Paycheck, Trust Fund Villain

Proud offspring of some of the worst people to come out late-stage capitalism, the only redeeming feature this villain has is that he's too disinterested to have political aspirations.

Paycheck

Nigel Wake is the scion and sole heir of four generations of highly successful white collar criminals, each of whom added to the family fortune through embezzlement, tax evasion, and a bewildering variety of fraudulent dealings, all without ever serving more than a few years now and then in the most comfortable of prisons.  It was expected that young Nigel would follow their footsteps, but once he inherited his trust fund at 21 he decided to pursue a different path, one more suited to his tastes than sitting in an office manipulating the books in his favor.  He would become a supervillain, and simply steal a new fortune.  Thus Paycheck was born.

Of course, there was no reason not to take advantage of his resources to do so, nor does a gentleman of his social standing do the grunt work.  No, he invested wisely in some defensive gear while exploiting family contacts in the criminal underworld to hire a team of the most reliable villainous allies money could rent before staging his first heist.  That success led to more, and while his contracted crime spree was eventually stopped and most of his hirelings arrested, Nigel himself got away scot free.  Covert legal assistance kept his temporary allies' jail time to a minimum and left Paycheck with a reputation in the supervillain community as a reliable employer and uncommonly rational mastermind type.

Nigel doesn't feel pressed to "work" more often than his (expensive) lifestyle calls for, but when he does Paycheck will recruit a new team, launch another series of financially lucrative crimes, then fade away again to enjoy the fruits of others' labor.  

Description: An anonymous male figure in a sleek suit of fully-enclosed black-and-gold battle armor.  While stylish and visually impressive the suit doesn't seem to actually do much, lacking integral weapons, mobility aids, or heavy armor.  It provides good environmental regulation, modest personal protection and seems to have a potent communication array, while also supporting a bandolier of minor gadgets - none of which, oddly enough, are technically illegal, although some of the self-defense chemical sprays and flashbangs tread pretty close to the line.  The helmet includes a voice modulator and amplifier, usually producing a powerful baritone when ordering around his allies.  

Gender: Male        Age: Early Twenties        Height: 5'11"        Eyes: Chestnut Brown

Hair: Medium Brown, Curly     Skin: Perfectly Tanned Caucasian     Build: Lithely Athletic

Approach:  Tactician                     Archetype:  Squad

Health:  25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Enormous Wealth d8, Presence d8, Gadgets d6, Power Suit d6

Qualities: Persuasion d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Dilettante Supervillain d8, Insight d6

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

Abilities:

Exploitive (I) As long as you have at least one ally nearby, you may reroll all ones on your dice.

I'm Management, Not Labor (A) One ally takes a basic action now, using their Max die and rerolling all ones rolled during that action.

Time To Earn Those Bonuses (A) Boost using Persuasion.  Use your Max die.  That bonus applies to every ally's action until the start of your next turn.

You Owe Me One (R) When another villain is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single status die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, but usually in effect if there's any plausible way for his vehicle to be present - walking to a heist is for the poor):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a Chauffeured Getaway Vehicle d12 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Escape Plan (R) When Paycheck is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than Paycheck's current Health, both he and the vehicle escape the scene.  Recovery (A) Roll the vehicle's die.  Paycheck Recovers that much health.

Master of Profitability (I) If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who pays the price.

Tactics

Paycheck's not interested in getting his own hands dirty during a job, and rarely takes direct action against heroes himself.  He tends to rely on motivating his villainous "contractors" with Time To Earn Those Bonuses at first, selectively switching to I'm Management, Not Labor to grant extra actions to key personnel (or the last ally still standing) when the time seems right.  You Owe Me One helps keep other villains (but not minions or lieutenants) in action longer while rewarding Paycheck with bonuses of his own, while Exploitive offers some dice fixing as long as he has some assistants nearby.  If he finds himself alone in a scene he'll usually simply surrender, expecting his high-power lawyers to keep him from ever seeing the inside of a prison.

His upgrade will be in effect unless there's absolutely no way for him to have an escape vehicle along, and since he can afford super-tech equipment like flying cars, personal submersibles, and even spacecraft he has a lot of options there.  Regardless of its exact form, its abilities play an important part in keeping Paycheck safe and it will usually concentrate on healing or protecting him when possible.  His mastery reflects his skill at picking lucrative targets for villainy, upholding the family tradition of accumulating obscene wealth by shady means.

Design Notes

Of the villains currently on this blog, likely villainous "contractors" for Paycheck to sign up include Ascendant, the Brute Squad, Dead-Beat, Firebug (with or without his daughter in tow), the Mighty Bullfrog, Orb-Master, the Purple Gang, Southpaw, Strongarm, Ultrashock, possibly the Hooligans Three (if they can convince him they're not too young for the job), and the duo Hare & Tortoise.  Paycheck rarely uses mere minions or lieutenants, preferring quality over quantity.

Blog Content Index

The Odds, A Diverse Group Of Unfortunate Villains

A diverse group of villains, each with desperate needs of their own but at least temporarily sharing the same goal.

The Odds

Countless individuals have received superpowers (accidentally or otherwise) from exposure to mad science experiments over the years.  Some of them have gone on to become well known heroes or villains, having won fate's lottery and received potent abilities with few drawbacks - or such vast power that any accompanying drawbacks seem worth the cost.  Not everyone's a winner though, and the Odds are a diverse group of villains who got the short end of the stick when it came to things.  They've banded together in part to support one another's driving needs, although some are more desperate (and more open to manipulation) than others.

Oddment is the group's nominal leader, and they all current follow his goal of acquiring technology for growing them new bodies and transferring their consciousnesses to them.  He knows he's on the clock with a collapse into psychosis impending, but generally puts on a good show of being cool and in charge.

Vestige has devolved from a skilled scientist to a predator desperate to continue her existence by any means.  When well fed she's stable enough to contribute some useful knowledge about the legal side of the scientific community, although bioengineering and mind transfer are far outside her field.  She's discovered an odd resonance with Afterglow's powers, which serve to keep her from fading away more efficiently than others she's encountered.

The Homunculoid is a lost and monstrous bioengineering project.  Oddment has made it promises that it may not even care about.  The thing's motivations are its own and probably not rational at all, but something keeps it with the group.  The others suspect its creator may come looking for it eventually, a creator with obvious skills in genetically engineering new life forms that might help with their long term plans.

Afterglow is more innocent victim than the villain she's been cast as, but she's also immensely dangerous to the civilian population and suffering from extreme mental fragmentation.  Her rare moments of clarity might lead to connections in the shadier parts of the medical research field, which are only a short step away from mad science clone masters and experimental mind transfers.  Her radiation output is hard to keep damped down to even semi-safe levels, but Vestige's reality drains seem to help keep it under control, making them a symbiotic pair. 

______________________________________________________________

Oddment

Harrison Odell was once the mad science villain Cyber-Maker, a specialist in augmenting ambitious criminals with cybernetic upgrades that would make them true superhumans - and which included backdoor access that he could use to control them, slowly building a veritable army of cyborg muscle.  A coalition of several heroes and villains twigged to the scheme and cooperated to bring him down, destroying his secret mountain lair and catching him in an explosion no one could survive.  Unless, of course, one was a genius villain who had pre-programmed his robotic surgical assistants to preserve his life at any cost.

That cost proved to be the loss of his entire organic body and large parts of his once-great brain.  What remained was augmented with a digitized recreation of his old personality, installed in a life support capsule implanted in the sturdiest combat cyborg chassis available in the ruined base's emergency backup shelters.  No longer either Harrison Odell or his Cyber-Maker alter ego, the new hybrid of organic and digital minds took the supranym Oddment for itself and assessed its new existence.  Odell had always avoided creating "full-conversion" brain-in-a-tank cyborgs because they went unstable too quickly to be of use, and now he was one himself.  His artificial memory overlays would keep what was left of him rational for longer than most, but eventually the collapse would come.  The only solution was to find a way to create an organic host body before the inevitable, which was not something he could manage on his own.  He would need allies with similar end goals...or at least useful pawns for his pursuit of bioengineering and mental transfer technology.

