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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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.
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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. 
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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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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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 + (
× 5)
Powers
Fire 
Invisibility
Speed 
Qualities
Criminal Underworld Info 
Imposing 
Quick Queen
Status: Engaged Opponents
4+ Engaged opponents
2-3 Engaged opponents
0-1 Engaged opponents
Abilities
- Deft Manoeuvring (I): If you are outnumbered by nearby opponents, reduce all damage dealt to you by 2.
-
Destructive Dash (A): Attack multiple targets using Speed and use your Max die. Hinder each target using your Mid die. -
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.
-
(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.)
-
(M) Master of Superiority (I): As long as you are manifesting effects related to a power you have at , 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.
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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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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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):
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.
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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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 + ( × 5)
Powers
Intuition
Inventions
Radiant
Qualities
Otherworldly Mythos
Prophet of Madness
Science
Technology
Status: Heroes with Penalties
3+ Heroes with at least one penalty
1-2 Heroes with at least one penalty
0 Heroes with at least one penalty
Abilities
-
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.
-
Maddening Clarity (A): Attack using Radiant. Reduce all the target’s quality dice by one size until your next turn.
-
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. -
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 or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ quality dice at or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ quality dice are treated as if they are
. (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.
-
(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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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.
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And now, here’s the fourth Checkmate Gangster. (Hmm, I don’t know how I feel about that term.)
The Knight
“Your feeble power cannot withstand the might of the ancients!”
Alias: Doctor Joan K. Night
Approach: Prideful
Archetype: Bruiser
Health: 45 + ( × 5)
Powers
Leaping
The Mace of Wayland
Mechanical Steed
Power Suit
Qualities
Bounding Battler
Close Combat
Fitness
History
Magical Lore
Status: Health
Green zone
Yellow zone
Red zone
Calculate the Knight’s GYRO zones using the table on page 239 and her final health value, adjusted for .
Abilities
-
Airborne Swing (A): Attack using Leaping and use your Max die. Either Hinder that target with your Mid die or Attack another nearby target with your Mid die.
-
Glorious Strike (A): Attack one target using The Mace of Wayland and use your Max+Min dice. If that Attack causes the target to change zones, Boost using your Mid die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. - Knight’s Armour (I): Reduce damage taken by physical and energy sources by 1 while in the Green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, and 3 in the Red zone.
-
Mecha-Charge (A): Attack one target using Mechanical Steed. Use your Max+Min dice. Defend against all Attacks against you by all other targets until the start of your next turn with your Mid die.
- (U) Ancient Power (I): Increase all of the Knight’s power dice by one size. (When using this upgrade, the Knight has 20 additional Health.)
-
(M) Master of Mysticism (I): If you have access to proper materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation involving harnessing magical forces.
The Knight
Alias: Doctor Joan K. Night
Gender: Female
Age: 40s
Height: 5’6”
Eyes: Amber
Hair: Brown
Skin: Light
Build: Fit
Costume/Equipment: A suit of black and white techno-plate armour with a chess knight symbol on the breastplate.
Approach: Prideful
Archetype: Bruiser
Biography
Dr. Joan Night was an accomplished archaeologist. She had spent countless hours of work on her historical and anthropological studies, and was rewarded by numerous accolades. One day, while out at a dig site in Germany, Dr. Night uncovered a very peculiar artefact. It appeared to be the head of a mace, but it looked completely new, seemingly entirely unaffected by what must have been centuries buried in the earth! Mystified (and against her better judgement), the doctor grasped the mace head, and a voice as deep as the mountains and as ancient as the earth spoke to her mind. It said that this mace was crafted by the legendary smith Wayland, who had forged arms for the likes of Beowulf and Charlemagne. The mace told how it had lain dormant for centuries, and how it now demanded be wielded once more in battle!
