T
his chapter features a collection of threats associated with Emerald City and can be used in a number of ways depending on your needs.First, you should have no trouble finding villains for your players’ heroes to face! All the work of writing up these char-acters has been done for you, so you can spend your time coming up with a fun game to run for your friends! Second, this chapter is filled with information to inspire story ideas:
long-term and short-term plots by villains. You can borrow and build off the adventure hooks included with each villain write-up to help create your Emerald City adventures.
Third, you can use the information in this chapter to inspire your own heroes and villains. Pick and choose powers you like, adapt them to the character concept and power level you want, and with a little bit of work you have a new creation that’s all your own! Work new heroes and villains into the backgrounds of the villains in this chapter to build a new hero with hidden ties to the Malakov Mafiya, for example, or owing some payback to the Big Brain or F.O.E.
Entries in this chapter include game information so you can use the characters in your M&M games. Each entry follows a few rules to make them consistent and easier to understand at a glance.
All characters are presented in their super-powered identity. In addition, characters with permanent
modi-fiers to their abilities due to a power are presented with their modifiers already taken into account in their game traits.
If a character can vary their abilities in some way, say due to the Growth power or because they can change forms somehow, then there are two numbers separated by a slash; the first number reflects the character’s “normal” or default trait, the second the modified trait rank or value.
Characters lacking Powers, Equipment, Advantages, or Skills don’t have a space for that category of ability.
A character with the Equipment advantage may have al-located only some of their equipment points. If this is the case, you can spend the remaining points as you see fit.
Usually this means the character varies his or her arsenal depending on the circumstances. You may also elect to leave those points unspent to avoid the additional book-keeping. Those characters accompanied by a list of equip-ment always show what that character typically carries.
Skills and Advantages granted by powers (using the En-hanced Trait effect) appear both in the listing for that power and in the Skills or Advantages section of the char-acter in italics. These aren’t the same skill or advantage purchased multiple times, instead they’re included under their appropriate headings for ease of reference.
The Offense section of a character includes short-hand notations about the character’s attack values and
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CHAPTER 4: EMERALD CITY UNDERWORLD
REAL NAME: Copernicus Oliver OCCUPATION: Head of F.O.E.
BASE: Emerald City
In the 1960s, Copernicus Oliver was touted on televi-sion quiz shows as “The Smartest Boy in the World”, and amassed a small fortune in winnings and endorsements before his fame waned after he failed to answer a single question correctly during Beatles Day on the show Q and A. His fame faded and he became another footnote in the history of the Golden Age of Television.
Embarrassed, Oliver escaped the public eye, buying a sailboat called Friendly and setting out to sail around the world.
Desperate to avoid England, Oliver set a course that took him across the At-lantic and then directly down the coast of Africa. Sailing was smooth until the Friendly was suddenly caught up in a storm that wrecked the boat on a rocky shore. Before he could be rescued, Oliver contracted a rare tropical disease that caused his brain to swell, putting him into a coma for three months.
When Oliver awakened, he found himself at home in a hospital—and smarter than ever! Discovering he was also still in the grips of a fatal disease, Oliver turned his intelligence to finding a cure. Facing failure after six months of fevered research, Oliver instead at-tempted to accelerate the course of the disease, in hopes that he could unlock more of the power of his brain.
Injecting himself with an experimental formula, Oliver screamed as his brain swelled against the confines of his skull. A thousand voices crowded into his mind, and he pushed back with a single command: “QUIET!”
As everyone in the hospital paused at the voice they heard in their head, Copernicus Oliver died... and the Big Brain was born. Discovering that he could now speak to and command the minds of others, the Big Brain di-rected doctors to keep him alive and to remove the top of his skull to allow his brain to grow. Once that was ac-complished, he needed a place to stay since the hospital and his old home were of no use to him. In order to build it, he’d need money... much more than he currently had.
