Hell-Hawk and His Angels of SIN, Aerial Menaces

Continuing on from my earlier Agents of SIN post, this expands that organization a bit with a new villainous engineer and his personal task force of agents and robots.

Hell-Hawk

Arno Wells is an engineer, roboticist, and member of the Science Integration Network, whose technocratic goals align with his interests.  In addition to his technological talents, he also operates as the supervillain Hell-Hawk, engaging in missions for the organization and occasionally for his own purposes.  Most SIN researchers prefer to let others field-test their creations while remaining safely in the lab, but Arno is happy to get out there and see how his latest mecha-raptors perform - taking reasonable precautions against being captured himself, of course.

Wells' specialty ("obsession" might be more accurate) is recreating organic aviform flight with robotics, which translates to building mechanical birds and "angel wing" flight packs for human agents.  With access to SIN's resources he's made the technology reliable and effective, although it isn't really any more efficient than more conventional means of flight, much less super-tech like anti-grav impellers and reactionless thrusters, and his combat raptors aren't really any more effective than human operatives with advanced technology or biological augmentations.  His eccentricities are still seen as acceptable given how useful the SIN/OD division finds his more lifelike camouflaged robo-birds for espionage and recon work.  Nobody pays any attention to pigeons and seagulls, after all.

Arno's obsession with emulating avian flight with robotics stems from the plane crash that orphaned him and left him with his extensive burn scars.  The last thing he saw as the emergency services crew took him from the crash site was a hawk circling high overhead, leading to a lifelong focus on developing safer forms of flight than conventional aviation technologies.  Birds, as he's quick to point out, never fall out of the sky on fire.  The uncle who adopted him was happy to encourage the ten year old's interests, at first to keep him occupied and later, when it became clear the boy had a real genius, for practical reasons.  His uncle was a covert member of SIN, and introduced his talented nephew to the organization when he was still in his twenties.  He's since risen to become a respected (albeit eccentric) member of the organization.

Description: A tall, wide-shouldered figure wearing a streamlined suit of lightweight powered armor incorporating prominent angel-like wings.  The suit is a mix of bright reds and oranges, with bright yellow metallic feathers, and sports flame projectors and slashing blades on both forearms.  Its helmet is is shaped like a hawk's head and completely conceals the wearer's feature, with glowing blue optic sensors.  The integral voice modulator can emit a variety of birdlike shrieks as well as human speech with mechanical overtones.

Gender: Male        Age: 30-Something        Height: 6'1" (12' Wingspan)       Eyes: Blue

Hair: Shaved            Skin: Pale, Extensive Burn Scars            Build: Broad-Shouldered

Approach: Creator                         Archetype: Bruiser

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Robotics d10, Fire d8, Flight d8, Power Suit d6

Qualities: Technology d10, Acrobatics d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Imposing d8, Obsessive Mecha-Ornithologist d8 

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

Abilities:

Call the Raptors (A) Use Robotics to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of those minions is the same as the die size of your Min die. 

Fierce Flyers (A) Attack using Technology.  Use your Max die with a bonus equal to the number of minions you control.

Invigorating Flight (A) Defend using Acrobatics.  Use your Mid + Min dice.  Recover Health equal to your Max die.

Pain Makes Me Stronger (R) When Attacked, use the amount of damage taken from the Attack to Boost yourself.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a War-Eagle d8 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Bombard (A) Attack all heroes with this vehicle's roll.  Use this ability only if the vehicle is below its starting die size or the scene is in the Red zone.  Distance Attack (I) In order to Attack this vehicle, the hero must make an Overcome action in order to get close enough to it.  Escape Plan (R) When Hell-Hawk is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than Hell-Hawk's current Health, both he and the vehicle escape the scene.  Minion Deployment (A) Add minions to an existing group equal to half the vehicle's current die size.  These minions are of a size equal to the highest die size already in the group.  If the vehicle has a bonus or penalty adjust the number of minions by that amount and then remove that mod.

Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.

Tactics

Hell-Hawk is a mobile and enthusiastic combatant, soaring wildly around the battlefield while his mechanical hawks distract and confuse the foe.  He gleefully exploits Attacks to gain the benefits of Pain Makes Me Stronger and then channels the resulting bonuses into flooding the scene with more minions using Call the Raptors.  Once he has a sufficient number of them in play or hits d8 status from damage, he'll shift Attacking with their aid using Fierce Flyers and his integral weapons.  Only when badly battered will he break off the assault to use Invigorating Flight the restore himself for more action, although he will pause to summon more mecha-hawks if their numbers are sufficiently depleted.

If his upgrade is available he brings a high-flying War-Eagle flying arsenal to the battle, which can provide a variety of benefits, deploying more mecha-hawks, bombarding foes with its payload of munitions, acting as a distraction and offering a quick escape.  His mastery makes his fleet of flying robots even more dangerous than normal.

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Science Integration Network (SIN)

The Science Integration Network maintains a low-profile front as a global initiative to share scientific research data for the good of humanity, but its true nature is much darker and better fitted to their SIN acronym.  A largely secretive conspiracy of would-be technocrats and fringe scientists, their ultimate goal is to dominate the world through the power of superior technology and free researchers from the stifling bonds of ethics, morality and other superstitions.  Their goals are appealing to many technically-oriented super-geniuses, although most of them are too megalomaniacal to cooperate with others long enough to advance SIN's agenda much.

The organization has two main divisions, the Operations Directive and the Novel Engineering Research branch.  The SIN/OD specializes in industrial espionage, internal and external security, and direct action against rivals.  They employ cutting edge military-grade equipment when secrecy isn't a priority, and spy-fi gadgetry when remaining covert.  SIN/NER concentrates on developing and testing new technology, including conducting research into the nature of super powers of all kinds.  Most often found field testing experimental devices as part of the organization's overall goals, SIN/NER agents have also been known to hunt supers (both heroes and villains) for use as experimental specimens and test subjects.

Hell-Hawk has worked with both divisions on occasion, and has his own specialized flight-capable "Angels of Sin" squads available to him, led by "Fallen Angel" lieutenants.  He prefers to rely on his own mecha-raptors for combat duties, but having some minions with actual hands along to carry captives and loot does come in handy.       

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Mecha-Raptors d6, d8 or d10 minion (see Call the Raptors)

Description: Obviously mechanical birds of prey in a variety of sizes and "species" modeled after real hawks, falcons, eagles, etc.  Armed with sharp claws, beaks and wing-blades, with many incorporating small flame projectors as well.

Robotic Aviforms:  You may move as though you had Flight equal to your current die size.

Angels of SIN d8 minion

Description: Colorfully-garbed human operatives with birdlike mechanical wing harnesses and carrying a variety of scifi "blaster" weaponry and humming shock batons.  Their jumpsuits are bright red and their signature SIN hoods are flame orange, foregoing the usual blue tones. 

Wing Harnesses:  You may move as though you had Flight d6.  While flying, you gain a +1 bonus to saves against damage.

"Fallen Angel" Operative d10 lieutenant

Description: They share the overall look of the lesser Angel agents, but their wings are larger and more powerful.

