Plurality, A Psychic Who Wants Everyone To Be Just Like Him

A port of a villain from an old 1980s campaign.  Still a monster in human form after all these years. 

Plurality

Jin Marino is a psychic mutant with an unusual ability to divide and project their consciousness.  He can do this by forming a mass of psychoplasm and mentally shaping it into short-lived duplicate of himself with a shared mentality.  More insidiously, he can concentrate on another person and impress his psyche on them, overwriting their will and in extreme cases causing a psychosomatic physical transformation as well.  Unfortunately, Jin is also a violent narcissistic sociopath who takes great pleasure in forcibly crushing the minds and stealing the bodies of those around them.  The lucky ones die of shock and stress during the process.  The unlucky ones survive with shattered minds and lifelong trauma.  

Operating under the supranym Plurality, he's well-known in supercrime circles as an up-and-coming mastermind villain in the most literal sense of the word.  He can be pretty compelling when he wants to be, and his henchmen and occasional allies have learned to provide him with a steady supply of other victims to avoid him toying with them instead.  His overarching goal is to gain more and more personal power - he dreams of his consciousness overwriting the whole of humanity - but he frequently gets distracted by his vices and momentary whims.    

Description: A trim, athletic man of Korean descent, dressed in a pale gray body stocking with yellow banding around the neck, sleeves, waist and calves.  His boots and tight-fitting gloves are a darker yellow and he wears a snug headband of pale metal ornamented with a dark blue square-cut stone on his brow.  His voice is harsh and demanding, with a West Coast US accent.  He speaks English, Korean, and Italian fluently. 

Gender: Male        Age: Late Twenties        Height: 5'10"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black, Short Buzzcut          Skin: Olive               Build: Lean

Approach:  Dampening                                Archetype:  Legion

Health:  20 + (5 x H)

Powers: Presence d10, Duplication d8, Telepathy d8                                   

Qualities: Imposing d10, Conviction d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Violent Narcissistic Sociopath d8 

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

Abilities:

Compelled Hesitation (R) When Attacked by a hero with a penalty, ignore their damage and remove a penalty on that hero.

Divided Attention (I) Whenever multiple 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.

Ectoplasmic Absorption (R) When one of your minions is destroyed, roll its die and Recover that much Health.

Ectoplasmic Division (A) Add two minions with size one lower than your current status die.

Forced Transformation (A) Attack using Imposing.  Use your Max die.  Use your Min die to Hinder each opponent that can see or hear the target of your Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Brainwashing Zone (I) +10 Health.  While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' qualities of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size.  In the Yellow zone all of the heroes' qualities of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total).  In the Red zone, all heroes' quality dice are treated as d4.  Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a quality entirely until this upgrade is removed.  If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, create a new friendly minion with a die size equal to the hero's largest power die to represent the brainwashed hero.

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

Plurality has a fairly fixed approach to combat.  He'll invariably open by using Ectoplasmic Division to create a pair of strong minions, repeating the action whenever their number dips below two.  If there's a strong need for it he might repeat the action immediately, but never maintains more than four active minions at once.  Otherwise he picks a target and repeatedly uses Forced Transformation on them to attempt to disable them rapidly while debuffing everyone in sight or hearing range of the victim.  He'll try to chose wisely between his two reactions, healing as his minions are defeated with Ectoplasmic Absorption and cancelling out Attacks with Compelled Hesitation.  His minions will split their actions up, usually with one Attacking his primary target, another Defending Plurality himself, and any others applying Hinders to any hero who doesn't currently have a penalty.

His upgrade makes it much harder to deal with him and his minions, and can grant him free minions if he defeats a hero while it's still active.  His mastery reflects increased skill and determination when it comes to coordinating his divided consciousness.

Plurality is a port of a very old Villains & Vigilante's villain from a campaign back in the 1980s.  His mutant ability isn't quite a perfect fit for any single SCRPG power, but the combination of Presence, Duplication and Telepathy is pretty close.  His Telepathy is mostly projective rather than receptive, so very "loud" but "hard of hearing" in psychic terms, hard to screen out while having little ability detect minds or dig into anything  beyond surface thoughts.  Presence ties into his personality override abilities, as well as being used for most social interactions - often bundled with Imposing or Violent Narcissistic Sociopath, which says a lot about how awful he is.  His Forced Transformation ability spreads parasitic fragments of his psyche to everyone who can perceive his victim partially transforming into another Plurality and making threats in his voice before reverting back to normal.  With his brainwashing field upgrade active that transformation can become a lasting one if the victim is defeated, turning a hero into a minion.

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Onslaughter, Advocate of Anarchy

A fanatical physical powerhouse with the ability to shape metal via willpower.

Onslaughter

Simon Sorenson had always lived on the fringes of society, having been raised as a member of a radical antigovernment survivalist community in the Adirondacks.  He manifested his powers after a law enforcement raid on one of their training camps led to him being exposed to a mixture of experimental riot-control gas used by the FBI and a home-brewed chemical warfare agent that had been deployed against the officers and gotten out of control.  Most of the officers and all of the other survivalist militia perished horribly in the toxic haze, but Simon was rendered comatose and carried by the few surviving officers.  

He awoke weeks later to discover most of his family and friends were dead and the Federal government had covered up the debacle completely.  Simon was seen as an inconvenient piece of leftover evidence, something to be disposed of after a lengthy "augmented" interrogation.  His powers kicked in while awaiting execution.  Armored in what had been the bars of his cell, he left the holding facility behind him in ruins and vanished into the criminal underground.  Since then he's resurfaced several times, always working alongside antigovernment groups as a very outspoken proponent of anarchy and putting an end to "the System" that resulted in his experiences.  He's even more fanatical about his beliefs now and actively looks for opportunities to cause mass casualties to both law enforcement and the "sheeple" that blindly accept the current world order.  Most other supervillains can't stand him and he prefers to keep the spotlight on himself anyway, but mundane terrorist groups find him a very useful distraction to keep heroes occupied while they get on with their business.            

Description: A massively-muscled bald man, hairless as an egg and "wearing" a layer of flexible steel animated by his powers that covers him from the waist down.  He has a powerful voice and likes to use it at full volume while decrying the evils of "the System" and related topics.. 

Gender: Male          Age: Thirties         Height: 5'11"          Eyes: Metallic Silver

Hair: None        Skin: Caucasian, Partially Plated With Metal        Build: Musclebound

Approach:  Generalist                 Archetype:  Loner

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d10, Metal d8, Vitality d8, Leaping d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Ranged Combat d8, Loudmouthed Anarchist Supervillain d8, Acrobatics d6

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

Abilities:

Animated Plating (I) Reduce physical and energy damage dealt to you by 1 in the green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, and 3 in the Red zone.

Brutal Determination (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Defensive Siphon (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Absorption die.  Boost yourself using the same die roll.

Grandstander (I) As long as you have no nearby allies in the scene, increase all damage you deal by one and decrease all damage dealt to you by one.

Hyper-Adrenaline (I) Reroll any ones on your dice once.

Metallokinesis (A) Hinder multiple nearby targets using Metal.  Boost yourself using your Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics:

Onslaughter focuses on tackling as many heroes as possible as a distraction while his mundane allies carry out whatever sabotage or assassination mission they're pursuing.  He's tremendously durable thanks to a combination of Animated Plating and Grandstander as well as the sizeable healing he gains while Attacking with Brutal Determination.  His Hyper-Adrenaline improves his average die rolls a fair bit, which particularly helps his healing (which uses Min die in part).  He'll frequently focus on stalling with Metallokinesis to truss heroes up with animated metal while reinforcing his own plating, trying to draw his foes in to a lengthy brawl and only switching to actual Attacks once actually injured.  He's pretty smart about how he uses his bonuses and will amp his Hinders, Attacks or healing as efficiently as possible.

His upgrade greatly improves his die pools and Health, and his mastery represents his ruthless approach to dealing with problems.  He'll make some effort not to harm his allies when using it, but if it looks like they might be captured and subjected to the "Injustice System" he figures they're better off dead anyway.

Onslaughter's powers stem mostly from his metallokinetic ability.  His physiology has been significantly altered, but much of his great strength and durability stems from a subcutaneous layer of flexible metal that reinforces his musculoskeletal system and bulks him out considerably.  He can also manipulate metals at a distance, pulling it from the environment to form into bonds for his foes and added armor for himself.  He's particularly fond of wrapping enemies in flexible cables that become rigid when he releases his control of them, or plating his powerful fists with ablative layers of steel.  

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Syzygy, A Supernatural Contradiction

A mystical foe in the form of an other dimensional user of magic, one who doesn't follow quite the same rules as most home-grown wizardly types.

