Making MHR Characters: Ego (ANOHotMU #4)

Aw, man.

In case you can't tell, I'm putting up the first few weeks of these builds quietly, not promoting them at all, so I can have at least a vague concept of what I'm doing before I open myself up to criticism by the greater gaming community. So far, I've only done two builds: a C-league mastermind and a C-league villain from the pages of a now-cancelled comic book. No harm, no foul.

This week? Ego. Ego the frickin' living planet.

Aw, man.

If I were better at this, I'd probably do something cool where Ego isn't statted up as a character but is instead a nested series of Scene Distinctions, or he's a series of encounters with the smaller pieces of him that eventually lead up to a big brawl in his brain. There are two problems with this - I don't know how to do the former, and the kind of people capable of the latter are, well, Galactus. And he usually loses.

Needless to say, this means I had to make Ego one bad mother.

The good news is that have at least a passing familiarity with the character from a variety of sources - the original Thor comics, a Marvel Adventures title, his appearance on the animated Avengers series, and a couple of issues of the time he spent hobnobbing with the Eternals of the Universe. I have at least a basic understanding of how he works, if not a perfect one.

Consequently, this time around I'm going to try writing up the History, Personality and Powers & Resources sections. The history section will only go up the end of the entry in the Official Handbook I'm working from.

(Note: I'm giving him Warp Flight because that makes him a more interesting villain - I know he's had that ability fairly rarely, but I think it works here. In some scenarios, I'd consider making the warp engine into its own Power Set, with a tendency to throw out complications.)

Ego

Solo 5d10

Buddy 3d6

Team 4d8

Distinctions

Giant Ego

Power Hungry

Slightly Crazy

The Living Planet

Appendages 1d12

Biosphere Control 1d12

Energy Blast 1d12

Godlike Durability 1d12

Godlike Stamina 1d12

Godlike Strength 1d12

Shapeshifting 1d12

Warp Flight 1d12

SFX: Fear My Great Power - Spend a die from the doom pool to ignore any stress from any source.

SFX: I Am Everywhere - Add a 1d10 and keep an additional effect die for each additional target.

SFX: I Draw Your Strength From Your Bones - Whenever you inflict physical stress, step back any stress or trauma by 1.

SFX: I Give You Eden - If you target emotional or social stress with Biosphere Control, increase the effect die by 1.

SFX: I Summon My Defenders - When you create a Biosphere Control stunt, you can create an antibody instead. If the effect die of the stunt is above 1d12, you can create an additional antibody.

SFX: I Will Turn Your Power Against You - On a successful reaction against an energy attack, convert your opponent’s effect die into a The Living Planet stunt or step up a The Living Planet power by +1 for your next action. Spend a die from the doom pool to use this stunt if your opponent’s action succeeds. If the reaction was against a cosmic energy attack, you do not need to spend a die from the doom pool if your opponent’s action succeeds, and step up your effect die by +1 on your next action.

SFX: None Shall Harm Me - When you would take physical stress, spend a die from the doom pool to prevent that stress and immediately put an antibody into play.

Limit: No! It Cannot Be! - When Biosphere Control is shut down, shut down The Living Planet power set and add 1d12 to the doom pool. Activate an opportunity to reactivate Biosphere Control and The Living Planet power set.

Ego

Psychic Resistance 1d12

Telepathy 1d12

Total Awareness 1d12

SFX: I Am Everywhere - Ego can use Telepathy on anyone and everyone he is aware of on his surface.

SFX: Vicious Mockery - 1s and 2s count as opportunities when rolling against Ego.

SFX: You Dare Mock Me! - Add a die to the doom pool to put your emotional stress die into the doom pool and step it up 1.

Limit: If any Ego power is shut down, shut down all powers and Ego becomes inert.

Specialties: Cosmic Grandmaster 1d12, Menace Grandmaster 1d12, Tech Master 1d10

History

Like the Elders of the Universe, Galactus and other beings of cosmic consonance, Ego is either almost as old as the universe, or older. His interactions with humanity have only beginning relatively recently, when Thor went to his apparent home in the Black Galaxy and persuaded him - by force - to not venture toward Earth.

Despite this, Ego has attacked Earth, both directly and indirectly, several times in the ensuing decades, although these intrusions have always been fended off by some combination of Earth’s mightiest. Most recently, he was among those who fought Thanos during the mad Titan’s latest bid to destroy and/or conquer all of reality.

Personality

Ego has earned his sobriquet - he’s immensely prideful, hatefully arrogant and cruel. That great, thundering ego has proved to be his greatest weakness as he often underestimates the power of the mortals he interacts with. He’s also duplicitous and untrustworthy, to the extent that people are more likely to side with Galactus when those two come to blows.

On occasion he’s shown a more tender and nurturing side, taking in refugees or stray life forms from the cosmos, but soon enough these moods turn and he wipes his biosphere clean and starts again.