Aerial Ace:  You may move as though you had Flight d8.  While flying, you gain a +1 bonus to saves against damage.

Ground Attack Run:  You may make an Attack action against multiple targets that aren't flying.  

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The Parallel Man, A Possibly Infinite Villain

A semi-plural villain in two forms - one when his oddball time machine is present to allow access to his infinite alternate timeline duplicates, and the other when it's been destroyed and he becomes a rage-filled berserker out for revenge at being temporally isolated.  Potential time travel shenanigans galore when this guy's involved.   

The Parallel Man

The Parallel Man is invariably bent on defeating some hero or team, often ones that have never seen him before, thereby pre-emptively preventing them from stopping his plans in the current timeline the way their alternates in some other universe have already done.  The fact that this often backfires and results in exactly the kind of defeat he was trying to prevent doesn't seem to matter, and he (or other versions of him) may appear again in the players' future.

In the event of a Parallel Man actually triumphing, he'll usually start in on a plan to collapse the current timeline into some other one, altering history in both and greatly increasing his power within the new timeline.  If he's beaten, he usually just vanishes on the spot.  If his Sideways Time Machine is destroyed, he may vanish or attempt to escape, but either way he'll be back at some point as a vengeful Isolated Timeline Parallel Man.

Unsurprisingly, Parallel Men have been seen in the company of other time-breaking baddies like the Evermind or the much less grandiose Timetripper, as well as attracting the attention of Johnny Crisis.

Description: Tall, powerfully-built man with glowing orange eyes that bleed into the aura of cosmic energies that surrounds him.  He wears a black paramilitary uniform with a stylized hourglass on its left breast, rotated 90 degrees so it resembles an infinity symbol.  His deep voice reverberates with inhuman power.

His time machine is a simple rectangle of impenetrable blackness like a doorway to nowhere, framed by Kirbytech gadgetry and hovering just above the ground or gliding ominously in the Parallel Man's destructive wake.  

Gender: Male        Age: Thirties?     Height: 6'2"     Eyes: Glowing Dull Orange

Hair: Jet Black               Skin: Pale As Parchment               Build: Imposing

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(Infinite Timeline Form)

Approach:  Mastermind                                Archetype:  Legion

Health:  15 + (5 x H)

Powers: Cosmic d12, Precognition d10, Flight d8

Qualities: Banter d10, Alertness d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Imposing d8, Science d8, Split Physicality d8

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

Abilities:

Confused Timelines (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.

Paratemporal Energies (A) Attack one hero using Split Physicality.  Hinder all heroes using your Max die.

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

Simple Division (A) Add two minions of size equal to one size lower than your current status.

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

Upgrades & Masteries (always active, counts as a difficult scene element):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a Sideways Time Machine d12 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Escape Plan (R) When the Parallel Man is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than the Parallel Man's current Health, both he and the vehicle escape the scene.  Minion Deployment (A) Add minions to an existing group equal to half the vehicle's current die size.  These minions are of a size equal to the highest die size already in the group.  If the vehicle has a bonus or penalty adjust the number of minions by that amount and then remove that mod. 

Master of Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.

Tactics

In his Infinite Timeline form, the Parallel Man has access to his other selves from divergent timelines, both through his own abilities and through his villainous vehicle upgrade.  In combat, he'll open with Simple Division to create a pair of powerful minions, passing the turn to the Sideways Time Machine so it can conjure up another six of them, something it'll continue to do as long as possible.  After that he'll grant himself a persistent bonus with Shared Viewpoints and then hammer away with Paratemporal Energies as often as possible, damaging whatever hero seems most threatening to his time machine and minions while aiming to keep his foes under a serious penalty, throwing bonuses in as needed.  Whenever possible he'll use Temporal Rebalance to recover some health reactively.  

His minions will spread Attack and Hinder actions over foes as evenly as possible to minimize the drawbacks of Confused Timelines.  If the Sideways Time Machine is getting damaged badly, some of his minions will shift to Defend and Boost it so it can multiply their numbers with Minion Deployment as fast as possible for as long as possible.  The Escape Plan reaction may let the Parallel Man (and his time machine) escape the scene when he's close to defeat, but if he does go Out the minions will make a mass Boost attempt on the machine, after which it attempts Overcomes to escape by itself until it succeeds.  If it gets destroyed all of the minions and the Parallel Man fade into nothingness.

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(Isolated Timeline Form)

Approach:  Mastermind                                Archetype:  Guerrilla

Health:  40 + (5 x H)

Powers: Cosmic d12, Precognition d10, Flight d8

Qualities: Conviction d10, Banter d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Enraged Nemesis d8, Imposing d8, Science d8

Status: (# of Opponents Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 - d6

Abilities:

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

Inescapable Revenge (A) Attack one target using Enraged Nemesis.  Use your Max + Min die.  Defend against all Attacks from targets other than that target with your Mid die until your next turn.  All Defended damage is dealt to the target of your Attack instead.

Unshakeable (I) If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.

Wrathful (R) When Attacked, Boost yourself using your Attacker's Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  All your power dice increase in size by 1 step (max d12).  Gain Boundless Rage (I) At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.

Master of Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.

Tactics

If the Sideways Time Machine is destroyed in combat, an Isolated Timelines form of the Parallel Man will appear at some point in the future, usually when the heroes least expect it.  This version of the villain is berserk with rage at being cut off from his access to infinite parallel timelines and will attempt to defeat the heroes one by one.  He'll open by using Driving Hatred to augment himself, then use Inescapable Revenge on one hero repeatedly until they go Out or somehow escape him.  He then shifts to target a new hero, counting on Unshakeable and Wrathful to keep him in the fight even against superior numbers.

His upgrade is optional in this form, and makes him much more durable as well as granting bonuses from Boundless Rage.  If he manages to defeat all of the heroes they'll most likely wake up wired into some super-tech gadget meant to reconnect him to his alternate selves and the greater continuum.  Whether that's even possible or will "just" cause a paratemporal catastrophe is up to the GM, but either way the players might want to prevent it.

Design Notes

If you want to add to the time-travel confusion, the players (or an allied hero NPC) might be assaulted out of nowhere by an Isolated Timeline Parallel Man bent on revenge for a defeat that hasn't happened yet for the PCs, followed later by an Infinite Timelines Parallel Man showing up and getting beaten by the heroes, which might or might not spawn some kind of time loop.  There's a semi-infinite number this villain out there, and his own continuity is tangled mess. 

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Longhair and Knack, Superhero Husband and Wife

Continuing on from my other Syracuse Seven posts, today we've got a pair of related characters who aren't actually part of the team.  Literally related, that is, since Longhair and Knack are the biological parents of team tech specialist Leaping Lizard.

