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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Masters Family, Superpowered Rulers of Herralund

My campaigns have been lacking in the kind of villain-led fictional nations that show up in comics - Doctor Doom's Latveria and Sentinels' own Mordengrad, for ex - so here's a lengthy fix for that.  Rather than go with a single super-dictator this place has a loosely-related family and a civilian population who are kept at least partially mollified by the possibility of their own children winning the genetic lottery and becoming part of the ruling elite themselves. 

The Masters Family

The Masters family are the de facto rulers of the Domain of Sovereign Herralund, a tiny island nation found off the coast of Iceland.  The history of the place is somewhat nebulous (there's a suggestion that it may not have existed prior to the 17th century, and it may not have always been exactly where it is now) but the UN recognized it as a sovereign state in 1950 after it was putatively granted independence by Norway (who seems to have been unaware they even had a claim to the place).  A minor player in international politics, the island's superhuman rulers give it more pull than it would otherwise have, and it has significant investments and interests abroad - some decidedly shady in nature.  With a population barely in the six digits, Herralund is a hypothetically direct democracy that that elects a ruling Council to manage its affairs.  Official languages are English and a local variant of Icelandic, with 91% of the population bilingual. 

That Council has consisted entirely of superpowered members of the Masters family for as long as the current system has existed, and any relative who manifests powers (usually in their late teens) will be inducted into the Council once they reach their majority at age 20.  The Council normally has six to ten members active at a time, making the current group the smallest and youngest in recorded history - a matter of some concern to its members.  The family tree is a sprawling convoluted mess, and most residents of the island can lay claim to some degree of relation at this point, with the attendant chance for their children to manifest powers.

The lineage shares a number of common traits, including superhuman durability, longevity, and the the ability to bend others to their will through sheer mental strength.  They also enjoy an inexplicable ability to twist local reality to serve their needs, particularly within the Domain they lord over.  This manifests largely as incredible good fortune that lets them avoid mishaps or even turn bad luck against their foes, and renders the weak-willed almost incapable of voluntarily harming them.  In dire situations they can extend this further to actively drain the life energies of those nearby to restore themselves, leaving victims enervated, comatose, or worse.

Individual Family members also manifest a personal ability to control some elements of their environment, ranging from the geography of the land itself, the region's climate, or even local flora and fauna.  These powers are strongest within their familial domain but remain quite potent even beyond those borders.  Under most circumstances such traits are unique but may recur in future generations, with only one "Holder" of each power active at a time.  Family records show two occasions where there was a duplication - once involving identical twins and another a pair of cousins who were born at exactly the same time.

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Majestra Masters

Majestra is the oldest member of the currently active Family member, and one of the most effective at manipulating Council politics in her favor.  She sees herself as a long-term planner, cautiously pursuing schemes to ensure the growing prosperity of Herralund and her own personal wealth and power.  Her unique Holding is Landheart, which grants her the ability to command the flora and fauna of the Masters Domain, which (along with her shared Family presence) lets her exert her will on every living thing on the island, although she rarely tests herself against her relatives.  Her Holding has also influenced her personal interest in biosciences and the nature of the Family's superhuman gifts, a subject she regularly collaborates with Magnus about.

Of her younger cousins, she's closest in temperament to Minerva who shares a similar Domain-first mindset.  Most of her time on the Council has been shared with Marcus and she has a soft spot for his blunt nature, but that doesn't stop her from reigning in his sledgehammer response to problems when she can.  Magnus may be the newest to join the Council but she acknowledges his talents, both political and technological.  As long as his recklessness is kept under control the Family will certainly benefit from his work, but the risks need to managed carefully.  Mordecai has always been a disappointment and she expects him to remain one, leading to a real coldness toward him even though she supports Minerva's efforts to find a use for the layabout.   

Description: A tall, dignified, regal woman in her late thirties.  She favors elaborate hairstyles and elegant gowns in black silks and velvet.  Radiating an aura of cold confidence and determination, she rarely needs to raise her delicate voice to command attention, even around her Family members.    

Gender: Female        Age: 39        Height: 5'8"           Eyes: Ice Blue

Hair: Raven Black            Skin: Pale            Build: Statuesque

Approach: Disruptive                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Plants d10, Presence d10, Animal Control d8, Vitality d8

Qualities: Leadership d10, Medicine d8, Science d8, Eldest Cousin d8

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

Abilities:

Interposition (A) Hinder multiple targets using Leadership.  You and any nearby allies Defend using your Max die.

Magnificent Indifference (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment's turn.

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

Mortal Obligation (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice.  Recover that much Health.  Remove those minions.

