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  NOV 2003 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  In this issue: 
  • Barons 
  • Blacksmiths 
  • Monsters 
  • Undead 
  • Ghosts 
  • Kangaroos 
  • Pharaohs 
  • DEX 
  
   
   
   
  the secret special page 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  1
  Table of Contents 
   
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  WHEN LAST WE LEFT OUR HEROES… 
   
   
  Keep up with the news from Hero Games. 
  This issue – Monsters, Minions, and 
  Marauders and Alien Wars. 
  2 
  HEROGLYPHS 
   
   
  See how Steve Long himself answers 
  rules questions. This issue – experience the 
  joy of DEX. 
  4 
  YOU GOTTA HAVE CHARACTER 
   
   
  Hatshepsut (gesundheit!) was the 
  Pharaoh Queen, divinely chosen as ruler of 
  Egypt, but dressed as a man. 
  6 
  DREADWOOD, MISSOURI 
   
   
  Saddle up, pardner. Your group of 
  Western Hero outlaws has entered the town 
  what no man leaves alive…. 
  12 
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  BATTLEFORGE 
   
   
  This fully-armored and magically armed 
  mage creates his own enchanted equipment. 
  And he’s on a vendetta. 
  31 
  GHOST STORIES 
   
   
  There are various types of spooks in 
  mythology and legend, and they’re here to 
  haunt you. 
  36 
  BARON ROBERTO 
   
   
  This very powerful energy manipulator 
  could be the next right-hand man for your 
  campaign’s master villain. 
  42 
  SECRET ORIGINS 
   
   
  Doctor Brutallo and the Alliance of Evil 
  terrorize today’s world committing crimes 
  with yesterday’s morals. 
  47 
   
  DIGITAL HERO 
   
   
  Publisher 
  Hero Games 
  Editor 
  Dave Mattingly 
  Authors 
  W. Jason Allen 
  Steven S. Long 
  Michael Satran 
  Michael Surbrook 
  Jason Walters 
  W. Ross Watson 
  Artists 
  Lisa Hartjes 
  JP Hyde 
  Eric Lofgren 
  Tom Miskey 
  Dave Schrader 
  Derrick Thomas 
  Cover Artist 
  Jeff Ward 
  Online 
  herogames.com 
  To Subscribe 
  herogames.com/ 
  digitalhero 
   
  HERO SystemTM ® is DOJ, Inc.'s trademark for its roleplaying system. 
  HERO System Copyright © 1984, 1989, 2002 by DOJ, Inc. d/b/a Hero Games. All rights reserved. 
  Champions Copyright © 1984, 1989, 2002 by DOJ, Inc. d/b/a Hero Games. All rights reserved. 
  Justice Inc., Danger International, Dark Champions, Fantasy Hero, and Star Hero Copyright © 2002 by DOJ, 
  Inc. d/b/a Hero Games. All rights reserved. 
  No part of this electronic magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic 
  or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or computerization, or by any information storage and retrieval 
  system, without permission in writing from the Publisher:  DOJ, Inc., 1 Haight Street, Suite A, San Francisco, 
  California 94102. 
  Issue #15 (November 2003) 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  2 
  When Last We Left Our Heroes… 
  by Steven S. Long 
   
   
  Let’s take a look at monsters… for various 
  genres! Hero’s got two books coming out over 
  the next month or so, and they both focus on 
  monsters in some respects. 
  MONSTERS, MINIONS, AND 
  MARAUDERS 
   
   
   
  In the first case, it’s obvious from the title:  
  Monsters, Minions, And Marauders, our second 
  supplement for Fantasy Hero. “MMM” contains 
  over 100 monsters and opponents for use with 
  any Fantasy Hero game. Unlike The HERO 
  System Bestiary, MMM focuses largely on 
  humanoid monsters such as orcs, trolls, giants, 
  ogres, cat-folk, nymphs, and the like – but it has 
  a few more “bestial” monsters that I’ve 
  uncovered since I wrote the HSB. 
   
  Most of the monsters in MMM are easily 
  recognized standards of Fantasy gaming, but 
  you’ll also find some more unusual creatures – 
  monsters that feed on dreams or mental energy, 
  horrors from the Qliphothic dimensions, and the 
  like. Additionally, many of the monsters come 
  from non-European cultures, such as the cipactli 
  (Aztec), delgeth (Navajo), erqigdlit (Inuit), and 
  shedu (Assyro-Babylonian).  
   
  To give you some examples of how to 
  customize “generic” monster writeups for your 
  own game, we’ve got text and sidebars 
  throughout the book with descriptions of 
  specific, individualized monsters of the type on 
  the same page. For example, along with the Dark 
  Elf monster sheet, there’s information about 
  Hraynul Shadowstep, a dark elven ranger who 
  patrols the caverns near his home city. It tells 
  you how to customize the Dark Elf sheet to 
  create Hraynul, and describes the gear and 
  enchanted items he carries, his personality and 
  combat tactics, and other useful information. 
  These NPCs are all from Hero’s Turakian Age 
  setting, but you can easily adapt them to your 
  own games. 
   
  In addition to the monsters which form the 
  bulk of this book, MMM has several Appendices 
  of useful material. The first contains templates 
  for humans and humanoid monsters (such as 
  orcs, goblins, and trolls); examples include 
  Barbarian, Chieftain, and Shaman. Like the 
  templates in The HERO System Bestiary, you can 
  apply them to any appropriate monster to make 
  him more powerful or interesting. 
   
  The second appendix contains some 
  “generic” human adversaries – city guards, 
  soldiers, pirates, and so forth. You can use these 
  as stock enemies and NPCs for your heroes to 
  encounter, or customize them with templates and 
  other changes to make “named” adversaries out 
  of them. The final appendix is an alphabetical 
  summary chart of all the monsters in this book, 
  plus other useful reference tables. 
  ALIEN WARS 
   
   
   
  The monsters in our second November book 
  are the Xenovores, the evil aliens trying to 
  conquer (and eat) Humanity during the twenty-
  fourth century conflict depicted in Alien Wars, 
  our third supplement for Star Hero. “AW” is a 
  Military Science Fiction setting, with an 
  emphasis on battles, military technology, and 
  similar subjects. 
   
  Chapter One, A Century Of Conflict:  A 
  History Of The Alien Wars, details the history of 
  the 2300s as they occurred in the Hero Universe. 
  After setting the stage for the war by reviewing 
  the major events of the 2200s, it describes the 
  initial invasion, Humanity’s response, and the 
  subsequent Xenovore offensives and Human 
  counter-offensives. But the history leaves plenty 
  of room for you to fit your own characters, 
  adventures, and battles into the tapestry of the 
  war. 
   
  Chapter Two, Species Of Terran Space, 
  describes several alien species living within the 
  Human sphere of influence whom players might 
  choose for their characters. Since Military Science 
  Fiction usually focuses exclusively (or nearly so) 
  on Humans, there aren’t many species described 
  here... but that’s enough to spice up the PC mix, 
  and of course you can always adapt species from 
  the Terran Empire setting book if appropriate. 
   
  Chapter Three, United Earth And Beyond, 
  describes the worlds and governments of Human 
  space. While Humanity in this time period only 
  holds sway over space within about 5,000 light-
  years of Sol, that still leaves plenty of planets 
  and unknown territory for the characters to 
  explore... or fight battles in. 
   
  Chapter Four, Life In A Time Of War:  
  Human Society, tells you what life is like in the 
  twenty-fourth century. It covers such topics as 
  travel, trade, communications, and crime, with 
  information on how the Xenovore Wars affect 
  things. 
   
  Chapter Five, Sword And Shield:  The 
  United Earth Military, reviews the UE Army and 
  Navy during the century, beginning with their 
  initial unpreparedness and incompetence and 
  progressing through the years as they learn how 
  to fight the enemy, develop new ships and 
  technologies, and eventually strike back. It 
  discusses military organization, tactics, 
  subdivisions, and other relevant subjects. 
                                                             
  artwork by Eric Lofgren 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  3
   
  Chapter Six, Pilot, Adept, Soldier, Spy:  
  Character Creation, has approximately 30 
  Package Deals appropriate to the setting and 
  period, ranging from civilians (pirates, traders, 
  technicians) to all sorts of Army and Navy 
  personnel. It also includes notes on special 
  applications for Skills, Perks, and other game 
  elements. 
   
  Chapter Seven, The United Earth Armory, 
  describes the Human technology of the period, 
  ranging from the relatively primitive tech of the 
  early 2300s (slugthrowers, spin-induced artificial 
  gravity) to the more advanced laser weapons, 
  Thibault gravity plating, and other devices 
  invented to help Humanity fight the Xenovores. 
   
  Chapter Eight, The Threat From Beyond:  
  The Xenovores, describes Humanity’s enemy 
  from the player characters’ perspective. It 
  provides you with the information the PCs would 
  know, organized by time period to reflect the fact 
  that Humans learn more about Xenovores as the 
  war progresses. The GM should tell his players 
  which sections of this chapter they’re allowed to 
  read. 
   
  Chapters Nine through Eleven are the GM’s 
  section of the book, written for his eyes only. 
  Chapter Nine is The GM’s Vault, which contains 
  a few tidbits of secret information about the 
  universe of the Xenovore Wars that were 
  deliberately omitted from earlier, player-
  oriented, chapters. Chapter Ten, The Xenovores, 
  presents the full information about the alien 
  invaders for the GM. It discusses their history 
  and society in broad detail. Chapter Eleven, 
  Stories Of Battle:  Alien Wars Campaigns, 
  provides the GM with some advice about 
  running a Star Hero campaign in the Alien Wars 
  setting. It includes suggested campaign types 
  (with plot seeds for each) and a general 
  discussion of how to run Military Science 
  Fiction games. My initial plans to write a large 
  appendix on Military SF in the HERO System in 
  general had to be abandoned due to lack of 
  space, but hopefully there’ll be enough interest 
  in the subject that we can devote a whole book to 
  it at some point. 
   
  – Steven S. Long 
  HERO System Line Developer 
   
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  4 
  HEROglyphs by Steven S. Long 
   
  Broken-Down DEX 
  Variant Rules for Dexterity 
   
  Dexterity, according to the rulebook, 
  “represents a character’s agility and reaction 
  time [and] accuracy[.]” As such, it’s extremely 
  important for just about every character and 
  character conception, so most PCs and NPCs 
  spend at least a few points on it despite the fact 
  that it’s the most expensive Primary 
  Characteristic – 3 Character Points per point. In 
  fact, it’s so useful that many characters buy high 
  DEXs even when that doesn’t fit their conception 
  particularly well. 
   