Description: A large mechanical humanoid covered in variegated black, umber and tan scales over a dull metal chassis.  Its human head sits deep in an armored collar atop the chunky torso, although this is an android fake - the real brain and its life support system are deep within the the chest in a separate armored capsule.  The oversized forearms conceal a mix of cognitive modification mechanisms, while the chunky "boots" and backplate conceal jump jets for short bursts of speed.  His strong baritone voice sounds quite natural, even when coming from concealed speakers after his decoy head has been destroyed.

Gender: Male        Age: 48        Height: 6'4"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Light Brown     Skin: Titanium Alloy, Variegated Scales     Build: Cyborg

Approach: Generalist                Archetype: Inventor

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Power Suit d10, Deduction d8, Inventions d8, Robotics d6

Qualities: Science d10, Combat Cyborg d8, Technology d8, Criminal Underworld Info d6

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Augmentation Mechanisms (A) Boost using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Decrementation Mechanisms (A) Hinder multiple nearby targets using Inventions.  Boost yourself using your Max die.

Intercession (R) When an ally is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single Power Suit die.  Boost yourself using the same roll.

Simple Brute Force (A) Attack using Power Suit.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.

Superior Technology (I) Whenever you create a bonus, increase the value of that bonus by one.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Combat Cyborg by one (max d12).

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

Oddment prefers to let his allies to the fighting while he observes his foes and tunes his mechanical  body for optimal performance against them.  He'll usually open with Augmentation Mechanisms, taking a persistent bonus for himself and sharing the other with an ally.  He uses Intercession reactively to protect an ally every round he can, further Boosting himself in the process.  He may continue building up bonuses or handing them out if he's being ignored, or he may switch to Decrementation Mechanisms to debuff multiple enemies while collecting yet another personal bonus.  All of his Boosts will be improved by Superior Technology.  If his Health is getting low he'll switch to Simple Brute Force, possibly piling his accumulated bonuses into the Min die for a big Recovery or onto the Max die to land a big hit and take out a particularly problematic foe.

His upgrade comes from spending time optimizing his internal processors and improves both durability and dice pools, which is particularly helpful when he can bundle in a big d12 Science die with his two mechanisms abilities.  His mastery reflects his ability to carry out scientific and technological tasks quickly and reliably under pressure.

______________________________________________________________

Vestige

Once a respected dimensional science theorist pursuing the dream of a functioning FTL drive, Tatiana Roman had no idea she'd attracted the attention of SIN's Operations Directive until one of their acquisitions teams interrupted an experiment at a critical moment.  The resulting malfunction consumed half the research complex in dimensional collapse, pulling everyone there into a null-reality state.  Everyone but Tatiana.  She resisted the pull through sheer force of will, but was left as a living anomaly, constantly being drawn toward un-being.  Tatiana quickly discovered that she could stave off oblivion by siphoning some vital element of reality itself from others around her.  

Only other humans could provide what she needed, and most of them were simply too fragile and weak-willed to endure even a single feeding before fading away - but her first encounter with superheroes investigating the catastrophe taught her that they were far better sources of what she needed, even if they were also more dangerous prey.  And prey is what they were.  Dubbing herself Vestige, Tatiana determined to survive no matter what it required to do so.  She would endure until she found away to reverse the accident that had created her, and if others had to perish so be it.

Vestige was contacted by Oddment while she was on the run after her powers first manifested, offering her potential salvation by transferring her intelligence to a new form free from dimensional instability.  The fact that his last recruit Afterglow proved to be able to "feed" Vestige's hunger safely for extended periods has further cemented her otherwise-dubious loyalty to the group.     

Description: A ghostly image of middle-aged woman dressed in a white lab coat over a gray dress and low heeled shoes.  Her natural colors seem faded and the entire figure is nearly translucent when the light is behind her.  She does seems to shine faintly in actual darkness as though caught in moonlight, adding to her phantasmal appearance.  Her sharp features are twisted with frustration and anger, and her hollow voice seems to come from far away.  When using her powers to feed swirls of cold purple-blue energy seem to flow from her victims into her form.

Gender: Female         Age: Early Fifties         Height: 5'2"          Eyes: Faded Blue

Hair: Faded Gray          Skin: Fading Into Transparency              Build: Stick-Thin

Approach:  Specialized                         Archetype:  Domain

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Absorption d10, Intangibility d8

Qualities: Conviction d12, Close Combat d8, Fading From Reality d8

Status: (# environment targets and challenges) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Call Victims (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.

Destructive Grasp (A) Attack one target using Close Combat.  Use your Max + Min dice.  The target cannot Defend or use reactions against this Attack.

Endless Need (A) Attack up to three targets using Conviction.  Use your Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second, and your Min die against a third. 

Focused Hunger (A) Hinder one target using Conviction.  Use your Max die.  Attack that target using your Mid die.

Sacrificial Energy (R) When Attacked, redirect the Attack to an environment minion.

Siphon Reality (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice and Recover that much Health.  Remove those minions,

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, only if Vestige has been feeding in one area for at least a few days):

Mook Squad +0 Health.  Gain Call Fodder (A) Replenish your Depleted Fodder minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.

Master of the Unfathomable (I) If you are in a situation involving eldritch forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of otherworldly entities beyond human concerns.

Tactics

Vestige's foremost concern is continuing her existence at any cost, but superheroes offer so much more "reality" to draw on than everyday people that fighting them is well worth the risks involved.  Against a single foe she'll rely on Focused Hunger (usually pooled with Absorption) at first, shifting to Destructive Grasp (often with Intangibility) if they display strong reactions or Defend abilities.  Against a group she'll reach out for as much energy as she can with Endless Need while using Sacrificial Energy to reactively use a minion for protection against Attacks.  Her sizeable base Health lets her hang tough in combat while accumulating environment minions with the occasional use of Call Victims for a single big Recovery using her Siphon Reality healing ability.

If she has her upgrade she may use Call the Fodder rather than rely solely on the environment for minions to victimize, although they're fairly inefficient "food sources" when used as such.  Her mastery reflects her jumping at any opportunity to cling to reality, even as a pawn of the terrible things that lurk beyond it.   

______________________________________________________________

Depleted Fodder d6 minion

Description: They can look like a female human of any age, ethnicity or occupation, but all are strangely faded, almost colorless and translucent as though they weren't fully real.  Obviously unnatural, they move like shambling phantoms.  Their touch is chilling, and their hopeless stare leaves victims feeling hollow and hungry.  

Last Dregs: You count as an environment minion for Vestige's Sacrificial Energy and Siphon Reality abilities, but your dice always count as rolling a one for Health Recovery or for saving against any damage inflicted when resolving those abilities.

Reality Leech: When you deal damage to a target with an Attack, the target also suffers a -1 penalty.

______________________________________________________________

Homunculoid

The creature known as the Homunculoid is an escaped bio-construct crafted from some horrific and utterly unethical manipulation of the human genome.  Who created it and what purpose they had in doing so remains unknown, lost behind memories of fire and chaos.  The thing knows only what it has gleaned from the minds that open to its telepathy, and takes its guidance only from the fleeting visions that run wild in its distorted psyche.  It literally latched on to Oddment when he accidentally encountered the Homunculoid in the ruins of another scientists lair, and has stuck with him since then.  Sometimes it dreams of having its mind transferred to a new, human body as Oddment has promised.  Other times it knows that promise was a lie, and is tagging along solely for the joy of the chaos his "ally's" plans will bring.    

Description: A clearly inhuman creature with a distorted human-like head over 18" across, set low between two powerfully-muscled shoulders leading to a pair of three-foot long arms that carry its weight.  An absurdly small humanoid torso in a red and green body-stocking dangles beneath that huge head, trailing two useless vestigial legs.  It mouth gapes open menacingly, equipped with teeth like crooked tombstones and panting steadily.  It speaks only telepathically, where its "voice" is an irritating shriek.  For all its awkward-seeming physique the thing is surprisingly nimble, bounding about on its powerful hands with ease.  

