Friv Makes Eighteen Supervillains!

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
#1

Hello, everyone! I’m FrivYeti, and I’ve been trying to work my way through the mechanics of characters in the Sentinels Comics roleplaying game. I’ve built twenty heroes and formed them into five superhero teams. Now, I’m going to create eighteen villains to oppose them!

This construction process is going to be a lot different than how I put together the heroes, for a number of reasons. First, villains are more interlocking tactically, which means that I don’t want to build them in isolation and then figure out teams. Instead, I will be building a solo villain and a group of either two or three villains for each of my five teams.

Villains only have two stages of development – Approach and Archetype – which means substantially fewer random chances. There are 160,000 possible combinations of template for heroes (and that’s if you count Modular and Divided as one option each instead of making them each their own layer of combinations, which would boost the number to 576,000) whereas there are only 252 possible villain combinations. There are also more Approaches than there are Archetypes, which means a bit of doubling up will happen.

Finally, villains have much broader Quality and Power options; each one has a few suggestions, but there are no actual restrictions the way that there are for heroes. Taking only suggested Qualities and Powers will drastically restrict options, while not doing drastically opens options up.

So here is my newly-designed Villain Creation Guide:

Step 1: Decide on Approach and Archetype

Approaches and Archetypes will be rolled for each villain or team of villains in order, before deciding on specific qualities, powers, and Abilities.

For each villain, roll d12+d6 for Approach, counting alphabetically. Choose either of the two dice rolled, or the combination of them. If there is only one unchosen Approach left, choose between it and the one after the sum of the two dice. If none are left, count up and down from the sum of the two dice and choose between them. I can roll for all villains in a team and pick the Approaches that match up well.

Next, for each villain, roll d8+d6 for Archetype, also counting alphabetically. Choose either of the two dice rolled, or the combination of them. If there is only one unchosen Approach left, choose between it and the one after the sum of the two dice. If none are left, count up and down from the sum of the two dice and choose between them. Once all fourteen Archetypes have been chosen, reset the list. As before, I can roll for all villains in a team and pick a group of Archetypes that will mesh well. I do have to roll per villain; I can’t use the results from one villain for a different one.

Step 2: Decide on Qualities and Powers

For each villain, roll a random Quality category on a d6. On a 1, pick an Info Quality. On a 2, pick a Mental Quality. On a 3, pick a Physical Quality. On a 4, pick a Social Quality. On a 5, pick from whichever list has the most unclaimed Qualities, and on a 6 pick from the list of “Suggested Qualities.” If a Quality list is entirely taken, go to the next number down. If all Qualities are taken, reset the list.

The highest Quality die will be chosen from the randomized list. The second-highest die will be off the list of Suggested Qualities for that Approach, even if all of those have been taken.

For Powers, roll a d10. On a 1, take an Athletic Power. On a 2, take an Energy Power. On 3, take an Intellectual power. On 4, take a Material Power. On 5, take a Hallmark or Technological Power. On 6, take a Mobility Power. On 7, take a Psychic Power. On 8, take a Self-Control Power. On 9, take a power from whichever list has the most options. On 10, take a power from the Suggested list, even if they are all taken.

As with Qualities, the highest die will be from the above randomization, while the second-highest die will be from the Suggested list.

All dice after the highest two can be anything that I want. Taking them won’t cross them off the availability list.

Step 3: Abilities, Status Dice, and Health

Choose Abilities for each villain, referencing any other villains on the team for a stronger total group. Note down each Villain’s Health (based on the team that they are being constructed to oppose.)

Step 4: Upgrades and Masteries

For each villain, choose an Upgrade and a Mastery. Because there are fewer of these than there are options, I can take each one twice over the course of the run, and I must take each one at least once over the course of the run.

Step 5: Background

I will write up a quick background for this villain or team of villains, why they do what they do, and what their evil alias is. This is also where I’ll add the RP Quality for them. I’m going to have a much clearer idea about villain backgrounds earlier on, so in a lot of cases this is just me pulling back the curtain.

Step 6: Tactics

Here, I write how the villain fights, and what challenges might be good to pair them with.

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Friv Makes Fourteen Environments!
#2

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#3

Then wait no longer!

Step 1: Approach and Archetype

Our first villain is a solo villain, who will be opposing the Champions of Tomorrow. Rolling d12+d6 gives us 10, 4, and 14 gives us a Creator, a Mastermind, or a Relentless enemy. Let’s start off with the classic; a Mastermind.

For Archetype, we have a 7, a 3, and a 10, which means that our Mastermind could be an Inhibitor, Formidable, or a Loner. A Mastermind Inhibitor sounds interesting, so let’s go with that! Devin likes to be in control, and loves to make it impossible for others to handle him. What a tool.

Step 2: Qualities and Powers

Our cunning friend rolls a 4, which means one of their Qualities is Social. Let’s take Insight d10. Their second-highest die is drawn from their list, and we’re not looking too science-y, so I’m going to take Investigation d8.

The highest Quality die will be chosen from the randomized list. The second-highest die will be off the list of Suggested Qualities for that Approach, even if all of those have been taken.

For Powers, a roll of 8 gives us a Self-Control Power. Let’s hand off a d12 Intangible and then take d10 Deductions. This villain is literally untouchable, while figuring out the best place to apply leverage.

I have three d8 Qualities plus a roleplaying Quality, and a d8 Power. For Qualities, Devin is going to add Finesse, Technology, and Stealth; he knows how to use tech to his advantage and is extremely sneaky. For our final Power, I’m going to give him Cosmic power. He can throw energies around from his intangible state.

Step 3: Abilities, Status Dice, and Health

Devin has four Abilities, two from Mastermind and two from Inhibitor. From Mastermind, he’s going to take a nasty trick that uses his Insight to attack a vulnerable member and throw everyone else off-balance, Hindering the whole team and pushing his status die to d10. He can also use his Investigation to Boost himself at the start of each turn, giving him better power to throw his Hinders around.

Devin draws his intangibility from the people he passes through; his Tethered Life lets him Hinder someone long-term and protect himself as long as that link exists. Only by disentangling him can this be fixed. He can also draw all the penalties he’s created out of his foes, re-establishing himself and injuring every foe.

For Status Dice, Devin starts the scene at d6, and jumps to d8 if he can get a penalty onto one or two people, and d10 if he can get penalties onto three or more people.

Finally, Devin’s base health is (20 + 20 +10) 50.

Step 4: Upgrade and Mastery

When acting as a difficult threat, Devin has taken time to prepare the battlefield to keep the heroes off-balance and uncertain. This has the effect of a Calming Aura, locking them in the Green Zone until they can identify and disable the tricks that he’s placed around the environment through three successful Overcomes. If someone takes a minor twist, Devin can use his Reaction to give them a free Hinder.