  Since DEX provides so many benefits – CV, 
  Skill Rolls, initiative, SPD, and the like – one 
  way to customize characters a little more, and 
  hopefully to prevent them from buying a high 
  DEX just for the sake of the game-related 
  benefits they obtain, is to divide DEX into three 
  Primary Characteristics instead of one. These 
  “new” Characteristics are: 
  � Accuracy 
  � Agility 
  � Reaction 
   
  Each of these “DEX Characteristics” costs 1 
  Character Point per point (but see Game Balance 
  Considerations for more discussion). 
   
  Accuracy (ACC) represents a character’s 
  eye-hand coordination and general ability to 
  attack accurately. It’s used to calculate a 
  character’s Combat Value – CV equals the 
  character’s ACC divided by 3. 
   
  Agility (AGI) represents a character’s 
  general nimbleness, adroitness, and 
  dexterousness. It’s the basis for the character’s 
  “DEX Roll” (ACC and REA do not normally 
  have a Characteristic Roll) and for most DEX-
  Based Skills (aptly named “Agility Skills”). 
   
  Reaction (REA) represents a character’s 
  reaction time and related attributes. It’s the basis 
  for a character’s initiative (when his Phase 
  occurs in a Segment, and whether he goes before 
  or after someone else). 
  SPEED 
   
   
   
  Using these DEX Characteristics means 
  changing some of the rules for things related to 
  DEX, such as SPD. You have several options for 
  SPD. In all cases, the special rounding rules for 
  SPD apply – you always round down. 
   
  First, you can calculate SPD as (1 + ((ACC 
  + AGI + REA)/30)). In other words, add ACC, 
  AGI, and REA together, divide by 30, and add 1 
  to the result. Since the total cost of ACC, AGI, 
  and REA is in theory at least close to the cost of 
  DEX, this should derive a SPD roughly the same 
  as what you’d get using the standard DEX rules. 
   
  Second, since INT is supposed to represent 
  (at least in part) a character’s ability to react to 
  unusual or dangerous circumstances, you could 
  work it into the mix. Now SPD becomes (1 + 
  ((ACC + AGI + REA + INT)/40)). 
   
  Third, since REA is supposed to represent 
  reaction time and initiative in combat, you can 
  use it alone to calculate SPD:  (1 + (REA/10)). 
  However, because REA is much cheaper than 
  DEX, this tends to create “SPD inflation,” so the 
  GM needs to pay close attention to characters’ 
  SPDs, and perhaps even change the calculation 
  (to, for example, REA/20 or REA/30) to 
  maintain game balance. 
  SKILLS 
   
   
   
  Here’s how the DEX-Based Skills break 
  down in the new system: 
  Skill 
  Characteristic 
  Acrobatics 
  Agility 
  Breakfall 
  Agility 
  Climbing 
  Agility 
  Combat Driving 
  Agility 
  Combat Piloting 
  Agility 
  Contortionist 
  Agility 
  Fast Draw 
  Reaction 
  Lockpicking 
  Agility 
  Riding 
  Agility 
  Sleight Of Hand 
  Agility 
  Stealth 
  Agility 
  Teamwork 
  Reaction 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  5
  GAME BALANCE CONSIDERATIONS 
   
   
   
  Keeping the costs of the DEX 
  Characteristics at 1 Character Point per point 
  each in theory results in characters spending as 
  much on these three Characteristics as they tend 
  to spend on DEX. But theory doesn’t always 
  work in practice, so this may cause problems. 
  First of all, if you want to prevent “DEX 
  abuse,” this may not do the trick; characters can 
  end up with the same “DEX” as they would 
  otherwise have by buying all of the DEX 
  Characteristics to the same level. ACC 20, AGI 
  20, and REA 20 costs 30 Character Points in 
  total, just like DEX 20. 
   
  Second, you may find players “min-maxing” 
  their characters by buying one or two of the DEX 
  Characteristics to high levels. For example, with 
  ACC costing only 1 Character Point per point, a 
  base CV 10 only costs 20 Character Points. This 
  could unbalance some campaigns (though since 
  all characters have the same ability to buy high 
  CVs, it’s just as likely simply to increase CVs 
  across the board, leading to no significant 
  balance changes in many games). 
   
  Correcting or compensating for these 
  problems is usually just a matter of changing the 
  costs of the DEX Characteristics. For example, if 
  you change them all to 2 Character Points per 
  point, min-maxing becomes less attractive, and 
  “DEX abuse” across the board becomes twice as 
  expensive. Alternately, you could weight them 
  depending on what you think is most important 
  or useful in your campaign. For example, maybe 
  ACC is 2 Character Points per point, AGI is 1 
  Character Point per point, and REA is 3 
  Character Points per point (thus allowing SPD to 
  be 1 + REA/10 and provide the same results as 
  DEX). If you like to alter character standards 
  based on archetype, you could vary the cost that 
  way as well – perhaps speedsters and rogues pay 
  only 1 Character Point per point for all of the 
  DEX Characteristics, bricks and warriors pay 3 
  Character Points per point for all of them, and all 
  other characters pay 2 Character Points per point 
  each. 
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  6 
  You Gotta Have Character by Jason Walters 
   
  “Life is lived forwards, but understood 
  backwards” - Kierkegaard  
   
   
  The small fleet of seven ships rowed 
  quietly through the still night, a bright 
  and watchful moon staring down upon 
  their labors like the face like a chubby, 
  cheerful midwife. With the winds still 
  and silent, each ship surged forward 
  under the power of thirty skilled rowers, 
  powerful yet thin fellows whose arms 
  moved back and forth with that casual 
  grace which can only be produced by 
  those who are thoroughly confident in 
  their work. They needed no drum nor 
  taskmaster; each ship’s captain had only 
  to glance periodically down the length 
  of his narrow, arrow-like vessel to make 
  certain that everyone was performing 
  their duties. Perhaps the gaunt, silent 
  figures had been practicing their art for 
  so long that it was no longer a task at 
  all, but a meditation. A prayer. 
   
  Up front on the lead boat, a bald, 
  well-muscled man in an ornate kilt 
  leaned casually against the ship’s 
  narrow mast. He gazed impartially 
  about in every possible direction: down 
  at the nearby shoreline, out to the 
  seemingly infinite sea, upwards at the 
  even more unlimited sky where only the 
  gods dwelt. Beside him an 
  indescribably lovely woman sat stiffly 
  upon an equally startling throne made 
  of sandalwood, ivory, and gold. She 
  always seemed to stare straight ahead. 
  The two were like a pair of uneven 
  bookends, a study in contrasts: the man 
  bulky, hairless, and almost naked save 
  for his decorative cloth sari. The 
  woman, on the other hand, was slim, 
  impeccably coifed, and dressed in the 
  most ornate clothing imaginable for an 
  Egyptian noble: the shendyt kilt, the 
  nemes headdress with its uraeus, and a 
  khat headcloth, She even had an 
  insanely long false beard strapped to her 
  dainty chin. It was made of camel hair 
  woven with gold and silver thread. 
   
  The woman glowed a bit, which 
  seemed to make her ship’s crew a bit 
  nervous but didn’t appear to bother her 
  companion in the slightest. One could 
  gather from his calm expression that 
  very few things made him nervous – or 
  even frightened. Every so often, he 
  would lean over to his stern counterpart, 
  point to the sky, and whisper something 
  briefly into her dainty ear. 
   
  “That constellation, my Pharaoh, is 
  known as The Cat,” he murmured 
  quietly, “while we call that one The 
  Scorpion. They hunt one another across 
  the night eternally, each seeking to best 
  the other for the pleasure of the gods. 
  There are many, many patterns in the 
  sky, placed there by your father Amun-
  Ra when the world was shaped to help 
  guide men in their daily tasks. This is 
  why the oracle of your father sleeps 
  through his days; so that he might spend 
  his nights pouring over ancient scrolls 
  atop his ziggurat, watching the ocean of 
  stars spin above….” 
   
  “The oracle of my father Amun-Ra, 
  blessed be his name, sleeps during the 
  day because he spends his nights 
  drinking the fermented juice of tamarin 
  fruits and chasing naked teenaged slave 
  girls up and down his ziggurat,” she 
  retorted, “he only sobers up when the 
  lookouts that he has rather wisely 
  posted along hilltops nearby spot the 
  royal entourage winding its way into the 
  valley my grandfather gave him. How 
  the old drunken fraud figured out that 
  drought was coming, I’ll never know, 
  but he’s made the most out of it ever 
  since. The only reason he sent us on this 
  ‘sacred expedition’ is that my regular 
  visits – just to get our holy and sacred 
  money’s worth, you understand – has 
  been getting in the way of the constant 
  frolics which constitute his oracular 
  duties.” 
   
  The large man chuckled deeply. 
   
  “Then why go?” 
   
  “Because,” she responded, a 
  somehow charming sneer winding its 
  way across her lovely, somewhat 
  phosphorescent cheek, “eight years of 
  ruling the Kingdom of Upper and 
  Lower Egypt has left even me, the 
  daughter of a god, bored, tired, and 
  cynical. They say that Punt isn’t boring 
  or stressful or even especially 
  dangerous, so I’m all for a vacation in 
  Punt. Yea Punt! Plus, from the time he 
  was old enough to take himself to the 
  royal latrine, my idiot nephew 
  Thutmose has been freakishly eager to 
  rule the nation… so I’ve let him. Three 
  winter months isn’t enough time for 
  him to invade Palestine, pull off an 
  insurrection, or impregnate every  
  WHERE CREDIT 
  IS DUE 
   
   
  I would like to 
  personally thank 
  Digital Hero reader 
  Daniel Dickson for 
  pointing me in the 
  direction of Pharaoh 
  Hatshepsut, yet 
  another of history’s 
  great neglected 
  heroines. Once again, 
  gentle readers, I ask 
  you to have patience 
  with me as we untie 
  the royal barge of 
  imagination from the 
  solid dock of 
  accuracy so that we 
  might better navigate 
  the Nile of 
  roleplaying, stopping 
  off in the fabled lands 
  of What If and 
  Wouldn’t It Be Cool. 
  As usual, I have taken 
  quite a few literary 
  and factual liberties 
  with this fascinating 
  historical character 
  who, at one point, 
  may very well have 
  been the single most 
  powerful person in 
  the Western World. 
  Enjoy. 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  7
  serving girl in the palace, so I figure it’s 
  safe enough. Maybe a taste of 
  responsibility will sour his appetite for 
  conquest.” 
   
  “Perhaps, my goddess, but it’s a 
  gamble. What if a taste of conquest 
  merely whets his appetite for 
  responsibility?” 
   
  “I’m not sure that actually makes 
  sense, Senmut, but it at least sounds 
  profound so I’ll respond in kind: then, 
  at some point in the distant future, 
  Egypt gets a better ruler than it would 
  have otherwise. What about you, royal 
  courtier, what’s your reason for taking a 
  break from your eternal building and 
  going on sabbatical? Aren’t there 
  sphinxes to erect out in a deserted 
  valley somewhere or the other?” 
   
