Not only did Paradox reactivate Flatfoot, she prevented Ferris from taking over the world and turning it into a cyperpunk nightmare, so yeah, almost anyone is a potential target.
Out of the Cracks is fixed.
You’re right that Covering fire isn’t round-long; because it said “and”, I added that in my brain. But I think it gives one Defend per character based on the wording, rather than one Defend against one character in that set, so it’s still a good trick for minion protection.
Ah, I hadn’t realized that Ferris’s cyberpunk dystopia had been quite that extensive - for some reason I thought that it was mostly confined to Ferristown. That would make just about everyone’s lives significantly different than in Stillmaker’s vision.
That is a creepy concept, very “cosmic horror” in tone. Getting on the bad side of spacetime isn’t good for one’s health.
Taking Stillmaker out would still qualify as a scene win though even if the challenge is incomplete, right? I suspect some groups will decide they can’t accomplish a major challenge without defeating it first thanks to the synergies of Winding Down, it’s own penalty output and potential huge minion Hinders as well. Of course that assumes they can get at it at all, which is not a given thanks to it’s extremely high mobility and whatever the environment twists are doing to the heroes.
The sheer strength of all three of its action abilities increases the effectiveness of any penalties applied to Stillmaker as well, making it a prime target for Hinders. About the least any penalty will do is reduce the number of d10/d12 minions being summoned, and with the others you get to nerf multiple Hinders or Defends all at once.
That’s my take on it. The usual counterplay I’ve seen is for someone to throw a weak multitarget Attack to scrub it off as many targets as possible, followed by the other heroes using better Attacks to do actual damage/force saves. Also susceptible to abilities that ignore Defends, of course - which also tend to deny reactions, making them extremely dangerous to Stillmaker itself, who relies heavily on Steal Time and reactive redirection to stay in the fight.
Yeah, in an action scene, I would assume that if players take out Stillmaker, it’s been beaten back and can’t re-appear this issue. Players would probably still need to wipe out its remaining minions before the scene ends and the minions eat their target, but that shouldn’t be a problem if you have the muscle to beat the big bad down.
Randomizers:
Approach: 3, 3, 1 [Options: Relentless, Prideful, Underpowered, Disruptive, Creator]
Archetype: 4, 4, 4 [Options: Guerilla, Inhibitor, Titan]
Upgrade: 5, 3, 11 [Options: Group Fighter, Power Upgrade I, Power Dampening Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 12, 8, 11 [Options: Profitability, Unfathomable, Malice]
Doctor Freak
Real Name: Joseph Ford, First Appearance: (post-timeskip) Champions of Truth #609, March 2019
Approach: Relentless, Archetype: Inhibitor
Upgrade: Power Upgrade I, Mastery: Profitability
Status Dice: 3+ heroes with at least one penalty: d10. 1-2 heroes with at least one penalty: d8. No heroes with at least one penalty: d6. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Science d10, Close Combat d8, Alertness d6, Library of Powers d8
Powers: Toxic d10, Shapeshifting d8, Deduction d6
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
Champions of Truth was one of two comics that didn’t reset its numbering after the Venture timeskip, as well as one of two comics to focus exclusively on classic Venture heroes. Of its nine members, two were immortal, and six had extended lifespans because of their powers, leaving them only a few years physically older than they had been before the timeskip. The Champions only had two changes. First, the former Kid Liberty, while aging slowly, was still much too old to be a ‘kid’ now, and was renamed Liberator. And Fly Boy, the only member of the team to lack an extended lifespan, was now in his late 50s and acting more as the team’s engineer and man in the chair, only suiting up for the biggest emergencies, something which became a part of his personal story as he continued to work alongside heroes who he was slowly aging away from.
To celebrate the post-timeskip, therefore, the writing team brought back one of the Champions’ oldest and most recurring foes, someone else whose powers allowed him to operate for decades without aging - Doctor Freak.
