Saturday, May 13, 2023

Timetripper, A Petty Criminal Who's Come Unstuck In Time

This villain is a paradox - he's a unique villain, but meant to be used with two or more of him in play at once thanks to his peculiar power set.  He synergizes with himself just fine and can be used "solo" but he'll also work with other villains and lesser crooks as desired. 

Timetripper

Thomas Zapetski was a two-bit criminal who worked the fringes of the supervillain community as a basic henchman until he gained his own powers.  The origin of those powers varies wildly, apparently depending on which timeline the Tommy you're talking to remembers.  In some he was "volunteered" for an experimental procedure by a former employer, in others he got caught in a spacetime catastrophe, and his various selves have been exposed to more weird temporal energies than anyone who can still perceive linear time.  Regardless of what the truth is in our own timeline, he now operates as the supervillain Timetripper, using his incredible abilities largely for slightly less petty crimes and working as a paid ally for more ambitious supers with better planning skills.

Timetripper's powers all revolve around his ability to manipulate temporal energy, both his own and others'.  He can slow the flow of time for individual victims, accelerate himself both physically and mentally, instantly move from point to point by stepping in and out of linear spacetime, and most importantly replicate himself into multiple stable iterations.  Most foes seem to be moving in slow motion to Tommy, which lets him land precise blows on weak points, his preferred form of basic Attack.  He can also cause agonizing distortions in a target's timeflow by concentrating hard enough, which is his answer to more impervious foes, flyers and ranged fighters.  

There will never be a single Timetripper in a scene to start with.  At least two copies of himself appear on any job, and it's not uncommon to see two or even three times that number.  When defeated a given copy simply vanishes, and if their numbers are reduced to a single copy he'll often flee or simply surrender, confident that he'll be able to escape later when the time is right.  This unreliability has limited the number of other villains willing to work with him, but the fact that he only claims one share of the loot no matter how many of him appear for a job makes him enough of a bargain that some just accept it as a quirk.

Description: All iterations have identical features, but their clothing varies wildly.  Their usual "work outfit" is a snug one-piece silver bodysuit that covers everything from his neck down, but it's not uncommon to find individual copies wearing clothing that blends in to their current time and situation better, or more rarely randomly anachronistic garb from several decades in the past or future.  He speaks American English and tends to pepper his speech with slang from the Viet Nam War era despite his apparent age.       

Gender: Male             Age: Looks 20-something           Height: 5'10"              Eyes: Green

Hair: Blonde, Short, Shaved "TZ" Initials     Skin: Well-Tanned     Build: Trim & Well-Muscled

Approach:  Prideful                      Archetype:  Squad

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Absorption d10, Agility d10, Duplication d10, Teleportation d8

Qualities: Acrobatics d10, Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Unstuck In Time d8

Status: (# of other Villains) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Lend Time (A) One ally makes a basic action now using their Max die.  They may reroll all ones they roll as part of this action.

Momentary Opening (R) When a nearby hero rolls a one on any of their dice during their turn, Attack them by rolling your single status die.

Steal Time (A) Hinder using Absorption.  Use your Max die.  The resulting penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Yanked Out Of Time (R) When another villain is Attacked, Defend against the Attack by rolling your single status die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, can be applied to some or all copies of Timetripper):

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

Tactics

Timetripper's abilities all involve his unstable connection to linear time and working in cooperation with his other selves.  He (or they) will usually start by spreading lasting penalties around with Steal Time, draining temporal energy from his foes to slow them down.  After that they (or he) will use Lend Time to let each other take whatever basic actions seem best (usually Attacks concentrating on a vulnerable hero) with sizeable advantages.  He (or they) use Momentary Opening whenever possible, usually en masse, materializing extra duplicates to strike before they vanish back into the timestream again.  They (or he) protect each other with Yanked Out Of Time, causing the target to blink out of existence for an instant and empowering the copy using the reaction with the stolen moment of time.

When upgraded, that particular copy of Timetripper becomes more "real" to inhabitants of linear time.  His upgrade only helps when taking actions, including when using Lend Time (which means upgraded Timetrippers will be preferred targets for the ability) but not the Momentary Opening reaction.  The mastery works by using skewed perceptions of time in ways most folks simply can't imagine.

Design Notes

This guy's last name and supranym are, of course, a nod to the old SPI board game Timetripper, which was one of their best solo games and inspired more than a few RPG adventures over the years, particularly in my Villains & Vigilantes days.  If anyone at your table is likely to get the joke, having one of Tommy's iterations show up dressed like a Viet Nam era US GI, loaded for bear and lugging a backpack radio would be very appropriate.


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