The Big Brain searched through the minds of the city until he found a criminal planning a bank robbery. The Big Brain helped him improve his plan in return for some of the proceeds from the robbery—the same deal the
THE BIG BRAIN
Brain would strike with dozens of other criminals as he assembled his new organization: F.O.E.. Initially, the Big Brain needed the money for himself, but over the years he’s come to enjoy the challenge of bringing villains to-gether for missions and the power he has over a small army of super-beings.
about those powers and may not even include all of the powers or abilities that character is capable of using. Be sure to look at the full write-up of the character’s powers and advantages in order to learn exactly what they’re capable of and what your options are.
notes above will help if something is unclear. If a character breaks any of the guidelines above, that will be made clear in the character’s entry either with notes called out using asterisks or with information in that character’s Powers &
Abilities section.
78 CHAPTER 5: EMERALD CITY THREATS CHAPTER 5: EMERALD CITY THREATS
THE BIG BRAIN PL12
STR STA AGL DEX FGT INT AWE PRE
-1 0 -2 -2 -2 10 12 3
POWERS
Mental Prowess: Enhanced Trait 1 (Improved Initiative);
Quickness 4 (Limited—Mental Tasks); Senses 8 (Accurate Acute Radius Detect Mental, Mental Awareness, Radius (visual)) • 11 points
Power of the Mind!: Array (48 points)
• Mental Blast: Perception Range Damage 12, Resisted by Will • 48 points
• Mass Mental Domination: Burst Area Selective Mind Control 8 • 1 point
• Mental Domination: Perception Ranged, Cumulative Affliction, Resisted by Will (Entranced, Compelled, Controlled) • 1 point
• Mind Probe: Mind Reading 12 • 1 point
Telepathic Presence: Selective Area Mental Communication 4 (Worldwide); Remote Sensing 20 (4,000 mile range (Auditory, Mental, Visual)), Feature (Projected image of disembodied brain), Feedback, Subtle 2 • 63 points
SKILLS
Deception 7 (+10), Expertise: Crime 6 (+16), Intimidation 14 (+17), Perception 10 (+22), Persuasion 9 (+12)
ADVANTAGES
Eidetic Memory, Improved Initiative, Jack-of-all-trades, Speed of Thought*, Ultimate Effort (Will checks)
*See the Appendix.
OFFENSE
INITIATIVE +14
Mental Blast — Perception Range, Damage 12, Resisted by Will (DC 22)
Mental
Domination — Perception Range, Mind Control 12, Resisted by Will (DC 22)
DEFENSE
DODGE -2 FORTITUDE 6
PARRY -2 TOUGHNESS 20/0*
WILL 18
*Toughness 20 when using Remote Sensing, Toughness 0 for his normal body.
POWER POINTS
ABILITIES 36 SKILLS 23
POWERS 125 DEFENSES 12
ADVANTAGES 4 TOTAL 200
COMPLICATIONS
Freakishly Large Brain: Though the Big Brain can project his senses, will, and powers around the world, his body is mostly useless and his head is too large to move under his own power.
Motivation—Power: The Big Brain wants power. He wants to prove to the world that he’s the smartest, most influential criminal on the planet.
F.O.E.’s members assume the giant, disembodied brain that issues them orders is merely a projection disguising their leader’s true nature. Little do they suspect that the Big Brain’s actual appearance isn’t far off: a gigantic brain atop a nearly atrophied human body hidden away in a secret, secured lo-cation far away, projecting his will around the world!
PERSONALITY
The Big Brain is a thinker and a planner. Almost all other aspects of his personality have been left by the wayside over the years. He cares little for companionship and has little interest in the “animal” concerns of the physical world.
He keeps his body alive because without it he will perish.
The one thing he enjoys in life is feeling superior, which he prefers to achieve by outsmarting others. He abhors vio-lence and only involves himself in combat when all other avenues have been exhausted. He prefers to let his under-lings handle any violent confrontations, while he remains behind the scenes to direct their activities.
POWERS & ABILITIES
The Big Brain is one of the most—if not the most—power-ful telepaths in the world, with the ability to project his consciousness anywhere on Earth, communicate with and mentally control others, inflict debilitating mental attacks,
and read minds. However, physically, he’s a paraplegic with a brain so large and deformed his body is incapable of supporting it and his atrophied body has been bedrid-den for decades. If his body is found and threatened, he may be able to defend it by surrounding it with his mental projection, but if that’s not possible, he is defenseless.
