The History of Venture Comics!

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
1044

Motherland

Motherland
Motherland351×445 201 KB

Real Name: Sonya Kuragin, First Appearance: Hidden Champions (Vol. 2) #16, June 2015
Approach: Focused, Archetype: Invader
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade I, Mastery: Superiority

Status Dice: Based on environment minions, lieutenants, and challenges. None: d10. 1-2: d8. 3+: d6. Health: 15+5H
Qualities: Ranged Combat d10, Leadership d8, Super-Soldier d8
Powers: Cold d12, Presence d8

Abilities:

  • Frostmaiden (I): Ignore all Cold damage.
  • Winter’s Touch [A]: Hinder one target using Cold. Use your Max die. Attack that target using your Mid die.
  • Spirit of the Motherland [A]: Defend yourself using Presence. This Defend lasts until your next turn. If an Attack deals more damage than the Defend’s value, end the Defend and Boost all of your allies equal to the Defend.
  • Collateral Damage [A]: Overcome using Cold. Use your Max die. Attack an environment target with your Mid die. Attack any target with your Min die.
  • Hidden Loyalists [A]: Boost using Leadership. Use your Max die. One environment minion becomes a villain minion. It acts at the start of your turn.
  • Redirect Fire [R]: When the environment targets you with an Attack or Hinder, redirect it to a hero or environment target.

Common Scene Elements:

  • Imperial Loyalists. D8 minions. Imperial Loyalists have +1 to saves.
  • Winter Guard. D8 lieutenants. Winter Warriors have +1 to Attacks using cold and +1 to saves against cold.
  • Hostile Territory. A government facility or civic centre that Motherland intends to bring down.

With the restoration and expansion of the Champions of Truth at the end of 2010, the writers of the line found that they had a new problem - aside from Skybreaker, who still had his own comic, the cast had grown large enough that individual members didn’t have time for much in the way of solo stories or growth. After running limited series focusing on the Champions’ major members for a few years, Hidden Champions (Vol. 2) debuted at the end of 2014. The line’s premise was to have one, or occasionally two, of the major Champions other than Skybreaker teaming up with other Venture Comics heroes (especially those currently lacking a title and those with pre-existing ties) in order to take on challenges suited to their individual natures.

The title was a strong success, running through to early 2019, but it didn’t debut very many villains. Usually, it was a chance to revive foes who hadn’t hit the page in a long time. One of the few enduring characters created for the page, however, was Motherland.

Sonya Kuragin was a Russian military officer and fervent believer in the nationalist dream. She had grown up in the dying days of communism, trained by her fanatical father Lockstep, but had seen her dreams turn to ash before she was old enough to fight for them. As she grew up through the fall of post-Soviet Russia, she became increasingly frustrated at the state of her world, and ultimately decided to do something about it. Against her father’s wishes, she volunteered for one of the last experimental Russian super-science programs, letting herself be turned into an incarnation of the Russian winter.

Having finally gained the power to fight, Sonya became Motherland - the epitome of Russian nationalism and violent fervour. She quickly took control of the installation she had volunteered at, running more soldiers through the experiments to turn the survivors into her Winter Guard, and attacked a nuclear facility with the goal of setting off a nuclear winter that she believed only the strongest Russians would survive. She hoped to use her powers to protect her followers and rebuild in the devastated world to follow.

Madame Liberty joined forces with her old Covert Tactics ally Big Brain to try and reach the facility before Motherland could finish conquering it. They were joined by an unlikely ally - Sonya’s own father. Lockstep blamed himself for training his daughter to be a monster. He couldn’t make her see reason, so he resolved to stop her at any cost to himself. Together, the three saved the world, but the Winter Guard sacrificed themselves so that Motherland could escape to rebuild Russia anew.

Over the next few years, Motherland would make appearances in both Champions of Truth and in Gale Force, in which she allied with Vortex and Gale Force allied with Lockstep. The two were dark mirrors of each other, despite not having been designed as foes, and soon Motherland was seen as more of a Gale Force nemesis than one for Madame Liberty.

Behind the Scenes

I accidentally made a second Gale Force enemy.

