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 Scrappy Young Hero. 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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