None of the Masteries quite fit my vision of him, but I’m going to go with Total Chaos. For all that he likes to stack the deck, when everything is out of control he’s great at pulling a rabbit out of his hat.

Step 5: Background

Hmm… he can phase partially out of existence, he’s a cunning manipulator who loves to break people down, and he uses trickery to accomplish his goals…

Devin is a con artist and former stage magician who stole tricks from other magicians while sabotaging their acts. Ilamar the Inscrutable was just the next mark on the list, and Devin managed to get into his good graces and learn a lot about him, just in time to discover that magic is real and Ilamar’s team had recovered some dangerous relics of some kind. Devin wanted them. So he threw caution to the wind, organized a minor emergency to draw the Champions away, and grabbed the first thing he could – a tiny Oblivaeon shard that the team had yet to figure out how to get rid of.

Don’t take Oblivaeon shards, people.

The impact of the shard touching his flesh pushed Devin out of phase, and he almost died. When he recovered, he learned how to manipulate his phasing. Between his ability to understand the world, his ability to understand people, and his ability to flicker in and out of existence, he decided that his dreams were coming true. It was time to get really rich.

Under the namesake of Sleight, Devin has made some serious cash. He manipulates people to gain access to valuables, and then sells them to interested parties. He loves his wealth, and loves getting one over people – he doesn’t care about the thrill of the game, only the thrill of the win.

Devin’s background also determines his roleplaying quality: “Failed Magician”. It doesn’t come up that often, I guess, but it’s good to know.

Step 6: Tactics

In normal combat, Sleight’s goal is probably to get his target and get out, rather than sticking around to hurt people. He’ll start off by tagging someone vulnerable to tie their life to his, then use his understanding of the flaws in team tactics to separate people, Hinder them, and beat on whoever he can get alone, and once he has an opening he’ll make a break for it. If things get rough, he’ll play his Hail Mary and burn all the penalties he’s assembled to hurt his enemies and heal himself.

If he’s going all-out, Sleight’s mastery means that he wants to keep the heroes off-balance and the situation out of control until he can take them down. He’ll make use of minions that he’s tricked into thinking that he’s on their side, sacrificing them to slow the heroes down, and have a solid grasp of what’s up with the environment. If he gets dragged out into the open he’ll try to evade as long as he can, but if his opponents can pull his tricks apart he doesn’t have a lot left.

Villain: Sleight

Approach: Mastermind, Archetype: Inhibitor

Status Dice: No Penalized Heroes d6, 1-2 Penalized Heroes d8, 3+ Penalized Heroes d10.

Health: 50 (adjusted for 4-player team)

Qualities:

  • Insight d10
  • Investigation d8
  • Finesse d8
  • Stealth d8
  • Technology d8
  • Failed Magician d8

Powers:

  • Intangible d12
  • Deduction d10
  • Cosmic d8

Abilities:

  • The Sucker Effect (A): Attack one hero using your Insight. Hinder all heroes with your Max die.
  • Confederate (A): Hinder using Intangible. The penalty is persistent and exclusive. As long as that penalty is in play, reduce damage against you by 1 and whenever you take damage, the target with this penalty takes 1 irreducible damage.
  • The Reveal (A): Each hero loses Health equal to the number of penalties on them. Recover the same amount of Health. Remove those penalties.
  • Nothing Up My Sleeve (I): At the start of your turn, if you have no bonuses, create a bonus by rolling your single Investigation die.
  • (U) Rig The Field: The heroes act as being in the Green zone for status die, access to abilities, and for the purposes of all abilities. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, you may use a reaction to Hinder them by rolling your single Deductions die.
  • (M) Principle of Total Chaos: If you are in a situation where everything is spiraling out of control, automatically succeed in an Overcome to accomplish a task by throwing out the rules.

Aftermath:

Hah, I like this guy. He reminds me a bit of Glamour, but coming from the opposite direction; he just strolls through the chaos to get what he came for, and he’ll use any trick in the book to do what he wants. I wonder if there’s a whole organization of evil stage magicians in this version of the Sentinels universe?

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#4

This is going to be interesting once you start crossing most of the list off, since it’s been said villains really shouldn’t be made randomly. :slight_smile: I wanna know what corners you paint yourself into with this method and how you’ll get out of them.

#5

Hmm, since you’re rolling 2 dice to select your Approach and Archetype, there will be a bell curve making you select the alphabetically middle options most often, which was probably not intended by the designers. For example, ever notice how you seem to roll a 7 a lot when rolling 2d6?

#6

Yeah, that crossed my mind but I couldn’t think of a better way to do random generation for villains since, as noted, it’s not actually recommended. My general hope was that this would be mainly balanced out by getting every option anyway.

Unlike the hero generation, I’m fighting the system a bit to do this. Part of the reason I did it was to see how well it would work, since I do quite like getting prompts.

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#7

Well, it’s not like rolling physical dice, but you could always use a digital random number generator, like Google’s here.

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#8

Magicians’ Association for Nefarious Activities (M.A.N.A.)

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#9

Yeah, if I do this again, I’ll probably go with the random number generator, or design a much more complex villain generation matrix that is wildly overcomplicated for the goal that I want to achieve. Speaking of which…

Step 1: Decide on Approach and Archetype

For Approaches, our first villain could be Focused, a Bully, or a Ninja, and our second villain could be a Creator, Adaptive, or Dampening. Let’s go with a Bully and a Dampening villain; one person sets them up, and the other knocks them down.

Our Bully rolled double 3s and is choosing between Formidable or Indomitable, whereas our Dampener rolled 1 and 3 and gets to picked between Bruiser, Formidable, and Fragile. I can’t resist a villain pair of Formidable and Fragile, I think. So we’re going for a Formidable Bully and a Fragile Dampener.

This is a minor quibble, but I’m grumpy that some Approaches and Archetypes are adjectives, and others are nouns. I’d have loved the Approach set to all be adjectives and the Archetype set to all be nouns for descriptive purposes.

I need to give these two quick names or the next several steps will be confusing, so our bruiser is Delilah and our sneak is Jonas.

Step 2: Decide on Qualities and Powers

Okay, let’s get going! Delilah rolls 6 for Quality, and Jonas rolls 4. So Delilah’s top two dice are both from her Suggested Qualities, whereas Jonas gets something Social and something else. For Delilah, I’m going to pick Close Combat d8 and Imposing d8, which is also all of her Qualities. Jonas gets Medicine d10 and Leadership d8 – he uses medical science to mess with people, and is a skilled leader.

For Powers, Delilah and Jonas both got a 9. Right now, that means two types of energy powers. Delilah will take Electricity d10 and Vitality d8, while Jonas gets Nuclear d10 and Transmutation d8.

Delilah doesn’t have any other Qualities, but does have Power Suit d8; her charged suit lets her go toe-to-toe with super-powered people. Jonas has an extra d8 Quality in Ranged Combat and an extra d8 Power for Presence; he’s innately powered, having upgraded himself to be a nuclear-powered being able to reshape matter, and a natural leader.

