Thanks. Look forward to seeing you next environment. They always take me more effort than villains or heroes do.
Johnny’s a first for me, a villain who just about never uses his own dice for anything in an action scene. Showcases how atypical Domain archetype villains can be. Also the only Creator approach baddie I’ve done that has no inherent way to produce minions, since he’s meant to be used in environs that can generate them with twists he can trigger. Makes him even more of an aberration.
Yes, I have seen similar views expressed by other Game Moderators who’ve run the Sentinel Comics RPG. I suspect that this is because Environment creation is significantly less structured. You basically have to create everything from scratch (more or less), compared to the option-choosing that Hero and Villain creation is.
I don’t think that I personally find Environments more difficult. Although I have not actually created many Environment for use in games, so my data may likely be skewed somewhat.
This sentence has given me the tangential idea of making a Villain that has no Action Abilities, full stop. Maybe I’ll do that eventually.
You need not look forward any more, intrepid reader! For here it is!
Realm of Fantasy
Government: Feudalism
Law Enforcement: Knights
Majority Occupation: Farming
Technology Level: Pre-Renaissance
Mana Level: 300%
This is a land of magic and monsters. At first glance, it appears similar to Europe during the Middle Ages, but further inspection will reveal that it is in fact quite different.
Here, magic is commonplace. It has largely eclipsed science as humanity’s primary tool. Additionally, savage and fierce monstrosities prowl the dark night and the deepest dungeons — Dragons, Trolls, Goblins, and more. But all in this land is not evil; for there are companies of shining knights, chivalrous and true, who patrol the countryside and mete out justice to any vile evildoers who would threaten their liege lord’s peasantry.
Realm of Fantasy
Fantastic Beasts 
Land of Magic
Medieval Society 
Green
Minor Twists
Major Twist
[color= #ffcc00]Yellow[/color]
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Red
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Realm of Fantasy Threats
Dragon
Lieutenant
Description
Thought to be related to lesser reptiles, Dragons inhabit diverse ecosystems, including forests, tundra, mountains, deserts, swamps, and the sea. All Dragons are equipped with a destructive breath weapon and an aura that projects fear upon their foes.Abilities
Breath Weapon: The Dragon has one of the following abilities:
- Cold Breath: When the Dragon Attacks a target, it may also Hinder that target with the same roll.
- Electric Breath: The Dragon has +3 to Attack actions.
- Flame Breath: When the Dragon Attacks, it may Attack up to 3 targets within range.
- Poison Breath: When the Dragon Hinders, the resulting penalty is persistent and exclusive.
Draconic Presence: Targets near the Dragon have a -1 penalty on all actions.
Tactics
Dragons fear no one, and so attack with impunity. They can slash and bite and smash their ways through entire armies with ease.
Goblin
Minion
Description
Goblins are small, humanoid monsters that often raid and pillage small settlements.Abilities
Pack Tactics: A Goblin has +1 to Attack actions while it has at least one nearby ally.Tactics
Goblins work best in groups. Individually, they are quite weak, but together they know how to overwhelm considerably larger foes.
Knight
Description
Knights are chivalrous nobles who have trained themselves in the arts of combat and horsemanship, and have sworn to defend the innocents of the land.Abilities
Plate Armour: Knights have +2 to save rolls.Tactics
Knights fight fiercely from atop their brave steeds in their never-ending quest to vanquish evil.
Editor’s Notes
Just for your edification, the “Mana Level: 300%” thing in this environment’s infobox was just my way of saying, “This place is super magical.” Universe 1 might have a “Mana Level” of 100%, possibly?
I think that the two Green zone minor twists are nifty. I wanted a way to show that magic is simply stronger here, and that technology doesn’t seem to work very well here, for some reason. One would probably get he most out of these twist if the heroes’ ranks included both magic-users and technology-users.
I also like the Troll’s Bridge twist. It is a challenge with two different branches that the heroes could pursue. One of them is shorter, but pursuing it will likely incur the troll’s wrath. And, of course, if you start fighting the troll or trying to find a way around his bridge, he’s not going to let you or your allies hear the riddles.
