Karrion Klone, Because "Klone Saga" Would Have Been Even More Nineties

It's tough to say what storyline readers hated most in the nineties, but Spider-Man's Clone Saga is certainly a contender.  A muddled mess that was drawn out far beyond what was originally planned for it, the slog of trying to keep up with an increasingly confused plotline over Spidey's many books of the time ultimately cost Marvel a lot of fans, some of whom never returned.  It also marked one of the early signs of an editorial obsession with Peter Parker's marriage somehow hurting sales - the story was originally supposed to reveal that the married Peter we'd followed for years was actually a clone who would go into retirement with MJ while Ben Reilly took over the mantle of Spider-Man.  It's kind of impressive that Spider-Man survived the Clone Saga with as many readers as he did, and rather depressing to know that future editors and creative teams would make even less popular decisions for the character.  But back in the day the Clone Saga looked like the nadir for poor Peter Parker, so of course it gets a post for Bad Nineties Week.

The villain below got used in a recent one-shot (well, one-and-a half, really) where our heroes got tanged up in an incomprehensible scheme involving cloned villains and both NPC and PC heroes, culminating in yet another ironic death for "mastermind" behind it all when he fell into a vat of genetic deconstruction fluid and melted.

Any similarities to Biomancer are purely because he's fully as goofy as the Jackal ever was - but at least no one spent hundreds of real-world dollars trying to keep up with his ridiculous plots as they sprawled interminably over multiple flagship Marvel titles.

Karrion Klone

This villain has an insanely convoluted backstory that's unlikely to even matter during play.  Originally fringe geneticist Warren Miles, he became a supervillain after the death of a woman he'd been stalking, calling himself the Dhole after the animal whose DNA he spliced into his own for augmented speed and strength.  The Dhole perished fighting a superhero shortly thereafter, only to return courtesy of his automated cloning technology.  This cycle repeated itself multiple times, with his physical and mental condition degrading with each new life.  Eventually he reached his current corpselike appearance and adopted the supranym Carrion Clone instead, becoming obsessed with obtaining DNA from superhumans to find a way to stabilize his condition - and create an army of obedient super-powered clones while he was at it.  More deaths and rebirths followed as he was foiled again and again.

That would be confusing enough, but the current Karrion Klone isn't even native to our universe.  The Drew Williams of Earth-K managed to replace his local doppelganger during his last cloned resurrection, avoiding the usual dimensional stress issues by copying his own mentality into an Earth-Prime klone...er, clone.  Karrion Klone with-a-K has his own backstory that only vaguely resembles the previous version, who may or may not be permanently deceased now.  Sadly, his motivations remain much the same, and his talent for biological mad science is just at remarkable.     

Description: An emaciated figure with spindly limbs and skin the color of moldy meat.  He dresses in a yellow breechclout, clawed gloves with with some kind of gadgetry obviously built in, and a jackal-faced helmet that conceals his twisted features.  Both gloves and helmet incorporate mechanisms for delivering toxins, soporifics and stimulants as needed.

Gender: Male     Age: Mid-Thirties     Height: 5'10"     Eyes: Yellow

Hair: None     Skin: Sickly Pale Green     Build: Cadaverous

Approach:  Creator                                Archetype:  Inventor

Health:  25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Inventions d10, Agility d8, Toxic d8, Leaping d6

Qualities: Science d10, Investigation d8, Medicine d8, Technology d8, Self-Made Madman d8

Status: (# of bonuses in play created with abilities) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6 

Abilities:

Klone Guardian (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling the die of one of your nearby lieutenants.  Reduce the die size of that lieutenant by one (minimum d4) unless the Attack's damage was reduced to zero by this Defend.

Murderous Outburst (A) Attack using Toxic and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Destroy all your bonuses, adding their value to the Attack.

Spawn Kopykat (A) Use Science to create a lieutenant of the same size as your Max die.

Stimulant Treatments (A) Boost using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Then Boost using your Mid die.  Either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually in play when not in his lair):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a Vulture Kraft d10 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Escape Plan (R) When Karrion Klone is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than Karrion Klone's current Health, both he and the vehicle escape the scene.  Recovery (A) Roll the vehicle's die.  Karrion Klone Recovers that much health.  Sturdy (I) Gain a +2 bonus to saves against damage.