Gender: None (uses he/him)   Age: Unknown   Height: 3'2"   Eyes: One Blue, One Green

Hair: Stubbly Black                 Skin: Sickly Grayish-Blue              Build: Bizarre

Approach:  Tactician                          Archetype:  Fragile

Health:  15 + (5 x H)

Powers: Intuition d8, Telepathy d8, Agility d6, Leaping d6

Qualities: Alertness d10, Acrobatics d8, Murderous Bio-Construct d8, Stealth d6

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

Abilities:

Gestalt Awareness (A) Boost using Alertness.  Use your Max die.  The bonus applies to every ally's action until the beginning of your next turn.

Mindripper (A) Attack using Telepathy.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Hinder yourself using your Min die.

Surprisingly Agile (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single status die.  If the damage is reduce to zero, you may move to anywhere else in the scene.

Vindictive Behavior (R) When a nearby ally makes an Attack, you may also Attack the same target by rolling your single Murderous Bio-Construct die. 

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Murderous Bio-Construct 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

The Homunculoid is a pretty unstable combatant who undergoes radical personality shifts as he suffers damage.  While mostly healthy he concentrates on supporting his allies with Gestalt Awareness while evading strikes and staying mobile using Surprisingly Agile.  Once he reaches about half Health he switches over to making Mindripper attacks against whoever has hurt him most, throwing out more damage when allies Attack using Vindictive Behavior if he has a reaction left when the opportunity arises.  If he somehow winds up being the last villain standing he'll do his best to flee even if the opposition is looking pretty rough as well.

His upgrade relies on getting access to booster drugs tailored to his unique biology, while his mastery represents his quirky, erratic flavor of problem solving.

______________________________________________________________

Afterglow

Mary Curry was once a research assistant in fringe nuclear medicine before her unethical employers chose to use her as a test subject for their latest drug.  The chemical was designed to allow human tissues to absorb and metabolize even hard radiation without harm, and it succeeded spectacularly after a fashion.  Mary became a living atomic reaction, generating impossible amounts of some heretofore unknown exotic radiation and thriving upon it.  Moreover, the process seemed to be dividing her very being on some quantum level, causing her body and mind to partially fission over and over again before collapsing back in on itself.  Unfortunately for such a promising research project, her endlessly fragmenting mentality led her to take violent action that resulted in the termination of all involved staffers, the destruction of the lab facilities involved, and the irradiation of entire site.

That feat earned her the supranym Afterglow in the news media, and she's now widely regarded as a villain rather than a victim.  Even if she was stable enough to explain the situation as she understands it, she can't control her dangerous radiation output and remains a menace to everyone she encounters.  If Oddment hadn't offered her a haven after following the Homunculoid's cryptic guidance to the site of her first "destructive spree" she'd be in a government containment facility already, and quite possibly scheduled for euthanasia in the hopes it would end her out-of-control reaction.  Instead, she's stumbled into allies who might grant her a second chance at life in a new body - and she and Vestige serve to help stabilize one another's erratic powers through some unexplained resonance.

Description: A buxom woman glowing with neon green radiation, wearing a similarly glowing halter top, knee-length shorts and ankle boots.  As she moves she continually leaves afterimages trailing behind her, blurring into one another and making one person look like half a dozen or more.  She usually hovers casually just above the ground but can fly faster than most people can sprint.  She has a rich contralto voice that echoes with reverberations of her duplicate selves.

When she spawns independent legion minions they share her radioactive glow but don't leave a blur of phantoms behind them the way she does.

Gender: Female     Age: Early Thirties     Height: 5'6"     Eyes: Glowing Green

Hair: Flowing, Glowing Green        Skin: Glowing Green        Build: Curvaceous

Approach:  Skilled                                Archetype:  Legion

Health:  10 + (5 x H)

Powers: Duplication d10, Nuclear d8, Flight d6

Qualities: Acrobatics d10, Imposing d10, Fragmented Mentality d8, Medicine d8, Ranged Combat d8, Science d8

Status: (# of Legion Minions) 0 - d12 / 1-2 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 5-8 - d6 / 9+ - d4

Abilities:

Divided Mind (I) Whenever multiple Legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all their dice at once and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion's result on that action.

Fleeting Images (A) Hinder multiple targets using Acrobatics.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, Attack each target using your Mid die.

Full Separation (A) Add two Legion minions to the scene.  Their starting die size is one smaller than your current status die.

Furious Response (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Imposing die.  Deal that much damage to another target.

Merge Energies (A) Remove any number of Legion minions from play.  Roll their dice and Recover that much Health.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (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

Afterglow is well aware of her relative fragility and her tactics attempt to compensate for it.  She'll usually rely on Fleeting Images (using Duplication) to hamper as many heroes as possible with a short-lived swarm of duplicates, and can even inflict some real damage with them if she rolls doubles to keep them stable long enough.  Her Furious Response reaction both prevents and deals some damage, and can be a major source of damage output, especially with bonus support.  Once she loses even a small amount of Health she uses Full Separation to spawn a pair of d10 legion minions, ideally letting them act before her next turn before removing one or both of them with Merge Energies to heal.  Like all legion minions their actions are a bit limited by Divided Mind, but with only two of them in play they can generally avoid suffering its ill effects.  She almost never spawns more than two minions at once, preferring to cycle them in and out of existence to maintain as much healing as she can while still getting some further mileage out of them.  A lot of her effectiveness will depend on how initiative goes and how much support she gets from her allies.

Her upgrade reflects her getting either a significant charge of nuclear energy in the recent past or building up a charge over a day or two of relative inactivity, while her mastery draws upon the confusing nature of her multiple duplicate afterimages.

______________________________________________________________

Afterglow Duplicate d4 to d10 legion minion (usually d10, rarely d8)

Description: Physically identical to Afterglow, although their minds seem more focused and their psychic signature lacks the fragmented nature of their creator.  They share her flight and signature radioactive glare.

Exact Duplicate: You may move as though you had Flight d6, or d8 if Afterglow has her upgrade.

Blog Content Index

The Malevolent Machinator, Master Planner For Hire

A mostly-unpowered mastermind type with a rather different approach to things than his peers.

The Malevolent Machinator

The Machinator was once a trial lawyer named Hector Whitman who specialized in defending supervillains unfortunate enough to actually see a formal trial without escaping beforehand.  After a decade and a half of watching his clients squander their enormous personal gifts in badly-planned heists, ill-considered plots and schemes a schoolchild could have spotted the flaws in, he finally cracked.  Calling in some favors and spending heavily from his considerable mostly-legitimate fortune, Hector dropped out of polite society and reinvented himself as the Machinator, a villainous mastermind-for-hire nonpareil.  There were many thuggish villains out there who simply couldn't manage a convenience store robbery without fouling things up somehow, and a surprising number of self-proclaimed "super-geniuses" with such impractical plans they stood no hope of executing them successfully.  

The Machinator would correct that for a suitable fee.  Using his extensive knowledge of what had tripped up his old clients and a small army of well-trained, highly valued operatives to scout and prepare the scene of any given crime, he could improve the odds of success to near certainty.  Even in the face of superheroic meddling his patrons quickly discovered they were getting better results than ever before, especially when they paid premium prices and had the Machinator oversee things firsthand.  While not a powerhouse combatant by any means, Hector is very good at acting as a force multiplier for other villains and his connections with the pragmatically-minded S-Cape Artist has made him and his employers very hard to catch if something does go awry.

Most "proper" masterminds look down on the Machinator with disdain, seeing him as wasting his own (admittedly impressive) talents working with simpletons and madmen for mere cash.  Hector just smiles at that and continues as he has been.  Let them sneer.  He isn't called the Machinator for nothing, and has schemes of his own in the works that go far beyond mere monetary gain.       

Description: A short, lightly-built man with a black bowl cut and pudgy facial features.  His costume is a loose dark-purple jumpsuit with bright green boots and gloves and a wide black belt studded with buttons, toggles and switches.  A variety of gadgetry hang from his belt but no obvious weaponry.  He has a thick metallic collar like a neck brace with speaker grills all around it, which also incorporates an encrypted radio commo system.  Unlike some villainous masterminds he usually resists the temptation to monolog about his genius, but when he does his rather high, piping voice is deepened and amplified by his collar.

