Hugo Hellbinder & the Horror Within, A Doomed Fool and His Terrible Destiny

These two villains were used in an older magic-focused campaign that ran for a few months in 2022, with Hugo being a dupe of the sinister organization behind most of the game's action.  My heroes did manage to stop the Horror Within without it detonating, although it was much too late for poor Hugo.

Hugo Hellbinder

Hugo Schramm was a fairly minor player in occult circles until recently, but after undergoing an arcane binding ritual he's become a very big deal indeed as Hugo Hellbinder.  He now believes he's on the road to godhood and intends to carry out further rituals to accelerate the process - rituals that call for mass human sacrifices and various ancient artifacts, among other things.  That would be enough to attract attention pretty quickly by itself, but the vast power now barely contained within him serves as a beacon to mystic senses and supernatural creatures for miles around.

Unknown to Hugo, the rituals are all a trap.  His newfound power comes from being implanted with an alien spore that gestates within him even now.  Whether he completes the rest of his rituals or not the Horror Within will soon devour him body and soul, bursting forth as a apocalyptic menace that will briefly wreak havoc before overloading itself in a magical explosion rivalling the power of a small nuclear warhead.  Hugo Hellbinder is a walking weapon of mass destruction, and his clock is ticking.    

Description: A slender, wild-haired man dressed in voluminous layered "wizard robes" in somber hues of black and umber.  They start off pristine but become more tattered and charred as a fight goes on.  He wears a dozen golden rings marked with arcane sigils, which are likely to melt or vaporize as he damages himself during combat.  He speaks in a surprisingly deep voice for his light frame, displaying a faint Swiss-German accent emphasized by the odd German word.

Gender: Male     Age: 37     Height: 5'10"     Eyes: Gray, Wild Disturbing Stare

Hair: Black, Makes Rasputin Look Well-Groomed     Skin: Pale     Build: Thin

Approach: Overpowered                            Archetype: Fragile

Health: 30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Infernal d12, Absorption d10, Teleportation d10                                      

Qualities: Conviction d8, Deluded Demonologist d8, Otherworldly Mythos d6 

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

Abilities:

Surging Energies (I) Whenever you roll a one on a die, reroll that die.

Step Beyond Space (R) When Attacked, Defend by rolling your single status die.  If the damage is reduced to zero, you may immediately move anywhere on the scene.

Unrivalled Power (A) Attack using Infernal.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Hinder yourself using your Max die.  Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Vanishment Charm (I) Whenever your personal zone changes you may immediately move elsewhere in the scene.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

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

Tactics

Hugo Hellbinder is convinced that he's fully in control of the vast energies within him, and plans to use it to achieve true apotheosis by continuing the series of rituals that empowered him in the first place.  He's wrong, but by the time he realizes it will be much too late to matter.  Until then, he'll deal with interfering heroes by hammering them with his Unrivalled Power one after another, always opting to maximize his output by using Surging Energies even when it harms him.  He relies on Vanishment Charm and Step Beyond Space for defense, and will always try to relocate himself to a safe place to continue his rituals Overcomes in peace, requiring heroes to split up or hunt him down each time.

His upgrade makes him more durable and further increases the damage he can dish out, but his mastery is the really dangerous bit since he can automatically succeed on Overcomes to achieve his destiny and release the horror within him. 

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The Horror Within

This thing is more of a pseudo-biological weapon of mass destruction than a living creature, dispatched from some otherworldly dimension to wreak havoc on its environs before detonating in an eruption of uncontainable eldritch power.  Fortunately they're quite impossible to directly transfer to our universe in their "primed" mature form, instead relying on magical rituals to transfer a parasitic spore to a misguided or fanatical adept.  This spore grants great power while it feeds on its host's soul and innate magics, but eventually consumes them from within and bursts loose their gigantic final form.  

Description: A massive alien form vaguely like a sea anemone crossed with an octopus.  Its dozens of sickly translucent white tentacles end in clusters of wormlike growths.  The thing seethes with eldritch energy that it can focus in enormously destructive gouts of purple-black flame so potent they wither and burn the limb(s) used to project them.  It produces a cacophony of obscene burbling and piping sounds and sprays gouts of milky ichor when damaged.     

Gender: Irrelevant     Age: Eternal     Size: ~90' Core Diameter     Eyes: None

Limbs: Dozens     Integument: Maggot-White     Build: Mass of Thrashing Tentacles

Approach: Overpowered

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Ritual Counter-Magic 00  Final Banishment 0)

Health:  65 + (5 x H)

Powers: Infernal d12, Elasticity d10, Strength d10                                        

Qualities: Apocalyptic Menace d8, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Alertness d6 

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Apocalyptic Damage (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone.

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

Magical Backlash (R) When a hero takes a minor twist in the Titan's challenge, in addition to the chosen twist, roll your status die and deal that much damage to that hero.

Resurgent Energy (R) When Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one of the successes from the Titan's challenge.

Torrent of Power (A) Attack using Infernal.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Hinder yourself using your Max die.  Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).  Gain Engulfed By Unnatural Flesh (A) Attack using Elasticity.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

The Horror Within is an eldritch parasite that transforms into a rampaging engine of destruction when released from its host.  Largely mindless but unrelentingly hostile to mortals, it uses its size and power to wreak Apocalyptic Damage to its surroundings unless opposed by someone or something potent enough to get its attention.  Against multiple threats Lashing Abomination leverages its enormous physical might, while a particularly dangerous singular foe will be targeted with a Torrent of Power.  Attempts to weaken the magics that allow it to exist in our continuum risk Magical Backlash, and more direct attempts at removing it from existence are likely to trigger its Resurgent Energy reaction.

With its upgrade in place the Horror Within is even tougher to deal with, and gains another option for dealing with priority targets using Engulfed By Unnatural Flesh.  It's mastery makes it even more efficient at wreaking havoc and endangering civilians before it inevitably overloads itself and burns out catastrophically.

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Design Notes

When I used these two, only Hugo (with upgrade) started the scene in play with the Horror Within "unhatched" as yet.  There was an urban environment representing a small city that produced a mix of mystic effects and potential sacrificial victims as twists, divided into a number of magically significant locations that the action could move between - Hugo has a lot of repositioning tricks that make him hard to pin down.  He also had a few sets of hapless cultist minions scattered around to help out.  Hugo himself could take Overcome actions to try to "complete his apotheosis" and if he managed H successes (IIRC that was either five or six in this case) he'd be removed from the scene and replaced by the Horror No Longer Within, which trashed the location it was now in in the process.  The Horror also popped up if/when Hugo was defeated, but it wouldn't have its own upgrade if the ritual hadn't been completed.  Regardless of how the Horror entered play, the scene immediately went to Red, and some extra Red boxes were added to the end of the tracker I think I used three, which might have been a little generous, two would probably have been okay since they finished Hugo at the bottom of Yellow.  If the heroes failed to defeat the Horror by the time the modified tracker ran out it counted as a Doomsday Device going off.

Both these villains could be decoupled from one another and used separately with some reskinning.  Hugo's inevitable self-destruct and de facto suicide ritual could be ditched entirely, turning him into a more typical glass cannon baddie who'd probably operate with other, more durable mystic-themed villainous allies.  The Horror is a little more work, but it could come boiling out of a dimensional rift in response to a summoning ritual as a sort of magical kaiju.  It isn't terribly durable as Titans go and would need other elements to avoid being focused down - maybe a bunch of "endangered civilians/infrastructure" challenges that start as it arrives.  The Horror Within isn't technically a unique entity but no more than one will appear in a given scene.

Alternately, you could use a less powerful host for it - probably a lieutenant with some kind of timer mechanic - and have it erupt the same way it does with Hugo.  Something like this might work:  

Host of Horrors d12 lieutenant (one per scene, max)

Description: A hapless dupe of a cultist implanted with a mystic spore that's swiftly growing to maturity.  They are crackling with energy barely contained energy and anxious to embrace their supposed destiny as a god through further ritual magics.

Impending Apotheosis: Start a timer with (8-H) boxes (minimum 3).  At the start of each of your turns mark off one box.  You may take an Overcome action during your turn to mark off another box following the usual rules for lieutenant Overcomes (pg. 156).  If you complete this timer you are immediately removed from the scene and replaced by the Horror Within with its upgrade.  If you are defeated while this timer is incomplete, the Horror Within immediately appears in your former location without its upgrade.  In either case, add two more boxes to the scene tracker and the entire track is now considered to be in the Red zone.  The Horror Within doesn't take a turn until round after it appears.