Syzygy

Syzygy may be a personal name, a description, or a rank in some incomprehensible hierarchy, but the entity who uses it as an identifier refuses to clarify the situation.  Obviously inhuman and definitely otherworldy, the thing seems to employ opposing principles of magic and draw on conflicting dimensional planes for its powers, baffling even other mystics and sorcerers.  Its interests seem equally divided, apparently serving many masters with wildly differing goals while seeking to seize ever greater power for itself.  Syzygy seems to have an special interest in artifacts and places imbued with mystical power.  This has led to it either clashing or cooperating with beings like the Watcher At the Breach and the Maiden In the Mirror as well as mystical heroes.  It's also been seen with noted magical thief Cinnabar Red and mysterious chimerical creatures like BG Gruff and the Three Bears, sometimes as an ally and sometimes as a foe.  In short, Syzygy is a mystic weirdness magnet who might appear almost anytime the supernatural is involved, with no fixed allegiance to anyone or anything.

An uncommonly versatile user of magic, Syzygy can conjure up both searing radiance and chilling darkness at will, open rifts to unnatural realms whose energies can rend a mortal's sanity, perceive the weave of time and manage all manner of lesser feats.  It's particularly fond of bending reality to create dangerous distractions while it goes about its business - in game terms, creating a challenge by using an Overcome action with Unpredictable.  While very potent against other supernatural opponents, Syzygy does have a pronounced weakness to the "alien arts" of science and technology, as well as struggling against truly strong-willed and single-minded opponents.  Penalties created with with Science, Technology, Self-Discipline, Conviction and Technological powers all trigger its vulnerabilities, and players might be able to leverage suitable Principles and role-playing qualities as well with GM approval.

Description: A strange, semi-abstract humanoid figure hovering in mid-air.  Its surface is mottled in black and white patterns.  The slender limbs, hands, head and torso aren't directly connected to one another, merely hanging in close proximity like a psychedelic parody of the human form.  Its face is an impassive mask quartered in white and black, and it speaks with a high, piping voice sprinkled with incomprehensible alien phrases and sounds.    

Gender: None        Age: Unknown       Height: 6'0"      Eyes: One Black, One White

Hair: None                  Skin: Irregular Black and White                  Build: Abstract

Approach:  Ninja                                

Archetype:  Formidable (Weakness: Technology, Scientific Principles, Single-Mindedness)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Infernal d10, Radiant d10, Flight d8, Precognition d8, Awareness d6

Qualities: Otherworldly Mythos d10, Magical Lore d10, Imposing d8, Persuasion d8, Supernatural Contradiction d8

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

Abilities:

Dread Revelation (A) Attack using Otherworldly Mythos.  Hinder that target using your Max + Min dice.

Eternity Foreseen (A) Boost using Precognition.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Remove all penalties on yourself.

Lashing Energies (A) Attack using Magical Lore.  Use your Max die versus one target, your Mid die versus a second target, and your Min die versus any target.

Unpredictable (A) Take any basic action.  Use your Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hardier Minions + 5 Health.  Gain Empowerment (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).

Master of the Unfathomable (I) If you are in a situation involving eldritch forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of eldritch entities beyond human concerns.

Tactics

Syzygy generally opens a conflict with Unpredictable to perform a Max die Overcome that uses some element of the environment to cause problems, eg starting a Challenge of some kind.  If possible they'll keep doing this sort of thing until someone actually harms or Hinders them.  At that point they'll shed any penalties with Eternity Foreseen, then begin alternating between Dread Revelation against whatever single target draws their ire and Lashing Energies against whichever two or three foes seem most vulnerable.

If Syzygy has their upgrade they'll use it to buff up any friendly minions available, spending the action for it early in the scene in place of or in addition to Overcomes to create Challenges.  They don't have a way to innately create minions, so either budget for a group or two of them when creating the scene or have an ally who can make them.  Their mastery reflects their improbable connections to a whole spectrum of unearthly supernatural beings.

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Villain Design Analysis: Archetypes Part 5 - Predator, Squad & Titan

Continuing this series with a look at the last three villain Archetypes.

Predator

Predator villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that decreases the more opponents they're engaged with.  Much like Guerrillas, this causes some issues because "engaged" is never clearly defined in the rules, and it's unclear whether hostile lieutenants and minions should be counted as well.  If you just count opponents in the same location Predators might maintain a d8 status, but getting to a d10 really requires isolating a single foe, something none of your abilities really allow you to do.  They have an average Health bonus, and get the usual two ability choices from this list:

Surprise Trap - Reaction that uses your status die to Hinder an Attacker and deals damage to them equal to the value of the penalty.  As villain defensive reactions this is really quite bad, in large part because you'll rarely get better than -2 penalty out thanks to your dreadful status die mechanic.  That is a very puny damage debuff and poor payback damage compared to similar reactions.  

Hazardous Terrain - Solid multi-target Hinder that also does decent damage to any target that already had a penalty from you on them.  You don't have any abilities that produce truly persistent penalties so the only way to get the damage to happen is to manage to exploit the turn sequence to use this twice over two rounds before the heroes get to go, or possibly take a twist when creating a penalty to make it last for two uses. 

Hidden Hunter - Innate ability that doubles the value of any mods of your choice involved with taking action against a target that's unaware of your presence in the scene, or has forgotten you're still there.  Very, very dependent on GM fiat or Overcome actions to conceal yourself and/or trick foes into thinking you've fled.

Hunt the Weak - Solid Attack that becomes very strong if the target has a penalty from you or is already in the Red zone.  The lack of an persistent penalty creation hampers the utility of this ability as well, and it's almost overkill if the target is already in their Red Health zone.

Stealth Approach - Solid self-Boost that creates a persistent and exclusive bonus, bundled with a moderate self-Defend that lasts until your next turn. 

Track My Prey - Solid Hinder that lasts until your next turn, so could potentially be used several times depending on timing and target reactions.  While the target has this penalty it cannot use reactions or benefit from Defend actions.  This is potentially very strong for your allies, but doesn't really benefit you.

This Archetype has issues with its abilities, some of which can be patched through taking the right Approach while others need more work.  Any ability that can apply persistent penalties helps make two of the Predator choices much better, and anything that grants you some mobility to reposition and avoid being engaged by too many foes will help improve your status die.  You could also opt to take minor twists when creating key penalties to have them last for two uses, but that's a steep price to pay.  If you took Hidden Hunter all mods are more useful in theory, although it would help to have a "take any basic action using your Max die" ability to Overcome your way into concealment or a faked retreat as well.

There are still several things I'd advise altering as house rules.  Surprise Trap should be reworded as follows:

Surprise Trap (R) When Attacked, roll your single status die.  Deal the Attacker that much damage, and Hinder the Attacker using the same roll.  The resulting penalty is persistent and exclusive.

This makes an underperforming reaction considerably stronger, as well as providing a way to create a persistent penalty to make your other choices more viable.  It still isn't providing much immediate defense, but at least it stings more now and will debuff future Attacks while the penalty remains.

I'd also suggest altering Track My Prey to add some mobility so it has better utility outside of teams:

Track My Prey (A) Hinder using [power].  Use your Max die.  The penalty lasts until your next turn, and while a hero has this penalty they cannot use reactions or benefit from Defend actions.  Then you may move to any location in the scene.

Mobility of any kind helps avoid status die disasters and makes Hidden Hunter a little easier to use.

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Squad

Squad villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that gets smaller the fewer allied villains are in the scene.  Their status isn't affected by lieutenants and minions.  They have a very low Health bonus and two ability choices: 

On My Mark - Action ability that lets an ally take an immediate basic action, using their Max die and rerolling any ones that come up.  Strongest when used on allies with better dice pools than your own.  

My Allies Are My Strength - Innate damage increase for you based on the number of nearby non-minion allies.

Press the Advantage - Solid single target Attack, and if you pass the turn to the target they must Attack you on their turn if possible.  If you can take the damage this can be very good.  Restricting enemy choices is usually potent, especially if they were needed for Overcomes or Boost support.

Protect My Allies - A rare defensive reaction that protects an allied villain using your status die, and you get to self-Boost as a reward.  Really quite good for villain teams but doesn't protect mere henchmen.

Stay In Formation! - Boost any two targets and get a weak self-Defend that applies to all Attacks until your next turn.  A solid support option that uses all three of your dice efficiently, and can be used to self-Boost if desired.

Take Point - Solid Attack that provides a good Defend to all your nearby allies until your next turn.  Hugely effective team defense move, although it leaves you wide open and you'll likely draw some fire so you can't just spam this move.  Does call for your allies to stay rather bunched up though, so beware of multi-target Attacks with enough damage to breach the Defend.

A very versatile list that can provide just about anything, but really needs allies (and particularly other villains) to function well.  Depending on your selections you can take a direct hand as a damage dealer while also protecting allies, or as a support character handing out improved basic actions and bonuses, and there's also a very solid defensive reaction to cover for allies.  When considering Approaches something with healing might be helpful (it is one thing the list can't provide), but just about anything can work based on what Archetype abilities you focus on. 

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Titan

Titans have an 8/10/12 status dice spread that decreases as the heroes Overcome the custom Titan challenge each has, with status dropping to d10 after two successes and d8 after a third.  They're tied for the highest Health bonus of any Archetype and can choose three abilities from this list:

Crush All Underfoot - Moderate multi-target Attack bundled with a weak Hinder on each target.

Down the Hatch - Solid Attack bundled with the option either apply an all-three-dice Hinder, or render the target unable to take actions at all until a successful Overcome frees them.  Uniquely restrictive, and can be spammed for an almost a guaranteed victory against a single hero unless they escape immediately or have allies to Overcome for them. 

