The Paradigms!

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
1

​THE PARADIGMS!!

Hello, folks! As part of reading through Terror Forms, I decided to go ahead and create my own versions of the Paradigms, so that I can use pregens appropriate to the comic. I’m going to take my best guesses at the full five-person membership for this time. These guesses are based on the following information which has been related to us by Christopher and Adam:

  • The Paradigms are meant to represent RevoCorp’s commitment to change and redemption
  • The Paradigms are aggressively recruiting from established superheroes
  • There are five Paradigms
  • The team as a whole is tech-oriented
  • Benchmark’s suit has new abilities
  • Parse can use her analysis remotely via drones
  • “It would be weird for Unity and Omnitron to not be involved in some way” (this quote was quite early in the development cycle)
  • Of our two remaining members, one “needs a bunch of story stuff relayed to get to the “team” stuff and the other needs to even be established (as they’re a “brand new character”).”
  • Four of the heroes work well together, but the fifth is a monkey wrench in the works sufficient to be the primary marketing pitch for the comic
  • Tantrum is not a member of the team

With those notes, I’ve taken what I think are some solid swings. Today, I’ll put up our team leaders, tomorrow I’ll follow up with Parse and my best guess about what our ‘new hero’ will look like, and on Friday I’m going to finish off by pitching our monkey wrench.

Starting with:

Unity (Paradigm Team Leader)

Real Name: Devra Caspit

Background: Upper Class, Power Source: Unknown, Archetype: Minion Maker

Personality: Cheerful

Principles: Gearhead, Team

Status: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6, Health: 28

Qualities: Creativity d10, Technology d10, Insight d8, Science d8, Persuasion d8, Lead By Example d8

Powers: Robotics d10, Metal d8, Electricity d8, Inventions d6

Green:

  • Spawn Golem [A]: Create a minion using Robotics. Reference the minion chart to see what size of minion it is. Choose whether it can Attack, Defend, Boost, Hinder, or Overcome. It acts on the start of your turn.
  • Hasty Augmentation [A]: Boost another hero or one of your minions using Metal. Either use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make that bonus persistent.
  • Principle of the Gearhead [A]: Overcome a technological challenge and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
  • Principle of the Team [A]: Overcome by using your status as an official representative of RevoCorp and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

Yellow:

  • Bot Shield [R]: Reduce any damage you take by the number of minions you have. Whenever damage is reduced in this way, reduce the size of one of your minions.
  • Brainstorm [A]: Attack using Electricity. Hit one target with your Min die, another target with your Mid die, and Boost using your Max die.
  • Friends Helping Friends [A]: Boost all nearby allies using Robotics, using your Max+Mid dice. Hinder yourself with your Min die.

Red:

  • Construction Pylon [A]: Create two minions using Robotics, one with your Max die and another with your Mid die. Choose a basic action for each. They act at the start of your turn.
  • Powered Shockwave [A]: Attack using Electricity. Use your Max die plus a bonus equal to the number of minions you have.
  • Unorthodox Solutions (I): When taking any action using Creativity, you may reroll your Min die before determining effects.

Out:

  • Boost an ally using Metal.

So, we’ve already seen a version of Unity for the RPG back in the Starter Set. This version updates her to be the co-leader of the Paradigms, but it’s pretty close; she’s still a cheerful minion-maker of unknown power source, focusing on ‘making’ friends.

The main difference is the Background shift. The original Unity had the Unremarkable background, representing that she was an intern from a modest background who joined the Freedom Five. But the Unity who joins the Paradigms has spent years working with the FF, rubbing shoulders with the elites of the superhero and mundane world. She’s got more connections and knowledge, which changes her Background to Upper Class and gives her access to the Principle of the Team in place of her old Principle of Levity, and shifts her Banter to Persuasion as she works harder to reach out to people instead of just goofing off. I also shifted one of her Yellow abilities to be more of a team-focused boost.

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Doesn’t she have a fair few patents earning her money as well by now? Can’t just be Tachyon making a mint that way.

Which also feeds her own minions at the same time, which I find is pretty critical for the archetype.

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It’s definitely possible. There’s a good chance that as the FF intern, she’s only got research credit on other people’s patents, with financial proceeds going to the lab itself. It would probably depend on the contract Tachyon had her under.