Overwhelming Power: You gain a +4 bonus to Attack actions, but each time you Attack your die size decreases one step at the end of your turn.  When the Horror Within first appears, remove all minions in its location and then deal d10 damage to all remaining targets there. .

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Musclemind Maximus, An Empowered Menace

When I used the alt-universe villain group Klass K in my last campaign my heroes wound up victorious in the final clash but it was a close thing, with a city-wrecking Doomsday Device being disarmed at the very last moment and even then only by accepting a Major Twist.  Kommander Konquest escaped on her own, while Kid Klotho, Troublemaker and Twofold were all defeated and arrested but vanished before trial, involuntarily hurled back to Earth-K as their time on the campaign Earth ran out.  Musclemind was believed dead, having been chucked into a vat of boiling chemicals when defeated - not that anyone else on the team was sorry to see him go.  However, I had plans for that Major Twist, and a good villain never stays dead.

The campaign wrapped up before I got around to working in his return, but I did write up a new form for him as seen below.  Turns out the chemicals he fell into were similar enough to the ones that had originally given him his powers that his battered body assimilated them, not only growing in both power and stature but also freeing himself from the dimensional stress issues Earth-K residents normally suffer from.  This world was now his to toy with...or would have been, if we were still playing.

Musclemind Maximus

The creature known as Musclemind Maximus was originally native to the Earth-K alternate universe, where he was the sole survivor of biochemical mass casualty event that granted him staggering physical strength backed up by enormous psychic abilities while costing him whatever knowledge and specialized skills he had in his former life.  He also developed a textbook case of supervillain megalomania and is now driven largely by instinctual responses backed with an overwhelming sense of superiority.

While formerly a "trainee supervillain" in the Klassroom training program, he never accepted the role and regarded the other Klass K villains as his lackeys - lackeys who ultimately failed him, and will pay for their failure should their paths cross his again.  With his further empowerment he no longer cares to rely on such flawed tools, and fully intends to conquer this new Earth through his own might.  He might just have the power to do so, since he's now a fifty foot tall juggernaut of unstoppable physical might with cosmic-level mental powers.  Only his shaky sanity and poor planning skills stand in the way - and your heroes, of course.

Description: A towering humanoid standing almost fifty feet tall, 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.  A web of arcing purple-white energy crawls across its massive frame.  The sexless thing wears nothing but an aura of power.  Their voice is a bellowing roar full of brag and bombast, and their telepathy is equally unsubtle.       

Gender: Male          Age: 22          Height: 49 feet tall         Eyes: Icy Blue

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

Approach:  Prideful

Archetype:  Titan (Status Challenge: Overload Mental Barriers 00  Disrupt Nervous System 0)

Health:  55 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d10, Telekinesis d10, Telepathy d10, Momentum d8 

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Conviction d10, Fitness d8, Ranged Combat d8, Raving Megalomaniac d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Psychokinetic Tempest (A) Attack multiple targets using Telekinesis.  Hinder those targets with your Min die.

Hapless Gnat! (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

You Will Be First To Fall! (A) Attack using Conviction.  Use your Max + Min die.  Defend against all Attacks against you by other targets until the start of your next turn with your Mid die. 

Psychic Crush (A) Hinder using Telepathy.  Use your Max die.  That penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Mental Barriers (I) Reduce all damage taken by you by 6 (if your status is d12), 4 (if your status is d10), or 2 (if your status is d8 or less).

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, but usually in effect unless recently defeated and still recovering):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  All power dice increase one step in size.

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

Musclemind Maximus is a solo threat, usually accompanied in a scene only by environmental effects and challenges, including Doomsday Devices he's gotten ahold of or copied after some telepathic spying.  Any other villains appearing a scene will be less allies than opportunists, and are as likely to draw his ire as heroes if they attract his attention.  In combat, he'll seek to eliminate foes as rapidly as possible while reveling in his own might with a variety of attacks.  He'll usually open by using Psychokinetic Tempest to size up his foes.  He then selects a key target to cripple with Psychic Crush and then renders them helpless to do anything but make Overcomes to escape with Hapless Gnat!  If the victim fails to escape, Musclemind Maximus will attempt to finish them off while ignoring other Attacks with as many uses of You Will Be First To Fall! as required.  Otherwise he generally repeats the three-step process as often as he can, relying on his Mental Barriers and high Health to outlast his foes while running out the scene timer.

Musclemind Maximus is fond of building varied dice pools to reflect different ways to use his abilities.  For example, Hapless Gnat! might be Strength + Close Combat to represent an actual grab, or Strength + Ranged Combat if he hurls a mass of wreckage that pins the target beneath it.  You Will Be First To Fall! might use any power, from Strength or Telekinesis to for a crushing physical or mental grip to Telepathy for an agonizing psychic assault or Momentum to trample a foe into the ground.     

His upgrade will almost always be in effect unless he's recovering from a recent defeat, and his mastery reflects his fondness for extortion schemes involving apocalyptic Doomsday Devices.

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Samuel Hakes, aka The Black Miasma, Massive Murder-Cloud

This villain is almost a guaranteed mass-casualty event if he gets into a populated area, so don't let that happen if you can.  If he's feeling mean he might decide to take hostages to toy with, although there's not much he wants that the world can give him. 

Samuel Hakes, The Black Miasma

Samuel Hakes (Prisoner #761-176) was facing a life sentence in prison without parole after being found guilty of multiple spree murders, so volunteering to participate in a research trial for better living conditions seemed like a risk worth taking.  Besides, everyone had heard rumors of another con who'd been granted superhuman strength and durability in a similar experiment.  Maybe Hakes would get lucky too.

Instead, he was exposed to an exotic chemical that led to an irreversible physical transformation, robbing him of his humanity and part of his sanity but also allowing him to escape and resume his killing spree.  The authorities dubbed his new form the Black Miasma - a reasonable description of his new form - and were forced to call in multiple heroes to finally contain him in an airtight portable cell.  Several of them died in the process, giving Hakes a reputation as a hero-killer as well as a mass murderer.

Despite being moved to a max-security super-prison the Black Miasma has escaped several times since then, albeit always for brief periods.  He's even been set free by other villains on occasion, either as a deliberate distraction or in hopes of making an alliance with him for some scheme.  A few have even succeeded in convincing him to cooperate, although others have perished in his deadly haze for their trouble.  While he's largely motivated by murderous rage and hatred toward everyone who still has a physical body, he'd be quick to listen to any plausible offer to assist him in regaining his original form.  He doesn't want to give up his powers in the process, but being able to transform at will would be ideal for him.

Description: A shifting, formless cloud of dark particles.  In its base state it appears to be a sooty haze about fifty feet in diameter (large enough to envelope or fill many buildings) that flows from place to place of its own volition.  At maximum compression it can squeeze itself down to a globular mass about eight feet in diameter with a consistency akin to thick, black bank of smoke, or it can disperse to a maximum diameter of just over one hundred feet.  It can vary its density independent of its total volume, ranging from an almost invisible dark mist to a slimy mass of fog slightly thinner than water.  The being can adopt more structured forms to flow through openings or passages, or throw out pseudopods to pursue a fleeing foe, but a humanoid form is beyond it, only fragments of one like a huge menacing face or a single reaching hand.  Its voice seems to come from nowhere and sounds like a susurrus of falling ash.

Gender: Moved Past It    Age: 31    Volume: Variable, Base Diameter ~50'    Eyes: None

Hair: None                    Skin: None                    Build: Amorphous Cloud

Approach: Relentless

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Analyze Cloud Structure 00  Locate Prime Nexus 0)

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Density Control d10, Size-Changing d8, Intangibility d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Convict Test Subject d8, Stealth d8, Fitness d6

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Amorphous Form (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Deadly Miasma (A) Attack multiple targets using Density Control.  Hinder those targets using your Min die.

Focused Hate (A) Attack using Close Combat.  Use your Max die.  If the target does not Attack you on their next turn, Hinder them using your Mid die.

Roiling Vapor (R) When Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one success from the Titan's challenge.