Powers and Resources

As a planet, Ego doesn’t really lack for much. He has total control over every inch of his surface which he frequently uses to create “antibodies” to harry and attack foes on his surface, and cosmic power so tremendous it made Galactus feel like a “mote.” The scale of his power is pretty well incalculable, but he isn’t without weaknesses - most of the time he lacks his own source of propulsion and has been sabotaged in the past by simply guiding him to a dead zone of space and abandoning him there.

He has few allies at this point, although the Elders of the Universe have worked with him in the past and might do so in future, if it suits one of their far-reaching and complex designs.

Anitbody

Solo 1d6

Buddy 1d8

Team 1d10

Distinctions

Mindless Brute

Persistent

Made Of His Flesh

Superhuman Durability 1d10

Superhuman Stamina 1d10

Superhuman Strength 1d10

SFX: Durable - Add a die to the doom pool to add your physical stress die to the doom pool.

Limit: Bound to the Planet - Antibodies can’t act against anyone that isn’t in Ego’s atmosphere.

Limit: Natural Extensions - When Ego is shut down, shut down all antibodies. When Ego takes stress, all antibodies take stress.

Making MHR Characters: 8-Ball (ANOHotMU #4)

Damon Dran, my first try at this.

8-Ball has a billiard ball for a head, wield a pool cue for a weapon and throws explosive cueballs. Occasionally, he rides a giant 8-ball.

His nemesis? This guy, Sleepwalker.

It . . . it was the 90s.

Anyway, needless to say, 8-Ball isn't a main villain. The cue has a neat trick, though - when 8-Ball is struck, it returns the force of that strike "a thousand-fold." It's a nice touch, and one I've put into this build, as a way to distinguish him from a common mook and because, well, it makes a fight against him a little bit dangerous. He's not a challenge for a group of heroes, but if you don't take him down with physical stress quickly, or target emotional or social, he can drop some damage.

8-Ball

Solo 1d8

Buddy 1d4

Team 1d6

Distinctions

Low-Rent Crook

Gambling Man

Thinks He’s the Boss

Billiard Ball Tech

Explosive Cue Balls 1d8

Electricity Control 1d6

SFX: Area Attack - Add 1d6 and keep an additional effect die for each additional target.

Limit: Gear - Shutdown Billiard Ball Tech and step up or add 1d6 to the Doom Pool. Spend 1d6 from the Doom Pool to recover.

Cue Stick

Superhuman Strength 1d8

SFX: Retributive Strike - Spend a die from the Doom Pool to use your physical stress die on attacks, and return the die stepped down by 1.

Specialties: Crime Expert 1d8, Science Expert 1d8, Tech Expert 1d8

Hands (For My Wife)

Piety would have me say that when the stage lights dim

And I reach out my hand one final time,

I want it to be Jesus who grabs it,

Who hefts me up into heaven with a grunt,

Claps my shoulder and says,

“Well done, old boy, well done.”

But that’s a lie.

I want to be your hand

One more time.

My hands are big and clumsy - not strong, just oafish.

Your hands seemed so small, like flowers.

I was afraid I’d crush them.

Then you punched my shoulder.

I learned fast.

I’ve seen your hands knead dough, life laundry baskets, stop softballs,

Knit socks, thread needles, apply bandaids.

I’ve seen them tremble.

I’ve seen then hold steady.

I know those hands now.

The difference between an, “It’s gonna be all right,” squeeze,

“Is it going to be all right?”

And just, “I’m here.”

Paul (or was it John?) had it right -

I want to hold your hand.

At the end, at the beginning and all the parts in between.

I may only do it on occasion now

(There always seem to be a kid, a cat or something else in the way)

But if my hands ever seem restless.

It’s because they’re lonely without their partner.

The Project Begins: Making MHR Characters: Damon Dran (ANOHotMU #4)

I’m beginning the process of creating my first Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game Event, and as part of it, I’m going to be building a lot of obscure characters. That’s because the idea of this game is, “What happened to everyone who wasn’t a cosmically powerful character who was caught up in the Annihilation Wave?”

Well, the logical thought is that they were consumed by a giant horde of ravenous bugs, but where’s the romance in that? Well, somewhere in the alimentary tract of a giant beetle, but that’s getting ahead of things.

Anyhow, apart from the heavy hitters - Nova, Quasar, Super-Skrull, Phylla-Vell - the lesser characters either get eaten off-stage or aren’t seen at all. Now, these are characters like Razorback, the lesser Spaceknights and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. They aren’t especially well-known, and their appearances are either infrequent or don’t give much indication of their character. So, I’m grabbing my copies of the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, selecting a random issue, and writing up MHR stat blocks for every character in the book that gets a stat block of its own.

The goal here isn’t necessarily to be faithful to the character so much as to make an interesting and useful character, and one that sensible fits the theme.

Starting with . . . Damon Dran? Who the bejeezus is Damon Dran. Well, he’s this guy. Ugh, what a genuinely terrible entry. I mean, that’s a pretty awful wiki most of the time, but they aren’t usually that directly contradictory.