Gender: Male         Age: Early Forties         Height: 5'3"          Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black, Bowl Cut                     Skin: Caucasian                  Build: Puny

Approach:  Tactician                          Archetype:  Domain

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Gadgets d8, Presence d8, Remote Viewing d6, Teleportation d6

Qualities: Leadership d10, Masterful Schemer d8, Investigation d8, Self-Discipline d6

Status: (# environment targets and challenges) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Control the Battlefield (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.

Directed Action (A) Take a basic action using Masterful Schemer.  Use your Max die.  One nearby ally also takes that same action using their reaction.

Familiar Ground (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment turn.

Follow the Plan (A) Boost using Leadership.  Use your Max die.  The bonus applies to every ally's action until the beginning of your next turn.

Hapless Dupe (R) When Attacked, redirect the Attack to an environment minion.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, but common unless forced to improvise):

Mook Squad +0 Health.  Gain Activate Agents (A) Replenish your Undercover Agent minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.

Master Behind the Curtain (I) As long as you are not directly involved in the fray and are using your influence indirectly, automatically succeed at an Overcome to manipulate a situation.

Tactics

The Machinator lives up to his name in a battle, preferring to stay out of direct confrontations and act indirectly.  He'll selectively employ Control the Battlefield to use the environment against the heroes, making sure to keep a Hapless Dupe in play if possible.  He's quite immune to environmental damage during its turn thanks to Familiar Ground as well, and will happily move into potentially perilous locations.  Follow the Plan is his other go-to ability and can greatly improve his allies' performance.  Machinator rarely uses Directed Action unless things are going off the rails somehow or he sees an opportunity to create an interesting challenge using an Overcome.

His upgrade lets him reliably deploy more of his signature minions than the environment can generally provide.  His mastery really encourages him to stay out of the thick of things the way he already wants to.

Conceptually, the Machinator has no superpowers beyond cunning, masterful planning skills and the resources to use them both to their best, relying on technology and trickery to emulate the "powers" listed.  His rather huge Health pool represents not physical durability but him using prepared gimmicks to elude personal confrontations for as long as possible.  The heroes basically have to trash a lot of the scenery before he finally runs out of decoys, escape routes and pre-planned hidey-holes, which takes a lot of raw damage.  Most of his abilities don't require actual proximity to use, so even finding him in a complex scene may be difficult, perhaps even requiring an Overcome to pinpoint his location - until he "teleports" away again through a hidden passage or timely decoy maneuver.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Undercover Agents d8 minion

Description: These agents will always appear like they belong in the existing environment, with suitable garb and equipment and appropriate behavior to blend in until they reveal their true colors.  If they aren't armed in their cover role they'll be equipped with concealed weaponry in the form of light pistols and folding knives and truncheons.  Even exotic beings like robots, aliens or supernatural entities will have been reprogrammed, suborned or otherwise compelled to serve a new master.

Perfect Cover: You always count as both an environment minion and a villain target and ally for purposes of villain abilities, twists and status dice.  You take your turn when environment threats do (normally just after the scene tracker advances).

Blog Content Index

The Camera Crew, Bad Publicity For Good People

Proof positive that not all publicity is good publicity.

The Camera Crew 

The Camera Crew is a trio of de facto villains passing as a new, corporate-backed initiative to improve journalistic relations with the heroic community and provide better (and safer) news coverage to super-crises as they happen.  The pitch seems reasonable on the surface.  A crew of journalists equipped with protective power suits and advanced recording equipment?  Plus they can project defensive holograms for added safety, making them able to operate much closer to a super-fight or disaster than conventional reporters without needing protection from heroes and law enforcement?  The suits are equipped with jump jets and grapples for extra mobility, letting them reach optimal vantage points so the footage will be more useful for post-crime investigations?  Agreements with city and state governments and even federal agencies already in place, protecting against civil liability claims?  And their backers will provide public relations assistance to heroes who don't already have access to them?  What's not to like?

Well, lots of things, because the corporation behind these three has nefarious plans.  

Recordings of heroes in action will be collated and analyzed and then quietly offered for sale to select black market customers.  This will let villains study fighting styles and tactics for weaknesses.  The mechanical effect of this is the ability to gain significant bonuses against "studied" heroes when they trigger minor twists.  Their use will usually be accompanied by the villain quipping that they've seen that trick before or that the hero did that better in the video, which hints at what's going on.

Videos will also be carefully tampered with to make the heroes look careless or inept, and any actual mistakes will be exaggerated if possible.  Crisis actors will be seeded around dangerous situations to make things harder for the heroes, and "expendable" villains will be given covert support and nudged toward certain crimes at certain times when the Crew will be present.  This doctored footage and faked interview material will be "reluctantly" given to legit news outlets and government officials as evidence of heroic wrongdoing.

Ultimately the plan is to ruin not only the PCs' reputation and effectiveness as crimefighters, but to taint the public opinion of heroes as a whole.  The heroes might even find themselves outlawed and forced into true vigilantism, perhaps even hunted by their own former allies.

This probably won't come to pass in full. The players will likely smell something fishy and take proactive steps to investigate the Crew, or one of them (most likely Camera Two, who's the most unstable of the lot) will blow her cover and take the whole plot down with her.  But the Crew's real backers are insulated by layers of corporate ownership and legal fictions, and if everything does end in disaster they'll see it as a learning experience.  After a while they'll pick up the pieces and attempt another scheme, and they might even arrange for the Camera suits to wind up in the hands of criminals who can use them for more conventional villainy - perhaps even with their original operators, who are likely to have even more of a grudge against law and order than before.

Camera One

Koa Calimbas is a former indie film director who screwed up big time by releasing a documentary full of faked interviews and altered images that painted a popular hero team as violent thugs, apparently based on a personal grudge against them.  He avoided jail, but the civil suit and bad publicity left him nearly penniless and unemployable.  When he was offered a position on the Camera Crew he leapt at the opportunity, and has extended his previous dislike for a handful of heroes to the entire superhero community.  He's not great at concealing his enmity, but usually stays buttoned up in his suit where he won't be recognized and can remain more socially remote.  Koa is actually quite a competent filmmaker and really cares about the quality of his work, unlike his teammates.

His camera suit is optimized for projection, recording and sound effects, and he makes imaginative use of his illusions to mess with heroes and onlookers whenever he can get away with it.  If it comes to a fight he has a very potent sonic attack backing up his other abilities.

Description: Outside of his suit, a rather slovenly-dressed middle-aged man of Hawaiian ancestry with strangely familiar features.  Hey, is that the guy who directed that documentary about supers with all the faked footage?

In his suit, an anonymous figure in snug-fighting lightweight yellow power armor with a some black striping and a prominent black "ONE" printed vertically on the left side of the chest.  The helmet is an opaque ovoid with an array of holo-camera recorder/emitter lenses and microphone grills covering the faceplate.  A cluster of much larger lenses and mikes occupy the center of the chest and there are small mikes on the back of each gauntlet.  His voice is disguised behind a vocal masking effect that gives it a mechanical tone.  

Gender: Male        Age: 35        Height: 5'10"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Shaved Scalp        Skin: Hawaiian Tan        Build: Broad-Shouldered

Approach: Skilled                   Archetype: Inventor

Health: 25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d10, Sonic d8, Power Suit d6

Qualities: Creativity d10, Stealth d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Disgraced Documentary Filmmaker d8, Investigation d8, Technology d8

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Final Sound Check (A) Attack using Sonic and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice and add all your bonuses to the total, destroying them.

Grand Artistic Vision (A) Hinder multiple targets using Creativity.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, Attack each of those targets using your Mid die. 

One-Man Crew (A) Take any basic action.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid die.

Set the Scene (A) Boost using Illusions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Mook Squad +0 Health.  Gain Extras On Set (A) Replenish your minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.

