The Three Masters, They've Come From 69AD To Kick Some Butt

A trio of martial artist villains worthy of a Hong Kong action-fantasy movie.

The Three Masters

These three anachronistic martial artists originate from an alternate-timeline version of the Chinese empire in 69AD, which is secretly controlled by a conspiracy of sorcerous eunuchs who subtly dominate the Imperial court.  They've used magic rituals to come to the "future" of your campaign for some mysterious objective, and if the heroes don't stop them who knows what kind of temporal disruptions might take place?  All of them are decidedly villainous types, although they have their own unique approaches to evil and aren't equally committed to whatever they shared goal is.

Depending on how long they've been in the current time when the heroes first encounter them, they may or may not have made contacts within the criminal underworld.  If not they'll be working largely alone, although Master Fleeting Dream may be able to conjure up demonic or undead minions galore if he can perform the proper rituals.  They're all good at fitting in to the scum and villainy community and won't find it hard to recruit more modern help once they do make contact. 

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Master Fleeting Dream

Xiu Zhang is Master of the Fleeting Dream style, an accomplished sorcerer, and a proud (some would say egotistical) member of the conspiracy that secretly controls the Chinese empire in 69AD.  He serves as de facto leader of the Three Masters on their mysterious mission to the future, and his magical talents allow them to blend in to the world of 2023 as well as being their ticket back to the past.  As such, he expects the others to watch his back, obey his commands and remain loyal to him.  A pretentious, arrogant and evil-minded individual through and through, he might see two of those three expectations fulfilled if he's lucky.

His martial arts style uses a great deal of out-and-out magic in it, focusing on confounding opponents with illusion and trickery while he flits from victim to victim with enchanted blades flashing.  He also know how to scribe magical talismans (usually strips of paper with incantations written on them) to create good fortune and repel bad luck from whoever they're attached to.  These are usually used to enhance himself first and foremost, but he may deign to support his allies as well.  Given time and supplies (which may include a suitable sacrificial victim) he can manage many other feats of magic as well.

Description: A slightly plump, shaven-headed man with a striking Fu Manchu mustache, dressed in an expensive brocade robe in deep purple.  Often cloaked in sorcerous illusions to blend in better, or simply invisible to avoid attention.  His voice is surprising high and boyish.  He generally provides magical translation charms to all his allies in the modern day, which has the side effect of making their lips seem to be slightly out of synch with their words. 

Gender: Imperial Eunuch And Proud Of It     Age: Thirties     Height: 5'8"     Eyes: Green

Hair: Shaved Smooth     Skin: Light East Asian Tone     Build: Slightly Soft-Looking

Approach: Ninja                   Archetype: Inventor

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Dream-Cutting Blades d10, Inventions d10, Illusions d8, Invisibility d8, Teleportation d6

Qualities: Magical Lore d10, Stealth d10, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Finesse d8, Master of Fleeting Dream Style d8

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

Abilities:

Fleeting Dream Onslaught (A) Attack multiple targets using Master of Fleeting Dream Style.  Then, end up wherever you want in the scene.

Inscribe Talismans (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.

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

Vanishing Image (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Stealth die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

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

Tactics

Master Fleeting Dream relies on misdirection, illusion and trickery.  He usually avoids immediate conflict while using Inscribe Talismans supplemented by Powerful Chi to give lasting bonuses to himself and allies, relying on Vanishing Image to protect him from harm (and produce more bonuses, although these won't affect his status) while he does so.  Once his status die is maxed out and his allies have received whatever benefits he feels they deserve, he shifts to using Fleeting Dream Onslaught to repeatedly appear and disappear while striking as many foes as possible.

His upgrade expands his ability to alter foes' perception, trapping them in a dreamlike illusion.  His mastery lets him create powerful ritual magic effects when supplied with suitable tools, including the temporal passage that brought them to the modern day (or the heroes to the past) in the first place.