Longhair

Archibald Long earned his nickname for his intellectual interests as a child, and turned it into his supranym when he entered the hero community in his early twenties.  A bona fide genius and polymath, Long spent his teens first as a (very young) scientific adviser to several super-teams, gradually sliding into a casual "team mascot/sidekick" role and eventually deciding to become the hero Longhair in his own right.  That decision was partly the result of meeting independent hero and fellow teen genius Maria Anderson, aka Knack.  The two shared many interests, not least of which was a desire to oppose "mad scientist" types who turned their talents to selfish ends and a passion for fringe science and super-technology.  The two worked as a "dynamic duo" team through their early twenties, eventually marrying and deciding to have a child, after which they settled down to strictly part-time hero work until their son Lawson (aka Leaping Lizard) grew up.  With him "out of the nest" they're more active again, although both are doing more traditional research and development work than they did when younger.

As Longhair, Archibald relies heavily on one of his major discoveries that he's kept largely to himself, a scientific principle that lets him manipulate probability in his favor.  In practical terms, he can steal a foe's "luck" for his own use, inflicting all manner of misfortune while getting all the lucky breaks himself.  He's also developed a universal energy draining device based on the earlier work of Doctor Benton Quest. The "Peacemaker Siphon" is a non-lethal weapon that leaves foes enervated and incapable of taking action, and can even transfer some of the collected energy to empower Longhair.  The mechanisms for these technologies are very compact and are literally woven into the smart-cloth costume he wears.  In emergencies he's also been know to use less stable prototype equipment to stunning effect, although even after years of facing terrible threats he dislikes employing that degree of force. 

Description: Tall, thin man of African-American descent, wearing a white smart-cloth body suit that covers him completely from the neck down.  The suit is striped with black-and-silver "circuit board" patterns that shift as he uses his different abilities and powers, and has a number of concealed pockets filled with tools and advanced gadgets above and beyond the integral functions of his costume.  He used to add a translucent red visor to the outfit but gave it up after his wife told him it looked ridiculous.  Speaks with a slight Bronx accent in a clear tenor voice.   

Gender: Male          Age: 52          Height: 6'2"          Eyes: Brown      

Hair: Black, Thinning, Short          Skin: Mahogany             Build: Beanpole

Background: Academic          Power Source: Genius          Archetype: Gadgeteer

Personality: Inquisitive                   Health (G/Y/R):  28/21/10

Powers: Intuition d10, Inventions d10, Presence d8, Teleportation d6

Qualities: Technology d12, Science d10, All-Around Nice Guy d8, Medicine d8, Self-Discipline d6

Status: Green (28-22) - d6 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d10

Abilities:

Green

Amp (A) Boost using Intuition.  Either use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make that bonus persistent and exclusive.

Damp (A) Hinder using Inventions.  Either use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make that bonus persistent and exclusive.

Principle of Discovery (A) When you're at the forefront of making a discovery or invention, take an Overcome action.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What new discovery causes you to reconsider what you are doing?  Major twist: What new discovery must you keep hidden at all costs?  RP: You are eager to learn new things at any cost.  You can rattle off data about newly discovered concepts and ideas.

Principle of the Lab (A) Overcome while in a familiar workplace or when you have ample research time.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What did you make a detour to observe and sample for later experiments?  Major twist: Something's gone very wrong at the lab.  What was it?  RP: You have nearly unlimited access to a dedicated research area and are at home there.

Yellow

Inversion Pulse (A) Change any bonus into a penalty or vice-versa.

Peacemaker Siphon (A) Attack using Inventions.  Then, if the target survived, also Attack that target with your Max die.  Otherwise, Recover Health equal to your Min die.

Probability Inverter (R) When you are Attacked, first roll your single Intuition die.  Use that roll to Defend yourself, then Boost yourself.

Red

Dangerous Prototypes (A) Attack multiple targets using Inventions.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die.

Master Gadgeteer (I) When taking any action using Technology, you may reroll your Min die before determining results.

Omni-Tools For Everything (A) Overcome using Technology.  Use your Max + Min dice.

Out

Probability Field Feedback (A) Choose an ally.  Until your next turn, that ally may reroll one of their dice by using a Reaction.

Tactics

Longhair is a dedicated gadgeteer with weird science toys for every occasion, but most of his abilities use the probability-manipulation technology he invented to siphon good luck from his foes and channel it to himself or his allies.  In the Green zone he's pretty much pure support, usually spreading persistent bonuses with Amp and penalties with Damp, starting with himself so his future rolls are a bit better - unless he's working with his relatives, in which case Knack or Leaping Lizard get Boosted first.  His Principle of the Lab and Principle of Discovery can be a little hard to apply in the field, but work great in montage scenes.

In Yellow, he gains access to his Probability Inverter, a very strong defensive reaction that also generates more bonuses for him, making him even more efficient.  His go-to combat ability is the Peacemaker Siphon, which sucks the energy out a target, then either locks on to draw even more energy or uses some of a defeated foe's power to heal Longhair.  Using it selectively against stronger or weaker enemies can either land a lot of damage on tough foes or eliminate weak ones for healing, with bonuses assigned to optimize either aspect of the ability.  Longhair can also use Inversion Pulse to flip mods anywhere of the field, which is particularly effective if he's suffering from penalties himself since it needs no die roll.

In Red he gains some major dice manipulation with Master Gadgeteer, which works well with Peacemaker Siphon to improve its healing potential to keep him in the fight, makes his very hard-hitting Dangerous Prototypes ability somewhat safer to use, and improves his chances of succeeding on any overcome he can apply Omni-Tools For Everything to.

When Out, his damaged technology can continue to aid allies by granting them erratic good fortune through Probability Field Feedback.

Design Notes

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, "longhair" was pejorative slang for an impractical intellectual or artistic type long before it became primarily associated with hippies and a cat breed.  Archibald was very much a head-in-the-clouds dreamer when young and prone to flitting between fields of study at a rapid pace to keep his remarkable intellect occupied.  He proved to be a true scientific visionary by the time he was fourteen but by then he'd become fond of his nickname, hence the somewhat inaccurate supranym.  He's also learned (with great difficulty) to stay more focused since associating with Knack, although with a d6 Self-Discipline he's not great at it, as the twists on his principles suggest.

In mechanical terms, he's a pretty typical support Gadgeteer who exploits the very effective Yellow abilities offered by the Genius power source.  Careful allocation of the bonuses he should be swimming in will make him tougher than he looks, and his "peaceful" energy draining invention can either hit a powerful foe very hard indeed for a Yellow ability, or be used to harvest weaker enemies (ie minions) to provide healing.  When working with Knack he'll concentrate on keeping her clear of penalties, sticking persistent penalties on dangerous foes, and hammering away with his Peacemaker Siphon. 

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Knack

Maria Long (nee Anderson) was a technological savant even in grade school, but she might have "just" gone on to become one of the planet's greatest engineers if she hadn't stumbled on a small sample of "miracle metal" in a geode during a rock-hunting field trip during sixth grade.  This exotic material's origins remain unknown, but it appears to some form of inorganic pseudo-life that responds to certain coded electromagnetic stimuli.  The stuff can assume a wide variety of properties, create more of itself from other forms of matter, generate its own electrical current through what appears to be direct mass conversion - in effect, it's a perfect medium for an inventive engineer to work with.  And even as a young girl, Maria was a very inventive engineer, with a real knack for robotics in particular.