In his latest incarnation, Doctor Freak had advanced, but he hadn’t changed. After decades of study, his ability to reproduce super-powers was now something dangerous; he had the power to reliably give basic powers to his clients, creating new super-powered enemies for the Champions to face. Instead of looking for lots of powers, he was now on the prowl for the most interesting, picking single opponents to hunt down, and in his first appearance he targeted his personal holy grail - Wonderer. With a small legion of enhanced henchmen, he infiltrated the Champions’ base, turned its defenses against them, and sent his people to keep them occupied while he hunted Wonderer down.
It was Fly Boy who saved the day that time - with no powers for Freak to steal or suppress, he was able to evade the traps in play, restore the building’s security, and arrange for the Champions to gather once again. Freak was captured, but as he was carted off to jail it was revealed that the Doctor Freak they had found was just another henchman, using a shapeshifting power granted to him to impersonate the doctor. Freak was in the wind, and he was more dangerous than ever.
Behind the Scenes
One ultimate nemesis for one classic team. This one may be slightly drawn from My Hero Academia, since I’ve just started in on Season Six, but it’s also drawn from comics history - I’ve had Doctor Freak building a library of super-powers from both monsters and superhumans for nearly the entire run of Venture Comics, it only seems fair that he’s refined the process enough to become a truly nightmarish foe. It’s not initially clear how easy it is for him to create powered individuals, but the answer is at least “a lot easier than it’s been for anyone since the Peacekeeper invasion”, and dealing with him is going to be a major part of the Champions’ stories in the early years of the post-reboot.
Mechanically, he’s not super-exciting, but he’s good for making someone mad. He can really wail on an enemy, he can use the penalties he creates to defend himself in a big way, double-dipping his defenses, and he’s got all the lieutenants and minions he needs to slow heroes down while he picks off his target and leaves. If he gets surrounded, he’s got one good area Hinder in him to slow people down.
Can’t say I’ve been more excited to see a character return! 
I love Dr. Freak!
Looking a bit less freakish than before, but I’m glad to see he kept the mustache from - cripes, about 560 posts ago? Been a while. 
Yeah, it has been ages!
I figured that while I could just have comics stasis keep him identical, that wouldn’t justify a reboot. At which point there were two directions that Doctor Freak could go - either his quest for powers got out of control and he was an abomination now, or it got under control and he was a source for supervillain mooks now. Under control seemed like a much more interesting story; as a result, each iteration of the bad doctor is a little bit more collected and a little bit fancier.
Randomizers:
Approach: 9, 1, 4 [Options: Relentless, Underpowered, Bully, Specialized, Overpowered, Creator]
Archetype: 3, 3, 2 [Options: Inventor, Bruiser, Indomitable, Overlord, Fragile]
Upgrade: 5, 6, 11 [Options: Power Upgrade I, Power Upgrade II, Power Dampening Field Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 11, 3, 2 [Options: Behind the Curtain, Conquest, Unfathomable]
Hearsay
Real Name: Lyla, First Appearance: Venture into the Unknown #2, April 2019
Approach: Specialized, Archetype: Fragile
Upgrade: Brainwashing Zone, Mastery: Unfathomable
Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6. Health: 15+5H (Upgraded 25+5H)
Qualities: Persuasion d12, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Background Character d8
Powers: Suggestion d10, Teleportation d8
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
In his travels, Venturer almost invariably arrived in worlds in chaos, but this wasn’t a coincidence. His powers were mirroring some other force, pulling him along in its wake, and it wasn’t long until he met one of that power’s primary minions - Hearsay.
Hearsay first appeared in the second issue of the Vanguard Knights arc, a teen girl that the artists deliberately put in background shots for most of the issue, and who Ken eventually noticed was always around when the Knights were planning their battles. Ken accidentally mirrored her abilities, giving himself the power to persuade the Knights to adopt a different, successful strategy, and Hearsay fled before he could corner her and find out what her deal was. He assumed she was a Jotari agent of some sort, until he ran into her in the Cyberblock, a thousand-story skyscraper with no world beyond it, in Issue #5. There, she was up to the same tricks, turning the Cyberblock’s gangs against each other to spur chaos and distrust. This time, Ken discovered Hearsay’s name and powers, but she literally vanished as her plot was undone.