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Master Five Venoms

Master Five Venoms' true name is unknown, possibly even to himself.  A master spy, assassin, and infiltrator, he works with the conspiracy controlling 69AD China but isn't fully trusted by them, which is something he admires about the organization.  Trust is for fools.  He (or sometimes she, as the mood takes them) adopts and abandons surface identities regularly, relying on practical disguise and acting skills rather than Master Fleeting Dreams' magical tricks an cunning enough that he can get along fairly well in 2023 even without such assistance.  It's quite possible he might choose to remain in the future after the Three Masters complete their mission, most likely faking his own death to do so.

The Five Venoms style includes a great deal of secret alchemical knowledge beyond mere poison making, including truth drugs, fast-acting medicinal substances, mind-altering vapors and powders, and artificial pheromones that can manipulate many types of animals.  It also offers near-immunity to most poisons and, some say, unnatural longevity or even immortality.  Masters of the style are invariably accompanied by swarms of venomous vermin, which they use both as alchemical components and as an army of chemically-controlled minions.  While each individual stinging scuttler, biting bug or slithering serpent is little threat to a wary human, they never appear as individuals, and many a foe has fallen screaming under a tide of tiny crawling horrors.  

Description: Wildly variable thanks to a talent for disguise, but most often an unassuming local civilian in loose fitting clothing.  At close range their unpleasant chemical scent may give the game away.  When fighting openly, they favor a loose green gi marked with ominous stains and acid burns.  Close observation will reveal they're crawling with vermin infesting their clothing and whatever wig they may be wearing.  They're excellent mimics and can imitate most human voices and some animals.   

Gender: Fluid   Age: Usually Seems Twenty-Something   Height: 5'9"   Eyes: Black

Hair: White (Black Wig)        Skin: Dark East Asian Tone        Build: Deceptively Fit

Approach:  Leech                      Archetype:  Overlord

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Toxic d10, Animal Control d8, Wall-Crawling d6

Qualities: Criminal Underworld Info d8, Master of Five Venoms Style d8, Medicine d8, Stealth d8 

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

Abilities:

Alchemical Effusion (A) Boost using Medicine for all your minions until the start of your next turn.

Enduring Vermin (R) Reroll any number of minion saves against the same Attack.

Stinging Strike (A) Hinder using Toxic.  Use your Max + Min die.  Boost using your Mid die.

Toxic Powders (A) Hinder multiple targets using Toxic.  Recover Health equal to your Min die.  If you roll doubles, Attack one of the targets using your Max die. 

Venomous Little Friends (A) Use Master of Five Venoms Style to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

Master of Superiority (I) As long as you are manifesting an effect related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.

Tactics

Master Five Venoms prefers to toy with his foes in combat, leaving the actual killing work to his verminous minions.  He'll usually call on his Venomous Little Friends once or twice at the start of a conflict to establish a decent status die, with each use helping improve the size of minion generated by the next.  Repeat as needed to maintain at least a d8 status.  Multi-target minion sweeps will be met with an Enduring Vermin reaction, and he'll single out heroes with such abilities with Stinging Strike, often taking a twist to make the penalty last for two uses, representing hurling whole handfuls of poisonous insects onto the target.  If there are several heroes focusing on his minions he'll use Toxic Powders instead, spending any available bonuses wherever they seem most useful (healing, improving the penalties, possibly even on damage if he rolls doubles).  If he starts his turn with 5+ minions in play he'll usually switch to Alchemical Effusion rather than acting for himself, trying to deal out massive damage while he has the chance.

His upgrade improves his durability and all his powers, as well as enabling his mastery whenever one of his mods from a Toxic-keyed ability is in play.      

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Five Venoms Swarm d4 to d12 minion (see Venomous Little Friends)

Description: A miscellany of carefully-bred and venomous vermin, including spiders, centipedes, wasps, small serpents and scorpions, as well as less readily-identifiable creations of alchemical hybridization.  What prevents them from scattering or preying on one another is a mystery known only to masters of the Five Venoms Style.  The larger their current die size the denser the swarm is.  

