A "silly gimmick" villain (notably, spinning, and making other people spin) worthy of the Martian Manhunter, or perhaps Golden Age Flash. Mechanically effective, but visually absurd and based on science so bad that even a grade school reader would question it.
Doctor Whirligig
Wallace Washington Topman is a self-trained physicist and electrical engineer who claims to have discovered a new principle of physics that lets him directly transform linear momentum into rotation, producing what he insists on calling a "green shift" (or for lower energy states, a "yellow shift"). He can also directly invert the momentum of an object approaching one of his "gyrolight" gadgets, causing a "red shift" that repels the object. Absolutely none of this should be possible according to our current understanding of physics. He explains this via his inspiration for his discovery - the study of UFOs he describes as spinning metallic saucers emitting green, yellow or red light as they raced over his house one night.
It's worth noting that every extraterrestrial individual questioned about this "gyrolight principle" insists it's utterly impossible and no known alien technology employs anything like it.
Despite this, his absurd technology does work, letting him casually manipulate momentum to defend himself and move at incredible speeds with apparent freedom from the limits of inertia, spinning wildly the whole time. How he does it and why he isn't rendered helpless by his own high-speed rotation remains unclear, but he does it. Projectiles are sent wildly off course or stopped in their tracks, melee attackers find the momentum of their blows turned against them as they go reeling away in dizzying circles. He can even "ram" victims with the fringes of his "gyrolight field" and transfer part of his momentum destructively to a target, or send everyone within sight spinning madly away. This would all be a fantastic scientific breakthrough - if anyone but Wallace could reliably re-create his results, or even explain how to operate the more sophisticated examples of his genius. Despite being more than willing to explain at length how the "gyrolight principle" works to anyone who'll listen, Topman just can't make anyone else understand, and is widely seen as a fraud or a madman in scientific circles.
Embittered by this steadfast rejection, Topman has adopted the supranym Doctor Whirligig and set out to gain fame and fortune as a super-criminal, spinning down the same path taken by so many other tech-villains in the past. Admittedly, most of them looked significantly less ridiculous while doing so.
Description: A rather thin man wearing a reflective silver full-body "retro-spaceman" suit with accordion joints, moon boots, sturdy gloves and a snug hood that leaves only his face exposed. The suits is studded with small gem-like "gyrolight" lenses. Three larger hooded lenses are arranged in a vertical column on his thin chest, giving him an unfortunate resemblance to a traffic light. When his powers are active all the lenses emit bright rays of green, yellow or red light depending on his current power level. While surrounded by his gyrolight aura he also spins constantly at high rates of speed with his boots just off the ground, darting erratically from place to place like...well, a whirligig. His tenor voice sounds odd, as though he were speaking into a fan - or spinning wildly with his mouth facing away from the listener most of the time.
Gender: Male Age: 32 Height: 5'9" Eyes: Brown
Hair: Light Brown, Pencil Mustache Skin: Caucasian Build: Lean, Large-Headed
Approach: Generalist Archetype: Fragile
Health: 20 + (5 x H)
Powers: Gyrolight Suit d10, Momentum d8, Speed d8, Inventions d6
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Banter d8, Criminal Inventor d8, Acrobatics d6
Status: Green Zone Health - d10 / Yellow Zone Health - d8 / Red Zone Health - d6
Abilities:
Building Momentum (A) Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max die. Recover Health equal to your Min die.
Gyrolight Curtain (R) When an ally is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single Gyrolight Suit die. Boost yourself using the same die roll.
Spinning Away (I) Whenever your personal zone changes, you may immediately move elsewhere in the scene.
Strobing Gyrolight (A) Hinder multiple nearby targets using Gyrolight Suit. Boost yourself using your Max die.
Whirling Whirligig (A) Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max die. Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using your Min die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Villainous Vehicle +15 Health Include a Gyrolight Spinner-Car d8 lieutenant with the following abilities in 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 if the scene is in the Red zone. Escape Plan (R) If the Villain is Attacked roll this vehicle's die. If it rolls higher than the villain's current Health, both the villain and the vehicle escape the scene. Recovery (A) Roll the vehicle's die. The villain Recovers that much health. Sturdy (I) When rolling a damage save, add +2 to the result.
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
Doctor Whirligig never stops moving during a fight, spinning in place like a top even when not zooming around. His mouth never stops either, so expect a lot of monologs whether you want them or not. He'll use Strobing Gyrolight regularly throughout the scene, as well as his Gyrolight Curtain reaction at every opportunity, then re-invest the resulting bonuses in his other abilities. Against groups Whirling Whirligig is his main offensive move with a strong defensive rider (often pumped up with bonuses). When injured or facing single foes he'll use Building Momentum instead for healing, again increased with bonuses. He can move for free with Spinning Away whenever his personal Health zone changes, including when it increases from healing, so expect him to go zipping around the scene quite a lot as long as he lasts.
With his upgrade he's accompanied by his custom vehicle piloted by a trustworthy henchman with a very strong stomach, which (like its creator) has a lot of bells and whistles but isn't the toughest thing in the world. His mastery reflects his mad science talents.
Trivia
Doctor Whirligig was inspired in part by fjur's color-coded villain Sirrush, although I'm pushing the concept to its silliest by having this guy literally glow in the GYRO colors as his power reserves (Health) drop - or climb, if his healing tricks work. When he's defeated his lights literally go out, and it's very appropriate for him to go spinning wildly out of control to smack full-tilt into a wall and knock himself silly.
Because of the way his powers work he absolutely fails at any attempt at stealth unless his opposition is blind. If quizzed about why he doesn't fill out his ROYGBIV bingo card, he'll be quick to explain that pushing beyond the "Blue Boundary" (much less reaching for indigo or violet) is obviously impossible and would rupture the fabric of spacetime by turning everything into antimatter with negative atomic spin. Orange, well, he just doesn't like the color orange.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Doctor Whirligig happily works alongside other villains, but his goofy schtick means he's usually seen as a bit of a loser and can only find D-listers willing to work with him. To compensate he often has a cadre of henchmen equipped with his rather questionable technology backing him up. They rely on conventional vehicles (usually stolen cars or trucks) to get around, since riding in the Gyrolight Spinner-Car makes them puke their guts out in short order.
Topman's Top Men d8 minion
Description: Doctor Whirligig's signature henchmen, dressed in very similar retro scifi outfits (albeit without the spinning thing or the chest lenses) and carrying scifi weapons that vaguely resemble the offspring of a pistol and a traffic signal. Doc has a mild phobia about conventional firearms based on an early experimental failure, which is why his long-suffering lackeys use his unreliable inventions rather than simple guns. Between that and the goofy suits they're very well paid to humor him.
Spin-Pistol: When you Hinder a target you may reduce the penalty you inflict by one and move the target to an adjacent location in the scene.
Stupid-Looking Protective Suit: You gain a +2 bonus to saves against damage unless you roll a one.
This Stuff Works Better For Doc: Whenever you roll a one on your die, treat the roll as a zero and (if it wasn't a save against damage) gain a -2 "Spinning Helplessly" penalty.
No comments:
Post a Comment