You Will Obey Me (A) Attack using Presence.  Use your Max die.  A target dealt damage this way Attacks an ally by rolling their single largest power die. 

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually in effect within the Family domain):

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

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

Majestra is a thoughtful but imperious combatant who habitually uses others to do the fighting for her.  Interposition is extremely versatile, and can be paired with Plants, Presence or Animal Control to hamper foes and protect herself and allies using whatever resource is most appropriate - animated greenery, loyal Companions and innocent bystanders, or swarms of wildlife.  You Will Obey Me crushes the psyche of one foe and uses their powers against another.  She also shares the family abilities of Magnificent Indifference (making her immune to environmental damage on the environment turn), Master the World (allowing her to trigger environmental twists at will), and Mortal Obligations (which lets her draw the life energy out of those nearby to restore herself).

Her upgrade amps up her power and durability considerably, especially within the Family domain, while her mastery reflects her casual control of all life around her. 

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Marcus Masters

Marcus is one of the most potent Holders of Storm in Family history, but he's come to rely on raw power over skill or creativity when employing his talents.  Bold, brash, and quick to resort to violence, he's a great asset in a fight but full of braggadocio and lacking the usual subtlety of a Council member.  He's considered a major national defense asset unto himself, which is often used as an excuse for keeping him from travelling abroad where there might be...incidents.  Majestra and Minerva both keep a cautious eye on his activities, especially when he's hanging around with Mordecai or Magnus.

Given the opportunity, Marcus will happily pick a fight with foreign supers to test himself against them.  He's fairly good natured about it even when losing (which is rare) and tries not to kill or seriously injure such foes, although his raw power can lead to unfortunate mistakes.  He's very good about sending flowers to the hospital or the funeral if things do go awry.  Actually beating him one on one in what he regards as a fair fight will earn his respect, which is not an easy thing to do otherwise.  

Description: Big, burly, and wind-blown, he looks more than a bit like a very muscular Count Dracula, especially in the black suits and flowing capes he favors.  His booming voice carries well even over the driving winds that usually accompany him, although it tends to be a bit alarming at formal receptions and quite dinners.

Gender: Male        Age: 34        Height: 6'4"        Eyes: Deep Blue

Hair: Black, Pronounced Widow's Peak   Skin: Weather-Beaten   Build: Muscular

Approach: Overpowered                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  65 + (5 x H)

Powers: Weather d12, Presence d10, Vitality d10

Qualities: Imposing d8, Living Tempest d8, Banter d6

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

Abilities:

Apocalyptic Whirlwind (A) Attack using Weather.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice.  Hinder yourself using your Max die.  Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.

Magnificent Indifference (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment's turn.

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

Mortal Obligation (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice.  Recover that much Health.  Remove those minions.

Raging Storm (A) Attack multiple targets using Weather.  Use your Max die.  Hinder each target using your Mid die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually in effect within the Family domain):

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 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

Marcus is an blunt instrument in combat, throwing out vast amounts of damage with little regard for his own safety or those around him.  Raging Storm is his primary offense, and he's often careless about who he targets with it.  Anyone who draws his ire through particularly strong resistance or showing disrespect will be singled out for a strike from Apocalyptic Whirlwind, often followed by using Mortal Obligations to heal the self-damage inflicted.  He rarely uses Master the World unless a particularly destructive twist is available, or if he needs to add more environmental minions to fuel his healing trick.  Remember that Magnificent Indifference only prevents damage during the environment turn, although Marcus is likely to accept some harm from a twist on his turn if it will hurt his foes worse.

His upgrade pumps up his damage output even more, and his mastery perfectly reflects his personality and general approach to any opposition.

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Minerva Masters

Minerva is the Family's intelligence expert, a traditional position for anyone inheriting her Holding of Demand.  An unusual gift in that it has no clear direct connection to the land itself, in theory it reflects the ruler's inherent right to call on the obedience of those who dwell within their domain.  In practice, it's more often used to manipulate foreigners these days, forcing them to speak the full truth when interrogated and forget that they've done so.  While any Family member can use their overwhelming presence to produce short-term obedience to some degree, Minerva is capable of much more precise and lasting effects when given time to properly condition subjects.  Even in the heat of battle she can make a single foe nearly unable to offer resistance or compel entire groups to hesitate or even turn against one another in ideal circumstances.