Vindictive Pursuit (R) When an opponent moves away from you, you may follow them and Hinder them by rolling your single status die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

The Black Miasma is a murderous but straightforward opponent, often concentrating more on inflicting mass casualties to innocents and mundane law enforcement than defeating the heroes.  His go-to ability when there are victims within the cloud that makes up his being is Deadly Miasma, otherwise he's quick to resort to Overcomes with creative power uses to get at targets cowering from him in supposed safety.  His Amorphous Form lets him shrug off a lot of damage, and Roiling Vapor helps keep his defenses at peak.  If a single hero manages to get his attention (often by applying penalties to him, which hurt his offense and Overcomes a lot) he'll use Focused Hate for payback.  Targets fleeing from him will also draw a Vindictive Pursuit reaction, which is his primary mobility trick.  

His upgrade makes him much more durable and reflects him adapting to his transformation over time.  His mastery leans hard into his homicidal nature and cruelty.

Trivia

The Black Miasma's combination of powers and Titan archetype reflect his status as a gigantic ever-shifting cloud of dark mist.  While not quite fully insubstantial, he can seep through anything short of an air-tight barrier in short order, as well as varying his opacity and overall shape considerably.  His version of Density Control not only affects him, when in contact with solid matter he can slowly penetrate its substance and break it down on a molecular level, effectively disintegrating objects and people.  The process is swifter with organic matter, but even metals and ceramics can gradually be worn down and even a pinhole breach will let him slip through a formerly impenetrable barrier.

He's also remarkably hard to damage due to his makeup and considerable size, although his consciousness is somewhat concentrated in a smaller prime nexus which offers a weak point if it can be located.  Black Miasma's principle limitation is his lack of mobility.  While able to flow about at will even in face of fairly strong winds (anything less than hurricane force) he does so at roughly walking pace and can't actually fly or swim as such.  He can "climb" a building or "walk" across the surface of water, and dropping off a height in low-density form won't hurt him at all, but even a civilian can escape him for a while by running fast enough.

How his senses function is unclear, but he's known to be able to see, hear and feel everything within the confines of his volume, as well as perceiving nearby areas about as well as a mundane human could.  He has to concentrate on a smaller area to really notice details (like the identity of who's moving within him) but has a general sense of what's going on near or inside him.

Meta-textually, Samuel Hakes is (or was, depending on how you look at it) an African-American and "the Black Miasma" is a nod to often-problematic naming practices in comics.  He despises his supranym and using his real name might get you a break when talking to him, or it might enrage him as a reminder of his past depending on his mood.

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Villain Design Analysis: Archetypes Part 5 - Predator, Squad & Titan

Continuing this series with a look at the last three villain Archetypes.

Predator

Predator villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that decreases the more opponents they're engaged with.  Much like Guerrillas, this causes some issues because "engaged" is never clearly defined in the rules, and it's unclear whether hostile lieutenants and minions should be counted as well.  If you just count opponents in the same location Predators might maintain a d8 status, but getting to a d10 really requires isolating a single foe, something none of your abilities really allow you to do.  They have an average Health bonus, and get the usual two ability choices from this list:

Surprise Trap - Reaction that uses your status die to Hinder an Attacker and deals damage to them equal to the value of the penalty.  As villain defensive reactions this is really quite bad, in large part because you'll rarely get better than -2 penalty out thanks to your dreadful status die mechanic.  That is a very puny damage debuff and poor payback damage compared to similar reactions.  

Hazardous Terrain - Solid multi-target Hinder that also does decent damage to any target that already had a penalty from you on them.  You don't have any abilities that produce truly persistent penalties so the only way to get the damage to happen is to manage to exploit the turn sequence to use this twice over two rounds before the heroes get to go, or possibly take a twist when creating a penalty to make it last for two uses. 

Hidden Hunter - Innate ability that doubles the value of any mods of your choice involved with taking action against a target that's unaware of your presence in the scene, or has forgotten you're still there.  Very, very dependent on GM fiat or Overcome actions to conceal yourself and/or trick foes into thinking you've fled.

Hunt the Weak - Solid Attack that becomes very strong if the target has a penalty from you or is already in the Red zone.  The lack of an persistent penalty creation hampers the utility of this ability as well, and it's almost overkill if the target is already in their Red Health zone.

Stealth Approach - Solid self-Boost that creates a persistent and exclusive bonus, bundled with a moderate self-Defend that lasts until your next turn. 

Track My Prey - Solid Hinder that lasts until your next turn, so could potentially be used several times depending on timing and target reactions.  While the target has this penalty it cannot use reactions or benefit from Defend actions.  This is potentially very strong for your allies, but doesn't really benefit you.

This Archetype has issues with its abilities, some of which can be patched through taking the right Approach while others need more work.  Any ability that can apply persistent penalties helps make two of the Predator choices much better, and anything that grants you some mobility to reposition and avoid being engaged by too many foes will help improve your status die.  You could also opt to take minor twists when creating key penalties to have them last for two uses, but that's a steep price to pay.  If you took Hidden Hunter all mods are more useful in theory, although it would help to have a "take any basic action using your Max die" ability to Overcome your way into concealment or a faked retreat as well.

There are still several things I'd advise altering as house rules.  Surprise Trap should be reworded as follows:

Surprise Trap (R) When Attacked, roll your single status die.  Deal the Attacker that much damage, and Hinder the Attacker using the same roll.  The resulting penalty is persistent and exclusive.

This makes an underperforming reaction considerably stronger, as well as providing a way to create a persistent penalty to make your other choices more viable.  It still isn't providing much immediate defense, but at least it stings more now and will debuff future Attacks while the penalty remains.

I'd also suggest altering Track My Prey to add some mobility so it has better utility outside of teams:

Track My Prey (A) Hinder using [power].  Use your Max die.  The penalty lasts until your next turn, and while a hero has this penalty they cannot use reactions or benefit from Defend actions.  Then you may move to any location in the scene.

Mobility of any kind helps avoid status die disasters and makes Hidden Hunter a little easier to use.

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Squad

Squad villains have a 6/8/10 status die spread that gets smaller the fewer allied villains are in the scene.  Their status isn't affected by lieutenants and minions.  They have a very low Health bonus and two ability choices: 

On My Mark - Action ability that lets an ally take an immediate basic action, using their Max die and rerolling any ones that come up.  Strongest when used on allies with better dice pools than your own.  

My Allies Are My Strength - Innate damage increase for you based on the number of nearby non-minion allies.

Press the Advantage - Solid single target Attack, and if you pass the turn to the target they must Attack you on their turn if possible.  If you can take the damage this can be very good.  Restricting enemy choices is usually potent, especially if they were needed for Overcomes or Boost support.

Protect My Allies - A rare defensive reaction that protects an allied villain using your status die, and you get to self-Boost as a reward.  Really quite good for villain teams but doesn't protect mere henchmen.

Stay In Formation! - Boost any two targets and get a weak self-Defend that applies to all Attacks until your next turn.  A solid support option that uses all three of your dice efficiently, and can be used to self-Boost if desired.

Take Point - Solid Attack that provides a good Defend to all your nearby allies until your next turn.  Hugely effective team defense move, although it leaves you wide open and you'll likely draw some fire so you can't just spam this move.  Does call for your allies to stay rather bunched up though, so beware of multi-target Attacks with enough damage to breach the Defend.

A very versatile list that can provide just about anything, but really needs allies (and particularly other villains) to function well.  Depending on your selections you can take a direct hand as a damage dealer while also protecting allies, or as a support character handing out improved basic actions and bonuses, and there's also a very solid defensive reaction to cover for allies.  When considering Approaches something with healing might be helpful (it is one thing the list can't provide), but just about anything can work based on what Archetype abilities you focus on. 

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Titan

Titans have an 8/10/12 status dice spread that decreases as the heroes Overcome the custom Titan challenge each has, with status dropping to d10 after two successes and d8 after a third.  They're tied for the highest Health bonus of any Archetype and can choose three abilities from this list:

Crush All Underfoot - Moderate multi-target Attack bundled with a weak Hinder on each target.

Down the Hatch - Solid Attack bundled with the option either apply an all-three-dice Hinder, or render the target unable to take actions at all until a successful Overcome frees them.  Uniquely restrictive, and can be spammed for an almost a guaranteed victory against a single hero unless they escape immediately or have allies to Overcome for them. 