Inescapable Swarm: When you Attack, one point of the damage you deal is irreducible.

Painful Venoms: When you deal damage to a target, they gain a -1 exclusive "Stinging Pain" penalty.

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Master Shackled Fist

Wong Lo is undisputed Master of the Shackled Fist style and an all-around badass brawler.  Once a mere village bully, then an Imperial army levy, he soon deserted to join a mercenary company where he would be paid better for his talent for fighting.  He crossed paths with an aging Shackled Fist practitioner during the course of his adventures and quickly took to the new role of student until he'd surpassed his teacher.  At that point he killed the old man, stole his life savings, and went off to make a name for himself in the world of martial arts fighters, always pursuing any road to wealth that opened before him.  It wasn't long before the eunuch courtier conspiracy approached him to employ his brutal skills in their service, which has now led him to an unimagined future.

His Shackled Fist fighting style mixes savage close quarters techniques with deadly chain-fighting maneuvers that offer some reach and the ability to entangle and drag in elusive opponents.  It also trains endurance and fighting spirit to the limits of human ability, and perhaps a fair way beyond.  Generally seen as a simple style suitable only for thugs, Wong Lo has taken it beyond that stereotype.  He employs his own unique moves along with unexpected cunning to surprise foes who've taken him for merely being an over-muscled thug.

Description: A powerfully built brute of a man, wearing sandals and a white gi with the sleeves ripped off.  He has a steel circlet on his brow and carries a twelve foot length of chain with a hinged iron shackle on each end, donning one or both of them during combat as he performs various moves.

Gender: Male        Age: Thirties        Height: 6'0"        Eyes: Dark Brown

Hair: Shaved, Black Stubble     Skin: Medium East Asian Tone      Build: Ape-Like Brute

Approach: Skilled                         Archetype: Guerrilla

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Fighting Chains d10, Vitality d8, Swinging d6

Qualities:  Close Combat d10, Fitness d10, Acrobatics d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Master of Shackled Fist Style d8, Self-Discipline d8 

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

Abilities:

Blur of Iron (I) If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by two.

Entangling Chains (A) Attack one target using Master of Shackled Fist Style.  Use your Max + Min die.  Defend against all Attacks from targets other than that target with your Mid die until your next turn.  All Defended damage is dealt to the target of your Attack instead.

Versatile Style (A) Take any basic action using your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid die.

Whirling Chain Deflection (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Close Combat die.  Deal that much damage to another target.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

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

Tactics

Master Shackled Fist prefers to face his foes in a group, charging into their ranks to use their numbers against them with Entangling Chains and Blur of Iron while further protecting himself with Whirling Chain Deflection as needed.  More cunning than the simple brawler he appears to be, he's quick to use his Versatile Style for unexpected moves and some healing when injured.  Sudden Hinders, Boosts or Overcomes to start challenges or reposition foes are all popular choices.

His upgrade improves both damage output and base Health.  His mastery reflects his greed.  He's here for the pay offered by the Eaters of the Lotus and that alone.

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Design Notes

If it somehow wasn't obvious, the backstory of these three is taken straight from the Shadowfist card game and original Feng Shui RPG.  Not the first time I've done an homage to that superlatively strange setting.  Probably won't be the last.

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Angel Arrow, Cyborg Operative of SIN

An archer-themed villain with an angelic motif, and yet another asset for the Science Integration Network.

Angel Arrow

The cyborg known as Angel Arrow was once merely Agent D6745308 of SIN, part of Hell-Hawk's cadre of airborn assault troops.  She was horrifically injured by a flame-wielding super during an operation, and the medical experts at SIN HQ were ready to declare her a lost cause - permanently disabled by burns and showing minimal brain activity following injuries from a multi-story fall.  That might have been the end of her story, but her former commander Arno Wells felt a twisted sympathy for her, having suffered serious burns in a childhood airplane crash himself.  Working with SIN's cybernetics experts he saved her life if not her mind, rebuilding her as an advanced cyborg operative that melded his own aviform flight systems with hyper-advanced exotic munitions technology, integrated sensor arrays and cognitive assistance software to replace lost brain functions.

