Seventh and final member of the Syracuse Seven hero team, who are finally done being ported over from the Tiny d6 Supers system. Telepathic team leader, at least officially speaking. He certainly does all the paperwork.
Agent Augur
"John Smith" had his old identity officially erased when he volunteered for the enhancement program that made him into Agent Augur, and there's little room in his new life for anything but his work now. That work was meant to be as an intelligence agent, a super-spy who could use his induced telepathy to ferret out secrets and detect hostile schemes before they could come to fruition. That plan went by the wayside. He was still finishing his training when several new international agreements were signed and his kind of "work" was officially banned and disavowed.
Making the best of a bad deal, the shadowy agency that had recruited him gave a new task - acting as government liaison and coordinator for the hero team he now works with. This put him in the awkward position of needing to fight alongside (and against) supers who could bench press a car, throw lightning and bounce bullets off their chests, something all the mind-reading in the world wouldn't help much against. Still, he keeps his head down and does his best, usually dealing with henchmen or squishier villains while his allies deal with the bigger threats. He's also a good "face" for the team, dealing with local law enforcement, politicians and new media with some aplomb thanks to his casual and quite unethical mind reading.
Agent Augur habitually uses his telepathy to say and do the right thing in social situations, but it's debatable how much of that stems from a desire to be liked and how much is just manipulation. Whichever it is he's pretty subtle about it, although if he's ever forced to work without his psionic edge his teammates may wonder why he seems so "off" all of a sudden. With villains and criminals he's much more open about his prying.
Description: Tall, powerfully built man of Irish descent, usually dressed in nondescript clothing appropriate to the setting. He looks good in anything from a tuxedo to a old flannel shirt, but does his best to avoid drawing attention when he can. When working with his hero team he adopts an unmarked set of urban camo fatigues with black combat boots. He has a deep but soft voice normally, although he can do a fine "drill sergeant" routine when he needs to.
Gender: Male Age: 32 Height: 6'1" Eyes: Green
Hair: Red Skin: Caucasian, Heavily Freckled Build: Athletic
Background: Military Power Source: Cosmos Archetype: Psychic
Personality: Arrogant Health (G/Y/R): 28/21/10
Powers: Suggestion d10, Telepathy d10, Animal Control d6
Qualities: Alertness d10, Self-Discipline d10, Investigation d8, Leadership d8, Psychic Super-Spy d8, Technology d8
Status: Green (28-22) - d10 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d6
Abilities:
Green
Mental Demand (A) Attack using Suggestion. Hinder the target using your Min die.
Principle of Exorcism (A) Overcome entities or elements from another dimension. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What is (literally or figuratively) coming back to haunt you? Major twist: What has been allowed to enter the world? RP: You can detect the subtle indications of otherworldly influences and disembodied intelligences in an event.
Principle of Self-Preservation (A) Overcome to get yourself out of immediate danger. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: Who suffers because of your caution? Major twist: Are you willing to lay down your life to save others? RP: You value your own survival more than most superheroes. You will never be caught fully unaware in a situation where your life is at stake.
Synchronized Actions (A) Boost using Telepathy. Until your next turn apply that bonus to all hero Attack or Overcome actions.
Yellow
Offensive Synchronization (A) Attack using Telepathy. Until your next turn Boost all nearby heroes using your Min die. Apply that bonus to all Attack or Overcome actions they take.
Contact Control (A) Boost or Hinder using Suggestion. Apply that mod to multiple close targets.
Mind Crush (A) Attack one target using Telepathy. Use your Max die. Hinder that target using your Min die. That penalty is persistent and exclusive.
Domination (A) Attack a minion using Suggestion. If that minion would be defeated, you control its next action and then it is removed. Otherwise, Hinder that minion using your Min die.
Red
Inversion Response (I) At the start of your turn, change any penalty into a bonus.
Lasting Domination (A) Select a minion. That minion is now entirely under your control and acts at the start of your turn. You may release control at any time, and also lose control if you are defeated. At the end of the scene, that minion is defeated.
Synaptic Acceleration (A) Boost another hero using Telepathy. If that hero has already acted this round, use your Max die and that hero loses Health equal to your Min die. That hero acts next in turn order.
Out
Subconscious Demand (A) Hinder an opponent by rolling your single Suggestion die.
