major twist: What new discovery needs to be kept secret at all costs and why?

Swift Calculations (A) Boost using Lightning Calculator.  Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make the bonus persistent and exclusive.

Yellow

Calculated Effort (A) Attack using Lightning Calculator.  Then, if the target of the Attack survived, also Attack that target using your Max die.  Otherwise, Recover using your Min die.

Overcharged Gear (A) Boost yourself using Inventions.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Then attack using your Mid die plus that bonus.

Tool For Every Job (R) When you are attacked, first roll your single Inventions die.  Defend yourself using that roll.  Then, Boost yourself using that roll.

Red

Flagrant Misuse of Equipment (A) Attack multiple targets using Inventions.  Use your Max + Min dice.  If you roll doubles take a minor twist or damage equal to your Mid die.

Please Consult the Technical Manual (I) When taking any action using Technology you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Works Best Under Pressure (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die from that roll.

Out (A) Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Inventions die.

Tactics

AA Jane tends to spend a lot of time handing out persistent mods unless her team is really hard-pressed, establishing bonuses on herself and her allies with Swift Calculations and penalties on key foes with Deploy Adaptable Suppressors.  In Yellow she can go on the offensive with Calculated Effort or Overcharged Gear if she has to, but continuing to play with mods is more her style.  Tool For Every Job gives her a very strong personal defense that she'll use at every opportunity.  If pushed to the Red Please Consult the Technical Manual makes all her Technology-pool rolls (which can be an awful lot of them) much stronger and Works Best Under Pressure improves her versatility even further.  Flagrant Misuse of Equipment can sweep the scene clear of weaker opponents and badly hurt stronger ones, albeit at some risk to herself...or those nearby...or the environment itself.

Outside of a battle, her combination of principles and personality give her a lot of justifications for Max die Overcomes but also make her somewhat oblivious to both risks and social cues.  She's very good at finding impromptu technological solutions for many problems and always seems to have some gadget she can configure to suit her needs.

Trivia

Weirdly, she and the Tourist don't actually get along that well.  His creators aren't a familiar species to her and their extensive use of extreme genetic engineering doesn't leave her anything to tinker with, and the Tourist finds her obsession with external tools even more baffling than most human behavior.  It's a bit like an awkward meeting at a high school reunion meeting between two people who hung around in entirely different cliques back in the day and have nothing to talk about now.

AA Jane d10 lieutenant

Alien Abductee:  You gain a +2 bonus to Overcome actions that involve alien technology or species.

Tools For Everything: When you take a Boost action, you may also Hinder another target using the same die roll.

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Bigwig, Street Gang Leader With Style

This villain is a tech-oriented street gang leader as written, but her basic approach and archetype could easily be reskinned into other things with minimal changes.  Alter a few powers and qualities and her associated minions and you could have the head of some secret organization's base security force, an alien officer leading invading shock troops, a violent firebrand inciting a riot, or other variations on the "leader and expendable followers" theme.

If using Bigwig as herself, she and her gang could easily be rivals for turf with the Triple Threat Gang I posted a while ago, leading to your heroes getting caught between both groups.

Bigwig

Bigwig (real name unknown) is the current leader of a street gang that goes by the same name.  They're an up-and-coming power in [your campaign city] and are attracting increasing amounts of attention from rivals, law enforcement, and both sides of the supers community.  They may wind up being broken up by heroes and the law, wiped out by other gangs, acting as lackeys of some supervillain or cabal, or even becoming the city's foremost criminal group.  

No matter what happens, they'll be crossing paths with your heroes at least once as they pursue Bigwig's ambitions.  She mostly wants money, respect, and power, and doesn't hesitate to employ extreme violence to reach those goals.  While she's tough as nails and can hold her own in a fight with normal humans, her knack for kitbashing dangerous toys and tools out of readily available components is what makes her stand out from the rest of the gang.  She'll always have some unpleasant surprise on hand, and will happily overreach her self-taught skills if she sees a chance to get her hands on advanced super-tech.    

Description: Tough-looking young woman in jeans, combat boots, and an oversized denim pocket vest loaded with dangerous gadgetry.  There are more tools and weapons concealed in her absurdly oversized wig, and her earrings are disguised flash grenades.  She's got a beautiful voice and knows how to use it to issue orders to her crew. 

Gender: Female                 Age: 24               Height: 5'10"                Eyes: Brown

Hair: None (Enormous Hot Pink Afro Wig)       Skin: Cafe au lait      Build: Wiry

Approach:  Bully                      Archetype:  Legion

Health:  20 + (5 x H)

Powers: Gadgets d10, Presence d8, Vitality d8                                      

Qualities: Fitness d8, Gang Boss d8, Technology d8                                         

Status: (# of Legion Minions) 0 - d12 / 1-2 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 5-8 - d6 / 9+ - d4

Abilities:

Disorganized Mob (I) Whenever multiple Gang Tough legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all their dice at once and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion's result on that action.

Gimmick Attack (A) Attack using Gadgets.  Use your Max die.  Hinder the target using your Max + Min dice (if the target's status die is less than d8) or your Max die (if the target's status die is d8) or your Mid die (if the target's status die is greater than d8).  

Talent For Brutality (I) Whenever you or your nearby allies Hinder, increase the penalty created by one.

Yell For Help (A) Roll your single status die.  Deal yourself that much irreducible damage.  Create that many d6 Gang Tough legion minions.

You'll Pay For That (R) When one of your minions is defeated, roll its die and Recover that much Health.