Her cunning and unique talent make Minerva a major power player in Council politics.  Fortunately for everyone, she has a more realistic (some would say paranoid) grasp of the potential dangers of the outside world and is the least likely member of the Family to put her own interests ahead of Herralund as a whole.  This causes her to come into conflict with the rest on occasion but she can usually justify her actions in hindsight, particularly when she prevents Marcus from doing something drastic or deflects the consequences of Magnus making an unwise alliance with some foreign super-villain.  If the Family Council were ever to fall, Minerva is the most likely to survive and rebuild a power base elsewhere. 

Description: A perfect china doll of a woman, easily mistaken for being a decade younger than she is.  She accentuates the effect with a wardrobe of rather girlish fashions (still black but less formal and severe than the Family norm) and a practiced school-girl speaking style that she only drops around the Family - or victims she doesn't plan to let live much longer.  She has the usual Family gift of presence, but her unique gift lets her dial the effect on individuals or small groups up or down considerably.      

Gender: Female           Age: 27            Height: 5'1"           Eyes: Pale Blue

Hair: Black, Very Long                Skin: Very Pale                 Build: Waifish

Approach: Skilled                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Suggestion d10, Presence d8, Vitality d6

Qualities: Insight d10, Persuasion d10, Conviction d8, Espionage Training d8, History d8, Self-Discipline d8

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

Abilities:

Enduring Compulsions (A) Hinder using Suggestion.  Use your Max + Min dice.  That penalty is persistent and exclusive.

Magnificent Indifference (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment's turn.

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

Mortal Obligation (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice.  Recover that much Health.  Remove those minions.

Serve My Will (A) Hinder multiple targets using Suggestion.  Use your Max die.  If you roll doubles, also Attack each target using your Mid die. 

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually in effect within the Family domain):

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

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

Minerva's approach to combat revolves around getting into the heads of her foes and manipulating their actions.  While her kinfolk can produce similar short-term effects with Presence, her personal Suggestion power lets her embed Enduring Compulsions in a victim, as well as offering more precise control with Serve My Will turning foes against one another in ideal circumstances.  As with the rest of her family Magnificent Indifference protects her from environmental damage and Master the World lets her manipulate her surroundings, usually to bring more minions into play as fuel for Mortal Obligation.

Like most Masters, her upgrade makes her more durable and potent while in her homeland, and her mastery reflects her skill at manipulating the weak-willed.

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Mordecai Masters

Mordecai is the second youngest member of the Family Council, and by far the least respected.  This stems largely from his surprisingly weak powers, something that makes him something of a disappointment to his relatives.  He inherited the Holding of Stone, which has traditionally been a very potent part of the Family's superhuman arsenal with past Holders able to raise new land from the sea, move the island itself and perform similarly stunning feats.  Mordecai pales in comparison, although he can still crumble a (small) building, raise a modest hill with time and effort, or casually reshape small masses of stone and metal.  He actually earns the Family coffers quite a bit of money selling his sculptured artwork under an alias abroad.

While his relatives largely see him as something of a court jester and rarely listen to his advice or desires, Mordecai is secretly as prideful as any of them, perhaps more so.  He seethes with rage about his status but conceals it quite well most of the time, and when it does boil over he's careful to direct it at his inferiors (like mundane humans) rather than any of his relatives.  Only Minerva suspects his real feelings, and she's careful about not letting him get her alone in a position where he might have the advantage.  She also sees more potential in him than the others, and often arranges for him to have a (carefully monitored) role in Family diplomatic and economic endeavors where his knack for being entertaining and affable provides a useful distraction.  Mordecai is a little too self-absorbed to realize she's acting as a de facto patron for him, for better or worse.

Description: A very short, slightly built young man, badly in need of a shave and a decent haircut.  He wears the same conservative, formal black outfits favored by the rest of the Family but somehow it always looks rumpled and ill-fitting on him.  He's still strangely likeable in a raffish sort of way and usually tries to act like an affable joker, but you might catch a gleam of real hatred in his eyes if you catch him at the right moment - usually when looking at one of his relatives.  He has a pleasant baritone voice and is an accomplished singer and musician.

Gender: Male           Age: 25            Height: 5'2"          Eyes: Watery Blue

Hair: Black, Scruffy             Skin: Spotty Caucasian               Build: Weedy

Approach: Underpowered                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  40 + (5 x H)

Powers: Stone d8, Metal d6, Presence d6, Vitality d6

Qualities: Creativity d10, Banter d8, Secretly Furious All the Time d8, Acrobatics d6

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

Abilities:

Magnificent Indifference (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment's turn.

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

Mortal Obligation (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice.  Recover that much Health.  Remove those minions.

Taking Chances (A) Attack using Stone.  If you roll doubles, add that value to your Attack.  If you roll triples, add all three dice to your Attack.

