Continuing on from yesterday's post, this covers all the crunchy mechanical stuff that needed to be written up for the scene as planned, along with some notes on how it came out when I ran it a few months back at the end. My prep time on this was a bit over an hour, and would have been less if I'd had the environment available already - the villains had been done for months. Took me longer to type up this post than assembling everything for play did, but I needed to be a bit more coherent here for readers that aren't just sitting across the table from me like my players were.
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Protoids
Protoids are an artificial life form, or possibly a biological robot depending on your definition of what "life" means. Composed of immensely adaptive pseudoplasm, they maintain a roughly humanoid form but can deform themselves enormously, vary their size from a few feet in height to nearly ten stories tall and their density from a thick fluid to harder than concrete. Even brief contact with an organic life form lets them sample its genetic structure and over time process the information for their own self-improvement. Protoids lack true free will or intelligence but are created with pre-programmed behavior patterns depending on their planned role.
Empowered Protoid
An Empowered Protoid is massive construct programmed to seek out raw material to expand its mass and spawn more of its kind. Human bodies are an excellent source of those materials, although other chemicals are required. Largely quiescent when adequately "fed" they can cause mass destruction if forced to forage for their own supplies. In addition to the danger they personally present, they also regularly spawn much smaller protoids to assist in combat and gathering material (human or otherwise) for processing. These speed-grown lesser forms are generally unstable, lasting only a brief period before breaking down into a chemical slurry.
Description: An enormous mass of pseudoplasm the color of a livid bruise. It maintains a distorted humanoid shape that irregularly flexes, expands and contracts. Its consistency varies from near-fluid to a crusty hardness but generally maintains a rubbery, adhesive pliancy. The thing gives off an astringent chemical odor and a constant burbling sound but is incapable of speech.
Gender: N/A Age: Newborn Height: 25' To Start, Can Reach Nearly 100' Eyes: None
Hair: None Integument: Transparent Build: Vaguely Humanoid
Approach: Adaptive
Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Discover Weakness 00 Apply Counteragents 0)
Health: 45 + (5 x H)
Powers: Strength d10, Elasticity d8, Size-Changing d8, Density Control d6
Qualities: Imposing d10, Close Combat d8, Pseudoplasmic Entity d8, Ranged Combat d8
Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8
Abilities:
Engulf & Encyst (A) Attack using Density Control. 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.
Flailing Limbs (A) Attack multiple targets using Elasticity. Use your Max die. Hinder each target using your Mid die.
Metabolic Overdrive (A) Take d6 irreducible damage. Increase all your powers by one die size each until the end of the scene.
Resilient Pseudoplasm (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).
Sample & Assimilate (I) On your turn, whenever you Attack a target you haven't dealt damage to yet in this scene, Boost yourself using your Max die.
Sudden Fluctuations (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Size-Changing die. Also Boost yourself with the result of that die.
Upgrades & Masteries (usually in effect):
Mook Squad (I) Gain Splattering Pseudoplasm (A) Replenish your Unstable Protoid minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.
Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.
Tactics
An Empowered Protoid is a powerful but unimaginative foe. It relies on Resilient Pseudoplasm backed by Sudden Fluctuations in size for defense, making it very hard to damage until its status die has been reduced. In most battles it will initially employ Metabolic Overdrive once or twice before beginning to pick off individual targets with Engulf & Encyst, usually opting for the second option to trap the victim within its form. Each new target it strikes triggers Sample & Assimilate, making its next action more effective. If hard-pressed by multiple foes the creature will resort to desperate Flailing Limbs.
Its upgrade lets it spawn more of its signature minions with Splattering Pseudoplasm, which it will do whenever their numbers are depleted since they're required to use its mastery to collect more raw materials, human or otherwise.
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Unstable Protoid d8 minion
Description: Vaguely humanoid masses of pseudoplasm the color of a livid bruise with an acrid chemical smell. They swell larger and larger with each blow they endure before eventually rupturing and collapsing into a puddle of bubbling foulness.
Clinging Pseudoplasm: When taking Hinder actions you gain a +1 bonus. When taking Attack actions you suffer a -2 penalty.
Unstable Overdrive: Each time you succeed in a saving throw against damage while your die size is less than d12, your die size increases by one rather than decreasing. If you have to make a saving throw against damage while your die size is a d12 you are immediately defeated, no roll required.