Foolish Insect - Reaction that uses your status die to deal damage to a hero that takes a minor twist in your Titan's challenge, in addition to the twist effect.

You Are But Gnats To Me - Insanely high damage reduction that decreases to merely very good as your status die degrades.  Practically forces the heroes to Overcome your Titan's challenge in order to do damage to you.   

I Will Not Be Defeated So Easily - Reaction that triggers when Attacked with a roll that includes doubles, letting you remove a success from you Titan's challenge, which helps keep you status die up. 

The Land Quakes Underfoot - Action ability that lets you trigger an environmental twist in its current zone, no roll required from you.  Still restricted to just one use of each Major Twist per scene.  Domain villains are better at this trick, but it can still be very disruptive and unpredictable.

The list includes a decent multi-target Attack and Hinder bundle, a single target Attack that either Hinder or apply a unique and very powerful restriction on the victim, two reactions that both interact with the Archetype's unique status die mechanic, incredible damage reduction, and the rare ability to manipulate the environment in your favor.  It's very powerful, but benefits greatly from an Approach that offers either a bit more variety (eg Boosts, healing, a real defensive reaction, other ally support tricks) or that leans into whatever Titan abilities you've chosen (eg stacking even more damage reduction or stronger raw-damage Attacks).  Titans can be remarkably frustrating for some teams to deal with, and their built-in challenge practically requires spending at least three hero actions, especially if you've taken the damage reduction option.  With both offensive options including Hinder riders passing Overcomes on that challenge is much harder as well.

Even without an upgrade, I'd expect almost any Titan to be as hard to deal with as a difficult scene element.  They really are a step above the other Archetypes.   

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Continued in Upgrades.

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Villain Design Analysis: Archetypes Part 4 - Legion, Loner & Overlord

Continuing this series with a look at three more villain Archetypes.

Legion

Legion villains have a very wide 4/6/8/10/12 status die spread that decreases the more Legion minions there are in the scene.  They suffer a Health penalty rather than gaining a bonus, and get the usual two ability choices from their list:

Divide and Conquer - Reaction that lets you cancel all damage from a physical hit and create a minion.  Can be used any number of times per round, taking one damage each time after the first.  This is very strong, but doesn't help against non-physical damage at all.  No die roll involved, so immune to penalties.  

Instability of Form - Innate ability for your legion minions.  When they pass a save against physical damage while at a d6 or larger die size, they split in two after degrading.  If they fail a save, they just degrade instead of being defeated.  Again, a very strong trick but vulnerable to non-physical damage.

Parts of the Whole - Creates a number of weak legion minions equal to a roll of your current status die, dealing yourself that amount of irreducible damage as well.

Returned Vitality - Reaction that lets you heal when a legion minion is defeated.

Split Up - Creates two minions one size smaller than your current status die.  No die rolls required, so immune to penalties.

Combine - Lets you destroy any number of legion minions, roll their dice and heal that much damage.  Can be a huge swing if timed right.

You also gain the mandatory Uncoordinated Actions ability, which is effectively a penalty to your legion minions' freedom of action and strongly encourages them to use different actions on different targets rather than ganging up to spam the same action on a single foe. 

This is an odd list, with two very different actions and a rather situational defensive reaction that create minions, as well as an innate ability that makes your minions a lot harder to defeat when facing physical damage.  The other two abilities use minions for healing.  There are no Attacks, Boosts, Hinders or even a Defend option, but the expectation is probably that some of your legion minions will be doing that for you.  Moreover, your status die drops like a rock the more minions you have in play and they can't mass up to do the same action on the same target at all well, something the Creator Approach and Overlord Archetype don't suffer from.  Legion villains can also wind up with some serious Achilles' Heel problems if they take either (or both) of the two abilities that only work versus physical damage.  

All this can make very swingy in terms of effectiveness, although I still don't think it's in need of house rules.  Minion creation is just inherently a very strong trick.

When picking an Approach, looking for something with strong base Health, damage reduction, and/or healing would help make up for your relative fragility.  A more universal defensive reaction might also be useful, and having any action abilities to take advantage of your excellent status die when you have few or no minions in play would be good - a strong Hinder option would be good for penalizing multi-target Attacks that threaten minions might be best, but a a decent Attack would let you do some damage on your own beyond basic actions.  Boosting yourself might be least useful owing to how few Legion abilities actually roll your own dice.  

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Loner

Loner villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that gets smaller the more other allied villains are in the scene.  They work just fine with lieutenants and minions, who don't harm your status die.  The Archetype is less "Loner" and more "Wants to be the biggest fish in the pond" really.  They have a below-average Health bonus and two ability choices as usual: 

Antisocial Behavior - Moderate multi-target Hinder that heals you based on the number of targets affected. 

Best On My Own - Solid Attack bundled with strong healing.

Better Them Than Me - Reaction that Boosts you when a non-minion ally is defeated.  This can add up to quite a few bonuses when there are a lot of lieutenants working with you, and of course every actual villain defeated helps your status die as well.

Singular Strength - Innate ability that gives you a small damage bonus and damage reduction when you have no nearby allies.  This one does care about the presence of minions and lieutenants, not just villains.  Even as an innate ability this one actually does feel awfully weak considering its use conditions, and you could probably house rule the bonus and damage reduction to two instead of one to make it more attractive.  True lone villains with no allies at all tend to struggle against PC hero teams, even small ones.

Thin the Herd - Strong multi-target Hinder bundled with a moderate multi-target Attack on the same targets. 

Worst Case Response - Reaction that reduces penalties you take, or reduces the damage of an otherwise deadly Attack to one.

The list includes quite a bit of healing, two multi-target Hinders with useful riders, one rather specialized reaction and another more generalized one, and an odd innate that discourages keeping even henchmen around you.  It's a decent list that leans a bit toward applying penalties and damage.  In terms of finding good Approach pairings, stronger single-target Attacks or Hinders would help for one-on-one fights, and any dice fixing is always useful when relying on Hinders (or Boosts, with the one reaction).  If you wanted to break with theme taking Creator to make your own lieutenants and minions might also work, since you really don't want to work with other villains.

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Overlord

Overlords have a very wide 4/6/8/10/12 status die spread that increases the more minions they have in the scene.  They have an average Health bonus and can choose three abilities from this list:

By My Command - Moderate Boost for all of your minions.  Really impactful when there are a lot of them in play.

Get Back In There! - Reaction that lets you reroll damage saves against one Attack for any number of minions.  Really weakens multi-target Attacks, the usual way to scrub off mobs of minions efficiently. 

Give Me Your Strength - Odd ability that lets you roll all your minion dice to Boost, then make a moderate Attack using the resulting bonus.  It's actually got rather mediocre damage even at the best of times, and is often weaker than the average villain Max-die Attack ability.  At the very least I'd recommend house ruling this to use the Max die rather than Mid to make it somewhat better balanced with Form Up below. 

"Look Out, Boss!" - Reaction that redirects an Attack to one of your minions, which will often pull any rider effect off target as well.

Rapid Deployment - Mass minion creation ability, using your Max die to determine the number created and the Min die for their starting die size.  The first use is usually relatively weak and then rapidly grows to incredible effectiveness if the heroes can't stay ahead of the number of minions out there.  This ability is almost a mandatory choice for an Overlord villain unless they've taken the Creator Approach.

Form Up - Solid Attack bundled with a self-Defend based on the number of minions you have that works until your next turn.

Overlords are all about their minions, and the ability list reflects that.  They can create them, protect them, enhance them, use them to augment their own offense and defense, or use them to hide behind.  Unless the players can keep their numbers under control an Overlord can be incredibly dangerous, and is much more capable of tackling multiple heroes than most Creator or Legion villains are.  Use them with care, and you may need to consider house rules to reduce their power level somewhat if your heroes are a bit lacking in efficient minion removal.

When selecting an Approach it's probably best to look for abilities that don't require actions so as to concentrate on enlarging and supporting your army, so check for useful innates or reactions.  Multi-target Defend or Boost options would also help improve the durability of your minions.

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Continued in Archetypes part 5.

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Villain Design Analysis: Archetypes Part 3 - Indomitable, Inhibitor & Inventor

Continuing this series with a look at three more villain Archetypes.

Indomitable

Indomitable villains have a d8 status die under all circumstances.  They have an average Health bonus and choose two abilities from this list:

Absorb Energy - Defensive reaction that uses your d8 status die, also Boosts you if the damage is completely prevented.

Grab and Drag - Moderate Attack that also lets you choose between a strong Hinder, or a weak self-Defend combined with moving your and the target elsewhere in the scene.

Heavy Duty - Consistent innate damage reduction.

Prepare for the Worst - Strong self-Boost with a persistent and exclusive bonus.

Suppressive Fire - Moderate multi-target Attack bundled with a weak Hinder against the same targets.

Unflagging - Solid Attack bundled with minor healing.

