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 You Try 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 d6 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 firearms 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 Loafing 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 to sapient furniture, 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.  The heroes 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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Deadeye Mouse, Another Cartoon Villain

Have I mentioned I'm a big miniatures painter as well as dabbling in TTRPGs?  This fine villain is directly inspired by an old TOON miniature released way back in 1985.

Deadeye Mouse

Deadeye Mouse is the result of one of Mister Mean's schemes that didn't get quite as completely foiled as usual.  While he failed to turn the city's population into mice as planned, one of his human henchmen was permanently transformed into a cartoon mouse in the process, scrambling his mind quite thoroughly in the process.  He still works with Mister Mean pretty regularly, although he's also been seen in the company of petty criminals and former fellow henchmen.  Some of the less stuck-up mastermind-type villains have also hired him as muscle in the past.  La Chatarrera is particularly fond of him and considers his manically destructive sense of humor an absolute scream.  He's very economical as hench-villains go, owing to taking cheese as payment.

Unlike Mister Mean and his nemesis KO Clown, as a modern creation Deadeye mouse never goes monochromatic out of nostalgia.  He's still bound by the same cartoon logic and physics they are, and his formerly human mentality (such as it was) has been largely lost.  Despite packing a very large gun the violence he employs it for is strictly comedic with no lasting harm done to living beings.  Given the amount of damage he can dish out your heroes will probably be happy about that, and regular police are even more thankful about it  He can cause quite a bit of property damage though, and in a pinch he can conjure up cartoon dynamite and other nonsense just like his animated creator can.      

Description: An anthropomorphic albino cartoon mouse, wearing a pair of red gloves and smoking a cigar.  His absurdly huge revolver is ever-present except when it's funnier for it not to be.

Gender: Male            Age: Unkown            Height: 3'6"         Eyes: Pink

Fur: White               Nose: Pink              Build: Anthropomorphic Mouse

Approach: Specialized                     Archetype: Fragile

Health:  15 + (5 x H)

Powers: Cartoon Handgun d10, Agility d8

Qualities: Ranged Combat d12, Acrobatics d8, Former Criminal Turned Into A Cartoon d8 

Status: Green Zone Health - d10 / Yellow Zone Health - d8 / Red Zone Health - d6

Abilities:

Blazing Away (A) Attack up to three targets using Ranged Combat.  Use your Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second, and your Min die against a third.  

Cheese It! (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single status die.  If the damage is reduced to zero, you may move anywhere in the scene.

Deadeye Shot (A) Attack using Cartoon Handgun.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Shoot and Scurry (A) Attack using Ranged Combat.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Defend yourself using your Mid die.

Tricky Little CENSORED (A) Attack one target using Acrobatics.  Use your Max + Min dice.  That target cannot Defend or use reactions against this Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

Master of Total Chaos (I) Automatically succeed at an Overcome when you throw out all the rules during a situation that is spiraling out of control.

Tactics

Deadeye Mouse is a classic "glass cannon" type that pumps out damage fast but falls to pieces even faster if he starts getting hurt in return.  Against multiple foes he'll spam Blazing Away at first before switching to Shoot and Scurry to concentrate on whoever seems most vulnerable.  If a hero displays strong defensive tricks he'll use Tricky Little CENSORED to bypass them while relying on Cheese It! to minimize the damage he's taking.  He usually won't use Deadeye Shot until his Health reaches the Red zone where the self-Hinder will be minimized, although he might panic and use it in Yellow instead.  There's really not much to running him, just a damage race between him and the PCs.

His upgrade ramps up his damage quite a lot and lets him either spread damage around more or focus down one target faster, and his mastery reflects the fact that he's become a cartoon and increasingly thinks like one, blazing away at scenic targets to produce implausible but amusing chain reactions.

For what it's worth, Cheese It! is the first rulebook ability I've ever skipped on renaming.  I'm sure you can see why.

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KO Clown & Mister Mean, Animated Cartoon Nemeses

KO Clown is character ported over from a Tiny Supers team I threw together for a one-shot a while back.  He's not a perfect translation of the original but close enough, and I've taken the opportunity to write up his nemesis Mister Mean as well.  I might tackle some of the other members of the Syracuse Seven eventually.  The one-shot went very poorly - the players hated the system, which I did warn them was kind of light - and it would be nice to get some mileage out of the character concepts, at least.

EDIT:  Since posting this, I've also added a third "cartoon character" to my roster in the form of Deadeye Mouse, an occasional flunky of Mister Mean.