Unleashed Rage (A) Attack multiple targets using Secretly Furious All the Time.  Defend yourself against all Attacks until your next turn using your Min die. 

Versatility Over Power (A) Boost using Creativity.  Use your Max die.  Hinder using your Mid die.  Attack using your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually in effect within the Family domain):

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

Mordecai prefers to avoid violence unless he's confident that he's gotten the upper hand through scheming or treachery.  If forced into combat he'll usually be looking to escape as soon as possible, using Master the World to trigger any twists that might help with that and Magnificent Indifference to avoid harm from damaging environmental effects.  If cornered by multiple enemies he'll react with Unleashed Rage out of desperation.  Against single targets he might use Taking Chances to try for a lucky KO but he prefers to use Versatility Over Power to set up bonuses to use on Overcomes for escape attempts or further distractions.  If hurt he'll resort to Mortal Obligations without a second thought for its effects on bystanders, showing that weak or not he's as ruthless as his relatives.

His upgrade and mastery do a great deal to improve his capabilities, and encourage him not to travel abroad without finding a way to retain his "home turf" advantage.  

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Magnus Masters

The youngest member of the Family Council, Magnus is also the least traditional and most openly ambitious.  Unlike his siblings he has a broad interest in science and technology and relies less on his innate powers, perhaps because his unique Holding of the Mist is regarded as one of the weakest inheritances.  He has a bond with the fogs that often blanket the land, allowing him to dissolve into an insubstantial grayish haze at will, something that really doesn't further his desire to drag Herralund into the modern day very well.  To compensate, he's managed to employ obscure scientific principles not only to augment his power levels but to briefly copy the Holdings of any other relatives nearby.  He's also got far more solid ties to the broader world of supercrime than anyone else on the Council, although to his chagrin he's regarded as a bit of a dabbler within the mad science subcommunity. 

The rest of the Family is rather nonplussed by Magnus and his behavior.  Majestra regards him as something of an upstart, although she concedes having a Family member with real technological skills is extremely useful.  Marcus sees his "toys" as an amusing novelty, a typical miscalculation on his part that Magnus is happy to take advantage of.  Minerva keeps a very close eye on his activities, particularly in regard to any dangers his criminal connections (some of which she quietly shares) may bring to Council operations.  Mordecai plays at being his friend, a fellow "young blood" in the Council ranks, but his real hope is that Marcus will offer him similar improvements on his own fairly weak powers.

Description: A short fireplug of a man, quite young and with the same magnetic personality his whole family shares.  Usually dressed in sedate black clothing unless he's working in his lab, in which case he adopts more traditional mad science garb.  All of his outfits feature a lot of carefully-concealed pockets filled with a variety of his inventions.  One of his eyes has been replaced with a red-lensed mechanical implant, and he has the faintest of scars around that eye socket.  When distracted he tends to manifest his personal talent, partially blurring into a pale, cold mist around the edges.   He has a commanding voice and a real knack for monologuing.

Gender: Male      Age: 22      Height: 5'4"      Eyes: Left Penetrating Blue, Right Cybernetic

Hair: Close-Cropped Black             Skin: Artificially Tanned               Build: Sturdy

Approach: Adaptive                   Archetype: Domain

Health:  45 + (5 x H)

Powers: Inventions d10, Intangibility d8, Presence d8, Vitality d6

Qualities: Criminal Underworld Info d10, Imposing d8, Megalomaniacal Mad Scientist d8, Stealth d8

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

Abilities:

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

Fine-Tuning (A) Take 1d6 irreducible damage.  Increase all your power dice by one size until the end of the scene.

Magnificent Indifference (I) Ignore damage from environment sources during the environment's turn.

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

Mortal Obligation (A) Roll any number of environment minion dice.  Recover that much Health.  Remove those minions.

Wonderful Toys (A) Boost using Inventions.  Use your Max die.  Attack using your Mid die.  Defend using your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional, usually in effect with access to Family resources and backing):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Megalomaniac Mad Scientist by one (max d12).

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

Magnus is the family's outlier, relying more on his scientific discoveries than his own innate power to dissolve into eerie mist.  At their most basic, his personal arsenal of Wonderful Toys give him a versatile combat option.  He can also use Fine-Tuning to improve all his powers, making him increasingly potent as time goes by at the cost of time and energy - energy he often callously restores with Mortal Obligation.  He's also developed a way to scientifically augment his blood ties and employ the abilities of his relatives with Emulation, giving him incredible potential when fighting alongside the rest of the family.  Like all Masters, he shares their immunity to environmental damage through Magnificent Indifference, and can manipulate nearby events using Master the World.

