Fjur's Villain Archive!

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
#5

Hmm, those are some good points that I hadn’t considered. I imagine that, some of the time, the comics would simply gloss over those issues, as all comic writers wouldn’t necessarily think of them. Otherwise, I’d think that Achian would be technologically savvy enough to shut everything down safely himself, if he doesn’t just do what you said and forces the workers to do so. I definitely see him as not the Baron Blade-type who doesn’t think through the consequences of plans; he cares to much for that. I could also see him hiring mercenaries to take care of all those tasks whilst his sharkbots run off the operators. On the other hand, though, it could be interesting for something to go wrong and Doctor Shark need to work with the heroes to stop some hazardous materials from getting released into the sea.

Ooh, good idea. Hmm, yeah, now that I’m thinking about it, it wouldn’t seem out of character for Doc Shark to use robotic imitations of other sea life; sure, sharks are his theme ‘cause they’re his favourites, but he’d be happy to utilize other types of sea creatures.

Heh, I considered making a sharknado joke in the post(s)—something about Sal using @FrivYeti’s Doctor Tarralok’s Terrible Hurricane Generator environment.

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#6

Today be bein’ International Talkin’ Like a Pirate Day, so in honour o’ this prestigious day, I be presentin’ a suitably nautical ne’er-do-well for ye maties to be enjoyin’.

Captain Starbeard

Alias: Edmund Thatch
Approach: Ancient
Archetype: Guerrilla

Health: 50 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Cosmic :d10:
Presence :d10:
Sea Animal Control :d8:
Weather :d12:

Qualities
History :d8:
Imposing :d12:
Mysterious Swashbuckler :d8:
Otherworldly Mythos :d10:
Self-Discipline :d12:

Status: Engaged Opponents
4+ Engaged opponents :d10:
2-3 Engaged opponents :d8:
0-1 Engaged opponents :d6:

Abilities

  • :attack: :hinder: Astral Blade (A): Attack using Cosmic and use your Max die. Hinder a target dealt damage this way using your Max+Min dice.
  • :defend: Destructive Parry (R): Defend against an Attack by rolling your single status die. Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.
  • Otherworldly Retribution (I): At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.
  • :hinder: :attack: Wailing Maelstrom (A): Hinder using Weather against multiple targets and use your Max die. Attack each using your Mid+Min dice.
  • (U) Strength of the Stars (A): Choose one group of minions in the scene. Upgrade all their dice one size (maximum :d12:). (When using this upgrade, Captain Starbeard has 5 additional Health.)
  • :overcome: (M) 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 else pays the price.

Captain Starbeard
Alias: Edmund Thatch
Gender: Appears male
Age: Unknown
Height: 5’9"
Eyes: Solid gold
Hair: Purplish-black, dotted with star-specks; large, bushy beard
Skin: Light blue
Build: Burly
Costume/Equipment: Standard piratical attire in hues of dark blue and black, including a coat and wide-brimmed hat
Approach: Ancient
Archetype: Guerrila

Biography

The being calling itself Captain Starbeard first became infamous during the Golden Age of Piracy. He appeared out of nowhere, took command of a ship, and began a long career of piracy. The dread captain is decidedly inhuman, as evidenced by the queer hues of his eyes, beard, and skin, and by the various obviously-supernatural powers he’s demonstrated over the years. When asked for his real name, Captain Starbeard has said that it’s “Edmund Thatch.” No one quite knows whence Captain Starbeard came, though there exist many rumours about that quandary. Some say he’s the product of nautical sorcery, a sea spirit bound up with the light of the ocean’s night sky. Others claim he’s a being who journeyed here from strange, magical realms that exist beyond mortal ken. Still others believe that the captain is simply an entity hailing from the stars, a strange visitor who came to Earth from another world amidst the vast cosmos. Regardless of his origins, Captain Starbeard has never truly been defeated or killed, and remains active in the present day.

Capabilities and Motivations
Captain Starbeard’s most notable ability is his command of the ocean’s weather. He can control the winds, rain, stormclouds, and the occasionally lightning strike of the sea. His power is greatly diminished while on dry land, although not completely absent. The captain is also capable of harnessing cosmic energies, which he often shapes into the form of a cutlass. Further, he has a limited ability to seize control of the minds of water-dwelling animals, and bend them to his will. This ability works best of native sea creatures, but it can also affect freshwater animals with some effort. Finally, Captain Starbeard possesses a great force of personality, and has been known to be able to intimidate the weak-willed into comply with his demands.