I’d planned on Motherland after discussion about Lockstep and his potential kids; the idea of a supervillain raising his daughter to be a better supervillain than him, but then being filled with regret and trying to stop her from going too far, was a juicy story. Since Lockstep was primarily a Madame Liberty / Covert Tactics villain, he seemed like a good character to include with Madame Liberty and a Covert Tactics hero to fight his daughter. But then I was deciding where else she appeared, and the parallels between her and Gale Force became way too obvious to ignore. So that’s how she gets her footing and endures. Post-timeskip, she probably is primarily an Earthwatch villain, with occasional runs at the Champions of Truth.

4 Likes
1045

Homebrew variant of one of the Focused abilities? Interesting.

1 Like
1046

I figure the retcon fix for 90’s monster body horror Dr. Roach is that it was not Perry Planetta at all but a mutant bug monster that copied his brain patters because of mind control helmet shenanigans and the real Doctor was in stasis in the bug monster’s lab. If it survived the retcon it could rename it’s self Mr. Roach since the PHD were fake memories.

4 Likes
1047

oh yes! :smiley: this is so good!

2 Likes
1048

Oh, right! I forgot that I’d done that. Yeah, I gave her a leadership-based version of the power that’s usually a really nasty counterattack. Since it’s a Boost, it doesn’t get quite as stratospheric, but it affects more people.

… damn it, that’s good.

1 Like
1049

Yes, that makes sense. I could see a similar variant that replaces the original’s damage with a Hinder on all nearby foes as well. Even with very large die sizes I doubt anything would break in the process. All just a matter of how you want to flavor what’s happening if/when that big defensive shield gets cracked.

Good ways to add a little more variety to the Focused approach.

1 Like
1050

Scarspreader

Scarspreader
Scarspreader326×444 186 KB

Real Name: Carl O’Malley, First Appearance: Hell’s Belles #4, February 2016
Approach: Creator, Archetype: Fragile
Upgrade: Defense Shield, Mastery: Unfathomable

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6 Health: 10+5H
Qualities: Otherworldly Lore d10, Imposing d8, Stealth d8, Alertness d8, Impervious to Pain d8
Powers: Infernal d10, Strength d8, Toxic d8, Teleportation d6

Abilities:

  • Living Breach [A]: Use Otherworldly Lore 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.
  • Field of Pain [A]: Attack using Infernal and use your Max die, with a bonus equal to the number of minions you control.
  • Broken People Break People [A]: Attack using Otherworldly Lore. Then remove all bonuses from the target.
  • Shatter Rune [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single status die. If the damage is reduced to 0, you may move to anywhere else in the scene.
  • (U) Infernal Aura (I): You cannot be damaged by anyone except yourself until the defense shield is destroyed. The defense shield has 40 Health, or can be deactivated with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist working on the shield, you can make an Attack as a reaction by rolling your single Infernal die.
  • (U) 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.

Common Scene Elements:

  • Demonic Bodyguards: d10 lieutenants. When a Demonic Bodyguard Defends, they can apply the result to the next attack against themselves or one other target; if it is a multi-target attack, it applies to both.
  • Fracturing Imps: d6 minions. After taking an action, a fracturing imp steps up to d6 if it’s a d4, and breaks into two d4 imps if it is larger than a d4.
  • A Ritual. A complex challenge that summons eldritch forces into the world, advancing the scene tracker if not dealt with and creating Attacks, Hinders, and more Fracturing Imps.

At the end of 2015, both Stargazers and Heretic came to an end, freeing up a pair of characters that Venture had been wanting to bring together for years. A decision was made to blend the uplifting themes of Stargazers and the tones of forgiveness found in Heretic with dark horror elements to create a comic about standing fast in the face of darkness. Drifter and Sunbeam went off to do their own thing, and Penitent found herself joining up with two new heroes - Heretic and Solace, both of them tied to magical darkness in different ways. After three issues setting up the characters by dealing with Heretic’s old foe the Truthseeker, Issue #4 cemented their alliance by taking on a minor foe of Skybreaker who had just taken a much larger, more dangerous turn.