(alternate upgrade when in his lair)

Mind-Altering Haze (I) +10 Health.  While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' qualities of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size.  In the Yellow zone all of the heroes' qualities of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total).  In the Red zone, all heroes' quality dice are treated as d4.  Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a quality entirely until this upgrade is removed.  If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, create a new friendly minion with a die size equal to the hero's largest power die to represent the brainwashed hero.

Master of Mad Science (I) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.

Tactics

Karrion Klone relies on creating obedient but short-lived clone duplicates of other superbeings whose DNA he's acquired.  The process is swift but requires a genetic "blank" to impress their characteristics onto, meaning Spawn Kopykat requires access to a supply of these proto-organisms from suspension pods in his lair or on board his Vulture Kraft upgrade.  He uses Stimulant Treatments to augment both himself and his lieutenants to build up his status die, while they allow him to use his Klone Guardian reaction for defense.  Karrion Klone's unstable personality drives him to take a direct hand in battle when he has the advantage, using Murderous Outburst whenever he can do so with a status die of d10 or d12.

He'll almost always have his Villainous Vehicle upgrade outside his lair to allow him to use Spawn Kopykat and for self-preservation, and his mastery will be used to further whatever scheme has brought him out from the laboratory in the first place - usually collecting more genetic samples.  Within his lair, he usually has his Mind-Altering Haze upgrade instead, hampering his enemies and even turning them into his puppets.  

His lairs will also have the following challenge, which counts as a separate difficult scene element.  Bearding Karrion Klone at the heart of his operation is a dangerous proposition.

Disable Suspension Pods difficult challenge

Overcome by either method:

Methodical Approach 

• Access Main Controls 0
• Override Security System 00
• Power Down System 0

Special: Only one character can attempt to Overcome this challenge using this method per round.  Each major twist generated while Overcoming this challenge releases a Blank Slate lieutenant into the scene instead of the usual results.

Just Wreck Everything 

• Smash Suspension Pod Banks 0000

Special: Each Overcome success on less than a 12+ result releases a Blank Slate lieutenant into the scene.  Any twist effects still apply separately.

Outcome: When either approach is completed, Karrion Klone can no longer use his Spawn Kopykat ability in this scene.

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Blank Slate d10 lieutenant

Description: Crudely-formed humanoid creature with vague facial features and slimy slug-belly white flesh.  Incapable of speech and only dimly aware of its surroundings, but quick to respond to aggression.

Imprinting: Gain a +2 bonus to Attack actions after the first time you roll a save against damage, pass or fail.  Gain a +2 bonus to Hinder actions the first time you receive a penalty.  Gain a +2 bonus to saves against damage the first time your die size degrades.

Surprise Assault: When you first appear in a scene, you act next in the initiative sequence.

Kopykat variable, usually d10 lieutenant (see Spawn Kopykat)

Description: Indistinguishable from a known hero or villain, including one of the PCs.

Dependent: Can only be created with Spawn Kopykat as long as there's an active Vulture Kraft lieutenant or Disable Suspension Pods challenge in the scene.

Power Emulation: Select two or three abilities from those found on pages 287-289 of the core rulebook, choosing ones that best duplicate the original's capabilities.

Design Note

The Klone Guardian ability is a renamed homebrew taken from a previous post.  You could drop it in favor of the Creator approach's Summon Mob ability to allow him to deploy minions in the form of more basic and unstable clones (possibly of himself) but he won't have much synergy with them.  It will leave him with no defensive reaction so his lackeys will need to spend actions protecting him with Defend and Hinder actions.

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Ang-Gorr, A Shameless Ripoff

Our next installment in Bad Nineties Week is another staple of the era, the dreaded transparent ripoff.  When you can't get the actual owners of a character to let you work on their book, the next best thing is to make a thinly-veiled copycat and go to town with it, calling it an homage when confronted about it and maybe changing a name or a few details when the C&D letters start coming in.  This happened often enough that I had trouble finding a way to parody it without imitating an actual example, but in the end I settled on this hulking fellow as a reasonable approximation.