Upgrades
On the not-uncommon occasions when Captain Starbeard is working with a crew of fellow like-minded buccaneers, he can empower members of said crew with fractions of his own mysteries celestial power, greatly increasing the threat they pose.

Editor’s Notes

Hmm, I do realise that this is yet another ocean-themed baddie, following right after Doctor Shark and his Sharkolossus. : / That doubling up on themes surely wasn’t intentional, but when I noticed that it was Talk Like a Pirate Day, I just couldn’t resist. : )

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#7

Looks suitably piratical. Probably fell off a passing Spelljammer. :slight_smile:

I dropped all seven of these nitwits in the same post back in June, I think people will forgive you. :slight_smile:

Had forgotten about Pirate Day, maybe I can throw something together in time. I was actually working on an Ancient/Guerrilla villain myself, but he’s a rather different entity despite having some ability overlap.

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#8

Heh, yeah. I did recently purchase the 5e Spelljammer set and have been reading through it, so that likely did influence me a touch.

Sure, but those scoundrels were made together as a themed group, whereas my situation was pure happenstance.

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#9

Sure, sure, they were totally always a group and not a couple of random aqua-baddies that I decided to turn into a coalition of sea-villains because you don’t see a lot of undersea teams on either side of the white cape/black cape divide. Entirely pre-planned, absolutely. :slight_smile:

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#10

Today’s post brings us the first member—and leader—of the villainous Checkmate Gang!

The King
“I’m already ten moves ahead. You didn’t even know that we were playing. Make your move.”

Alias: Vasiliy Gasparov
Approach: Tactician
Archetype: Squad

Health: 25 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Deduction :d8:
Inventions :d6:
Lightning Calculator :d8:
Presence :d6:

Qualities
Insight :d10:
Leadership :d8:
Technology :d6:
Ten Moves Ahead :d8:

Status: Other Villains
0 Other villains in the scene :d6:
1-2 Other villains in the scene :d8:
3+ Other villains in the scene :d10:

Abilities

  • :attack: :defend: Check and Mate (A): Attack using Ten Moves Ahead. Use your Max die. Defend all nearby allies with your Mid+Min dice until the start of your next turn.
  • :boost: Masterful Positioning (A): Boost using Ten Moves Ahead and use your Max die. That bonus applies to every ally’s action until the beginning of your next turn.
  • Superior Coordination (A): One ally makes a basic action now, using their Max die. They reroll all 1s they roll as part of this action.
  • Tactical Cooperation (I): As long as you have at least 1 nearby ally, you may reroll all 1s on your dice.
  • (U) Hired Thugs (A): Replenish your hired thug minions up to :h:.
  • :overcome: (M) 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.

The King
Alias: Vasiliy Gasparov
Gender: Male
Age: 30s
Height: 5’10”
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Skin: Light
Build: Lean
Costume/Equipment: A black longcoat over black pants and a white shirt with a black chess king symbol on it, and a small earpiece.
Approach: Tactician
Archetype: Squad

Biography

From a young age, Vasiliy Gasparov was a chess prodigy. He became a FIDE Grandmaster at the age of 16. By adulthood, his skill at the game surpassed them all; there was no one left to challenge him. So Vasiliy turned his magnificent minds to other pursuits; he dabbled in mechanical engineering, but that, too, proved too easy for him, and posed little challenge. Then one day, Vasiliy was visiting the States for a tournament. After leaving the tournament building, Vasiliy witnessed a group of crooks fleeing from a bank they had just burglarised. The hoodlums saw Vasiliy too, and took him as a hostage at gunpoint. While the crooks were fleeing the police with their hostage, he observed their actions. He noticed that they were making some very large tactical errors in their flight, and helpfully provided corrections for their actions. With his help, the crooks escaped. Vasiliy was exhilarated by the experience, though, as he had finally found the one field that could provide a suitable challenge for his genius intellect—crime!

And so, taking inspiration for his new career of criminality from his lifelong passion, Vasiliy Gasparov has dubbed himself the King. But, of course, no king can accomplish anything without his army. Thus, the King swiftly went to work gathering allies to form his new criminal coterie: the Checkmate Gang.