A fairly defensive list with options for damage reduction, a defensive reaction, and three Attack abilities that combine with Hinders or minor Defend or healing options.  Also has a strong persistent self-Boost choice that can help make up for the middle-of-the-road status die.  Not really missing anything, and it has a unique choice that lets you damage a foe and then drag them to a new location in the scene, which can be very disruptive, especially when combined with mobility powers.  Can be combined with any Approach, although probably best for something looking for more durability or one that has a stronger Attack option or two since Indomitable abilities don't have stellar damage output. 

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Inhibitor

Inhibitor villains use a 6/8/10 status die spread that increases very quickly the more heroes have penalties on them.  This often means their status die varies from round to round, bouncing from d10 back down to d6 them climbing back again.  The source of the penalties doesn't matter, which makes ally Hinder actions very useful to an Inhibitor.  They well below-average Health bonus, and select two abilities from the following menu: 

Area Suppression - Strong multi-target Hinder bundled with a moderate single target Attack.

Overwhelming Syphon - Sacrifices all the penalties in play on heroes to deal them damage equal to the mods' values, while you heal equal to the all those penalties.  Can be very strong but wrecks your status die for next round.

Targeted Drain - Either a very strong single-target Hinder, or a slightly less strong one with a persistent and exclusive penalty.

Tethered Life - Moderate single-target Hinder with persistent and exclusive.  While the penalty is in play you gain one damage reduction and the target suffers one irreducible damage for each instance of damage.  The rider effect stacks and damage reduction is cumulative even if there are multiple heroes with these penalties.  Note that mods (especially persistent ones) don't just disappear when a character goes Out, so the damage reduction may still be effect even if the irreducible damage doesn't matter - and many Out abilities suffer from penalties, adding insult to injury.   

Twisted Fate - Lets you either invert all bonuses on a nearby target into penalties, or move one penalty from that target to someone else you can see.

Upper Handed Strike - Nasty defensive reaction useable only against someone with a penalty you created, using your status die to both prevent damage and harm the Attacker.  This is the only ability that specifically requires you to have created the penalty personally, so allies can't help out with this one.

This list includes three very good Hinder options, another ability that transforms bonuses into penalties or moves penalties around, a defensive reaction that relies on having one of your penalties on the Attacker, and an unusual ability that trades off al the penalties on foes to deal damage to them and heal yourself.  In short, it's all about the penalties, particularly spreading around the persistent ones.  Inhibitors lack solid offensive options and Boosts.  They have no direct defense beyond their reaction, but penalties will debuff Attacks just fine so they effectively get some benefit from there.

When considering Approach combos, remember that Inhibitors need to keep 1-3 penalties in play on different heroes to maintain a solid status die.  Persistent penalties help with this, but even they'll get removed and need reapplication now and then.  This makes the inhibitor rather action-hungry, so looking for other abilities that combine Hinders with Attacks, Boosts or healing would be helpful, as well as innate abilities or better reaction options.  Self-Boosts can be particularly helpful, since they can often let you create larger penalties.

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Inventor

Inventors have a very wide 6/8/10/12 status die spread that increases based on the number of inventions and mods in the scene that they or their minions, lieutenants or twists have created.  It's usually quite easy to maintain a high status die if they have any henchmen along, and only slightly more difficult if they're the only one adding to the tally.  They have a well below-average Health bonus and two ability choices from the following list.

Capable Creator - Innate ability that increases the size of every bonus you create

Cut Both Ways - Efficient multi-purpose ability that Boosts, Hinders, and makes a weak Attack using all three of your dice.

Empowered Destruction - Requires at least one bonus to use.  Insanely strong single-target Attack that uses all your dice and burns all your bonuses to add even more damage, exclusive or not.  Players will immediately recognize this as Charged-Up Blast with a different name, and it's just as nasty when a villain uses it, maybe more so since hero Health is generally lower and you could easily get a one-shot KO with hot dice and a handful of bonuses.

Leverage Advantage - Requires at least one bonus to use.  Unusual Attack that can target one, two or three foes if you have at least that many bonuses, each target using one of your dice.  Very efficient with three bonuses (and targets) but much less so with only one or two.

To Serve their Maker - Unusual defensive reaction that destroys one of your bonuses to use its value to self-Defend against all Attacks until your next turn.

Variable Creating - Double Boost with the option to make one persistent and exclusive or add a weak Attack instead.  One of very few ways to put a persistent bonus on another character.  

This list has two ways to create bonuses (one of which also Hinders a target) to feed your status die, but it also has two very strong Attack options and a potent defensive reaction that all eat through bonuses when used.  There's also an innate option that increases the size of all your bonuses, letting you potentially reach +5 and making +3 quite easy to achieve.  Approaches that offer more mod creation through Boosts and Hinders will help prop up your status die, as would Creator's minion/lieutenant creation abilities.  Alternately, anything with damage reduction or healing would help with your fragility, and it might be worth grabbing a less expensive-to-use Attack ability and use the Inventor list's other options.

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Continued in Archetypes part 4.

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Villain Design Analysis: Archetypes Part 2 - Formidable, Fragile & Guerrilla

Continuing this series with a look at three more villain Archetypes.

Formidable

Formidable villains have an unusual 4/8/12 status die spread that's tied to whatever their specific weakness is, which is defined by the GM during creation.  If they have no penalties related to their weakness they get that big d12, a mix of weakness penalties and bonuses that might offset them is a d8, and only having weakness penalties with no bonuses drops them to d4.  They have an above-average Health bonus and choose two abilities from this list:

Channel Greatness - Creates a strong persistent and exclusive bonus with a moderate Attack as a rider.

Cleansing Elevation - Very strong Boost action that also removes all penalties on you.

Expended Negation - Unusual offensive action that lets you destroy one of your bonuses to deal light damage to every opponent.  That damage isn't an Attack, and therefore doesn't trigger most defensive reactions, nor is it affected by mods.

Share In Your Glory - Efficient Boost action that affects yourself and one or two nearby allies.

Unrivalled Paragon - Allows you to take any basic action using your Max die.  Despite the name, several other Approaches and Archetypes have the same trick, so it's more like "plenty of rivals" really.

Untempered Grit - Reaction that lets you ignore all penalties for the turn in exchange for taking damage equal to the total value of your penalties.  This does mean you won't shed any of those penalties either, but it not only avoids their effects for now, if any were degrading your status die you'll be back up to a d12 for this turn's action.

Four of these abilities are useful for manipulating the Archetype's unique status die mechanic, creating bonuses and removing or ignoring penalties, and one of the others lets you sacrifice the many bonuses potentially being generated for multi-target damage.  You also have a strong ally-friendly Boost option and a versatility trick that includes your highest single-target Attack.  The Archetype can be paired with any Approach, but the best choices will ones whose own abilities benefit most from ready access to bonuses and the potential for that excellent d12 status die.

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Fragile

Fragile villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that starts at d10 and degrades as their personal Health drops through the GYRO zones.  They actually have a Health penalty rather than a bonus, and select two abilities from the following menu: 

Careless Smash - Very high-damage Attack that also does minor damage to you.  Your low Health makes even minor damage a concern, though.

Cheese It! - Defensive reaction that lets you move anywhere in the scene if you cancel out all the damage.  Relies on your status die, so it becomes much weaker as you take damage.

Dismantling Jab - Moderate Attack that removes all bonuses from the target.

Escape Plan - Innate ability that lets you move anywhere in the scene whenever your personal zone changes.  If you have access to healing this can trigger when you health increases as well as when it drops a zone.

Shrouded Attack - Solid Attack with a weak but multi-use self-Defend as a rider.  Even modest bonuses can make the defensive side of this quite hard to breach. 

Versatile Strike - Solid Attack with a wall of text that gives one of four different riders (most using the Min die) varying based on your Health.  It's a lot of words for not very much actual effect. 

With four different Attack abilities this a very offensive list, and its other two abilities lean into granting mobility and a modicum of self-defense.  Fragile villains tend to be just that, very effective as long as they remain healthy but falling apart as they drop through the GYRO scale - and their low initial Health makes that process faster than normal.  They can benefit from Approaches that offer healing, more reliable defensive reactions or damage reduction.  Approach abilities that Hinder foes, especially multiple foes, can be very useful for diminishing incoming damage. 

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Guerrilla

Guerrillas have a 6/8/10 status die spread that increases based on the number of opponents currently engaged.  This is a bit of an issue since "engaged" is not a tightly defined term, mechanically speaking.  As a GM I'd certainly treat all active enemies who are able to potentially Attack or be Attacked by the villain as engaged for status die purposes, whether they're in the same cramped indoor room or sniping from the roof of a building down into a distant outdoor plaza.  The intent might be that only heroes count toward status dice here, but the wording does technically mean hostile NPC minions and lieutenants would be included as well.  The Archetype has an average Health bonus and the usual two ability choices from the following:

Close Quarters Combat - Moderate multi-target close-range Attack with a weak Hinder against the same targets.

Even Odds - Innate ability that generates a bonus at the start of your turn based on how many opponents Attacked you since your last turn.  Quite efficient, especially if combined with a defensive reaction or damage resistance from your Approach.

Fighting Rhythm - Efficient Attack that uses all three of your dice, one against up to three targets.  If you have three targets, the damage becomes irreducible as well, which is very good. 