Despite probably being considered a hero by the publisher, I've done him up using villain rules since: 

• He's phenomenally destructive
• When he shows up in a scene he's likely to be confused about who's on his side anyway, so fighting both heroes and villains is a likely outcome
• He's marginally more useful for a regular campaign where you aren't parodying 90s trash this way

Ang-Gorr

Once a timid and unassuming nuclear physicist, Bradford Weiss was transformed into the hulking rage-monster Ang-Gorr after being caught in the test explosion of an alien WMD recovered from one of the wrecks stored at Area 51.  As Ang-Gorr he's working off decades of repressed resentments and feelings of inadequacy while living out his long-suppressed power fantasies, only rarely cooling off enough to revert to his original persona.  While Brad spends a great deal of his (linited) time as a mere mortal bemoaning his fate and denying that he has any control over his brutish alter-ego, he seems suspiciously quick to put himself in situations where his adrenaline will spike again and cause him to transform back into Ang-Gorr.  Of course, that may stem from the fact that both versions of himself have a massive price on their heads from various interested parties, and Ang-Gorr is much better at surviving confrontations with bounty-hunters, jumpy lawmen and mysterious men in black suits than some bookworm of a scientist.

Metatextually, Ang-Gorr is a blatant ripoff created by an artist who mostly wanted to draw big dumb fights and spectacular destruction without having to waste too much time on character development, dialog, plot, or any of the other boring stuff.  This led to him churning through writers for several years before finally taking up the job himself, which led to ever-shaky sales tanking completely and him abandoning the book for greener pastures.  This was followed by a brief period where a pair of A-list creators unexpectedly took over the character and managed to do a shockingly good homage to the original hero behind the ripoff.  While the "new" Ang-Gorr was widely praised for displaying loving grasp of comics history and sales skyrocketed to unheard-of levels, things couldn't last.  Jealous, the original creator came storming back, demanding to take over again before the new guys "loused things up" any further.  He got his wish - and the series was cancelled for good within six issues.

Description: A hulking over-muscled brute, lantern-jawed and broad-shouldered, glowing from within with a brilliant green light that intensifies as his anger mounts.  He wears nothing but a tattered pair of denim shorts and his roaring voice is nearly incoherent with rage.

Gender: Male     Age: 45     Height: 7'2"     Eyes: Bloodshot Red

Hair: Jet Black     Skin: Glowing Firefly Green     Build: Musclebound Hulk

Approach:  Overpowered

Archetype:  Formidable (Weakness: Calming Down By Any Means)

Health:  60 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d12, Leaping d10, Nuclear d10

Qualities: Close Combat d8, Hulking Menace d8, Fitness d6

Status: No Weakness Penalties - d12 / Both Penalties & Bonuses - d8 / Only Weakness Penalties - d4

Abilities:

Blind Fury (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Hinder yourself using your Max die.  Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Rad-Spike (A) Boost using Nuclear.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Remove all penalties on yourself.

Rage Radiation (A) Boost using Nuclear.  Use your Max die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Also, Attack with your Mid die.

Shockwave (A) Attack multiple targets using Strength.  Use your Max die.  Hinder each target using your Mid die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Contagious Wrath (I) +10 Health.  While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' qualities of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size.  In the Yellow zone all of the heroes' qualities of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total).  In the Red zone, all heroes' quality dice are treated as d4.  Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a quality entirely until this upgrade is removed.  If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, create a new friendly minion with a die size equal to the hero's largest power die to represent the enraged and irrational hero.

Master of Superiority (I) As long as you are manifesting an effect related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.

Tactics

A straightforward brawler, Ang-Gorr augments his incredible physical power by amping himself up using self-generated Rage Radiation and shedding any attempts to calm him down with a quick Rad-Spike.  Once good and mad he uses Shockwave to deal with groups of enemies, and anyone who seems particularly resilient drives him into a Blind Fury.  Ang-Gorr's radioactive energy can also instill berserk rage in others, but he rarely spares the time and attention to aid his allies this way - and many of them have no desire to be driven into a furious rampage anyway.

When his energies are at their peak they can bleed mind-altering rage into all those around him as represented by his upgrade.  His mastery reflects his peerless physical might.

Trivia

There are so many different ways to misspell "anger" already being used for existing published characters I had to resort to hyphenating one of them for an original supranym, and even at that I'm not positive I managed to avoid duplication.  At least this variant will sound pretty good if the character gets revived for a story where he's randomly a barbarian or gladiator or something - but what are the odds of that? 

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Savager, An Edgy Nineties Villain

Continuing Nineties Week here on the blog, we have a predictably edgy supervillain that would have been very popular with many of the less consistent artists of the era. 