His upgrade is notably different than most of his relatives, reflecting the ability to draw on diplomatic connections, social pull and simple wealth rather than a raw power increase that Fine-Tuning already provides him.  Similarly, his mastery reflects his personal "hobby" and technological proclivities.

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Like most VIPs, no member of the Masters family goes anywhere without a security detail.  In their homeland, these "Companions" act as uniformed military personnel, who may also make an appearance on diplomatic outings.  Almost all Companions are also trained to operate as covert operatives when a less obtrusive presence is called for, and these will invariably be nearby awaiting the call to action.  Supremely loyal thanks to lifelong exposure to the family's commanding Presence, they're happy to lay down their lives - which is fortunate, given how quick the family is to use Mortal Obligation when facing real danger.

To reflect this, add the following minor twist option to any environment where a group of cleverly disguised security guards could conceivably make a sudden appearance, remembering that comic logic often makes the impossible possible.

Call the Companions!: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Companion Guard environment minions to the scene based on the current scene tracker (even if activated with Master the World).  Use the Min die in Green, Mid die in Yellow, and Max die in Red.  These minions are allied to any Masters family villains in the scene and prioritize protecting them and following their orders.

Companion Guard d8 environment minion

Description: When operating openly, they appear to be a military honor guard in stylish dress uniforms and carrying energy rifles and pistols (no doubt tuned to stun, of course).  When maintaining a low profile they're nearly indistinguishable from local civilians until you get close enough to notice the concealed weapons, commo rigs and vaguely Scandinavian accents.    

Trained Protectors: You gain a +2 bonus to Defend actions targeting members of the Masters family. 

Blog Content Index

Strain Zeta, An Outbreak of Dangerous Macro-Organisms

Flesh-eating bacteria are bad enough, but they're even worse when they're big enough to bite your hand off.

Strain Zeta

Strain Zeta started off as a variety of genetically engineered micro-organisms cooked up in a super-science lab for use as easily tweaked bio-research test specimens.  Then some idiot tested an experimental growth ray on them and turned them into fast-breeding macroscopic omnivores with the potential to depopulate an entire continent in weeks if allowed to get out of control.  The individual Zetas are fairly small and nearly mindless, but they generally form in larger collective pseudo-organisms that display slightly more awareness.  While destroying any given Zeta isn't difficult for a superhero or even a well-equipped human, letting any of them escape guarantees another outbreak at some point in the future.

If you're looking for potential creators of these things, the researchers of SIN are likely culprits, as are the Moseby Twins (with the Zetas being a sort of proto-protoid).  Horde has already had one major failure when dabbling in growth technology and might repeat his mistake, and his cousin Miniac might well have sabotaged any experiment involving embiggening stuff.  And there's always master mega-genius Mordecai Mentallax, who comes up with this kind of stuff in his spare time between doing "real" science and planning to conquer the world.  Might also be the harbingers of an invasion from a hostile microversal civilization, or maybe the whole thing's an accident and the Zetas actually started as a single micro-kaiju shot into our continuum like the end of the first Gamera movie.

Strain Zeta Gestalt

Description: A seething mass of amoebic blobs, about the size of a haystack.  The whole mess is fringed with writhing cilia and lashing flagella, and its interior is dotted with countless organelles and vacuoles.  The only sounds it makes are the burbling squelches of digestive juices as it wriggles about.

Gender: None     Age: Unclear     Height: Variable (Usually About Eight Feet)     Eyes: None

Hair: Do Cilia Count?     Cell Membranes: Translucent Oily Blue-Green     Build: Blob-Like

Approach:  Underpowered                                Archetype:  Legion

Health:  5 + (5 x H)

Powers: Part Detachment d8, Elasticity d6, Swimming d6, Wall-Crawling d6

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Mega-Bacterial Collective d8, Fitness d6, Self-Discipline d6

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

Abilities:

Cell Division (A) Roll your single status die.  Deal yourself that much irreducible damage.  Create that many d6 Legion minions.

Mass Consumption (A) Attack multiple targets using Close Combat.  Defend yourself against all Attacks using your Min die until your next turn.

Mindless (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.

Reabsorb (R) When one of your minions is destroyed, roll its die and Recover that much Health.

Resistant Strain (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.