I’ll admit that the Goblins and Dragon in this environment are based upon how those creatures are depicted in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, especially the Dragon’s fear aura and different breath weapon choices.
Also, the Knights’ stats are basically identical to the Knight minions from my Time Cataclysm above.
One could use this environment in the very unlikely event that one would like to set a game in my Sentinels of the Realm setting. (Although I would likely modify it before doing so.)
And, lastly, you may notice that a few things are missing that you might expect to be in a fantasy setting — Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits Halflings, Orcs, Wizards, Clerics, or Rogues, for instance. Well, that is because I was going for a more “classic” fantasy setting with this environment — just knights, dragons, et cetera — compared to a “modern” fantasy setting. I suppose that I may have some desire to make something out of the latter, though.
Next Environment: Swamp Ritual Site!
Looks good. Would work well for a straight Arthurian environment as well, albeit perhaps with the goblins being reskinned into brigands. Expect the Champions of Chivalry might be best dealt with through Overcomes to convince them that our heroes are not, in fact, evil knaves. Like the fact the dragon’s breath weapons will potentially have some interaction with hero energy powers - and the Toxic material power for poison breath. If there’s a Domain or Titan archetype villain in the scene that can activate environmental twists you can bet they’ll be waking the dragon up ASAP - which could be round three for Domains.
IIRC I managed to do at least one with only a single Action ability, everything else being Inherents (or Innate? never recall which the I stands for) and Reactions, but that was more accident than intent.
Agreed. Although I would likely make an entirely different environment for Arthurian Britain with more appropriate twists.
True, that could definitely work, although there are two possibilities that you may have overlooked:
Yes, as do I. A Dragon trying to freeze Absolute Zero is a bad idea. I would go so far as to make sure that, if the any of the Heroes have powers that interact with energy types, the Dragon would have a matching breath weapon.
Yeah, I try to do that pretty regularly myself when there are PC abilities in play that care about energy types. Not 100% of the time, but often enough that they don’t always have to use Overcomes to bring them into play somehow. No objection to (say) the heroes ripping down a power line so they can heal off their Electricity damage inversion trick, but sometimes they deserve to get some benefit for free.
The twist on that one is usually a big bill from the local utility company for gratuitously damaging their equipment, or angry citizens showing up later to protest the latest supers-induced blackout. 
And now for something a little different . . .
Swamp Ritual Site
Location: Outside Rook City
Wildlife: Crocodiles, mosquitoes, herons, zombies, tree monsters
Terrain: Mixture of mud, vegetation, and toxic waste
Frequent Visitors: The Cult of Gloom, goth teenagers
Purpose: Performing foul rites of unspeakable magicks, picnics
Refreshments: IPAs
The villainous Cult of Gloom is at it again. Their members have congregated in a foul swamp, gathered the necessary mystical ingredients, and have begun another one of their trademarked evil rituals.
What are they up to this time? Are they once again attempting to free their dark lord and master GloomWeaver from his imprisonment in the extradimensional Realm of Discord, or are they attempting some other mysterious, arcane rite? Either way, our intrepid heroes will have their hands full dealing with all the cultists, stopping the ritual, and navigating the hazardous mires of the swamp.
Swamp Ritual Site
The Cult of Gloom
Dark Magic
Swampy Terrain
Green
Minor Twists
Major Twist
[color= #ffcc00]Yellow[/color]
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Red
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Swamp Ritual Site Threats
Gloom Cultist
Description
These misguided souls have, for one reason or another, joined up with the Cult of Gloom.Abilities
Fanaticism: Gloom Cultists have +1 to Attack actions, Hinder actions, and save rolls while a higher-ranking cultist is nearby.Tactics
The Cultists’ devotion to GloomWeaver drives them to do everything they can in service to their dark master.
Man-Grove
Description
Man-Grove was once a simple grove of trees. But now, thanks to toxic waste and dark magic, it is a hulking mass of writhing vines and creaking limbs that walks like a man.Abilities
Strength of the Swamps: As an action, Man-Grove can increase its die by one size (maximum
Swinging Limbs: When Man-Grove Attacks, it can Attack up to 2 nearby targets.Tactics
Man-Grove is more instinctual than logical, and it is not inherently hostile, so it only engages characters who try to harm it.