Foolish Insect - Reaction that uses your status die to deal damage to a hero that takes a minor twist in your Titan's challenge, in addition to the twist effect.

You Are But Gnats To Me - Insanely high damage reduction that decreases to merely very good as your status die degrades.  Practically forces the heroes to Overcome your Titan's challenge in order to do damage to you.   

I Will Not Be Defeated So Easily - Reaction that triggers when Attacked with a roll that includes doubles, letting you remove a success from you Titan's challenge, which helps keep you status die up. 

The Land Quakes Underfoot - Action ability that lets you trigger an environmental twist in its current zone, no roll required from you.  Still restricted to just one use of each Major Twist per scene.  Domain villains are better at this trick, but it can still be very disruptive and unpredictable.

The list includes a decent multi-target Attack and Hinder bundle, a single target Attack that either Hinder or apply a unique and very powerful restriction on the victim, two reactions that both interact with the Archetype's unique status die mechanic, incredible damage reduction, and the rare ability to manipulate the environment in your favor.  It's very powerful, but benefits greatly from an Approach that offers either a bit more variety (eg Boosts, healing, a real defensive reaction, other ally support tricks) or that leans into whatever Titan abilities you've chosen (eg stacking even more damage reduction or stronger raw-damage Attacks).  Titans can be remarkably frustrating for some teams to deal with, and their built-in challenge practically requires spending at least three hero actions, especially if you've taken the damage reduction option.  With both offensive options including Hinder riders passing Overcomes on that challenge is much harder as well.

Even without an upgrade, I'd expect almost any Titan to be as hard to deal with as a difficult scene element.  They really are a step above the other Archetypes.   

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Continued in Upgrades.

Blog Content Index

Mega-Roach, Monstrous Mutant Insect

Giant insects are classic monster-comic fare, and here's a typical example.  By kaiju standards it's a bit on the small size - only about as big as a bus - but could show up in multiples for something like Gorgiza to snack on.

Mega-Roach

The giant mutated insects the media have dubbed "Mega-Roaches" have been making occasional appearances since the 1950s atomic testing period, but they're becoming more common over time despite efforts to exterminate them for good.  These attempts are complicated by the fact that the creatures leak mutagenic substances that can create more of their kind from normal vermin.  Various supervillains have also been known to create these things for use as distractions for other schemes, and a rare few (like King Kockroach) can control them directly.

Individual mega-roaches vary quite a bit, but they're generally about 40' long and have at least six legs.  Even the ones whose wings aren't hopelessly stunted or deformed by mutations weigh far to much to fly, but they remain quite able to scuttle up suitably large buildings and geographic features.  They don't appear to be interested in anything beyond food - and humans are a nice mouthful for them - but you never can tell when a super-intelligent one with psychic powers might show up. 

Description: A cockroach the size of a bus, sporting various mutations like extra limbs, antennae and compound eyes.  Oily toxic goop oozes from the joints in its carapace and limbs and its mandibles constantly drool sticky greenish-black toxic saliva. 

Gender: It's A Roach            Age: Unknown      Height: ~12'          Eyes: Black

Hair: Not Really     Exoskeletal Carapace: Oily Brown     Build: Giant Mutated Roach

Approach: Leech

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Study Exoskeletal Weaknesses 00  Breach the Soft Spot 0)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Biochemical Arsenal d10, Strength d8, Wall-Crawling d6

Qualities: Alertness d8, Close Combat d8, Fitness d8, Gargantuan Mutant Cockroach d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Mutated Exoskeleton (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Sticky Spittle & Grinding Mandibles (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Stinking Exudations (A) Hinder multiple targets using Biochemical Arsenal.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack one of those targets using your Max die.

Sudden Spit (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Biochemical Arsenal die.  If this negates the Attack entirely, use the same roll to Hinder the Attacker and Boost yourself.

Urban Decay In Action (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

Despite its imposing size, a Mega-Roach relies as much on its nasty chemical secretions as much as raw physical might in combat.  Its primary offensive ability it to use its Sticky Spittle & Grinding Mandibles to maul prey while trapping them in a gooey mass of toxic saliva.  It makes every effort to exploit the turn sequence to first trap a target and then apply a big penalty and further damage to keep the victim helpless until the bug can finish them off.  They rely on their Mutated Exoskeleton and Sudden Spit reaction to minimize the damage they take.  When injured they use Stinking Exudations to simultaneously heal and apply penalties to multiple foes, spending all the hoarded bonuses from their excellent reaction to buff those effects for maximum effect - and they might even get to deal some damage if they roll doubles.  When lacking an obvious target it can also use its size and mass to trigger environmental twists with Urban Decay In Action, complicating the scene no end as it hunts for suitable victims to devour. 

Their upgrade reflects an older, more mature Mega-Roach (the base stats are young ones), and their mastery is exactly what you'd expect from a giant monster.  

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City In Peril Environment 

Represents any generic urban area that's under attack from big, destructive threats like rampaging giant robots, kaiju, bombardment by massed artillery, or death ray attacks from orbiting alien spaceships.

Crumbling Architecture d8, Dangerous Infrastructure d8, Screaming Crowds d10

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Blinding Smoke: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all targets with the Min die.

Falling Debris: Roll the environment dice.  Attack all targets with the Min die.

Trapped Civilian: Roll the environment dice.  Start challenge.  Rescue Citizen: 0  Hinder all heroes with the value of the Min die until this challenge is completed.

(Major Twist)

Leaking Gas Lines: Start challenge.  Prevent Explosion: 0  Timer: 0  Triggered: Advance the scene tracker by one. 

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Buried Under the Rubble: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder one hero with the Mid die, and Attack that hero with the Min die.

Broken Power Line: Roll the environment dice.  Attack one hero with the Max die.

Police Assistance: Roll the environment dice.  Boost two heroes with the Mid die.

(Major Twist)

Panicking Crowd: Roll the environment dice.  Start multi-stage challenge.  Calm Civilians 0  Evacuate Civilians 00  Heroes cannot Overcome the second stage on the same round that the first stage is completed.  Hinder all heroes with the value of the Mid die until this challenge is completed. 

Red Zone

(Minor Twists)

Just Keeps Getting Worse: Trigger three different minor twists from the Green or Yellow zones.

Raging Fires: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all targets using the Mid die.  Attack all targets using the Min die.

(Major Twist)

Collapsing Buildings: Roll the environment dice.  Start timed challenge.  Avoid Collapse 0 Timer 0  Each hero must Overcome this challenge individually.  Triggered: Each hero that failed to complete this challenge is Attacked with the Max + Min dice, and all minions and lieutenants are removed from the scene.

Blog Content Index

Little Miss Big, A Third Generation Dynastic Supervillain

Villains can form dynasties too.  If super-crime had Bring Your Daughter To Work Day she could compare notes with Torch-Girl, although they have rather different relationships with their respective fathers. 

Little Miss Big

Fiona Donovan-Myers is the fifth daughter of super-criminal Tom Donovan, aka Mister Big Junior.  She's inherited his ability to generate a large volume of a luminous substance he called "ecto-powerplasm" to protect and empower herself, marking three generations of powered criminal in the family now.  Like her father she can surround herself with a huge humanoid shell of the stuff, granting her great size, strength and durability, but she's more adroit than he is and can also form it into cables, webs, and bubbles to restrain foes.  In a pinch she can even form "hardballs" of the stuff to use as impromptu projectiles, which are a bit more aerodynamic than just picking up a car and hucking it when dealing with flyers and snipers.

While Fiona has chosen to follow in the family tradition, she and her father don't get along well at all.  He divorced her mother well over a decade ago when she failed to give birth to a son, and Fiona was raised to despise her father while also resenting his relative wealth.  When her powers manifested she opted to become a super-criminal herself and outdo the "old man" at his own game.  She adopted her "Little Miss Big" supranym mock him for having been stuck as "Junior" all these years, as well as to make it clear to potential employers and allies that they'll be working with one of the "Big" criminal dynasty.  Fiona is quick to point out that she's the new, innovative generation of the family compared to her fossil of a father.  It's hard to deny she isn't more clever than he is about how she uses her powers, as well as better at making jobs turn a profit for everyone involved.