Step 3: Abilities, Status Dice, and Health

Delilah is pretty straightforward. She can hit multiple people hard, but let them defend against her. She can use her power suit to give herself a powerful charge and also attack. She can soak damage, and she can use a boost to burn off her penalties and get back to full power.

Jonas can attack with Nuclear, bombarding his enemies and weakening their stats, or Hinder someone with his Transmutation to mess with their internal powers long-term. He can also fire off attacks that strip enemies of their bonuses with Ranged Combat, and use his status die to try to evade attacks and get to safety.

Choose Abilities for each villain, referencing any other villains on the team for a stronger total group. Note down each Villain’s Health (based on the team that they are being constructed to oppose.)

Step 4: Upgrades and Masteries

When the team is upgraded, Delilah gets better at directing squads of troops, calling in reserves from all sides with the Mook Squad upgrade. She also becomes a Master of Conquest, using these troops to take control of the area.

Jonas uses his Power Dampening Field to weaken everyone’s powers, worse and worse as time goes on. A Master of Mad Science, he can use materials to build medical and scientific devices to solve problems on the fly.

Step 5: Background

Okay, so we have a pair of people whose actual gimmick is that they go out and weaken superhumans in order to take them out. They’re enemies of the Champions of Tomorrow. So:

Meet the Leveller and Vaccine. They are the most powerful agents of a small but growing organization, CRUCIBLE. Formed of FILTER remnants, Rook City survivors, and ex-military operatives, CRUCIBLE (which doesn’t actually stand for anything) is an organization of human supremacists who believe that all of the problems that have befallen Earth are the result of action by aliens and extradimensional beings. They’re looking to find ways to give humans the power to control their destiny, while removing any ‘dangerous’ forces from the Earth, including alien refugees, magical beings, and the humans who work for them.

CRUCIBLE doesn’t oppose superhumans, as long as their powers are tech-based or innate. Humans using magic or alien technology, or humans from other universes, might be safe, but need to be heavily supervised. Actual aliens, humans whose magic depends on spiritual entities, or those whose powers aren’t fully under their own control? These are a fifth column that needs to be wiped out, and Leveller and Vaccine are the agents to do it.

As a rule, CRUCIBLE dislikes both heroes and villains who don’t meet their supremacist ideals. With their own power still restricted, they tend to leave villains to other heroes to deal with, or try to manipulate heroes that need to be taken out into fighting villains who need to be taken out before sweeping in to attack the winners. In the long run, they’re looking for new tech to give every human safe, controllable powers, but in the short term they want to destroy everyone who doesn’t meet their view of a pure world.

It goes without saying that the Champions of Tomorrow represent everything that CRUCIBLE hates – an alien, a cultist, and two people channeling extradimensional forces that are directing them towards an unknown purpose. Destroying the Champions is gradually becoming an increasing priority for the organization…

Step 6: Tactics

Vaccine and the Leveller have a fairly simple tactical setup. Vaccine targets the most dangerous enemy, giving them a wasting disease that weakens their powers and then goes after their Qualities, while working to avoid direct conflict. If the heroes build up too many bonuses, Vaccine uses ranged attacks to strip them.

The Leveller wades in with any CRUCIBLE soldiers they’ve brought along, developing a strong boost by charging her suit and then attacking whoever Vaccine has weakened. When she starts to get bogged down too far, she retreats and shakes off her penalties, before charging back into the fray.

The duo’s primary weakness is that the Leveller targets weak enemies, and doesn’t have any real way to cover for Vaccine. Canny heroes can evade her long enough to take him down, at which point she’s a brick that can be pulled to pieces.

Villain: The Leveller [Delilah]

Approach: Bully, Archetype: Formidable

Status Dice: No penalties d12, penalties and bonuses d8, penalties and no bonuses d4

Health: 70 (adjusted for four heroes)

Qualities:

  • Close Combat d8
  • Imposing d8

Powers:

  • Electricity d10
  • Vitality d8
  • Power Suit d8

Abilities:

  • Shocking Blast (A): Attack two nearby targets with Electricity, using your Max die against one and your Mid + Min dice against the other. If either target Defends against an attack, apply it to both attacks.
  • Power Up (A): Boost using Power Suit, using your Max die. This bonus is persistent and exclusive. Attack with your Mid die.
  • Shake It Off (A): Boost using Vitality and use your Max + Mid dice. Remove all penalties from yourself.
  • Hardened Armour (I): Reduce damage against you by 2.

Upgrade:

  • (U) Mook Squad: Take an action to replenish the number of CRUCIBLE agents present up to the number of heroes in the scene.
  • (M) Master of Control: While commanding CRUCIBLE soldiers, automatically succeed at overcomes to take control of an area or capture civilians.

Villain: Vaccine (Jonas)

Approach: Dampener, Archetype: Fragile

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6

Health: 40 [adjusted for 4 Heroes] [Green 40-30, Yellow 29-15, Red 14-1]

Qualities:

  • Medicine d10
  • Leadership d8
  • Ranged Combat d8

Powers:

  • Nuclear d10
  • Transmutation d8
  • Presence d8

Abilities:

  • Radiation Burns (A): Attack using Nuclear. Reduce all the target’s Quality dice by one size until the start of your next turn.
  • Internal Scrambling (A): Hinder a target with Transmutation. Use your Max die; the penalty is persistent and exclusive. As long as that penalty is on a target, reduce their highest power die of your choice by one size. Attack using your Mid die.
  • Dismantling Toxins (A): Attack a target with Ranged Combat. Then remove all bonuses from the target.
  • Duck and Roll ®: When attacked, defend yourself with your Status Die. If this reduces the damage you would take to 0, you may move to anywhere in the scene.

Upgrades:

  • (U) Viral Dampeners (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ power dice at d8 or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ power dice at d10 or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ dice are treated as d4s. Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a power entirely until this ability is removed. [When using this Upgrade, Vaccine has +10 Health]
  • (M) Master of Mad Science (I): When you have access to medical supplies and materials, you can automatically succeed when Overcoming a situation with inventions and medical principles.

Aftermath:

There is definitely a trend in the villains I’m making for the Champions, and that trend is “hit you with penalties to make you less effective.” Not entirely my fault; I think that Dampener and Inhibitor are the two heaviest hitters for that particular trick, and I got them really early. Maybe I should have started with a Bully and an Adaptive.

Oh, well, they work well together. And boy, Formidable Bullies have a heck of a lot of health. Part of the reason I went with a minion upgrade even though these two aren’t heavily into minion-boosting was just to avoid giving Leveller even more Health and making her more of a pain to fight.