Angel Arrow is a technological and aesthetic work of art, but her humanity is gone.  Only marginally more free-willed than a true robot, she obeys directives from her masters at SIN without question.  If she ever recovers any of her memories or personality that might change - but odds are the mad scientists of SIN would regard such a development as a glitch in the system to be corrected rather a belated recovery.  For now she's usually found working alongside Arno when he takes the field as Hell-Hawk, but sometimes gets assigned to missions with other SIN assets where her mobility and hard-hitting, low-signature weaponry are most useful.      

Description: A female angel, plated in shining silver cyber-armor with gleaming metal wings.  She carries an ultra-tech longbow, drawing her arrows directly from her own pinions as needed.  She rarely speaks, but when she does her voice is cold and clear with a mechanical lack of inflection.

Gender: Female     Age: Mid-Twenties     Height: 5'9" (14" wingspan)     Eyes: Blank Silver

Hair: Flowing Black   Skin: Pale, Burn Scarred, Hidden By Silver Plating   Build: Angelic

Approach: Specialized                   Archetype: Inventor

Health:  30 + (5 x H)

Powers: Inventions d10, Flight d8

Qualities: Ranged Combat d12, Alertness d8, Cyborg Servitor d8

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

Abilities:

Adjusted Subroutines (I) Whenever you Attack a target that you have dealt damage to at least once already in this scene, gain a +1 persistent and exclusive bonus against that target.

Graceful Archer (A) Attack using Ranged Combat.  Use your Max + Min dice.  Defend yourself using your Mid die.

Supercharged Shot (A) Attack using Inventions and at least one bonus.  Use your Max + Mid + Min dice and add all your bonuses, destroying them.

Targeting Programs (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.

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

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

Master of Superiority (I) As long as you are manifesting an effect related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.

Tactics

Angel Arrow is an airborne archer and does her best to stay clear of melee combat or getting hemmed in by tight terrain.  She looks for a chance to run Targeting Programs early on, usually establishing a persistent bonus on herself and improving her status die.  She might repeat the move to maximize her status if she has time, and will generally sit on her bonuses until she takes a Supercharged Shot.  When facing multiple foes she relies on Volley to spread damage around, switching to Graceful Archer if she's facing much counterfire.  In all cases she'll select targets to best exploit Adjusted Subroutines, stacking up the small exclusive bonuses (which are pretty pointless if she has a better one from Targeting Programs) to eventually fuel a bigger Supercharged Shot.

The improved hardware and software from her upgrade improves her dice pools and durability quite a lot.  Her mastery can only be used when she has a mod in play that was created using Inventions, which usually means one of the bonuses generated by Adjusted Subroutines after damaging a target for at least the second time.

Design Notes

There are a number of rules clarifications that GTG needs to make for some of her abilities and their interactions, but here we are at the end of 2023 and still no FAQ document.  Specifically:

• Supercharged Shot (originally the Inventor ability Empowered Destruction) functions as a villain equivalent to the hero Red ability Charged-Up Blast, but the wording here fails to include the text specifically calling out that the ability consumes all your bonuses regardless of exclusivity.  My assumption is that it does, so every bonuses gets added and then destroyed.
• Adjusted Subroutines (originally the Specialist ability Known Target) produces tiny persistent and exclusive bonuses every time you damage a given target beyond the first.  Those bonuses can only be used against that specific target, much like the Marksman hero Green ability Sniper Aim.  In both cases, it's unclear whether the Empowered Destruction/Charged-Up Blast abilities are meant to be able to consume these target-specific bonuses to improve damage against a different target.  My assumption is that they can (and must) do so, since the mods aren't being used normally, they're being destroyed as part of the ability.
• Adjusted Subroutines/Known Target also raises some question about exactly how the bonus is being generated for purposes of an Inventor's status die mechanics.  If you make an Attack that triggers the ability and includes either Inventions or Science or both in the pool, do the bonuses count toward status or not?  They're actually the result of an entirely different ability that doesn't use a die pool at all, after all.  My assumption is that they do count, but it would be nice to sure of the designer intent.