Capabilities and Motivations

Vasiliy Gasparov is an intellectual giant. In addition to his considerable innate mental talent, he has honed his mind to the highest degree. Years of playing and studying the game of chess has taught him thousands of different tactical manoeuvres and strategic ploys. He is an expert at reading people, and is able to anticipate the actions and reactions of enemies almost unerringly. With that knowledge, the King can cut opponent’s movements off before they even make them. Further, Vasiliy has engineered a number of useful devices to aid him and his allies in his new pursuit of criminal capers.

The King is also competent at leading and organising others, which is a lucky thing for him, as despite his intellectual and technical capabilities, he is very lacking in the realm of physical confrontation. He does posses basic training in hand-to-hand combat, but is of only average strength. The King keeps in contact with his allies in the field via the use of a unobtrusive earpiece that he personally designed.

Upgrades

Even with the other five members of his Checkmate Gang, the King does realise that if he has the opportunity to gain more forces, it would be foolish to pass that opportunity up. Thus he often takes to recruiting low-level hired thugs to provide muscle for his endeavours. The King will often give such thugs monikers drawn from non-standard chess pieces, such as Alfil, Dabbabah, Ferz, and Wazir.

Editor’s Notes

Yeah, I know that there’s already at least one supervillain called “King” in comics (a member of DC’s Royal Flush Gang), and likely others, but that guy is card-themed, whereas my guy is chess-themed, so they’re totally different. ; )

I spent a long time on Vasiliy’s last name. My first idea was Kasparov, but I thought that was too on-the-nose. Then I considered Volodin and Zherdev, before ultimately settling on what you see.

Master of Conquest and Master of Enforced Order would both also fit the King’s M.O., but I felt that Behind the Curtain was the most on-theme.

Oh, and in case your chess knowledge is lacking . . .

And in case it isn’t obvious, the genesis for the King and the Checkmate Gang pretty much came from me thinking, “Can I make a whole villain team based on chess pieces?” Speaking of which, the Checkmate Gang has six members: the King, the Queen, the Bishop, the Knight, the Rook, and the Pawn, in case that, too, was not obvious. In the coming days I’ll try to post all of these folks relatively quickly, but it might take awhile. I also figured it would be better to spread them out over seperate posts, rather than clump them all in one huge mega-post.

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#11

Now I have this mental image of him sitting behind a chess board smirking when a luchador in a jaguar mask vaults across the board and puts him in head lock. He’s also neither Elvis Presley nor Jack Kirby. :slight_smile:

Nice mix of team support abilities there. Rerolling your ones ought to help a lot with those smaller die sizes.

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#12

Oh yeah, I hadn’t realised that connexion to Kirby, but I’m definitely glad to take the unintentional allusion. : )

Huh, yeah. Interesting. That, too, I had not realised yet. Good catch!

Yeah, I might’ve made him less effective than he could’ve been by keying both of his rolling abilities off of Ten Moves Ahead :d8: rather than Insight :d10: . . . On the flipside, though, with having five other villains that he routinely works with, the King’s status die should be :d10: for most of a scene.

#13

Already predicting one ability for the Pawn: “Google ‘En Passant’”: Reaction: When a nearby ally would be attacked, make yourself the target instead. Defend using (p/q), and deal the resulting damage to the attacker.

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#14

I don’t know how you’ll model the Pawn, but if you’re going for a dumb goofy mook it might be fun for them to have a dog named Checkers.

2 Likes
#15

Bruiser Archetype and Generalist Approach villains both have bodyguard tricks IIRC, but there might be something to be said for the Legion Archetype for Pawn so there can be eight of him in play at once. :slight_smile:

#16

It’s barely going to make a noticeable difference with Check & Mate where you’re using all your dice with ones rerolling anyway, but switching to Insight for Masterful Positioning is probably pretty meaningful. Without any mods in effect, it would increase your odds of getting a big +3 global ally bonus from 1/8 to 3/10 when its d10 is your Max die. With a d10 status (and the one rerolls) as well your odds of a +3 are quite good that way. Plus it gives him more Quality variation between abilities, which is always nice when you can manage it.

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#17

Hah, yeah, that is a good idea. Though, unfortunately, I don’t think Pawn will use any Approaches or Archetypes that grant access to such an ability. (And I’m not usually one to homebrew abilities.)