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#10

Alright, it is time to move on to the enemies of Best Practices. We begin with our solo villain…

Step 1: Approach and Archetype

Our opening rolls of 10 and 2 give us Approaches of Ancient, Mastermind or Overpowered, while our Archetype results of 3 and 5 unlock Formidable, Guerrilla, and Inventor. Gee, our fourth villain and already two lock-outs. Well, I’ve been building hinder-heavy villains, so let’s see what an unstoppable devastator will do with an Overpowered Guerrilla!

Step 2: Qualities and Powers

Our buddy gets a 6 for Qualities and a 7 for Powers. It looks like both their Quality dice will be suggested, while they’re adding a Psychic power to their suggested list.

For Qualities, Conviction d8 and Self-Discipline d6 gives us someone intensely focused on their goals. Ludicrously powerful Telekinesis d12 and intense personal Presence (d10) hones the idea of someone who has really overclocked their brain, and Overpowered gives him an extra d10 Power that I’m going to use for Precognition for defense and general frustrating ability to avoid trouble.

Step 3: Abilities, Status Dice, and Health

This villain has one goal: get stuck in. He loves a good fight, which he mostly wins by flinging tables at people’s faces. He’s got a Reaction to defend himself against attacks with Precognition and deal that damage to someone else, and a straightforward Attack that hits a bunch of people with Telekinesis and Hinders them. The more people that attack him, the harder his own attacks land, and if things get messy he can grab a person and use them as a shield against everyone else.

This smasher has 75 Health. Wow. When fighting one enemy, his status die is a d6, going up to a d8 against 2-3 people and a d10 against four or more.

Step 4: Upgrades and Masteries

Group Fighter is the obvious upgrade for someone who fights groups. He also seems to be a Master of Annihilation, doing whatever damage needs to be done to accomplish his goals.

Step 5: Background

So… what are his goals? He’s got a lot of Conviction, so this is about a cause, and he’s intensely destructive and very psychic. We’re dealing with Best Practices, so this is probably someone who’s either a scientist or a science experiment, or both…

Okay! Let’s meet Aaron Mauser, aka The Ultramind. Aaron was the result of an experimental process that was meant to unlock phenomenal mental energies, turning ordinary people into superhuman processors with the ability to predict the future and understand the world. Aaron took part because he wanted to be powerful, to matter. He wanted to be able to do anything, and he got it.

The process had mixed results. It supercharged Aaron’s mind, but it supercharged all of it; his anxieties blossomed into paranoia, his pride mutated into vicious hubris, his uncertainties became dangerous phobias, and he became convinced that the only way for him to be safe was to assert his dominance over the world. He broke free from the experiment, may or may not have killed everyone involved, and has set about turning himself into the perfect weapon. Sometimes he works for others, and sometimes he sets up his own gangs, but ultimately, he abandons them out of fear.

This gives the Ultramind the roleplaying quality “On the Run” d8; he knows places to lay low and how to hide, especially when he’s uncertain.

Step 6: Tactics

Fighting the Ultramind directly can be done, but it is not a good plan. In combat, he generally just goes all-out, charging into the middle of his enemies and unleashing powerful telekinetic attacks while evading most of what comes back his way. Attacking him just makes him mad, and he can predict most tactical plans that heroes might put in place. If he does get cornered he tends to grab innocents to use as human shields, making his escape.

On the other hand, Aaron is really dependent on his own certainty. Anything that attacks that leaves him without any useful Quality dice, he doesn’t have a good way to evade Hinders, and if you can target his phobias you can drive him off.

Villain: The Ultramind

Approach: Overpowered, Archetype: Guerrilla

Status Dice: 0-1 Engaged Enemies d6, 2-3 Engaged Enemies d8, 4+ Engaged Enemies d10.

Health: 75 (adjusted for 4-player team)

Qualities:

  • Conviction d8
  • On the Run d8
  • Self-Discipline d6

Powers:

  • Telekinesis [Psychic] d12
  • Presence [Intellectual] d10
  • Precognition [Psychic] d10

Abilities:

  • Take This! (A): Attack multiple targets using Telekinesis and use your Max die. Hinder each target using your Mid die.
  • Human Shield (A): Attack a target using Telekinesis. Use your Max + Min die. Defend against all Attacks made by targets other than that target using your Mid die until the start of your next turn. All damage Defended against is dealt to that target.
  • Saw That Coming ®: Defend against an attack with your Precognition die. Deal that much damage to a different nearby target.
  • Even Odds (I): At the start of your turn, gain a bonus equal to the number of targets who Attacked you since your last turn.

Upgrade:

  • Group Fighter (I): When you use an Ability that lets you make one or more Attacks, make an extra Attack with your Mid die. When using this Upgrade, you have +20 Health.
  • Master of Annihilation (I): If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in which a show of overwhelming force could solve the problem.

Aftermath:

Well, this bruiser can pop up a lot of places, probably in the middle of making a situation worse for uncertain reasons. I have mixed feelings about villains whose motivations are “powers made them unstable”, to be honest; it’s easy to slip off that ledge into “this is a mental illness metaphor”, which is a real problem in comics history a lot of the time. Hopefully the Ultramind comes across as more of the superheroic exaggeration of that mediocre guy you know who is desperate to feel important instead.

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#11

you wrote Formidable instead of Guerilla

Very cool. I like the exaggerated mental flaws making him bounce between boss and for hire

#12

Something doesn’t add up . . .

Great job on the Villains so far, though!

#13

Well, that is a larger number of editing errors than usual! I did change from Awareness to Precognition as I worked on the character, so I’ve fixed that, and the Archetype has been fixed as well. More villains coming up!

#14

Our second team of villains is a group of three, which is going to test my capabilities to mix and match effectively I bet! Let’s see how we do…

Step 1: Approach and Archetype

For Approach, our villains have rolled 8 and 3, 6 and 4, and 3 and 3 respectively. After crossing off the various Bullies, this leaves us with choices of Generalist or Ninja, Creator or Disruptive, and Disruptive or Focused. My three villains are going to be a Ninja, a Creator, and a Focused villain.

Our ninja rolls 4 and 4, our creator rolls 2 and 2, and our Focused rolls 6 and 6. Huh. That is… that is a weird coincidence. Formidable and Inhibitor are taken, so our Ninja can be an Inventor or an Indomitable. Fragile is gone, so the Creator can be Domain or Indomitable, and finally our Focused can be Indomitable or a Predator. I feel like someone wants me to be Indomitable.

Okay! Let’s settle for an Indomitable Ninja, a Domain Creator, and a Focused Predator. This team’s primary goal is to use their army of minions to distract the heroes while the two champions pull the team apart to force them to fight individually.

Step 2: Qualities and Powers

Our Quality rolls are 6, 2, and 1, so our Ninja has two Suggested Qualities, our Creator has a Mental Quality, and our Focused has an Information Quality. That’ll be Stealth d10 and Alertness d10 for our Ninja, Creativity d10 and Magical Lore d8 for our Creator, and our Focused will have Otherworldly Mythos d10 and Ranged Combat d8. We’re a magical team!