Always an adventurous type, it didn't take long for Maria to realize what she could do with her find.  By the time she was in seventh grade, she'd adopted the supranym Knack (and a much more identity-concealing costume than her current one) and she and her miracle metal drones had gotten involved in cleaning up drug- and gang-related crime, first in her school, then in her town, and finally tracing the supply chains back to the big city.  At that point she ran into her first superhero team, and after some tensions about whether a child should really be doing this sort of thing, settled into a grudging partnership with them.  She wound up getting some much-needed training, the team got a lesson in how useful her drones could be  even for "grown-up" heroes, and perhaps most importantly, she met fellow "kid genius" Archibald "Longhair" Long, who'd been a mascot/sidekick and de facto tech support for the team for a couple of years now.  The two of them clashed at first, then became friends and eventually much more than friends.  As a full-blown "dynamic duo" team Knack and Longhair made a very effective pair, and sharing their technologies and skills only made them better over time.

That was all decades ago, and their son Lawson has grown up and followed in the family tradition as Leaping Lizard.  Knack and Longhair have resumed their own superheroics as well, at least in part to keep an eye on what he's getting himself into.  They aren't quite as okay with Lawson jumping in to such a dangerous field as they pretend, and the fact that he rewrote his own genetic code to become an anthropomorphic super-reptile is something they're both still coping with.

Description: A short Latino woman wearing a loose canary-yellow bodysuit that covers her from the neck down.  The suit is covered in pouches and pockets filled with gadgets, tools and spare parts, as well as handy energy bars and a first-aid kit.  She seems a little frenetic, not quite hyperactive but always on the go.  She speaks firmly with a faint Jamaican accent and can be surprisingly loud when she wants to be.  Drill sergeant loud, even.  Her drones come in an infinite variety of forms and sizes, but all are made of the signature dull silver "miracle metal" that she discovered.      

Gender: Female          Age: 50           Height: 5'2"          Eyes: Brown      

Hair: Black                  Skin: Dark Hispanic Tones          Build: Compact

Background: Academic          Power Source: Unknown          Archetype: Minion-Maker

Personality: Natural Leader                   Health (G/Y/R):  28/21/10

Powers: Inventions d10, Robotics d10, Electricity d8, Absorption d6

Qualities: Technology d12, Alertness d8, Always the Practical One d8, Science d8, Leadership d8

Status: Green (28-22) - d6 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d10

Abilities:

Green

Booster Charge (A) Boost another hero or one of your minions using Electricity.  Either use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make that bonus persistent and exclusive.

Craft Drone (A) Create a minion using Robotics.  Reference the minion chart to see what size of minion it is.  Choose which one basic action it can perform.  It acts at the start of your turn.  You can only use this ability with a supply of smart metal to form new minions - including the husks of disabled ones.

Principle of the Gearhead (A) Overcome a technological challenge.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What mechanical device just shorted out?  Major twist: What machine just went terribly off the rails?  RP: You always know the general state of repair and functions of an item of technology.

Principle of the Lab (A) Overcome while in a familiar workplace or when you have ample research time.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What did you make a detour to observe and sample for later experiments?  Major twist: Something's gone very wrong at the lab.  What was it?  RP: You have nearly unlimited access to a dedicated research area and are at home there.

Yellow

Arcing Discharge (R) When one of your mods or another creation of your powers is destroyed, deal a target damage equal to the roll of your single Robotics die.

Maximize Performance (A) Boost one of your minions using Robotics.  You may also upgrade that minion to your Max die size, replacing its current form.

Overload Boost (A) Boost all nearby allies using Electricity.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Red

Bio-Electric Regeneration (A) Hinder yourself using Absorption.  Use your Min die.  Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.

Hasty Animation (A) Use Electricity to create a number of d6 minions equal to your Mid die.  Choose the one same basic action that they can each perform.  They all act at the start of your turn. 

Multitasking (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform one basic action using your Mid die on the same die roll.

Out

Autonomous Assist (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Technology die.

Tactics

As a minion-maker Knack relies heavily on the robotic drones she crafts out of  smart metal in the field, and without them she's reduced almost entirely to Boosting allies.  In the Green zone she'll usually open by creating one minion after another with Craft Drone, although if she's working with family members she'll instead use Booster Charge on Longhair right away, with him returning the favor by using Amp on her.  Her first few drones are often mono-tasked to Defend or Boost actions, although she may run Attack drones against minion swarms or Hinder drones to distract particularly menacing villains or tough lieutenants.  Principle of the Lab works better in montage scenes than in battle, but Principle of the Gearhead is much easier to apply.

In the Yellow zone, destroying her drones (or mods, for that matter) becomes a painful experience as she uses her Arcing Discharge reaction in response.  This is her primary source of damage (outside of Attack drones) and avoids many defensive reactions by virtue of not being an Attack.  She'll still concentrate on making more minions, but may selectively use Maximize Performance to take a weakened drone with a useful action and turn it into a d10 or d12 version.  If she has multiple allies and minions nearby she can use Overload Boost to augment them all at once, providing her with a ready supply of bonuses to feed into custom minion creation.  If she isn't facing enemies with strong multi-target options she's also likely to take a minor twist (or use  a collection to ignore it) and use the Red zone Hasty Animation ability early to spawn multiple weak drones at once, applying bonuses to improve her Mid die.

Once her Health is actually in Red she'll use Bio-Electric Regeneration to restore herself as soon as possible rather than risk going Out, with Multitasking to let her take a basic action at the same time.  Only if the scene tracker is in Red itself and she feels healthy enough will she resort to Hasty Animation.

Once Out, minor backup drones still provide an ally with an Autonomous Assist bonus every turn.   

Design Notes

Knack's Unknown power source is the result of the mysterious origin of the self-replicating miracle metal she uses as the foundation of her technology, which she's shared with her husband and son for use in some of their more advanced gadgets.  She's even integrated some of the stuff into her own biology at this point, granting her an emergency reserve of the stuff for more drones and a more-or-less innate ability to absorb and convert energy and channel electricity, something she mostly uses for her Bio-Electric Regeneration and Hasty Animation abilities.  Her Leadership and Always the Practical One qualities reflect the fact that she's very much the grounded one in her family with a talent for keeping Archibald from getting distracted by new scientific theories.  Even Lawson waited till she was away on vacation before he went and turned himself into a lizard.

Mechanically, she's a pretty typical minion-maker, focused on creating and supporting her drones and letting them do most of the work for her.  Even her damage output mostly stems from her Arcing Discharge reaction punishing foes for disabling her minion.  She lacks much in the way of defenses herself, but will almost always create a Defend minion for herself early, more if working with allies.  She's generally not afraid of taking damage anyway since she can usually heal upwards of 10-12 Health the first action she gets in Red status, letting her bounce in and out of the danger zone repeatedly.  When working with others she can also provide some very strong Boost support when needed, although it costs her the opportunity to make a new drone.

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Leaping Lizard, A Scrappy Young Hero

Today's superhero is another member of the Syracuse Seven, a team I originally did for the Tiny Supers RPG.  His teammate KO Clown was featured in an earlier post, and I expect I'll get around to doing the rest of the group and some of their villains and supporting cast (like his parents, Longhair and Knack) eventually.