Hmm, I’d say that the personalities of the Checkmate Gang are all pretty serious, but then again, we are talking about a group of villains who are theming themselves after chess, so I feel like they could definitely be used in some goofy stories. As for the Pawn specifically, she is definitely a mook, of course, and I suppose she is only really used for muscle, not thinking. Although, to be honest, that’s pretty much true of all of them save the King.

Anyways, yeah, sure, Pawn having a dog named Checkers sounds like a fun idea, so I’ll say that’s canon. (For me, at least. If a GM uses these characters in one’s own game, they’re allowed to do anything they like.)

Squad also does. Curiously, though, a brief look through the villain section didn’t result in me finding any others. I guess villains are just more selfish than heroes! Also, I found the oddity of Indomitable and Guerrilla each having a reaction—Absorb Energy and Malicious Deflection, respectively—that just tell you to Defend, without specifying whether it’s referring to yourself, an ally, or either. The latter interpretation makes the most sense, I guess, but the vagueness still seems odd.

And no, Pawn won’t be a Legion, but I might as well just go on and reveal that she’ll be an Adaptive Overlord, most likely.

Hmm, you raise some very good points. I’ll definitely consider it, and mayhaps I’ll switch it out at some point in the future. We’ll see.

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#18

And now we have the second member of the Checkmate Gang!

The Queen
“I’m the biggest piece on the board, kid. There’s nowhere you can run from me.”

Alias: Jenn Victors
Approach: Overpowered
Archetype: Guerrilla

Health: 55 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Fire :d10:
Invisibility :d10:
Speed :d12:

Qualities
Criminal Underworld Info :d6:
Imposing :d8:
Quick Queen :d8:

Status: Engaged Opponents
4+ Engaged opponents :d10:
2-3 Engaged opponents :d8:
0-1 Engaged opponents :d6:

Abilities

  • Deft Manoeuvring (I): If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.
  • :attack: :hinder: Destructive Dash (A): Attack multiple targets using Speed and use your Max die. Hinder each target using your Mid die.
  • :attack: Royal Burn (A): Attack using Fire. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Hinder yourself using your Max die. Take damage equal to your Mid+Min dice.
  • Smouldering Outrage (I): At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of opponents that Attacked you since your last turn.
  • :attack: (U) Unstoppable Acceleration (I): When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die. (When using this upgrade, the Queen has 20 additional Health.)
  • :overcome: (M) Master of Superiority (I): As long as you are manifesting effects related to a power you have at :d12:, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.

The Queen
Alias: Jenn Victors
Gender: Female
Age: 30s
Height: 5’7”
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Red
Skin: Light
Build: Athletic
Costume/Equipment: A white jacket over a form-fitting, black full-body costume with a white chess queen symbol on the chest.
Approach: Overpowered
Archetype: Guerrilla

Biography

Jenn Victors grew up in poverty in a crime-filled city. When she was a teenager, she fell in with a local street gang despite her parents’ wishes. Sure, she could’ve eked out a living in some low-paying job, but Jenn didn’t have the patience for that. She wanted to be at the top of the food chain, and crime seemed the most expeditious root to that end. In her neighbourhood, you either became a crook or a victim, and Jenn surely wasn’t planning on being the latter.

Unfortunately, Jenn’s gang would not last as long as she would’ve liked. A mole had infiltrated their ranks and revealed the location of their hideout to the authorities. A police raid a few nights later managed to round up all the members of the gang, save Jenn. She was cornered by half a dozen cops, and had nowhere to run. Then, suddenly, when she was at her most desperate, something inside of Jenn Victors changed. She raced past the cops. She didn’t know how, but somehow, she had managed to dash away from them without them loosing a single shot. Then she realised that she had run across town in an instant.

With her newfound power of superspeed, Jenn Victors became an even more prolific criminal. Now, she no longer needed a gang, and could commit any number of audacious heists all on her own. During one particularly daring break-in at a cutting-edge weapon manufacturing plant, Jenn Victors came across a man in a black long-coat with some kind of funny crown symbol on his shirt. Jenn soon learned that this man was also breaking into the same building on the exact same night. By then, the plant’s security had caught wind of foul play, and Jenn and the other guy—who introduced himself as Vasiliy Gasparov—realised that their only way out of the situation was to work together. Vasiliy provided tactical insights to Jenn, and she used her powers of swiftness to greater effect because of them, getting the two safely out of the facility.