Savager

Drew Fields was a petty criminal and drug addict until he sampled the latest batch of Supe and wound up with an incredible morphic physique and some serious mental issues.  Quickly re-inventing himself as the mercenary supervillain Savager, he's garnered a reputation as sadistic but effective muscle willing to do anything at all for money - including performing in a number of extremely unpleasant underground pornographic films under the moniker Mister Phantastic.  His new form requires much larger doses of his drugs of choice to reach the highs he's after, and most of his new-found income goes toward feeding his addictions.

Meta-textually, Savager was the creation of an artist whose inability to stick to character models was as well-known as his lousy anatomical drawing skills.  A villain whose look changed from panel to panel and never had to look quite human was the perfect solution to these inadequacies.  Making Savager an edgy sadomasochisic porn star that was also an obvious jab at a competitor's hallmark character ensured him a degree of popularity with some readers.  Following the collapse of the Speculator Boom, Savager's creator spent the next few years earning a marginal living self-publishing the adults-only "Savager XXX" and "Lady Savager Gone Wild" books and drawing commissioned art of his most successful characters ever.  He eventually left the industry altogether, moving on to CPA work after being bankrupted by a lawsuit over the "Mister Phantastic" thing.

Description: Never looks quite the same from moment to the next, and even when passing for a normal human his anatomy looks weirdly off, with skewed proportions and unnatural posing.  In combat he's a nightmare of bony spurs, flashing claws and snapping jaws in places there shouldn't be jaws.  His arms lengthen and divide into squirming tentacles while his size fluctuates from merely large up to a hulking brute the size of a panel truck.  His voice is the only real constant, speaking in a surprisingly high-pitched tenor with a tendency to giggle uncontrollably when hurting people.

Gender: Male     Age: Twenty-Something     Height: Variable, base 6'4"     Eyes: Variable

Hair: Variable        Skin: Variable, base Caucasian     Build: Wildly Variable

Approach: Bully                         Archetype: Guerilla

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Shapeshifting d10, Elasticity d8, Size-Changing d8

Qualities: Acrobatics d8, Alertness d8, Bloodthirsty Maniac d8

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 4+ - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 0-1 - d6

Abilities:

Constrictor Coils (A) Attack one target using Bloodthirsty Maniac.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Defend against all Attacks made by anyone but that target with your Mid die until the start of your next turn.  All damage prevented this way is dealt to the target of this Attack.

Double Trouble (A) Attack two nearby targets using Shapeshifting.  Use your Max die on the first target and your Mid + Min dice on the second.  If either target Defends against the Attack, that Defend works against both Attacks.

Mutable Physiology (I) Reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.

Three-Way Blitz (A) Attack using Bloodthirsty Maniac.  Use your Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second target, and your Min die against a third target.  If you Attack three targets the damage is irreducible.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Group Fighter (I) +20 Health.  When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.

Master Mercenary (I) If you have a contract for a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome when your payment is at stake.

Tactics

Savager's fighting technique relies on rapidly changing size and shape while sprouting natural weaponry and defenses in the form of spurs, fangs, claws, scales and armored plates.  Mutable Physiology makes him very durable and he has no qualms about engaging multiple foes at once.  Against mobs Three-Way Blitz lets him push damage past even the best defenses.  Double Trouble delivers hard hits to two targets at once.  Constrictor Coils is his preferred move against single foes, letting him deal with one enemy while using their allies' efforts against them.

His upgrade ramps up his damage output even further, while his mastery represents an unusually large payout for his murderous services.

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Bad Nineties Comic, A Metatextual Environment

The last couple of one-shots I've played in have been deliberate parodies of the worst excesses of edgy Nineties comics, inspired by a recently-collapsed ongoing game and bad memories of working behind the counter in a comic shop back then - something three of the six of us went through during the peak of the boom-and-crash cycle that killed so many local stores.  In celebration(?) of the worst of that era, I'm dedicating this week to the decade dark side of the Nineties, starting with a meta-textual environment reflecting what it would be like being stuck inside one of the more incompetently-made books from back then.