KO Clown

KO Clown started out as a character in the 1930s "Clown Town" cinematic cartoon series, where he mostly played the hero by showing up at the last moment to stop the scheme of Mister Mean by bonking him with a hammer.  The shorts weren't the most sophisticated humor even for their era, but became popular enough to get a newspaper strip and later a children's radio program and comic book.  In the late 1940s a young boy named Ricky Little somehow gained the ability to summon KO Clown into our reality by saying the magic word "Okaykayo!" and the two of them spent about five years bonking real-life mobsters, recalcitrant Nazis, mad scientists and Communist spies alongside other peculiar Golden Age heroes.

Ricky disappeared when he was sixteen, the same night that a studio fire destroyed the original prints of the Clown Town shorts and that was the last anyone saw of KO Clown for decades.  Clown Town faded into obscurity by the end of the 1950s, and remained an obscure "lost media" curiosity until 2023 when a forgotten film reel was discovered by a film historian.  As luck would have it, that historian had a ten year old daughter and the magic word worked as well for her as it had for Ricky Little.  It took a while to explain concepts like "child endangerment" to KO Clown, but he eventually accepted that things had changed.  He now works with a minor superhero team rather than an unpowered preteen crimefighting partner.  Many villains hate him with a passion - getting beaten silly by an old-fashioned cartoon is embarrassing - but he's actually got his fans even in the supercrime community.

But no matter how busy things get, he still makes time to visit little Susie and always comes when she calls out "Okaykayo!"  Her father is still digging into KO Clown's past, and there are some things buried there that might be awkward for everyone involved.  If KO Clown can manifest here in the real world, why not other cartoon characters like Mister Mean?  And what happened to Ricky Little?

Description: A cartoon clown.  Tall, gangly, rubber-limbed, wearing bright blue pants, a canary yellow shirt with big red buttons, white suspenders and gloves, and enormous red clown shoes.  Frequently carries the tools of his trade, with his powers letting him conjure an endless variety of pies, seltzer bottles, jugglers' clubs, rubber chickens and similar props out of thin air.  His favorite "toy" is a huge red mallet that's taller than he is.  His clown makeup changes to reflect his emotions, usually glad, sad, or mad.  Sometimes he goes all monochrome just for the sake of nostalgia.  Has a jolly voice and his movements are weirdly irregular, like early cel animation.

Gender: Male            Age: Clowns Are Eternal           Height: 6'2"          Eyes: Bright Blue

Hair: Neon Green Fright Wig       Skin: Pasty White Under The Clown Makeup     Build: Lanky

Background: Performer               Power Source: Unknown            Archetype: Wild Card

Personality: Jovial                   Health (G/Y/R):  32/24/11

Powers: Strength d10, Transmutation d10, Elasticity d8, Leaping d6, Size-Changing d6

Qualities: Creativity d10, Acrobatics d8, Banter d8, Cartoon Clown d8, Close Combat d8

Status: Green (32-25) - d6 / Yellow (24-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d10

Abilities:

Green

Have A Present! (A) Boost or Hinder using Transmutation.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles you may also Attack using your Mid die. 

Juggling Act (A) Take any two different basic actions using Elasticity.  Use your Min die for each.

Principle of Chaos (A) Overcome a challenge in a way that is truly unpredictable.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: How did you fall in line to get something done?  Major twist: What caused you to become predictable and stale?  RP: No one can predict what you will do next.

Principle of the Clown (A) Overcome a challenge that has already flummoxed a more serious teammate.  Use your Max die.  You and your allies each gain a Hero Point.  Minor twist: Which hero has to bail you out of the predicament your shenanigans have gotten you into?  Major twist: What boring grown-up thing that you ignored is now getting you into big trouble?  RP: When a crisis strikes your teammates, they can just say the magic word and you'll be there to help.  Okaykayo!

Yellow

Bonk!  Bonk!  Ha-ha-ha! (A) Attack using Elasticity.  Use your Min die on one target, your Mid die on a different target, and then Boost using your Max die.

Gifts For Everyone! (A) Boost all nearby allies using Transmutation.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Whomp, Whomp, WHOMP! (A) Attack multiple targets using Strength.  If you roll doubles one ally is also hit by the Attack. 

Red

How Do You Kill A Cartoon? (I) You have no limit on the amount of Reactions you can take.  Each time you use a Reaction after the first one each turn, take 1 irreducible damage or take a minor twist. 

Purely Cosmetic Damage (R) When you are Attacked and dealt damage, you may ignore that damage completely.  If you do, treat the value of the damage as a Hinder action against you instead.

Raining Trouble (A) Hinder any number of targets in the scene using Transmutation.  Use your Max + Min dice.  If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die.