For powers, the Ninja got a 2, Creator got a 7, and Focused got another 2. So for our stealthy ninja, we’ll take Infernal d10 and Agility d10, our Creator can take Illusions d10 and Robotics d8, and our Focused will grab Weather d12 and Plants d8.

Ninja also has two d8s for Qualities, and two d8s and a d6 for Powers. Let’s give them Imposing d8 and Close Combat d8, and then Teleportation d8, Awareness d8, and Vitality d6. The Creator has two d8s for Qualities, and a d8 and a d6 for Powers, which I’m going to translate into Leadership d8 and Science d8, and then Metal d8 and Presence d6. The Focused has no extra Qualities or Powers.

Step 3: Abilities, Status Dice, and Health

So, I have a tactical and thematic image in my head. I think I know what I want to do here.

Our Ninja is a duelist. They can use their Alertness to make precise attacks and defend until the next turn, or fight several people with their and Stealth and get away from being piled on. They can lash an enemy with infernal power and either Hinder them or drag them off for a duel, and they can defend against attacks and grow stronger if they can fully defend themselves.

Our Creator overwhelms the heroes with dangers. They can use their Creativity to construct either illusions that can attack people’s minds or robotic minions who are built from the ground up, and then use it to swarm the heroes so that they can’t ignore them. Or they can activate the environment’s twists and redirect attacks against them to environment minions. As long as there are distractions in plan, they’re a pain to fight.

Finally, our Predator can use the weather to launch a massive attack against one enemy that splashes around, while being able to heal and recover from weather-based attacks. They can also call upon the stone to pull someone down and hold them, hindering and hurting them. Once they have someone down they can attack them all-out with ranged attacks or use their otherworldly knowledge to set themselves up for battle.

Step 4: Upgrades and Masteries

Our Ninja gets a Power Upgrade, improving all of their power dice and adding +20 Health, and becomes a Master of Superiority when using them, automatically succeeding at Overcomes for Infernal and Agility-based actions.

Our Creator gets a Defense Shield, to protect them while they rally the universe against the heroes. As a Master of Mysticism, they become much better at harnessing and controlling magical forces.

Finally, our Predator uses their otherworldly winds to mess with our heroes’ minds, gaining a Brainwashing Field to weaken them that can be overcome by banishing its extradimensional power. They also become a Master of Behind The Curtain, keeping their power as long as they’re moving the winds from a distance.

Step 5: Background

So, who the heck are these people? Three powerful folk, magical and/or Infernal in nature, with access to cool technology. And we know they’re common enemies for Best Practices, which means we are dealing with villainous technology-stealing fae.

So, I’m going to grab a great word that has been used in another RPG once, and introduce you to the Court of Vicissitude. This was once a court of fae from Eastern Europe, who weakened and dwindled as time went on. They came to be fascinated by human innovation and technology, and their leader decided to harness it for magical ends. Now, they move quietly, stealing the newest devices and integrating them with magic to create a Realm of machines that feed on breath and souls, giving the Court luxuries at the cost of human lives. But then, are humans not a renewable resource?

The Court has three leaders, who are usually the ones who take the field. Above all is their Heart, a spirit of the earth named Země. She works metal and bone, shaping skeletons and animating them with whispered illusions, and speaks to the spirits of the world. At her right hand stands Nemoc, a deadly creature who moves unseen and inflicts terrible curses and plagues on his enemies with magic and , and on her left stands Bouře, who turns the sky into a weapon and roots in the stone. The three of them are powerful, and terrible. They seek luxury and power, rather than having any particularly grand designs, but they burn through their energy quickly and are always in search of more…

Země picks up the roleplaying quality “Bones of Metal”, which gives her impressive strength and durability. Nemoc adds “Master of Plague”, with a knowledge of how to use one particular aspect of medicine terribly well. And Bouře gets “Human Trivia Expert”; they track targets and love the human world.

Step 6: Tactics

This team’s tactics are mean.

At the start of the fight, Země triggers the environment to produce distracting minions, then begins crafting her own minions to deploy. Once she has minions swarming around, she uses them to cloak her own attacks, occasionally pausing to make new minions or trigger the environment as needed to keep things active and chaotic. (If Země is active in a fight, there should always be an environment as well.)

Nemoc’s job is to take advantage of the confusion to pull away someone who might be able to stop Země and deal with them. He opens fights by grabbing the most dangerous target and pulling them to another location for Bouře to go after, then smoke bombs back into the fray.

Meanwhile, Bouře starts off by lurking in the background and bringing fae energies into the wind, charging the battlefield itself. If Nemoc can pick someone off, or anyone is a bit afield, Bouře will try to swallow a vulnerable enemy in stone before unleashing their full weather-might against their hapless target. If people start to close in, the strongest one gets blasted, and the after-effects hit other heroes and heal Bouře up.

Dealing with these three as a Difficult challenge is even nastier; Země is protected, giving yet another distraction for the heroes, Nemoc is more powerful and better able to break stuff, and Bouře weakens the heroes and makes it easier for them to be picked off.

Villain Team: The Court of Vicissitude

Villain: Země

Approach: Creator, Archetype: Domain

Status Dice: Based on environment minions, lieutenants, and challenges. None: d6, 1-2: d8, 3 or more: d10

Health: 65 (adjusted for 4-player team)

Qualities:

  • Creativity d10
  • Magical Lore d8
  • Leadership d8
  • Science d8
  • Bones of Metal d8

Powers:

  • Illusion d10
  • Robotics d8
  • Metal d8
  • Presence d6

Abilities:

  • The World Wakes (A): Activate one of the environment’s twists in its current zone or one zone closer to red.
  • Cloaked In The Land (A): Roll any number of environment minions and Recover that much Health. Remove those minions.
  • Raise the Horde (A): Use Creativity to create a number of minions equal to your Max die value. The starting die size for these minions is equal to the size of your Min die.
  • Swarm Attack (A): Attack using Illusion and use your Max die, with a bonus equal to the number of minions in play.
  • Hide In Plain Sight ®: When Attacked, redirect the attack to an environment minion.

Upgrade:

  • Defense Shield (I): Cannot be harmed by heroes as long as her magical shield is in place. The shield has 40 Health, or can be broken by three Overcomes. If a hero takes a Minor twist overcoming the Shield, she can Attack as a reaction by rolling Metal.
  • Restablish Shield (I): Overcome using Illusions. Use your Max die. Either remove one success from the deactivating challenge, or Recover the Shield with your Max die. This cannot be used if the shield is gone.
  • Master of Mysticism (I): If you have materials, automatically succeed on Overcomes to harness magical energies.