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Locations

One standout feature of really terrible Nineties books was the lack of backgrounds and a general inability to convey a sense of where any given character was in a scene, or even where a scene was taking place at all.  To reflect this, a scene using this environment should have H-2 (minimum three) locations so that there's some room to spread out but those locations have no special rules and should be as nebulously defined as possible (eg Terrorist Base, Other Part of Terrorist Base, Yet Another Part of Terrorist Base).  Any character can move to any location in a scene using the usual rules, and some twists below can result in involuntary movement during the environment turn.  No matter where a character supposedly is, you can expect them to be shown against a mix of nonexistent and wildly inconsistent backgrounds, sometimes partly concealed by confusing speed lines.

On the plus side, you can always narrate a dramatic entrance by crashing through a window or wall even if doing so makes no sense whatsoever in what passes for a story.  

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Bad Nineties Comic environment

Shallow Writing d10, Sloppy Artwork d10, Sales Gimmicks d10

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Awkward Pose: I don't think legs bend that way.  Roll the environment dice.  Hinder one target using the Mid die.

Less Talk, More Action: No one's buying comics for the story.  Get to fighting!  Roll the environment dice.  Boost using the Min die.  All Attack and Hinder actions gain this bonus until the start of the next environment turn.

(Major Twist)

Another First Issue: Why have just one?  The speculators love first issues!  Reset the scene tracker to the first box in the current GYRO zone.

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Can't Draw Feet: Where'd all this knee-high debris come from?  Roll the environment dice.  Defend all non-flying targets using the Mid die.

First Appearance: What if they're the Next Big Thing?  Don't miss this book!  Add a Hot New Character lieutenant to the scene.

Unexplained Thugs: They tie in to a crossover with a comic that hasn't been published yet and never will be.  Roll the environment dice.  Add Mid die Mystery Goon minions to the scene.

(Major Twist)

What Continuity?: Wait, how did that happen?  Roll the environment dice.  Move Mid die characters from one location to another, shuffling them however you like.  Each character moved Recovers Health equal to the Max die, or increases their die size by one (max d12) if they're a minion or lieutenant.

Red Zone

(Minor Twist)

Our Characters Are Awesome!: We made them ourselves!  Roll the environment dice.  Boost all heroes and villains using the Mid die.

Showcase the New Hotness: This character's going to be HUGE!  We mean it!  Set one Hot New Character lieutenant to a d12 die size.  If there are no environment lieutenants in the scene, add one at a d10 die size instead.

(Major Twist)

Lousy Pacing:  What do you mean we ran out of pages?  Advance the scene tracker by one space. 

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Mystery Goon d8 environment minion

Description: Generic costumed toughs with big guns, random swords and no personalities.  Possibly cyborgs.  Might be aliens.  Could be cyborg aliens.  Why they're here and who they work for is a mystery since it's only explained in a book that hasn't been published yet and probably never will be.  That doesn't make them any less hostile.

We're Here For...Someone:  Treat all non-Mystery Goon targets as enemies.  If you take an actual hero or villain (not just an allied lieutenant or minion) Out of action with an Attack, remove all Mystery Goon minions from the scene as they high five each other and declare that they've completed their mission.  If their victim was a villain they probably abduct them unless there's a pressing narrative reason not to.

Hot New Character d10 environment lieutenant

Description: Brand new character making their first appearance in this book.  Invariably either a chunky over-muscled lout or a gal in a revealing fan service costume, with absurd anatomy either way.  Carries a small arsenal of blades and guns, might even use them sometimes.  Usually over-equipped with random pouches and oversized should pads as well.  If they have a personality beyond being mysterious and threatening it doesn't come through.  While they have individual names, feel free to be inconsistent about using them.  It's easy to confuse Bloodspiller, Bloodcraze, Bloodkill, and Bloodbath with each other, after all. 

Hyperviolence:  When you take an Attack action, ignore Defend actions and reactions protecting your target.

Poorly Defined Motivations:  You treat all other targets as enemies initially.  A hero or villain may attempt an Overcome to change you into their ally until the end of the scene, or until an opposing character succeeds at their own Overcome to change your allegiance again.

Sudden Appearance:  You may always take an action immediately after the environment term you first appear in the scene, and gain a +2 bonus to that action.

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Using This In A Scene

As said above, this is a meta-environment.  It can be used for an cation scene anywhere and in any situation, but the twists are going to produce the hallmarks of a truly bad Nineties comic no matter what the narrative behind the scene is.  From inept creative decisions to random intrusions by unfamiliar characters to erratic pacing you can have it all - depending on which twists the GM decides to use.  Remember that while you can only use each Major Twist once, they don't have to be chosen in their own GYRO zone, which can produce some wild effects if you use Another First Issue late in Yellow or even at the end of Red.