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 Enforced Order (I) If you have complete control over your surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Tactics

Bigwig is a walking arsenal of homemade weaponry and crime tools, mostly concealed or disguised as something innocuous like cell phones, flash drives, combs, makeup applicators and jewelry.  She relies on them for her Gimmick Attack ability, which is augmented by her Talent For Brutality.  She's usually accompanied by at least some of her Gang Tough minions and will Yell For Help if their numbers start to run low.  She'll use You'll Pay For That as often as possible to try to get revenge for defeated minions.  Disorganized Mob does limit her gangers a bit, but they'll try to spread Attack and  Hinder actions around multiple targets to minimize its impact, as well as having one tough Defend Bigwig each round.

Her upgrade gives her a little more offense with her gadgetry, and her mastery makes her better at keeping her gang focused.

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Gang Tough d6 minion (only those created with Yell For Help count toward Bigwig's status die)

Description: Vicious street thugs with a miscellany of illegal handguns and mostly-concealable melee weapons.  They're truly awful shots and mostly good for carrying loot, distracting heroes, and fighting other gangs.  Stylistically, Bigwig's gang favors shaved scalps, adopting brightly colored afro wigs for special occasions like initiations and brawls with other gangs.

Dangerous In Numbers: You gain a +1 bonus to Attack and Hinder actions while there are at least four other Gang Toughs nearby.  This bonus increases to +2 while there are nine or more Gang Toughs nearby.

Disorganized Mob: Whenever multiple Gang Tough minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all their dice at once and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion's result on that action.

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The Macronaut, Explorer From Overspace

The Macronaut fills the "mysterious visitor from beyond" role, mixing elements of Kirby's Celestials with Superman's Braniac and a fair bit of the "giant monster" comics that predated the renewed superhero boom.  It's also an inversion of the microverse concept, as the campaign setting lies within a sub-atomic space from its point of view.

The Macronaut

The entity humanity has named the Macronaut is native to a dimension known as Overspace, a plenum that acts as a cosmic balance to the subatomic-scale microverses some size-changing heroes have encountered.  Overspace is even harder to access than the micro-realms, and scientists suspect that the Macronaut may, in fact, be a very powerful "shrinker" in its home universe, exerting its full power to diminish itself to a mere few hundred feet in height while in our dimension.  Most of what little is known of the being comes from secondhand sources and a few abductees who managed to escape Overspace and return home.

The Macronaut has never communicated meaningfully and its exact motives remain unclear, but its behavior suggests that it descends to our universe to collect specimens for study back home.  These may be individuals that attract its attention, but are more often large pieces of technology, natural landmarks, entire buildings or even urban areas the size of a city.  Some space travelers relate stories of the entity carrying off entire moons or planets.  The amount of time and effort involved in the collection process varies based on the size of the specimen, but individual humans apparently take a trivial amount of exertion.  Larger targets require deploying colossal machines and significant preparation time, which has allowed heroes to interfere in the past.

While extremely powerful the Macronaut is not invincible, and has been driven off in the past.  To date it has simply vanished when defeated, apparently returning to Overspace via some automatic recall protocol.  It still isn't clear whether the giant is some form of robot or if there's an organic being within its wonder-metal shell. 

Description: A colossal humanoid figure, apparently mechanical or wearing an all-enclosing powered suit of immense scale.  The design is exotic with a decidedly Kirby-inspired style.  Strange protrusions and antennas form a crown of sorts on its enormous helmet, where six glowing sensors form a hexagon on the faceplate.  The whole figure is surrounded in an aura of seething orange and yellow energy.  Its movements are ponderous and deliberate, but strangely silent unless it's currently smashing its way through a physical obstacle in pursuit of a particular specimen.  

Gender: Unknown            Age: Unknown        Height: 300'       Sensors: Lambent Orange

Cosmic Antennas: Gold     Mecha-Epidermis: Dark Gold, Silver Accents     Build: Immense

Approach: Mastermind

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Access Power Conduits 00  Siphon Energy 0)

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Power Suit d12, Cosmic d10, Teleport d8

Qualities: Technology d10, Imposing d8, Investigation d8, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Overspace Explorer d8, Science d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Calculate and Adapt (A) Boost yourself using Technology.  Use your Max die.  Either make that bonus persistent and exclusive, or Boost yourself again using your Mid + Min dice.

Containment Spheres (A) Attack using Cosmic.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Overspace Denizen (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Overwhelming Presence (A) Hinder all opponents that can see or hear you using Imposing.  Boost yourself using your Max die.

Reactive Defenses (R) When Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one success from the Titan's Challenge.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase the die size of all your powers by one step (max d12).  Add Crushing Might (A) Attack multiple targets using Power Suit.  Use your Max die.  Hinder each target using your Min die.

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

The Macronaut is primarily interested in collecting intriguing specimens, and anything that even attempts to resist its efforts immediately becomes intriguing.  It will use Containment Spheres to capture specimens as often as possible.  If seriously opposed it resorts to Calculate and Adapt, followed with Overwhelming Presence and attempts to collect attackers with more Containment Spheres.  Reactive Defenses will keep its status die up, and Overspace Denizen makes it extremely resistant to damage.

With its upgrade (which will often be active if it's making a serious investigation into our universe rather than a probing foray) it may resort to brute physical force using its added Crushing Might ability, and its other power dice will be even larger.  Its mastery will generally be used with some external mega-gadget to collect a larger sample of our world - anything from a building to a city to an entire island country - along with suitable challenges.

If a scene ends while there are targets still caught inside a containment sphere it's a safe bet they'll be taking a ride to Overspace as the Macronaut returns to its otherworldly laboratory.  Other heroes might manage to hitch a ride by clinging to their giant foe or one of the spheres, and inventive Overcomes might let you follow the dimensional trail left behind as well.  If the Macronaut is defeated its spheres will simply dissipate, although a desperate villain might attempt escape by clinging to the being as it vanishes.

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