ALLIES
Formerly, the Big Brain was allied with the other members of the Chamber. He never trusted them, of course, but he
HOW DO THE BIG BRAIN’S POWERS WORK?
The Big Brain has an unusual set of powers. The key to them is his Telepathic Presence, with it, he projects an image of a disembodied brain through which he can com-municate (telepathically) and use all of his mental powers.
His mental projection has two ranks of Subtle, so, while it can be clearly seen, it can’t be traced back to his physical body and it can be attacked. You may need to point that out to players the first time they encounter the Big Brain, because it may not be obvious (especially to new players).
Attacks that target the projection can cause the Big Brain harm; he’s easy to hit, but difficult to actually harm because of his low active defenses and very high Toughness.
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ousies and newfound “morals.” The Big Brain’s only other allies are those who work for him: the members of F.O.E.
and the Professor as well as the mentally-dominated Iron Matron. Beyond them, his contact with the rest of human-ity is limited… just the way he likes it.
ENEMIES
The other former members of the Chamber make the Big Brains list of enemies, simply because they’re ambitious and they know too much about him and his operation.
Outside of that, the Big Brain has few enemies because so few know who he is, what he does, and how to find him. Anyone who thwarts too many of his plans definitely makes his list of enemies. code-name from her detailed knowledge of Eastern
medi-oped. SHADOW’s founder, Over-shadow, sent her to recruit the Big Brain while he was still in the hospital.
Overshadow felt the nascent super-villain would make an excellent addi-tion to SHADOW’s growing stable of super-powered operatives. However, if the Big Brain refused his generous
offer, the Iron Matron was to eliminate him, making it appear his artificial life support had failed. But Overshadow underes-timated the Big Brain’s powers, even at that early stage of his development. The budding criminal mastermind saw what the Iron Matron had in store for him in the recesses of Nata-lie’s consciousness, so he took control of her. She has been his slave ever since and is his primary caregiver, most effec-tive bodyguard, and personal assassin.
The Iron Matron is an extraordinarily skilled martial artist, knowledgeable in many techniques that have helped make her an efficient and dangerous killer. Through the concentrated focus of her Chi, she can toughen her skin to an almost iron-like hardness, which has the added benefit of turning her hands into bone-shattering implements of destruction. Though she does not eschew the use of weapons, she rarely has need of them.
The Big Brain has instilled undying love and loyalty in the Iron Matron. She dedicates her life to his survival, seeing to his every need and is willing to sacrifice herself to protect him from harm. She obeys without question, and the grip he has on her mind and heart has grown so strong that he barely has to reinforce it any longer. He, on the other hand sees the Iron Matron as little more than a faithful dog, useful and nice to have around, but ultimately just another tool to be used. Truthfully, Natalie is a shell of her former self. What she does, she does by rote. When she’s not taking care of the Big Brain or on a mission for him, she trains out of habit or sits in her room as if in a trance.
At age 55, Natalie Nelson is still an attractive woman. She has kept herself in peak physical condition, and hasn’t let age slow her down. She stands at 5’7” with a willowy build and her face possesses an unassuming beauty. Her straight, shoulder-length blonde hair is normally kept in a utilitarian bun and she spends most of her days wearing a nurse’s uniform. When the Big Brain sends her out in the field, which happens very rarely, the Iron Matron wears a black leather dress reminiscent of a nurse’s uniform. A pair of small red circles with a white cross in the center adorns the front of her costume near the hips, while similar circles attached to red bows embellishes the tops of her stock-ings. On her feet she wears black stilettos, that in no way interfere with her fighting ability. Her identity is protected by a small black domino mask.