Master of Enforced Order (I) If you have complete control over your surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Tactics

Camera One is the auteur of the group and has the most skill at tweaking scenes to make the heroes look incompetent or overly violent.  If left alone he's as likely to spend actions on Overcomes to serve that purpose or (with his upgrade) order the extras around, usually starting with Set the Scene for a good persistent bonus on himself and a regular bonus to either keep or hand off to Camera Two.  If forced to fight, he'll rely on Grand Artistic Vision to confound (and possibly harm) foes at first, switching to One-Man Crew if injured.  At a dramatically appropriate moment he'll pick a particularly troublesome hero and single them out for a brutal Final Sound Check hit.

His upgrade gives him a steady supply of extras to use, and the mastery to get them to follow his directions flawlessly.  

______________________________________________________________________

Camera Two

Kansas Washington (her middle name is City) is a former private investigator who lost her license and five years of freedom when she was caught running a blackmail scheme.  Thoroughly unethical and interested only in money, she only got on to the Camera Crew because she was a former cellmate of Janell Wittson (see below), who owed her some favors and appreciated the idea of having some muscle on the team just in case.  She doesn't have any particular beef with superheroes in general, but she's no great fan either and her short temper and borderline paranoia makes her the most likely person to break cover and start a real fight.  She never opens up her suit around outsiders if she can avoid it, and uses her PI skills to avoid tails and surveillance when in her civilian ID.  On the other hand, she's also the most likely Crew member to take a bribe to reveal what's really going on - if you haven't made her mad.

She doesn't use her suit as well as her teammates, but is good at sneaking in "accidental" hits that look like they came from some other source.  Her loadout is optimized for lighting effects, holo-projection and recording snap shots, which also makes it a walking arsenal of laser weaponry if a battle starts - whether Kansas starts it or not.     

Description: Outside of her suit, a powerfully built African-American woman with a cold look in her eyes and several small facial scars from past brawls.  She's fond of men's clothing (especially a noir PI look) and could easily be mistaken for a man at first glance, which is a great way to tick her off right from word one.

In her suit, an anonymous and androgynous figure in snug-fighting lightweight bright orange power armor with a some black striping and a prominent black "TWO" printed vertically on the left side of the chest.  The helmet is an opaque ovoid with an array of holo-camera recorder/emitter lenses covering the faceplate.  A single very large lens occupies the center of the chest and there are small lenses on the back of each gauntlet.  Her voice is disguised behind a vocal masking effect that gives it a mechanical tone, further increasing of misgendering her and getting on her bad side.  

Gender: Female        Age: 33        Height: 5'10"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Deep Brown        Skin: Mahogany Brown        Build: Gym Gal

Approach: Leech                   Archetype: Inventor

Health: 25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d10, Radiant d8, Power Suit d6

Qualities: Creativity d8, Ex-Con Cellmate d8, Technology d8, Stealth d8 

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Final Lighting Check (A) Attack using Radiant and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice and add all your bonuses to the total, destroying them.

Reaction Shot (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Illusions die.  If this negates the Attack entirely, Hinder the Attacker and Boost yourself using the same roll.

Set the Scene (A) Boost using Illusions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Wide-Angle Shot (A) Hinder multiple targets using Illusions.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, Attack one of those targets using your Max die. 

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hardier Minions + 5 Health.  Gain Bonus Pay (A) Upgrade a number of your minions equal to the number of heroes in the scene by increasing their die size by one (max d12).

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

Tactics

Camera Two is the least interested team member when it comes to getting good footage, and the quickest to resort to obvious violence when threatened.  She'll try to use Set the Scene for bonuses (often sharing with Camera One) at least once before their cover is blown, then immediately use Final Lighting Check on the toughest foe.  She'll use Reaction Shot at every opportunity, hoping to trigger its strong rider effects and roll the bonus straight into another super-zap.  When hurt or outnumbered and currently lacking bonuses she resorts to Wide-Angle Shot to buy time and maybe get a lucky shot in.

Her upgrade lets her improve the performance of either simple thugs or actors, and is one of her go-to moves while still covert.  Her mastery reflects that fact that she's in this for the paycheck rather than the art.    

______________________________________________________________________

Camera Three

Janell Wittson was sleazy publicity agent known for representing dodgy business and suspected criminal bigwigs.  This led to a three year interruption in her career when she was convicted for fraud after being a little too enthusiastic about lying for a corporate client with mob connections.  It was during her prison term that she met and more or less befriended Kansas Washington (see above).  Once Janell was at liberty again she set about restarting her career, only to be offered an "exciting new opportunity" as part of the Camera Crew.  The project seemed a bit risky, but she'd always been a bit of adrenaline junkie and her new employers had some...information from her former clients that made refusal unwise unless she wanted to return to jail for a much longer stay.  Janell managed to get Washington on to the Crew as well, and in a pinch expects more backup from her than she probably ought to.

Unlike her teammates Janell doesn't actively conceal her identity.  If confronted about her past, she can convincingly explain that she was young and had made some poor choices in business associates.  She served her time and learned her lesson, so what's the problem, hero?

Her suit carries the usual array of holo-recorder/projector gear optimized for close-up action shots, but it also mounts an extensive drone control system for coordinating small aerial remotes for coordinating multi-angle shots and big scenes.  These also double as a tactical comms and recon net, and she tends to work closely with her teammates if a fight breaks out.      

Description: Outside of her suit, an adult blonde woman with an expensively tailored wardrobe designed to favor her slightly stocky figure, something she's sensitive about.  She's always got a friendly smile on her face, even when she's shafting someone in a business deal.

In her suit, an anonymous figure in snug-fighting lightweight fire engine red power armor with a some black striping and a prominent black "THREE" printed vertically on the left side of the chest.  The helmet is an opaque ovoid with an array of holo-camera recorder/emitter lenses covering the faceplate and a crown of short drone-control antennae.  A small cluster of lenses occupies the center of the chest and there are small lenses on the back of each gauntlet.  Her voice can be disguised behind a vocal masking effect that gives it a mechanical tone, but she usually leaves it off so she sounds more personable.

Gender: Female        Age: 32        Height: 5'7"        Eyes: Cornflower Blue

Hair: Blonde, Short     Skin: Tanned Year Round     Build: A Little Stocky

Approach: Tactician                         Archetype: Guerrilla

Health: 40 + (5 x H)

Powers: Illusions d8, Remote Viewing d8, Awareness d6, Power Suit d6

Qualities:  Creativity d10, Technology d8, Unethical Publicist d8, Stealth d6

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

Abilities:

Good Under Pressure (I) At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.

Hard To Pin Down (I) If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by two.

Scene Direction (A) Boost using Creativity.  Use your Max die.  That bonus applies to every ally's action until the start of your next turn.

Work With Me Here (A) Take a basic action using Technology.  Use your Max die.  One nearby ally takes the same basic action as their reaction.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Shooting Permit (I) +10 Health.  The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, ability access, and all abilities.  Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while attempting these Overcomes, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Illusions die. 

Master of Profitability (I) If you have access to great wealth and other resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to leverage those resources to get even richer, no matter who pays the price.

Tactics

Camera Three is the oddball in the group, with a much more up-front style where she tries to add to the heroes' confusion while getting close-up footage, all while also monitoring the full scene with remote microdrones.  In a fight she still stays close and draws attention, hoping to get the most out of Good Under Pressure and Hard To Pin Down.  If she's got a lot of allies in play her go-to move is Scene Direction with Illusions or Remote Viewing, setting up a global bonus for everyone.  If their side's numbers are running low she'll switch to Work With Me Here in conjunction with a single ally for whatever needs doing most.  Worth noting that Camera Two hates having her reaction "stolen" for this ability, and the rider won't work on her at all if she's already used her own reaction ability. 

Her upgrade represents the team doing extra prep work to seem legit, which can really leave heroes struggling.  Her mastery doesn't come up in combat often, although she's not above a little kleptomania when filming at a site with a lot of valuables.  