Yeah, there are basically two ways to run Minion-Maker - quantity, or quality. Unity’s sheet for the Starter Set kind of does both, which isn’t the best choice mechanically but works okay for her. I just wanted to shift to a more quality-based model by using a build that focuses on having a smaller number of more powerful minions she can shield behind.

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And let’s follow up with our team’s secondary lead, Benchmark!

Benchmark

Real Name: Randall Butler

Background: Tragic, Power Source: Power Suit, Archetype: Transporter

Personality: Stalwart

Principles: Defender, Mastery

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10, Health: 32

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Banter d8, Fitness d6, Insight d6, Follow The Playbook d8

Powers: Power Suit d10, Strength d10, Flight d10, Presence d6

GREEN

  • Reinforced Chassis (I): Reduce the amount of physical damage taken by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
  • Bullet Tackle (A): Attack using Flight. Either Hinder your target with your Min die or move them somewhere else in the scene.
  • One-Two Punch (A): Boost another hero using Strength. Attack using your Min die.
  • Principle of the Defender (A): Overcome a situation that requires you to hold the line and use your Max die OR use your Mid die and Defend with your Min die. You and each of your allies gains a hero point.
  • Principle of Mastery (A): Overcome in a situation which uses your powers in a new way and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

YELLOW

  • Deployment Actuation (A): Boost yourself using Power Suit. Use your Min+Mid dice. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
  • Fly-By Attack (A): Attack up to three different targets using Flight. Apply your Max die to one, your Mid die to another, and your Min die to the third. If you roll doubles, take a minor twist or take irreducible damage equal to that die.
  • Burst of Speed (R): When you are hit with an Attack, you may take 1 irreducible damage to have the attacker reroll their dice pool.

RED

  • Intervening Path Calculator (R): When an opponent Attacks, you may become the target of that Attack and Defend by rolling your single Power Suit die.
  • Shunt Energy (A): Attack multiple nearby targets using Power Suit. Use your Max+Mid dice. Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die.

OUT

  • Defend an ally by rolling your single Power Suit die.

There are about a billion ways Benchmark could go, depending on how his suit works in Universe 1, but here’s my pitch.

In the Multiverse era, Benchmark was smart, strong, and sociable, but he wasn’t perceptive. He was a genial but arrogant guy picked by Revocorp to be a fake superhero, who took way too long to question what was going on. His suit did all the work for him, loaded down with fancy software that let it handle things - until hidden codes took over and he was trapped inside in the middle of OblivAeon as his suit tried to kill his friends Setback and Parse. Benchmark ended up winning that fight by deliberately sabotaging the suit, and then took the wrecked remains against OblivAeon to keep being a hero.

Now, he’s still with RevoCorp, but based on both his backstory and his image, the suit is a bit less elaborate than it was before, albeit with some unique modifications. He’s probably a lot less willing to have that kind of onboard ‘guidance’ controlling his actions, and he’s a more worried about doing the right thing with his powers - not because he wasn’t before, but because before he didn’t think there was a possibility of failing to.

So! For his Background, I gave him Tragic, theorizing that this Benchmark is defined primarily by the moment his suit turned on him, not by his life before that. His Power Suit remains his Power Source, but for his Archetype I went with Transporter - staying mobile and getting people out of the way of trouble are his main goals. He’s a Stalwart guy, he’s got a smile but he’s also just generally a rock you can rely on, and his Principles leave him focused on protecting other people and learning every way that he can use and control his suit. He’s got an array of powers, most focused on getting up in the bad guys’ grills. While he’s the co-team leader, and he’s got the Banter and some Presence to chat with folks, he lets Unity take the lead most of the time because he trusts her gut more than his own.

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Agreed. Mechanically speaking, I can definitely see a myriad of alternate builds for ol’ Randy. Such as . . .

  • Backgrounds: Upper Class, Adventurer, Unremarkable, Academic, Performer
  • Power Sources: Tech Upgrades
  • Archetypes: Blaster, Armored, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Gadgeteer
  • Personalities: Natural Leader, Decisive, Jovial, Arrogant

Personally, I’d probably stat him as a Robot/Cyborg rather than a Transporter, but that’s just me.

You seem to be doing an interesting thing with Backgrounds here, Friv. It seems like you’re considering the characters’ experiences pre-OblivAeon as part of their backgrounds, rather than only their experiences before they became heroes. Interesting. I’d imagine that that’s fairly uncommon, but I don’t see anything really wrong with it. : )

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Robot/Cyborg (well, Divided [Robot/Cyborg]) is definitely what I would use for multiverse-era Benchmark. I went with Transporter for this one mostly because it had good “charge in and save people” flavour.