The Leaping Lizard

Lawson Long was a child prodigy and polymath, patenting his first invention at the age of 13.  That would have been more remarkable if his parents hadn't been the mostly-retired genius heroes Longhair and Knack.  He decided early on that he wanted to follow in their footsteps, although they flatly refused to let him go the "sidekick" route and insisted he finish his formal education to at least a master's level before he even thought about entering the hero biz.  He was done with that by the time he was 15, but got distracted for a few years by doing a lot of at-home fringe science with his parents' lab equipment.  By the time he was 19 he'd developed a retroviral serum that he was confident would give him a useful set of powers, and opted to test it on himself without supervision.

His parents came home from vacation two weeks later to discover their son had turned himself into a lizard.  A super-strong lizard who could leap tall buildings in a single bound and heal the broken bones from a bad landing in minutes, but still...a lizard.  It was a bit much even for a pair of superheroes.  Lawson declined their offers to help "cure" him and, after much argument, convinced them that he was happy in his new form and mostly wanted their help getting into a proper training program for new supers.  They called in a few favors and sent their son the lizard off to a government-sponsored program.  He graduated with flying (or leaping, I suppose) colors and has been assigned to "small city level" hero team where he's building a rep under his new supranym, the Leaping Lizard.  His parents have quietly asked the team's handlers to keep an eye on Lawson just to make sure his proclivity for self-experimentation doesn't go too far.  Having a T-Rex show up for Thanksgiving would be awkward, the dining room is already pretty crowded for family get-togethers.   

Description: A long-tailed anthropomorphic lizard, covered in fine scales and generally naked except for crossed utility belts full of gadgetry.  Leanly muscular but with long and very powerful legs.     

Gender: None Apparent, Uses He/Him              Age: 22                   Height: 5'8" (+6' Tail)        

Eyes: Orange With Slitted Pupils        Scales: Brilliant Green          Build: Long-Legged

Background: Academic          Power Source: Genius          Archetype: Wild Card

Personality: Jovial                   Health (G/Y/R):  32/24/11

Powers: Inventions d10, Leaping d10, Awareness d8, Strength d6, Swimming d6

Qualities: Technology d12, Conviction d10, Science d8, Scrappy Young Hero d8

Status: Green (32-25) - d6 / Yellow (24-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d10

Abilities:

Green

I Can Do Anything (A) Take two different basic actions using Technology.  Use your Min die for each.

Principle of Chaos (A) Overcome a situation in a way that is truly unpredictable.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor Twist: How did you fall line in order to get something done?  Major Twist: What has caused you to become predictable and stale?  RP: You are an unpredictable free spirit.  Even towering intellects like your parents can't predict what you will do next.

Principle of the Gearhead (A) Overcome a technological challenge.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What mechanical device just shorted out?  Major twist: What machine just went terribly off the rails?  RP: You always know the general state of repair and function of any item of technology.

Use The Right Tools (A) Boost or Hinder using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack using your Mid die.

Yellow

Literal Leaping Lizard (A) Attack multiple targets using Leaping.  If you roll doubles, one nearby ally is also hit by the Attack.

Mark II Probability Inverter (R) When you are Attacked, first roll your single Technology die.  Use that roll to Defend yourself, then Boost yourself.

Re-Tuned Inverter (A) Boost yourself using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Then Attack using your Min die.

Red

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

Made These Myself (A) Attack multiple targets using Inventions.  Use your Max + Min dice.  If you roll doubles, either take a minor twist or damage equal to your Mid die.

Out

Good Fortune For Bad (A) Defend an ally by rolling your single Technology die.

Tactics

Leaping Lizard has extremely versatile choices in the Green zone.  Principle of the Gearhead lets him easily deal with technological challenges, and Principle of Chaos perfectly reflects the kind of person who'd transform themselves into a lizard while their parents were out of town.  Use The Right Tools hands out potent mods and has a chance to deal some damage if he rolls doubles.  I Can Do Anything does pretty much that, even if what it accomplishes isn't all that impressive sometimes.    

In Yellow zone, he gains access to his signature ability, the modified Mark II Probability Inverter he rebuilt from one of his father's spares.  This incredible Reaction needs to get used every chance he possibly can, since he spent his retcon to get it to that huge d12 for the Boost and Defend it provides.  The first turn he starts with a decent bonus on him will probably also see him using Re-Tuned Inverter to grant himself a big persistent bonus, which he'll restore ASAP if it gets scrubbed off.  Having any kind of bonuses really amps up the utility of his other abilities.  Literal Leaping Lizard gives him a potent multi-target Attack, albeit one that might backfire a bit if he rolls poorly.

In Red, Emergency Inverter Overload lets him potentially use his amazing Reaction against every Attack that comes at him, generating bonuses like mad.  Made These Myself also unlocks his best offensive ability by far, hitting multiple foes for a lot of damage at the risk of his homemade weapons dealing damage or twists back to him.

If he does go Out, his battered inverter will use his own bad luck to fuel good fortune for his allies with Good Fortune For Bad to provide them some last-ditch defense.

Design Notes

Leaping Lizard proved to be pretty difficult to port from his original Tiny Supers version to the SCRPG, and wound up being a bit less of a physical powerhouse and more of a tech-using type.  A lot of that is just the way Tiny Supers works, with gadgets being restricted to a very limited array of one-use expendables.  A lot of the choices made here were dictated by Lawson's existing fluff.  An Academic background is the best fit for his kind of child prodigy.  Power Source could have been (self-)Experimentation or even Tech Upgrades, but Genius also works and has him taking after his dad more closely.  The Wild Card archetype gives him a lot of versatility that usually isn't all that potent, but his bonus production changes that picture quite a bit.

Conceptually, his best gimmick is the Mark II Probability Inverter, which features in both his Yellow abilities, one of Red ones, and even his Out.  The inverter is an implanted subcutaneous array of technology based on a quantum luck-manipulator his superhero father Longhair invented.  It inflicts misfortune on aggressive foes while granting Lawson good luck in exchange.  He's managed to refine the original version into something even more effective and the abilities associated with it are a vitally important to how he plays and make up a lot of his build, including his retcon to maximize its die size.  He's also got a variety of minor offensive and utility gadgets in his utility belts that provide his Use The Right Tool, I Can Do Anything and Made These Myself abilities as well as serving for many Overcomes.  

The genetic modifications he's performed on himself have made him stronger than most humans overall, with incredible power concentrated in his legs and lengthy tail, making him a decent physical combatant with great mobility.  His physiology also makes him an excellent swimmer, although he's amphibious rather than truly aquatic.

Worth noting that he relies heavily on Scrappy Young Hero in pools where he's engaging in combat, social situations where he's dealing with civilians, peers or villains, and doing basic criminal investigations.  Sometimes he can justify working in his Conviction die ("I'm going to show my parents I can handle being a hero!") instead, but that goes more toward willpower and keeping his training in mind.  His build is pretty narrow in terms of quality options so that d8 roleplaying quality has to do some lifting.