Zombie
Description
These undead servants were originally corpses that were animated by dark magicks.Abilities
Walking Dead: Zombies have +2 to save rolls.Tactics
Being mindless servitors, zombies typically shamble towards whomever their masters direct them to.
Editor’s Notes
The first four environments that I’ve posted in this thread have been fairly generic — Gang Hideout, Deep Space, Time Cataclysm, and Realm of Fantasy. They don’t really have much story attached, could represented several different locations, and could be utilized in a range of different issues.
This environment, however, breaks that trend. It is a specific place with a specific event and story tied to it. Now, of course, that does not mean that one could not use it for other similar locations, but the distinction remains (in my mind, at least).
I do expect that the remaining environments that I shall post here will be more like this one than the previous ones.
Now, I do realise that making more specific environments is somewhat less useful for other GMs out there, but if I’m being honest, I’m doing this thread to share the environments that I want to make.
Anyways, speaking of plots, this environment should likely be accompanied by one or more Challenges for the heroes to thwart the Cult’s magical machinations.
Here’s a fun fact: this environment was actually the first of these that I came up with.
I was original going to include a couple of twists about the swamp life (crocs, bugs, etc.), but I was short on room, so I opted to cut them in favour of what I think are more evocative twists.
So, I may have overused the “grove that walks like a man” line just a little bit, but it’s my environment so shush. And as is mentioned in Man-Grove’s Tactics section, it only really attacks those who harm it. (I’m unsure as to wether this is canonical or not, but it’s what I decided to go with.) This means that it could enter the scene and not attack anyone because no one has attacked it, but then the heroes could try to persuade it to help them, which I think is cool.
On the topic of Man-Grove, his Strength of the Swamps ability took me literally forever.* It went through many iterations, including some in which he could increase his die size when taking Boost, Defend, and/or Attack actions, and some where it happened in response to succeeding in a damage save. I think that the version that I ultimately ended up with is properly balanced.
I am aware that the Extraplanar Portal and Aura of Power twists are somewhat similar to the Lost in Time and Ambient Mana twists of my Time Cataclysm and Realm of Fantasy environments, respectively. But, what can you do? There are only so many possible twists.
Regarding the minions in this environment, I was originally going to have two varieties of cultist — spellcasters and non-spellcasters — but, as you can see, I changed that. Also, these Zombie minions are virtually identical to the Zombies that I posted over in my Iron Five thread.
Well, that seems like all for today!
*Figuratively speaking.
Next Environment: THE X-TREMEVERSE!!!
about the Swamp environment-
Remember in DC comics Slaughter Swamp outside of Gotham City has so much bad magic associated with it that most evil supervillain wizards stay out of Gotham
Looks good, and I don’t think it’s as “specific” as you say - I could easily re-skin elements for use as an arcane ritual outside of a swamp, for ex.
Man-Grove’s Strength of the Swamps seems about right to me, and questing for “balance” always seems a bit futile anyway. Style-wise I suspect it should have “(Max d12)” appended to it - it’s kind of obvious you can’t grow beyond the biggest die in the game, but the rulebook is pretty consistent about calling that out specifically.
I was aware of Slaughter Swamp — mainly for its role in the creation of Solomon Grundy — but I haven’t heard that fact about it before. The more you know!
True, I do see your point. I suppose that the Sticky Situation and Man-Grove twists are really the only ones that necessitate the swamp’s presence.
Good point. I’ll go and append that now.
Even those are easy to re-skin without mechanical change. Sticky Situation could just be a totally generic “Mystic Ward” or “Bad Feeling About This” or “Cursed Sigil Trap” or something. “Man-Grove” could show up as a some kind of strange other-dimensional intruder attracted by the ritual, not initially hostile but happy to feed on the ambient energies being stirred up. Or just have Man-Grove itself show up through the portal they’re trying to open when some arcane short-circuit momentarily connects the ritual location to its swampy home.
Great ideas, @Chief_Lackey_Rich! Alternatively, Man-Grove could be replaced with a Portal Fiend.
THE X-TREMEVERSE!!!