Runemaster had been a minor, consistently recurring villain in the Silver and Bronze Ages, a historian who had covered himself in runic tattoos to gain access to spiritual magic. As a consistent enemy of Skybreaker, he had typically been beaten when an injury in battle damaged the runes on his skin, causing the magic to break free and knock him out - often this led to whatever force he’d been trying to control becoming the true threat for Skybreaker to deal with. He’d vanished for a while at the end of the Iron Age, and a writer thought of a way to play on his history as a joke while making him a much more threatening foe.

After years of injuries damaging his runes, and new tattoos layering on the old, Carl O’Malley’s skin had become a patchwork of magic-infused scars, so thorough that any injury could trigger a breach to other realities. Filled with pain and refusing to acknowledge his own role in how his chosen weapon had backfired, he began to drift from patron to patron, looking for short-term solutions to his pain by pushing it out onto others. He became the Scarspreader, dedicated to setting off short-term incursions of dimensional monstrosities, with no long-term plan beyond making other people suffer so that he wouldn’t have to.

Scarspreader was a sympathetic figure, but ultimately a short-sighted and dangerous one. While the heroes could understand why he was lashing out, the harm that he was causing couldn’t be denied, and every effort to talk him down failed. Over the next few years, he would launch a handful of plots to destroy neighborhoods, bring down people who had caused him suffering in the past, or even seek revenge on behalf of others that he saw as victims like himself. Solace was a particular trigger point for him; she had also been through a terrible event that pushed her away from humanity, but her refusal to give in made him hate himself all the more, and he looked for ways to break her resolve.

Behind the Scenes

I love the idea of Heretic, Penitent, and Solace goofing off while also facing some truly scary stuff. I also wanted to ‘upgrade’ a long-running lieutenant, but of course I didn’t have one. So now I do. Runemaster has been retroactively a consisent threat (spoiler alert, we’ll be seeing his lieutenant form later), and Scarspreader is his natural end point.

Scarspreader’s basic villain form isn’t too dangerous; he is going to be relying on summoned minions or bodyguards to Defend him, given his low Health. He’s got decent defenses to start with, but as he gets injured, his personal defenses get worse, and that’s a death spiral. On the other hand, upgraded Scarspreader can really flood the battlefield from behind his shield, creating tons of dangerous minions until you break through.

4 Likes
1051

Interesting approach to a tricky approach/archetype combo. The only one I’ve done was also a magical weirdness type that relied heavily on her upgrade, but in that case it was a big d12 villainous “vehicle” that synergized with her abilities.

Minor style issue, “area attack” isn’t a defined term in the rules. “a multi-target Attack” works fine, though.

Ooh, I like those. That cycle could get out of hand fast if the players don’t keep on top of things. Reminds me of the Awful Green Things From Outer Space board game.

1 Like
1052

Good point. I’ll adjust that.

And actually, on reflection I think I need to adjust the fracturing imp phrasing too, because as written they’re going to get out of hand by the end of the first action round. I didn’t mean for them to fracture on every character’s turn, but I wrote it as “each action” instead of “their action”… time for a quick revision.

1 Like
1053

Oh yeah, that would be a problem.

1 Like
1054

The Road Ahead

Every time I think I’m turning the corner and approaching the end of this project, I discover new stuff! So I figured I would explain the current plan, which will in turn explain where all these extra villains are coming from, and then I’ll reveal my last surprise.

I’ve always been planning to collate everything from this project into a big PDF and make it freely available to folks. My original plan was that this would cover all of the heroes and villains from the first stage of the project.

But then I wanted more villains. And I wrote a bunch of D-Listers, and a few of them were too good to drop. And I got the idea to add support characters, and when it was all said and done that PDF started to look pretty massive.

So instead, I am making four PDFs, because I am a glutton for punishment.

The first PDF, “Venture Comics: The Classic Generations”, will cover the Golden Age and Silver Age stalwarts of the setting. Then “Venture Comics: The Dark Ages” will cover the Bronze and Iron Ages. Third, “Venture Comics: The Crisis Years” will take us through the Plutonium Ages and cover the Diamond Age up to 2023. And finally, “Venture Comics: Flash in the Pan” will be a mixture of the D-Listers that I wrote up and various takes on the characters that didn’t last, either because they were meant to be quick or because they were bad ideas.

