Tweaking Your Characters For Bad Nineties Comics

This week of posts started off with an environment so let's conclude the series with something to make it more useful.  It's easy enough to make characters that neatly fit into Nineties tropes from scratch, but what if you want to use existing characters "native" to other eras (or just better books from the decade, of which there were many) who've managed to get drawn into the absurdity of a really bad Nineties book?  You could leave them as-is and play into how they stand out like a sore thumb compared to the trash fire they're surrounded by, or the GM could have them adapt to fit in better.  These changes are likely to be temporary with the character reverting to normal after they get out of the environment, but maybe the change is more lasting - or perhaps the player chooses to make it last next time they hit a collection if they've always wanted to be truly rad and awesome.

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Bad Nineties Character Conversion Rules

Dire Dialog: Why are we all grimacing?  Bad Nineties characters are incapable of social interactions that don't involve some measure of either menace or snark.  If you have any Social Qualities, the one with the largest die size is now Imposing.  If you have at two Social Qualities, the one with the second largest die size is now Banter.  If you have three or more Social Qualities (what are you, a D&D bard?) any beyond the first two are removed and you may increase the die size of either Banter or Imposing by one (max d12) for each Social Quality removed.  Any abilities keyed to a Social Quality can be changed to key off either Banter or Imposing.

Extreme New Abilities: Because you're awesomer now!  You may choose up to three of the following Green, Yellow or Red zone abilities to replace the same number of existing abilities, each from a matching GYRO zone.  You may not replace Principles this way.

Green

Extreme Luck (I) After rolling your dice pool on your turn but before resolving effects, you may reroll all your dice.

Yellow

Extreme Determination (I) Whenever you would gain a penalty, reduce the value of that mod by one,  If this reduces the value to zero you gain no penalty.

Red

Extreme Action (I) Once per action scene (max twice per issue), after rolling your dice on your turn you may change one die to its highest value.  Then determine your Max/Mid/Min dice as usual.

Whole New Look: Radical styles for radical heroes!  Make any number of cosmetic changes to your character as per page 142.  Signature elements of Nineties character designs include (but certainly aren't limited to):

• Pouches everywhere.  The more the better.
• Shoulder pads.  The bigger the better.
• Spikes, blades, and other inconvenient protrusions.  The sharper the better.
• Brand new name.  Extra credit if it includes the word blood, dark, war, or wild, regardless of whether they're spelled correctly. 
• Exposed skin.  If you're restrained you might just be baring your midriff.  Nineties artists weren't known for restraint.  Often combined with:
• Impractical armor plates.  Preferably not covering any vital areas.
• Walking arsenals.  As many guns and swords as the artist can hang off you.  They don't do anything unless you have powers that suggest otherwise, but they sure look kewl.
• Random cybernetics.  Again, they don't do anything mechanically unless you have powers that suggest otherwise, but just because you're not a Robot/Cyborg archetype doesn't mean you can join in the fun of organ replacement.
• Bad hair.  Superman had a mullet in the Nineties.  Can you top that?  Alternately, there's the surprisingly popular "head on fire" approach.  It's much easier to draw faces when they're a sheet of flame.  Occasionally combined with a fireproof mohawk.  Sometimes it's just your hair that's made of fire.
• Nontraditional dentition.  Even nominally human characters tend to have too many or too few teeth, often pointy enough to get you staked in Transylvania.  Even robots may have fangs.
• Distorted proportions and impossible physiques.  From hulking slabs of neckless muscle with biceps bigger than their head to Barbie doll figures with legs that make up half their total height.  Extra credit if your height is wildly inconsistent from panel to panel.

If your character's new look includes at least three of these elements, gain a Hero Point when the changes are first made.

Design Notes

This is all very silly, and shouldn't be taken too seriously - although really, taking things too seriously was one of the greatest sins of really bad Nineties comics.

And yes, Extreme Action is strictly worse than the Break the 4th reaction in almost every way, but not everyone's a Wild Card archetype.  If your GM is actually still using that one RAW I wish them the best.  That particular ability is getting addressed in some future post along with other some other patches from years of play experience.