Once out of danger, Vasiliy Gasparov told Jenn that he was a newly-minted supervillain calling himself the King, and that he wanted Jenn Victors to be the first member to join his new crew, the Checkmate Gang. Jenn thought that Vasiliy’s tactical aid could be useful, so she obliged, and he dubbed her the Queen.

Capabilities and Motivations

The Queen can move and act at a much higher rate than any normal human, which allows her to run great distances in the blink of an eye and dodge and strike with unprecedented accuracy and precision. In addition, the Queen’s superspeed allows her to attune her vibrations to the same wavelength as light, thus rending her invisible to all observers and visual sensors. She can also use her enormous velocity to generate copious amounts of friction, which she can then direct at her opponents in the form of blasts of heat and flame.

The relationship betwixt the Queen and the King began as a purely professional one, as they both saw the benefits to be gained from working together. However, over time, the two did begin a romance, which continues to the present.

Upgrades

At times, the Queen is able to accelerate herself quite a bit faster if she pushes herself hard enough, which enables her to land more and more blows in the amount of time it would take a normal fighter to throw even one.

Editor’s Notes

Of course the Queen has the Overpowered Approach—the queen’s the most powerful piece in chess. (Ditto for Master of Superiority.)

I chose the Queen’s surname because it is a form of the name Victoria—the name of a famous queen. And I chose her given name because it’s a diminutive of Jennifer, which is a cognate of the name of another famous queen—Guinevere.

I chose to make Jenn a speedster because, in chess, the queen piece has the option to move to more squares than any other piece—it can move about to the highest degree.

When selecting her other Powers, I wanted to give her something other than Speed that was still related to that central Power. I landed on Fire because I thought it was something that superspeed could logically create (well, logical for comics), and is in contrast to the fact that most of DC’s speedsters have Electricity instead. As for Invisibility, I got that from an old Jay Garrick comic in a Flash anthology I bought. I thought it was an interesting, alternate use of “vibrations” besides the more usual Intangibility—plus it fits the whole “crook” vibe nicely.

I intentionally left the source of the Queen’s powers ambiguous. In the Sentinel Comics Universe, she’s an Omega. If you’re not playing there, then her powers can come from whatever the most common source of superpowers in your campaign world is, be that a metagene, mutations, dark matter, space rocks, cosmic rays, or whatever. The point is that the source of her powers isn’t super important to her character, so it doesn’t matter much.

#19

I’d play them both as written, so “either” there. That makes them versatile, but they both have some catches. Absorb Energy has to reduce the damage to zero to get its Boost rider, and Malicious Deflection uses the Guerilla status die, which one of the easiest ones for heroes to manipulate - just let your best single PC tackle them while everyone else goes to do something else and they’re either stuck at d6 (with no targets to deflect to as well) or have to try to chase down more heroes and convince them to fight in a group.

Heroes have a few Red zone tricks that are similarly versatile, albeit a bit weaker like most hero abilities - Reactive Defense (Physical Q) and Heroic interruption (Mobility P) both let you defend yourself or allies at some risk to your own skin.

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#20

Heat/fire certainly works. Weather (in terms of wind control by fanning your arms or the ever-popular run in circles for a tornado vortex trick) is another common option. I’m a fan of Sonic Speedsters myself, as a side effect of moving fast enough to trigger sonic booms - even on tiny scales like snapping your fingers or clapping your hands.

Invisibility is often justified as moving so fast that you slip below the threshold of perception, although they rarely explain how folks don’t notice the noise and wind of you racing past at such speeds. Vibratory rate adjustment actually seems more plausible in this case, which is nice to see in a Golden Age book.

DC didn’t always associate speedsters with lightning, that’s pretty recent in the Flash’s overall history. I’m not even sure when that started or where it comes from. Probably the era when everything started being tied to the Speed Force, which is not a concept I’m overfond of.

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#21

Personally, I think that that would simply be an application of Speed, not Weather, but the delineation of Powers in the SCRPG is famously fuzzy. (Which is a good thing, in my humblest of opinions.) : D

Yeah, that’s probably the most plausible of the options discussed, as we definitely know that stuff moving very vast makes sonic booms.