______________________________________________________________________

The Camera Crew sometimes employs actual everyday thugs, but they prefer specially trained flunkies who know how to act harmless and mug to the cameras when there's an extra opportunity to make the heroes look bad.  They're being paid extremely well to keep their mouths shut if they do get caught out in any fakery, so they're not likely to provide any leads without using powers on them.

Crisis Actor d6 minion

Description: They're just regular people, right?  Right?  Heroes can't use excessive force on them no matter how much they get in the way.  The negative publicity would be terrible.

Faked Injuries: Any hero may take an Overcome action to remove you from play.  If they would generate a twist while doing so, roll your die, deal that much morale damage to the hero, and then you are removed from play.  This counts as the required twist, regardless of whether it was major or minor.

"Innocent" Bystanders: You may not be targeted by hero Attacks or take Attack actions yourself.  If you ever roll a zero or less on your die due to penalties you are removed from play without harm.

Please Move Along: NPC law enforcement officers may take an action to remove you from play automatically.

Everyday Thug d6 minion

Description: Petty criminals, but they are packing concealed heat courtesy of the Crew's backers.  They're not keen on fighting heroes but the pay (and promised legal services if arrested) makes them willing to give it a shot.  This is just day labor for them, they know nothing about any grander schemes.

Heart's Not Really In It: If you ever roll a zero or less on your die due to penalties you are removed from play without harm.

Playing Innocent, But Not Very Well: You may not be targeted by Attack actions until you've taken an action that targets anyone but yourself in the scene.

Camera One, Two, or Three d10 lieutenant 

Description: Any of the Camera Crew members as a lieutenant rather than a full villain, for use as needed.  They look just like their regular versions, of course.  When they use any of the abilities below, the source of the effect isn't immediately obvious and can only be detected by a hero succeeding at an Overcome, either during the scene or when reviewing events afterward. 

False Images: When you take an Overcome action to interact with a challenge, you gain a +2 bonus and you may choose to add an extra success to the total needed to complete the challenge rather than marking one off. 

Holo-Projectors: When you take a Hinder action you may Hinder multiple nearby targets.

Image Relays: When you Boost yourself, you may also Boost up to two allies.

______________________________________________________________________

Campaign Notes

Who's behind this whole scheme is up to you and your campaign's established setting.  In my campaign their ultimate backers were the anti-supers group SEVER.  It could just as easily have been a carefully-concealed subsidiary of the corporation that funds Hothead instead if I'd wanted a smaller scope to things.  In the Sentinels setting, this could be a Glamour scheme, Baron Blade being unusually subtle, or (if you're running pre-Oblivaeon or an alternate future) the old villainous Revocorp.  The GM should also consider how long they want the Crew around before their cover is inevitably blown, and make allowances for the players derailing your plans and getting suspicious earlier.

If they're intended to be a simple one-and-done, the whole team can show up to film a minor crisis - a mundane bank robbery (maybe even using some of their minions as well) or a fight with a minor villain or two - and then more or less immediately betray themselves, turning the scene into a conventional brawl.  Consider adding a few rounds in Red depending on how long the Crew was pretending to be harmless photojournalists.  You could extend this to an issue or three by having them "play nice" for a few scenes before something gives them away, maybe gradually ramping up the number of "accidental" Hinders they take over time.

If you want them around for a collection or more, a slow burn approach where just a single Camera shows up for an action scene or two, then a pair of them, and finally the full team is a good approach.  Play them as helpful at first, let the players get used to them showing up often but not always.  In any scene where they're expected to remain "friendly" use the lieutenant version above, switching to the full villain writeup if their cover is blown and they start fighting for real.  If they took damage prior to such a switch, reduce their starting Health by 10 for each die step the lieutenant form lost from their starting d10.  If they do switch mid-scene, add at least one Red round to the scene tracker, two if in Yellow, and three if already in Red.

When playing the "long con" you'll need to work in some hints and clues for the heroes to investigate and there should be multiple opportunities for social scenes with Crew, either in uniform or (if they can be identified) in their civilian IDs.  Their personalities will influence how things go, and might very well lead to one or more of them betraying the rest.

Blog Content Index

Klass K, Trainee Villains On A Field Trip To Your Dimension

A long organizational post with some light worldbuilding sketched out.  Includes five supervillain writeups, a reason for them to work together, and an alternate universe where the most immediately noticeable difference is the total lack of a hard "c" in English.  "Kays" all the way down, folks. 

The Klassroom Program

The multiverse contains many realities, some very different from your campaign's.  One of them (let's be Terracentric and call it Earth-K) features a different world where super-being activity is more widespread and more organized than our own.  The heroes of that world work closely together on a global scale to oppose all manner of supervillainy, and those villains have grudgingly organized in return to avoid facing defeat in isolation.  This state of affairs has continued since their version of World War Two, although both groups have become much more internationally-minded and unwilling to serve as military assets to nation-states.  A de facto Cold War exists between the two sides in the conflict at this point, with small clashes largely staying below the radar of the masses of mundane humanity.  

Both meta-groups expend a great deal of effort tracking down and recruiting new super-beings to their cause.  The heroes have the advantage of recognition by most governments and law enforcement agencies, but they're limited by their own ethical standards.  The villains have to rely on more covert methods to find likely new prospects, but they can also be as ruthless as they like in the hunt, and think nothing of mentally indoctrinating particularly attractive candidates.

These new supers receive far more actual training than our own before they're fully recognized as a part of the greater community.  Heroes come up through actual academies as well as the old traditions of sidekicking and junior team affiliations.  Villains rely more upon the Klassroom Program, a worldwide covert recruitment, assessment and training program that also doubles as an introduction to the underground super-crime community and its major players.  

When they've mastered their powers and learned the unwritten rules that keep inter-villain conflict to a minimum, students are formed into groups to do some actual field work before "graduating" to independent status.  This used to be a risky stage of a villain's development since the odds of being captured on during such excursions were quite high and unproven villains were unlikely to be rescued by a organized jailbreak the way established supercriminals are.  Thankfully for the Klassroom Program, a neighboring reality was found with a far lower population of super-beings, especially heroes.  

While cosmic stresses made it impossible to remain in the other reality for long before being cast back to Earth-K, there was enough time to make short "field trips" with small groups of students and a single instructor/observer to assess their performance.  The relative rarity of super-heroes made for less punishing testing, and even when captured the students would soon be forced home anyway, vanishing from even the most inescapable prison cell.

The writeups below represent Klass K on a field exam to your campaign world.  They can be used as a one-shot, or might make up a collection's worth of story if their current test is a complex one.  The same group can recur multiple times until they finally graduate.  Their membership may change over repeat appearances as some studens move on or are "flunked out" (often directly into some mastermind's experimental labs) while others are held back.

If you feel ambitious, your heroes might find a way to follow a Klass back home, but they may not like what they find.  It would be disastrous if the legions of super-beings on Earth-K found a way to transit to your campaign world en masse and settle their differences where your PCs call home rather than wrecking their own planet.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Klass K

Kommander Konquest

Quiriel zan vi Martiana has been a villain for a very, very long time by human standards, having first attacked Earth in 1939 under the title of Kommander Konquest.  While still in the prime of her life (only a few Terran centuries old), she's taking a break from interplanetary raiding to act as a senior instructor for the Klassroom Program, ensuring that the heroic opposition doesn't gain a numerical edge that might endanger established villains and their schemes.  The fact that it also lets her size up potential allies, catspaws, and competition before they've attained real power hasn't escaped her, of course.

In "field trip" mode she leaves behind her usual legions or Martian soldiers and war machines, relying on using her personal reality-bending cosmic powers to stay safe from any irritating local heroes who get past her students.  The Kommander can also casually warp the more pliable spacetime of your campaign's reality to complicate the tests she's putting her students through.  Unless very hard pressed (in which case her whole Klass is getting failing grades) she's unlikely to take much of a direct hand in a fight, and could reasonably be treated as a "powerful entity" twist menu instead of a full villain writeup if the GM likes.        

