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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