  Senmut stiffened, frowning slightly. 
   
  “It is my duty to serve my Queen 
  Hatshepsut, goddess and Pharaoh, 
  wherever she may go, even if I have to 
  row the royal barge myself….” 
   
  Hatshepsut snorted. 
   
  “It wouldn’t exactly be the first time 
  you rowed the royal barge, my noble 
  architect, now would it?” 
   
  To a man the ship’s crew all stared 
  studiously off into the night in an 
  incredible imitation of a sudden, 
  contagious outbreak of mass deaf-
  mutedness, hoping that they wouldn’t 
  be put do the sword for overhearing 
  anything that they couldn’t help but 
  overhear. Senmut smiled gaily. 
   
  “Well, it’s a rugged job only suitable 
  for an equally rugged man, my Queen, 
  but even the noblest of ships have to be 
  taken out to sea every now and again. 
  Plus, who better to help you retrieve the 
  treasures of Punt than myself – noted 
  scholar, soldier, architect, and 
  conversationalist. There are prodigious 
  amounts of pygmies, giraffes, and 
  unicorns to be tracked down and 
  imported….” 
   
  “And cinnamon wood, myrrh, pure 
  ivory, and khesyt,” she interrupted. 
   
  “Not to mention apes, panther skins, 
  cosmetics, ebony, and green gold,” he 
  finished 
   
  They smiled at one another. Then, 
  seemingly on some sort of cue, grew 
  quiet again, resuming their pre-
  conversational brooding. The evening’s 
  waves lapped soothingly against the 
  ships sides as the moon began to rise, 
  huge and yellow, above an eastern sky 
  filled with seemingly endless ocean. 
   
  Queen Hatshepsut was one of the very few 
  women pharaohs to rule ancient Egypt. Though 
  there had been female rulers of that venerable 
  and mysterious land before her, Hatshepsut was 
  a uniquely independent, intelligent, irreverent, 
  and effective leader who combined a shrewd 
  understanding of the intricacies of royal power 
  with a widely successful cult of personality. 
  During her reign, Hatshepsut accomplished what 
  no woman before her ever had:  she successfully 
  ruled the most powerful, advanced civilization in 
  the world for an unheard of period of almost 
  twenty years. 
   
  Before she was born, Hatshepsut’s mother 
  Ahmose was visited by the great god Amun-Ra, 
  Lord of the Hidden Sun, who appeared to her in 
  the form of her husband Thutmose I. When the 
  god drew near her, however, his unearthly scent 
  betrayed his divine nature, so that when he took 
  her to bed the Queen knew that she had not slept 
  with her mortal husband. When he finally 
  revealed himself to her as one of the most 
  powerful of ancient Egypt’s deities, both 
  Ahmose and her husband felt blessed. The 
  product of this divine union was Hatshepsut, the 
  infamous transvestite woman-pharaoh of the 
  ancient world. 
   
  The twenty-year rule of Hatshepsut was one 
  of the most prosperous and peaceful in Egyptian 
  history. A great deal of energy was put into 
  rebuilding temples and other public buildings 
  destroyed during previous conflicts with early 
  Semitic peoples (known as Hyksos or “desert 
  princes”). Trade with other nations was 
  improved or expanded, allowing for a significant 
  increase in the average Egyptian’s standard of 
  living. Although well liked by her people, 
  Hatshepsut wasn’t without her enemies. Many of 
  the more traditional members of the priesthood 
  resented her ascension to power, her obvious 
  divine constitution, and (perhaps most of all) her 
  irreverent, almost irreligious nature. As her reign 
  went on, these powerful priests made common 
  cause with her disgruntled nephew, Thutmose 
  the Third, who feared that her demigod abilities, 
  which seemingly included physical immortality, 
  would prevent him from ever ascending to the 
  throne of Egypt. Together they conspired to get 
  rid of Hatshepsut, eventually casting a powerful 
  spell with the help of a renegade Canaanite 
  wizard which threw her from her own time into 
  the 21st Century. 
   
   
  WHAT’S IN A 
  NAME? 
   
   
   Hatshepsut’s full 
  name is composed of 
  four parts. The first, 
  her “standard” name, 
  is “she who is rich, 
  powerful through her 
  ‘ka’s, her doubles.” 
  The second, read as 
  nebti refers to the 
  pharaoh’s dominion 
  over both East and 
  West. The third is her 
  “Horus” name, 
  reading “The divine 
  one in her risings.” 
  Finally, her name 
  continues with two 
  cartouches, the first 
  reading Kamara, the 
  “true double of Ra.” 
  The second cartouche 
  has no holy meaning 
  but instead reads her 
  name given at birth, 
  “Hatshepsut.” 
   Thus her full name, 
  as inscribed on her 
  official “great seal,” 
  was:  The Horus, 
  mighty by his Kas, the 
  lord of East and West 
  abounding in years, 
  the good goddess, the 
  pious lady, the golden 
  falcon, divine in her 
  rings, the King of 
  Upper and Lower 
  Egypt, Kamara, the 
  daughter of Ra, 
  Khnumit Amon, 
  Hatshepsut.”  
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  8 
  Maat-ka-Ra Hatshepsut (“She”) 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   10 STR 
  0 11- Lift 100 kg; 2d6 HTH [1] 
   23 DEX 
  39 14- OCV:  8/DCV:  8 
   25 CON 
  30 14- 
   10 BODY 
  0 11- 
   18 INT 
  8 13- PER Roll:  13- 
   18 EGO 
  16 13- ECV:  6 
   25 PRE 
  15 14- PRE Attack:  5d6 
   20 COM 
  5 13- 
   
   
  8 PD 
  6 
   Total:  21 PD (13 rPD) 
   18 ED 
  13 
   Total:  36 ED (18 rED) 
   
  6 SPD 
  27 
   Phases:  2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 
   
  9 REC 
  4 
   50 END 
  0 
   28 STUN 
  0 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  166 
  Movement: Running: 
  6”/12” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   
  1 Celestial Nature:  Life Support, 
  Longevity:  200 Years 
  0 
   20 Daughter of Amun-Ra (solar powers):  
  Elemental Control, 40-point Powers 
  — 
   13 1)  Divine Aura (creates a soft light): 
  Change Environment 8” radius, 
  Reduced Endurance 0 END (+½), 
  Persistent (+½); Always On (-½) 
  0 
   21 2)  Hathor’s Shield:  Force Field (13 
  PD/18 ED/10 Flash Defense: Sight 
  Group) 
  4 
   20 3)  Pharonic Resplendence:  Flash 2d6 
  (Sight Group), Area Of Effect (One 
  Hex; +½), Reduced Endurance 0 END 
  (+½), Damage Shield (+½), Offensive 
  (+¼), Continuous (+1) 
  0 
  Perks 
   15 Royal Wealth:  Money (Filthy Rich) 
   12 Transvestite Pharaoh of Ancient 
  Egypt:  Reputation (Large Group; 14-) 
  +4/+4d6 
   33 Ancient Egyptian State:  Contact 
  (Access to Major Institutions, Very 
  Useful Skills or Resources, Slavishly 
  Loyal to Character, Organization) 14- 
   15 Fringe Benefit:  Head of State, 
  Member of the Aristocracy/Higher 
  Nobility 
  Skills 
   
  3 Bureaucratics 14- 
   
  3 Conversation 14- 
   
  3 High Society 14- 
   
  3 KS: Ancient Egypt 13- 
   
  3 KS: The Ancient World 13- 
   
  2 Literate 
   
  3 Oratory 14- 
   
  5 Persuasion 15- 
   
  3 PS: Politician (INT-based) 13- 
   
  3 Seduction 14- 
   
  3 Tactics 13- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  184 
   
  Total Cost:  350 
   
   200+ Disadvantages 
   10 Distinctive Features:  Dressed as a Male 
  Pharaoh but Obviously a Woman (Easily 
  Concealed, Major Reaction) 
   15 Hunted:  Thutmose III 14- (Less Pow, 
  Watching, NCI, PC has a Public ID) 
   15 Hunted:  Conservative Priests of Ancient 
  Egypt 8- (Less Pow, Harshly Punish, NCI, 
  PC has a Public ID) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Ambitious 
  (Common, Strong) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  “Control Freak” 
  (Common, Strong) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Irreverent and 
  Irreligious (Common, Strong) 
   
  5 Rivalry:  Professional (Thutmose III and 
  Hatshepsut both wish to be Pharaoh, Rival 
  is Less Powerful, Seek to Harm or Kill 
  Rival, Rival Aware of Rivalry) 
   20 Reputation:  Irreverent and Irreligious 14- 
  (Extreme) 
   20 Social Limitation:  Woman Pharaoh (Very 
  Frequently, Major) 
   20 Social Limitation:  Public Identity (Very 
  Frequently, Major) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  350 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  9
   
   
  Background/History:  Maat-ka-Ra Hatshepsut, 
  better known in 21st Century America as “She,” 
  was born in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes 
  during the 18th Dynasty in 1524 BCE. The 
  product of a bit of deific adultery between the 
  Royal Queen-Sister Ahmose and the powerful 
  god Amun-Ra, Lord of the Hidden Sun, 
  Hatshepsut was raised by her loving step-father 
  Thutmose the First to take an active role in the 
  running of the newly reestablished Egyptian 
  State, which had only risen from the ashes of 
  Hyksos conquest due to the efforts of her 
  grandfather Ahmose.  
   
  Though Hatshepsut had two brothers, 
  Ouazmosou and Amenmosou, both died at a 
  young age, leaving her half-brother Thutmose 
  the Second in direct line for the throne. When 
  Thutmose I died in 1509, the succeeding Pharaoh 
  (Thutmose II) followed traditional customs and 
  married the oldest daughter of his father, who in 
  this happy case was Hatshepsut. Together the 
  two ruled in what was technically a co-regency, 
  although Thutmose II seems to have been in poor 
  health, afflicted with a crippling skin disease, 
  and therefore content to leave the reigns of 
  power firmly in the hands of his bright, 
  ambitious wife. This wasn’t a radical or 
  unthinkable situation in ancient Egypt; 
  Hatshepsut was preceded by a number of 
  influential queens, Tetisheri, Ahhotep II, and 
  Ahmose-Nefertary, who during the 17th Dynasty 
  succeeded one another in the successful running 
  of the government. This gave the Egyptian 
  establishment an understanding that women 
  rulers could provide stability and order. 
  Furthermore, the perception and position of 
  women in Egypt at the time was markedly 
  different from that of other ancient 
  Mediterranean cultures. Egyptian women were 
  allowed to own property, hold official positions, 
  inherit from their parents or deceased husbands, 
  and, in the case of a dispute, were entitled to take 
  their case to court to defend their legal rights. 
   