It soon became obvious that someone was trying to destabilize and unmake the pocket realms that Ken was travelling through, and that when that someone sent an agent into a new realm, Ken was pulled in their wake. Hearsay was one of the enemy’s primary agents, a subtle whisperer who hid in the background of major events, using her abilities to be overlooked and unbothered, while she slid dangerous thoughts into people’s heads and pushed them to self-destruction. Hearsay didn’t seem particularly eager to do this, or very excited by success; when she and Ken actually had a conversation for the first time in Venture into the Unknown #11, while they were trapped together on an ice flow in a frozen world after Ken stopped Hearsay from destroying the last bastion of humanity, she admitted that her ‘patron’ was simply her only hope at salvation.
What that meant, Ken wasn’t sure, but he hoped that he might be able to persuade his rival and fellow traveller to tell him more one day, and perhaps realize that she was on the wrong side…
Behind the Scenes
Specialized and Fragile is a neat combination - you end up with a character who’s a real glass cannon, able to dish out some serious damage but not take too much. Hearsay adapts to that with a pretty good defense, plus two bug-outs per action scene, which means that she’s kind of the opposite of someone like Stillmaker; the goal of the heroes in a lot of her scenes is to track her down and stop her from making everything worse. Her Attacks are all social mind control that let her ultimately take over her targets, and she absolutely hides in the background to strike when no one’s looking. This is one mind controller that never takes centre stage.
Seeds of Doubt is a customized Fragile ability that plays on the desire Fragile characters have to hit hard early and then have something in place for when the situation gets worse. As a reaction, it can’t combine with area attacks to become an overwhelming minion-maker, and villains don’t attack minions that often, so I think it’s pretty balanced.
As for who she’s working for… I don’t know! Haven’t decided. Her modus operandi fits with either Balor or the Empress of Ash, and fans probably suspect she’s a vassal of one of those two dread powers, but maybe there’s a new cosmic threat on the horizon. It doesn’t get revealed in the first twelve issues of Venture into the Unknown, so I may never have to make that call. Maybe I’ll revisit the setting in five years and lay out the next phase of Venture, and I’ll have to decide.
Interesting approach to the “hidden agitator” villain concept. I used a Domain approach with my one stab at the idea, but this seems solid as well. She ought to be able to Overcome her way out of any initial suspicions pretty easily with her dice pools, and what hero just randomly assaults a teenage girl who says she didn’t do anything?
Well, someone who’s just accidentally copied her powers and knows what she’s doing, right Ken?
Love the sneaky synergy between Help Me! and In Your Head there. Nice way to earn free bonuses, even if they’re tiny and while they won’t technically stack effects on the same target having backup P+E mods never hurts.
Actually seems too weak to me, especially given her other abilities. The opportunity costs are too high. Spending a whole villain turn producing a single minion would be pretty terrible to start with, and then:
A) she isn’t guaranteed to succeed (Exploit is real good, but flukes happen)
B) she has to burn her reaction to do it, so no Help Me! until the start of her next turn
C) there has to be a minion out there to use it on, which probably means an environment minion - and they’re rarely hostile to villains to start with, so she may not even be removing a threat.
As written this will be incredibly frustrating for minion maker heroes and will occasionally annoy heroes with the Natural power source, but it’s otherwise really dependent on the environment’s minions. And every time she does use it, some hero didn’t get smacked in the face with a Max+Min defense and reaction bypassing Attack that starts with d12+d10 in the pool before status. Betting most heroes would rather her get even a big minion than take that hit.
Not quite sure what I’d do for a similar effect, but I’m positive it could be stronger without breaking anything. Maybe even something as extreme as this could work?
So basically a villain ability that can automatically steal a minion every round, or take a chance on a roll-off to steal a lieutenant instead, neither of which costs you your action. Compared to the other three minion-generating villain abilities and the sole lieutenant creating one I think that’s still tame enough to be reasonable while still being worth eating up a villain ability slot.
Hmm… I see your argument, and I think I agree, but I’m not sure I like the power level of that, either. It’s too automatic.