Description: A very typical Martian warrior queen from an alternate reality.  Tall, well-built humanoid with bright green skin and a slightly oversized head topped with a crown of six motile antennae.  She's garbed in ceremonial (and weirdly revealing) Martian armor that adds a good bit of height and bulk thanks to its stiletto heeled boots and impressive shoulder pads - all while leaving her midriff and thighs bare.  She rarely bothers to speak out loud, relying on natural telepathy instead. 

Gender: Female     Age: Gentlemen Don't Ask     Height: 5'11" (6'2" in armor)    Eyes: Black

Hair: Bald, Crown of Antennae        Skin: Vibrant Green                Build: Powerful

Approach: Generalist                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  55 + (5 x H)

Powers: Presence d10, Cosmic d8, Teleportation d8, Telepathy d6

Qualities: Imposing d10, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Veteran Villain d8, Deep Space Knowledge d6

Status: (# of Environmental targets/challenges) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Barely Worth Saving (R) When an ally is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single Teleportation die.  Boost yourself using the same roll.

Beyond Your Reality (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment's turn.

Careless, Hero, Very Careless (R) When Attacked, redirect the Attack to an environmental minion.

Toying With Your World (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone or one zone closer to the Red.

You Have My Attention (A) Attack using Veteran Villain.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.

You Insects Annoy Me (A) Hinder multiple nearby targets using Presence.  Boost yourself using your Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually only for the Final Exam):

Defense Shield (I) You cannot be damaged by anything except yourself until the defense shield is destroyed.  The shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can use a Reaction to Attack that hero by rolling your single Presence die.  Gain Reestablish Shield (A) Overcome using Cosmic.  Use your Max die.  On a success remove one success from the deactivation challenge.  Alternatively, instead of an Overcome, use your Max die to Recover that much of the shield's Health.  This ability cannot be used if the shield has been completely removed.

Master of Enforced Order (I) If you have complete control over your surroundings, automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize rabble to accomplish a task.

Tactics

Kommander Konquest is here as an observer and instructor for Klass K, not to get in pointless brawls with heroes she doesn't even know.  Given her druthers she's content to find a good vantage and leave the students to it, using Toying With Your World to create "interesting" situations.  She's far Beyond Your Reality so dangerous environmental effects (and local residents) mean nothing to her.  If pestered by heroes she'll discourage them with reactive teleports causing them to target innocent civilians using Careless, Hero, Very Careless.  She might also intervene to preserve a trainee villain with Barely Worth Saving, although she'll be quick to express her displeasure about it.  Only if seriously pressed by multiple heroes will she resort to using You Insects Annoy Me, while a single persistent nuisance might draw an actual Attack from You Have My Attention.  If things have gotten to that point and her students are still active she'll be quick to order them to get it together and deal with the local supers, otherwise she'll start planning a getaway herself.

She'll generally only have her upgrade and mastery for the final exam, at least while acting in a "schoolteacher" role.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Kid Klotho

Kora Raphti inherited a talent for magic from her mother's family, a lineage that had produced low-tier villainous super-mages during the past World Wars and was already on the Klassroom Program's watch list.  Young Kora was quietly "collected" at the tender age of nine and proved to be an apt student over the course of her apprenticeship.  As Kid Klotho she serves as Klass K's expert in mystic matters and is one of the group's most ambitious members, with a knack for manipulating others that may well see her graduate at the head of the class.

Her unique magical style revolves around generating glowing blood-red strands of energy that she can use to bind victims on both a physical and metaphysical level.  Kid Klotho's threads can also be used more subtly to influence people's thoughts and emotions, as well as offering the physical mobility to avoid the worst melee threats.

Description: A young woman of Grecian descent, dressed in a medium-red bodysuit uniform under a  loose black tunic that bears a prominent yellow "k" on the left chest.  Her feet are usually bare, and her long, flowing hair is tied back with the same magical red threads that she uses for most of her magic.  More thread is wound loosely around her wrists and ankles, and stray loops and strands twitch and drift randomly around her even when the air is still.  She speaks slightly-accented English from her home dimension.

Gender: Female           Age: 18           Height: 5'7"           Eyes: Black

Hair: Flowing Black                Skin: Light Brown                 Build: Elegantly Slender

Approach: Tactician                          Archetype: Inhibitor

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Agility d8, Swinging d8, Awareness d6, Suggestion d6                                        

Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Persuasion d8, Trainee Villain d8, Acrobatics d6

Status: (# of heroes with penalties) 0 - d6 / 1-2 - d8 / 3+ - d10

Abilities:

Interwoven Souls (A) Hinder using Swinging.  That penalty is persistent and exclusive.  As long as that penalty is in play, reduce damage dealt to you by one and whenever you are dealt damage, the target with this penalty takes one irreducible damage.

Pulling Strings (R) Take one irreducible damage to reroll an ally's dice pool.

Puppetry (A) Take a basic action using Magical Lore.  Use your Max die.  One nearby ally also takes that same basic action as their reaction.

Red Threads (A) Hinder using Swinging.  Use you Max + Mid dice, or use your Max die and make that penalty persistent and exclusive.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Trainee Villain by one (max d12).

Master of Mysticism (I) If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.

Tactics

Kid Klotho is Klass K's mystic, relying on fate-weaving magics that manifest as luminous red threads of energy.  Her usual tactics involve binding as many heroes with Interwoven Souls as possible, then singling out the biggest threats with Red Threads - especially if they've shrugged off the previous penalty.  She also provides some support with her Pulling Strings reaction offering some dice-fixing to allies, and Puppetry letting her improve action economy for things outside the team's usual wheelhouse.  Of all the Klass she's the most likely to improvise with unexpected Overcomes and unusual dice pools.

Her upgrade and mastery both represent Kid Klotho growing into the full potential of her unique style of magic as Graduation Day approaches.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Musclemind

The creature known as Musclemind was recruited for the Klassroom Program relatively late in life after an anonymous college undergraduate developed powers during a biochemical mass-casualty event of which he was the sole survivor.  Whoever this thing was originally is a moot point, with the new entity displaying one of the most stereotypical cases of supervillainous megalomania ever observed.  Powerful but deeply delusional, it's unclear if Musclemind even knows they're in training and their performance is under review, but (after some initial friction) they've adopted the rest of Klass K as their loyal henchmen while the rest have decided to simply humor him for the time being.

Musclemind possesses staggering physical strength backed up by enormous psychic abilities but lacks the experience (and, some would argue, sanity) to fully utilize his great potential.  Whatever knowledge and specialized skills he had in his former life are gone, replaced by largely instinctual responses backed by an overwhelming sense of superiority.  He refuses to acknowledge any inconvenient facts that might get in his way.  What he makes of himself once he graduates Klassroom remains unclear, but he's powerful enough as-is that he's unlikely to wind up as a mere lackey of more established villains.    

Description: A hulking humanoid, almost as broad across the shoulders as they are tall and rippling with muscles.  They have almost no neck, with their bulging oversized head clearly showing elaborate cortical convolutions beneath their nigh-impenetrable skin.  That brain sprawls down the rear of their head and merges, hunchback-like, with the creature's upper spine.  Occasional sparks of purple-white energy crawl across its massive frame.  The thing wears nothing but a pair of oversized black shorts with a prominent yellow "k" on the front of the left thigh.  Their voice is a bellowing roar full of brag and bombast, and their telepathy is equally unsubtle.       

Gender: Male          Age: 21          Height: 7'0"          Eyes: Icy Blue

Hair: None        Skin: Purplish-Blue        Build: Inhumanly Massive and Over-Muscled 

Approach:  Mastermind                      Archetype:  Squad

Health:  25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d12, Telepathy d10, Telekinesis d8

Qualities: Conviction d10, Awareness d8, Close Combat d8, Fitness d8, Ranged Combat d8, Trainee Villain d8

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

Abilities:

Behold My Awesome Power and Tremble! (A) Attack one hero using Conviction.  Hinder all heroes using your Max die.

Revel In My Invincible Might! (A) Boost using Conviction.  Boost another target using your Max die.  Use your Min die to Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn. 

