Saturday, March 19, 2016

Making MHR Characters: Fight-Man (ANOHotMU #4)

Frank Bigelow is an idiot with a violent temper and the self-control one typically associates with a toddler.

Unfortunately, he pretty much has the Superman suite of super-powers. Somewhat hilariously, he also premiered at the start of the 90s, when Marvel was going through its extreme phase, with overly violent heroes in virtually every title.

I've never read a Fight-Man comic, but the descriptions I've read caused me to write this profile with this question in mind: "What would happen if Superman were an idiot with no basic sense of decency?"

What also stuck out to me is that he really does seem to make most of his own problems - this is a great character to play if you're the kind of player who wants to play a character that makes life more complicated for everyone. Really, he sounds like an ideal character for the Watcher to bring in as an "ally" who's more trouble than he's worth.

Fight-Man
Solo 1d6
Buddy 1d10
Team 1d8


Distinctions
For Great Justice
So, So Hated
Utter Imbecile


Mysterious Powers
Energy Blasts 1d10
Flight 1d10
Godlike Durability 1d12
Godlike Stamina 1d12
Godlike Strength 1d12
SFX: Berkserk - Add a die to the doom pool to one or more attack actions. Step up the doom pool die by +1 for each action; return it to the doom pool when you’re done.
SFX: Collateral Damage - Instead of spending 1 PP, add 1d6 to the doom pool to create a Mysterious Powers stunt.
SFX: Dangerous - Add a 1d6 to your dice pool for an attack action and step back the highest die in the pool by -1. Step up physical stress inflicted by +1.
SFX: Invulnerable - Spend 1 PP to ignore physical stress or trauma unless caused by asphyxiation.
SFX: Multipower - Use two or more Msyteirous Power powers in a single pool at -1 step for each additional power.
SFX: Unleashed - Step up or double any Mysterious Powers power for one action. If the action fails, add a die to the doom pool equal to the normal rating of your power die.
Limit: It Can Always Be Worse - Both 1s and 2s on your dice count as opportunities when using a Mysterious Power power.
Limit: Uncontrollable - Change any Mysterious Powers power into a complication and gain 1 PP. Activate an opportunity to remove the complication to recover the power.


Specialties
Acrobatic Expert 1d8
Combat Expert 1d8
Menace Expert 1d8

Making MHR Characters: Feron (ANOHotMU #4)

I picked up the Excalibur graphic novel with some trepidation. I knew several of the characters, but flipping through the pages, it looked really weird and chaotic and . . . oddly British. I can't quite put that into words properly, but it really did. I loved it, though, and the monthly series went on my pull list . . . for about twenty issues before I just petered out.

I don't know which issue it was, exactly, whether it was an issue of the characters or the plot or the art, but I distinctly remember lifting it out of my folder at One Million Comics and thinking, "Meh," and just removing it.

About two years later, I picked up an issue on a whim and it was . . . something. I think I must've come in mid-arc because there were all of these characters who barely got name-checked but were obviously main parts of the story, including a sullen, spiky-haired teenager with mystic powers. That, it turns out, was Feron. He seemed like a jerk, but now I understand why.

He was destined from birth to take on the mantle of the Phoenix Force when the Anti-Phoenix appeared. He was waited on, hand and foot, and never permitted to touch the ground because when he did, the Phoenix Force would come to him. Only when he did, the Phoenix Force was already in Rachel Summers. Awkward.

I'm not entirely certain when that surly pre-teen was recast as the albino love-child of Matthew Broderick's character from The Name of the Rose and Neil Gaiman, but evidently that did happen and his character improved. A bit. Maybe. It's all a little fuzzy.

Anyhow, this is my first turn at a mystical-type character, and I think it works well. I can definitely see this being a fun character to play, and might consider doing so myself some time.

Feron
Afffiliations
Solo 1d10
Buddy 1d6
Team 1d8

Distinctions
Called By Destiny
Phoenix Child
Youngling

Mystic Training
Enhanced Durability 1d8
Flight 1d8
Mystic Blast 1d10
Mystic Resistance 1d10
Mystic Senses 1d8
Sorcery 1d10
SFX: Multipower - Use two or more Mystic Training powers in a single dice pool at -1 step for each additional power.
SFX: Mystic Constructs - Add 1d6 and step up your effect die by +1 when using Mystic Training to create constructs.
SFX: Unleashed - Step up or double and Mystic Training power for one action. If the action fails, add a die to the doom pool equal to the normal power die.
Limit: Conscious Activation - If stressed out, asleep, or unconscious, shut down Mystic Training. Recover Mystic Training when stress is recovered or you awake. If mental trauma is taken, shutdown Mystic Training until trauma is recovered.
Limit: Exhausted - Shutdown a Mystic Training power to gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or recovering during a Transition Scene.

