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
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
Be Careful! (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 with Einstein under heavy security oversight, 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 and 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
Lingering Power (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. Working as "the Chronologist" he 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: 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
Temporal Wrinkles (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
Telepathic Assist (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
Backup Gadgets (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 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.
Slowly working my way through the backlog! This lot do a good job of channelling pulp archetypes into a modern superhero team (Doc Paragon in particular would be right at home in a 30s pulp magazine). Interesting that Jane and the Tourist don't click, but that's helpful information for anybody wanting to slot them into a game, and gives a better picture of how the team works together.
ReplyDeleteThese were a very early attempt at doing a pre-gen team for demo games, and in hindsight didn't work all that well for their intended role. They're a little too strange overall and the Tourist is needlessly complex for a new player, I really should have done more archetypical supers instead.
DeleteThat said, they've gotten a lot of use as NPCs or loaner characters for a player who's just making a guest appearance for a session or two. Their role as specialists in a given field makes them useful for teams that don't have a given area of knowledge covered, and their lieutenant NPC forms are easy for a GM to run or to parcel out to experienced players to use alongside their regular PC. You just have to remember to adjust your scene-building to allow for their presence, since (potentially) five allied lieutenants are a real boost to a hero team.