THE PROFESSOR
REAL NAME: Patrick Hughes OCCUPATION: Instructor BASE: Emerald City
Patrick Hughes was an unassuming high school teacher
THE IRON MATRON PL10 • 162 POINTS
STR 2 STA 4 AGL 4 DEX 4 FGT 7 INT 2 AWE -2 PRE -2 Powers: Body Like Iron (Impervious Toughness 8 Linked to Sustained Protection 4, Subtle 2); Fists Like Iron (Strength-based Damage 4, Penetrating 5, Enhanced Advantages 5 (Improved Critical 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Smash, Weapon Break), Subtle 2, AE: Weapon-Breaking Stance (Reaction Damage 4, Limited to the maximum of attack’s damage ranks or the ranks of this power, Subtle 2))
Equipment: Heavy Pistol (Ranged Damage 4), Hold-out Pistol (Ranged Damage 2), Knife (Strength-based Damage 1, Improved Critical)
Advantages: Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, All-out Attack, Benefit 2 (Cipher), Chokehold, Close Attack 7, Equipment 3, Fearless, Improved Critical 2 (Fists Like Iron), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Smash, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Interpose, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Ranged Attack 6, Seize Initiative, Takedown 2, Weapon Break
Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+12), Athletics 6 (+8), Deception 12 (+10), Expertise: Assassin 6 (+8), Expertise: Medical Doctor 6 (+8), Perception 8 (+6), Sleight of Hand 8 (+12), Stealth 8 (+12), Treatment 6 (+8), Vehicles 4 (+8)
Offense: Initiative +8, Fists Like Iron +14 (Close, Damage 6, Penetrating 5, Crit. 18-20), Heavy Pistol +10 (Ranged, Damage 4), Unarmed +14 (Close, Damage 2)
Defense: Dodge 12, Parry 12, Fortitude 10, Toughness 8, Will 4 Totals: Abilities 38 + Powers 31 + Advantages 32 + Skills 36 + Defenses 25 = 162
Complications: Motivation—Responsibility: The Iron Matron’s first and foremost responsibility is to keep the Big Brain safe and do whatever he commands of her. Identity: The Iron Matron’s sense of self has been almost completely eroded over the decades she’s been under the control of the Big Brain. How, or if, she can function without him is unknown. Relationship: The Iron Matron loves the Big Brain and is loyal to him above all others. It may be possible to overcome this brainwashing... somehow.
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with an uncanny ability to social politics kept him relegated to lower echelons of academia.
Dissatisfied with his job and
dis-gruntled with a system that seemed determined to un-dermine his chances of promotion, Patrick was contact-ed by the Big Brain, who explaincontact-ed to him that his skill to teach was in reality a superpower, one that allowed him to somehow achieve high levels of skill with the express purpose of imparting that expertise to others.
At first Patrick found this revelation farfetched, but with further explanation on the part of the Big Brain and his own experimentation, he quickly realized he was indeed in possession of a unique power. The Big Brain made Patrick an offer he couldn’t refuse; if Patrick would use his powers to provide instruction to certain clients, the Big Brain would make him a rich man... otherwise he’d simply control him and get what he wanted anyway.
Patrick chose to go willingly and has never looked back.
Given the codename the Professor, Patrick was at first only required to teach criminals various clandestine skills such as how to bypass electronic security, or forgery, but he was quickly assigned clients who needed his assis-tance learning how to use their superhuman abilities. At
first, Patrick was unsure how he could provide instruction when he wasn’t capable of such superpowers. Thankfully, he discovered his power allowed him to coach his stu-dents in efficient and effective ways of using their powers they’d never considered while also increasing their overall control of those powers. Now, the Professor is known in the criminal underworld as the best instructor available for those who wish to learn how to use their powers to their full potential. Rumor has it those in need of him are contacted by the Big Brain and once payment is taken care of a meeting is arranged.
Patrick Hughes is 5’6”, balding, and slightly overweight. He wears a pair of bifocals to correct his vision, and wears what would best be described as ‘grandfatherly’ clothing: cardigan, checked shirt, cheap trousers, and cheap shoes. In most situ-ations he comes across as being rather unsure of himself, but when it comes to teaching he is completely in his element.
Patrick is able to manifest any skill imaginable at a level that would place him among the world’s top authorities on the subject, but only if he has the express intention of providing instruction with it. He is able to use that skill himself, but only if he has a student with him and he is instructing them. Once he is no longer using the skill in an instructional capacity, it fades. More importantly, he is able to instruct others on how to use their skills at a higher level, effectively imparting years of experience in just a few sessions of tutoring. So far, he has yet come across a student he couldn’t teach to reach the best of their ability in what they want to learn.
THE CHESSMEN
Members: Grandmaster, Endgame, Queens, Bishops, Knights, Pawns
Base of Operations: Emerald City
Base of Operations: Emerald City