Description: A tall, long-legged young woman, dressed in a stylish black suit and black sunglasses.  Heroes will most often encounter her hovering in the core of a forty-foot tall construct made of brightly glowing yellow-orange energy in the shape of a slender humanoid with a wild mane of fiery "hair" that emulates that of its creator.    

Gender: Female            Age: 20        Height: 5'8" (usually 40' at peak)       Eyes: Blue

Hair: Red, Long, Straight     Skin: Lightly Freckled     Build: Leggy (Lean Shell)

Approach: Skilled

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Get Cracking 00  Vent Power 0)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Powerplasm Manipulation d10, Strength d8, Vitality d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Creativity d10, Alertness d8, Banter d8, Ranged Combat d8, Crime Boss' Daughter d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Bubble Trouble (A) Attack using Powerplasm Manipulation.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Hardened Powerplasm (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Making Trouble (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone.

Plasmic Bonds (A) Hinder using Creativity.  Use your Max + Min dice.  The resulting penalty is persistent and exclusive.

WHAM! (A) Hinder multiple targets using Close Combat.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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 Powerplasm Manipulation die.  Gain Reestablish Shield (A) Overcome using Powerplasm Manipulation.  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 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

Compared to her father, Little Miss Big is quite a bit better at manipulating the "ecto-powerplasm" they both surround themselves with and relies less on the sheer size of her construct.  She also tends to be less brutal in a fight, favoring Hindering effects over raw damage.  Her favorite trick is to use Plasmic Bonds (which works fine even at a distance, spinning coils of her plasm around them) on a victim to establish a lasting penalty, then following up with a full-envelopment Bubble Trouble to force them to Overcome their way to freedom while under that penalty.  She can also use her size with Making Trouble to trigger environment twists, and if outnumbered WHAM! lets her deliver a stomp or handclap that can affect a whole crowd with the shockwave.  Hardened Powerplasm greatly increases her overall durability.

Her upgrade makes her construct shell far more durable, while her mastery demonstrates her ruthless business savvy instead of relying on brute force like Mister Big Junior does.

Blog Content Index

Ettin-class Mega-Mutate & Intellect Alpha, A Symbiotic Kaiju Duo

The atomic abomination was bad enough before it was defeated the first time, but when it was revived, repaired, recharged, and equipped with a cyber-psychic symbiote things really got scary. 

Ettin-class Mega-Mutate Original Form

A product of one Doctor Mordecai Mentallax's monster forges, the Ettin-class mega-mutate was apparently an experiment in gene-grafting entities adapted for post-apocalyptic nuclear wastelands.  In addition it incorporated internal bio-reactors to produce its own atomic power supply rather than subsisting on environmental energies.  The first field trial was only stopped from rampaging through Toronto by the concerted effort of a whole quartet of superheroes.  Even then the creature survived seemingly mortal wounds, merely lapsing into a low-energy torpor that complicated efforts to study the beast's metabolism for potential vulnerabilities.

While active, the mega-mutate displayed extreme aggression toward anything that moved, weakening foes with beams of hard radiation emitted from its four eyes before using its size and brute strength to crush them.  Despite its distant human ancestry the creature behaved in an animalistic fashion and displayed no sense of self-preservation or emotions beyond berserk fury.  Whether its creator regarded the thing as a success or not was unclear in the weeks following its defeat.         

Description: A towering freak of genetic engineering, glowing and crackling with barely-controlled atomic energy.  The thing is clearly derived from human DNA but sports four powerful oversized arms and two disproportionately tiny heads, each barely thrice the size of a normal adult's.  It seems to be wholly non-verbal, growling and shrieking like an enraged animal and unresponsive to speech - including pleas for mercy.

Gender: Neuter     Age: Uncertain     Height: 32'4"     Eyes: Glowing Radioactive Green

Hair: Left Head Dark Green, Right Head Light Green     Skin: Medium Green

Build: Microcephalic, Two-Headed, Four-Armed

Approach: Dampening

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Locate Atomic Power Glands 00  Short Circuit Power Flow 0)

Health:  55 + (5 x H)

Powers: Nuclear d10, Strength d8, Momentum d8

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Fitness d8, Radioactive Mega-Mutate d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Atomic Aura (R) When Attacked by a hero with a penalty, ignore the damage and remove a penalty on that hero.

Deadly Eye Beams (A) Attack multiple targets using Nuclear.  Hinder each of those targets using your Min die.

Draining Eye Beams (A) Hinder multiple targets using Nuclear.  While a hero has this penalty, reduce all their power dice by one size.

Crushing Grasp (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Gargantuan Brute (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Upgrades & Masteries (usually in effect unless its Titan's challenge was solved in an earlier scene):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase the die size of all your powers by one step (max d12).

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

The Ettin is a berserker, fighting relentlessly until destroyed and attempting to kill everything that moves.  Its sheer size and mass lets it wreak huge amounts of property damage.  The mega-mutate usually opens with its Draining Eye Beams or Deadly Eye Beams to weaken opposing foes, which also hand out penalties to fuel its Atomic Aura defensive reaction.  After that it closes with the largest group of targets and begins using its Crushing Grasp to seize them one after another, with its extra limbs letting it hold up to four victims nearly helpless at once.  Fighting back against the Gargantuan Brute is difficult until its Titan's challenge is overcome to weaken its defenses and energy output.

Its upgrade and mastery reflect the creature's baseline performance and will generally be in effect unless at least three successes were scored in the Titan's challenge in a previous scene, or if the beast has been operating for an extended period (several weeks at least) without an opportunity to rest or feast on an outside radioactivity source.

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Ettin-class Mega-Mutate Refit Alpha

About a month after its defeat, unidentified forces assaulted the facility where the mangled body of the Ettin was being studied, somehow making off with the gargantuan hulk and destroying almost all the recorded research data on site.  Later that year, the reason for the attack became clear when "Refit Alpha" went on a new rampage in northern India.  The original Ettin had been revived, recharged and repaired with extensive cybernetic upgrades.  Its missing head was replaced with a specialized cyber-psychic symbiote that acted as a controller for the beast's innate violent instincts, and proved to be capable of limited independent operations on its own when briefly separated from its host by force.

The "new" Ettin proved to be much harder to stop and withdrew through a huge teleport gate after doing extensive damage and soundly defeating half a dozen heroes.  Authorities assume this second "field test" was more of Mordecai Mentallax's doing, but if so he's made no further use of the brute since.  It's possible that some other villain or organization was behind the thing's recovery and upgrade, but if so their identity remains a mystery.     

Description: A towering freak of genetic engineering, glowing and crackling with barely-controlled atomic energy.  The thing is clearly derived from human DNA but sports four powerful oversized arms a disproportionately tiny head, barely thrice the size of a normal adult's and offset on the left side of its torso with a stump of a neck on the right.  Silver metal cyberware replaces large sections of the center and left side of its chest, and caps the stump of its right-side neck.  Non-verbal, the creature is weirdly silent but seems to understand a wide variety of languages.

Gender: Neuter     Age: Uncertain     Height: 32'4"     Eyes: Glowing Radioactive Green

Hair: Dark Green     Skin: Medium Green     Build: Microcephalic, Four-Armed

Approach: Tactician

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Locate Atomic Power Glands 00  Short Circuit Power Flow 0)

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Nuclear d8, Strength d8, Momentum d6, Vitality d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Bonded Mega-Mutate d8, Fitness d6

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Coordinated Attack (R) When a nearby ally makes an Attack, you may also Attack the same target by rolling your single Bonded Mega-Mutate die.

Crushing Grasp (A) Attack using Strength.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Cyber-Psychic Bond (I) As long as you have at least one nearby ally, you may reroll all ones you roll on your dice.

Deadly Eye Beams (A) Attack multiple targets using Nuclear.  Hinder each of those targets using your Min die.

Gargantuan Brute (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Upgrades & Masteries (usually in effect unless its Titan's challenge was solved in an earlier scene):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase the die size of all your powers by one step (max d12).

Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.