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Bearfoot Bill, Backwoods Cartoon Baddie

Since I did a cartoon environment yesterday, I figure another cartoon villain is a good addition to the rest of the animated characters on the blog.

Bearfoot Bill, Backwoods Bandit

Bearfoot Bill ("It's joke, 'cause I'm a bear and I don't wear shoes anyhow!) is a character who appeared in the 1930's "Clown Town" theatrical cartoon series.  A stereotyped hillbilly bully who just happened to be a bear, he was a minor villain who appeared in half a dozen shorts as a bandit, bushwhacker, bank robber and bootlegger (dealing in fermented honey, of course).  Sometimes he worked alone and sometimes with a gang of smaller bear-bandits but either way he was inevitably sent running back to the hills after being bonked by the series' hero, KO Clown.  Some of his shorts were black & white, others were late enough for color.

The signature elements of Bill's character design were his enormous furry, clawed feet ("They just keep growin' when ya don't wear shoes, and I don't wear shoes 'cause I'm a bear!) and his shotgun, Old Faithful.  This double-barreled sawed-off boom stick was a bit character in and of itself, and sometimes argued with him about when to shoot and who to shoot at.  In some of his cartoons Bill was also able to conjure up jugs of fermented honey, and his empties would litter the ground around him.  

If you're running into him, you've either been pulled into his cinematic reality (using the term loosely) or there's a dimensional breach somewhere and cartoons are getting into the real world.  Thankfully, Old Faithful continues to follow the rules of its own setting no matter where it currently is, so its shells produce cosmetic damage and ink staining rather than horrific injuries.  If confronted with the effects of real firearms on real targets, even Bill will be appalled ("There's red ink and gizzards everywhere!") and Old Faithful will spit out its ammo and flatly refuse to be reloaded until he's had some time to think about what he's been doing with his life.

Description: A chubby anthropomorphic cartoon bear, dressed in worn denim overalls with a red handkerchief in one hip pocket and a battered straw hat on his head.  Carries a double-barreled sawn-off shotgun nicknamed Old Faithful, which speaks in a voice like a rusty hinge.  Often found with a big jug of fermented honey marked with an XXX, which he can conjure from nowhere when he wants a swig.  He speaks with a backwoods Appalachian accent in a gruff, growly voice.

Gender: Male     Age: Public Domain Character     Height: 6'6"     Eyes: Black

Fur: Brown       Skin: Covered In Fur       Build: Portly Cartoon Bear-Man

Approach: Bully                     Archetype: Predator

Health: 40 + (5 x H)

Powers: Old Faithful d10, Presence d8, Strength d8

Qualities: Banter d8, Cartoon Bandit-Bear d8, Imposing d8

Status: (# of Enemies Engaged) 0-1 - d10 / 2-3 - d8 / 4+ - d6

Abilities:

Both Barrels (A) Attack two nearby targets using Old Faithful.  Use your Max die on the first target and your Mid + Min dice on the second.  If either target Defends against the Attack, that Defend works against both Attacks.

Don't You Try Nothin' Funny (A) Hinder one target using Presence.  Use your Max die.  The penalty created lasts until your next turn, and while it lasts the target cannot use reactions and cannot benefit from Defend actions. 

Scary Bear (A) Boost yourself using Presence.  If there are any heroes with Health in the Yellow zone, use your Mid + Min.  If there are any heroes with Health in the Red zone, use your Max + Mid + Min dice.

Take A Swig of Liquid Courage (A) Boost yourself using Banter.  Use your Max die.  This bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Defend yourself against all Attacks using your Mid die until the start of your next turn.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Mook Squad +0 Health.  Gain Get In There, Boys! (A) Replenish your Bandit-Bear minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.

Boss Bandit (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.

Tactics

As a bandit Bearfoot Bill is mostly after valuables, although as a cartoon hillbilly bear his definition of "valuable" includes honey, moonshine, other folks' livestock, and pretty much anything in a bag with "swag" or a dollar sign on it.  He prefers bushwhacking lone victims when possible, but he's both greedy and a knucklehead so tackling a whole team of superheroes isn't out of the question.  He'll usually start a scene by using Take A Swig of Liquid Courage, which he'll repeat whenever the buzz wears off due to the persistent bonus being removed.  After that he'll try threatening a victim with Don't Do Nothin' Funny (which sounds really menacing to his fellow cartoons) followed by unloading on them with his double-barreled sawed-off shotgun using Both Barrels.  Once his opponent(s) are worse for wear he'll use Scary Bear to Boost himself further, using bonuses for comedic Overcomes as the opportunity arises.