  So, when Thutmose II died in 1504 leaving 
  the infant Pharaoh Thutmose the Third (a love 
  child by his somewhat more leprosy-tolerant 
  mistress Isis) as a successor, his step-
  mother/aunt Hatshepsut was made regent until he 
  came of age. Only Hatshepsut didn’t want to be 
  regent; she wanted to be Pharaoh! A favorite 
  daughter of a popular monarch, as well as a 
  charismatic, beloved ruler in her own right, she 
  sat down with her friend, confidant, lover, 
  professional architect, and member of the court 
  with 15 other titles Senmut to plan out a PR 
  campaign amongst the Egyptian people. First, 
  Hatshepsut gathered together a meeting of the 
  most important leaders of Egypt’s various 
  religious cults, where she certified her divine 
  bloodline through a series of demonstrations: 
  glowing softly, blinding them with bursts of 
  light, and (as a direct result) having sword blows 
  glance off of her holy person. With the 
  priesthood convinced, or at least terrified into 
  submission, she donned the clothing of a male 
  Pharaoh down to the smallest detail before 
  taking her show on the road to the common 
  Egyptian people. For six months she rowed up 
  and down the Nile river from Tanis to Edfu, 
  giving out food, cash, and prizes while putting 
  on a stupendous (if blinding) lightshow. When 
  her tour was concluded, Hatshepsut declared 
  herself Pharaoh as well as sole ruler of the 
  Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt. Everyone 
  was either too stunned or frightened to argue.    
   
  With the unpleasantness of a public relations 
  campaign concluded, Hatshepsut got down to the 
  business of ruling with a vengeance. Trade 
  relations with the neighboring countries of Nubia, 
  Kush, Libya, and Phoenicia were reopened or 
  expanded. Temples destroyed or damaged by the 
  Hyksos were rebuilt, while ambitious new 
  construction projects were undertaken left and 
  right:  a massive three-tiered temple to Amun-Ra 
  was constructed by the banks of the Nile, new 
  sphinxes carved in Thebes, enormous red granite 
  obelisks from Central Africa were raised at 
  Abydos, and new (if small) pyramids were 
  assembled at Giza to name but a few. In the eighth 
  year of her reign as Pharaoh, Hatshepsut 
  undertook a fantastic journey to the near-mythical 
  land of Punt (modern day Somalia). To the 
  ancient Egyptians, the land of Punt, with its 
  distinctive beehive-shaped houses raised on stilts 
  above water, its native pygmies, and its bizarre 
  animals was the most exotic and mysterious of 
  HE SAID, “SHE” 
  SAID 
   
   
  When I was six  
  my father Thutmose 
  the First  
  lifted me up to sit 
  beside him  
  on his throne of 
  Amen.  
  He said, Flower of 
  Egypt,  
  you will be a ruler.  
   
  He took me with him 
  on his royal barge 
  down the Nile to 
  Memphis, to 
  Sakkara,  
  to Giza, to see my 
  kingdom.  
   
  He said to the farmers 
  and nobles 
  crowding the water 
  steps  
  This is my goddess 
  daughter 
  Hatshepsut  
  who will be crowned 
  with the crown  
  of Upper and Lower 
  Egypt  
  when she becomes a 
  woman.  
   
  I knew that Amen-Re, 
  Lord of Thebes,  
  King of Karnak, took 
  my father’s form 
  and came down to my 
  mother, Ahmose, 
  as she slept in the 
  beauty of her 
  palace.  
  She woke at the 
  fragrance of the 
  god  
  and rejoiced at the 
  sight of his 
  beauty,  
  and he went into her 
  and his love  
  came into her body. 
  And my mother 
  said  
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  10 
  places to visit – or to receive visitors from, for 
  more than once the Royalty of Punt came to the 
  court of the Pharaoh in Egypt. They considered it 
  a sort of bizarre private garden for the gods, an 
  emporium of goods for powerful deities such as 
  Amun-Ra, which gradually acquired an air of 
  fantasy, like that of El Dorado or Atlantis. When 
  Hatshepsut’s trade fleet returned with its ships’ 
  holds laden with spices, precious metals, bizarre 
  animals, curious slaves, and exotic woods, the 
  Egyptian public went wild. Once again, she had 
  achieved a smashing public relations success with 
  her people. 
   
  For fifteen years Egypt enjoyed a period of 
  prosperity, peace, wealth, and strength which 
  would, in later generations, come to be thought 
  of as one of the golden ages of that nation’s 
  history. Yet, like any great age in any country, it 
  was not destined to last, for success inevitably 
  breeds enemies. Thutmose III, whose seething 
  anger at having been pushed aside in favor of his 
  aunt had made him something of a national joke, 
  had secretly been meeting with a variety of very 
  powerful, very reactionary priests who resented 
  Hatshepsut’s reign for a wide variety of reasons. 
  Together they made contact with a renegade 
  Canaanite wizard named Benebaal. Using 
  powers given to him by the evil god Melech, 
  Lord of Murder, Benebaal surprised Hatshepsut 
  while she was praying at her temple and 
  banished her to the future through a swirling 
  time vortex. With the powerful Pharaoh Queen 
  gone, Thutmose III massacred her priests, her 
  lover Senmut, and their young daughter Nefrure. 
  He then set about a decade-long campaign of 
  removing every memory of Hatshepsut that he 
  could find: her name was erased from 
  hieroglyphics, her image defaced, replaced, or 
  renamed on sculptures, and her obelisks tumbled 
  down. Her fabulous three-tiered temple to 
  Amun-Ra was abandoned, left to be buried by 
  the sands of the desert. 
   
  Hurled through time and space, Hatshepsut 
  was flung out of the vortex directly onto the 
  streets of Dearborn, Michigan, very close to 
  Millennium City. After some initial 
  misunderstandings and misadventures, she has 
  been taken in by the local arab community in the 
  Dix neighborhood in the eastern portion of the 
  town. Having learned how to speak English, 
  Hatshepsut has renamed herself “She” in 
  preparation for her new career as a superhero… 
  or villain… or movie star. She hasn’t really 
  decided yet. 
   
  Personality/Motivation:  Hatshepsut is 
  extremely ambitious, exquisitely attractive, 
  highly intelligent, and frankly more than a little 
  irascible. A modern person would probably 
  consider her a “control freak,” but in reality 
  Pharaoh Hatshepsut spent a great deal of time 
  feeling worn down by her duties as the sovereign 
  ruler of the most powerful and advanced nation 
  on Earth; her rigidity and snippiness are merely 
  byproducts of her exhaustion. She has a wicked, 
  sharp, and “snarky” sense of humor, which she is 
  extremely fond of turning on those fortunate (or 
  unfortunate) enough to be close to her, especially 
  her councilor/lover Senmut and her irritable 
  nephew Thutmose. The former found this deeply 
  amusing, while the later wasn’t amused at all – 
  which is presumably why he has spent most of 
  his adult life plotting against her. 
   
  Hatshepsut’s divine nature and powers have 
  made her more than a little arrogant… even for 
  an absolute monarch! This has blinded her to the 
  fact that “lesser” people (like her nephew) can 
  really be very dangerous to her, given enough 
  time, energy, and motivation. It is also why she 
  is currently inhabiting the 21st Century. 
  Nevertheless, it will take several more hard, 
  painful lessons before she will accept that she 
  isn’t completely invulnerable – lessons that the 
  metahumans of the modern era will almost 
  certainly be quick to administer. 
   
  You would think that Hatshepsut would be 
  eager to return to her own time; but with both 
  Senmut and Nefrure dead, she has little desire to 
  return home to the intrigues of 18th Dynasty. 
  Modern America seems to be filled with wealth, 
  opportunity, and (best of all) enormous numbers 
  of people looking to be led, especially by an 
  incredibly attractive demigod:  why, just look at 
  how well that young fellow from Palestine is 
  doing for himself after two thousand years!  
   
   
  How wonderful to see 
  you face to face,  
  your dew is in all my 
  limbs.  
  And Amen, Lord of 
  the Two Lands, 
  said to her,  
  Khnumit-Amon-
  Hatshepsut is the 
  name of the 
  daughter  
  I have planted in your 
  body. She shall 
  be king  
  in this whole land. 
  My soul is hers,  
  my crown is hers.  
   
  — Ruth Whitman,
  from Hatshepsut,
  Speak to Me
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  11
  Hatshepsut, who is now going by the simpler 
  name “She,” is uncertain of what path to take. 
  Should she try to restart her cult of personality? 
  Should she become one of what these modern 
  people call “superheroes,” or would villainy be 
  more to her liking? Should she continue dressing 
  like a man? Maybe she should become what they 
  call a “movie star” so that she can do all of these 
  things at once…. 
   
  Quote:  “You! Yes, you over there, smart guy! 
  Stop gawking at me and get over here so that you 
  can make yourself useful:  there isn’t any break 
  time when the Pharaoh is in town. Now pick up 
  that suitcase and follow me.” 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  Hatshepsut is as beautiful and 
  powerful as many of the legendary gods which 
  populated her ancient land. During her reign as 
  pharaoh she learned how to be a skilled 
  diplomat, a compelling orator, an accomplished 
  bureaucrat, and a decent (if untested) tactician. 
  Her nearly inhuman beauty, when combined with 
  her actually inhuman presence, made her almost 
  impossibly persuasive, especially with men. One 
  of the single most wealthy monarchs of her time, 
  she commanded the largest, best equipped 
  military force that existed during the Bronze 
  Age, which was, in turn, backed up the largest, 
  best organized bureaucracy in the world. In 
  short, she was the greatest non-military leader of 
  the greatest superpower of her age. 
   
  Hatshepsut is the daughter of Amun-Ra, 
  Lord of the Hidden Sun, gifted not only with the 
  inhuman DEX, CON, and PRE of a god but also 
  with a variety of light-based powers as well. 
  These include an innate glowing field of pleasant 
  soft light which emanates 8” around her on all 
  sides, a reasonably powerful force field which 
  also has flash defense built into it, and a damage 
  field which can constantly emit 2d6 flash attacks. 
  She generally uses this in conjunction with a 
  zero-Phase 5d6 PRE attack to frighten and 
  confuse opponents. Hatshepsut, while not 
  immortal, is incredibly long-lived. She will look 
  like a teenager for the next 100 years. 
   
   
  If Hatshepsut is used in the modern era, she 
  will gain the use of a very powerful light beam 
  (see below) as well as the ability to fly. She will 
  naturally use both of these to her best advantage 
  in a combat situation, staying well away from 
  opponents so that she can blast them or blind 
  them at a safe distance.  
   