Human Shield - Strong Attack with a very nasty defensive rider.  You get a moderate multi-use self-Defend against everyone but the target, and any damage stopped by that Defend is dealt to your target.  This usually means you just won't be Attacked at all for a turn except by your victim.

Malicious Deflection - Status-die based defensive reaction that deals equal damage to another nearby target.  Quite strong when engaged with multiple foes, rather weak one-on-one.

Tangled Fray - Solid innate damage reduction whenever you're outnumbered by nearby foes. 

So three nice Attack options including a multi-target one bundled with a Hinder, a good strong reaction that both prevents and deals damage, a potentially quite strong innate bonus generator, and some damage reduction.  It's a pretty solid list overall and doesn't really need much help.  An Approach with some healing or dice manipulation would be helpful but not vital, or you could look for something that offers more ally support, which is one thing the Guerrilla really lacks.

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Continued in Archetypes part 3.

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Villain Design Analysis: Archetypes Part 1 - Bruiser & Domain

Continuing this series with a look at villain Archetypes, the second mandatory element of building a villain.  Archetypes define how the villain's status dice are determined, provide a modifier to Health that's combined with the base number from your Approach, and add another two or three choices of abilities from the Archetype's list of options.

Bruiser

Bruisers have a 6/8/10 status die spread that scales upward as their Health drops through the GYRO zones, fighting harder the more damage they've taken.  They have a solid Health bonus that lets them take quite a beating and two abilities from the following list:

Bring It On! - Reaction that Boosts you using the damage of an Attack against you.  A bit more useful for villains than heroes owing to having more Health to start with.

Feel No Pain - Innate damage reduction scaling based on your current GYRO zone.

Grin and Bear It - Bundled Defend and healing, both quite strong.

Lash Out - Single-target Attack ability that starts okay and scales up as based on your current GYRO zone, adding a second target in Red.

Living Wall - Reaction that lets you become the target of an Attack against an ally.  Can be used more than once per round with extra uses costing a tiny amount of Health.

Toss Hero - Solid Attack ability that lets you choose to Hinder the victim or hit another target.

Despite the Archetype's name, this list is actually somewhat defensive in nature, with strong options for damage reduction and healing.  It also has two solid offensive abilities, but the real standouts are its two reactions, one of which rewards you for taking damage and the other provides a rare "bodyguard" option that lets you take hits for allies, and the only villain reaction that can be used multiple times per turn.  It's a fairly versatile list that lets you build a villain capable of operating independently or as part of a team, and can be paired with most Approaches with decent synergy.  

One notable weakness to the Archetype is that its status is based solely on their personal Health zone.  If the heroes don't damage them they can stay at a d6 indefinitely, only to be suddenly put down in a flurry of strong Attacks late in the scene when PCs have access to strong Red abilities.  This can be gotten around with the Living Wall ability, but without it an "avoidance strategy" can leave four of your five other abilities underperforming, so you'll want to think hard about taking Approach abilities that are less damage-dependent.

That said, there doesn't seem to be a real need for homebrew abilities here.  

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Domain

Domain villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that increases the more environment targets and challenges are in play.  Their Health modifier is tied for the highest of all Archetypes, and they gain three abilities from this list:

Ascend From My Realm - Innate ability that makes you immune to damage from environmental source, but only during the environment turn.

The Earth Trembles Around You - Lets you destroy any number of environment minions to Attack every target in the scene except yourself by rolling all their combined dice.  You might as well destroy all of them, because they any you don't use are going to die anyway.  This can easily lead to a total defeat for the heroes in a single action if they haven't managed to keep environment minion numbers under control, so be very careful about using this one on teams that can't sweep minions efficiently.   

Power Heeds My Call in All Forms - Strange ability that lets you remove any number of environmental bonuses in the scene to Attack that many targets for medium damage with a different bonus used on each.  Kind of hard to use effectively unless the environment has twists with multi-target Boosts.

This Place Is Mine To Command - Lets you activate your choice of environmental twist in the scene's current GYRO zone or the next one closer to Red.  Still can't use any single major twist more than once per scene.  Effects are obviously going to be wildly variable based on what twists are available. 

To Me, My Minions - Lets you destroy any number of environmental minions, rolling all their dice and healing that much damage.  This can produce some enormous swings if the heroes have let too many environment minions get into play, especially given the high Health many Domain villains have.

The World Moves to Defend Me - Reaction ability that lets you redirect an Attack on you to an environment minion. 

No other Archetype interacts with the environment to the degree Domain does, and it's essentially mandatory to include an environment in any scene that uses a Domain villain.  You may even need a custom environment built for the villain for narrative and/or mechanical reasons, and if you're using a generic environment it may be a good idea to write up a few extra twists tailored to the villain's impact on their surrounding - for ex, a magical villain might have twists involving supernatural effects or being that get "overlaid" on a mundane urban environ or scifi space station.

This Place Is Mine To Command is almost mandatory for a Domain villain, giving them the ability to accelerate environment twists to bring out the mods, targets and challenges needed to fuel their status die and other abilities.  Three of the those abilities require environment minions to be present, and all of those destroy or at least degrade the minion(s) being used.  One ability eats up environment bonuses for extra Attacks, which can be stolen from hero targets if a twist gave them some.  The last ability keeps you from taking damage from environment sources during its turn, which means you'll still at risk if you trigger a damaging twist on your turn, limiting your options. 

All of this tends to push Domain villains into gameplay that resembles more conventional minion-creation villains that use the Creator Approach or Legion/Overlord Archetypes.  Players who can effectively control the number of environment minions and challenges will generally have an easy time of it, while others will struggle.  There's also no interactivity at all with any environment lieutenants that appear, and no resistance to environment penalties, only damage.

With that in mind, here are a few homebrew abilities to add a bit more variation in what frequently feels like a very narrow and swingy Archetype:

Advantageous Circumstances (I) Whenever you would gain a bonus from an environment twist, target or challenge increase the size of that bonus by one.  Whenever you would gain a penalty from an environment twist, target or challenge, ignore that penalty entirely. 

Coordinated Offense (A) Attack one target using [Power/Quality].  One nearby environment lieutenant or minion rolls their die and adds the result to the Attack's damage. 

So an option that protects you from environment penalties while making bonuses better on you (which slightly discourages expending minions on other abilities when they could be Boosting you), and an ability that interacts with environment all types of environment targets - both of which could be some kind of mind control or trickery if cooperative environment minions don't make narrative sense.  

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Continued in Archetypes part 2.

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Mega-Roach, Monstrous Mutant Insect

Giant insects are classic monster-comic fare, and here's a typical example.  By kaiju standards it's a bit on the small size - only about as big as a bus - but could show up in multiples for something like Gorgiza to snack on.

Mega-Roach

The giant mutated insects the media have dubbed "Mega-Roaches" have been making occasional appearances since the 1950s atomic testing period, but they're becoming more common over time despite efforts to exterminate them for good.  These attempts are complicated by the fact that the creatures leak mutagenic substances that can create more of their kind from normal vermin.  Various supervillains have also been known to create these things for use as distractions for other schemes, and a rare few (like King Kockroach) can control them directly.

Individual mega-roaches vary quite a bit, but they're generally about 40' long and have at least six legs.  Even the ones whose wings aren't hopelessly stunted or deformed by mutations weigh far to much to fly, but they remain quite able to scuttle up suitably large buildings and geographic features.  They don't appear to be interested in anything beyond food - and humans are a nice mouthful for them - but you never can tell when a super-intelligent one with psychic powers might show up. 

Description: A cockroach the size of a bus, sporting various mutations like extra limbs, antennae and compound eyes.  Oily toxic goop oozes from the joints in its carapace and limbs and its mandibles constantly drool sticky greenish-black toxic saliva. 

Gender: It's A Roach            Age: Unknown      Height: ~12'          Eyes: Black

Hair: Not Really     Exoskeletal Carapace: Oily Brown     Build: Giant Mutated Roach

Approach: Leech

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Study Exoskeletal Weaknesses 00  Breach the Soft Spot 0)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Biochemical Arsenal d10, Strength d8, Wall-Crawling d6

Qualities: Alertness d8, Close Combat d8, Fitness d8, Gargantuan Mutant Cockroach d8

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

Abilities:

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

Sticky Spittle & Grinding Mandibles (A) Attack using Strength.  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.

Stinking Exudations (A) Hinder multiple targets using Biochemical Arsenal.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack one of those targets using your Max die.

Sudden Spit (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Biochemical Arsenal die.  If this negates the Attack entirely, use the same roll to Hinder the Attacker and Boost yourself.

Urban Decay In Action (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

Despite its imposing size, a Mega-Roach relies as much on its nasty chemical secretions as much as raw physical might in combat.  Its primary offensive ability it to use its Sticky Spittle & Grinding Mandibles to maul prey while trapping them in a gooey mass of toxic saliva.  It makes every effort to exploit the turn sequence to first trap a target and then apply a big penalty and further damage to keep the victim helpless until the bug can finish them off.  They rely on their Mutated Exoskeleton and Sudden Spit reaction to minimize the damage they take.  When injured they use Stinking Exudations to simultaneously heal and apply penalties to multiple foes, spending all the hoarded bonuses from their excellent reaction to buff those effects for maximum effect - and they might even get to deal some damage if they roll doubles.  When lacking an obvious target it can also use its size and mass to trigger environmental twists with Urban Decay In Action, complicating the scene no end as it hunts for suitable victims to devour. 