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I had five players show up, so I added one of these to the scene as a fifth element. It got to imitate the Empowered Protoid's Engulf & Encyst ability once and made a Flailing Limbs strike before the PCs finished it off, freeing the hero it had engulfed. 35 Health doesn't last long and the PCs knew how dangerous these things could be from previous encounters.
Attuned Protoid
Attuned Protoids are designed to be "rented" to other villains as powerful and perfectly obedient allies, and are optimized to adapting themselves to duplicate the most potent abilities of their allies. This can make them very effective force multipliers for the right group, although they're incapable of properly emulating powers of technological or magical origin, and psychic powers work unreliably if at all. This "model" of protoid is surprisingly agile and good at using its variable form to improve its mobility. They are, however, quite fragile, and will melt into a reeking puddle of slime when defeated.
Description: A roughly humanoid mass of blue, black and purple pseudoplasm with sickly yellow highlights. Its unstable form distorts and stretches seemingly at random, altering its consistency from a thick fluid to rocklike hardness. The thing stinks of harsh chemicals and gives off a continuous quiet bubbling sound, although it lacks the ability to communicate verbally.
Gender: N/A Age: Newborn Height: About 6' Eyes: None
Hair: None Integument: Transparent Build: Vaguely Humanoid
Approach: Adaptive Archetype: Fragile
Health: 10 + (5 x H)
Powers: Elasticity d10, Density Control d8, Strength d8, Wall-Crawling d6
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Acrobatics d8, Pseudoplasmic Entity d8, Ranged Combat d8
Status: Green Zone Health - d10 / Yellow Zone Health - d8 / Red Zone Health - d6
Abilities:
Attuned (A) Use an ability action of one of your allies.
Pseudoplasmic Bludgeon (A) Attack using Close Combat. Then remove all bonuses from the target.
Sample & Assimilate (I) On your turn, whenever you Attack a target you haven't dealt damage to yet in this scene, Boost yourself using your Max die.
Spasmodic Evasion (I) Whenever your personal zone changes, you may immediately move elsewhere in the scene.
Sudden Fluctuations (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Size-Changing die. Also Boost yourself with the result of that die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Hardier Minions + 5 Health. Gain Metabolic Augmentation (A) Upgrade a number of your minions equal to the number of heroes in the scene by increasing their die size by one (max d12).
Pseudoplasmic Servant (I) If you are in a situation involving the master you're attuned to, automatically succeed at an Overcome to obey their commands regardless of your well-being.
Tactics
These Protoids exist to serve the entity they're attuned to. In combat, they prefer to employ one of their allies' more potent abilities using Attuned to imitate them. While relatively fragile Sudden Fluctuation gives them a strong defensive reaction, and Spasmodic Evasion lets them move to safety if they take serious damage - or when they recover from it using an imitated healing ability. They're good at Boosting themselves when Attacking thanks to Sample & Assimilate, which encourages them to spread their blows around multiple heroes. If forced to use their own abilities they resort to Pseudoplasmic Bludgeon to strip targets of their bonuses by leeching away power.
The rarer, more advanced protoids with upgrades have the added ability to improve the performance of their weaker allies through invasive Metabolic Augmentation, injecting pseudoplasm into the recipients. The also become very efficient servants of whatever master they're attuned to.
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Secret Laboratory environment
Can be used for any covert facility capable of research and/or light fabrication work, whether it's a mad scientist's lair, site of a top secret government program, or something as prosaic as a meth lab, re-skinning its associated minions and lieutenants to suit.
Hazardous Materials & Equipment d10, Site Security d8, Lab Staff d6
Green Zone
(Minor Twists)
Break Time: Add one Technician minion to the scene in a location occupied by one or more hero targets.
Security Systems: Start challenge. Disable Sensors: 0 If this challenge has not been completed when the scene tracker advances to the Yellow zone, end the challenge and immediately trigger a Loud Alarm twist.
(Major Twist)
Guard Patrol: Roll the environment dice. Add a number of Security Staff minions equal to the Min die to the scene in a location occupied by one or more hero targets.
Yellow Zone
(Minor Twists)
Anesthetic Gas: Roll the environment dice. Hinder all targets in one location using the Min die. The resulting penalties are persistent and exclusive.
Edgar or Edward?: Add one Moseby Twins lieutenant to the scene. This twist can only be triggered twice per scene. 00
Loud Alarm: Roll the environment dice. Hinder all hero targets and Boost all environment targets using the Min die.