Anyway, his entry in the Handbook basically paints him as this guy who absorbed the powers of a doodad called “the Globe” that made him indestructible. He works with a bunch of minions who aren’t part of any named organization and regularly gets his tail kicked by Black Widow and SHIELD. So, we’re building a megalomaniac you can’t down with force.

I’m seeing him as being a little like those main boss guys in JRPGs who look so deadly, dangerous and badass that you try to take them down and ignore the horde of minions around them that are the actual problem. He won’t actually be attacking the heroes much at all, but will instead be marshalling small armies of troops (not pictured here).

If I were to use him in a scheme, I’d give him a second, gadget-centered Power Set. Maybe just blasters and jet boots (giving him an Attack and Flight power), but hopefully something more interesting than that, unless he’s an underboss. This will also give the players something with a Limit they can target - the Globe Power Set is nifty, but not so useful for someone who likes to lead from the back.

Damon Dran

Affiliations Solo 1d8 Buddy 1d6 Team 1d10

Distinctions Hatred of SHIELD

“I’m Unstoppable!”

“Minions! Get Them!”

Power Sets

Globe Powers

Enhanced Strength 1d8

Godlike Durability 1d12

Godlike Stamina 1d12

SFX: Indestructible. Pay one die from the doom pool to ignore any physical stress.

SFX: Shake It Off. Pay one die from the doom pool to recover your physical stress and step back your physical trauma by -1.
Limit: Giant Ego - Step up mental stress and add 1d6 to the doom pool when his pride is wounded.
Specialties: Business Expert 1d8, Covert Expert 1d8, Crime Expert 1d8, Menace Exper 1d8, Tech Expert 1d8

Grief

It was late February 2015, about two weeks after I got home from my mom’s funeral. The nights were still brutally cold, and I sat downstairs curled up in a chair under a blanket. At about nine o’clock in the evening, two hours after he’d gone to bed, Brandon started wailing. I took the steps two at a time getting up to him, held him close, comforted him as best I could. When he could talk, I asked him what was wrong and he said, “I forget what she sounds like.”

He held me close, comforted me as best he could, and I tried to reciprocate. After five minutes or so of this, we were capable of speech again, and he explained that, yes, indeed, he couldn’t remember the sound of his grandmother’s voice. I assured him that it was okay, it was probably temporary because when we get worried that we can’t remember something our stupid brains actually shut down our ability to remember things.

He asked how he could make sure that he never forgot her completely and I said, honestly, that he really couldn’t make sure of it. Time passes, things change and while you can always try, sometimes people fade in your memory, and that’s okay. It’s natural, and normal, just part of being a person, but he could.

He asked if there was anything he could do to help remember her and I asked him if he knew why, every once in awhile, I put my hand on the middle of my chest. He didn’t, so I told him - that’s where I keep my memories of the people I’ve lost. When something happens that makes me remember them, I put my hand there because our bodies are connected to our brains and so motions like this help us remember.

“Is that what grief is?” he asked. I didn’t answer. How could I? I’ve had my losses, sure, but I can’t really define grief for someone else. Not really.

I’ve lost a couple of friends. I lost my last grandparent just or so ago. And, yeah, my mom, the biggest hole in my heart, but I couldn’t find a way to define grief for him, not in a way that made sense. I have a policy with my boys, that if I don’t know the answer to their question, I’ll tell them so.

“I don’t know,” I said, finally. “I don’t know. Maybe it is. Maybe grief is something that means something different for each person who feels it.”

We talked on for a bit about whether grief and sadness are the same thing, about whether or not you can ever get to a point where you don’t feel grief anymore, that sort of thing. All told, I was with him for about an hour.

One night just recently, I picked Brandon up from a school event to bring him to church for AWANA. It’d been a busy day for him, so I wasn’t surprised to see that he was a little tired, but as we walked out to the car he let out a deep sigh that seemed to come from somewhere other than fatigue.

“You all right, buddy?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “I’m all right.” He then asked me a question about tigers and so we occupied ourselves until we got to church. The entire time, though, he never really looked up from the ground.

We got to the gym just in time to line up for the start of club, and so he went to his group and I went to the group I lead. I looked across at him, still standing there, eyes a bit downcast, looking at his feet.

He put his hand over his heart and said something - “I love you,” or “I miss you.” I couldn’t tell, honestly.

I didn’t talk to him about it that night, or since. I hugged him extra hard and told him I loved him more often, and made some plans to hang out together that weekend, and that seemed to cheer him up, though.

That, I think, is grief. It’s not a definition, I know, but I think maybe that is, in the end, the lesson that I needed to learn here. Maybe grief is something that can’t really be defined because it’s a bit different for each person, for each moment of grief. Even when it’s shared.

The only reaction I have to the people who terrorized Paris today

And I think maybe the only one I can have.

Now, pardon me, I have to hold my family close.