Smother (A) Attack using Elasticity.  If you roll doubles, add that value to your Attack.  If you roll triples, add all three dice to your Attack.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hardier Minions + 5 Health.  Gain Embiggen (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 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

Strain Zeta Gestalts rarely stick together long in combat, using Cell Division to break down into minions whenever it can without too much risk of defeating itself - although if it's caught very low on Health and Resistant Strain has already been used it may just deliberately go out one last batch of hungry macrobes.  Their effectiveness is a bit limited by Mindless (even as a collective they're none too bright) but Reabsorb will help keep the Gestalt in action longer.  If a Gestalt is too weak to spawn more minions it has two offensive options to use, with Smother potentially inflicting a hard hit to a single foe and Mass Consumption harming multiple targets while providing some minor damage mitigation.

With its upgrade the Gestalt can also increase the die size of one group of minions.  I'd define a group as "all the ones from a single use of Cell Division" for this ability.  Its mastery makes Overcomes a lot easier while there are minions in play.  

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Strain Zeta Legion Spawn d6 minion (created through Cell Division)

Description: An irregular lump of squirming cilia and translucent blue-green protoplasm, roughly a foot in diameter and dripping with digestive enzymes.

Mindless: Whenever multiple Legion Spawn 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.

Shapeless: You may move as though you had Swimming d4 and Wall-Crawling d4 and can slowly ooze through small openings, under doors, and similar tight spots.

Strain Zeta Macrobe d6 minion

Description: A larger mass of squirming cilia and translucent blue-green protoplasm, roughly two feet in diameter and dripping with digestive enzymes.

Basic Organism: As an action, you may sacrifice yourself to either roll your die and restore that much Health to a nearby Strain Zeta Gestalt villain, or to increase the die size of a nearby Strain Zeta Vector lieutenant by one (max d12).

Shapeless: You may move as though you had Swimming d4 and Wall-Crawling d4 and can slowly ooze through small openings, under doors, and similar tight spots.

Strain Zeta Conglomerate d10 lieutenant

Description: A formidable collective of translucent blue-green protoplasm, lashing flagella and squirming cilia, roughly four feet in diameter and dripping with digestive enzymes.

Intermediate Organism: As an action, you may sacrifice yourself and remove H nearby Strain Zeta Macrobe minions from the scene, then add a Strain Zeta Gestalt villain to the scene at full Health but with no Upgrade or Mastery.

Shapeless: You may move as though you had Swimming d4 and Wall-Crawling d4 and can slowly ooze through small openings, under doors, and similar tight spots.

Unstable Mass: As an action, you may roll your die to Hinder yourself and add a number of Strain Zeta Macrobe minions equal to your roll to the scene.

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Design Notes:  The "Strain Zeta Gestalt" villain form is about as fragile as a villain can be, but its job is mostly to spawn a bunch of minions before it goes Out.  If it manages to throw (or draw) an Attack or two before it gets finished off that's just a bonus.  Bringing along some Macrobe minions as scene elements will let the gestalt last a bit longer, but you could also just bring multiple Gestalts or create new ones using the Conglomerate lieutenant's sacrifice ability.  Unlike most villains they're definitely not unique, just something that forms whenever enough of the smaller Zetas are around.

Blog Content Index

Villain Design Analysis: Approaches Part 9 - Tactician & Underpowered

Continuing from yesterday's post, the last of the villain Approaches:

Tactician

Tacticians have well below-average Power dice and average Quality dice, average Health and two ability choices from the following list:  

Group Up - Decent Attack that hits harder for each ally that Attacked the same target since your last turn.  Can be quite strong depending on how the initiative goes and benefits a lot from hordes of minions.  Obviously encourages ganging up on a single hero, which may wind up feeling like you're being singling them out for abuse - because you are. 

I'll Back You Up - Reactive Attack ability triggered by an ally Attacking.  Good for piling on extra damage.

Joint Action - Unusual ability that lets you take a Max die basic action, then have a nearby ally make the same basic action using their reaction.  Obviously best used on villains who lack a reaction of their own, or on the strongest minion or lieutenant available.  One of very few cases in the game where a reaction would use a full three die pool.

Organized March - Very efficient Boost whose bonus applies to every ally's action until the start of your next turn.  Effect varies a bit based on how initiative goes, but this can be very strong.  Worth noting that it only applies to an ally's action, not reactions or (for minions and lieutenants) saves against damage.

Try Again - Reactive dice fixer, you take trivial damage to reroll an ally's die pool.  Given how erratic this can be with full die pools it might best be used on a minion or lieutenant who's whiffed.  Most of the time you'll have much better odds of improving a one on a single d10 than you do of getting a significantly better result out of three dice.

Working Together - Innate ability that lets you reroll your ones as long as you have at least one nearby ally.  This is pretty bad compared to other similar abilities from different Approaches that lack the ally limitation, but it's still a decent dice fixer and not really hard to keep working. 