Tactics
Agent Augur has been trained not to throw his life away needlessly and has very realistic expectations of his chances of winning a physical fight against your average supervillain. He's glad to let his more powerful teammates do the brawling while he supports them with psychic powers and team coordination. In Green Synchronized Actions is his go-to support ability, amping up the whole team on offense and heroic Overcomes. He can also use Mental Demand to harm and hamper a foe when caught alone, or his Principle of Self-Preservation to get out of that kind of situation and find help. His unusual sensitivity to disembodied intelligences is represented by Principle of Exorcism, making him strong at opposing such entities and their eerie influences.
The Yellow zone grants Offensive Synchronization, a variant team Booster that lets him deal some damage of his own while trading off some reach and raw power. Mind Crush is an upgrade of his Green offensive ability. Contact Control is a versatile multi-target mod generator that serves as a close combat move, usually pooled with Psychic Super-Spy to represent his training in martial arts. Domination lets him briefly turn defeated minions against their allies as he puppets them around.
Once in the Red zone "John" essentially stops fighting personally and relies on both his allies and enemies instead. Lasting Domination lets him seize control of minions, potentially building his own squad if given time to do so. Synaptic Acceleration Boosts another hero and lets them immediately take a second turn in the round. Inversion Response lets his mental meddling turns penalties to bonuses for free. His lackluster Health and lack of defenses and healing make it hard to last long in Red, although he may be able to slip away from danger using Principle of Self-Preservation.
Even when Out embedded suggestions continue to hinder his foes with Subconscious Demand.
Design Notes
The original Tiny d6 Supers Agent Augur was very much a one-trick pony in combat, and it wasn't even a very good trick because the Controller archetype is just plain bad at what it's meant to do. The SCRPG port is a bit more versatile but still mostly revolves around single-target Attacks and group mods. Probably most useful doing team Boosts, and can turn minions against their allies pretty efficiently if the Seven's sweepers don't just KO them all. The build has a real durability problem and lacks reactions, but the guy's supposed to be avoiding the worst of the fighting and helping his teammates do the hard fighting.
Worth noting that his "Arrogant" personality might be better described as painfully overconfident, as he does his best to channel the spirit of James Bond - or perhaps Derek Flint - when he can. He can also be a little too quick to order people around due to his official connections, whether its his team, law enforcement, or civilians endangering themselves. His Principle of Self-Preservation isn't as cowardly as it implies, he's just not willing to sacrifice himself in a futile display of bravado when slipping away might let him foil the villain later. His espionage training is all about accomplishing the mission, not glory-hunting.
Augur also has a painful sensitivity to disembodied intelligences. Whether they're astral projections, ghostly spirits or beings of pure energy, immaterial mentalities are a jarring discordancy to his psionic senses. He complains of headaches and nosebleeds when such entities are in the vicinity (which may give away their presence) and his Principle of Exorcism makes him good at dealing with them and their associated phenomena. Artificial intelligences hosted on hardware like a computer or a robotic body don't cause him problems, though.
As an aside, I'd like to make note of the fact that the Psychic archetype grants an Esoteric principle, but the category has few if any choices at all that feel like they were written with mentalists in mind. Inner Demon is passable at best, and Future might work for a precognitive, but that's kind of it for a plain old modern-day human with psychic powers. This is definitely a case where I'd happily let a player create their own Principle or take one from a different category if they needed to to fit a character concept.
There we go, finally caught up with the Syracuse Seven! Agent Augur I was already familiar with, but it was interesting to see the rest of the team. My favourite would have to be KC Clown, since I'm a sucker for clowns and cartoons, but they're all a colourful cast of characters.
ReplyDeleteSince Agent Augur's been ported over to the Second-String 'verse, do you picture the rest of the team coming along with him? Or do you prefer to keep the two separate?
Up to you. I think I've made a couple of IC references to having been working with a team out in Syracuse but nothing detailed. If you want to use them feel free, although they've probably had some membership changes if Augur's down in NYC these days. The intent behind the team was for it to be a proving ground where people could get some experience in a relatively low-threat environment before eventually moving up to a team in the "Major Leagues" or a solo career instead.
DeleteThey were also my demo game pregens for Tiny d6 Supers, which...did not go over great. So they haven't seen much use in either that system or Sentinels, where the port was mostly an experiment in game mechanics. That worked pretty well, anyway.
And yeah, KO Clown would have been my first choice to play too, but we already had BIG as a defender and I wanted to try a controller just because of how maligned the archetype tends to be. It's not like I actually dislike any of the Syracuse Seven, after all.