His greatest weakness is a result of that same reptilian physiology.  He's an ectothermic reptile and temperatures around freezing can really slow him down and leave him groggy.  He's invented some specially-fitted heated clothing that can keep him going in wintertime but they're bulky and constrictive enough to disadvantage him almost as badly as freezing does.

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Storm Howler, Time-Displaced Werelock

Actually got to play in a new group the other day and whipped this oddball hero up for the game, which will hopefully be an ongoing thing.  The three new players seemed to enjoy the game, and the GM and my fellow vet were both open to making the one-shot into a campaign.  I may have to make some modifications to this character for long-term play - he was intended to be a sort of one-and-done guest hero when I made him - but I'm rather enjoying the "fish out of water" roleplaying possibilities so far and the group is desperately short on someone to handle "mystic BS" problems.

"Werelock" is a portmanteau of "werewolf warlock" of course.

Name: Storm Howler

Origin: Ivan Lupescu is native to the Transylvanian region of Eastern Europe in the mid-1400s, where he's spent more than a decade as a wandering sellsword, as well as an occasional monster hunter.  He contracted lycanthropy at the age of 16 while defending a wise woman from a "rabid wolf" and she taught him her style of natural magic to help him control his changes.  Since then he's learned a number of new charms, hexes and witcheries during his wanderings throughout the Balkans, as well earning a reputation as a fierce fighter and skilled swordsman.  Like many residents of the area he's strongly opposed to the Ottoman expansion in the region since the fall of Constantinople, earning some small notoriety as a mercenary fighting against them.

Very little of which matters since he stumbled through a magical portal into 2023 and found himself enmeshed in modern-day superhero shenanigans.  His grasp of 21st century technology and social norms is pretty shaky, and he's still convinced that he's stuck in a strange otherworldly realm rather than his own distant future.  But he does recognize villainy when he sees it, and he's hoping one of the strange, brightly dressed wizards he fights evil alongside can show him the way home someday.  If not - well, he's an adaptable sort.

Description: Rangy man with narrow, wolfish facial features, dressed in worn, travel-stained clothing and a dark green hooded cloak that make him look like a refugee from a fantasy LARP.  The sheathed sword and dagger at his belt definitely aren't foam replicas, though.  When he shapeshifts to wolf form his gear and clothing vanish into hammerspace, although he retains his patched woolen pants as a wolfman.  Has a prominent scar from some kind of firearm on his flank as a wolf, which is covered up by clothing normally.  He caught a grazing hit in the butt from a silver bullet a few years back and it never healed right.  His voice is surprisingly deep for his frame and has a nebulous Eastern European accent.

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

Hair: Black, Graying          Skin: Weather-Beaten          Build: Lean & Muscular

Background: Anachronistic          Power Source: Nature          Archetype: Sorcerer

Personality: Lone Wolf                  Health (G/Y/R):  28/21/10

Powers: Weather d10, Animal Control d8, Strength d8, Suggestion d8, Shapeshifting d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Magical Lore d10, Stealth d8, 15th Century Slavic Mercenary & Monster Hunter d8

Status: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d8

Abilities:

Green

Biting Wind (A) Attack using Weather.  Use your Max die.

Demanding Hex (A) Hinder using Suggestion.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack using your Mid die.

Howling Storm (A) Attack multiple targets using Weather.  Use your Min die.

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

Principle of the Time Traveler (A) Overcome a problem using knowledge from 15th century Eastern Europe.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: What detail of the current era did you not previously know about?  Major twist: What effects are happening as you discorporate in time?  RP: You are far from your own time and are often unsure how to act in this time.  You have an innate sense for when time is not quite right in the era you're in.

Yellow

Drive To Destruction (A) Destroy one d6 or d8 minion.  Roll that minion's die as an Attack against another target.

Taste of Triumph (R) When you defeat a minion, roll that minion's die.  Use that roll to Boost yourself.  The bonus created must be used on your next action.

Wild Fury (A) Attack one target using Strength.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Then Boost yourself and the target using your Mid die.

Red

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

Storm-Driven (I) If you would take damage from Weather, ignore that damage and instead Recover that much Health.  Use the value of that damage to Boost yourself.

Tempest (A) Use Weather to Attack up to three targets, one of which must be you.  Assign your Max, Mid and Min dice as you choose among those targets.

Out

Spirit Totem (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Magical Lore die.

Tactics

In Green, Biting Wind provides a strong single-target offense, Howling Storm offers early minion-sweeping damage (and gets much better with bonuses later on), and Demanding Hex gives a strong debuff that can deal some damage on doubles.  His Principle of Magic is fairly easy to apply with his mix of physical and mental magics, and his Principle of the Time Traveler might come in handy for obscure historical facts, roughing it without modern technology and hunting prey - animal, human or supernatural.

In Yellow, he starts earning bonuses for defeating minions through Taste of Triumph, which is really easy to do with Drive To Destruction to force the weak-minded to obey him momentarily before they collapse from psychic shock.  Wild Fury lets him take advantage of his raw physical power and is a very efficient way to generate more bonuses, albeit something of a double-edged sword if the target isn't defeated in the process.

In Red, Blood Curses adds a small Hinder to all of his many, many Attack options.  The combination of Tempest and Storm-Driven give him extremely versatile offense, healing and self-Boosting options.

Once Out, he can continue to Boost his allies with Spirit Totem.

Design Notes

Why an Anachronistic Background?  He's native to the latter part of the 15th century AD.  Yes, that's the same space-time neighborhood that Vlad the Impaler lived in IRL.  No, he hasn't met the guy.

Why Nature as a Power Source?  Both his learned magical talents and his lycanthropy stem from "natural" sources rather than an otherworldly patron or manipulating extradimensional energies.

Why Sorcerer as an Archetype?  He relies on his magic more than his werewolf abilities.  Helps keep the supposed "curse" under control, not that he's ever had much trouble with that anyway.  Lycanthropes that go animalistic under the full moon are just weak-willed in his opinion - or naturally inclined toward toward murder. 

Why Lone Wolf as a personality?  He's a werewolf without a pack, and used to working solo anyway because most people can't handle monster-hunting.  That might change if he stuck around a team of supers long enough.

What about his Powers and Qualities?  His Powers are a mix of lycanthropic abilities and magical talents.  Shapeshifting has a small die size because it's very limited, not because it's weak.  As a werewolf he can really only do man, wolf, and wolfman forms, and use his shifting to help his injuries heal a bit.  No imitating other people (or animals), much less pretending to be a mailbox or robot or whatever.  Lycanthropy grants him superhuman (or superlupine) Strength.  Suggestion and Animal Control reflect his ability to magically impose his will on others regardless of their nature, although it doesn't work on most machine intelligences and struggles against some exotic aliens.  Suggestion gets used in a lot of his social die pools, something he's fairly terrible at anyway.  Weather magic is his big trick, used in a lot of his abilities, and has the side effect of making his environment a little cool and humid unless he concentrates on restraining himself.  He's best at manifesting unnatural winds at near-hurricane force, summoning and shaping fog and mist, and darkening the sky with ominous clouds.  An erratic rain-maker at best, he often loses control of any downpours he triggers with, say, Tempest.    