The Mace of Wayland cause a handle for itself to materialise out of thin air, and Dr. Night took it up. It compelled her to go forth and find worthy opponents with which to do battle. So Joan went to the nearest town and cried out a challenge on the streets, daring anyone to confront her. Luckily, a heroic superhuman was nearby, who managed to defeat Joan and turn her into the authorities.
The Mace was separated from Joan, a fact that she was grateful for, as she despised being turned into an instrument for violence by it. However, even when separated, Joan could still hear its voice in her mind, coercing her to take it up again. A few months later, Dr. Night gave in again, and once again took up the Mace. Again she was defeated by heroes, and again she lived a time uninfluenced by the ancient weapon. Unfortunately for Joan Night, this cycle would continue for some time.
During one such outing, Dr. Night crossed paths with another super-criminal, an ambitious American speedster named Jenn Victors. Later, Jenn—now calling herself the Queen—would seek out a mace-influence Joan a second time with an offer to be the second member to join the Checkmate Gang, a criminal crew that she herself had recently joined. Joan, urged on by the Mace, gladly accepted the new opportunity to seek out and do battle with more foes. Thus she was dubbed the Knight. She also suggested another recruit for the gang: a fellow academic that she had worked with, who had also turned to villain after exposure to a strange phenomenon; a physicist named Prof. Jeremiah Crawford.
Capabilities and Motivations
The mystical Mace of Wayland conferred a number of extraordinary traits to Dr. Night. It granted her increased strength and toughness, the ability to leap great heights and distances, and knowledge of battle and of mystic matters.
After joining forces with the other members of the Checkmate Gang, the King constructed two pieces of technology for the Knight to augment her combat capabilities. The first was a suit of techno-plate armour, which could shield Joan from attacks and increase her strength. The second was a robotic horse, which served as the Knight’s mount during battle.
Upgrades
Normally, the Mace of Wayland only augments the Knight physically and mentally. However, in times of dire need, it can enhance her with a magical aspect, increasing her power and might tenfold.
Editor’s Notes
Yeah, I’m sure that there have been countless characters with the “K. Night” pun in their names, but, eh… Also, she’s called Joan after Joan of Arc, the first historical lady knight that I thought of.
Knight probably got the most reworked from her original design out of all the Checkmate Gang. I first had her as a Predator, not a Bruiser, on the basis that she did one-on-one duels with people, because that’s a knightly thing to do. But then, after writing the part about the mace compelling her to fight a bunch in her bio, I thought it odd that it would limit her to one foe at a time. So I changed it. (I also originally had her with the Power Dampening Field, not Power Upgrade.)
Hmm, there are a number of unintentional similarities betwixt the stories of the Knight and the Bishop. They’re both venerable academics who stumble upon some supernatural thingamajig, which then influences their behaviours in a way that causes them to start conflict. Again, none of this was intentional; it just kinda happened.
Relatedly, I’d view that both the Knight and the Bishop could fairly easily be redeemed—you just have to remove the supernatural influence from them. For the Bishop, it would be pretty tough to actually do that; meanwhile, for the Bishop, it’s easier to remove the mace from her (although I imagine that it would have to be kept separate for a little while for the influence to wear off), but the influence eventually calls back out to her, urging her to find and claim it again.
Also, I just noticed that half of these crooks have names that begin with the letter J: Jenn, Jeremiah, and Joan. Weird.
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The first female knight that comes to mind for me is Britomart from Spenser (and the old AvHill game Mystic Wood) but that’s not exactly a common modern name compared to Joan. Still, it might explain why someone would become a historical anthropologist, although you’d probably go by “Brit” as a nickname. Or not. Maybe you’d insist on the full name all the time. Either way “Britomart Knight” would be stunningly on the nose. I’d give her a brother named Lancelot or Percival or something.
But Britomart would break the J theme, which clearly needs to continue.
