New hero PC for a one-shot last weekend. Nice to get some play time in again.
Go-Go Robo
Go-Go Robo is a gynoid duplicate of the Silver Age speedster Go-Go Girl, who died heroically in 1974 while while rescuing an entire town from a disastrous dam collapse. That would have been the end of her story, but her psyche had been secretly recorded shortly before her death by her on-and-off nemesis (more like frenemy, really) the Groovy Gadget-Man. The tech-villain spent over forty years in prison for his last crime spree, apparently having lost the motivation to stage a breakout following Go-Go Girl's death while he was incarcerated. After finally being released, the aging ex-villain recovered the hidden recording and spent his remaining few years and all of his carefully concealed funds building a state-of-the-art gynoid body to house the psyche-duplicate. When he was finished the terminally-ill Gadget-Man staged one last bank heist and let his new creation start (or perhaps re-start) her heroic career by capturing him one last time, passing away peacefully before he even came to trial.
The limitations of early 1970s super-tech mean that Go-Go Robo isn't a perfect mental copy of her organic original, with some rough patches "filled in" by an ultra-modern AI system that also makes her more up-to-date about the present day than a hero who's been dead for fifty years ought to be. The resulting combination is very much a unique individual despite having most of Go-Go Girl's memories, and the Gadget-Man considered her more of a daughter than a replacement for his old heroic sparring partner. The man had some issues, and never got over Go-Go Girl's death.
Go-Go Robo's artificial frame can emulate her predecessor's amazing speed, reaction time, and unstoppable momentum and even improves on her signature fighting style based on acrobatics and funky dance moves. She does less flat-out sprinting than most speedsters and more cartwheels, somersaults and tumbling mixed with hip checks and whirlwind kicks. She also has built-in hard-light hologram projectors that she uses mostly for wardrobe changes but also come in handy for disguising herself. Her height and build do limit her imitation options quite a bit, though.
She doesn't really have a civilian life despite her memories and declines to use her original's real name out of respect for her secret identity, which was never revealed even following her death. When not employing her supranym she generally goes by "Sunny Day" because she likes the vibe.
Description: A slender, athletic young woman who looks more than a bit like Anne Francis. She changes "costumes" (they're actually hard-light projections) frequently using her powers, favoring a snug silver body suit with knee-high boots for active hero work and various retro-hippie fashions otherwise. Her natural form (usually only seen when disabled) is a sleek, almost featureless dull silver mannikin. She has a mezzo-soprano voice and can carry a tune almost as well as she dances.
Gender: Gynoid Age: 21 Height: 5'3" Eyes: Deep Blue
Hair: Honey Blonde Skin: Tanned Caucasian Build: Svelte
Background: Created Power Source: Artificial Being Archetype: Speedster
Personality: Cheerful Health (G/Y/R): 32/24/11
Powers: Agility d10, Momentum d10, Speed d10, Shapeshifting d6
Qualities: Acrobatics d12, Alertness d8, Creativity d8, Hippie Superhero Fembot d8, Finesse d6
Status: Green (28-22) - d10 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d6
Abilities:
Green
Good Karma (I) Whenever you roll a one on one or more dice, you may reroll those dice. You must accept the results of the reroll.
Groovy Moves (A) Attack multiple targets using Acrobatics. Use your Min die. Hinder each target using your Mid die.
Principle of Mastery (A) Overcome in a situation that uses your powers in a new way. Use your Max die. You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: How did your powers fail you in the moment? Major twist: What side effects are you suffering from your powers? RP: You understand the metaphysics of your powers.
Principle of Speed (I) When you successfully Overcome, you may end up anywhere in the current environment. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What physical drawbacks do you suffer from going too fast? Major twist: What critical detail did you speed past earlier that is now coming back to haunt you? RP: You're fast and don't like to waste time. You like to keep moving.
Put On A Show (A) Boost or Hinder using Agility. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, Attack using your Mid die.
Yellow
Practiced Routine (R) After rolling during your turn, you may take one irreducible damage to reroll your entire pool.
Ram-O-Rama (A) Attack multiple targets using Momentum. Use your Max die against one target and your Mid die against each other target. If you roll doubles, take irreducible damage equal to your Mid die.
Shocking Reversal (I) When you would take damage from Electricity, you may Recover that amount of Health instead.
Red
Brush Off (A) Hinder any number of close targets using Acrobatics. Use your Max die. End your turn elsewhere in the scene.
Step Up The Pace (I) You have no limit to the number of Reactions you can take. For each Reaction after the first you use in a round, take one irreducible damage or a minor twist.
Timely Heroics (R) When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend yourself by rolling your single Acrobatics die.
Out
Watch Out! (A) Boost an ally by rolling your single Agility die.
Tactics
Go-Go Robo is a fairly basic speedster with the usual high mobility, some strong multi-target abilities and solid dice-fixing tricks. In Green she has access to a strong and versatile mod generator with Put On A Show, an offensive multi-target ability in Groovy Moves and die rerolls from Good Karma. Principle of Speed makes her very mobile when taking Overcome actions as well as potentially earning two hero points at a time if she can also use her very flexible Principle of Mastery.
Yellow sees her add another dice fixing trick with her Practiced Routine Reaction and potential Health Recovery using Shocking Recovery to invert electrical damage, something she's not shy about exploiting if the environment allows it. Her Ram-O-Rama ability is her primary offensive move for dealing raw damage, and her dice manipulation reduces the risk of rolling doubles to harm herself.
In Red Go-Go Robo she gains a very strong group defensive Reaction with Timely Heroics, which is made even better with Step Up The Pace. Brush Off lets her get in and out of tight situations while hampering foes, and she'll use its bonus movement to get to safety - or a downed power line for healing - if she can.
When Out, her appropriately-named Watch Out! ability lets her provide a continuing source of bonuses to her team.
Design Notes
Go-Go Robo was made for a one-shot meant to be played by a bunch of modern legacy heroes based on Silver Age antecedents, which I think her origin does a fair job with. She (and her original) are about the right level of awkward "we don't understand youth culture" writing that you saw in comics in the 60s and I had a fun time using dated 60s and 70s slang for her dialog, particularly when riffing off the Big Bad (who had time-jumped from 1969 to 2024 himself) and one of the other PCs who was also originally from the 60s (and conveniently immortal).
Mechanically she turned out to be okay, albeit a little limited in her Overcome game. Her dice fixing tricks let me go the whole night without ever having a Min die of one, and I only rolled doubles on Ram-O-Rama once so that was nice. It helped a lot that one of the other heroes had a multi-target Electricity Attack so I could sponge some healing off of being caught in her zaps. Brush Off let me pull a cute trick where I could close in on a clump of foes, Hinder them badly, then move off while running along the subway's third rail for some extra healing from Shocking Reversal, letting me pogo between Red and Yellow twice in one scene.
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