That One Is Mine, Hero! (R) When another villain is Attacked, Defend them by rolling your single status die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Your Efforts Amount To Nothing, Fool! (R) When Attacked, Boost yourself using the Attacker's Max die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

Brainwashing Zone (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 Conquest (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

Musclemind is convinced that he's in charge and the rest of the Klass are merely his henchmen, which is delusional but at this point the rest of the group generally just humors him to save on arguments.  He'll mostly do whatever catches his fancy in a fight, which provides a good distraction once he starts in with Behold My Awesome Power and Tremble! if nothing else.  If he starts drawing a lot of attention he'll use Revel In My Invincible Might! (which at least helps out an ally in the process) and pump any handy bonuses into its Defend rider.  He prefers to use Your Efforts Amount To Nothing, Fool! to reactively Boost himself whenever possible, but he might deign to save an ally instead with That One Is Mine, Hero!  He tends to generate a lot of bonuses and spend them as fast as he gets them to grandstand.   

Musclemind is fond of building "creative" dice pools and making Overcomes that show off his incredible strength of mind and body, so basic actions are always a possibility.  His Conviction quality sees a lot of use, since it reflects his utter certainty that he can't fail against such inferior opposition.

His upgrade tunes his mental might up to the point where the weak-willed might believe he's as awesome as he thinks he is, while his mastery reflects a growing talent for bossing around minions.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Troublemaker

Jo Torrant was only eleven years old when he gained modest electricity-generation powers during a freak thunderstorm that destroyed his family home and left him an orphan.  He was quickly swept up by recruiters for the Klassroom Program, and soon discovered an aptitude for science and engineering.  Assigned to Klass K as their primary tech-support operative, he's gotten a reputation for being a scrappy if somewhat overconfident fighter.  He's not great at taking orders until he's in over his head, at which case his cocky facade drops and he starts yelling for help.

His signature inventions to date interact with and amplify his personal energies.  They include a pair of hover-boots that let him "skate" over most surfaces and make short jet-assisted leaps, and a wide variety of small gadgets he calls "juicers."  These are designed to clip on to a target and feed them a spectrum of bio-electric energies to enhance or degrade performance.  Troublemaker can also short them out to drain all their power at once to produce some potent electrical discharges.

Description: A young African-American man wearing a medium-red bodysuit uniform under loose black trunks, with a prominent yellow "k" on the left chest.  He has odd metal boots with obvious thruster ports on them, and there are dozens of metal nodules clamped to his outfit and even in his hair, all vaguely beetle-like in appearance and varying from thumb-sized to others that would fill the palm of his hand.  His voice is a deep baritone with a faint but unfamiliar accent and an intermittent undertone of electrical buzzing. 

Gender: Male     Age: 19     Height: 6'0"     Eyes: Dark Brown With Flickering Sparks

Hair: Black Zigzag Cornrows        Skin: Medium Brown        Build: Lanky

Approach: Underpowered                   Archetype: Inventor

Health:  20 + (5 x H)

Powers: Inventions d8, Electricity d6, Leaping d6, Speed d6

Qualities: Science d10, Technology d8, Trainee Villain d8, Finesse d6 

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Arcing Discharge (A) Attack using Electricity and at least one bonus.  If you have multiple bonuses, you may Attack a second target using your Min die and one other bonus, and may also Attack a third target using your Max die and a third bonus.

Gewgaws (A) Boost using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Boost again using your Mid die, then either make one of those bonuses persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.

Gimcracks (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Inventions die.  If your roll reduces the damage to exactly zero, use that roll to Recover that much Health, Boost yourself, and Hinder the Attacker.

Gimmicks (A) Boost using Science.  Use your Max die.  Hinder using your Mid die.  Attack using your Min die.

Self-Defibrillation (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.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

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

Tactics

Troublemaker is Klass K's primary "tech guy" but isn't afraid to get mixed up in a super-fight.  He's pretty aggressive at first, relying on his Gimcracks reaction for defense and hoping to get a lucky roll to give him the big rider effects from it.  He'll alternate between Gewgaws and Gimmicks to Boost himself until he has three bonuses stacked up, then roll them all into a big Arcing Discharge move.  Jo continues with that pattern until he's forced to use Self-Defibrillation, after which he switches to more of a support roll and handing out bonuses to allies with his various abilities for the rest of the fight - or as long as he lasts, anyway.

His upgrade does wonders for his damage output since his three action abilities all potentially benefit from it, while his mastery reflects growing tech-expertise.  You might even swap Leaping for Flight at that point as he improves his jet-boots for sustained output.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Twofold

Jon-Jak Morven was born with an extremely atypical neurological structure, almost as though two brains had been physically conjoined within a single skull.  As a child they suffered from a variety of mental health issues that were misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic disorder that developed into a an entirely separate personality over time.  This lead to their father (their mother having died in childbirth) to abandon them to the care of a pediatric asylum.  

When their somato-psionic powers manifested at age 13 it became apparent that Jon-Jak was not only two people sharing the same body, they were capable of modifying that body to better suit their needs.  The Klassroom Program had contacts within the psychiatric facility and were quick to spirit the child away for their own purposes, barely escaping ahead of a mob of "anti-superfreak" bigots bent on killing the youth.  Jon-Jak now prefers to remain in their more powerful four-armed form, although they can revert to their original humanoid body when need be while both personalities remain in joint control.

Twofold's role in Klass K is as a frontline fighter, with low-level superhuman strength, speed and durability combined with perfect coordination between all four limbs and extensive close quarters combat training.  Both Jon and Jak are stereotypical gym bros in terms of interests.  They're very competitive with each other and even more so with others, eager to prove their physical superiority and perfectly willing to resort to violence to do so.

Description: In their "combat" form, a very tall, well-muscled semi-humanoid.  They have four powerful arms and a broad chest and shoulders, making them look rather top heavy.  Their head sports two sets of eyes (alternating blue, green, blue, green) as though the strangely distorted face divided in two just above the nose.  The outlandish figure wears a medium-red bodysuit uniform under loose black trunks, with a prominent yellow "k" on the left chest.  They accessorize with two pairs of fingerless leather gloves with metal-studded knuckles and steel-toed spiked boots.  Their voice is a powerful bass with a faint, unfamiliar accent and sometimes seems to have a faint echo as though a second person were speaking.  

Their civilian form is about five inches shorter and somewhat less athletic, and the lack of extra arms and eyes make it hard to see the connection between the two identities.

Gender: Male (Plural)        Age: 19        Height: 6'4"        Eyes: Blue-Green Heterochromia

Hair: Buzzcut Blonde                Skin: Caucasian                 Build: Variable, Always Very Fit

Approach: Underpowered                   Archetype: Guerrilla

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Morphic Physiology d8, Speed d6, Strength d6, Vitality d6 

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Fitness d8, Trainee Villain d8, Alertness d6

Status: ( # of inventions & mods) 4+ - d12 / 2-3 - d10 / 1 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Comeback Kid (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.

Four-Fist Boxing (A) Attack multiple targets using Close Combat.  Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using your Min die.  

Infighting Tricks (I) If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by two.

Slip That Hit (R) Defend against an Attack by rolling your single status die.  Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.

Windmill Wallop (A) Attack using Morphic Physiology.  If you roll doubles, add that value to your Attack.  If you roll triples, add all three dice to your Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually when near Graduation Day):

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 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

Twofold is a brawler, plain and simple.  Their Morphic Physiology's ability to swap to a mundane form is occasionally useful for schemes and scams, but mostly they act as a distraction and lightweight muscle for the rest of the Klassroom.  In a fight they'll try to crowd in on multiple opponents to use Four-Fist Boxing, their Slip That Hit reaction (which can redirect Attacks on allies if need be) and Infighting Tricks to their best.  If facing a single very tough opponent they'll gamble on Windmill Wallop instead.  Comeback Kid will save them from their first KO and pushes them toward going outright berserk.

Their upgrade improves their damage output and durability a fair bit.  Their mastery reflects how unpredictable they can be when a plan falls apart and they're pushed to the wall.  They might even snap out of it and make a getaway, perhaps by slipping out of sight and adopting their "civilian" form to play at being an innocent bystander.

Blog Content Index