Their upgrade reflects an older, more mature Mega-Roach (the base stats are young ones), and their mastery is exactly what you'd expect from a giant monster.  

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City In Peril Environment 

Represents any generic urban area that's under attack from big, destructive threats like rampaging giant robots, kaiju, bombardment by massed artillery, or death ray attacks from orbiting alien spaceships.

Crumbling Architecture d8, Dangerous Infrastructure d8, Screaming Crowds d10

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Blinding Smoke: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all targets with the Min die.

Falling Debris: Roll the environment dice.  Attack all targets with the Min die.

Trapped Civilian: Roll the environment dice.  Start challenge.  Rescue Citizen: 0  Hinder all heroes with the value of the Min die until this challenge is completed.

(Major Twist)

Leaking Gas Lines: Start challenge.  Prevent Explosion: 0  Timer: 0  Triggered: Advance the scene tracker by one. 

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Buried Under the Rubble: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder one hero with the Mid die, and Attack that hero with the Min die.

Broken Power Line: Roll the environment dice.  Attack one hero with the Max die.

Police Assistance: Roll the environment dice.  Boost two heroes with the Mid die.

(Major Twist)

Panicking Crowd: Roll the environment dice.  Start multi-stage challenge.  Calm Civilians 0  Evacuate Civilians 00  Heroes cannot Overcome the second stage on the same round that the first stage is completed.  Hinder all heroes with the value of the Mid die until this challenge is completed. 

Red Zone

(Minor Twists)

Just Keeps Getting Worse: Trigger three different minor twists from the Green or Yellow zones.

Raging Fires: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all targets using the Mid die.  Attack all targets using the Min die.

(Major Twist)

Collapsing Buildings: Roll the environment dice.  Start timed challenge.  Avoid Collapse 0 Timer 0  Each hero must Overcome this challenge individually.  Triggered: Each hero that failed to complete this challenge is Attacked with the Max + Min dice, and all minions and lieutenants are removed from the scene.

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Deadeye Mouse, Another Cartoon Villain

Have I mentioned I'm a big miniatures painter as well as dabbling in TTRPGs?  This fine villain is directly inspired by an old TOON miniature released way back in 1985.

Deadeye Mouse

Deadeye Mouse is the result of one of Mister Mean's schemes that didn't get quite as completely foiled as usual.  While he failed to turn the city's population into mice as planned, one of his human henchmen was permanently transformed into a cartoon mouse in the process, scrambling his mind quite thoroughly in the process.  He still works with Mister Mean pretty regularly, although he's also been seen in the company of petty criminals and former fellow henchmen.  Some of the less stuck-up mastermind-type villains have also hired him as muscle in the past.  La Chatarrera is particularly fond of him and considers his manically destructive sense of humor an absolute scream.  He's very economical as hench-villains go, owing to taking cheese as payment.

Unlike Mister Mean and his nemesis KO Clown, as a modern creation Deadeye mouse never goes monochromatic out of nostalgia.  He's still bound by the same cartoon logic and physics they are, and his formerly human mentality (such as it was) has been largely lost.  Despite packing a very large gun the violence he employs it for is strictly comedic with no lasting harm done to living beings.  Given the amount of damage he can dish out your heroes will probably be happy about that, and regular police are even more thankful about it  He can cause quite a bit of property damage though, and in a pinch he can conjure up cartoon dynamite and other nonsense just like his animated creator can.      

Description: An anthropomorphic albino cartoon mouse, wearing a pair of red gloves and smoking a cigar.  His absurdly huge revolver is ever-present except when it's funnier for it not to be.

Gender: Male            Age: Unkown            Height: 3'6"         Eyes: Pink

Fur: White               Nose: Pink              Build: Anthropomorphic Mouse

Approach: Specialized                     Archetype: Fragile

Health:  15 + (5 x H)

Powers: Cartoon Handgun d10, Agility d8

Qualities: Ranged Combat d12, Acrobatics d8, Former Criminal Turned Into A Cartoon d8 

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

Abilities:

Blazing Away (A) Attack up to three targets using Ranged Combat.  Use your Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second, and your Min die against a third.  

Cheese It! (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single status die.  If the damage is reduced to zero, you may move anywhere in the scene.

Deadeye Shot (A) Attack using Cartoon Handgun.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Shoot and Scurry (A) Attack using Ranged Combat.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Defend yourself using your Mid die.

Tricky Little CENSORED (A) Attack one target using Acrobatics.  Use your Max + Min dice.  That target cannot Defend or use reactions against this Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Double Tap (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

Deadeye Mouse is a classic "glass cannon" type that pumps out damage fast but falls to pieces even faster if he starts getting hurt in return.  Against multiple foes he'll spam Blazing Away at first before switching to Shoot and Scurry to concentrate on whoever seems most vulnerable.  If a hero displays strong defensive tricks he'll use Tricky Little CENSORED to bypass them while relying on Cheese It! to minimize the damage he's taking.  He usually won't use Deadeye Shot until his Health reaches the Red zone where the self-Hinder will be minimized, although he might panic and use it in Yellow instead.  There's really not much to running him, just a damage race between him and the PCs.

His upgrade ramps up his damage quite a lot and lets him either spread damage around more or focus down one target faster, and his mastery reflects the fact that he's become a cartoon and increasingly thinks like one, blazing away at scenic targets to produce implausible but amusing chain reactions.

For what it's worth, Cheese It! is the first rulebook ability I've ever skipped on renaming.  I'm sure you can see why.

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Villain Design Analysis: Approaches Part 9 - Tactician & Underpowered

Continuing from yesterday's post, the last of the villain Approaches:

Tactician

Tacticians have well below-average Power dice and average Quality dice, average Health and two ability choices from the following list:  

Group Up - Decent Attack that hits harder for each ally that Attacked the same target since your last turn.  Can be quite strong depending on how the initiative goes and benefits a lot from hordes of minions.  Obviously encourages ganging up on a single hero, which may wind up feeling like you're being singling them out for abuse - because you are. 

I'll Back You Up - Reactive Attack ability triggered by an ally Attacking.  Good for piling on extra damage.

Joint Action - Unusual ability that lets you take a Max die basic action, then have a nearby ally make the same basic action using their reaction.  Obviously best used on villains who lack a reaction of their own, or on the strongest minion or lieutenant available.  One of very few cases in the game where a reaction would use a full three die pool.

Organized March - Very efficient Boost whose bonus applies to every ally's action until the start of your next turn.  Effect varies a bit based on how initiative goes, but this can be very strong.  Worth noting that it only applies to an ally's action, not reactions or (for minions and lieutenants) saves against damage.

Try Again - Reactive dice fixer, you take trivial damage to reroll an ally's die pool.  Given how erratic this can be with full die pools it might best be used on a minion or lieutenant who's whiffed.  Most of the time you'll have much better odds of improving a one on a single d10 than you do of getting a significantly better result out of three dice.

Working Together - Innate ability that lets you reroll your ones as long as you have at least one nearby ally.  This is pretty bad compared to other similar abilities from different Approaches that lack the ally limitation, but it's still a decent dice fixer and not really hard to keep working. 

Pretty versatile support-oriented Approach, with an offensive reaction option, a very strong global ally Boost, dice fixing options for both yourself and allies, a versatile basic action option that lets an ally join in, and a single Attack ability that relies on allies to be good.  Obviously terrible for a solo villain, but works well with pretty much any type of ally and better than most with minions.

Don't see much need to add homebrew tweaks to this Approach.

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Underpowered

Unsurprisingly, Underpowered villains have very poor Power dice, average Quality dice and the lowest base health of any Approach.  They do get three abilities choices though.

Avoid the Inevitable - Innate ability that keeps you from being defeated once at the cost of reducing all your already-terrible Power dice by a one size.  With the right upgrade it can actually work twice, but even with one use it's a decent insurance policy against your first KO.  

Do Not Underestimate Me - Hard-hitting Attack that does some minor damage to you, which is still meaningful given your low base Health.  If you roll doubles you can't use this ability again during the scene. 

I Can Do Anything - Boost/Hinder/Attack bundle that uses all of your dice.  Versatile and efficient, but don't count on it doing much damage.

Last Ditch Effort - Defensive reaction that stops some damage, with combined healing, Boost, and Hinder riders that only trigger if you reduce the incoming damage to exactly zero.  The wording means you only get the riders on one specific result on your die, and the less damage you stopped the less impressive the effects will be.  If the riders went off more reliably it would be pretty impressive.  As it is, at least it stops some damage for you. 

Luck?  Or Genius? - Mediocre Attack that gets much, much better if you roll doubles or triples.  Your small dice are actually a bit helpful here.  Much easier to roll doubles on smaller dice than larger ones, although most likely you'll wind up with a mix of sizes in your pool.  If nothing else it's hilariously unpredictable.  