Out

Friends With The Animator (A) Defend an ally by rolling your single Creativity die.

Tactics

KO approaches a fight about a seriously as he does everything else - so, not very much at all.  Only children being put in danger gets him to put on his Mad face, and he'll do his best to save them using Overcomes as soon as possible.  

Barring that sort of thing, he has a lot of options in Green but will usually use Have A Present! to Boost himself by conjuring up a suitably clownish weapon or prop, then do his Juggling Act to take whatever two basic actions seem best with the bonus applied to whichever is more important - or funny.  If there's an opening for an amusing Overcome he'll do that instead, especially if it's unpredictable enough to use Principle of Chaos or show up a more dour teammate with Principle of the Clown.

In Yellow, Whomp, Whomp, WHOMP! offers a strong and only ever-so-slightly risky way to scrub off minions, especially if he has bonuses to use with it.  He can easily set that up himself with Bonk!  Bonk!  Ha-ha-ha! to hit a couple of targets and generate a solid bonus, or he can pass the bonus to an ally who needs it more.  He can also exert himself to hand out Gifts For Everyone!, giving huge bonuses to all nearby allies at the cost of a small self-Hinder.

In Red he almost stops taking damage.  Unless an Attacker can ignore reactions, the combination of Purely Cosmetic Damage and How Do You Kill A Cartoon? effectively turns Attacks into Hinders, with the small cost of taking one damage or a twist per Attack beyond the first between his turns.  He may wind up buried in penalties, but it's awfully hard to actually put him Out.  He also gets access to Raining Trouble (his retcon choice) for big penalties on every foe and a fair possibility of doing some damage as well.

If he does go Out he still provides a solid defense for an ally each round thanks to being Friends With The Animator, letting him continue to materialize inconveniences for his foes even while his ghostly clown form hovers over his cartoon tombstone.        

Design Notes

KO Clown actually has kind of a rotten set of dice available but still manages to make it work in play thanks to some efficient abilities.  He's not the hardest-hitting hero ever (nothing above Mid die) but spreads attacks around well even in Green.  He's very good at Boosting both himself and allies right from round one, and even his "small" Green Hinder uses Max, while his Red Hinder option is one of the strongest in the game.  His Red zone defensive combo is pretty silly against most opponents, and if he does go out he's got a solid defensive ability there too.  Principle of the Clown is a reskinned version of Principle of the Sidekick, letting him show up stuffy boring adults, get himself in trouble by behaving childishly, and appear on the scene when most needed by his friends.   

What he does lack is defensive Reactions before Red, although he can Defend a bit while doing something else even in Green.  Generally speaking he doesn't need to worry much about taking damage fast because of the way the brakes slam on in Red, so he can concentrate on throwing mods and multi-target damage around with some impunity.

Conceptually, he's a living cartoon from a 1930s short, and is as pliable as a cartoon of that era should be.  His Size-Changing and Elasticity represents stretch-and-squash animation styles, Leaping covers him literally bouncing around (often stretching his arms to reach farther when one of his bounces falls short), and his considerable Strength is as much ignorance of the Laws of Gravity and Inertia as anything.  

He also has a very strong Transmutation power, which he mostly uses to conjure props out of thin air, as well as occasionally doing things like turning bricks into gingerbread or firearms into pop guns.  Basically if it's something funny he can probably manage it on a small scale, although reality is more resistant to his pranks than celluloid was.  No turning the sun into a big light bulb and flipping the switch off these days.  He's particular fond of whipping up giant mallets as impromptu weapons, bouquets of flowers that inexplicably Boost or Hinder the people they're given too, and gift-wrapped presents for any kids in the audience.  He can't conjure up anything really complex or boring (comic books but not a dictionary) and with his 1930s mindset modern things like personal electronics are right out.

Exactly what his abilities look like in game varies, but Whomp, Whomp, WHOMP! usually involves him hitting or stomping the ground so hard it sends out shockwaves, or sometimes clashing giant cymbals if all his foes are airborne (that one should probably get a new name momentarily - Clang, Clang, CLANG! works).  Transmutation-based Boosts and Hinders involving materializing objects (he likes flowers and wrapped gifts and balloons) and tossing or handing them to the target.  Raining Trouble is literally that - miscellaneous items appear and fall on his targets, ranging from enormous water balloons and gigantic pies to (when he rolls doubles) anvils and cartoon weights and the like.

His greatest weakness is "Kissy Stuff" as he puts it.  As a character from a 1930s children's cartoon who has the emotional maturity of a stereotypical ten year old boy, even mild displays of affection throw him off his stride.  Explicit sexual displays are pretty much his Achilles' heel - assuming he even recognizes them for what they are.  He may express concern about catching cooties when fighting female supervillains.