For Qualities, Stealth is a combination of years of experience hunting men, beasts, and stranger things with his lupine instincts.  In his day he was known as one of the finest swordsmen in all the Balkans and a dangerous man in a tavern brawl as well, and adding lycanthropic might has only improved his Close Combat.  His training and natural talent for witchcraft gives him a solid Magical Lore.  15th Century Slavic Mercenary & Monster-Hunter is a limited proxy for (very narrow) History, (very crude) Medicine, Alertness (for tracking and spotting ambushes), Ranged Combat (with antiquated weapons), and a touch of Insight, Imposing or Persuasion (mostly for spotting "tells" from unnatural critters, intimidating peasants and negotiating fees as a sellsword).

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Rabid Wulf, Remorseless Berserker

This unpleasant little scumbag is a mechanical experiment in making a villain who can stack a lot of damage on one target fast, and should probably be used with a little care.  While fragile, if he spikes his Mid dice (which he can apply multiple times per turn) he can easily deal ~30+ damage, which is a potential one-hit KO on most heroes.  Even more average rolls should be 20+ damage, which is no joke, especially if it's landing first round while the heroes are still in Green and lack most of their defensive Reactions.  

I've seen some GMs bemoan the fact that they never KO the PCs and fights are too easy, which I don't really get - but this villain should serve as a wakeup call for anyone who's gotten overconfident.  He's also doing the bulk of his damage spread over two or three Attacks, which has the side effect of making damage reduction abilities more useful against him (which is probably a good thing, they tend to underperform sometimes) while also making it harder to stop everything with a single strong Reaction.  

Rabid Wulf

"Rabid Wulf" began life as Dean Goetz, a high school dropout with a lengthy rap sheet of gang activity, drug dealing and low-level crimes dating back to his pre-teen years.  He recently became addicted to Professor Pusher's latest variety of the Supe drug, and is one of the few users who's developed lasting powers from the stuff.  As Rabid Wulf, he's managed to make himself useful enough to various shady interests to make a name for himself as a brutal super-thug for hire, with a particular knack for delivering painful "lessons" to street-level heroes that meddle in things they shouldn't.  Dean is a thoroughly appalling individual on every level, and has strong connections to various white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups as well as Professor Pusher's operations.  He also has issues with Bigwig's gang and has been seen fighting alongside the Triple Threat gang in turf wars against them.

His powers are pretty basic but the combination of superhuman strength and impressively fast reflexes make him a dangerous opponent, something that's amplified by his remorseless nature and sadism.  Once Rabid Wulf singles out a target he'll do his best to beat them senseless or worse before moving on to a new victim, and he can dish out punishment fast enough to make endanger almost any hero.  That said, he's not exactly durable himself, lacks much in the way of mobility powers, and isn't much good at teamwork with other villains - or fighting heroes who use team tactics themselves.

Description: A rat-faced young man dressed in tattered jeans, black leather vest, and steel-toed boots.  His bare arms, torso and face are covered in low-quality tattoos with neo-Nazi iconography, and he wears four heavy swastika rings on each hand that double as makeshift melee weapons.  His voice is squeaky and high-pitched, which might explain why he mostly relies on growls, grunts and violence to communicate.  He's barely literate in English, and proud that he doesn't speak any "inferior" languages - which is pretty ironic, considering his political leanings and the fact that his family actually immigrated from Germany in the 1920s.

Gender: Male        Age: 20      Height: 5'10"       Eyes: Bloodshot Brown

Hair: Long, Scraggly Brown     Skin: Caucasian, Skinhead Tattoos     Build: Leanly Muscled

Approach: Relentless                     Archetype: Fragile

Health:  15 + (5 x H)

Powers: Agility d10, Strength d8, Leaping d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Vicious Street Thug d8, Fitness d6

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

Abilities:

By The Throat (A) Attack one target using Close Combat.  Use you Max die.  If the target does not Attack you on their next turn, Hinder them using your Mid die.

Frenzied Assault (A) Attack using Agility.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Making It Hurt (A) Attack one target using Vicious Street Thug.  Then remove all bonuses on the target.

Savage Follow-Through (R) After making an Attack on your turn, use your Mid die to make another Attack against one target of the initial Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually active after a recent hit of Supe):

Group Fighter (I) +20 Health.  When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die. 

Master Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome when your payment is at stake.

Tactics

Rabid Wulf is a berserker in combat, throwing himself at one foe after another until he's triumphed over all or been beaten into submission instead.  He prefers to use Frenzied Assault, then immediately burn off its penalty using Savage Follow-Through to pile even more damage in his victim and leave him unimpeded for his next turn.  If an opponent seems to be trying to avoid a fight he'll use By The Throat at close range instead despite the fact that he'd probably be better off not drawing Attacks to himself.  Any opponent who stacks up multiple bonuses will draw a strike using Making It Hurt to strip them off, especially if he thinks they plan to use the mods defensively or on healing.

With his upgrade (usually in place when he's taken a hit of Supe recently) he becomes even more dangerous, and can easily take a hero Out from full Health if he spikes a Mid die roll with a high doubles result.  GMs might want to be merciful and throw the extra Group Fighter Attack at a fresh target if that happens - and he can use his Reaction with it instead of his primary Attack if desired.  His mastery usually only comes into play if a foe he's been told to beat down seems to be getting away.

Note that while he prefers to use his superhuman strength and reaction time to brawl in close combat, all of his abilities except By The Throat work fine at range if he has to fight at a distance by throwing stuff or borrowing a pistol from some random hood.

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S-Cape Artist, Providing "Exit Services" To Supervillains Since 2022

This is a bit of a gimmick villain that was initially written up as an explanation for how some other baddies kept getting away from the authorities, but in my campaign he spiraled into becoming one of the most frustrating foes the players ever faced.  They finally managed to catch him in a recent session and he's now serving time in prison, but it remains to be seen how long that situation persists.  I mean, they took all his toys away from him.  How could he possibly escape now? 

The S-Cape Artist

Harold "Houdini" Marks earned his nickname in college for his hobby, rather than his brilliance at exotic physics.  Years of learning how to effortlessly slip out of restraints as a party trick and slip past campus security for pranks may have foreshadowed his future, though.  After having an epiphany in his senior year he made a major technological breakthrough in the field of spatial displacement engineering, one that let him build his own teleportation device - and on a student's budget, no less.  After field-testing it a bit, he considered his financial situation, his dislike for the military-industrial complex, and an intense dislike for US law enforcement ingrained in him by his ex-convict parents and grandparents and decided he'd be paying off his student loans via "unconventional" means.

Shortly thereafter, word spread in the criminal underground that there was a new techno-mercenary on the market.  Dubbing himself the S-Cape Artist, Harold offered a reliable getaway service to anyone who could afford his fees.  His teleportation tricks are exceptional even by supervillain standards, fast, accurate, able to carry a significant payload over vast distances, hard to block and difficult to trace even with exotic senses and technology.  After some noteworthy successes the S-Cape Artist has recently expanded his services to include assistance with break-ins as well as speedy exits, and is considering several lucrative offers for jail-breaking work as well.      