  Campaign Use:  If some incredibly inventive 
  GM were to adopt Scott Bennie’s fabulous book 
  Testament (Green Ronin Publishing) for use with 
  the HERO System (hint, hint, people), 
  Hatshepsut instantly becomes a wonderful NPC. 
  Or perhaps the PCs have been hurled back 
  through time to the Middle Kingdom to help her 
  destroy some sort of evil foreign deity which 
  threatens her land. Maybe you are running a 
  Fantasy Hero campaign which takes place in an 
  ancient, mysterious desert kingdom run by an 
  all-powerful legendary queen who dresses like a 
  man… which beats having the kingdom ruled by 
  an all powerful king that dresses like a woman. 
  That’s been done to death, girlfriend! 
   
  Most likely, however, She will be used as a 
  minor villain, hero, movie star, or religious 
  leader (she is hoping to combine three of the 
  above) in the Champions Universe. To bring her 
  up to date, replace her Hunted:  Thutmose III 
  with a Hunted:  Anubis (he wants to make her his 
  bride, or steal some magic item, or whatever; 
  he’s crackers) and her Hunted:  Evil Priests with 
  a Hunted:  Amoral Archaeologists (they have 
  questions, dammit!). Then remove her Contact 
  and Head of State perks, as they are no longer 
  valid. Add Light Beam of Amun-Ra: EB 12d6, 
  Beam (-¼), No Knockback (-¼) and Flight 12” 
  before raising her STUN to 32 points.  
   
  Appearance: Maat-ka-Ra Hatshepsut or “She” 
  is a short, insanely attractive woman with 
  shoulder length brown hair, a petite yet aquiline 
  nose, and large almond eyes. When in costume, 
  she wears the royal attire of an 18th Dynasty 
  Egyptian Pharaoh: the shendyt kilt, the nemes 
  headdress with its uraeus, and a khat headcloth. 
  She has an insanely long false beard of woven 
  camel hair and golden thread strapped to her 
  dainty chin. To be honest, she looks a little bit 
  like Cher. Only younger.  
   
  BIBLIOGRAPHY 
   
   
  Books: 
  Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites, Colin 
  Wilson (DK Publishing), 1996 
  Hatshepsut, Speak to Me, Ruth Whitman (Wayne 
  S.U. Press), 1992  
  Hatshepsut:  The Female Pharaoh (Penguin 
  USA), 1998 
  Testament, Scott Bennie (Green Ronin 
  Publishing), 2003 
   
  Web: 
  http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/
  Africa/Hatshepsut.html 
  http://www.bediz.com/hatshep/index.html 
    
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  12 
  Dreadwood, Missouri by Jason Walters 
   
   
  Dreadwood, Missouri is a one-shot Western 
  Hero adventure for between five and seven 
  players which uses pregenerated characters based 
  on real historical figures. These are rough and 
  dangerous men, hunted fugitives who, in their 
  desperation to escape a group of relentless 
  pursuers, must brave a ruined town filled with 
  restless, malevolent undead creatures bent upon 
  wreaking a terrible vengeance upon the PCs. 
  Their only ally in this reckless undertaking is a 
  mysterious Indian medicine man who, 
  incidentally, may be an incarnation of the ancient 
  Roman god Janus. 
   
  The adventure is essentially a morality play 
  intended to teach the players that sometimes the 
  only way to defeat a great evil is with, well, yet 
  more evil. The Medicine Man, who intercepts the 
  PCs at a dismal crossroads in a cursed natural 
  maze, makes it clear that he has few delusions 
  about the nature of his chosen champions. They 
  are hard, callous veterans of Bloody Missouri; a 
  fratricidal guerilla conflict which was going 
  strong years before the American Civil War even 
  formally broke out. After half a decade of visiting 
  murder and destruction upon the homesteads of 
  Union sympathizers along the Kansas border, they 
  find themselves isolated and surrounded in the 
  smoldering ruins of their Confederate dream. 
  Chased ceaselessly across Missouri into the 
  brambles and bayous of a then notoriously 
  dangerous Cedar County, they are desperately in 
  need of food, ammunition, liquor, and fresh 
  horses. They must acquire all four of these 
  precious commodities if they hope to make it out 
  of a final deathtrap of swamp, pinewood, and 
  bramble, and into the seemingly endless open 
  planes of the Nebraska Territory, where they can 
  begin a new life free of the taint of their misdeeds. 
   
  The players have to guide their characters 
  through a series of encounters with the unnatural 
  beings who inhabit Dreadwood, ranging from the 
  necromantic to the demonic. These entities, 
  victims of a previous Confederate attack, are 
  eager for revenge not only against the living but 
  most especially against the Southern living – a 
  category into which the player characters most 
  emphatically fall. Players should be properly 
  motivated to “get into” their historical characters, 
  if in only a stereotypical sort of way. For 
  example, suggest that they speak with 
  outrageous and outdated “Foghorn Leghorn” 
  accents, make pseudo-Clint Eastwood 
  comments, act ridiculously gun-happy and/or 
  drunk, and so forth. They should be encouraged 
  to actualize their “inner redneck” during the 
  course of the adventure. A few pertinent “yee-
  haws” should be strongly encouraged, especially 
  during battle scenes. 
   
  The GM should take several period-specific 
  technical matters into account when running this 
  game. The bullet was a relatively new and 
  expensive technology during the Civil War (the 
  revolver had only been invented a few scant 
  decades before). The characters all have fairly 
  primitive “cap-and-ball” weapons which were 
  loaded by hand using a time-consuming four-step 
  process that cannot be replicated during combat. 
  Each of them only has a few rounds left when the 
  adventure begins, and that’s all they get until they 
  discover more in town. You should also note that 
  a majority of the characters have only loaded five 
  of the six cylinders in their revolvers. This was 
  commonly done for safety reasons; as the old 
  “cap-and-ball” black powder weapons were quite 
  volatile, it was considered best to leave the 
  hammer on an empty chamber. The only character 
  who is crazy enough to break this basic safety rule 
  is Jesse James – known to his friends as “Dang” 
  after an amusing incident in which he shot off the 
  end of one of his fingers. Roll a 1d6 anytime 
  Jesse’s player opens his mouth. If one of his guns 
  is holstered and you rolled a one, he has shot 
  himself by accident. 
                                                             
  artwork by Tom Miskey 
  cartography by Lisa Hartjes 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  13
   
  The Guerrilla seldom become 
  merciless all of a sudden. Pastoral in many 
  cases by profession, and reared among the 
  bashful and timid surroundings of 
  agricultural life, he knew nothing of the 
  tiger that was in him until death had been 
  dashed against his eyes in numberless and 
  brutal ways, and until the blood of his own 
  kith and kin had been sprinkled plentifully 
  upon things that his hands touched, and 
  things that entered into his daily existence. 
  And that fury of ideas also came to him 
  slowly, which is more implacable than the 
  fury of men, for men have heart, and 
  opinion has none. It took him likewise 
  some time to learn that the Jayhawker’s 
  system of saving the Union was a system of 
  brutal force, which bewailed not even that 
  which it crushed; that it belied its doctrine 
  by its tyranny; stained its arrogated right by 
  its violence, and dishonored its vaunted 
  struggles by its executions. But blood is as 
  contagious as air. 
   
  Thus, almost from the first, a large 
  majority of Quantrell’s original command 
  had over them the shadow of some terrible 
  crime. This one recalled a father murdered, 
  this one a brother waylaid and shot, this one 
  a house pillaged and burnt, this one a 
  relative assassinated, this one a grievous 
  insult while at peace at home, this one a 
  robbery of all his earthly possessions, this 
  one the force which compelled him to 
  witness the brutal treatment of a mother or 
  sister, this one was driven away from his 
  own life a thief in the night, this one was 
  threatened with death for opinion’s sake, 
  this one was proscribed at the instance of 
  some designing neighbor, this one was 
  arrested wantonly and forced to do the 
  degrading work of a menial; while all had 
  more or less of wrath laid up against the 
  day when they were to meet face to face 
  and hand to hand those whom they had 
  good cause to regard as the living 
  embodiment of unnumbered wrongs. 
  Honorable soldiers in the Confederate army  
  – amenable to every generous impulse and 
  exact in the performance of every manly 
  duty – deserted even the ranks which they 
  had adorned and became desperate 
  Guerrillas because the home they had left 
  had been given to the flames, or a gray-
  haired father shot upon his own hearth-
  stone. They wanted to avoid the uncertainty 
  of regular battle and know by actual results 
  how many died as a propitiation or a 
  sacrifice. Every other passion became 
  subsidiary to that of revenge…. 
  — John Edwards 
  Dreadwood, Missouri  
  The Broken Dreams of Brutal 
  Men 
   
  Throughout the War Between The States 
  you’ve all been members of Quantrell’s Raiders, 
  busily staging incursions into Kansas from 
  Missouri and Arkansas. Your leader, Captain 
  William Quantrell, has been unfairly labeled an 
  outlaw by the Federals for his guerilla attacks on 
  pro-Union forces, but you know that he’s really 
  just a patriotic, free-spirited hero of the 
  Confederacy doing his best for his country. 
  Though you’ve all been involved in numerous 
  vicious skirmishes with the Jayhawkers, a brutal 
  pro-Union militia group, you always tried to 
  maintain at least a semblance of decency in the 
  way you treated civilians and captured soldiers 
  by adhering to the principals of accepting enemy 
  surrender. Two things changed your attitudes 
  pretty drastically in 1862, however. First, the 
  Commander of the Department of Missouri, 
  Major General Henry W. Halleck ordered that 
  “unconventional” fighters such as yourselves 
  would be treated as robbers and murderers if 
  captured, not normal prisoners of war. You were 
  to go to the gallows straight away with no hope 
  of fair trial nor any of the recourse which an 
  honorable opponent is normally afforded. After 
  that, Captain Quantrell gave an order to give ‘no 
  quarter’ to enemy forces be they in uniform or 
  not. You’ve not taken a prisoner since. 
   
  Secondly, in that said same infamous year 
  the Federals kidnapped several dozen of your 
  sisters, wives, and daughters and transported 
  them away from their homesteads to a women’s 
  prison in Kansas City. Before you could organize 
  a rescue, that supposed penitentiary (which was 
  really just a deathtrap) collapsed mysteriously 
  one day, maiming and killing a number of your 
  female relations. In retaliation, in you set your 
  sights on Lawrence, Kansas – a hotbed of 
  decadent Yankee sympathizers as well as the 
  home of Senator James H. Lane, that nefarious 
  poltroon of the lowest sort and an enemy to 
  Confederates everywhere. Lane managed to 
  escape that day, racing through a cornfield in his 
  nightshirt like the Yankee coward he is… but his 
  fellow townspeople were not so fortunate. 
  Actually, the whole thing is a little unclear to 
  you now as you’d all been drinking heavily, 
  riding all day in the hot sun, and feeling so 
  powerfully angry that it’s hard to say exactly 
  what happened, but when it was over, the town 
  lay in flames and 183 men and boys lay dead in 
  streets of that same village, some dragged from 
  their homes to be murdered in front of their 
  families. The North’s newspapers have labeled 
  this a “massacre,” while history’s fickle hand has 
  inscribed it as the most pointless killing of this 
  MY THREE SUNS 
   
   
   “There are three 
  kinds of suns in 
  Kansas… sunflowers, 
  sunshine, and sons of 
  bitches.”  
  — The Outlaw
  Josey Wales
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  14 
  entire pointless war… as if the murder of your 
  grey-haired Pappy, lying in a grave behind his 
  own cabin with a Yankee bullet in his chest, had 
  some point to it. 
   