Here’s a shot of the page I was referring to (from Flash Comics #89, 1947):

IMG_0905
IMG_09052913×2909 3.15 MB

So, apparently his movement doesn’t make enough noise to give his location away, but him being dumb enough to talk does. : )

But yeah, especially in the Silver Age with Barry Allen, “vibrations” was just the magic word that they used to handwave all kinds of wacky nonsense.

Agreed, on both points. I remember reading when it was established somewhere on TV Tropes, but none of the lightning-related tropes mentioned it. Then I turned to ChatGPT, which of course just hallucinated that it was The Flash #163 (June '66), which is definitely way too early, and plus when I asked it to describe the stories in that issue, it failed horribly at that, so I think we can rule out that possibility. (Although that issue does contain a pretty wacky Silver Age story; apparently the Flash can disappear if people stop believing in him? : P Check out the link.) If I had to hazard a guess, I’d wager the lightning thing showed up somewhere around the end of the Wally West era when Barry Allen returned.

However, a poster on Quora says says that it first happened during the Wally West era, although it just seems to be a side-effect of him running rather than a controllable Power. (Also apparently Quora has installed ChatGPT to answer every question posed on there, which of course gave a much too early issue again, this time a different one—Flash #123, '61.) Come to think of it, though, I don’t know if I’ve actually seen any Flash use lightning as a Power (compared to just a visual thing) in the comics; only in the CW show.

Eh, I’m largely ambivalent towards it myself. I am definitely of the mind that all the crazy science accidents of the Golden and Silver Ages do not need to be retconed away as mystical destiny, but I feel that I really haven’t read enough issues featuring the idea’s execution to judge it sufficiently.

#22

I can’t help but notice that his opponent there is using one of the countless functions of the other do-everything-the-writer-needs techniques of the olden days, notably spinning. Martian Manhunter was perhaps the foremost proponent of solving problems with creative applications of person rotation, but the occasional villain employed it as well.

J’onn was a versatile guy, he uses vibrations quite a bit too. Superior Martian sciences at work, no doubt.

I don’t hate the Speed Force, although it did inevitably lead to its own weird complications like the Slow Force, Savitar and his speed ninjas, etc. But as you said, it didn’t really need to exist, we’d already had a perfectly satisfactory time loop to explain Barry getting his powers by “accident” in place years beforehand. It’s like the “emotional spectrum” of the various Lanterns for me - something I could leave on the shelf without batting an eye.

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#23

And after a bit of a wait, here’s our third dastardly member of the Checkmate Gang.

The Bishop
“You live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity! Allow me to reveal to you the truth of the cosmos!”

Alias: Professor Jeremiah Crawford
Approach: Dampening
Archetype: Inhibitor

Health: 35 + (:h: × 5)

Powers
Intuition :d8:
Inventions :d8:
Radiant :d10:

Qualities
Otherworldly Mythos :d10:
Prophet of Madness :d8:
Science :d8:
Technology :d8:

Status: Heroes with Penalties
3+ Heroes with at least one penalty :d10:
1-2 Heroes with at least one penalty :d8:
0 Heroes with at least one penalty :d6:

Abilities

  • :hinder: :attack: Babbling from Beyond (A): Attack using Otherworldly Mythos and use your Max die. Hinder each opponent that can see or hear the target of your Attack using your Min die.
  • :attack: Maddening Clarity (A): Attack using Radiant. Reduce all the target’s quality dice by one size until your next turn.
  • :defend: Strained Mind (R): When Attacked by someone with a penalty you created, Defend by rolling your single status die, and the attacker also suffers that much damage.
  • :hinder: Tethered Radiance (A): Hinder using Radiant. That penalty is persistent and exclusive. As long as that penalty is in play, reduce damage dealt to you by 1 and whenever you are dealt damage, the target with this penalty takes 1 irreducible damage.
  • (U) Aura of the Unknowable (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ quality dice at :d8: or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ quality dice at :d10: or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ quality dice are treated as if they are :d4:. (When using this upgrade, the Bishop has 10 additional Health.)
    • Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a quality entirely until this ability is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, you may create a new minion using the hero’s highest power die to represent the maddened version of that hero.
  • :overcome: (M) Master of the Unfathomable (I): If you are in a situation involving eldritch and disturbing forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of a being beyond human concerns.