Villain: Nemoc

Approach: Ninja, Archetype: Indomitable

Status Dice: Always d8

Health: 60 (adjusted for 4-player team)

Qualities:

  • Stealth d10
  • Alertness d10
  • Imposing d8
  • Close Combat d8
  • Master of Plague d8

Powers:

  • Infernal d10
  • Agility d10
  • Teleportation d8
  • Awareness d8
  • Vitality d6

Abilities:

  • Smoke Bomb (A): Attack multiple nearby targets using Stealth. Then, end up wherever you want in the scene.
  • Soul Vision (A): Attack using Alertness and use your Max die. Defend against all Attacks against you with your Mid die until the start of your turn.
  • Drag You To Hell (A): Attack using Infernal. Either Hinder that target with your Max die, or Defend yourself using your Min die and you and that target end up elsewhere in the scene.
  • Duelist ®: Defend by rolling your single status die. If that defense reduces the damage to 0, Boost using the amount of damage prevented.

Upgrade:

  • Power Upgrade (I): Increase the size of all of your Power dice by one step. Using this upgrade grants Nemoc +20 Health.
  • Master of Superiority (I): When you manifest effects related to your Infernal or Agility powers, automatically succeed at any related Overcomes.

Villain: Bouře

Approach: Focused, Archetype: Predator

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

Health: 50 (adjusted for 4-player team)

Qualities:

  • Otherworldly Mythos d10
  • Ranged Combat d8
  • Human Trivia Master d8

Powers:

  • Weather d12
  • Stone d8

Abilities:

  • The Wind Rises (A): Boost yourself using Otherworldly Mythos. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Defend against all Attacks using your Mid die until the start of your turn.
  • Unleash The Storm (A): Attack an enemy with Weather. Use your Max die, and that target cannot Defend or use Reactions against this attack. Attack multiple nearby targets with your Min die.
  • Ride The Cyclone ®: When you would take damage from a Weather attack, Recover that much instead. When Hindered with Weather, Boost instead.
  • Draw Down (A): Hinder an enemy with Stone. Use your Max die. Attack that target with your Mid die.
  • The Tornado’s Bite (A): Attack an enemy with Ranged Combat. Use your Max die. If the target has a penalty you created or is in the Red Zone, use your Max + Mid dice instead.

Upgrade:

  • The Living Storm (I): The air drains the capabilities of your foes. While in the Green Zone, all heroes’ Quality Dice rated at d8 above are reduced by one step. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ Quality Dice rated at d10 or above are reduce by two steps. In the Red Zone, all heroes’ quality dice are d4s. Heroes can destroy this effect with three Overcome actions to break the mystical storm and winds. If one takes a minor twist, they lose access to one Quality until this effect is removed. When using this Upgrade, Bouře has +10 Health.
  • Master of 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 the situation.

Aftermath:

Techno-fae!

I was pretty sure I wanted techno-fae from the moment that I knew I had Deep Freeze on a team, and I really like how this crew turned out. They are an absolute nightmare of a crew, who could pop up individually or arrive as a team to ruin everything for everyone.

There are also a lot of plots they could be involved in – stealing people’s life force, grabbing experimental tech, trying to take a part of the world and add it to their Court. Probably getting in trouble with other fae who are much more isolationist, and possibly joining forces with whomever modified Deep Freeze to gain extra powers and advantages.

I will make one mechanical note – it is weird as heck to me that the Predator is better at things the fewer opponents they fight, but none of their Abilities make it easier for them to disengage or isolate opponents. The closest they get is the ability to double bonuses and penalties if they’re unnoticed or their enemies are distracted.

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#15

Holy hand grenade of Antioch, that is a scary team! If I was your players, I would be sure you were trying to cancel our series via TPK.

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#16

Yeah, if I were going to deploy them, I would want to make sure that the players had a chance to run into one or more of the Court individually, to get an idea of how to handle them, and then have to deal with them as a set. Just throwing everyone at them face-first is a great way to have things go bad in a hurry.

The best case scenario for a hero team wanting to take these three out, as opposed to accomplishing a secondary task, would be to deploy a strong area-attack friend to hold off Země by whittling down minions, and for someone with good mobility to keep Nemoc off-balance and in retreat, while a couple of people whale on Bouře and keep them from being able to pick people off solo.

For the crew the Court was built to oppose, that probably means Regulator fighting Země, Atomizer tanking Nemoc, and Deep Freeze and Determinator ganging up on Bouře. Best Practices is particularly able to survive this kind of nonsense, since most of the team is mobile enough to recover from Nemoc’s nonsense, and they have enough area effects to really whittle Země down. A team that wasn’t built for mobility and environment control would be in real trouble.

#17

Okay, that’s way awesome. :smiley: And I get the feeling these villains wouldn’t have been nearly as cool if you’d been plugging away at them one by one instead of as teams.

I mean, maybe they’d still be cool, you’re doing well at this. :B

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#18

I definitely advise building villain teams as a group, as much as it is a bit of a mechanical nightmare to sort out. Seeing how their abilities interact gives you a good idea of whether you have a great set, a terrible set, or someone overwhelming in the right field but vulnerable to your players’ cool tricks (my preference!)

And now, it’s time for Rapid Force Alpha’s solo villain.

Step 1: Approach and Archetype

Our Approach gets us 3 and 5, which means I could create a Generalist or a Leech. What the heck, let’s build a Leech and steal power.

Results of 7 and 5 for Approach leave me able to build an Overlord or a Squad villain. Squad definitely needs to be on a team, so we’ve got a Leech Overlord!

Step 2: Qualities and Powers

We end up with a 2 for Qualities. This would be a Mental, but we’re out, so we slide down to Physical plus suggested. For Powers, a roll of 5 means Hallmark or Technological Power plus suggested.

For our Qualities, I’m going to go with the classic Finesse d8 and Close Combat d8. For Powers, Inventions d10 and Toxic d8 give us an interesting spread. (It’s not Professor Pollution, don’t worry.)

We have an extra d8 Quality and d6 Power; Leeches aren’t that versatile. I’m going to go for Science d8 and Transmutation d6.

Step 3: Abilities, Status Dice, and Health

Our Leech likes to drain things from people. They can attack with Toxic, Hinder their target, and Recover at the same time, and when people try to use bonuses against them they can pull those bonuses apart to heal. From the Overlord side, they can use Inventions to create new villains, and then boost all of them with Toxic.

As an Overlord, their status die is based on how many minions are around; they’ll usually enter the scene with a few already active, and then dial the number up.

Given the size of Rapid Force Alpha, this friend has 55 Health.

Step 4: Upgrades and Masteries

Hardier Minions is right there; instead of adding more minions to the scene, our upgraded villain can just make them nastier and offset damage they’ve taken. They’re also a Master of Profitability; they use the resources they claim to accomplish any task they want.

Step 5: Background

So, who is our Leech? Well, we’re dealing with a team that responds to natural disasters, so here is someone who creates them.

The Terra Firma Institute was designing pollution-cleaning robots to help deal with oil spills, plastic floats, and similar ecological disasters. Mindful of the Omnitron incident, they decided to have these robots be mentally controlled by a human target.