Annual Casualty Rate: Twice that of Universe 1
Most Popular Music Genre: Heavy Metal
Most Manufactured Products: Chains, spikes, pouches, guns, explosives
This is a reality different from Universe 1. A more X-TREME REALITY!
The world of the X-TREMEVERSE is indeed far different from the one you know. Here, everything is over-the-top in the most radical ways. Violence is prolific, and it appears that the world’s fashion, music, and culture have not moved on from the 1990’s.
This universe is home to the X-Treme States of America, much of which is a dusty wasteland crisscrossed by lonesome highways. The country’s largest city is the Neon City, which is a mega-city that definitely lives up to its name.
THE X-TREMEVERSE!!!
NINETIES AESTHETICS!
X-CESSIVE VIOLENCE!
X-TREME RESIDENTS!
Green
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Yellow
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Red
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Road Rat
Description
These savage rodents inhabit the inhospitable wasteland that is much of the X.S.A.’s Midwest!Abilities
GROUP FIGHTER: A Road Rat has +1 to Attack and Hinder actions while it has at least one nearby ally.Tactics
The Road Rats prefer to do combat on the open road and in a group.
X-Patriette Biker Clone
Description
These clones of the ruthless X-Patriette prowl the sprawling Neon City.Abilities
HECKA POWERFUL AMMO: X-Patriette Biker Clones have +3 to Boost actions targeting themselves.Tactics
The X-Patriettes use their tricked-out guns, sharp aim, and grit against their opponents.
X-TREMEVERSE Civilian
Description
Even the normal Joes of the X-TREMEVERSE are X-TREME!Abilities
X-TREME EVERYMAN: The X-TREMEVERSE Civilian has +2 to Attack actions and save rolls.Tactics
An X-TREMEVERSE Civilian is likely to aid the heroes against their enemies.
Editor’s Notes
I may have gone a touch overboard with the CAPITALISATION, X’s, and X-CLAMATION POINTS!!! Oh well.
So, I do fear that this environment may be somewhat, well, bland. It was very tough thinking of ideas for twists. As you can see, each GYRO zone basically has an Attacking twist, a Boosting twist, and a minion-adding twist.
Oh, and if you have no idea what this environment is about, check this out.
Next Environment: Spirit Island
One might even say you’ve gone to X-TREMES there.
Seems fine as a generic “somewhere in the X-TREMEVERSE” environment - the minions could be reskinned into something else easily enough if the scene is somewhere other than the XSA/Neon City. More specific locales (eg the sewer/underground raceways under Wreck City) would probably have different twists, but I rather like the idea of a set of amping up global Boosts throughout any scene to reflect the inherently over-the-top nature of the universe.
Not possible! TURN IT UP PAST 11!!
Heck yeah, mother hecker!!
Prayers for the voice of the GM who leads a session in this environment. 
Spirit Island
Area: ≈50,000 square kilometres
Spirit Population: Numerous and uncountable
Dahan Population: ≈3,600
Invader Population: ≈10,000
Invaders’ Arrival: 10 years ago
The Island has existed far longer than humans have lived there.
The Spirits of the Island are many and diverse: thronging wisps of breeze, strange half-seen shadows across still water, the sunbeam which forms perfect patterns even through tangled deadwood. Most do not fight the Invaders: the smaller Spirits are too weak; the greatest ones too slow or so strong they’d destroy the Island. Not every grove or gully has a Spirit — but there are certainly more Spirits than Dahan.
The Dahan were the first humans on the Island. They immigrated centuries ago. Their lore spoke of Spirits, and they expected their new home would have some, but were greatly surprised by the Spirits’ numbers, vitality, and intensity of manifestation.
The Invaders found Spirit Island a decade ago. Early coastal contact with the Dahan was fairly peaceful. The Dahan saw these new seafarers as analogues of their those-who travel, and offered them appropriate hospitality. The Invaders saw a fertile, sparsely-populated island, and brought word home of a land ripe for the taking.
The first colony ships arrived five years later, bringing both settlers and an onslaught of foreign diseases which tore through the Dahan. Spirit assistance helped many Dahan survive — but even so, they are just regaining their footing, mourning their dead, and discovering that these scourges were not the act of angry Spirits. They are divided on what to do: some see the Invaders as a menace to drive away, while others still think of them as “our new neighbors”, or are fascinated with their lifestyle, tools, and beliefs.