And yep, for the Paradigms specifically I’m going with their Backgrounds as “their lives before joining the Paradigms”. I feel like it makes sense, since this is a new team building on a sort of reset. It would certainly be reasonable to go the other route and stick with their pre-hero backgrounds, but there’s definitely a bit of a cascade there, because it gets harder to give Qualities appropriate to the current stage of their lives.

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Most internships don’t involve personally fighting supervillains on a regular basis. If Tachyon really did cut her out of any potential patent income…is Meredith actually the Man? I think she might be the Man. Damn late-stage capitalism! :slight_smile:

I’ve had a number of players change their Background during a Collection re-write, in at least one case without changing much of anything else. Narrative events were responsible for all of the changes.

One hero lost control of her company and most of her personal wealth, shifting from Upper Class to Military after joining a government-funded program intended to covertly prepare supers for integration into the armed forces in time of war (a violation of international law in my setting). That turned out to be a treasonous plot and formed the basis of a couple of story arcs, but she’s maintained her Military background even after it wrapped, having taking to the training she received and also become romantically involved with an officer who turned out not to be a secret fascist traitor.

Another one dropped Tragic after rescuing his wife’s soul from a Bad Place afterlife she’d been dragged to, becoming an Academic and shifting Source from the Relic he destroyed getting her out into Mystic. Think he changed his Personality as well but I forget the specifics.

Oh, and our Struggling guy turned out to be a secret biological construct and swapped it out for Created and some other changes. Surprised even me. Went from Naive to Apathetic too. Sometimes it’s better not to know the truth about yourself, I guess.

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I could also see Experimentation working. His suit was a bit of a prototype, and Unflagging seems very on the nose for him personally. Hard guy to keep down, even when his own costume is actively trying to kill him and his friends.

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As is required of anyone of a certain age group,
“Damn the Man! Save the Empire!”

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With our co-leads developed, it’s time for a slightly trickier one before I dive into the absolutely wild depths of speculation. Here is my take on Parse:

Parse

Real Name: Kim Howell

Background: Unremarkable, Power Source: Cosmos, Archetype: Psychic
Personality: Analytical
Principles: Detective, Future

Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d8, Health: 30
Qualities: Alertness d10, Conviction d8, Investigation d8, Technology d6, Living Supercomputer d8
Powers: Intuition d12, Remote Viewing d10, Postcognition d8, Gadgets (Drones) d6

GREEN

  • Perfect Moment [A]: Attack using Intuition. Hinder the target using your Min die.
  • Gauge [R]: After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire dice pool.
  • Principle of the Future [A]: Overcome a challenge using your knowledge of possible futures and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
  • Principle of the Detective [A]: Overcome to learn hidden information and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

YELLOW

  • Tipping Dominoes [A]: Overcome using Remote Viewing and use your Max+Min dice. You do not have to be physically present in the area you are Overcoming.
  • Extrasensory Awareness [R]: After an enemy rolls dice to take an action for their turn but before using the result, Hinder that enemy’s roll using your single Postcognition die.
  • Reveal the Flaws [A]: Attack using Intuition. Boost all nearby heroes taking Attack or Overcome actions using your Min die until your next turn.
  • Data Mining [A]: Boost or Hinder using Intuition and apply that mod to multiple close targets.

RED

  • Between the Lines [A]: Boost another hero using Intuition. If that hero has alrady acted for the turn, use your Max die, and that hero loses Health equal to your Min die. That hero acts next in the turn order.
  • Extrasensory Awareness [A]: Overcome using Alertness. Using your Max+Min dice. Hinder all nearby opponents with your Mid die.

OUT

  • Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

Some people are going to be very annoyed that there is no archery in this build, but I honestly don’t think that Universe 1 Parse uses a bow.

C&A mentioned back before there was an RPG that even in the Multiverse era, Parse’s archery is her secondary power set; her primary power set is analysis and situational awareness, and that they would use a ‘genius’ class to build her rather than a ‘marksman’ class. This became more true as OblivAeon approached, and she started just literally throwing arrows at people. Post-Oblivaeon, we know that she’s started to reconnect with her emotions, but also that she’s doing more backup support and ‘woman in the chair’ activities and not taking the field as often. I went around and around on how to portray this, and this is the best I’ve got. I suspect that the actual Parse is going to have a unique Archetype based around working remotely through her drones, but I’m not hitting that level of customization today.