Bearfoot Bill sometimes shows up leading a band of fellow bear-bandits that help him on heists, which are represented by both his upgrade and mastery.

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Bandit-Bear d8 minion

Description: Cartoon bear-people dressed like hillbillies.  At bearly three feet tall they'd be kind of adorable if it weren't for the comedically oversized shotguns and pistols they're brandishing menacingly.  Good thing they fire cartoon bullets, but the ink stains are hard on costumes.   

Way Too Much Gun For A Little Bear: Whenever you take an Attack action, gain a +2 bonus.  Then, reduce your die size by one.  If this would take you below d4, you are defeated.

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Stuck In An Old Cartoon, An Animated Environment

I've done a few characters that are literally living cartoons, and heroes wind up in the weirdest situations sometime, so here's an environment set inside a cartoon.

The Basics

This environment represents the kind of twists your heroes might encounter while caught inside a 1930s theatrical cartoon, the kind of thing coming out of Fleischer Studios, Warner Brothers or Walt Disney (among others) during the era.  They're often a bit surreal, always wacky, and feature quite a lot of slapstick humor and comedically absurd violence.  Many also have impressive soundtracks backing up the animation, with entire series of musical animations being made in this era.

The twists below are necessarily fairly generic and can be skinned many ways.  You could leave the plot of the cartoon playing out similarly loose, but it might be more effective to actually watch a few old shorts and pick one to loosely define the action, picking and tailoring twists to suit.  The heroes and other intruders from outside the film aren't bound to stick to the script and may be left behind by the plot to brawl between themselves "off-camera" but there will still be intrusions from the animation in the form of twists, and as the scene tracker advances the end of the cartoon comes nearer and nearer.

I keeping with the zany tone of these cartoons, many of the twists below blatantly break the guidelines in the rulebook.  There are also a lot of Boosts on this menu, many of which affect both heroes and villains (but not lieutenants or minions), which will tend to ramp up the action for both sides.  Overall it's more hero friendly than many environments (or at least more neutral about whether villains are at risk as well) but it's still far from safe.  The GM has a lot of leeway on picking targets here, and should consider what would be the funniest result in the long run as often as not. 

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Stuck In An Old Cartoon environment

Cartoon Violence d12, Slapstick Humor d8, Fun For All d6

Special:  Going Out in this environment never, ever results in death or permanent injury.  When you get out of the cartoon - if you get out - your Health remains the same as it was, but you won't be bleeding or battered, just confused and dizzy from the experience.

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Animation Glitch: It's just a minor glitch.  Roll the environment dice.  Hinder one target using the Mid die.

Victim In the Making: Might want to keep an eye on this one, heroes.  Add one Hapless Chump environment minion to the scene.

(Major Twist)

Theme Song:  Everybody sing along!  All heroes and villains Boost themselves by rolling their Creativity die (use the default d4 if they don't have Creativity). Alternately, you may use your unique  roleplaying Quality if the GM feels it fits the situation.   

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

A Plague of Pests:  Where'd they come from?   Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Nuisance environment minions equal to the Mid die to the scene.

Big Heavy Thing:  That looks useful.  Roll the environment dice.  Boost one target using the Max die.

Improbable Peril:  Look out, you dope!  Start a timed Improbable Peril challenge.  Successes: 0  Timer: 0  Triggered: Remove one Hapless Chump environment minion from the scene.  If there are none in play, roll the environment dice and deal one hero damage equal to the Max die. 

(Major Twist)

Speed Up the Projector:  Pick up the pace!  Roll the environment dice.  Boost all heroes and villains using the Mid die.  These bonuses are persistent but not exclusive.  Ooh, special.

(Minor Twist)

Stop Lying Around:  Rub those X's out of your eyes and get back in there!  Roll the environment dice.  One hero who was Out returns to action with Health equal to the total of the Max+ Mid + Min dice.  They take their turn next in the initiative sequence.