But the Invaders spread impossibly quickly, with more and more colony ships arriving each year. In the blink of an eye there were nearly as many Invaders as Dahan, methodically reshaping the land, destroying Spirit and Dahan alike in their heedless, swarming expansion . . .
Spirit Island
Dahan Clans
Foreign Invaders
Nature Spirits
Green
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Yellow
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Red
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Spirit Island Threats
Beast
Description
These creatures are nothing more than wild beasts, although they may have been commanded to fight on a Spirit’s behalf.Abilities
Feral: While a Beast is smaller than aTactics
Due to their low intelligence, Beasts mainly stick to chomping on targets until they’re dead.
Dahan
Description
These native islanders live in harmony with the land and the Spirits.Abilities
Friends of the Spirits: Spirits have +1 to Boost, Defend, and Recover actions targeting Dahan, and vice versa.Tactics
Dahan will fight desperately to protect their island home, even against the overwhelming odds posed by the Invaders.
Invader
Description
These newcomers to the island have no respect for it, the Dahan, or the Spirits, and only care about their own interest.Abilities
Ravagers: Invaders have +2 to Attack actions and destructive Overcome actions.Tactics
Invaders favour slash-and-burn strategies, and ruthlessly destroy any opposition.
Minor Spirit
Description
This is but a relatively weak Spirit. There exist many larger and more powerful Spirits, but they are also much slower, and lack the precision needed to make a difference in a human-scale skirmish.Abilities
Elemental Nature: The Minor Spirit has one of the following abilities:
- Air: Whenever the Minor Spirit takes an action that targets itself or another character, it may move that target to another location.
- Earth: The Minor Spirit has +3 to Defend actions.
- Fire: The Minor Spirit has +3 to Attack actions.
- Water: As an action, the Minor Spirit can roll its die. Either one nearby target Recovers that much Health, or that many nearby minions each increase their dice by one size, up to a maximum of their starting die sizes.
- Plant: The Minor Spirit has +3 to Boosts actions.
- Animal: As an action, the Minor Spirit can roll its die and add a number of Beast minions (see above) to the scene equal to half its die roll (rounded up).
- Moon: As an action, the Minor Spirit can change any penalty into a bonus or vice versa.
- Sun: When the Minor Spirit takes the Boost action, it may make the resulting bonus persistent and exclusive.
Tactics
The Spirit’s tactics will differ greatly depending on which element it is attuned to.
Editor’s Notes
This environment is, of course, inspired by Greater Than Game’s fantastic cooperative board game of the same name, Spirit Island. And yes, I know that the Nexus of the Void is an already-existing Sentinel Comics environment that is also inspired by Spirit Island, but the Nexus is very loosely inspired by it, while my environment here is straight-up Spirit Island, complete with Invaders and Dahan.
I have no idea in what situation a GM would actually use this environment; Spirit Island is canonically set in the 1700s, so temporal shenanigans are likely to be involved. Beyond that, I assume that the overlap between SCRPG GMs and Spirit Island players is very small, so this environment is likely of little interest to most.
Nonetheless, I still made it, mainly because I really like the game. I bought and played Spirit Island years before Sentinels of the Multiverse, let alone the Sentinel Comics RPG. It is what led me to discover Sentinel Comics, so I would not be here without it.
The opening description for this environment is an edited version of lore found in the Spirit Island rulebook. The area measurement is based on a comment made by the game’s designer saying that it is around the size of Viti Levu. The Invader and Dahan populations are entirely baseless guesses.
Next Environment: [REDACTED]
Looks good. Love the roster of spirit power abilities.
I’ve had loads of functionally immortal PCs and villains in my games. Some of them could have “time-travelled” through the 1700s the way most people do - one day at a time in order. I could use it in a flashback for an earlier encounter between folks like, say, FourEver and Ymum where 300 years is roughly equivalent to last week for mere mortals.
OblivAeon
Height: Varies
Weight: Varies
Hair: None
Eyes: Varies, usually purple
Birthplace: The Destruction of Preservation and Entropy
Power Source: The Cosmos, The Shattering of the Timelines
Occupation: Singular Entity
“It’s Coming.”