Still A Threat - Multi-target Attack with a weak Defend that does at least apply to all Attacks against you until your next turn.  Pretty decent, especially if you can apply some bonuses to it.

The list's abilities play into the Approach's small power dice and low base Health in several ways, and certainly feels thematic in play.  With three choices to use you can take one of the two more defensive tricks (the reaction and innate) and still have two action abilities to play around with.  Many of your abilities are...let's be generous and call them a little erratic in terms of performance, but that's part of the theme.  

There's a decent amount of build variety here, and your Archetype will hopefully let you add some more reliable tricks to the mix.  Given how quickly Underpowered villains usually get knocked out there's not much point in adding more action abilities to the list, but I guess you could add a homebrew innate or reaction for a bit more variation:

Is That Your Best Shot? (R) When Attacked, roll your single [Power] die.  Use the result to Boost yourself and Hinder the Attacker.  If the damage from the Attack defeats you, increase the value of the of the penalty by one and make it persistent and exclusive.

I Won't Be Stopped! (I) At the start of your turn, destroy one penalty on you and gain a bonus with the same value.

So a reaction that won't actually help you stay in the fight but lingers spitefully if you get knocked out, and an innate that offsets how vulnerable your dubious dice pools are to Hinders. 

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Continued in Archetypes part 1.

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Emo G and Vigilante Z, Gangbusting Hero from Page 170

The subject of getting a Creative Process podcast episode around the unnamed characters in the SCRPG core book art came up on the Greater Than Games forums.  The angry-face gal having a conversation with a local detective on page 170 got nominated as a candidate by another poster, so I've done some potential stats for her in the roleplaying game.  Entirely unofficial of course and may not match what Christopher and Adam have in mind for her, but here's two experimental takes on her based on the art and context of what she's saying in it, one based on a suggestion one the forum:

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Emo G

Origin: I'll leave that to the podcast, at least for now.

Description: See the artwork on page 170 of the core book.  She's the one without a tiny umbrella.

Gender: Female          Age: Twenty-Something          Height: 5'5"          Eyes: Unknown

Hair: Black, Streaked Violet          Skin: Caucasian          Build: Slender

Background: Blank Slate     Power Source: Training     Archetype: Divided (Form-Changer)   

Personality: Analytical/Inquisitive (Civilian/Heroic)     Health (G/Y/R):  30/22/11

Identities & Forms

Civilian Identity (no access to Forms)

(Powers) Intuition d10, Shapeshifting d10 

(Qualities) Criminal Underworld Info d8, Investigation d8, Social Chameleon d8

Personality: Analytical Status G/Y/R:: d10/d8/d6

Heroic Identity Base Form (access to forms based on GYRO status)

(Powers) Intuition d10, Shapeshifting d10, Everything Is A Weapon d8, Inventions d8, Vitality d8 

(Qualities) Close Combat d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Investigation d8, Social Chameleon d8, Technology d8

Personality: Inquisitive Status G/Y/R: d6/d8/d10

(Green) Gearhead Heroic Form

(Powers) Intuition d10, Inventions d10, Swinging d8, Shapeshifting d8, Wall-Crawling d8

(Qualities) Close Combat d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Investigation d8, Social Chameleon d8, Technology d8

(Green) Untouchable Heroic Form

(Powers) Agility d10, Speed d10, Intuition d8, Leaping d8, Shapeshifting d8

(Qualities) Close Combat d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Investigation d8, Social Chameleon d8, Technology d8

(Yellow) Unstoppable Heroic Form

(Powers) Strength d12, Everything Is A Weapon d10, Momentum d10, Intuition d8, Shapeshifting d8

(Qualities) Close Combat d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Investigation d8, Social Chameleon d8, Technology d8

Status: 

(Civilian) G/Y/R:: d10/d8/d6  

(Any Heroic Form) G/Y/R: d6/d8/d10

Abilities: 

Green

Divided Personas (I) Your access to Powers and Qualities is restricted by your current identity, civilian or heroic.  See above for the specifics.  You may not use abilities tied to a Power or Quality you do not currently have access to. 

(Untouchable Form Only) Escape Artist (A) Defend using Agility.  Use your Max die.  Remove all penalties on you. Powers: Agility d10, Speed d10, Intuition d8, Leaping d8, Shapeshifting d8 

(Gearhead Form Only) Fix-It (A) Boost or Overcome using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Powers: Intuition d10, Inventions d10, Swinging d8, Shapeshifting d8, Wall-Crawling d8

Fluid Mentality (A) Take a basic action using Shapeshifting, then adopt any available form.  You cannot adopt any heroic form before Stress Response has been triggered, and once you've adopted any heroic form you cannot adopt your civilian identity until the end of the scene. 

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 rather have stayed hidden?  RP: You can always tell when an important piece of information is being left out or obscured, though you might not know what it is.

Principle of the Split  (A) Overcome in a situation that benefits from a completely new perspective.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What perspective ended up being the wrong one for this situation?  Major twist: What inner conflict has thrown you completely off?  RP: You have multiple entirely separate facets to your personality.  As a result you can look at a situation from many different angles. 

Stress Response (A/I) The first time you take damage or change zones in a scene, you must change from your civilian identity to your heroic identity base form.  You can also change by taking an action and taking damage equal to a roll of your current status die.  After an action scene, you change back to your civilian form.

Sudden Savagery (A) Attack using Shapeshifting.  Use your Max die.  Then change to any available form.  You cannot adopt any heroic form before Stress Response has been triggered, and once you've adopted any heroic form you cannot adopt your civilian identity until the end of the scene.

Yellow (All Forms)

Chorus of Minds (A) Boost yourself using Intuition.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Attack using your Min die.  You may use the bonus you just created on that Attack.

(Unstoppable Form Only) Juggernaut (A) Attack using Strength.  Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using your Min die.  (Powers) Strength d12, Everything Is A Weapon d10, Momentum d10, Intuition d8, Shapeshifting d8

Payback (A) When Attacked by a nearby enemy, the Attacker takes an equal amount of damage as that dealt to you.

Red

(Heroic Base and Unstoppable Forms Only) Game Over (A) Attack using Everything Is A Weapon and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Destroy all your bonuses, adding each of them to this Attack first even if they are exclusive.

Schism (R) When attacked change to any available form before resolving the Attack.  Take a minor twist.

Unified Psyche (A) Hinder yourself using Shapeshifting.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid die. 

Yeah, No (I) Once per issue, if you would go to zero Health, roll Shapeshifting + Close Combat + Red status die.  Your health becomes that number.

Out 

Do It Right (A) Choose an ally.  Until your next turn, that ally may reroll any one of their dice by using a Reaction.

Tactics

Emo G starts every action scene in their civilian identity, although they might not be in the Green zone depending on whether they have damage carried over from a previous crisis.  They still have access to their Principles, are limited by Divided Personas, and can use Stress Response to adopt their base heroic form, although it's usually easier and less painful to just take some damage and change for free.  They can also take basic actions (including risky ones), use their Principles and use Fluid Mentality or Sudden Savagery without having any form change options.  The civilian form has a strong Green status die that makes them quite competent at Overcomes as well.

Once in their base heroic form, they use Fluid Mentality to take any basic action and then adopt a different form, although Unstoppable form only becomes available in the Yellow zone.  Sudden Savagery is a more efficient way to transform, giving a Max die Attack and then a potential change.  Each Green form offers different mixes of powers and abilities.  Gearhead form's Fix-It give a strong Boost or Overcome and versatile mobility options.  Untouchable form's Escape Artist has a strong Defend and sheds all your penalties at once, as well as providing unmatched speed and agility.

In Yellow, Chorus of Minds gives you a strong lasting bonus coupled with a smaller Attack, which can be repeated to stack exclusive bonuses to make your big Red offensive ability better.  The bonus will also greatly improve Unstoppable form's Juggernaut ability, which gives an adequate Attack and a lasting Defend that can be very strong with even a small bonus.  Payback offers a reactive damage dealing ability that's wholly independent of your own stats and can deal a lot of damage over time - and you can even use it in your civilian identity if given the opportunity (most likely by starting the scene in Yellow Health).

Red zone's Schism reaction isn't likely to be used often but it can be helpful when you can't spare the action to use Sudden Savagery or Fluid Mentality.  Game Over is a big finishing Attack that lets you burn any spare exclusive bonuses you've accumulated through Chorus of Minds.  Yeah, No is a once per session last chance way to avoid a KO, buying time to heal with Unified Psyche, which in turn will buy more time to punish Attackers with Payback.

The Do It Right Out ability is a real oddball but potentially very strong, letting an ally reroll one die of their choice with a reaction, the only reroll mechanic of its kind in the game. 

Design Notes  

Why a Blank Slate background?  Emo G has a multitude of cooperating personalities dwelling in her head, all working together to let her push herself far beyond human limits in her crime-busting endeavors.  Her "Shapeshifting" is mostly mental, with different specialized gestalts coming to the forefront in each form as well as combining with her Social Chameleon roleplay Quality to let her adopt different personas and disguise her true identity.  Given her Blank Slate background she may not have a true identity, at least not in the sense of being just one of her many personalities.  Was she born this way?  Did she grow into it?  Is it a reaction to trauma?  Something for the podcast to answer, or someone playing her as a PC.

