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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