I had an old V&V baddie with a very similar origin, although he was a mild-mannered librarian who kept getting possessed by a generic sword & sorcery barbarian warrior after touching the wrong mysterious ancient battle-axe while dusting some display cases. Almost entirely the result of an old “Conan the Librarian” cartoon from…I think Bloom County? I liked the idea of a weedy little guy casually waving around a ludicrously huge fantasy great-axe. He was mostly a nuisance villain - really powerful but kind of dumb and lost all his powers the moment you got the axe away from him, so easy to beat when you knew what to do. Redid him later in Champions with everything tied to an OAF. In Sentinels…hmmm, maybe Bully/Formidable?
Speaking of Avalon Hill, Wayland the Smith is statted up in their old Lords of Creation RPG. IIRC he’s one of the most powerful NPCs in the game even among his fellow Lords of Creation (it’s a level title) and can casually defeat lesser entities like, say, Zeus or Tiamat if they get lippy with him. Pretty sure Britomart’s in the game too, albeit at a far less extreme power level. The game’s “Book of Foes” monster manual is a serious head trip in terms of genre mashups.
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Well, the Rook doesn’t really have a name, Vasiliy already broke it, and the Pawn won’t follow it, so…
Or Focused / Fragile, mayhaps. The paltry 10 + ( × 5) health could just represent getting the axe away from him, rather than beating him unconscious. (And, of course, the power would be his axe.)
The Rook
“I obey.”
Alias: None
Approach: Generalist
Archetype: Formidable
Health: 50 + ( × 5)
Powers
Stone
Strength
Transmutation
Vitality
Qualities
Alchemical Guardian
Alertness
Close Combat
Conviction
Status: Mental or Magical Penalties
Any penalties and no bonuses
Some penalties and some bonuses
No penalties
Abilities
-
Castling (A): Boost using Stone. Use your Max die. Defend with your Mid die.
- Dependable Servant (I): Whenever you roll a 1 on a die, reroll that die once.
- Indomitable Loyalty (R): Ignore all penalties on you for your action. Take irreducible damage equal to the total of those penalties.
- Skin of Stone (I): Reduce physical and energy damage dealt to you by 1 if the scene is in the Green zone, 2 in the Yellow zone, or 3 in the Red zone.
- Versatile Servitor (A): Take any basic action and use your Max die.
- (U) Enhanced Intellect (I): Increase all of the Rook’s quality dice by one size, except for Alchemical Guardian. (When using this upgrade, the Rook has 20 additional Health.)
-
(M) Master Minion (I): If you have been given an order to perform a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where the difference is accomplishing the task and failing to do so.
The Rook
Alias: None
Gender: None
Age: 124
Height: 9’0”
Eyes: Two glowing pinpricks of crimson light
Hair: None
Skin: Obsidian
Build: Massive
Costume/Equipment: The Rook wears nothing, save a white chess rook symbol that has been painted onto its chest.
Approach: Generalist
Archetype: Formidable
Biography
Over a century ago, a powerful alchemist crafted a servant for themself. The alchemist moulded clay, stone, and arcane reagents into the shape of a towering humanoid figure, before imbuing their creation with the breath of animation. This golem served the alchemist well, performing all tasks asked of it. Eventually, though, the alchemist’s time on Earth came to an end. But even after their passing, their creation remained animate. At first, the golem wandered the city where the alchemist had lived, but the folk there were fearful of it. Thus it eventually found its way into the catacombs beneath the city. There, in the catacombs, the golem remained, dormant, until the day in which it would be claimed by a new master.
In the present day, the nefarious Checkmate Gang had set up a temporary headquarters in those same catacombs while laying low and trying to avoid attention from the local police and superteam after a failed plot. While scouting around the area, the Queen stumbled upon the dormant golem. After she alerted her teammates, the Knight used the mystic powers of her mace to awaken the creature. Its eyes flared to life, but it remained perfectly still. Nothing the Checkmate Gang did could effect action in the stony being, until the King discovered an old inscription in Akkadian on a nearby stone. Quickly deciphering it, he spoke the words, and the golem moved for the first time in over a hundred years. In a deep, stony voice, the creature inquired what the King wished it to do. The King swiftly decided to make the golem the sixth member of his new criminal crew, dubbing it the Rook.