Each of these books is going to have ninety characters in it, a monument to my hubris: twenty-five lieutenants, thirty heroes, and thirty-five villains (plus whatever minor things show up in villain footnotes). They’ll also have short histories of the ages of the comics and writeups on my hero creation, villain creation, and lieutenant creation processes.

This is why I’ve been filling things in! While my hero and villain counts were fine for most of these books, I was quite short going into the Plutonium Age, and shifting around and retcons made things even more complicated. Now that I’ve filled out the villains, I’m good for the first two books…

But I’m still short. I need thirty heroes for the Plutonium and Diamond Ages, and I’ve only got twenty-five. I need thirty-five villains and I’ve only got thirty-one. And I don’t have any of the variant heroes and villains I want to design as the back half of Flash in the Pan.

So here’s the plan. This afternoon, I will be uploading my lieutenant creation process, behind spoiler blocks for those folks who are here for the characters and not the system. Starting on Monday, I’ll be releasing three lieutenants a week, starting with the Golden Age. At the end of each age, I will be tossing up the stats and writeups for two or three Plutonium or Diamond-age heroes and villains, using them to fill out blank spots and keep me on schedule. I’ve got a week of vacation planned in April where I won’t be able to update, and I want to keep it even, so it’ll be happening at the end of the Bronze Age. As I finish all of the lieutenants for each volume, I will upload the completed PDF, which will include adjusted text, fixed-up timing errors, and final versions of the characters and timeline.

This should lead to the lieutenants wrapping up on July 25th, at which point it’ll be time to pick up the pace. The end of July will lead to me writing up all of the outstanding Flash in the Pan heroes, villains, and lieutenants, updating once again four times a week until I reach the final update on October 20th, 2025, exactly two years to the day from the start of the project.

Hold on to your hats! It’s going to be an exciting year.

4 Likes
1055

A grand project indeed. Look forward to seeing it come to fruition.

2 Likes
1056

Anyway, let’s talk about lieutenants!

Rules-wise, lieutenants are pretty simple - they have a die, and they have one to three traits (usually two) that modify how they act in an action scene. For the purpose of Venture Comics, therefore, a chunk of the randomizer is designed to give me guidelines for the role that these characters play in a story, and the themes that inform their mechanics. Lieutenant powers are both fairly specific and quite unique, but I’ve been able to build a selection that I think is a good balance. As noted, I’m spoiler-blocking it here because there are several long tables.

Summary

First, you have to decide whether your lieutenant is going to be an Ally or an Enemy. Allies are supporting cast members for major superheroes - either minor superheroes that never really have their own titles, or unpowered allies that provide useful help to the players and often get caught up in superheroic situations. Enemies are the rank and file supervillains who tend to go down fast and hard; they might get single issue stories, and they may have longstanding popularity as part of a villain team, but they’re not critical threats. In theory, we could have some of our longstanding villains also be enemies, and when I reach Book Four I’ll do some of that, but for the first three books it’s going to be new characters. If you can’t decide, you can roll a d4: on a 1-2, they’re an Ally, on a 3-4 they’re an Enemy.

When you’re ready to get going, roll 1d12, 2d8, 2d10, 2d6, and 3d20, and compare them to the following tables. You can run through these tables in order, or look at all your options at once to make the most logical result. (I’ll be doing the latter.)

Step 1: Determine Lieutenant Power

Compare your d12 result to the following table to find out the lieutenant’s die size, and how many traits they have.

Roll Die Size Traits
1 d6 Three
2 d8 Two + Drawback
3 d8 Two Linked Together
4 d8 Two
5 d8 Two
6 d10 One
7 d10 Two + Drawback
8 d10 Two Linked Together
9 d10 Two
10 d10 Two
11 d12 One
12 d12 One + Drawback

A result of “Two Linked Together” means that you will generate two traits, and then combine them into a single, more powerful ability.