Doctor Lana Wentworth had a very different idea. The robots could be sent to consume derelict ships, recovering sunken treasures and depositing them somewhere recoverable. Dr. Wentworth attempted to use the robots subtly, activating them around their assigned tasks, but in the process she overclocked the systems and something went wrong. She suffered a stroke, and the robots responded by attempting to recover her. They saved her life, but now she is permanently bonded to the swarm. She does not mind this; it gives her more ability to use it to her advantage.

The Recycler now has a fairly standard modus operandi. She triggers ecological disasters in order to sweep in and take things, wrecking ships to get at their cargos, breaking oil rigs to steal the oil inside, or attacking factories to gather toxic waste to use to construct new robots. She uses the resources she gathers to construct new devices or to sell on the black market for the luxuries that fund her extravagant lifestyle. And if anyone gets in her way – well, more grist for the mill…

Based on this backstory, I’m giving the Recycler the RP quality “Black Market Operator”; she has a natural eye for spotting wealth and valuable things, and for knowing how to sell them.

Step 6: Tactics

Generally, the Recycler will open up by sending out the minions that she arrives with to fight the heroes, while she constructs more; the more minions she has, the more materials can be brought to her to build new minions. Once she has a number of minions that she’s comfortable with (usually two groups) she starts hanging back and boosting them (either as a one-turn effect or permanently with her Upgrade), letting them be her front line and fight for her. When a hero gets close, she eats their bonuses and then starts to chew them up.

The Recycler will also usually work to create more environmental problems that the heroes have to deal with, sending minions out to cause trouble and distractions to let her claim her prizes and escape. Actually killing the heroes is unlikely to be her goal, unless someone pays her a lot to take that kind of risk; she’s in it for the rewards. She doesn’t deliberately kill or endanger bystanders either, but she also doesn’t care about collateral damage so there’s a good chance that without heroes around there will be a body count.

Villain: The Recycler

Status Dice: Based on the number of minions and lieutenants active. None: d4, 1-2: d6, 3-4: d8, 5-8: d10, 9+: d12

Health: 55 (adjusted for 5-player team)

Qualities:

  • Finesse d8
  • Close Combat d8
  • Science d8
  • Black Market Operator d8

Powers:

  • Inventions d10
  • Toxic d8
  • Transmutation d6

Abilities:

  • Rapid Construction (A): Use Science to create a number of minions equal to your Max die. Their die size is the size of your Min die.
  • Coordinate Swarm (A): Boost using Close Combat for all of your minions until the start of your next turn.
  • Grey Goo (A): Attack using Toxic. Use your Max die. Hinder that target with your Mid die. Recover with your Min die.
  • Reactive Restructuring ®: When a bonus is used against you in an Attack or Hinder, you may first destroy that Bonus. If you do, roll your single Inventions die and Recover equal to the result plus the bonus.

Upgrade:

  • Hardier Minions (A): Use your action to upgrade a group of minions by one die size, to a maximum of d12. While using this Upgrade you get +5 Health.
  • Master of Profitability (I): If you have great wealth and resources, automatically succeed at an Overcome to use those resources to become even richer, no matter who pays the price.

Aftermath:

I made a Captain Planet villain.

It’s a pretty different Captain Planet villain than Professor Pollution, which was my concern when I was a bit of the way into this, and I like how she turned out. Swarms of harvesting robots, creating disasters for profit and stealing resources, seems like an appropriately deadly challenge for Rapid Force Alpha.

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#19

The Recycler is such an ironic name for an environmental villain. XD I love this.

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#20

Plugging along, it’s time for our team of three Rapid Force Alpha villains! Let’s move ahead and see what we get.

Step 1: Approach and Archetype

Our villains get 12 and 1, 5 and 1, and 10 and 5 for their numbers, which after modifiers means that I can choose Adaptive or Prideful, Adaptive or Disruptive, and Skilled or Specialized. I’m going to go with Adaptive, Disruptive, and Specialized.

Our Adaptive villain gets 4 and 2, our Disruptive has 1 and 4, and our Specialized has 7 and 4. This means Adaptive can be an Inventor or a Legion, Disruptive can be a Bruiser or an Inventor, and Specialized can be a Squad or a Titan.

Okay, we’re going with a Titan and his buddies. Let’s take an Adaptive Legion, a Disruptive Inventor, and a Specialized Titan. This is going to be a mess and a half, and I cannot wait.

Step 2: Qualities and Powers

For Qualities, Legion rolls a 3, Inventor rolls a 5, and Titan rolls a 5. So that’s one Physical and two from the Most Left, which is Info right now. So our Legion gets Acrobatics d10 and Science d8, our Inventor takes Deep Space d10 and Persuasion d8, and our Titan has Technology d12 and Fitness d8.

For Powers, Legion rolls a 9, Inventor rolls a 4, and Titan rolls a 2. So Legion picks from the most self (Self-Control, appropriately), Inventor gets a Material (also appropriate), and Titan gets an Energy (very appropriate.)

For our Adaptive, that means Part Detachment d10 and Shapeshifting d8; they break off pieces of themselves which then turn into whatever they want. Our only Material left is Metal so our Inventor gets that, and I’ll add Sonic energy to their list, both at d10. Finally, our big old Titan gets Cosmic d10 and Inventions d8.

Our Legion still has a d8 Quality, and a d8 and d6 Powers, our Inventor has a d8 Quality and two d8 Powers, and our Titan has nothing else. Very specialized. But I’ll give our Legion Close Combat d8, Agility d8, and Size-Changing d6, and our Inventor should really have Science d8, Flight d8, and Lightning Calculator d8.

Step 3: Abilities, Status Dice, and Health

Our Legion is a shifting mass of mimicry. They can take one of their allies’ actions, they can shift their power dice around and take basic actions, and they just… keep… splitting. Physical damage causes them to spawn minions, and their minions getting hurt causes them to spawn minions.

Our Inventor can Hinder groups of enemies while protecting allies, or attack groups of enemies and Hinder them, possibly causing self-destructive damage. They can also create useful Boosts and use those Boosts to defend themselves.

Finally, our Titan steps on people. It can attack groups of people, or make individual, overwhelming attacks, and when it fights someone it has already hit it gets a bonus. As a Titan, it can unleash environmental disasters, and react to twists by re-arranging its defenses.

Step 4: Upgrades and Masteries

Our Legion’s Upgrade is minion-based, giving them a way to keep things rolling with Hardier Minions, and makes them a Master of Conquest, adept at using their self-made horde to take things over.

Our Inventor has a very cool one-person spaceship, which acts as a starting invention and has its own abilities to be generally reliable, resistant to damage, and to get away as needed. As a Master Mercenary, they’re in this for the money.

Finally, our Titan is another Group Fighter, being even better at punching groups of people than before, and is a Master of Enforced Order, with total control of their interior surroundings.