Pretty versatile support-oriented Approach, with an offensive reaction option, a very strong global ally Boost, dice fixing options for both yourself and allies, a versatile basic action option that lets an ally join in, and a single Attack ability that relies on allies to be good.  Obviously terrible for a solo villain, but works well with pretty much any type of ally and better than most with minions.

Don't see much need to add homebrew tweaks to this Approach.

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Underpowered

Unsurprisingly, Underpowered villains have very poor Power dice, average Quality dice and the lowest base health of any Approach.  They do get three abilities choices though.

Avoid the Inevitable - Innate ability that keeps you from being defeated once at the cost of reducing all your already-terrible Power dice by a one size.  With the right upgrade it can actually work twice, but even with one use it's a decent insurance policy against your first KO.  

Do Not Underestimate Me - Hard-hitting Attack that does some minor damage to you, which is still meaningful given your low base Health.  If you roll doubles you can't use this ability again during the scene. 

I Can Do Anything - Boost/Hinder/Attack bundle that uses all of your dice.  Versatile and efficient, but don't count on it doing much damage.

Last Ditch Effort - Defensive reaction that stops some damage, with combined healing, Boost, and Hinder riders that only trigger if you reduce the incoming damage to exactly zero.  The wording means you only get the riders on one specific result on your die, and the less damage you stopped the less impressive the effects will be.  If the riders went off more reliably it would be pretty impressive.  As it is, at least it stops some damage for you. 

Luck?  Or Genius? - Mediocre Attack that gets much, much better if you roll doubles or triples.  Your small dice are actually a bit helpful here.  Much easier to roll doubles on smaller dice than larger ones, although most likely you'll wind up with a mix of sizes in your pool.  If nothing else it's hilariously unpredictable.  

Still A Threat - Multi-target Attack with a weak Defend that does at least apply to all Attacks against you until your next turn.  Pretty decent, especially if you can apply some bonuses to it.

The list's abilities play into the Approach's small power dice and low base Health in several ways, and certainly feels thematic in play.  With three choices to use you can take one of the two more defensive tricks (the reaction and innate) and still have two action abilities to play around with.  Many of your abilities are...let's be generous and call them a little erratic in terms of performance, but that's part of the theme.  

There's a decent amount of build variety here, and your Archetype will hopefully let you add some more reliable tricks to the mix.  Given how quickly Underpowered villains usually get knocked out there's not much point in adding more action abilities to the list, but I guess you could add a homebrew innate or reaction for a bit more variation:

Is That Your Best Shot? (R) When Attacked, roll your single [Power] die.  Use the result to Boost yourself and Hinder the Attacker.  If the damage from the Attack defeats you, increase the value of the of the penalty by one and make it persistent and exclusive.

I Won't Be Stopped! (I) At the start of your turn, destroy one penalty on you and gain a bonus with the same value.

So a reaction that won't actually help you stay in the fight but lingers spitefully if you get knocked out, and an innate that offsets how vulnerable your dubious dice pools are to Hinders. 

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Continued in Archetypes part 1.

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Red Vendetta, Anarchist Assassin With A Whiff Of Sorcery About Her

A fanatical assassin who's pretty much on no one's side, the kind of person who'd use the distractions of an unrelated super-fight to score a quick kill before withdrawing into the shadows again.  

Red Vendetta

The young woman known as Red Vendetta has no confirmed civilian identity, and her apparent age is belied by reports of her being active in a similar capacity long before even World War 2.  Some investigators have even found photographic evidence of someone who looks very much like her during the Russian Civil War, apparently fighting for both the White and Red factions at different times.  Several mystic heroes who've crossed paths with her claim that her obvious magical talents are the result of some form of blood pact with an unknown infernal entity, and note that such pacts frequently include cursed forms of longevity or even immortality.  The only definite thing that can be said about her is that she seems fanatically devoted to militant anarchistic beliefs, opposing all forms of governmental, corporate, and religious control over society with a violent passion.  She also clearly regards many supers (primarily heroes) as pawns of the existing order and fair game for her personal crusade, although she's aware of the dangers of fighting them head to head and prefers to prey on unpowered victims.

Her exact capabilities are similarly uncertain but she's definitely displayed magical talents used to conceal herself and her weapons, augment her attacks with curses and dark shadowy energy, and create more elaborate effects by performing suitable rituals.  Her signature wing construct is clearly a product of sorcery, not science, although it could be confused for some form of steampunk mechanism on first glance.   Whatever her age, Red Vendetta is not shy in the least about using modern weapons, and is a deadly shot with everything from pistols to submachineguns to sniper rifles, and has even been known to employ grenades and other explosives.  She's also a capable knife-fighter and a dangerous woman with a hatchet or wood axe.  Her arsenal appears to be wholly mundane (one recovered pistol was even traced to a random shooting in Chicago in 2018) but in her hands they're augmented with infernal energies.