Ooh, wait. What about this:
Seeds of Doubt (I) Whenever a hero takes a minor twist or you succeed at an Overcome using Suggestion, you may also select one minion present. You control that minion until the end of the scene. If a hero takes a major twist, you may take control of a d6 or d8 Lieutenant instead of a minion.
That ties her takeovers to both her attempts to advance the scene tracker through Overcomes and heroes’ attempts to stop what she’s up to, without making her use up actions or reactions to hit the minions.
Yeah, I think that’d work. Forgot she’s likely to be pushing the tracker with the tracker, so that ties her together nicely. Might be okay to let her take any lieutenant instead of just d6/d8 ones. Heroic major twists are rare unless they’re facing a ton of Hinders or lack bonus generation tricks, and lieutenants that small are kind of rare unless they’re in a low-difficulty scene.
I was trying for a sort of villainous version of Dire Control off the Red Psychic chart, but that’s already pretty strong.
Well, her main heroic nemesis is likely to be accompanied by one or more d10 Heroic Lieutenants (the Projection Assistant lieutenant from his post), so a) lieutenants that aren’t affiliated with Hearsay are quite likely to appear in scenes with her in them and b) the “d8 or smaller” limit prevents a full-strength one from immediately switching sides, while still applying to any Projections that have been damaged at all. Though admittedly, major twists are important enough that maybe converting a full-strength one should be a possibility.
I was indeed thinking of the projections, but on reflection a story in which Hearsay succeeds in manipulating a projection assistant at a distance and they start trying to work against Venturer “for his own good” is pretty cool.
After some consideration, you’ve persuaded me to allow taking control of any level of lieutenant. In an action scene, I might allow for heroes to take Overcomes to bring their allied lieutenants back to their senses, but that’d be case by case.
Agreed. That sort of thing is pretty much exactly what Overcomes are for. Anything a player can come up with that the GM thinks could work but has an element of uncertainty is an Overcome by default.
While the book doesn’t come out an say it, if it’s something the GM finds particularly unlikely but not impossible they can always adjust the de facto difficulty by applying a situational penalty to the attempt, although I wouldn’t go overboard - something that’s so implausible it merits a -3 or -4 might be something you should just say “no” to instead unless the player can find a way to make it more likely.
By the same token you could give a situational bonus if it makes sense, but that A) reduces the number of twists, which isn’t terribly interesting and B) if something really seems that likely to succeed, maybe you shouldn’t make them roll for it in the first place.
Randomizers:
Approach: 3, 5, 2 [Options: Skilled, Prideful, Bully, Focused, Mastermind]
Archetype: 6, 3, 1 [Options: Predator, Bruiser, Guerilla, Overlord, Formidable, Loner]
Upgrade: 8, 10, 3 [Options: Group Fighter, Quality Upgrade, Calming Aura]
Mastery: 1, 8, 12 [Options: Annihiliation, Profitability, Malice]
Robin Redcap
Real Name: Robin Redcap, First Appearance: World of Wonders (Vol. 2) #2, April 2019
Approach: Prideful, Archetype: Guerilla
Upgrade: Group Fighter, Mastery: Malice
Status Dice: 4+ Engaged Opponents d10, 2-3 Engaged Opponents d8, 0-1 Engaged Opponents d6. Health: 45+5H (Upgraded 65+5H)
Qualities: Alertness d10, Acrobatics d10, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Imposing d8, Fae Knight d8
Powers: Illusions d10, Teleportation d10, Vitality d10, Awareness d8
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
While the post-timeskip reboot involved a number of new characters, Venture Comics had a deep stable of moderately popular characters at its disposal. Many of them weren’t big enough to support their own monthly titles, but the Venture team agreed it would be a shame to leave them on the shelf. The solution was the creation of the second volume of World of Wonders, taking up the mantle previously filled by Greenheart in Cryptic Trails. Each storyline in World of Wonders would last anywhere from one to four issues, and feature whichever minor or recurring heroes a Venture writer wanted to focus on, with no particular characters acting as a through-line.