Step 5: Background

So who are these people?

Aliens!

Specifically, let’s meet Doctor Tarralok, a mercenary alien and creator of many deadly devices and terrible threats. Doctor Tarralok loves building terrible weapons of war, and has been run out of a lot of sectors of space. However, the people of Rellicos 9, which was devastated by a scion of Oblivaeon, have promised just a very large amount of space-dollars if Tarralok can go and terraform them a home on this insignificant mudball. He has no idea why they’re fixated on Earth, and he really does not care. He wants to see how his Mark III Cosmo-Converter does on a water planet!

Tarralok is accompanied by his faithful aide and army, Blib. Blib is a genetically-engineered monstrosity with a piece of Tarralok’s mind grown inside them, giving them insight into their master’s designs. Their unstable genetics allow them to imitate other technology, and they can divide and grow into a legion of purplish goo beings.

Tarralok is also accompanied by the mobile terraforming engine around the Mark III, which is simply known as The Factory. The Factory is sentient. It is powerful. It really likes turning planets into other kinds of planets, and now that its programming has selected Earth it’s questionable whether Tarralok could turn it off even if he wanted to.

Step 6: Tactics

If these three are on a terraforming kick, they have a pretty solid system. Blib will run into the middle of a group of enemies, borrowing Tarralock’s sonic and metal-shaping abilities to Hinder everyone and slow them down. The Factory will then follow up by smashing everyone who’s been snared, and also hit Blib in the process to start them dividing. Tarralock will hang back and create some nice Boosts for the Factory, and then start Hindering his foes.

Once things get going, Blib will just keep dividing and dividing, making more and more enemies doing more and more things to more and more people. If targeted by energy attacks, they’ll pull on some defenses to hide and let the Factory smash them for more people. The Factory will shift between attacking groups and triggering the environment as it gets more dangerous.

Villain Team: Doctor Tarralok’s Terraforming Terrors

Villain: Blib

Approach: Adaptive, Archetype: Legion

Status Dice: Based on number of your minions. None: d12, 1-2: d10, 3-4: d8. 5-8: d6. 9+: d4

Health: 35 (adjusted for 5-player team)

Qualities:

  • Acrobatics d10
  • Science d8
  • Close Combat d8

Powers:

  • Part Detachment d10
  • Shapeshifting d8
  • Agility d8
  • Size-Changing d6

Abilities:

  • Power Mimic (A): Use an action Ability of one of your allies.
  • Change of Plans (A): Lower two of your powers by one die size. Raise another Power to d12. Take a basic action.
  • Breakdown ®: When you would take physical damage, prevent that damage and create a minion with a die size equal to your new status die. You may use this Reaction more than once per round, but each time after the first you take 1 irreducible damage.
  • Full Of Tinier Men (I): Whenever a Legion minion larger than d4 saves, it splits into two minions one die size smaller. If it fails its save, it only loses a die size instead of being destroyed.
  • Uncoordinated (I): Whenever multiple Legion minions use the same action against the same target, roll for all of them at once and use the smallest result.

Upgrade:

  • Revitalize (A): Choose a group of minions in the scene. Upgrade them all by one die type, to a maximum of d12. While using this Upgrade, Blib has +5 Health.
  • 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.

Villain: Doctor Tarralok

Approach: Disruptive, Archetype: Inventor

Status Dice: Based on Science/Invention bonuses and penalties in play. None: d6, 1: d8, 2-3: d10, 4+: d12

Health: 55 (adjusted for X-player team)

Qualities:

  • Deep Space Lore d10
  • Persuasion d8
  • Science d8

Powers:

  • Metal d10
  • Sonic d10
  • Flight d8
  • Lightning Calculator d8

Abilities:

  • Cover Fire (A): Hinder multiple targets using Technology. You and any nearby allies Defend with your Max die.
  • Ensnaring Cannons (A): Attack multiple targets using Technology. Use your Min die. Hinder each target with your Max die. If one of those targets rolls doubles on their next action, they take damage equal to the penalty.
  • Reshape Metal (A): Boost using Metal, use your Max die, and also make a Boost with your Mid Die. Either make one of those Boosts persistent and exclusive, or Attack with your Min die.
  • Defensive Tech ®: Discard one of your bonuses to Defend against all attacks against you until the start of your next turn, using the value of the bonus as your Defend.

Upgrade:

  • The Overseer (I): This d10 Lieutenant spaceship has three special abilities. While flying the Overseer, Tarralok has +15 Health.
    • To attack The Overseer, heroes must succeed at an Overcome to reach it.
    • When The Overseer uses a basic action on its turn, roll twice and take the better result.
    • Fly Away ®: When Doctor Tarralok is attacked, roll The Overseer’s status die. If the roll is higher than Tarralok’s Health, both Tarralok and The Overseer escape this scene.
  • Master Mercenary (I): If you have been given a contract to perform a specific task, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where the difference is getting paid and not getting paid.

Villain: The Factory

Approach: Specialized, Archetype: Titan

Status Dice: No Overcomes d12, Two Overcomes d10, Three Overcomes d8

Titan’s Overcome: Find technological vulnerabilities or weak spots.

Health: 75 (adjusted for 5-player team)

Qualities:

  • Technology d12
  • Fitness d8

Powers:

  • Cosmic d10
  • Inventions d8

Abilities:

  • Unleash Drones (A): Attack using Technology, using your Max die against one target, your Mid die against a second target, and your Min die against a third target.
  • Cosmic Burst (A): Attack one target using Technology and use your Max + Min dice. The target cannot Defend or use reactions against this attack.
  • Terraforming (A): Activate one of the Environment’s twists in its current zone.
  • Reconfigure Structure ®: When Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one success from the Titan’s Overcome.
  • Targeting Data (I): When you Attack a target you have already damaged this scene, gain a +1 persistent and exclusive bonus for this scene.
  • Massive Structure (I): Reduce damage by 6 when status is d12, by 4 when status is d10, or by 2 when status is d8.

Upgrade:

  • Group Fighter (I): When you Attack one or more targets, you may Attack an additional target with your Mid die. When using this Upgrade, The Factory has +20 Health.
  • Master of Enforced Order (I): If you have complete control over your immediate surroundings,
  • automatically succeed in an Overcome to organize drones to accomplish a task.

Aftermath:

Well, this is an interesting bunch.

Doctor Tarralok probably has one really big first appearance, after which he may appear as a mercenary for other forces while rebuilding the Factory. It’s even possible that he could ultimately be paid off to not terraform the Earth, and there is a dangling question of why he’s being paid to do this in the first place. Blib and the Factory are pretty much just adjuncts to the Doctor, but either one could become an interesting solo villain eventually.

Blib is a nasty little puzzle villain, too – the ability of the Factory to slice them up to make more minions helps offset what happens when the players stop trying to punch them.

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