Why Training as a Power Source?  Her divided mentalities each concentrated on specific fields, consuming information rapaciously and sharing time in molding their shared body into the peak of human perfection - and beyond, through the power of minds over matter.

Why Divided (Form-Changer) as an Archetype?  She's many people in one body, a mental legion who've mastered many skills and talents.  Form-Changer is ideal for having fluid Power dice spreads, and her combined mental efforts let her push herself to superhuman physical levels with sufficient effort.

Why Analytical and Inquisitive as Personalities?  Partly because it's one of Divided heroes' few benefits - taking a 10/8/6 and 6/8/10 combo keeps your status dice solid at least most of the time.  The "civilian" persona she displays is more thoughtful and cautious than the ones her heroic gestalts display in action, but they're still driven by a desire to pry into things others might want to keep concealed.

What about her Powers and Qualities?  As said, her "Shapeshifting" is mostly mental, although her inhuman control over her body language, musculature and voice let her adopt a wide variety of nearly impenetrable disguises.  While she can't turn herself into inanimate objects or animals, she can impersonate many humans with a bit of help from her own Inventions and a bit of prep time.  Her unique mental architecture is hard on telepaths and other psychics to get a good "read" on as well.  Intuition is also derived from the analysis and insight of hundreds, possibly thousands of compartmentalized intelligences piggybacking on her sensorium at all times.

Those Powers are always present, while her baseline heroic form adds superior endurance and durability through Vitality and a variety of customized inventions useful for disguise, information gathering, physical intrusion and nonlethal takedowns.  She also displays a tremendous knack for using improvised weapons in a fight with her Everything Is A Weapon version of Signature Weaponry.  She mostly uses them for melee rather than ranged combat - think Jackie Chan more than Bullseye.

When her Gearhead form is active, she's at her best with her Inventions and gains both Wall-Crawling and Swinging as separate Powers, which is still her using various technological tools to navigate the environment.  Her Untouchable form concentrates her mental effort on maximizing her Speed and Agility to inhuman levels, as well as improving mobility through Leaping.  When hard-pressed, Unstoppable form works the same wonders with her Strength and durability, letting her trade shots with physical powerhouses that could ordinarily crush her like a bug.

Her Qualities are more static, with Investigation and Criminal Underworld Info reflecting her crimefighting obsession, Close Combat her intensive self-training and eclectic mix of fighting styles, and Technology her skill at using her own custom tools and countering security measures.  The Social Chameleon roleplaying Quality reflects her talent at adopting other personas and infiltrating different groups in disguise, and could partially fill in for any of the social traits she couldn't get access to through her build.  There's a personality in her head for most situations, the trick is dredging up the most suitable one for the moment.  She's also very good at languages and accents, although her vocabulary isn't as deep as a real native speaker and struggles with specialized subjects and some shibboleths.

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Well, that was insanely complex for a Sentinels character.  Here's a much simpler alternate version of the same artwork:

Name: Vigilante Z

Origin: I'll leave that to the podcast, at least for now.

Description: See the artwork on page 170 of the core book.  She's the one without a tiny umbrella.

Gender: Female          Age: Twenty-Something          Height: 5'5"          Eyes: Unknown

Hair: Black, Streaked Violet          Skin: Caucasian          Build: Slender

Background: Academic          Power Source: Genius          Archetype: Shadow

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

Powers: Intuition d10, Inventions d8, Agility d6

Qualities: Criminal Underworld Info d12, Acrobatics d10, Investigation d10, Gen-Z Vigilante Grrl d8, Technology d8, Stealth d6

Status: Always d8

Abilities:

Green

Do What's Needed (A) Attack using Agility.  Remove one physical mod, Hinder a target using your Min die, or maneuver to a new location in your environment.

Principle of Stealth (A) Overcome to infiltrate somewhere or avoid detection.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What evidence of your presence did you just leave behind?  Major twist: What just happened that identified you as an obvious threat?  RP: You always know the most efficient way to enter or leave a location.

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

Slick Moves  (A) Attack using Acrobatics.  Defend using your Min die against all Attacks against you until the the start of your next turn.

Yellow

Practiced Follow-Through (A) Attack using Inventions.  Then, if the target of the Attack survived, also Attack that target using your Max die.  Otherwise, Recover Health equal to your Min die.

Nope (R) When you would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Intuition die.

Ready For Trouble (R) When Attacked, roll your single Intuition die.  Defend yourself using that roll, then Boost yourself using that roll.

Red

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures (A) Boost another hero using Intuition.  If that hero has already acted during this round, use your Max die and that hero loses Health equal to your Min die.  That hero acts next in the turn order.

Exploit Secrets (A) Remove a bonus on a target.  Hinder that target using Criminal Underground Info.  Use your Max die.  That penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Not That Easy (I) You can use any number of reactions during a round, but still no more than one per turn.  Each time you use a reaction after the first one in each round, take one irreducible damage or take a minor twist.

Out

You'd Better Worry (A) Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Criminal Underground Info die.

Tactics

In Green, Vigilante Z relies on Slick Moves to stay relatively safe, concentrating on dealing with minions or putting a bit of damage on fragile-looking villains.  If one of the riders on Do What's Needed looks useful she'll switch to that, most likely stripping a big bonus or penalty that's causing problems or moving someplace helpful.  She'll keep an eye on chances to do Overcomes with her Principles to earn hero points for the team and clear challenges if she can.

In Yellow her go-to ability is Practiced Follow-Through, which she'll use to pile damage on key targets fast or tackle weak foes to try to get some healing out of her turn.  She has two very similar defensive reactions, and will always use Ready For Trouble against Attacks to get the sizeable bonus it creates.  Against non-Attack damage she falls back on Nope instead.  If she's not needed for damage she may still resort to using her Green abilities, which remain useful throughout a scene, especially with some bonus support.

Red gives her access to Not That Easy, at which point she can use her reactions multiple times per round, potentially blocking a lot of damage from multiple Attacks while piling up bonuses - each of which could be used on the next reaction to make her even harder to finish off.  She can also use Exploit Secrets to strip a bonus from an enemy and then hit them with a big persistent and exclusive penalty, which can swing a close fight pretty easily.  Foes that rely on bonuses can really find themselves stymied against her from Green onward.  She also gains Desperate Times, Desperate Measures, which effectively lets her give an ally an extra turn in the round with a solid Boost and a bit of damage.  This usually works best with a hero who can deal more damage than she can (which isn't hard to do) or who's better equipped to deal with a key challenge.

When Out You'd Better Worry turns her into a d12 Hinder machine, which can be very mean if used on a victim of Exploit Secrets who's still stuck with the persistent penalty.

Design Notes 

Why an Academic Background?  I wanted to try to build a dedicated crime-buster, and having a d12 in Criminal Underworld Info seemed like a good way to start.  The character looks young enough to be  a college student, most likely in grad school.

Why Genius as a Power Source?  She's a very, very good college student.  The source has a fairly awful selection of Power choices and less than stellar dice to carry forward to the Archetype stage, but its abilities are pretty phenomenal and it does give you a big bonus die in place of a Green ability, which is where Investigation came from - another key to being a detective type.

Why Shadow as an Archetype?  This was partially the imp of the perverse, I wanted to try a "Stealth" character who's not actually very sneaky with that wretched d6.  Shadow has another set of mostly-terrific abilities, although the restrictions on what dice to assign to them are very tight and mesh poorly with my Power Source.  The high quality Green abilities do help out with not getting one from Genius and give her something interesting to do all through the scene, at least.  

Why Sarcastic as a personality?  Look at that costume she made for herself.  And that dialog with Detective Tiny-Umbrella.

What about her Powers and Qualities?  Conceptually, she's pretty close to being an unpowered hero.  She's got pretty fast reaction time, hence the Agility.  Her intelligence is high enough that her subconscious instincts border on supernatural, giving her a good Intuition.  Inventions comes from her being a tinkerer who's got a modest array of self-made tools to help with infiltration, surveillance, hacking computer systems - and she's amped up her favorite bat so it hits like a cattle prod, backed up with some homemade irritant and knockout sprays that make Mace seem like scented candles.

She's obsessed with crime-solving and crime fighting, with a high self-taught Investigation score and basically unequalled Criminal Underworld Info, most of it acquired anonymously online or through bugging gang hangouts and mob boss' mansions.  Her Technology was good enough to let her breeze through school and her patents pay for her lifestyle and superhero career and parts for tools, as well as bribes to her web of informants.  Acrobatics ties in to her agile fighting style, again mostly self-taught, and helps with infiltration.  Her actual Stealth is pretty bad by superhero standards, although her Principle of Stealth and good Intuition helps a lot with that .  Finally, Gen-Z Vigilante Grrl is pretty self-descriptive, and mostly gets used as a stand-in for the social qualities her build simply does not have access to, at least when interacting with criminals, law enforcement, and other heroes.  Might also double for Alertness when it comes to noticing crimes, subtle or not.

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