Step 2: Determine Lieutenant’s Motive/Relation and Approach

Compare your d8s and your d10s to the tables below. The d8s will determine what motivates an Enemy or what relationship an Ally has with their primary hero. The d10 determines what thematic approach the character takes to their actions. This may not have a mechanical effect, but it should inform how you approach their traits in the final steps.

Roll Enemy Motive Ally Relation
1 Wealth Romantic Option
2 Conquest Family Member
3 Destruction Close Friend
4 Hunger Mentor Figure
5 Obedience Fan or Student
6 Malice Professional Contact
7 Power Reluctant Ally
8 Personal Frenemy
Roll Approach
1-2 Pure Superpowers
3-4 Technology
5-6 Physical Prowess
7 Mental Cunning
8 Social Skills
9 Magic
10 Inhuman Nature

Step 3: Determine Traits and Drawbacks

Compare your d20 results to the table below, and if you have a drawback compare your d6 results to the Drawbacks table. Choose a number of results equal to the number of traits you rolled in Step 1, and give them detail based on the character’s motive/relationship and approach.

Roll Trait
1 Flat +1 bonus to 1-2 Actions
2 Conditional +2 Bonus to 1-2 Actions
3 Conditional +2 Bonus to 1-2 Actions
4 Conditional +1 Bonus to all basic actions
5 When you [Basic Action], you also [Boost or Hinder]
6 When you [Basic Action], you also [Attack or Defend]
7 [Attack or Defend] an extra target
8 [Boost or Hinder] applies to multiple targets
9 Flat +1 to damage saves
10 Conditional +2 to damage saves
11 Special interaction with an element or damage type
12 Treat [successful or failed] save as [Basic Action]
13 Recover Action
14 Passive +1 conditional support
15 Activate or support environment
16 Create Minions
17 Special [Boost or Hinder] Action or Reaction
18 Special [Attack or Defend] Action or Reaction
19 Sacrificial action or reaction
20 Unique action or reaction
Roll Drawback
1 Conditional -2 penalty to actions
2 Limited actions available
3 Penalty to saves or degrade faster
4 Vulnerable to element or damage type
5 A hero Overcome will weaken or shut down all abilities
6 Step down die after using special ability

When dealing with a [reference] in square brackets, pick one at the time of creation the way that you would for a new hero.

And that covers it! With those three simple steps, you have a lieutenant ready to roll into play.

So of course I’m going to be a bit more complicated.

There are twenty-five lieutenants in each book, ten allies and fifteen enemies. I want to have options, but I’d also like a wide range of approaches and motives and traits and such.

So for allies: Once I’ve picked a given relation, approach, drawback or trait twice in one book, I’m striking them out and treating future rolls of that number as the next one down. For enemies, I’ll do it once I’ve picked something three times. In both cases, there are a few characters that I’ve fully decided on, in which case I’ll pretend that I rolled and just assign a number (and mention it in the behind the scenes.) This is particularly true for a handful of allies that I’ve already written up, who will be given this style of writeup to replace the old one.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Join me on Monday, as we begin our trek back into the Golden Age of Comics…

5 Likes
1057

Golly, Friv, this has turned into quite a big undertaking, hasn’t it? I admire your herculean dedication.

2 Likes
1058

Thank you!

Colin Harper

Colin Harper
Colin Harper400×575 268 KB

Real Name: Colin Harper**, First Appearance:** Company Town #19, November 1940
Lieutenant Type: Ally
Die Size: d8
Relation: Close Friend, Approach: Technological

Traits:

  • Tech Wiz: Colin has +2 to Boost or Overcome when he uses his technical skills to repair or upgrade technology.
  • Call for Backup: As an action, Colin can create a “Police Backup” minion and step down his die. Then, if the scene tracker is Yellow or Red, he may repeat this action.

Flatfoot’s closest ally in his war against corruption was not a police officer, but the former assistant to Dr. William Penner, the scientist who was responsible for Flatfoot’s creation. First introduced in Flatfoot’s second appearance, Colin Harper served not only as Flatfoot’s crime-fighting assistant, but as his closest friend and sometimes teacher into the nature of humanity.