The Bishop
Alias: Professor Jeremiah Crawford
Gender: Male
Age: 50s
Height: 5’5”
Eyes: Glowing white
Hair: Light grey
Skin: Pale
Build: Gaunt
Costume/Equipment: A white lab coat over white pants and a black shirt with a white chess bishop symbol on it.
Approach: Dampening
Archetype: Inhibitor

Biography

Prof. Jeremiah Crawford was a distinguished academic employed by the venerable Miskatonic University of Arkham, Massachusetts. An expert physicist, Prof. Crawford had achieved innumerable awards. But as the years grew on, he felt a gnawing feeling of unaccomplishement; there was still so much unknown about the workings of reality. Nonetheless, the professor continued with his work. His latest experiments concerned various optical anomalies; his research seemed to point to the conclusion that there existed something out there, beyond the visible spectra of light, beyond our notions of space and time. Crawford’s investigations culminated in his construction of a machine that he hoped would reveal to him the hidden secrets that he desired to uncover. But when he switched on the device, it made visible to him previously unseen spectra of light, colours that he had never seen before and that he ws unable to describe. The device opened up such terrifying vistas of reality, that he went mad from the revelation. Jeremiah Crawford’s mortal mind could not contain the breadth of knowledge that had been unveiled for him. There was only one thing that Professor Crawford could think of that would ease the mental agony that he then experienced—he would have to spread his madness to others.

And so Professor Crawford began to spread his madness to the other inhabitants of the ancient town of Arkham. His misdeeds were eventually uncovered by a professional investigator, though, and he was apprehended during a police raid on his Miskatonic University laboratory. The professor was jailed in the town’s sanitarium, and remained so incarcerated for several years. Then, one day, a group of five costumed individuals calling themselves the Checkmate Gang broke into the Arkham sanitarium and freed Crawford, on one stipulation: that he would join their gang. The professor agreed, and became the Bishop.

Capabilities and Motivations

Besides his not-inconsiderable scientific prowess, the Bishop’s exposure to his own strange machine filled his mind with arcane knowledge, and bestowed upon him the capability to release gouts of a maddening light whose colour is utterly alien and indescribable. This light fills those exposed to it with excesses of incomprehensible knowledge, harming their minds and impairing their actions.

The Bishop’s interactions with the rest of the Checkmate Gang are limited, as they usually leave him to his eerie tinkering anytime they don’t need him for a job. And when he does go out into the field, it takes considerable directing from the King and the others to keep him focused on their objective, and not simply go off the rails by spreading his maddening brilliance wantonly—although his chaotic style has been utilised intentionally by the King to cause a diversion more than once.

Upgrades

The Bishop’s strange light is truly infectious, and when he is at his strongest, he is able to emanate its mind-warping radiance so thoroughly that anyone who opposes him has a very difficult time thinking straight.

Editor’s Notes

Yeah, I know that there’s already a Marvel Bishop, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Marvel’s not going to sue me for this. : )

So, when I was first brainstorming what to do with the Bishop, I considered doing someone who’s actually religion-themed, but then decided to instead go the weird route and have him be associated with an indescribable, bizarre extradimensional entity/phenomenon. Speaking of which, I drew inspiration for this character from the H.P. Lovecraft short story “From Beyond,” and a bit from “The Colour Out of Space,” in addition to lifting a couple of lines from the opening of Lovecraft’s other story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” to be used for part of the Bishop’s quote and part of his bio.

If you’re using Prof. Crawford in the Sentinel Comics Universe, the strange light from which he draws power can be the realm of Clarity, whilst the investigator who stopped his first outing can be Thomas or Joe Diamond.

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#24

Nice. Very nasty how it largely gets around Radiant damage resistance/inversion abilities.

I did a “From Beyond/Color Out of Space” themed baddie back in Champions one time with a nasty mind-affecting aura that anyone who could see him was subject to. Didn’t think about the fact that one of the PC heroes was an entirely blind Daredevil-but-a-sniper type, another was a martial artist with stupidly good blind-fighting skills, and the third was a primitive android who could only see in monochrome B&W. I suppose technically I could have affected the android, but it felt mean to declare “black & white” suddenly included the part of the color spectrum that lies between nvxnmellow and gqvd - especially for a fairly crude AI mind. That silly limitation had actually been mattering way more often than expected.

“Cut the red wire!”
“Does not compute.”

“Oh no, it’s the Spectrum Men again! Focus fire on the red one!”
“Undefined term detected.”

Not the most (ahem) shining moment in my GMing career. :slight_smile:

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