Tactics

The Ettin Refit Alpha is an eerie combatant, fighting in perfect coordination with its cyborg ally to maintain a devastating flurry of activity.  While its physiology has been weakened by its previous defeat and ensuing cybernetic repairs, its size still makes the Gargantuan Brute a tough customer.  Its Deadly Eye Beams remain a threat to groups of enemies, and its Crushing Grasp is nearly as dangerous as ever.  It gains dice efficiency from its new Cyber-Psychic Bond ability and considerable offensive potential from using its Coordinated Attack reaction to pile on damage with an ally's strike, while its own Attacks draws supporting fire from Intellect Alpha's Coordinated Eye-Beams own reaction.

Its upgrade and mastery reflect the creature's baseline performance and will generally be in effect unless at least three successes were scored in the Titan's challenge in a previous scene, or if the beast has been operating for an extended period (several weeks at least) without an opportunity to rest or feast on an outside radioactivity source.

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Intellect Alpha

A specialized cybernetic organism, this thing appears to be wholly robotic at first.  Psychics will quickly detect a formidable formidable organic mind within the metal shell, one possessed of potent telepathic powers and limited telekinesis.  Despite its inhuman intelligence it exists solely to interface with the Ettin Refit Alpha, controlling its actions for purposes as yet unknown.  Coordinating with its giant host makes the symbiotic pair far more dangerous than either would be separately. 

Description: A slivery metal skull more than three feet in diameter, with glowing green eye sockets and long "hair" made of metal cables, with more trailing down from where its spine would be.  It can hover about slowly under its own telekinetic power but is usually found atop the right-side neck stump of its giant host body, with its cabling anchoring it securely in place and interfacing with the host's own cybernetics.  It can speak with a cold artificial voice, but usually only does so to issue commands and ultimatums.

Gender: None        Age: Uncertain          Height: 3'4"          Eyes: Glowing Radioactive Green

Hair: Ribbed Metal Cabling          Skin: Metal Plating         Build: Disembodied Metal Skull

Approach:  Tactician

Archetype:  Formidable (Weakness: Anything interfering with its host linkage, whether physical, electronic or psychic)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Nuclear d8, Telepathy d8, Telekinesis d6, Gadgets d6                             

Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Conviction d8, Cyber-Psychic Symbiote d8, Alertness d6

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

Abilities:

Coordinated Eye-Beams (R) When a nearby ally makes an Attack, you may also Attack the same target by rolling your single Ranged Combat die.

Psionic Flare (A) Boost using Telepathy.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Remove all penalties on yourself.

Synchronized Action (A) Make a basic action using Cyber-Psychic Parasite.  Use your Max die.  One nearby ally also makes that same basic action as their reaction.

Telepathic Overdrive (A) Boost using Telepathy.  Use your Max die.  The resulting bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Also Attack using your Mid die.

Upgrades & Masteries (usually in effect unless its host has been defeated in an earlier scene):

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

Intellect Alpha normally remains securely attached to its host, the Ettin Refit Alpha.  If separated from it by some means it will attempt to return as quickly as possible, using desperate Overcome actions and taking twists if necessary.  While interfaced, it works in tandem with the host by using Coordinated Eye-Beams whenever the Ettin Attacks.  It will usually open a battle by using Telepathic Overdrive twice to establish lasting bonuses on both itself and the host (triggering the Ettin Refit Alpha's Coordinated Attack reaction as an extra perk).  If hampered by penalties aimed at its weakness Intellect Alpha uses Psionic Flare to clear them, usually applying the ability's Boost action to the host rather than itself.  It rarely uses Synchronized Action unless it can spare the host's normal reaction ability, but it comes in handy for doing dual Overcomes (usually with large bonuses in place already) or piling on penalties with twin Hinders just to be cruel.

Its upgrade increases Intellect Alpha's durability and raw power considerably, while its mastery represents the thing's vast and unpredictable intelligence at work.    

Blog Content Index

Ro-Man Invasion Saucer, Extraterrestrial Menace

Your generic space invader mothership, capable of deploying hundreds of robotic warriors and three-legged battle walkers.  If you need more organic invaders it's easy enough to re-skin by changing its specific powers and qualities.  For ex, a ship loaded with power-armored invaders and super-heavy battle suits might swap Robotics out for Power Suit and Technology for Leadership instead, renaming its Deploy abilities to fit, while a mob of coldly logical Martian ray-gunners could use Gadgets and Self-Discipline.

Ro-Man Invasion Saucer

This particular vessel is typical of those employed by the Ro-Man Empire, but similar mid-sized invasion transports are used by a number of extraterrestrial polities and organizations.  They represent a significant threat not because of their own minimal armament but because of the destructive potential of the masses of troops and war machines stored within them.  Their lightly armored hulls are heavily reinforced by sophisticated energy defenses that make them quite difficult to destroy, although ambitious heroes might bring one down - or even capture one reasonably intact and use it against its owners.  Most Ro-Man vessels are almost entirely automated with few living crew despite their size and complexity.  

Description: A huge saucer-shaped alien spaceship, big enough to carry hundreds of troops and war machines and protected by potent layered force screens.  Primarily a transport vessel, it mounts only a few lightweight cosmic ray projectors and relies on its troops in combat when this deep in a gravity well.  Hatches on its underside let it deploy its cargo at low altitude via attractor beams rather than having to land, as well providing a way to abduct subjects for interrogation and experimentation.   

Approach: Creator

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Weaken Force Screens 00  Exhaust Power Reserves 0)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Robotics d10, Flight d8, Telekinesis d8, Cosmic d6

Qualities: Technology d10, Alertness d8, Alien Warship d8, Imposing d8, Ranged Combat d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Adaptive Screens (R) When Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one success from the Titan's Challenge.

Deploy War Tripod (A) Use Robotics to create a lieutenant of the same die size as your Max die.

Deploy Robo-Soldiers (A) Use Robotics to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of these minions is the same as the die size of your Min die.

Layered Force Screens (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Screen Feedback (R) When a hero takes a minor twist in the Titan's challenge, in addition to the chosen twist, roll your status die and deal that much damage to that hero.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a War Tripod Commander d12 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Bombard (A) Attack all heroes with this vehicle's roll.  Use this ability only if the vehicle is below its starting die size or the scene is in the Red zone.  Reliable (I) When this vehicle makes an Attack action on its turn, roll twice and use the higher result.

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

Alien Invasion Saucers are very straightforward in combat, repeatedly alternating between Deploy Robo-Soldiers and Deploy War Tripod to unload its cargo of mechanical troops.  Only in unusual situations would it use a basic action to use its attractor beams to Boost, Defend, Hinder or Overcome, or its lightweight cosmic ray projectors to Attack.  Defensively, it is highly resistant to damage thanks to its Layered Force Screens, which can inflict damage on those trying to meddle with them through Screen Feedback and restore their integrity when destabilized with Adaptive Screens.

Its upgrade adds a powerful War Tripod Commander with an advanced compu-brain or even an actual living crewman on board.  Its mastery lets it efficiently carry out its primary mission of establishing a beachhead for further expansion or collecting a mass of hostages and experimental subjects. 

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Robo-Soldiers d8, d10 or d12 minion (see Deploy Robo-Soldiers)

Description: Anthropoid robots with spherical heads sporting a prominent antenna and carrying cosmic energy guns.  They move with the eerie precision only machines can achieve.

Deterministic Programming: Rather than rolling your die when taking an action during your turn, treat the outcome of your basic action as one half of your current die size.  For example, if your die size is current a d8, each action has an effect die of 4.  You still roll normally for saving throws against damage.

War Tripod d8, d10, or d12 lieutenant (see Deploy War Tripod)

Description: Saucer-shaped combat vehicles standing about twenty feet tall on three spindly clawed legs, with multiple energy projectors mounted around the rim of their hull.  Usually unmanned and controlled by a compu-brain, a rare few have an actual organic Ro-Man operating them.  

Multi-Beam Cannons:  When you take an Attack action you may divide your damage as evenly as possible between two targets. 

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Designing An Action Scene, Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday's post, this covers all the crunchy mechanical stuff that needed to be written up for the scene as planned, along with some notes on how it came out when I ran it a few months back at the end.  My prep time on this was a bit over an hour, and would have been less if I'd had the environment available already - the villains had been done for months.  Took me longer to type up this post than assembling everything for play did, but I needed to be a bit more coherent here for readers that aren't just sitting across the table from me like my players were. 