  The Lawrence Massacre, as they call it, led 
  to swift retribution. Cruel-eyed Union troops 
  fresh from the slums of the North forced the 
  residents of four Missouri border counties onto 
  the open prairie while Jayhawkers looted, 
  burned, and ravaged their way through everyone 
  and everything that got left behind. Quantrell’s 
  Raiders naturally took part in the Southern 
  retaliation for this atrocity, but when Union 
  forces drove the Confederates back, your leader 
  fled to Texas in fear of his life. Your valiant 
  band had to break up into several smaller units, 
  including one headed by his most capable 
  lieutenant “Bloody Bill” Anderson, a man 
  known for his amusing habit of wearing a 
  necklace of Yankee scalps into battle. 
   
  That would be your unit, soldier. 
  The Bramblewood 
   
  You are a band of gaunt, grim, silent, and 
  desperate men worn from hard riding, much 
  starving, scant sleep, and continual fighting. Your 
  ammunition has been exhausted along with your 
  provisions, liquor, and much of the value of your 
  mounts. The country in every direction is 
  swarming with Federal troops. They are by the 
  streams and crossings, at the ferries and bridges, 
  in the towns and on the main roads, on scouting 
  expeditions and harrying marches. They are 
  killing everywhere, watching everywhere, waiting 
  everywhere. And why not? Time is on their side; 
  if your tiny band of holdouts cannot get free of the 
  rolling hills and tangled brambles of southwestern 
  Missouri out onto the open prairie of Nebraska 
  they soon will have you… and there won’t be any 
  trial for the men who followed William Quantrell.  
   
  With these thoughts perched upon your 
  souls like so many black crows poised upon a 
  weathered fence, you enter bloody Cedar 
  County, that Valley of the Shadow of Death for 
  any Southern man where snipers wait behind 
  every tree and informers sit upon every horse, 
  ready to race off on a moment’s notice into the 
  loving embrace of your enemy. Cedar County, a 
  land almost entirely given over by its very nature 
  to dark bog, bramble, dank rot, and brooding 
  ruinous decay. For days you have hungrily made 
  your way down tracks made by animals or paths 
  long abandoned by hunters, the slow drizzle of a 
  Missouri autumn your most constant and 
  intimate companion. Just when things seem to be 
  at their most miserable, you exit the dark woods 
  due west of the decimated town of Kader (you 
  know it’s decimated on account of you 
  decimated it) to find yourself in a maze of 
  bramblewood, ivy, and scrubtree which fills your 
  vision out to the horizon.  
   
  The next several days are spent traveling 
  through this labyrinthine ruin of nature, seeing 
  neither man nor beast. Then one humid morning 
  as you come around the corner of a narrow, 
  bramble flanked deer-trail you are confronted 
  with a choice. Your route splits in two – one path 
  continuing in the southwesterly direction you 
  have been traveling while the other heads off in 
  an uncertain northern direction. But before you 
  can make up your minds one way or t’other, a 
  bizarre figure on horseback rides seemingly 
  straight out of the roadside brambles. He’s 
  obviously some sort of ancient, wizened Indian 
  perched atop a dappled pony, his brow adorned 
  with the tanned hide of a buffalo and his 
  withered flesh dyed a darkest purple-black. In 
  addition, there are various bizarre symbols 
  painted upon his surprisingly well-proportioned 
  chest and arms. He clutches an odd-looking 
  tomahawk in one hand and a bag made of 
  deerskin in the other. 
  For The GM:  Dramatically pause so 
  that the PCs can announce their various 
  reactions. When they are finished, have 
  Jim Whitsett make his KS: Religion 
  role. Should he make it he will quickly 
  realize that the symbols painted on the 
  Indian’s body aren’t native symbols at 
  all; they’re actually ancient Greek or 
  Roman. Next have Bloody Bill should 
  make his PS: Indian Fighter roll. If he 
  makes it, he will know that this is a 
  Medicine Man of some sort. If he 
  makes his role by 2 he will know that 
  this, specifically, is a Missouria Nation 
  Medicine Man. They only problem is 
  that there are no more Missouria – they 
  were wiped out by the Otoe Nation over 
  a generation ago.  
   
  The Medicine Man will never give 
  his name nor explain anything about his 
  appearance nor directly answer any 
  questions about his motivations. He is 
  an invulnerable plot device, not meant 
  to be fought or attacked by the PCs. If 
  they insist on behaving violently or 
  disrespectfully he will simply sigh, 
  politely ignoring them (see below). 
   
  “You are the Grey Warriors who have 
  fought against the Bluecoats across fields of 
  blood and smoke,” the ancient man announces. 
  “Now you flee for your lives as the falcon flees 
  the eagle’s talons. Hey-hey-hey! You face a hard 
  choice, Grey Warriors, as you travel to your fates 
  down a river of blood; but that is nothing new for 
  any of you.” He turns and slowly points down 
  each path in turn.  
  FOOD FOR 
  THOUGHT 
   
   
   “Shouldn’t we bury 
  ’em Josey?” 
   “To Hell with them 
  fellas. Buzzards gotta 
  eat, same as worms.”  
  — The Outlaw
  Josey Wales
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  15
   
  “If the Grey Warriors take that route,” he 
  points southwest,” it will lead them to certain 
  death. But if they take that route,” he points north, 
  “it will take them to a death less certain. Let the 
  father of the sky hear my cries! Hey-hey-ho!”  
  For The GM:  At this point it is very 
  likely that the players will have some 
  questions for the Medicine Man. Feel 
  free to ham it up as much as you like 
  because, much like the great “Crying 
  Indian” Iron Eyes Cody (a.k.a. Oscar 
  DeCorti), Medicine Man isn’t really an 
  American Indian… he’s just pretending 
  to be one (like DeCorti he’s actually 
  Italian.) Feel free to do a tiny “rain-
  dance” around the table anytime he says 
  something like “Hey-hey-ho,” and 
  answer the PCs’ questions in the most 
  cryptic manner possible. Here are some 
  sample answers: 
  1) “In the spring it rains and flowers 
  burst forth from the ground. Yet 
  sometimes the earth gives birth to a 
  black liquid which poisons every flower 
  which it touches. Both are children of 
  the land – who can say what each 
  season shall bring?”  
  2) “Some things are not seen because 
  they do not wish to be seen. Some 
  things are not seen because nobody 
  wants to see them. And some things are 
  not seen because they are not there.”  
  3) “A little rain never hurt anybody – 
  but if it comes down long enough a 
  little rain can become a flood, washing 
  everything in its path away.” 
   
  After a while the players will 
  probably get aggravated with your 
  enigmatic indirectness and start to 
  become cranky. You should then 
  encourage them to take the path to the 
  north – otherwise you will probably end 
  up wiping them out when they hit the 
  thirty-man squad of Jayhawkers that are 
  waiting in ambush for them about half a 
  mile down the road to the southwest. 
   
  He lifts his army slowly upwards, shaking 
  the tomahawk and deerskin bag as he does so. 
   
  “If you take the road north,” the aging 
  Indian points vaguely, “you will find a town in 
  which you might acquire ammunition for your 
  weapons, liquor for your spirits, food for your 
  bellies, and – most importantly – fresh mounts. If 
  you go the other way,” he gestures vaguely 
  southeast, “the Blue Coats might be kind enough 
  to made a cross to mark your gravesite. Sky 
  Father, hear me! Hey-hey-hey!” 
  For The GM:  Pick a character. The 
  medicine man tosses the two objects to 
  him in a non-threatening manner. The 
  tomahawk is, as stated earlier, a 
  strangely constructed axe made of some 
  sort of dark wood combined with a 
  large, sharp crystal. The deerskin 
  medicine bag contains two dozen small 
  clay balls with a luminescent red onyx 
  impressed into each one. They are about 
  the size of a .44 lead ball. These items 
  all have special properties. The 
  tomahawk is a 1d6 NND HKA against 
  any undead or unnatural creature 
  (everything in Dreadwood qualifies). 
  The clay balls, when used as 
  ammunition in any revolver or rifle, do 
  the same amount of damage (1d6 NND 
  RKA). 
   
  “You have chosen as best you could, Grey 
  Warriors, but that does not mean that the way 
  you have chosen is best. When a man goes to 
  war does he bring his fishing net? When a man 
  goes to fish does he bring his bow? Take my 
  sacred tomahawk and medicine bag that they 
  might serve you well in your trials to come.” 
   
  With these words the venerable Indian 
  rotates his pony around and, with a slight 
  kicking motion, begins to move it towards the 
  brambles from which he originally emerged. 
  But as he leaves he turns his eerily painted body 
  in the saddle, faces you, and raises one hand 
  into the air. 
  For The GM:  Medicine Man will not 
  answer any specific questions about the 
  town to the north – only that it is there. 
  If the characters at last decide to take 
  that route, he will turn his pony to 
  briefly step in front of them. 
   
  “Sometimes I wonder why good so seldom 
  triumphs over evil. It seems natural that it would; 
  yet it so rarely does. Perhaps this is because one 
  man’s fortune in another man’s failure, and the 
  Sky Father has a hard time figuring out which is 
  which. Or maybe good will win more battles 
  when it learns to fight dirty. Either way, it 
  shouldn’t matter much to any of you Grey 
  Warriors.” 
   
  The old Indian then turns his pony about and 
  vanishes into the brambles along the side of the 
  path. 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  16 
  For The GM:  Attempts to follow him 
  will prove futile; he has simply 
  vanished off the face of this Earth. Have 
  your players make a PER roll. If they 
  succeed, they notice that there is a face 
  clearly painted onto the back of his 
  buffalo skin headdress in a substance 
  the color of fresh blood. The face is 
  very much like his, save that it is 
  grinning like a skull. 
   
  The northern road, as you could well 
  imagine, is not a pleasant road. Every step down 
  it finds your horses’ hoofs ever deeper in the 
  muddy earth as the “clop-clop” of their unshod 
  feet grows ever more weary. Most of you 
  instantly begin to regret following the old man’s 
  advice; it looks as though nobody has used this 
  trail in years. It stands to reason that it couldn’t 
  possibly lead to a town. Yet, after a half an hour 
  of slow, plodding riding the brambles clear out 
  in front of you and you find yourself confronted 
  with a small town. 
   