The Heroes of Earth and beyond have fought against the effect of an unknown cosmic power for a long time, and each time they managed to prevail. However, other realities and timelines have not been so fortunate. The goal of this cosmic entity’s encroachment upon the Multiverse is the collapse of all realities and timelines into a singularity which will self-implode, leaving naught but OblivAeon, the true heir to nothingness.
OblivAeon itself has manifested on Earth in this timeline to put an end to the pitiful resistance. If it succeeds, everything will be destroyed. However, if the heroes are able to stop OblivAeon, the cracks which run through all realities will be repaired as the cosmic power that created them is destroyed, effectively cutting the timelines and realities off from each other.
One way or another the Multiverse, ends here.
OblivAeon
Destroyer of All
The End Has Come
Terminus of All Realities
Green
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Yellow
Minor Twists
Major Twist
Red
Minor Twist
Major Twists
OblivAeon Threats
Aeon Man
Description
Aeon Men are the mindless thralls and vassals of OblivAeon. They form from the excess Aeon energy that constantly leaks out of OblivAeon’s form.Abilities
Aeon Energy: If OblivAeon destroys an Aeon Man, first roll its die. Boost, Recover, or Attack one target with that roll.
Cosmic Warrior: Aeon Men have +1 to Attack actions.Tactics
Aeon Men are essentially mindless automatons, and know only the most basic strategy. They are most often encountered in groups.
Editor’s Notes
That’s right, it’s OBLIVAEON!
I really like that dice pool. : )
The infobox and environment description were taken from OblivAeon’s wiki page.
Okay, so I may have made some of these twists a little bit more powerful the the book suggests, but hey, it’s OblivAeon. If anything deserves to be overpowered, it’s him.
Part of my inspiration for creating this “environment” was that the Bullpen chapter of the rulebook states that environments can be used to represent truly massive, powerful entities in addition to locations.
Now, obviously this “environment” is of negligible usefulness to anyone, as I doubt anyone will be running the OblivAeon Event any time soon. Regardless, here’s my advice for doing just that:
Due to the epicness and sheer scale, I would recommend using a scene tracker that is some mix of Prolonged and Epic trackers. Something like 2 Green spaces, 4 Yellow spaces, and 5 Red spaces.
This environment represents OblivAeon protected by his shield. Thus, he lacks a Health rating, so the heroes cannot damage him. So, of course, you’ll need a hefty challenge (likely 5 boxes) to let the heroes disable OblivAeon’s shield, which will then transform him from environment stats to villain stats (likely with many Upgrades). Alternatively, one could just use one (or several) Defence Shield Upgrades to represent his shield, but then you wouldn’t be using this environment at all.
There would, of course, also be many Aeon Men minions, Scion villains, and, to help the heroes out with all of this, Mission challenges.
Oh, and by the way, this is the penultimate environment.
Next Environment: [REDACTED]
Looks good. I kind of doubt the Scion from the Red Major Twist is going to get much time to act before scene end, and activating that twist might actually be a merciful choice for the GM compared to starting Impending Doom or Global Devastation.
Just to confirm, is the intent on Global Devastation is that any Aeon Men destroyed by it are being done in by OblivAeon and therefore trigger their Aeon Energy ability? Or does that only happen with Absorb Energy?
Yeah, OblivAeon and things on a similar power level are probably better as a combination of environment and multiple challenges than a villain, even a very powerful one like a multiple-upgrade Ancient Titan or something. I haven’t tried anything quite that potent yet - the ultimate form of Infernovox is as close as I’ve come to date, and even it’s a long way short of a reality ender on its own. Perfectly content to just loaf around wearing the sun like an old pair of pajamas.
Fair enough. I do see your point, but using a non-standard scene tracker that has more red spaces than usual (like I mentioned above) would increase the Scion’s length of stay.
Correct. Aeon Energy is triggered whenever an Aeon Man is destroyed by OblivAeon, wether it happens from a “destroy Aeon Men” effect or damage from an Attack from OblivAeon. Impending Doom would also count.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that all the different forms of Infernovox you made are, in my opinion, quite cool. : )