Capabilities and Motivations
Due to the Rook’s mineral composition, it possesses great strength and durability. In addition, it is able to call to the earth and stone around it, and reshape them to fit its needs. Further, remnants of the alchemical magicks that were used to create it still linger in its form, which it can harness to transmute substances.
The Rook is convicted to helping its master or masters, which it defines as anyone who has spoken its command phrase. However, the being’s rudimentary mind can be easily confused by magical, psychic, or particularly-compelling mundane mental attacks.
Upgrades
The King has ordered the Knight and the Bishop to use their mystic talents to work on improving the Rook’s capabilities. So far, they’ve managed to temporarily increase the cognitive and reasoning abilities of the golem, which in turn increase its skills and ability to perform tasks.
Editor’s Notes
The Rook is a golem made of stone because the rook in chess is represented by a stone tower. So there.
“Master Minion” is the first custom Mastery I’ve made. Master Mercenary was the base for it that I modified. I think it’s pretty okay; it may be a touch more flexible than Mercenary, or it may not.
The Rook’s bio doesn’t detail what happened to the original inscription that contained its activation phrase; presumably the King committed the string to memory before destroying the original, thus preventing anyone else from getting it. However, an interesting plot that could occur would be a psychic hero trying to wrest it from his mind.
Also, since the alchemist who created the Rook died, they obviously didn’t find / create the magnum opus / philosopher’s stone / elixir of life / panacea. (Alchemy sure did have lots of different names for alchemical immortality.)
It was either that or a robot, I suppose. Although a golem mode of ivory would be a pretty chess-like thing.
I think it’s fine. A Merc can and will be a lot more creative about getting their paycheck (which, amusingly, extends to collecting from a client at the end of the job), while the Minion can do practically anything but has to be ordered through it step by step rather than doing the problem solving themselves.
We can’t all be the Scholar. Or Guise, thank goodness.
That said, they might also have had the Stone and decided not to use it, either immediately or after living long enough to grow tired of life (if you can buy into that old chestnut…I’ll believe eternal life and good health become insufferable when it happens to me and not one moment beforehand). Whether they did or not, there might well be a copy or two of the command phrase in the alchemist’s effects or correspondence with his fellow scholars, which could have wound up in a museum, some private collector’s private archives, or perhaps confiscated by the Catholic church and tucked away with other forbidden texts on magic.
Or, since “over a century ago” is now as late as 1922, by Europe’s other noted pillagers of occult knowledge, the Nazis during WW2. King could be in for an unpleasant surprise if he runs into some villainous holdout from Hitler’s regime who recognizes Rook from something he read in the old days and casually takes control of the big lug.
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And now, here’s the final member of the Checkmate Gang.
The Pawn
“You’re outnumbered.”
Alias: Private Patricia Pond
Approach: Adaptive
Archetype: Overlord
Health: 30 + ( × 5)
Powers
Absorption
Duplication
Nuclear
Shapeshifting
Qualities
Army of One
Close Combat
Fitness
Self-Discipline
Status: Minions
9+ Minions
5-8 Minions
3-4 Minions
1-2 minions
0 Minions
Abilities
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Atomic Power (A): Boost using Nuclear and use your Max die. Attack with your Mid die. Defend with your Min die.
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Coordinated Charge (A): Roll all your minion dice and combine the result to Boost. Attack using Duplication and use that bonus.
- Defensive Formation (R): Reroll any number of minion saves against the same Attack.
- Instant Horde (A): Use Army of One to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die. The starting die size for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.
- Polymorphic Promotion (A): Use an action ability of one of your allies.
-
Sacrificial Gambit (A): Take irreducible damage. Increase all your powers by one die size each until the end of the scene.