  Or what used to be a small town. 
  Dreadwood, Missouri  
   
  No more than a dozen decaying, partially 
  burnt buildings line up along a mud street. None 
  of them have back yards as they end right where 
  the seemingly impenetrable forest of brambles 
  and scrub begins. It seems impossible that 
  anyone would voluntarily build this way; it’s 
  more likely the town’s inhabitants forced a 
  begrudging opening from the ever-hungry maws 
  of the Bramblewood. A pair of battered wooden 
  signs hang high overhead, suspended between a 
  pair of roughly hewn tree trunks. Ravens swirl 
  evilly in the purple-hewed, gloomy sky far 
  above, occasionally alighting on building or 
  bramble. One caws at you mockingly from the 
  sign above. 
  For The GM:  If the players chose to 
  look up and read the signs (you can 
  never be certain), the larger of the two 
  reads “Dreadwood, Missouri” while a 
  smaller one below conjectures 
  “Population 50.” It seems, however, 
  that the “50” has been crossed out and 
  replaced with a “20,” which has in turn 
  been crossed out and replaced with an 
  eight. This in turn gives way to a three, 
  then a zero, and finally a negative ten.  
   
  The town, which probably wasn’t much to 
  begin with, appears to have been looted and 
  burned at some point in the last year. Its 
  unpainted pineboard buildings sag in their 
  foundations, looking for all the world like a 
  bunch of battered old men sitting wearily around 
  a card table which, like themselves, has seen 
  better days. For the most part, the remaining 
  buildings are the usual assortment of structures 
  one would expect to find in just about any tiny 
  southern hamlet:  a battered looking tavern with 
  its second story burned completely off, a general 
  store with all of its windows smashed, and a 
  primitive stable which looks to not have been 
  much in the first place. But the most remarkable 
  building in Dreadwood is its church; an 
  enormous, unadorned black structure which 
  seems to have been built right in the middle of 
  the road on the far end of town, effectively 
  blocking the only other exit from this depressing 
  little burg. 
  1) Notelek’s Tavern:  This roomy, two story 
  structure appears to have been constructed of 
  roughly cut pine boards held together with a fair 
  amount of pitch, plug, and prayer. A sign which 
  must have once adorned its now missing upper 
  level lies facedown in the mud on the street 
  below (GM:  If the players flip it over it reads 
  “Notelek’s Tavern” on the other side). Its one 
  remaining swinging door hangs limply on a 
  single hinge. Inside, you can hear the sound of a 
  piano’s ivories being tickled. Its musician is 
  banging out a melancholy, off-key version of 
  Yankee Doodle Dandy. 
   
  The inside of the tavern is gloomy, foul 
  smelling, and damp. A long crude bar covered in 
  cobwebs and broken bottles dominates the far 
  side of the structure, while behind it the remains 
  of an enormous shattered mirror still cling 
  tenaciously to the wall. A half dozen card tables 
  lay scattered across the floor in various states of 
  disrepair. The corpse of a man, flesh obviously 
  long rotten from its frame, lays face down on one 
  table with a hand of poker still clenched in his 
  bony fist (GM:  A PS: Bushwhacker roll by any 
  of the characters will tell them that its a marked 
  deck; the stiff had been cheating. Bushwhackers 
  know this kind of stuff). Two other bodies, 
  similarly heavily decayed but attired in tavern-
  keeper’s clothing, lay sprawled across the bar 
  and piano respectively. The piano, obviously a 
  “player” piano, is slowly but finally spewing its 
  music roll out of a ragged hole in its side and 
  onto the floor. As you come in it slowly winds 
  down and stops. 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  17
  For The Game Master:  There are 
  several items of potential interest to the 
  players left in this structure. Behind the 
  bar are 3 full bottles of Old Revelator 
  whisky which, although stoppered with 
  knucklebones and lead, are still 
  reeeeaaaal potent. Anyone taking a pull 
  should make a constitution check; 
  failure means that the character suffers 
  a 1d6 CON Drain which lasts for a full 
  minute. However each swig will also 
  restore one point of BODY permanently 
  (there are five shots in each bottle.) 
  There is also a fully loaded and 
  functional black powder shotgun behind 
  the bar which is nearly identical to 
  Henry Hockensmith’s. Their liquor 
  worries are over.  
   
  Once the characters disturb any of 
  these objects, however, the following 
  happens…. 
   
  Suddenly you hear a high, feminine voice 
  clear her throat from above. As you all look up, 
  you see a luminescent figure descend down the 
  stairs from where the building’s second story 
  would have been. A tall, rather attractive, and 
  undeniably translucent woman with long blond 
  hair glares down at you, her hands gripping the 
  air where a railing undoubtedly used to lie. She 
  has the dress and mannerisms of what you 
  imagine to be an expensive prostitute (GM:  
  George Maddox can make an KS: Ladies of Ill 
  Repute roll to determine this if you like).  
   
  “Rebel scum!” she hisses at you through 
  clenched teeth. She has a distinct, and to your 
  tiny minds sexy, German accent. Actually, she 
  looks and sounds just like Madeline Kahn’s 
  character Lili Von Schtupp from Mel Brooks’ 
  Blazing Saddles (GM:  Make your R’s sound like 
  W’s.) “This used to be a nice, respectable town 
  before you traitors came through and wrecked it! 
  You rebel scum make me feel ashamed to have 
  been alive. Oh, you should really never have 
  killed me – because now I’m going to return the 
  favor! Get them boys! Get them out of my bar!” 
   
  At this point the three skeletons rise up, 
  gripping long sharp slivers of glass from the 
  floor as they rise…. 
  For The GM:  The dead hooker (you 
  don’t get to say THAT every day, do 
  you? Actually, if you do and you’re not 
  an LA cop, don’t tell me) is a ghost as 
  spelled out on page 120 of the HERO 
  System Bestiary. Her “boys” are 
  skeletons as detailed on page 123 of the 
  same book. The slivers of glass when 
  combined with the Skeleton’s strength 
  are a 2d6 KA. The skeletons will fight 
  until destroyed, but the ghost will 
  disappear and flee before being 
  terminated.  
  Ghostly Hooker 
   10 STR 18 DEX 10 CON 
  10 BODY 
   10 INT  18  EGO  20  PRE 
   15 COM 
   
  5  PD 
   5  ED  
  3 SPD  
   
  4  REC  20  END 20  STUN 
  Abilities:  Drain STUN 2d6, Affects Physical 
  World, Reduced Endurance (0 END); 
  Telekinesis (10 STR), Affects Physical World, 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END); Invisibility to 
  Sight, Hearing, and Smell/Taste Groups, No 
  Fringe, Reduced Endurance (0 END), Persistent, 
  Inherent; Desolidification (affected by Medicine 
  Man’s objects), Reduced Endurance (0 END), 
  Persistent, Inherent, Always On; +20 PRE, Only 
  for Fear-Based Presence Attacks; Life Support:  
  Total; No Hit Locations; Flight 8”, Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END); Spatial Awareness; Detect 
  Rebel Scum 11-, Range, Sense 
  75+ Disadvantages:  Physical Limitation:  
  Human Size; Physical Limitation:  Reduced 
  Leap, Cannot Leap (Infrequently, Slightly 
  Impairing); Psychological Limitation:  Destroy 
  Rebel Scum (Very Common, Strong) 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  18 
  Skeleton 
   15 STR 12 DEX 10 CON  
  10  BODY 
   
  5  INT 
  0  EGO  13  PRE 
  6  COM  
   
  2  PD 
  2  ED  
  2  SPD  
   
  5  REC 
  0 END  
  -  STUN 
  Abilities:  Reduced Endurance (0 END) for 
  STR; Does Not Bleed; No Hit Locations; Takes 
  No Stun; +2 PD, Only Protects Against Slashing 
  or Piercing Attacks; +2 PD, Only Protects 
  Against Piercing Attacks; Damage Resistance (6 
  PD/2 ED); Life Support:  Total; Reduced END 
  (0 END) on Running; Reduced END (0 END) on 
  Leaping; Reduced END (0 END) on Swimming; 
  Infrared Perception (Sight Group); +4 PER with 
  all Senses, Only to Perceive Images Created By 
  Means Other Than Necromancy 
  75+ Disadvantages:  Physical Limitation:  
  Affected By Necromancy (Infrequent, Greatly 
  Impairing); Physical Limitation:  Machine 
  Intelligence (Frequently, Greatly Impairing); 
  Physical Limitation:  Can Only Leap 1” 
  (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing); Vulnerability:  
  2x BODY from Blunt Weapons (Very Common) 
   
  Skeleton 
  2) Eibmoz’s General Store:  This large, single-
  story structure appears to have been converted 
  into a general store from an old barn of some 
  considerable size. Its battered tin roof has seen 
  better days, though, as it seems to have been 
  patched up with boards and tar where it’s rusted 
  through. There’s a large sign over its front door 
  which reads “Eibmoz’s General Store.” (GM:  
  assuming the players chose to go in…) Inside, the 
  store seems to be comprised of a single giant 
  room crisscrossed with four rows of shelves 
  which are approximately four feet tall. All of 
  them are easily visible from a single long wooden 
  counter which runs along the back wall 
  (obviously to prevent theft of any sort). There are 
  four townspeople currently shopping in the store:  
  two men in farmer’s clothing with large, floppy 
  straw hats, a woman in her tattered Sunday’s best 
  with a bonnet on, and what might be her child 
  standing next to her. They are scattered amongst 
  the shelves, examining the store’s dry goods 
  closely and obviously shopping. A storekeeper 
  stands behind the counter, contemplating its 
  surface as he very, very slowly wipes it clean with 
  a washrag. 
   