Colin Harper was a scientist and engineer who specialized in electronics; he was a recent graduate who had signed on with Dr. Penner as his first major job, quickly getting engrossed in the design and functionality of the android officer. While he could understand Flatfoot’s systems well enough to repair them, Penner hadn’t trusted him with the full schematics of Johnny Law’s vacuum-tube brain, and he wasn’t able to build another robot to join his friend. What he was able to do was talk with Flatfoot; as a vulnerable and slightly clumsy young man, he had a better idea of the pressures and threats that pushed people into betraying their best interests, and it was Colin’s compassion that helped to act as a guide for Flatfoot in his early years, reminding him that the law existed to protect, not to punish, and to connect Johnny with other humans in his off-hours to keep him from spending twenty-four hours a day patrolling to fight crime. Colin lived in an apartment above Flatfoot’s own home, and often tried to point out to Johnny how much more comfortable a nice two-bedroom apartment would be for the robot. Flatfoot never seemed to get the message, preferring to just power down in the corner of his workshop.

Mostly, though, Colin existed for two purposes – to be shown quickly patching Flatfoot up after a fight, and to be kidnapped by dangerous goons who wanted to use his knowledge to either build a new robot or to attack Flatfoot. In those cases, he was usually able to use his technical gifts to help deal with whatever problem the villains had intended him to empower, or to give Flatfoot a last-minute upgrade to help with a particular situation. In the worst cases, he could simply use his miniature belt-radio to call for police backup, summoning them to Flatfoot’s location and getting himself out of the line of fire.

Behind the Scenes:

Our first lieutenant is also our first ally - Flatfoot’s very own Alfred. Despite being one of the four main heroes of the line, Flatfoot’s supporting cast is particularly thin. I mentioned that he had a technician, and that said technician is an ally through to the end of the Bronze Age (and probably returns in the Iron Age once Flatfoot is reactivated, but I haven’t said so specifically) but I didn’t know anything else about him. So a few randomizers later, here we are! If I hadn’t gotten Technological, Mental, or Social for his nature, I would have re-randomized, but I didn’t end up having to.

5 Likes
1059

Morbloxian Berserkers

Morbloxian
Morbloxian400×575 281 KB

Real Name: n/a**, First Appearance:** Celestial Travels #25, March 1941

Lieutenant Type: Enemy
Die Size: d8
Motive: Power, Approach: Physical

Traits:

  • Frenzy: When Morbloxian Berserker’s die size is below d8, it gains +1 to all actions.
  • Warmaster: When Morbloxian Berserker Attacks as an action, it also Defends itself with the result.

As Venture’s other lines began to join the superhero craze, Celestial Travels increasingly became an outlier. While the comic’s writing staff was happy to publish the occasional pulp adventure set on a faraway world, or an action-packed story about aliens threatening the innocent people of a small time, the comic’s focus was on classic science fiction, using alien vistas to explore human nature and present ironic situations to readers. The editors weren’t even particularly fans of repeat science fiction characters, let alone superheroes. As a result, Celestial Travels managed to get through the war years without a successful superhero gracing its pages.

This did not, however, mean that it left no footprint on Venture Comics. Many of the alien species created for one-off stories in the early years would be snapped up by the writers of other tales, happy to have a design that they could quickly and easily slot into their own stories. One of the most enduring of these antagonists were the Morbloxians, and their deadly Berserker elites.

The Morbloxians were the primary story of the issue in which they were introduced – a society made up entirely of warriors, their technology slowly crumbling as the knowledge to preserve it was lost by successive generations that scorned the learning that had brought them to galactic prominence. They worshipped physical prowess and might, testing themselves against each other and hiring on as bodyguards and shock troopers across the galaxy. The main character of the comic was a nameless Morbloxian who, on a campaign on an alien world, was struck by the beauty of a bed of flowers – only to see it trampled underfoot by his heedless companions. Slipping away after the battle, this berserker found the gardener who had planted the flowers, and asked about the purpose of such plants. What benefit did they provide?