-
(U) Hivemind Expertise (A): Choose one group of minions in the scene. Upgrade all their dice one size (maximum ). (When using this upgrade, the Pawn has 5 additional Health.)
-
(M) Master of Conquest (I): As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving seizing an area or capturing civilians.
The Pawn
Alias: Private Patricia Pond
Gender: Female
Age: 20s
Height: 5’4”
Eyes: Green
Hair: Blonde
Skin: Light
Build: Athletic
Costume/Equipment: A black and white costume resembling army fatigues with a chess pawn symbol on its chest.
Approach: Adaptive
Archetype: Overlord
Biography
Patricia Pond enrolled in the United States Army when she was in her early twenties. She served in [the most recent war] as a private. She had a difficult relationship with her commander, as Pvt. Pond often acted recklessly and contrary to her commander’s orders. On one mission, Patricia and her squad raided an enemy laboratory. After driving out the enemy scientist, the squad fanned out to ensure that they had all fled or been killed. Pvt. Pond came across a strange-looking machine powered by a glowing blue orb. The machine certainly looked dangerous, so Patricia decided that she ought not let it fall back into enemy hands. So she opened fire on the device, which—as she really should’ve suspected—caused it to erupt in a massive explosion of energy.
Pvt. Pond was recovered from the explosion by her squadmates and taken to an infirmary. After regaining consciousness, she was told that her reckless destruction of the machine—which turned out to be an atomic reactor—had also injured a number of her fellow soldiers. After recovering, she was subjected to a court martial and then dishonourably discharged for unnecessarily endangering the lives of ally soldiers.
Once off duty, Patricia became restless. She missed the action and the fighting. So she found work as a mercenary, fighting for whoever had the deepest pockets. On her first job, she got surrounded by a group of heroic supers. She thought that she was done for, until—somehow—she split into a group of six identical duplicates of herself. With this newfound power, she fought off the supers and completed the job.
After several more years of working as a superpowered mercenary, Pond was contacted by an associate she had worked on a job with before—Jenn Victors. Jenn told Pond that she was now part of a team—the Checkmate Gang—and that she wanted her to join up. Patricia accepted, and was dubbed the Pawn.
Capabilities and Motivations
In addition to her military combat training, the Pawn possesses a number of fantastic powers that the King’s and the Bishop’s studies of her revealed to come from her exposure to atomic energy from the strange machine she destroyed.
The Pawn’s most-used power is her ability to split herself into identical duplicates of herself. The duplicates all share her knowledge, experience, and powers, and can communicate betwixt themselves via a telepathic hivemind. There is also no one “main” duplicate; the Pawn’s consciousness is evenly split betwixt them all. In most circumstances, the Pawn can only create eight duplicates at once, but she has gone over that threshold on the rarest of occasions.
Besides her power of duplication, the atomic explosion she was subjected to granted the Pawn other abilities as well. She can reshape her form to mimic that of others, and she can absorb and then re-emit any type of energy. Together, these abilities allow the Pawn to effectively copy the powers or abilities of anyone, whether they’re physiological or energy-based.
Lastly, the Pawn is able to direct the atomic energy stored inside of her, which she can use both offensively and to bolster her own physicality.
Upgrades
Every duplicate of the Pawn has access to her combat experience and skills, which can make each and every one of them a challenging opponent.
Editor’s Notes
I chose the Pawn’s surname just 'cause it kinda sounds like “Pawn,” but with an extra D at the end. And her given name just comes from me wanting her to have Added Alliterative Appeal. (Which is also where her rank of Private comes from.)
In her bio, I said that the Pawn “served in [the most recent war]”—this is an instance of Floating timeline / Comic-Book Time / Sliding Timescale, just like with Bunker.
So, the order in which I posted the members of the gang isn’t actually the order in which they were recruited. This is confusing, I know, and I don’t really have any excuse besides “I wanted to post them based on where the pieces start on the chessboard.” So, here’s the actual chronology:
- The King is inspired to start the team.