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Mister Mean

Much like his nemesis, Mister Mean was a character from the 1930s "Clown Town" cartoon.  He was the show's principle bad guy, always scheming to take over the town and make its citizens' lives miserable and always stopped in the end by KO Clown.  It's not clear how he's followed the Clown to the real world in the 2020s - is there a rotten little kid behind it? - but he's back to his old shenanigans.  While technically a supervillain, his idea of an ingenious criminal plot tends to be childish, outdated, impractical or all three.  He works very poorly with his peers, many of whom either baffle or secretly horrify him.  His weird powers are useful enough that he does attract all manner of petty thugs as henchmen, although they're more interested in using him as a distraction while they get away with some actual loot - often in bags clearly labeled as such.  To date he's proved impossible to arrest (much less imprison) as he melts away into a puddle of black ink when defeated, inevitably returning in a few weeks or months.

It's quite possible that Mister Mean may only be the first Clown Town villain to manifest.  The shorts did have other lesser baddies and there's obviously some kind of breach in reality revolving around the films.  If the breach widens it may only be a matter of time until there's more criminal silliness going on.  For now it seems Mister Mean is the only one carrying out schemes to counterfeit nickels, steal all the ice cream in the city, and turn everyone into mice.

Description: A cartoon bad guy.  He generally wears a black suit under a black overcoat and a tall, crooked stovepipe hat - also black, of course.  Short and scrawny with a hunched physique and arms so long his spidery hands drag on the ground.  Carries a six foot long fountain pen that he impossibly tucks away in his coat when it's not needed.  His inability grow suitably villainous facial hair is a sore point for him.

Gender: Male          Age: Timeless Classic         Height: 5'0"          Eyes: Red

Hair: Black              Skin: Sickly Green           Build: Hunched

Approach:  Underpowered                 Archetype:  Loner

Health:  20 + (5 x H)

Powers: Transmutation d8, Elasticity d6, Giant Fountain Pen d6, Size-Changing d6

Qualities: Stealth d10, Cartoon Villain d8, Finesse d8, Banter d6

Status: (# of Other Allied Villains) 0 - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 3+ - d6

Abilities:

Even Narrower Escape (I) Whenever you would be reduced to zero or fewer Health, prevent that damage and reduce all of your power dice by one die size.  If this reduces any die below d4 you are knocked out.

General Nastiness (A) Attack multiple targets using Cartoon Villain.  Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn using your Min die.

Ink Siphon (A) Attack using Giant Fountain Pen.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Narrow Escape (R) When you would be Hindered or when an Attack would reduce you to zero Health, reduce the penalty to -1 or reduce the damage to 1.

Take Some Time To Gloat (A) Boost using Cartoon Villain.  Use your Max die.  Hinder using your Mid die.  Attack using your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Boost (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).

Master of Total Chaos (I) Automatically succeed at an Overcome when you throw out all the rules during a situation that is spiraling out of control.

Tactics:

Mister Mean is an old-fashioned cartoon villain.  He's sneaky and underhanded and prefers to prey on the weak - stealing candy from babies is his idea of a good time - but if it comes to a fight he's gleefully violent.  He'll Take Some Time To Gloat to open a scene then use General Nastiness, which usually involves pulling cartoon bombs out of nowhere and chucking them around wildly or fencing with his signature weapon, a giant fountain pen.  Once he starts taking damage he'll use Ink Siphon to skewer an enemy and restore himself by draining their life force, a move that thankfully gets censored into cartoon violence when used on real-world targets.  His Narrow Escape reaction lets him avoid the worst of incoming penalties or cancel out a blow that would otherwise defeat him, and if that's been used up Even Narrower Escape will save him at least once.

With his upgrade his powers are bit stronger, he starts with a lot more Health, and he gets an extra last chance with Even Narrower Escape.  His mastery is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a living cartoon character.

Mister Mean's powers are very similar to KO Clown's, although he favors conjuring up comedically menacing weaponry with Transmutation instead of circus props.  He's particularly fond of big round bombs (usually labelled as such) with sputtering fuses, jagged daggers that don't seem to actually draw blood, blackjacks and occasionally tommy guns when he's feeling like playing gangster.  His signature weapon is a huge fountain pen that he can use to jab people, spray ink, or siphon energy from people - which leaves other cartoons all shriveled and puny but just makes real world folks intensely sleepy.

His greatest weakness is extreme squeamishness about the sight of blood, which (as he puts it) just isn't natural.  "Why are you people all full of red ink?"  

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