Shift Change?: Roll the environment dice. If the scene tracker is in the Yellow zone, add Mid die Technician minions to the scene. If Red, add Max die Technician minions instead. If any Loud Alarm twists have been triggered so far this scene, add the same number of Security Staff minions instead.
(Major Twist)
Serious Safety Violations: Roll the environment dice. Attack two hero targets using the Mid die, then Hinder both those targets using the Min die and make those penalties persistent and exclusive.
Red Zone
(Minor Twists)
Just Keeps Getting Worse: Trigger three different minor twists from the Green or Yellow zones.
Rapid Response: Roll the environment dice. Add a number of Security Staff minions to the scene equal to the Mid die, then Boost those minions using the Max die.
(Major Twist)
Disastrous Lab Accident: Roll the environment dice. Start timed challenge. Prevent Disaster 00 Timer 0 Triggered: Each hero Attacked with the Max die, then all minions are removed from the scene.
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Moseby Twins d6 environment lieutenant
Description: The Moseby Twins are a pair of middle-aged Caucasian men dressed stereotypical lab coats over dark suits. Tall and thin and sporting thick bifocal glasses, they seem pretty harmless - until they trigger the modifications they've made through self-experimentation and begin to swell with muscle, their skin darkening to an ugly purple-blue as they bulk up more and more. The harder they're hit the more powerful and distorted they become, although eventually their metabolism will overload and collapse, leaving them shriveled and helpless. Usually they'll try to make a cunning escape before that point, but things don't always work out that way.
Genius: You gain a +2 bonus to Overcome actions.
Metabolic Modifications: Each time you fail in a saving throw against damage while your die size is less than d12, your die size increases by one rather than decreasing. If you have to make a saving throw against damage while your die size is a d12 you are immediately defeated, no roll required. Note that if you take damage equal to twice your current die size from one Attack you are defeated outright so this ability won't trigger.
Security Staffer d6 environment minion
Description: Basic paid muscle, carrying sidearms and telescoping batons. Ones working within the facility may have actual uniforms, while outdoor guards will be dressed to blend in with area and keep their weapons concealed.
Sound the Alarm: You may use your action to attempt to trigger the Loud Alarm environment twist. Roll your die, subtract the number of hero targets in your location, and if the result is higher than one you succeed.
Technician d4 environment minion
Description: Unarmed lab workers. They'll have suitable protective gear if they're working with anything hazardous. They wear uniforms of some kind if the place is run by the kind of organization that issues them even to bottom-rung agents, but otherwise it's just basic lab coats and pocket protectors.
Non-Combatant: You suffer a -2 penalty to Attack actions.
Sound the Alarm: You may use your action to attempt to trigger the Loud Alarm environment twist. Roll your die, subtract the number of hero targets in your location, and if the result is higher than one you succeed.
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Scene Locations
Some powers may allow the heroes to scout ahead with ease, letting them get an idea of what lies ahead with Overcomes before the action starts. My players didn't have anyone with obvious choices like Remote Viewing, Telepathy or Animal Control, but the guy with Sonic managed to get a general layout through "subsonic ground-penetrating sonar pulses" so that helped some and they knew roughly where the most deeply-buried sections were. Another hero with Intuition and Principle of Whispers "had a bad feeling" about the main lab space that marked it out as important. So they had some idea where they might want to go, especially after they looked over the tanks and pipes in material storage.
Disused Warehouse: Dark, echoing, cavernous space with only a few stacks of dusty crates full of junk scattered around. Tracks of delivery trucks in the grime and dust make it easy to find the badly concealed hatch that opens on a ladder leading down to the lab, as well as the much larger section of floor that serves as a 20 foot square cargo elevator platform. The hatch has a simple keypad lock and alarm, and obvious security cameras monitor the area with lackluster coverage - easily Overcome during a montage scene. Nothing much going on here, and the scene tracker won't start unless the PCs do something overt like punching a hole through the floor or activating the main cargo lift. Moving between the warehouse and material storage generally takes an action unless a suitable power is in use.
Material Storage: Directly below the warehouse, this cluttered chamber is about half the size of that space. The only obvious exit is a large pair of swinging doors leading into the hallway that runs past security to the elevator down to the outer laboratories. It contains the cargo elevator controls (currently in the raised position), the ladder leading up to the smaller hatch, a number of neatly stacked crates full of miscellaneous lab supplies, and a dozen huge cylindrical tanks with cryptic alphanumerical labels on them. These last are connected to an elaborate set of pumps, hoses and pipes which lead down through the floor. The place smells of whatever strange chemical mixtures are in the tanks.