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Protoids

Protoids are an artificial life form, or possibly a biological robot depending on your definition of what "life" means.  Composed of immensely adaptive pseudoplasm, they maintain a roughly humanoid form but can deform themselves enormously, vary their size from a few feet in height to nearly ten stories tall and their density from a thick fluid to harder than concrete.  Even brief contact with an organic life form lets them sample its genetic structure and over time process the information for their own self-improvement.  Protoids lack true free will or intelligence but are created with pre-programmed behavior patterns depending on their planned role.

Empowered Protoid

An Empowered Protoid is massive construct programmed to seek out raw material to expand its mass and spawn more of its kind.  Human bodies are an excellent source of those materials, although other chemicals are required.  Largely quiescent when adequately "fed" they can cause mass destruction if forced to forage for their own supplies.  In addition to the danger they personally present, they also regularly spawn much smaller protoids to assist in combat and gathering material (human or otherwise) for processing.  These speed-grown lesser forms are generally unstable, lasting only a brief period before breaking down into a chemical slurry.

Description: An enormous mass of pseudoplasm the color of a livid bruise.  It maintains a distorted humanoid shape that irregularly flexes, expands and contracts.  Its consistency varies from near-fluid to a crusty hardness but generally maintains a rubbery, adhesive pliancy.  The thing gives off an astringent chemical odor and a constant burbling sound but is incapable of speech.

Gender: N/A     Age: Newborn     Height: 25' To Start, Can Reach Nearly 100'     Eyes: None

Hair: None                   Integument: Transparent              Build: Vaguely Humanoid

Approach: Adaptive

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Discover Weakness 00  Apply Counteragents 0)

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Strength d10, Elasticity d8, Size-Changing d8, Density Control d6                                        

Qualities: Imposing d10, Close Combat d8, Pseudoplasmic Entity d8, Ranged Combat d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Engulf & Encyst (A) Attack using Density Control.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Flailing Limbs (A) Attack multiple targets using Elasticity.  Use your Max die.  Hinder each target using your Mid die.

Metabolic Overdrive (A) Take d6 irreducible damage.  Increase all your powers by one die size each until the end of the scene.

Resilient Pseudoplasm (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Sample & Assimilate (I) On your turn, whenever you Attack a target you haven't dealt damage to yet in this scene, Boost yourself using your Max die. 

Sudden Fluctuations (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Size-Changing die.  Also Boost yourself with the result of that die.

Upgrades & Masteries (usually in effect):

Mook Squad (I) Gain Splattering Pseudoplasm (A) Replenish your Unstable Protoid minions up to the number of heroes in the scene.

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

An Empowered Protoid is a powerful but unimaginative foe.  It relies on Resilient Pseudoplasm backed by Sudden Fluctuations in size for defense, making it very hard to damage until its status die has been reduced.  In most battles it will initially employ Metabolic Overdrive once or twice before beginning to pick off individual targets with Engulf & Encyst, usually opting for the second option to trap the victim within its form.  Each new target it strikes triggers Sample & Assimilate, making its next action more effective.  If hard-pressed by multiple foes the creature will resort to desperate Flailing Limbs.

Its upgrade lets it spawn more of its signature minions with Splattering Pseudoplasm, which it will do whenever their numbers are depleted since they're required to use its mastery to collect more raw materials, human or otherwise.

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Unstable Protoid d8 minion

Description: Vaguely humanoid masses of pseudoplasm the color of a livid bruise with an acrid chemical smell.  They swell larger and larger with each blow they endure before eventually rupturing and collapsing into a puddle of bubbling foulness.

Clinging Pseudoplasm:  When taking Hinder actions you gain a +1 bonus.  When taking Attack actions you suffer a -2 penalty.

Unstable Overdrive:  Each time you succeed in a saving throw against damage while your die size is less than d12, your die size increases by one rather than decreasing.  If you have to make a saving throw against damage while your die size is a d12 you are immediately defeated, no roll required.

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I had five players show up, so I added one of these to the scene as a fifth element.  It got to imitate the Empowered Protoid's Engulf & Encyst ability once and made a Flailing Limbs strike before the PCs finished it off, freeing the hero it had engulfed.  35 Health doesn't last long and the PCs knew how dangerous these things could be from previous encounters.

Attuned Protoid

Attuned Protoids are designed to be "rented" to other villains as powerful and perfectly obedient allies, and are optimized to adapting themselves to duplicate the most potent abilities of their allies.  This can make them very effective force multipliers for the right group, although they're incapable of properly emulating powers of technological or magical origin, and psychic powers work unreliably if at all.  This "model" of protoid is surprisingly agile and good at using its variable form to improve its mobility.  They are, however, quite fragile, and will melt into a reeking puddle of slime when defeated. 

Description: A roughly humanoid mass of blue, black and purple pseudoplasm with sickly yellow highlights.  Its unstable form distorts and stretches seemingly at random, altering its consistency from a thick fluid to rocklike hardness.  The thing stinks of harsh chemicals and gives off a continuous quiet bubbling sound, although it lacks the ability to communicate verbally.

Gender: N/A     Age: Newborn     Height: About 6'     Eyes: None

Hair: None                   Integument: Transparent              Build: Vaguely Humanoid

Approach: Adaptive                     Archetype: Fragile

Health:  10 + (5 x H)

Powers: Elasticity d10, Density Control d8, Strength d8, Wall-Crawling d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Acrobatics d8, Pseudoplasmic Entity d8, Ranged Combat d8

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

Abilities:

Attuned (A) Use an ability action of one of your allies.

Pseudoplasmic Bludgeon (A) Attack using Close Combat.  Then remove all bonuses from the target.

Sample & Assimilate (I) On your turn, whenever you Attack a target you haven't dealt damage to yet in this scene, Boost yourself using your Max die.

Spasmodic Evasion (I) Whenever your personal zone changes, you may immediately move elsewhere in the scene.

Sudden Fluctuations (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Size-Changing die.  Also Boost yourself with the result of that die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hardier Minions + 5 Health.  Gain Metabolic Augmentation (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).

Pseudoplasmic Servant (I) If you are in a situation involving the master you're attuned to, automatically succeed at an Overcome to obey their commands regardless of your well-being.

Tactics

These Protoids exist to serve the entity they're attuned to.  In combat, they prefer to employ one of their allies' more potent abilities using Attuned to imitate them.  While relatively fragile Sudden Fluctuation gives them a strong defensive reaction, and Spasmodic Evasion lets them move to safety if they take serious damage - or when they recover from it using an imitated healing ability.  They're good at Boosting themselves when Attacking thanks to Sample & Assimilate, which encourages them to spread their blows around multiple heroes.  If forced to use their own abilities they resort to Pseudoplasmic Bludgeon to strip targets of their bonuses by leeching away power.

The rarer, more advanced protoids with upgrades have the added ability to improve the performance of their weaker allies through invasive Metabolic Augmentation, injecting pseudoplasm into the recipients.  The also become very efficient servants of whatever master they're attuned to.   

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Secret Laboratory environment

Can be used for any covert facility capable of research and/or light fabrication work, whether it's a mad scientist's lair, site of a top secret government program, or something as prosaic as a meth lab, re-skinning its associated minions and lieutenants to suit. 

Hazardous Materials & Equipment d10, Site Security d8, Lab Staff d6

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Break Time: Add one Technician minion to the scene in a location occupied by one or more hero targets. 

Security Systems: Start challenge.  Disable Sensors: 0  If this challenge has not been completed when the scene tracker advances to the Yellow zone, end the challenge and immediately trigger a Loud Alarm twist.

(Major Twist)

Guard Patrol: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Security Staff minions equal to the Min die to the scene in a location occupied by one or more hero targets.  

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Anesthetic Gas:  Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all targets in one location using the Min die.  The resulting penalties are persistent and exclusive.

Edgar or Edward?: Add one Moseby Twins lieutenant to the scene.  This twist can only be triggered twice per scene.  00

Loud Alarm: Roll the environment dice.  Hinder all hero targets and Boost all environment targets using the Min die.

Shift Change?: Roll the environment dice.  If the scene tracker is in the Yellow zone, add Mid die Technician minions to the scene.  If Red, add Max die Technician minions instead.  If any Loud Alarm twists have been triggered so far this scene, add the same number of Security Staff minions instead.   

(Major Twist)

Serious Safety Violations: Roll the environment dice.  Attack two hero targets using the Mid die, then Hinder both those targets using the Min die and make those penalties persistent and exclusive.