Specialties
Cosmic Expert 1d8
Mystic Master 1d10
Psych Expert 1d8

Making MHR Characters: Father Time (ANOHotMU #4)

Wow. How the heck did the a hero from this time period show up in . . . oh, there was an All-Winners Squad book with Father Time in it a few years after this published. That's cool.

So, this guy is yet another relatively tired Batman knockoff. His shtick is that he ran out of time when trying to prove his father's innocence, so he did what any reasonable businessman of that time period did - he put on a pair of long-johns, grabbed a hood, and set out for great justice.

Still, whether as a time-travelling hero or a period piece hero, he's really kind of cool.

Father Time
Affiliations
Solo 1d10
Buddy 1d6
Team 1d8

Distinctions
Always Leaves A Calling Card
Driven To Right Wrongs
Time Works Against Me

Time Gear
Enhanced Durability 1d8
Scythe 1d8
SFX: Clever Tool - Add a 1d6 and step up your effect die by +1 when using Scythe to create stunts.
Limit: Gear - Shutdown Time Gear and gain 1 pp. To recover, take an action vs. doom pool.

Specialties
Agility Expert 1d8
Business Expert 1d8
Combat Expert 1d8
Covert Expert 1d8
Crime Expert 1d8
Menace Expert 1d8

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Making MHR Characters: Fallen One (ANOHotMU #4)

Tryco Slatterus, the Champion of the Univ-wait, wait, no, the Fallen One. Oh, man, was that a delicious plotline Wasn't that great.

And, sincerely, I have to give credit to Marvel for this - they waited over 20 years before making him fall, and then they gave the title to She-Hulk. For a misogynist ass like him, that had to hurt.

Anyone, Tryco Slatter, former champion of the universe, is an Eternal dedicated to perfecting his physical form, and the face that his first words in comics weren't "Dost though even lift?" will no doubt haunt Tom DeFalco until his dying day.

Seriously, though, look at that cheese-monkey. receding hairline, excessing long hair casually tossed across his shoulders, ornate bracers, skin-tight trunks and leggings, and a champion belt that looks like he made it in auto shop. He's a total and utter meathead, and utterly obliviously about it, and I kind of love that he's been one of the bigger movers and shakers in a couple of cosmic plotlines despite that.

This write-up is pretty much immediately after his defeat, when he's as the weakest he's ever been and may ever be. I think if I were the boost him up, it would be mostly with bonus SFX, although I might go a little cosmic and give him some extra affiliation dice, especially for solo, when he's at his peak.

By the way, I don't know how many more Elders there are in the books I'll be doing, but I intend to give all of them an "Eternal [Power Set]," representing that this is the thing they've always done. I'm not sure if that's confusing, though.

Fallen One
Affiliations
Solo 1d10
Buddy 1d6
Team 1d8


Distinctions
Chauvinistic Pig
Disgraced Champion
Smarter Than He Looks - But He Don’t Look Smart


“Eternal” Champion
Godlike Durability 1d12
Godling Strength 1d12
Superhuman Reflexes 1d10
Superhuman Speed 1d10
Superhuman Stamina 1d10
SFX: Dangerous - Add 1d6 to your dice pool for an attack action and step back the highest die in the pool by -1. Step up stress by +1.
SFX: Immunity - Spend a die from the doom pool to ignore stress, trauma or complications from poison, disease or radiation.
SFX: Immortality - Spend a die from the doom poor to ignore a source of physical stress.
Limit: Exhausted - Add a die to the doom pool and shut down an “Eternal” Champion power. Activate an opportunity to reactivate that power.


Specialties
Acrobatics Expert 1d8
Combat Grandmaster 1d12
Cosmic Expert 1d8
Menace Master 1d10


History
Tryco Slatterus is one of the Elders of the Universe, a survivor of one of the first races to become sentient after the Big Bang. Like all of his fellow Eternals, he has dedicated his life to a single pursuit - in his case, combat. He claims to have defeated millions of foes over the years, and has defeated many of Earth’s greatest champions since his first appearance.