- The King meets the Queen, and recruits her.
- The Queen contacts a fellow criminal, the Pawn, and recruits her.
- The Queen contacts another criminal, the Knight, and recruits her.
- The Knight contacts a former colleague, the Bishop, and recruits him.
- The team stumbles upon the Rook in the underground catacombs.
Well, there you have it. I’ve posted all six members of the Checkmate Gang here; I hope you’ve enjoyed this coterie of chess-themed crooks. Look forward to some more villains here sometime in the future!
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Unless the setting has a very different history than real life in regards to women serving in frontline combat positions, she’s much more restricted in what wars those could be than Bunker would be. She could have enlisted in the army as early as 1948, but it took until 2013 for the “no women in ground combat” rules to finally be officially removed, and 2016 until female combat troops were fully integrated into their new units. Her origin pretty much restricts her to combat duty no earlier than the last seven to ten years, and not even that if she’s still just in her twenties.
Of course, you could tweak your history to be much less restrictive about women serving in the military, perhaps aided by some early supers. What if the first super-soldier serums were incompatible with owning a Y chromosome, eh? I like that idea a whole lot. “Get to safety, Private Rogers. The Ladies of Liberty will handle these Ratzis.”
Jumping Christmas, that’s a lot of options when the whole crew is present. She probably can’t make sensible pools for every ability (even using the owner’s fixed P/Q die, which I assume come with the ability like similar PC imitation tricks) but there’s still some good options on everyone, and as long as she keeps her minion count up her status die should be good-to-great. Standouts look like:
- All of King’s action abilities, letting him do one of the ones Pawn didn’t and amping up the team support enormously
- Both of Queen’s options, depending on whether Pawn needs single or multi-target damage
- Bishop’s Clarity and Radiance are both solid, and Babbling is okay multitarget if Queen’s not around for that instead
- Knight’s Glorious is an easy way to hit hard and get a free P+E bonus when timed right, and Mecha-Charge is good offense and global defense - if Pawn can narratively explain how she’s imitating a move that calls for riding a robotic horse
- Rook’s her worst partner overall, but he still lets her take Max die basic actions at will, which is real helpful for Overcomes when she can’t apply a Mastery instead
That’s a spicy meatball of choices there. Good thing she needs to keep spawning replacement minions to support her status die or it could really get out of hand.
The timeline for recruitment makes me wonder if King was starting to get all OCD about finding a Rook for the team. Was there a point where he considered paying the Hippo to to work as a temp while wearing a stupid-looking castle parapet hat?
Fun team overall, the theme comes through strongly while having more variety in styles and motivation than (say) the Wrecking Crew or Royal Flush Gang.
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Hmm, yeah, I didn’t think of that. Stupid sexist army. I think I’ll just handwave it as Artistic License.
True, although I think that the whole crew being present wouldn’t really happen super often; there are six of them, and most hero teams don’t have six members, so the whole group would usually be at least a Hard scene, and that’s without any environments, challenges, or minions, which would be fairly dull. I think at least roughly half the time the gang would be faced in at least two waves of 2 and 4 or 3 and 3.
I assume the same. Although the Pawn’s Absorption and Shapeshifting powers (and to a lesser extent her Fitness and Self-Discipline qualities) are meant to be able to be used with her imitation ability, which should make it fairly flexible.
Hah, that’s fun. : ) Although I do wonder if the Hippo would be willing enough to forsake his own theming for that . . .
Thanks! Yeah, part of my goal was to make them each have a unique villainous identity independent of the team, instead of just being a bunch of unpowered faceless mooks in chess-themed costumes.
I imagine that the Checkmate Gang first appeared as fairly silly adversaries in the Silver Age, where they were much less fleshed out, before getting more serious stories later on that gave some details on their backstories and unique capabilities.
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