Red Zone

(Minor Twists)

Just Keeps Getting Worse: Trigger three different minor twists from the Green or Yellow zones.

Rapid Response: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Security Staff minions to the scene equal to the Mid die, then Boost those minions using the Max die.

(Major Twist)

Disastrous Lab Accident: Roll the environment dice.  Start timed challenge.  Prevent Disaster 00 Timer 0 Triggered: Each hero Attacked with the Max die, then all minions are removed from the scene.

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Moseby Twins d6 environment lieutenant

Description: The Moseby Twins are a pair of middle-aged Caucasian men dressed stereotypical lab coats over dark suits.  Tall and thin and sporting thick bifocal glasses, they seem pretty harmless - until they trigger the modifications they've made through self-experimentation and begin to swell with muscle, their skin darkening to an ugly purple-blue as they bulk up more and more.  The harder they're hit the more powerful and distorted they become, although eventually their metabolism will overload and collapse, leaving them shriveled and helpless.  Usually they'll try to make a cunning escape before that point, but things don't always work out that way.  

Genius: You gain a +2 bonus to Overcome actions.

Metabolic Modifications:  Each time you fail in a saving throw against damage while your die size is less than d12, your die size increases by one rather than decreasing.  If you have to make a saving throw against damage while your die size is a d12 you are immediately defeated, no roll required.  Note that if you take damage equal to twice your current die size from one Attack you are defeated outright so this ability won't trigger.

Security Staffer d6 environment minion

Description: Basic paid muscle, carrying sidearms and telescoping batons.  Ones working within the facility may have actual uniforms, while outdoor guards will be dressed to blend in with area and keep their weapons concealed.

Sound the Alarm:  You may use your action to attempt to trigger the Loud Alarm environment twist.  Roll your die, subtract the number of hero targets in your location, and if the result is higher than one you succeed.

Technician d4 environment minion

Description: Unarmed lab workers.  They'll have suitable protective gear if they're working with anything hazardous.  They wear uniforms of some kind if the place is run by the kind of organization that issues them even to bottom-rung agents, but otherwise it's just basic lab coats and pocket protectors.

Non-Combatant:  You suffer a -2 penalty to Attack actions.

Sound the Alarm:  You may use your action to attempt to trigger the Loud Alarm environment twist.  Roll your die, subtract the number of hero targets in your location, and if the result is higher than one you succeed.

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Scene Locations

Some powers may allow the heroes to scout ahead with ease, letting them get an idea of what lies ahead with Overcomes before the action starts.  My players didn't have anyone with obvious choices like Remote Viewing, Telepathy or Animal Control, but the guy with Sonic managed to get a general layout through "subsonic ground-penetrating sonar pulses" so that helped some and they knew roughly where the most deeply-buried sections were.  Another hero with Intuition and Principle of Whispers "had a bad feeling" about the main lab space that marked it out as important.  So they had some idea where they might want to go, especially after they looked over the tanks and pipes in material storage. 

Disused Warehouse: Dark, echoing, cavernous space with only a few stacks of dusty crates full of junk scattered around.  Tracks of delivery trucks in the grime and dust make it easy to find the badly concealed hatch that opens on a ladder leading down to the lab, as well as the much larger section of floor that serves as a 20 foot square cargo elevator platform.  The hatch has a simple keypad lock and alarm, and obvious security cameras monitor the area with lackluster coverage - easily Overcome during a montage scene.  Nothing much going on here, and the scene tracker won't start unless the PCs do something overt like punching a hole through the floor or activating the main cargo lift.  Moving between the warehouse and material storage generally takes an action unless a suitable power is in use.

Material Storage: Directly below the warehouse, this cluttered chamber is about half the size of that space.  The only obvious exit is a large pair of swinging doors leading into the hallway that runs past security to the elevator down to the outer laboratories.  It contains the cargo elevator controls (currently in the raised position), the ladder leading up to the smaller hatch, a number of neatly stacked crates full of miscellaneous lab supplies, and a dozen huge cylindrical tanks with cryptic alphanumerical labels on them.  These last are connected to an elaborate set of pumps, hoses and pipes which lead down through the floor.  The place smells of whatever strange chemical mixtures are in the tanks.

Security: This is a small suite of rooms including a security checkpoint with its window overlooking the main hall, a camera monitoring room, a small arsenal/locker/break room, and a sign-in room with more lockers and a cramped adjoining bathroom, and a sturdy doorway that opens on a long underground tunnel that eventually leads to a secret entrance in the apartment building that houses the facility's personnel when off site.  This last might be another entrance point for the heroes if their investigations managed to connect the base with the apartments, and has the same inadequate security systems found in the disused warehouse.  There are H/2 Security Staffers in this location when first entered, with at least one at the security checkpoint itself and one in the monitor room, the latter of whom is usually slacking off.  Using the elevator usually takes an action (it's pretty slow), although using powers to move through the shaft itself (possibly wrecking the elevator in the process and triggering an alarm) would generally just be movement for your turn. 

Outer Laboratories: Located below the security/stores level of the base, the labs can only be accessed via a single large elevator, a sure sign that the place doesn't see many building inspectors.  This location consists of cluster of half a dozen small labs that seem specialized for chemical and biological research, along with a large locker room/bathroom facility that includes protective gear and a hazmat shower.  The computer network is no more secure than the rest of the base, and could be hacked to get access to information that would help with the first step of the Empowered Protoid's titan's challenge, and the lab supplies themselves are could be used to create a counteragent to use in step 2.  The main hallway in this location runs between the elevator shaft and the large security door leading to the Main Laboratory.  When first entered by the heroes there will be H/2 Technician minions scattered around the labs, all of whom will make escape their first priority after sounding the alarm if possible.

Main Laboratory: The main lab is a single very large space accessed through a security door whose keypad lock can be Overcome the same way as the hatch in the warehouse or just smashed open with brute force (the latter sounding the Loud Alarm twist if it hasn't already triggered).  The room has workbenches and equipment along the walls, while the center is dominated by a huge recessed vat of chemicals that the Empowered Protoid wallows in.  A complex array of pipes descend from the ceiling, feeding the vat and various machines on the workbenches and connecting to the tanks in the material storage location overhead.  Any other Protoids start the scene here and generally stay in the area until disturbed.  Unless they've both been encountered as environment twists at least one of the Moseby Twins will be present as well, although they'll be more reactive and move to meet intruders and link up with any active guards.

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The writeups above are quite a bit more elaborate than the notes I wrote up for the actual session, but I wanted to be a little more clear for readers here.  The heroes were able to move around the locations until something happened to set off an alarm, which eventually happened when they triggered a minor twist during an Overcome to get past the security sensors on the elevator leading down to the outer labs.  At that point the scene tracker kicked into gear and the action scene proper started up.  They'd have had  a hard time if they'd set things in motion when they first entered the base (which they debated over when considering just punching/blasting their way in), but as it was they reached the main lab as the scene hit Yellow and the big fight started, wrapping up when the main villain was KO'd around the middle of round eight.  

So that went pretty well.  I let them play out the round and one more beyond ignoring the tracker since they wanted to clean up the last few minions and the Moseby Twins.  A little extra time in the Red zone never hurts player's sense of awesomeness, and only one PC was Out at that point - although the last Twin took another hero out just before he dropped.  Two out of five PCs went Out clearing the place, and almost a dozen guards and techs captured for questioning.  

We ended the session with a combination montage/social scene covering the cleanup and recovery process, calling the authorities about what they'd found, and interrogating prisoners and checking records to make sure they hadn't missed anything vital.  There was no immediate time pressure so the heroes all got to heal themselves up a zone for free, and one of the two who'd gone Out opted to use their montage action to get up to Yellow while the other one decided to stay in Red and do some investigation work using their Principles.  They got rewarded with a lead to some other criminal activity (a "client" that had been looking to lease some Attuned Protoids for a job) for next session and a Boost to carry to that situation, but their Health will be pretty low the next time they get in an action scene - and there was one coming thanks to twists and story stuff leading to an ambush before the group could go check out the new hook.  

Normally I'd follow the rulebook and allow a full heal between sessions, but this one actually ran short due to two people needing to leave early and left the planned ambush scene unresolved, so I started next session with that and then treated it as a full session break before continuing for the night.

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