Description: A thin man dressed in a reinforced black duster and a bulky fully-enclosed helmet with fancy optic sensors built into the visor and a multitude of small antennas.  He wears an elaborate metal harness over his outfit, made up of an array of mysterious modules, holsters for a variety of control wands and weapons, and pouches filled with gadgetry and tools, with the whole thing connected to a backpack that looks like a rejected Ghostbusters prop.  The whole setup emits an irregular chorus of pings, hums, and buzzes.  His helmet modulates his speech into a flat, unaffected machine voice like a TTS program.

Gender: Male        Age: Late Twenties        Height: 5'11"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Light Brown            Skin: Pasty            Build: Gaunt

Approach: Focused                   Archetype: Inventor

Health:  25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Teleportation d12, Inventions d8

Qualities: Science d10, Technology d8, World-Class Escape Artist d8

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Blink and You Missed Me (R) Defend yourself against an Attack that only targets you by rolling your single Teleportation die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.    

Delays and Distractions (A) Hinder one target using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Attack that target using your Mid die.

Spacetime Tuning Scans (A) Boost using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Sustained Warp Shield (A) Defend yourself using Teleportation.  This Defend lasts until your next turn.  If an Attack deals more damage than the value of the Defend, use the Defend value to Attack your Attacker and then end the Defend.

World-Class Operator (I) Whenever you create a bonus, increase that bonus by one.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Defense Shield (I) You cannot be damaged by anything except yourself until the defense shield is destroyed.  The shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can use a Reaction to Attack that hero by rolling your single Teleportation die.  Gain Reestablish Shield (A) Overcome using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  On a success remove one success from the deactivation challenge.  Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use your Max die to Recover that much of the shield's Health.  This ability cannot be used if the shield has been completely removed.

Master Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome when your payment is at stake.

Tactics

The S-Cape Artist rarely engages in super-crime for his own purposes, instead concentrating on providing his services as a "exit specialist" to the criminals who've hired him while staying safely out of a brawl.  In an ideal world he'd 'port in at the last moment, collect his clients and their loot and 'port out again, but more often his presence is required during the job itself and he's even been known to accept extra payment to assist with penetrating security going in rather than just on the way out.  When he does get embroiled in a battle, he'll initially concentrate on running Spacetime Tuning Scans to accumulate bonuses for future actions, not least of which being Overcomes to make group escape teleports.  Once he's got a few bonus banked he may take a direct hand with Delays & Distractions against a particularly troublesome hero, protecting himself with Blink and You Missed Me while doing so.  If hard-pressed he'll put up a Sustained Warp Shield while backing it with bonuses as needed, making him very hard to hurt and hitting back hard if something does get through.  Being a World-Class Operator makes all of his Boost actions more efficient as well.

With his upgrade he's much tougher to harm and can spend his actions maintaining the shield while damaging heroes who roll twists trying to drop it.  His mastery reflects his reputation for getting the job done and making sure he and his employers make a clean getaway if a situation goes wrong.  If working on his own schemes it could be replaced by Master of Mad Science instead.  Harold has a narrow focus by super-villain standards but he is a brilliant scientist in his own field and occasionally has a flash of more grandiose ambitions.

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Bigg Gunn, Bioengineered Cyborg Killing Machine

A very simple villain today, inspired by an old Dreamblade miniature I've repainted for people several times over the years.  He's a very Nineties character design, as you can see below.

Bigg Gunn

Bigg Gunn is the product of a criminal augmentation lab using data stolen from an abandoned government super-soldier program.  "Product" is literal in this case, as Gunn-series cyborgs have become a popular acquisition in certain circles.  Using a baseline human as a starting point, the upgrade process combines retroviral bioengineering, hyper-steroids and metallic bone lacing to produce a frame capable of supporting cybernetic heavy weaponry and ammunition nanofactories.  It also installs extensive behavioral controls that leave the finished creation utterly loyal to its eventual owner but with enough free will to be truly autonomous in combat.

Expensive enough that they're rarely encountered in groups, even a single Bigg Gunn can still provide a great deal of firepower for a warlord, gang boss, or less physically-powerful super-villain.  They do retain part of their original personalities but their brainwashing and safety protocols largely override any personal motivations or pre-existing ethical qualms.  They're mostly content to follow orders while waiting for an opportunity to use their big weapons, and they require far less micro-management than robots, drones, animated statues or undead do.  When "off duty" Gunns usually use their integral cyberware to connect to the internet, spending their time streaming entertainment and playing games through their neural links and displaying the feeds directly to their cyberoptics. 

Description: See picture.  Note that he's a big lad, standing over eight feet in height.  Where he shops for jeans and boots I can't even guess. 

Gender: Male          Age: Late Twenties         Height: 8'2"          Eyes: Dark Blue

Hair: Bald, Full Blonde Beard     Skin: Caucasian, Metallic Implants     Build: Distorted

Approach:  Disruptive                 Archetype:  Loner

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Arm Guns d10, Vitality d10, Awareness d8, Strength d8

Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Alertness d8, Bioengineered Cyborg Killing Machine d8, Fitness d8

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

Abilities:

Concentrated Fire (A) Attack using Arm Guns.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Flying Lead (R) When Attacked by a hero with a penalty, that hero takes damage equal to the size of that penalty.

Full-Auto Fighting Style (A) Attack multiple targets using Arm Guns.  Hinder each target using your Max die.

Suppressive Fire (A) Hinder multiple targets using Ranged Combat.  You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Group Fighter (I) +20 Health.  When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.

Master of 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:

The average Bigg Gunn doesn't have much going on tactically.  He'll repeatedly use Full-Auto Fighting Style to hose down every opponent he can see while inflicting a little more damage if Attacked by by using Flying Lead on the first hero who tries to fight back through the firestorm.  If faced with a single foe or badly injured he'll switch to Concentrated Fire for a while instead.  Suppressive Fire is quite strong for defending himself and his allies, but he usually has to be prompted to use it instead of shooting to kill.

His upgrade lets him concentrate a bit more damage on whoever's bothering him most, and he particularly enjoys using the bonus Attack to club a foe who's crowding him in melee while blazing away with his other arm.  Gunns are an exceptionally ruthless sort, and his mastery reflects that.

Note that despite being a Loner mechanically, he's actually quite happy to work with other villains when ordered to.  His poor status die when working with others reflects how much having allies he's not free to shoot cramps his fighting style rather than any personal reluctance.  Minions and lieutenants don't hamper him in the same way.  If they get caught in one of his long, uncontrolled bursts that's their problem.

Design Notes:

Bigg Gunn's Flying Lead reaction is taken from the Disruptive Approach where it's known as Painful Disruption, which I discussed over on this post here.  I've left it as-is per the core rulebook, but the ability really is quite bad as written.  If you want a slightly more effective Gunn I'd suggest using my fix from the other post, which changes the ability text to the following:

Flying Lead (I) When you are Attacked by a hero with one or more penalties, that hero takes damage equal to total value of all their penalties.

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