Parse comes from an unremarkable background (I considered giving her Academic, but it inexplicably doesn’t provide access to any Mental skill except Self-Discipline), and has developed a powerful cosmic awareness. This gives her an effectively psychic power set, using her impossible awareness to understand and interact with the world by making small changes that butterfly out into massive effects - and mostly I picked it because it allows for Overcomes in places that she isn’t thanks to the things she’s set in motion. Her Principle of the Detective lets her discover information, and then her Principle of the Future lets her deploy that information to best effect. Her Postcognition and Remote Viewing are reflections of her analytical skill and drones, rather than literal powers. Most of the time she’s solving problems with her devastating Alertness and Intuition.

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Scary Overcome/Support build. The only regret I see is the inability to get a bigger die on the Postcognition reaction, but Psychic is a little restrictive that way. I suppose hoarding bonuses to use with it would help, because that is a ballbuster of an ability that doesn’t require you to be anywhere near the victim. At least it won’t mess with villain reactions or their own Overcomes if they’re using a Mastery to auto-succeed.

The Gauge reaction’s a nice insurance policy for not accidentally killing your Between the Lines targets. I’ve seen that one backfire when your Min die spikes, and your pool looks like d12, d8, d8 or thereabouts.

I’d be a little surprised if she gets a new Archetype as such. Maybe some new Inherent ability that makes you better at affecting a scene from outside it. Your build demonstrates that you can do at least a moderately effective build who can sit home and shout at people already.

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My expectation, which may prove to be wrong, is that every major “team” book is going to include a few new mechanical toys, and new Backgrounds, Power Sources, and Archetypes seem like a prime option for that. We’ll probably know for sure once Dark Watch comes out.

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Well, it’s optimistic and might happen, but I’d have expected at least something in the Guise Book if that was the planned format. A “Prankster” archetype, a “Fictional And Knows It” power source, that sort of thing.

At the same time, sticking that sort of thing in dribs and drabs scattered over multiple books where the mechanical content is a tiny part of the whole would be an excellent way to irritate potential customers who aren’t invested in the canon setting. One of the selling points of the SCRPG right now is that the game engine is contained in a single book.

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And now, it’s time to really stretch my creative muscles, because I have to write up the “new” member of the Paradigms. An entirely new character, created both with my own narrative thoughts and my best understanding of Christopher and Adam, who will sync with the rest of the team while providing interesting counterpoints and it’s Omnitron folks.

Omnitron

Real Name: Omnitron (iteration Omnitron-XII)
Background: Created, Power Source: Experimentation, Archetype: Gadgeteer
Personality: Inquisitive
Principles: Clockwork, Discovery

Status Dice: Green d6, Yellow d8, Red d10, Health: 30
Qualities: Technology d12, Alertness d8, Science d8, Fitness d6, Insight d6, Living Robot d8
Powers: Lightning Calculator d10, Absorption d10, Inventions d8, Vitality d6

GREEN

  • Adaptive Plating (I): At the start of your turn, remove a penalty on yourself.
  • Analyze Weakness [A]: Hinder using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max die, or use your Mid die and make it persistent and exclusive.
  • Deploy Components [A]: Boost using Inventions. Make one bonus for one ally using your Mid die and another bonus for another ally using your Min die.
  • Principle of Clockwork [A]: Overcome a complex challenge with a simple tool and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
  • Principle of Discovery [A]: When you’re at the forefront in making a discovery or invention and take an Overcome action to further your knowledge, use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

YELLOW

  • Real-Time Upgrades [A]: Boost yourself using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max die. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
  • Focus Fire [A]: Boost yourself using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max+Min dice. Then Attack using your Mid die with that bonus.
  • Force Redistribution [R]: When a nearby hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, Defend against that damage by rolling your single Absorption die, then redirect any remaining damage to a nearby minion of your choice.

RED

  • Singularity [A]: Overcome using Technology. Use your Max+Min dice.
  • Reactive Plating Subroutine [R]: When you would be dealt damage, you may roll your single Absorption die as a Defend against that damage and as an Attack against a nearby target other than the source of that damage.

OUT

  • Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.

The new hero is Omnitron.