The first issue of World of Wonders was an introduction to the timeskip as a whole, with the Drifter visiting Wyldstyle at their newest art exhibition and discussing the events of the past fifteen years. It included small excerpts of the other nine comics, along with hints at what other Venture heroes might be up to. Issue #2, Redlining, was the first of a three-part team-up between Knightgrave, Reverie, and Penitent as they hunted a fae monster and its latest through the streets of London.
Robin Redcap was an ancient, blood-soaked creature, who gloried in violence and dyed his cap in human blood. He could only manifest in the world through a human master, and after decades trapped in a ruined castle, a real estate magnate accidentally freed him while redeveloping the property. The magnate saw Robin as a tool to clear out the residents of a London slum, using him and his pack of death-seeking black dogs as a weapon of fear and violence to make a profit. For his part, Robin didn’t care why his master wanted him to kill. The goal was enough.
The redcap’s first murders drew the attention of Knightgrave, who recognized fae magic and called for backup. The three heroes were able to stop the creature from killing again, saving his next wave of victims and tracking him back to his new master. When the terrified magnate surrendered and swore that he would stop his plot, Robin materialized, killed him for his cowardice, and faded away into the darkness, lost without a master once again. But Robin was a monster who wouldn’t stay missing. By the end of the year, he had appeared as a secondary villain in a Veilwalkers story, and while they were able to stop the sorcerer who had summoned him, he once again retaliated by killing his master for failing and vanishing before the team could destroy him.
Robin Redcap proved to be a popular villain, absolutely loyal until the moment his master failed, at which point he would turn on him without hesitation. The goblin was clever and cunning, preferring a strong opponent but willing to kill anyone in a pinch, spreading fear in his wake as he enacted plots. Time would tell whether he would prove to be too violent for Venture’s new age, or whether he would continue to make appearances in the right places.
Behind the Scenes
Well, between this and Stillmaker I’ve been leaning creepy lately! Hopefully the next few villains are a little bit more colourful and a little bit less murder-y.
But I couldn’t resist a deliberate Iron Age throwback, underlining the sort of weirdness that World of Wonders gets up to - one issue, it’s an art exhibition starring a robot graffiti artist and next you’ve got a set of magic heroes tracking a supernatural mass murderer through the streets of London.
Robin is an absolute murderer, too. Damage reduction, a redirect defense/Attack combo, and a reaction Hinder mean that he is very good at jumping into a group of heroes and holding most of them off while he targets someone vulnerable. Fortunately, he has a couple vulnerabilities of his own - you can save his victims or defeat his master rather than just trying to get stuck in and hoping for the best. The right team can probably still beat him down, but Guerillas are good at surviving that, doubly if he’s in upgrade-mode.
Heh. Can never hear “redcap” without thinking of the ones from Matt Wagner’s Mage books, chonky steel boots and all. They were just minions though, and much less scary than Robin is.
Seeing him barefoot is jarring - although at least he’s got pants on rather than the evil little nudists from Mage.
The “kill your master when they fail” thing is a nice twist. Makes me wonder if Bloodmoon (from post 433) has tried “employing” Robin Redcap during one of his depressive moods and then deliberately sabotaged himself in the hopes that the fae could kill him permanently.
My players tended to react to Guerrilla villains (once they figured out that was what was going on) by having one player keep them busy while the rest bailed out to deal with whatever else was going on, sometimes playing tag-team if the solo tank looked like they were in real trouble. The archetype can be stupidly dangerous to teams and hilariously inept against lone foes. Bit of the same problem Fezzik had in the Princess Bride.
At least with d10 Teleportation Robin’s got an easier time of getting where he needs to be than most villains, and I assume his Awareness includes some fae sense for knowing where his victims (and master) are to avoid blind jumps.
Also I see Robin’s using his RP quality for an ability keyword, the NPC showoff.
Well, he hasn’t as of January 2020, since Robin’s only had the two appearances in the first year post-timeskip, but that’s a definite possibility for a future storyline. I could even see it as a World of Wonders single issue at some point in 2020 or 2021, in which the heroes barely appear at all because Bloodmoon is technically the issue’s “protagonist”.