Security: This is a small suite of rooms including a security checkpoint with its window overlooking the main hall, a camera monitoring room, a small arsenal/locker/break room, and a sign-in room with more lockers and a cramped adjoining bathroom, and a sturdy doorway that opens on a long underground tunnel that eventually leads to a secret entrance in the apartment building that houses the facility's personnel when off site. This last might be another entrance point for the heroes if their investigations managed to connect the base with the apartments, and has the same inadequate security systems found in the disused warehouse. There are H/2 Security Staffers in this location when first entered, with at least one at the security checkpoint itself and one in the monitor room, the latter of whom is usually slacking off. Using the elevator usually takes an action (it's pretty slow), although using powers to move through the shaft itself (possibly wrecking the elevator in the process and triggering an alarm) would generally just be movement for your turn.
Outer Laboratories: Located below the security/stores level of the base, the labs can only be accessed via a single large elevator, a sure sign that the place doesn't see many building inspectors. This location consists of cluster of half a dozen small labs that seem specialized for chemical and biological research, along with a large locker room/bathroom facility that includes protective gear and a hazmat shower. The computer network is no more secure than the rest of the base, and could be hacked to get access to information that would help with the first step of the Empowered Protoid's titan's challenge, and the lab supplies themselves are could be used to create a counteragent to use in step 2. The main hallway in this location runs between the elevator shaft and the large security door leading to the Main Laboratory. When first entered by the heroes there will be H/2 Technician minions scattered around the labs, all of whom will make escape their first priority after sounding the alarm if possible.
Main Laboratory: The main lab is a single very large space accessed through a security door whose keypad lock can be Overcome the same way as the hatch in the warehouse or just smashed open with brute force (the latter sounding the Loud Alarm twist if it hasn't already triggered). The room has workbenches and equipment along the walls, while the center is dominated by a huge recessed vat of chemicals that the Empowered Protoid wallows in. A complex array of pipes descend from the ceiling, feeding the vat and various machines on the workbenches and connecting to the tanks in the material storage location overhead. Any other Protoids start the scene here and generally stay in the area until disturbed. Unless they've both been encountered as environment twists at least one of the Moseby Twins will be present as well, although they'll be more reactive and move to meet intruders and link up with any active guards.
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The writeups above are quite a bit more elaborate than the notes I wrote up for the actual session, but I wanted to be a little more clear for readers here. The heroes were able to move around the locations until something happened to set off an alarm, which eventually happened when they triggered a minor twist during an Overcome to get past the security sensors on the elevator leading down to the outer labs. At that point the scene tracker kicked into gear and the action scene proper started up. They'd have had a hard time if they'd set things in motion when they first entered the base (which they debated over when considering just punching/blasting their way in), but as it was they reached the main lab as the scene hit Yellow and the big fight started, wrapping up when the main villain was KO'd around the middle of round eight.
So that went pretty well. I let them play out the round and one more beyond ignoring the tracker since they wanted to clean up the last few minions and the Moseby Twins. A little extra time in the Red zone never hurts player's sense of awesomeness, and only one PC was Out at that point - although the last Twin took another hero out just before he dropped. Two out of five PCs went Out clearing the place, and almost a dozen guards and techs captured for questioning.
We ended the session with a combination montage/social scene covering the cleanup and recovery process, calling the authorities about what they'd found, and interrogating prisoners and checking records to make sure they hadn't missed anything vital. There was no immediate time pressure so the heroes all got to heal themselves up a zone for free, and one of the two who'd gone Out opted to use their montage action to get up to Yellow while the other one decided to stay in Red and do some investigation work using their Principles. They got rewarded with a lead to some other criminal activity (a "client" that had been looking to lease some Attuned Protoids for a job) for next session and a Boost to carry to that situation, but their Health will be pretty low the next time they get in an action scene - and there was one coming thanks to twists and story stuff leading to an ambush before the group could go check out the new hook.
Normally I'd follow the rulebook and allow a full heal between sessions, but this one actually ran short due to two people needing to leave early and left the planned ambush scene unresolved, so I started next session with that and then treated it as a full session break before continuing for the night.
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