The answer, of course, was beauty, and the Morbloxian ended up fighting two of his fellows when they came to kill the gardener at the behest of their current employer. While he died in the battle, his actions convinced the two to leave the gardener be; he was buried among the flowers that had given him a new purpose in his final days.

The story resonated with other readers, both for the lone warrior and the brutal but resolute foes who cut him down. As Venture’s galactic setting expanded, Morbloxians became common lieutenants of galactic villains – determined, incredibly effective, and completely dedicated to their pursuit of perfection, whatever an individual member of the society might deem in. Occasionally, they were placed as allies, but usually they fought superheroes until it was proven that they were beaten, then surrendered and swore never to return.

Behind the Scenes:

I wanted to make sure that Celestial Travels had something of an imprint in the Golden Age; it’s the longest-running comic in the setting, but explicitly didn’t have any successful superheroes prior to Neutrino, so giving it a couple of Golden Age entries was surprisingly tricky. I settled on the idea of creating a new species, one whose members commonly show up but not as simple minions. And so we have the Morbloxians, along with a classic 40s science fiction story.

Morbloxian Berserkers are a good middle-ground soldier in a fight. They automatically give themselves one Defend, making them a bit resilient without going over the top, and they keep having decent results after you hit them, which also helps them stay relevant. But they’re not high-die enemies, so they’re not going to dominate a battlefield.

4 Likes
1060

I’d call them a fair bit more than middling for a d8 lieutenant. If you assume the average heroic Attack pool is d10, d10, d8, that free Defend is going stop one Mid-die hit a rounds cold on average - ~5.5 minus ~4.5 is a one to save, so auto-pass. Without some spiking or a Max die Attack you’ll need two of those average Attacks to even force a save, and when you do knock them to a d6 their average rolls won’t change a bit thanks to Frenzy, so the situation’s barely changed. They’re also (despite being d8s to start) going to be remarkably resistant to multi-target sweep abilities, which are likely to have to overcome 4-5 points of Defend before they even count toward saves. The usual Min did sweep is going to need a lot of bonuses to crack that, and even Mid dice will need a lot more help than usual.

They are more vulnerable than a vanilla d10 lieutenant would be to having their die size doubled for an instant KO, and they’d suck at Boost/Hinder/Overcome actions by comparison - but they aren’t doing that, are they? They’re Attacking every round because that’s what Berserkers do.

I’d be leery about treating these guys as easy scene elements per the book. There are going to be whole teams that really struggle to put a bunch of them down, and they really have no reason (narrative or mechanical) not to Attack all the time.

3 Likes
1061

That’s a fair summary, but I’d have three counter-arguments.

The first is that, in my experience, it’s rare for heroes to be limited to mid-die Attacks. Even in Green, they’re usually either doing “Attack + Something Else” or “Max Die Attack” or even “Attack that ignores Defend”, and they’re often benefiting from Boosts, either P/E ones or just general ones tossed up by teammates. So I’d generally expect the baseline to be higher than a 1-pt difference on the first Attack.

The second is that rolling a single d8 instead of a spread means that the Berserkers are far more likely to be on the high or low end, and being on the high end doesn’t help their defense. It only takes a single 1-pt Defend to put them in a position where they’re getting battered.

And the third is that they’re pretty Hinder-vulnerable. Since they’re using the result of the Attack to Defend, a Hinder hits both numbers at the same time.

3 Likes
1062

Huh, ya’know, when reading your post about how you’d write up all these lieutenants, it never crossed my mind that some of them would be generic groups of people rather than single unique, named characters. Neat.

That origin story definitely has a very '40s sci-fi, maybe even Twilight Zone-ish feel. And the Morbloxians are kinda giving me some space orc vibes.

1 Like
1063

Yeah, I hadn’t intended to do it, either! When I was starting to design the character I was going to have it be a specific Morbloxian, with a note that the rules would work for others. But then I got the story framed, and it really didn’t work for a villainous lieutenant, so “key elite group” it became.

There probably won’t be many of those. Most of the “key elite group” type lieutenants are tied to villains and quickly written up in those villains’ writeups instead.

2 Likes