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Baron Bowman, Stealing From The Rich To Give To Himself

An archery-themed villain, complete with a gang of supporters.  Metatextually, he started out as a rather silly but inexplicably popular Golden Age baddie, returned in the Silver Age without becoming any more serious, and still gets dredged up as a bit of a joke legacy foe in later eras without ever breaking from his "robot archers" and fake nobleman themes.  His schemes might get a bit more varied - holding Big Ben hostage until his title is recognized, for ex - but mostly he's a just a crook with a schtick.

Baron Bowman

Reginald Thomas Swinton comes from a wealthy family of American industrialists, but has an obsession with his family's supposed historical connections to the British peerage.  A severe and quite delusional anglophile, he dreams of acquiring enough wealth to "buy back" the baronial title he believes he's entitled to.  Since his own legally-earned assets (great as they are) don't come close to whatever fantastic sum he thinks will do the job, he's taken up a life of crime as Baron Bowman to enlarge his fortune.  Equipped with an assortment of high-tech gadgetry purchased on the underground market and supported by custom robots and very well paid criminal muscle, his heists are surprisingly well-planned and frequently quite profitable.

As Baron Bowman, Reginald maintains a sort of Evil Robin Hood vibe, robbing from pretty much anyone to give to himself.  He and his signature bow-bots both use high tech explosive arrows and vision-enhancement gear, which he further supplements with jump-jet boots, an array of stimulant injectors, and gauntlets that can channel a potent electrical charge.  He's also ably assisted by his "Baronial Guards" with their shock-swords and powered halberds.          

Description: A rather short but powerfully built man with a neat black mustache and goatee.  He wears a tunic-and-leggings costume reminiscent of Robin Hood, but all in black right down to the feather in his cap.  His boots, gauntlets, bow and quiver full of arrows are all clearly advanced technology, and he wears a pair of goggles with strange prismatic lenses that partially conceal his identity.  Blessed with a powerful baritone voice, he speaks bombastically with an upper class English accent.

Gender: Male     Age: 33     Height: 5'9"     Eyes: Striking Green

Hair: Jet Black          Skin: Swarthy          Build: Broad-shouldered, Athletic

Approach:  Disruptive                      Archetype:  Overlord

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Baron's Bow d10, Gadgets d10, Awareness d8, Leaping d8

Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Close Combat d8, Criminal Underworld Info d8, Delusional Nobility d8

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

Abilities:

Evasive Command (R) Reroll any number of minion saves against the same Attack.

Gimmick Arrow Volley (A) Attack multiple targets using Ranged Combat.  Use your Min die.  Hinder each target using your Max die.  If one of those targets rolls double on their next turn, they take damage equal to the value of the penalty they gained.

Noble Bowshot (A) Attack using Baron's Bow.  Use your Max die.  Defend yourself against all Attacks until the start of your next turn using the number of your minions.

Stun Gauntlets & Stim Packs (A) Hinder using Gadgets.  Use your Max die.  Recover Health equal to your Mid + Min dice.

To Me, My Bow-Bots! (A) Use Delusional Nobility to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Villainous Vehicle +15 Health.  Add a Black Arrow VTOL d10 Lieutenant with the following abilities to the scene:  Bombard (A) Attack all heroes with this vehicle's roll.  Use this ability only if the vehicle is below its starting die size or the scene is in the Red zone.  Escape Plan (R) When Baron Bowman is Attacked, roll this vehicle's die.  If it rolls higher than Baron Bowman's current Health, both he and the vehicle escape the scene.  Minion Deployment (A) Add minions to an existing group equal to half the vehicle's current die size.  These minions are of a size equal to the highest die size already in the group.  If the vehicle has a bonus or penalty adjust the number of minions by that amount and then remove that mod.