Of course it’s Omnitron. RevoCorp is currently being led by the heir of the company that created Omnitron, they want established superheroes, their whole thing is demonstrating atonement and redemption, Unity is the team leader, and Omnitron is newly-upgraded into its latest incarnation; Christopher and Adam have said in the past they consider each Omnitron a different character and each Omnitron iteration had a different color on the Omnitron timeline chart. Omnitron is the ‘new’ hero, a feint on par with “There is no future for Grand Warlord Voss”. I will be legitimately shocked if this is not the case.

So, onto the actual build notes. Created was pretty much a gimme. There were a lot of choices for Power Source (Tech Upgrades, Genius, and Artificial Being all would have worked) but I went with Experimentation; Omnitron keeps experimenting on and upgrading itself. It could have been a Robot/Cyborg of course, but I went with a Gadgeteer that builds new components and deploys them consistently; it doesn’t have access to its old temporal module any more, but is making good use of that energy adaptation ability.

Omnitron is also learning a bit about being a person now that it’s upgraded from Omnitron-U, hence the Inquisitive nature and using its retcon for a d6 social quality. It’s a curious new robot incarnation, eager to learn, but still interested in systems and things fitting together.

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Clockwork over Gearhead is an interesting choice there. Wonder what qualifies as a “simple tool” to a living robot? :slight_smile:

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To be fully transparent, I went with Clockwork over Gearhead because Unity is already a Gearhead and I wanted diversity of PCs, but I think it works - Omnitron in this incarnation (as presented by me) is interested in the whys as much as the whats, and is examining systems for the simple fulcrums on which they turn.

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Pssst, Friv, you might wanna double-check Parse’s surname. : )

Hmm, interesting choice to base her drones off of Gadgets rather than Robotics. I likely would’ve gone with the latter. Or for that matter, if all they’re used for is reconnaissance, wouldn’t the only power she needs for them be Remote Viewing? Or can they do other things to, I wonder?

I mean, even though she doesn’t have a Bow Signature Weaponry power or Ranged Combat quality or anything like that, I personally wouldn’t disallow her from attacking with one using, say, Intuition + well, basically any of her qualities could work, save maybe Technology (unless it’s a super high-tech bow, of course).

Yeah, Psychic’s a good choice for Parse that I might not’ve expected. An alternate build of her that was ultra-focused on the drones could be a Gadgeteer, though, methinks.

As for the “Will the books have more mechanical pieces?” topic, I’m inclined to suspect that they won’t. Of course, no one can really comprehend the twisted minds of the Creators, but my reasoning is that A) I think it’s fairly unnecessary. The corebook stuff already covers practically every possibility, and stuff like a Maerynian Power Source or Virtuoso of the Void Archetype just seem redundant. B) It would mess with the Guided Method. I suppose I don’t really know how important this is to the creators or the fanbase, though, so eh.

Yeah, I’m in the same boat regarding Omnitron; I think it’s supremely likely that it will be one of the Paradigms. I mean, would Unity really start her own team and not invite her best robot bud? : )

An interesting alternate Background for Omnitron could be Dynasty. Just sayin’.

No, yeah, I think Gadgeteer’s a better choice than Robot/Cyborg for Omni. In my view of it, Omni’s chassis and actual physical frame aren’t what it uses for doing stuff, but rather all the devices it deploys are.

Similarly, though, the inclusion of Fitness seem a touch odd to me. Omnitron never really struck me as one that was particularly physically powerful. I guess it is a robot, though.

Yeah, for such a team as the Paradigms who are practically all tech-focused, it seems like one must make a conscious effort to ensure a lack of overlap betwixt Principles, Power Sources, Archetypes, and such.

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Whoops! Fixed.

Hm. I assumed “Gadgets” because in my brain “Robotics” are a lot more autonomous, but I think you might be right. I’m going to update that. I assume that they do have other functions, but not a lot of other functions, hence the low die size and lack of tying them to Abilities.

Fitness got stuck there to represent generic robot resilience, yeah. Same thing on why it’s only a d6. You could probably use Living Robot for it and give him a different d6, though. Ranged Combat, perhaps?