Yeah - Feast of Pain + Mirror Form means that Robin has a chance to just outdamage a solo opponent, even with his status die down at a d6, but having someone slow him down while everyone else deals with the other scene elements is a very viable tactic (and probably the one that got used in the actual comic, actually, with Knightgrave acting as the distraction while Remedy and Penitent solved the problem.)
edit Although immediately after saying that, I imagined Reverie and Robin in a fae teleport-off, and I think maybe that’s how they kept Robin busy, while Knightgrave and Penitent stormed in on the real estate magnate and scared him into surrender.
Very cool to see a slightly modern take on a classic faerie.
Randomizers:
Approach: 6, 8, 2 [Options: Skilled, Disruptive, Mastermind, Overpowered, Ninja*]*
Archetype: 8, 3, 4 [Options: Bruiser, Guerilla, Formidable, Inhibitor, Domain, Legion]
Upgrade: 5, 8, 4 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Power Upgrade I, Quality Upgrade II]
Mastery: 1, 2, 9 [Options: Annihiliation, Behind the Curtain, Superiority]
Databyte
Real Name: Noah Kim, First Appearance: Vanguard Academy #3, May 2019
Approach: Skilled, Archetype: Legion
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Behind the Curtain
Status Dice: 9+ minions: d4. 5-8 minions: d6. 3-4 minions: d8. 1-2 minions: d10. No minions: d12. Health: 10+5H (Upgraded 30+5H)
Qualities: Stealth d10, Technology d10, Alertness d8, Imposing d8, Criminal Underworld d8, Roll With The Punches d8
Powers: Intangibility d10, Electricity d8, Lightning Calculator d6
Abilities:
Common Scene Elements:
After spending their first two issues settling into the Academy, getting into conflict with each other, and dealing with a live exercise involving a small-time supervillain, Critter and Jackie Frost’s first major nemesis was unveiled against them in Vanguard Academy #3. Noah Kim was a master hacker with the ability to mentally interface with technology, and create electrical beings that could slip through power lines and devices to manifest anywhere that there was power. The young man was determined to use this power for his own benefit, and saw the potential in Vanguard Academy to steal in-depth information about a new generation of superheroes, which he could both use to avoid them and sell on the dark web to help other supervillains defeat their newest foes. Overriding Vanguard Academy’s defenses and taking control of lockdown procedures was a challenge, but a solvable one, and he was determined to get his information and get out before anyone realized what was happening.
Unfortunately for Databyte, Jackie had dragged Critter out of her dorm for a shoot when a sudden power surge left most of the students and faculty in an emergency lockdown; moments later, the two spotted one of his ‘bots’ emerging from a power line. While Jackie used her cold powers to slow Databyte’s network down, Critter was able to reach Captain Bolt’s quarters and break him out, at which point the captain helped the two heroes track down Databyte and break his control over the facility. In the chaos, Databyte was able to escape, but Captain Bolt reinforced the academy’s defenses to prevent another similar assault.
This was not, of course, the end of Databyte. He resurfaced later that year as part of a larger force of mercenary villains from the Outfit, trained by Headmaster to opposed Vanguard Academy and deployed during what should have been a routine operation in an attempt to injure as many students as possible. Once again, the force was defeated, but Databyte managed to gather a substantial amount of information on the heroes’ tactics and powers, taking them back to the Headmaster.
Behind the Scenes
Shifting focus to someone who goes hard-tech! Databyte, as a Legion character without much in the way of healing, is pretty vulnerable if he gets cornered; he has a decent reaction and a good Hinder, but a lot of what he does is to send a few big minions into the world, hoping that they’ll fork, and then sits back and Hinders the heroes while they try to find him. As with the other defenses, I’ve nudged up the power of the minion-splitting ability a bit; it’s still pretty easy to circumvent if you know what you’re doing, though.
Databyte also lets me bring back the Headmaster, at least in the background. It seems like if you have a hero school, there’s got to be a villain ‘school’ to oppose them.