Red Vendetta has few actual allies, but has been known to take advantage of other villains' schemes to quietly strike at distracted targets (powered or mundane) before making her escape in the confusion.  Megalomaniacal "rule the world" villains and organizations are as much her foe as any national government or megacorporation, but her history as a killer and lethal approach to combat makes it unlikely that heroes will find common ground with her even in the short term. 

Description: A very young woman, thin and seemingly frail, dressed in dark red long-sleeved tunic and pants with black calf-high boots.  She wears a flowing blood-red cloak over the outfit, its voluminous hood nearly concealing her scarred features.  She seems to have an impossible arsenal of weaponry (blades, pistols, grenades, even a sniper rifle) concealed within her costume and the folds of her cloak, suggesting some form of dimensional compression power at work.  Her voice is harsh like a smoker who's had the habit for far longer than her apparent age, and she has a slight Russian accent.

She's usually accompanied by her wing construct, a bat-winged animated mechanism made of steel rods and canvas fabric attached to a complicated array of leather straps and brass buckles.  The thing can carry her weight through the air but little more, and moves with erratic, darting motions like the bat it vaguely resembles.

Gender: Female        Age: Unknown (Appears Late Teens)        Height: 5'3"        Eyes: Brown

Hair: Dark Brown          Skin: Caucasian, Smallpox Scars          Build: Frail-Looking

Approach: Underpowered                     Archetype: Predator

Health: 25 + (5 x H)

Powers: Infernal d8, Agility d6, Arsenal of Weaponry d6, Invisibility d6

Qualities: Stealth d10, Anarchist Assassin d8, Magical Lore d8, Insight d6

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

Abilities:

Blood Pact Magic (A) Attack using Infernal.  Use your Max + Mid dice.  Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, you cannot use this ability again for the rest of the scene.

Canny Maneuvering (A) Boost using Stealth.  Use your Max die.  Hinder using your Mid die.  Attack using your Min die.

Devil's Own Fortune (A) Attack using Infernal.  If you roll doubles add that value to your Attack.  If you roll triples add all three dice to your Attack

Master Sniper (I) Double any mods of your choice involved with taking actions against a target that is unaware of you presence or distracted from remembering you're still around.

Stalking Your Target (A) Boost yourself using Stealth.  Use your Max die.  This bonus is persistent and exclusive.  Defend yourself using your Mid die against all Attacks until the start of your next turn.

Upgrades & Masteries (usually in play):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health  Include a Wing Construct d8 lieutenant with the following abilities in the scene.  Darting Target (I) To Attack this vehicle a hero must make an Overcome action to be able to predict its motions. Escape Plan (R) If the Villain is Attacked roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than the villain's current Health, both the villain and the vehicle escape the scene.  Recovery (A) Roll the vehicle's die.  The villain Recovers that much health.  Sturdy (I) When rolling a damage save, add +2 to the result.

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

Tactics

Red Vendetta is an assassin by nature, and prefers to stalk and eliminate isolated targets from ambush when possible.  She'll usually try to remain concealed until an opening presents itself, using Overcome actions to find a good vantage point and elude detection and Boosting herself with Stalking Your Target if possible before launching her first strike.  Master Sniper makes her mods very, very effective against unsuspecting foes.  Once she reveals herself she'll blitz her chosen victim with Blood Pact Magic while she can, switching to Devil's Own Fortune once the former ability fails her.  If she needs to shift to another target she relies on Canny Maneuvering followed by an attempt to Overcome with Stealth to conceal herself again or take advantage of any distractions going on in the scene.

Her upgrade is normally in use unless her Wing Construct has been destroyed in an earlier scene and she hasn't had time to cobble together and enchant a new one, something her mastery makes easier for her to accomplish.

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KO Clown & Mister Mean, Animated Cartoon Nemeses

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

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

KO Clown

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

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

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

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

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

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

Background: Performer               Power Source: Unknown            Archetype: Wild Card

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

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

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

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

Abilities:

Green

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

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

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

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

Yellow

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

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

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

Red

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

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

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

Out

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

Tactics

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

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

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

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

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

Design Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mister Mean

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

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

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

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

Hair: Black              Skin: Sickly Green           Build: Hunched

Approach:  Underpowered                 Archetype:  Loner

Health:  20 + (5 x H)

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

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

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

Abilities:

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

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

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

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

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

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

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

Tactics:

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

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

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

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

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