What Are We, Chopped Liver?:  No, we're Nuisances, and proud of it!  Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Nuisance environment minions equal to the Mid die to the scene.  Then each Nuisance in the scene takes a turn even if they've already taken a turn this round.    

(Major Twist)

That's All, Folks!:  Whoa, are those the end credits?  Roll the environment dice.  Attack all targets using the Max die.  Then, Boost any heroes who haven't gone Out using the Mid + Min dice.

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Hapless Chump d6 environment minion

Description: These are the poor schmucks the heroes are supposed to keep safe from danger.  They're usually cute and harmless and attract baddies like a magnet, so good luck with that.  Sometimes they're insufferably obnoxious as well.  They're friendly to the heroes, but actually helpful?  Not very often.

Don't You Dare!: Whenever you are dealt damage, a nearby hero may use a reaction to take that damage instead.  You cannot take Attack actions.

Wilhelm Scream:  If you would be defeated or otherwise removed from the scene, first roll your die.  Deal every hero target that much guilt damage.

Nuisance d6 environment minion

Description: These pests come in a variety of forms, from angry bees to barking dogs to oblivious nitwits or sapient furniture who just get in the way, but they're a stumbling block for heroes (and occasionally villains) regardless of specifics.  They're not really on anyone's side, but enjoy targeting any Hapless Chump minions in the scene.

Just Plain Annoying: You may only take Attack or Hinder actions.

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Possible Ways To Use This

A few possible plots leading to the environment, with scene-building suggestions:

Aw, Lighten Up!:  A powerful reality-twister decides the heroes need to lighten up and intervenes in a confrontation with one or more villains, unceremoniously dumping all of them into its favorite cartoon while offering prizes for those who play along best.  The scene acts as a gauntlet of sorts, built up out of whatever villains were dragged in with the PCs and filled in with somewhat anachronistic challenges appropriate to superhero types:  Rescue Old Lady Warner's cat from a suspiciously animate tree, put out a house fire where both the building and the flames are alive, keep a piano from squashing some poor sap, etc.  Depending on their personalities the villain(s) may play along by trying to rob a cartoon bank or steal candy from babies, or they may just take advantage of the opening to pound on the heroes.  If the heroes manage to finish all their challenges before the scene ends the entity that trapped them here will reward them afterward (narratively, mechanically or both) and they can take any villains that were defeated into custody without further difficulty.  Villains who aren't beaten will escape for now, and might earn rewards themselves if they played along and the heroes didn't stop them.  Defeated heroes wake up aching and confused but physically intact, although they may get a lecture about being disappointments if they didn't entertain the reality-twister sufficiently.

Kidnapped!:  A mad scientist has found a way to send real-world objects and people into celluloid film.  He used his invention to effectively kidnap one or more VIPs and trapped them within an old cartoon, and when the heroes attempted to stop him they were caught in the effect and trapped as well.  Now they need to find the kidnap victim(s) and find a way out before the cartoon plays through to the end - but there are guards stationed within the short to prevent just that kind of meddling.  The scene includes one or more challenges to find the VIP(s) and another, more difficult challenge to effect an escape from within which can't be Overcome until the guards (a mix of lieutenants and minions with a mad science theme - perhaps robots, or characters spliced into the cartoon from other films) are gotten out of the way.  If the heroes are all defeated or the scene tracker runs out before the escape challenge is completed, everything goes dark and the heroes awake to discover they've been spliced into another, much less humorous film.  The mastermind behind this is a fan of 80s horror movies...

Mindscape:  A powerful psychic or mystic ally of the heroes has lapsed into a coma, and they must venture into his mindscape save his sanity by soothing his subconscious mind (and possibly ejecting some mysterious intruder responsible for his condition in the first place).  The first layer of his mental architecture is a childhood memory of his favorite cartoon, but as the heroes traverse the memory they find it filled with foreign elements - personifications of adult traumas or complete outsiders from something else's mind.  The scene budget is spent on dangerous but fragile foes that strike a jarring discord with the cartoony environment, which is more hostile to the villains than usual.  The PCs win by either defeating all their enemies or staying in action until the tracker runs out and the next layer of the mindscape rises to the surface, with any remaining foes fading away and a montage scene beginning.  Heroes who went Out will have the chance to heal, but they suffer a minor twist that carries forward into the next action scene.  If the whole team was defeated, the scene still moves to a recovery montage but they suffer major twists instead.

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