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

Tactics

Baron Bowman is a flamboyant combatant who thrives on attention, at least while he's adequately supported by guards and bow-bots.  Against a group he'll rely on Gimmick Arrow Volley to target as many foes as possible, reducing their effectiveness while inflicting some minor damage.  Key targets will be singled out for a Noble Bowshot launched from a safe vantage point among his lackeys' ranks.  He uses Evasive Command to protect his minions whenever possible, and will call more whenever their numbers dwindle with To Me, My Bow-Bots!  The Baron prefers to use his jump boots to remain at a distance to best display his archery skills, but if pressed in melee or badly hurt he has a surprise waiting with his Stun Gauntlets & Stim Packs.

With his upgrade he brings his signature Black Arrow VTOL to the battle instead of leaving it lurking nearby to deploy more bow-bots on command.  His mastery inexplicably lets him actually make a profit on his heists even when losing large numbers of his mechanical servants or his VTOL.

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Bow-Bot d4 to d12 minion (see To Me, My Bow-Bots! ability above)

Description: Slender humanoid robots painted matte black.  Their ball-shaped heads are featureless except for two rainbow lenses that resemble Baron Bowman's own goggles.  Each carries a high-tech bow and well-filled quiver of arrows.  Their combat software is unfortunately rather erratic, but when it's working at it its best they can be quite dangerous.

Programmed To Take Advantage: When you take an Attack action against a target with one or more penalties, gain a +1 bonus.

Baronial Guard d10 lieutenant 

Description: Tall, powerfully built women and men in ornate but somewhat archaic black uniforms with crimson frogging and epaulettes, glossy black boots and a white sash.  They carry a mix of electrically-charged swords and halberds as their main weapons, and are also sensible enough to carry concealed pistols (archaic motif be damned) for times when they find they've brought a figurative knife to a gunfight.

Elite Guard: When you target a villain with a Defend action, you may also Boost them with the same roll.  Decrease the value of the resulting bonus by one (minimum zero).

Iron Determination: You gain a +1 bonus to saves against damage.  Whenever you gain a penalty, reduce the value of that penalty by one (minimum zero).

Blog Content Index

The Odds, A Diverse Group Of Unfortunate Villains

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

The Odds

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

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

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

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

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

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Oddment

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

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

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

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

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

Approach: Generalist                Archetype: Inventor

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

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

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

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

Abilities:

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

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

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

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

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

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

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

Tactics

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

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

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Vestige

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

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

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

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

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

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

Approach:  Specialized                         Archetype:  Domain

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Absorption d10, Intangibility d8

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

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

Abilities:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tactics

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

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

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Depleted Fodder d6 minion

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

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

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

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Homunculoid

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

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

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

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

Approach:  Tactician                          Archetype:  Fragile

Health:  15 + (5 x H)

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

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

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

Abilities:

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

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

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

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

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Quality Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Quality dice sizes except Murderous Bio-Construct by one (max d12).

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

Tactics

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

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

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Afterglow

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

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

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

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

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

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

Approach:  Skilled                                Archetype:  Legion

Health:  10 + (5 x H)

Powers: Duplication d10, Nuclear d8, Flight d6

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

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

Abilities:

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

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

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

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

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

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

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

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

Tactics

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

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

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

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

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

Blog Content Index

Villains: More Than The Sum Of Their Abilities

One of the "GM traps" I strive to avoid in the SCRPG is to play villains in combat as a collection of abilities that they'll use round after round.  I've probably made this worse for myself by writing 230+ sets of tactical notes on this blog, which were really intended more for other folks borrowing an unfamiliar baddie than for myself.  They're still in my head to some degree, and the temptation to just follow the script I've written is considerable.  That's really a mistake in my opinion.

Villains should be using their abilities regularly, but you shouldn't ignore their other options either.  At the very least, move around.  If you have mobility powers, use them to go interesting places in the scene.  Slugging it out in the bank lobby is fine, I guess, but what about ducking into the vault so you're harder to gang up on and outflank?  If you're intangible or can teleport without needing line of sight or otherwise get in and out of closed vault you can slam the door shut and use it for hit-and-run strikes.  You could bull your way out to the street and complicate things with passing traffic and crowds of pedestrians if the police haven't set up a perimeter yet - or menace the cops and spectators at that perimeter if they have.  That ought to distract the heroes.