And now, it is time for our final Paradigm! This time I don’t have a clever little bait and switch; I’ve actually done my best to look over characters in the Sentinel Comics universe whose RPG-era lives we don’t know a lot about, considered them against the four team members above, and picked out the one that I think is most likely to be the Paradigms’ fifth member. Without further ado, allow me to introduce…

Lab Rat

Real Name: Randy “Rot Mouth” Burke

Background: Blank Slate, Power Source: Tech Upgrades, Archetype: Physical Powerhouse

Personality: Lone Wolf

Principles: Rage, Stealth

Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d8, Health: 30

Qualities: Close Combat d10, Imposing d10, Alertness d8, Stealth d8, Sewer Rat d8

Powers: Strength d10, Awareness d10, Toxic d8, Tech Stabilizers (Vitality) d8

GREEN

  • Latch On [A]: Attack a target using Strength. Hinder that target with your Min die.
  • In Your Face [A]: Attack using Imposing. The target of that Attack must take an Attack action against you as its next turn, if possible.
  • Eat Up [R]: When you eliminate a minion with an Attack using Close Combat, Recover Health equal to your Min die.
  • Principle of Rage [A]: Overcome in a situation where you can channel your rage for good and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
  • Principle of Stealth [A]: Overcome to infiltrate somewhere or avoid detection and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.

YELLOW

  • Feral Instincts [A]: Boost using Awareness. Apply that bonus to all hero Attack and Overcome actions until the start of your next turn.
  • Blood for Blood [R]: When Attacked, treat the amount of damage you take as a Boost action for yourself.
  • Plague Rat (I): When you would take Toxic damage, you may Recover that amount of Health instead.

RED

  • Unleash the Beast [A]: Attack using Toxic. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Take a major twist.
  • Leash the Beast [A]: Hinder yourself using Tech Stabilizers. Use your Min die. Recover health equal to your Max+Mid dice.

OUT

  • Boost an ally by rolling your single Imposing die.

Okay, hear me out.

In the Universe 1 timeline, we know that RevoCorp’s earlier attempts to control Plague Rat and make him non-infectious actually had a positive effect; his mutations are receding and he’s much less violent, with the potential that his Randy Burke personality is starting to come out. What better former villain for RevoCorp to take in and try to turn into a superhero? What better character to be a foil to the rest of the team, a barely-restrained ball of rage that’s trying to do better?

I picked Blank Slate over Former Villain because Former Villain inexplicably provides no physical or mental options except for “Conviction”. Power Source was trickier; Plague Rat was originally created due to toxic exposure, then was experimented on by RevoCorp, and then got tech that stabilized his mutations, so I ultimately went with Tech Upgrades to represent the way that RevoCorp’s tech is stabilizing the rat and letting Burke be himself again (in large part because Accident didn’t give enough dice for the Archetype stage and I wanted something to provide toxin immunity), and then Physical Powerhouse because I mean, look at him. In Red, he can either go wild, becoming an infectious machine once again, or pull himself back from the edge with his tech stabilizers.

What I really want, once again, is a unique Archetype, in which Lab Rat’s powers automatically shift as his personal zone changes, so that he gets more Strength and Toxic and loses levels of Awareness and Tech Stabilizers. But that is not an Archetype that exists; Divided would just make him a werewolf, Form-Changer has too many forms and too much fluidity for obvious reasons, and nothing else quite works. So direct it is, and minor twists will have to represent the shift.

I have slightly cheated; traditionally, “Toxic” is a Materials power rather than an elemental one, but I’ve given it to him as an Elemental/Energy power because he’s inflicting toxic infection on people rather than directly manipulating it physically; his Retcon lets him use it with an ability that normally requires a Technological power to be attached to. At my own tables, I’d let the Toxic red stand and give him a d10 Red status die, but I’m trying to play by the rules here as much as possible.

There is one mark against Burke being on the Paradigms, and that is the fact that his name is Randy B. and Benchmark’s name is Randall B. I think that might be the sort of thing that amuses comics writers, though.

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I’m going to say that I’m the opposite and I expect the major sourcebooks to contain new mechanics, simply because it’s pretty normal for RPG sourcebooks to do that.

There’s also this from Episode 118 offhand:

That being said, they are working on a flaws/weaknesses system to be included as an additional rules option in the Dark Watch sourcebook that was funded during the Kickstarter.

The Guise book specifically wasn’t a major sourcebook in their minds, so we can’t really reason from it either way.

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Oh, missed this while I was updating!

I actually hope, although this is a bit of a long shot, that Dark Watch and similar books, in addition to including different creation options, include adjusted Guided Methods for their genres. For Dark Watch that would probably mean fewer cosmic/space options in favor of grittier choices. For Prime Wardens, maybe more weird cosmic stuff and less grounded choices. That sort of thing.

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