Despite his less subtle pursuit of perfecting individual violence, he was also a major player in the efforts of his fellow Elders that resulted in most of them being banished from Death’s realm, becoming effectively immortal, and later was the recipient of one of the Infinity Stones, the Power Stone, which eventually drove him to not just defeat his opponents, but to kill them, and sometimes even wipe out their host planets.


Eventually he was outwitted, outmaneuvered and outfought by She-Hulk, who trained hard for her fight and tricked him into giving up the Power Stone. He is now plotting with one of She-Hulk’s greatest foes, Titania, to help gain his revenge.


Personality
Tryco is a braggart and a bully by nature, and even those who are allied with him generally do so because he’s powerful and strong, and thus an expedient ally, not because they like him.


Under the influence of the Power Stone, that braggadocio was heightened and his bullying turned to cruelty and sadism.


Now that the Stone, and his championship, have been stripped from him, he’s angry, bitter and unpredictable. All anyone can know is that he is going to do his best to hurt She-Hulk as much as he was hurt.


Abilities & Resources
Tryco is astoundingly strong and durable, having spent a million lifetimes perfecting his physical body at the expense of all else. While he had the Power Gem, he relied heavily on the extra power it gave, and some of his abilities slipped a little bit as a result. He is a highly trained combatant, a master of the martial arts of thousands of races.

He relies on friends, allies and even fight promoters to get him from place to place, lacking the capacity to use his cosmic power to travel through space on his own. Despite his personality, he still has admirers in some parts of the universe who are willing to help him, and he is at least on speaking terms with his fellow Elders.

Making MHR Characters: Eternal Brain (ANOHotMU #4)

The Eternal Brain is an excellent example of the kind of thing that can happen to a Marvel character with a too-long history and too-little care to its continuity.

On paper, he's a classic 40s science action hero - a humble researcher working on prolonging the human consciousness, his daughter is kidnapped by a lesbian on behalf of an Asian stereotype, and in the process he's turned in a brain in a jar. Y'know, as happens.

The character was picked up later, where he's now a tiny, shrunken "homunculus" that gets installed in a series of robots, finally settling on Walkabout, a physically powerful form that enables him to join a wartime era group of heroes named Front Line before dying in battle against an alien threat.

But wait, there's more - recenter events, it was revealed in the pages of a comic where an anthropomorphic duck faces off against an army of zombies that he's actually an Eternal, like Ikaris, Thena and the rest of Kirby's lovely creations, who focused his mighty cosmic energies on developing the power of his brain. And, of course, sacrifices himself by exposing his tasty brains to an invading horde of zombies and getting eaten.

I'm going to pretend that last paragraph didn't happen, because it's really, really dumb. We're going with Eternal Brain just before his final and heroic death.

Eternal Brain
Affiliation
Solo 1d8
Buddy 1d8
Team 1d10


Distinctions
Action Science Hero
Brain in a Jar
Hidden Past


Walkabout
Enhanced Reflexes 1d8
Enhanced Speed 1d8
Flight 1d8
Superhuman Durability 1d10
Superhuman Stamina 1d10
Superhuman Strength 1d10
SFX: Boost - Shutdown your highest rated Walkabout power to step up another Walkabout power by +1. Recover power by activating an opportunity or recover during a Transition Scene.
SFX: Second Wind - Before you make an action including a Walkabout power, you may move your physical stress die to the doom pool and step up the Walkabout power by +1.
Limit: Complex Gear - Shut down Walkabout and gain 1 PP. Take an action against the doom pool to recover.


The Brain
Mind Control 1d8
Psychic Resistance 1d10
Psychic Senses 1d8
Telepathy 1d10
SFX: Area Attack - Add 1d6 and keep an additional effect die for each additional target.
SFX: Burst - Step up or double a The Brain power against a single target. Remove the highest rolling die and add 3 dice for your roll.
Limit: Exhausted - Shutdown a The Brain power to gain 1 pp. Activate an opportunity or recover during a Transition Scene to recover the power.


Specialties
Medical Expert 1d8
Psych Expert 1d8
Science Master 1d10
Tech Master 1d10
Vehicle Expert 1d8