The other big thing to consider is starting challenges mid-scene with Overcome actions.  Keep an eye out for narrative opportunities to do this.  Perhaps an innocent civilian can be suddenly endangered, a building damaged and threatening total collapse, a fire started that might lead to an explosion, etc.  Unlike challenges bought as separate scene elements or brought into play through the environment these need to be fairly simple to solve to maintain some level of balance when it comes to action economy.  A villain action is a pretty precious resource but it shouldn't be reliably tying up multiple hero turns on Overcomes.  To ensure this, I suggest using the following outcome table for such on-the-fly challenge creation.

• 0 or less: The action fails spectacularly, and might even trigger a beneficial minor twist for the heroes
• 1-3: The action fails, since supervillains don't take major twists.
• 4-7: The action fails, or the villain can take a minor twist to succeed instead.  Suggestions for villain twists are on page 154, and function somewhat differently than hero twists.  If the villain succeeds, create a simple challenge with a single Overcome success required to solve the problem.
• 8-11: The action succeeds.  Create a challenge that either requires two Overcome successes or has a timer starting with two check boxes. 
• 12+: The action succeeds dramatically.  Create a challenge that either requires three Overcome successes or has a timer starting with a single check box.     

Remember to make note of consequences if the challenge triggers, either at the end of the scene or when its timer runs out.

If a villain has an applicable mastery they may use it when creating a challenge.  Construct a die pool as normal but instead of rolling, treat each die as its highest possible result and reading the appropriate die - usually Mid, but if the villain is using an ability that lets them take a basic action using their Max die then the Max die counts.  Apply penalties as normal.  If this winds up generating a 4-7 result they succeed without a twist but create only a simple one-success challenge.  Results of 3 or less (only possible with penalties) are treated as normal.

I wouldn't go overboard with making new challenges like this, reserving it for narratively interesting moments or to show a villain is going out of control from panic, rage, or frustration.  Once or twice a scene total is probably plenty to turn your villains into something less predictable than their abilities alone indicate.

Blog Content Index

The Malevolent Machinator, Master Planner For Hire

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

The Malevolent Machinator

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

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

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

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

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

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

Approach:  Tactician                          Archetype:  Domain

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

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

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

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

Abilities:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tactics

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

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

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

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Undercover Agents d8 minion

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

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

Blog Content Index

General Tiger Devil and the Green Devil Army

A "generic" evil paramilitary group and their fanatical leader for use as needed.  They could be thuggish warlords operating out of a remote fortress stronghold, antigovernment rebels hiding out in the rural countryside, a narco-lord's personal army, a really well-armed urban gang, a covert group of traitors backed by a foreign power plotting a coup, or "just" dupes of a villainous mastermind.  Adjust to fit your campaign as desired.    

The Green Devil Army

The Green Devil Army is intended to be an archetype rather than a specific organization, letting you plug it into your campaign as needed regardless of time period, geographical location or other factors.  As such, the details of the force should be adjusted to suit your campaign's use of them, including weaponry, uniform colors, total numbers, ethnicities of the troops and the languages they use.  There might be enough of them to seriously threaten even a superhero team, or they might be a relatively minor threat that relies on cunning, ruthlessness and possibly supervillain allies to provide a challenge for the PCs.  They do share a few traits regardless of when and where they appear, those being:

• They are a paramilitary militia force, possibly legal but probably not, and are always opposed to the local government to some degree.  They are not heroic freedom fighters, and civilians in their areas of operation will regularly be terrorized, bullied and robbed by Green Devil troopers.
• Their armaments are military grade but far from cutting edge, and they rely on foot troops and guerrilla fighting styles rather than being line infantry.  If suitable, they might have some vehicular support, either outdated or captured military vehicles or home-built technicals.
• Unless on a covert mission, they wear uniforms as a sign of pride, although they're often rather shabby and ragged compared to real military forces.  Body armor is rare or unheard of.
• The entire unit wears decorative face paint, using shades of green camo to make themselves up in frightening devil faces.  If the climate is suitable, they might use balaclavas with devil faces printed on them instead, which are faster to put on or remove when wanting to conceal themselves.
• They are quite fanatical about whatever cause fits them, including just plain "we're a bad-ass militia that no one can tell what to do" at the most basic level.  This doesn't really make up for generally poor training and equipment, but they certainly think it does.
• They are always lead by General Tiger Devil, who acts as a focus for the group and makes most of the decisions for it.  As much a cult leader as a paramilitary commander, this a is a position, not an individual, and different people may hold it over time.  It's even possible for one Tiger Devil to be struck down in the heat of combat only for a nearby trooper to take up the General's signature blade and declare themselves the new leader on the spot.     

General Tiger Devil

Description: He (or she, in some cases) will look much like his men, carrying similar gear and wearing the same style of uniform.  He stands out mostly due to to being prodigiously muscled, wearing more elaborate tiger striped face paint (or a similarly-decorated balaclava) and carrying a much-used but well-maintained officer's sword, the Green Devil Army's symbol of command.  He's also equipped with an array of gadgetry ranging from simple IEDs and demolition charges to black-market super-tech - whatever fits the overall narrative.

Gender: Usually Male     Age: Mid-Thirties     Height: Varies, Usually Tall     Eyes: Varies

Hair: Varies                      Skin: Varies                           Build: Powerfully Muscled

Approach:  Ninja                      Archetype:  Overlord

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Presence d10, Tiger Devil Sword d10, Intuition d8, Gadgets d8, Strength d6

Qualities: Imposing d10, Leadership d10, Close Combat d8, Fanatical Militia Commander d8, Ranged Combat d8

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

Abilities:

Fierce Glare (R) When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Imposing die.  Boost yourself using the amount of damage reduced.

General's Commands (A) Boost using Leadership for all your minions until the start of your next turn.

Green Devil Army (A) Use Fanatical Militia Commander to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die.  The starting die size of for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.

Lead From the Front (A) Attack using Tiger Devil Sword.  Use your Max die.  Defend yourself against all Attacks until the start of your next turn using the number of your minions. 

Lost In the Ranks (I) If you take an action during your turn that does not include an Attack or Hinder, also use your Min die to Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Hardier Minions + 5 Health.  Gain Fervent Speech (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 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

General Tiger Devil is, at the end of the day, a normal human and not here to fight superheroes directly.  He's here to lead their paramilitary troops, motivating them the way only a true fanatic can.  He'll rely heavily on on General's Commands when there are five or more troopers nearby and Green Devil Army to summon more forces when their numbers dip below that threshold.  When doing this he benefits from Lost In the Ranks, and can get further protection from Fierce Glare when faced with a powerful foe.  If victory seems close or defeat inevitable, the General with gather his troops and launch a glorious personal assault using Lead From the Front.

With an upgrade he can issue a Fervent Speech that improves the performance of even the greenest troopers, while their mastery displays their full military genius.

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Green Devil Army Trooper d4 to d12 minion (see Green Devil Army ability above), usually d8

Description: Paramilitary militia soldier in a shabby uniform with a mix of civilian and slightly outdated military weaponry.  Noteworthy mostly for their fancy "devil mask" green face paint and fanatical morale. 

Don't Disappoint the General: When saving against damage, you gain a +1 bonus if General Tiger Devil is nearby.

Run-Down or Homemade Combat Vehicle d8 lieutenant 

Description: Either a home-built "technical" with some improvised armor and weaponry bolted to a civilian vehicle, or a badly-maintained and outdated military vehicle that may still show signs of battle damage from previous actions.  

Junkheap: When saving against damage, if you roll a one you are removed from play regardless of your current die size.

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