  As the players enter the storekeeper slowly 
  looks up from his work; his face is a rotted, 
  maggot-infested ruin. “Brains!” he cries out 
  through puttered lips, his voice little more than a 
  sickening wreck. His customers all look up, but 
  their faces are also little more than disgusting 
  mockeries of their former humanity. “Brains!” 
  they all echo as they begin to slowly move 
  towards the characters…. 
  For The GM:  These townspeople are 
  all zombies, similar to the ones listed on 
  page 127 of the HERO System Bestiary. 
  Once they have been defeated (IF they 
  are defeated) the players can search the 
  store. They will find that, although most 
  of the groceries which once lined the 
  shelves are rotten, damaged, or 
  otherwise destroyed, there is still 
  enough boxes of “hardtack” biscuits, 
  beans, and cornmeal to outfit the group 
  for another week. In addition, the 
  general store contains enough .44 
  caliber balls, percussion caps, and black 
  powder as the characters can possibly 
  carry. Their food and ammunition 
  worries are over. 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  19
  Zombie 
   20  STR 10 DEX 10 CON 
  10 BODY 
   
  5 INT 
  0  EGO 13 PRE 
  6 COM 
   
  4  PD 
  2  ED  
  2  SPD 
   
  6 REC 
  0 END 
  Abilities:  Reduced Endurance (0 END) for 
  STR; Does Not Bleed; No Hit Locations; Takes 
  No Stun; +2 PD, Only Against Slashing or 
  Piercing Attacks; +2 PD, Only Against Piercing 
  Attacks; Damage Resistance (8 PD/ 2 ED); Life 
  Support:  Total; Running -4”; Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END) on Running; Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END) on Leaping; Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END) on Swimming; Infrared 
  Perception (Sight Group); +2 PER with all 
  Senses; Only To Perceive Images Created By 
  Means Other Than Necromancy; Climbing 11-; 
  Stealth 11-; WF: Common Melee Weapons 
  75+ Disadvantages:  Physical Limitation:  
  Affected By Necromancy (Infrequently, Greatly 
  Impairing); Physical Limitation:  Machine 
  Intelligence (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) 
  Physical Limitation:  Can Only Leap 1” 
  (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing 
   
   
  Zombie 
  3) The Stables:  This medium-sized structure is 
  basically a large lean-to built out of small pine 
  logs which have been stripped of their bark 
  before being driven into the ground at an angle. 
  Its walls are constructed out of shaped stones 
  crudely mortared together with a mixture of mud 
  and ox blood (gross, but not unusual). Through 
  an opening in the front of the building you can 
  hear the sounds of horses from within, as well as 
  the sound of a man singing happily to himself. 
   
  “Goober peas, goober peas, how I love those 
  goober peas! Goodness how delicious, eating 
  goober peas….” 
   
  (GM:  Assuming the players go in…) There 
  are a dozen good, strong horses in various stalls 
  within this building, all obviously well fed and 
  properly taken care of. On the far end of the 
  construction from you a large figure in dirty 
  coveralls is moving hay into one of the stalls 
  using a pitchfork, singing to himself all the 
  while. When you come several feet into the 
  building, however, the figure suddenly spins 
  about to face you for the first time. He is wearing 
  some sort of bizarre white wooden mask 
  ventilated with tiny holes over his face (GM:  A 
  successful KS: Indian Fighter roll will tell 
  Bloody Bill that this is NOT any sort of Indian 
  mask) and is gripping the pitchfork in his hand 
  so tightly that his knuckles are turning white. 
  With a shriek he screams “Goober Peas!” before 
  charging straight for you…. 
   
   
   
   
   
  For The GM:  “Goober Peas” is a 
  Slasher similar to the one detailed on 
  page 210 of the HERO System Bestiary 
  save that he wields a pitchfork rather 
  than a knife (treat it the same for 
  damage purposes). If the players 
  manage to put an end to him, they will 
  find his stable well stocked with 
  excellent, well-fed mounts. Their riding 
  worries are over…. 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  20 
  Goober Peas (Slasher)  
   15  STR 15 DEX 20  CON 
  20  BODY 
   15  INT  15  EGO 20 PRE 
  10 COM 
   
  8 PD 
  8 ED 
  3  SPD 
   10 REC 40 END 40  STUN 
  Abilities:  HKA 1d6 (2d6 with STR); +10 
  REC, Requires CON Roll 13-; Healing 2d6 
  (Regeneration; 2 BODY per Turn), 
  Resurrection (others can stop by burning body), 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END), Persistent, Self 
  Only, Extra Time; Combat Luck; +3 with 
  Hand-To-Hand Combat; Climbing 12-, 
  Contortionist 12-; Stealth 13- 
  75+ Disadvantages:  Psychological Limitation:  
  Unquenchable Urge To Kill Southerners (Very 
  Common, Strong) 
   
   
  Goober Peas (Slasher)  
   
  4) The Black Church:  This long plain black 
  structure seems to have been built right in the 
  middle of the road, effectively blocking the only 
  western exit from Dreadwood. Although 
  obviously a church, it has no steeple, bell, nor 
  any remaining windows – they all seem to have 
  been knocked out before being boarded up. 
  There’s glass everywhere.   
   
  The church’s two front doors swing back 
  and forth on their warped hinges, making 
  periodic yet always shocking slamming noises. 
  From within you can hear the familiar sounds of 
  a sermon being given, although you cannot make 
  out any distinct words. You’re going to have to 
  go in to do that. 
   
  (GM:  Assuming the players go in…) Pews 
  lay broken and scattered throughout this 
  elongated rectangle of a building, creating an 
  open path through a seeming ocean of wooden 
  debris wide enough to ride a horse through. 
  Obviously a portion of the inner roof collapsed 
  into the structure at some point in the past. On 
  the far side of the room a man in the garb of a 
  protestant minister is giving a sermon. He is 
  waving his Bible in the air wildly, beating it 
  against his pulpit, and gesticulating to some 
  unseen crowd of churchgoers. As you center you 
  catch the very tail end of his sermon. 
   
  “And when JE-S-EUS stepped out of that 
  boat he was immediately met by a man, a DE-
  MON-IAC, fresh out of the tombs of Gerasenes 
  an’ filled with an unclean spirit of SATAN! He 
  lived amongst the tombs, for none of his kinfolk 
  could restrain him with chains any longer. For 
  though he had been oft restrained with shackles 
  and chains, WITH SHACKLES AND CHAINS, 
  he done wrenched those chains apart and broken 
  those shackles into pieces. No one had the 
  strength to subdue him, no one had the strength 
  to….” 
   
  The minister seems to notice you all for the 
  first time. He looks up at you warily for a 
  moment, then grins a magnificent grin entirely 
  comprised of long, sharp teeth. For the first time 
  you notice that there are two tiny black horns 
  growing straight out of his forehead into the 
  wide brim of his parson’s hat. The letters “L-O-
  V-E” are tattooed on his left fingers while the 
  letters “H-A-T-E” are tattooed on his right. 
   
  “You need some churchin’ you rebel scum,” 
  he howls, “an’ I aim to give you some churchin’ 
  – Dreadwood style churchin’ that is!” 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  21
  For The GM:  The Minister is a Lesser 
  Demon very similar to the one detailed 
  on page 54 of the HERO System 
  Bestiary. He will enter combat by 
  unleashing a series of “demonic blasts” 
  before charging down amongst the 
  player characters and attempting to rend 
  them with his claws. While he fights he 
  will spout out various Bible quotations 
  in mangled rural American English 
  (chose your personal favorites). The 
  only character with anything capable of 
  cowing The Minister is Jim Whitsett, 
  who is not only a religious man but 
  possesses a well thumbed (if ragged) 
  copy of the King James version of the 
  Bible. The Minister is kind of allergic to 
  holy objects (his “bible” is actually a 
  copy of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle 
  Tom’s Cabin), so if Whitsett “presents” 
  his Bible in conjunction with a Presence 
  Attack and a good ol’ “hellfire” 
  quotation of his own, he gets to make a 
  5d6 PRE roll against The Minister, who 
  must match or best Whitsett’s roll with 
  a 5d6 roll of his own. If the Minister 
  fails, he has to skip his next Phase, 
  presumably giving the players a chance 
  to fill him full of .44 clay bullets. 
  Some of The Minister’s sample 
  bible quotations might include: 
   
  “My eye will not spare ya, I shall 
  have no pity – I shall punish you 
  for your rebel ways while yer 
  abominations number amongst ya! 
  Then you shall know that I am the 
  Lord! Ezekiel 7:04, you lily-livered 
  killers!” 
   
  “Withhold not correction from the 
  child for if thou beatest him with 
  thy rod he shall not die… Proverbs 
  23:13, you rebel scum! Church 
  learnin’!” 
   
  “I came not with peace but with a 
  sword. For I am come to set every 
  man at against his father, and every 
  daughter against her mother… 
  Matthew 10:34, you heathens!” 
   
  “Y’all are of your father the Devil, 
  and y’all want to do the desires of 
  your father… yer not the chillens of 
  God! John 8:44, sinners!”  
   
  When, and more importantly if, he 
  is defeated, the players at long last have 
  a clear path out of Dreadwood. They 
  can ride their new horses straight 
  through the church and into the next 
  section.  
  The Minister (Lesser Demon)  
   25 STR 20 DEX  23 CON 
  20  BODY 
   20 INT 20 EGO 25 PRE 
  8 COM 
   15  PD 
  15 ED 
  4 SPD 
   12 REC 46 END 45 STUN 
  Abilities:  Energy Blast 10d6, Reduced 
  Endurance (½ END); HKA 1½d6, Continuous, 
  Damage Shield, Penetrating, Reduced Endurance 
  (½ END), No STR Bonus; HKA 1½d6 (2½d6 
  with STR), Armor Piercing; Damage Resistance 
  (8 PD/8 ED); Physical and Energy Damage 
  Reduction, Resistant, 50%; Mental Defense (9 
  Points Total); Power Defense (5 Points); Life 
  Support:  Total; Running +3” (9” Total); Infrared 
  Perception (Sight Group); +1 Overall; 
  Concealment 13-; Stealth 13-; WF: Common 
  Melee Weapons 
  75+ Disadvantages:  Distinctive Features:  
  Horns and Sharp Teeth (Concealable With 
  Effort; Causes Fear); Enraged:  If Confronted 
  With Rebel Scum (Uncommon, go 11-, recover 
  11-); Psychological Limitation:  Overconfident 
  (Very Common, Strong); Psychological 
  Limitation:  Utterly Evil (Very Common, Total); 
  Susceptibility:  to Bibles, see blue text 
  (Common) 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  22 
  Nebraska Territory 
   
  After trials and tribulations of a Herculean 
  disposition which surely would have impressed 
  Sampson or any other Biblical hero of old, you 
  have fought your way free of the frightful and 
  terrible town of Dreadwood, Missouri. Your 
  packs are filled with food, ammunition, and 
  medicinal spirits while your tired behinds rest 
  squarely upon fresh, spirited mounts. Exhausted 
  yet exhilarated with heavy hearts but lightened 
  burdens you make your way due west towards 
  the Nebraska territory and freedom. 
   
  The Bramblewood, which just yesterday 
  haunted your dreams with dark and forbidding 
  visions, seems today to be somehow less evil in 
  its disposition. Here and there a late blooming 
  flower sprouts out amongst the thorny branches, 
  while blue birds and robins flutter overhead 
  calling back and forth to one another in the 
  carefree manner of children at play. Spurring 
  your mounts forward, laughing amongst 
  yourselves, you exit the terrible labyrinth off 
  occult and sorrow out onto the endless plains of 
  blue, purposeful blue. 
   
  For The Game Master:  If you still 
  have more time on your hands and want 
  to give your players a little more hell 
  before they finally get free, have two 
  squads of Jayhawkers laying in wait for 
  them as the exit the Bramblewood. 
  These rough semi-soldiers will be riding 
  hard from both the north and south on 
  light warhorses (see page 169 of the 
  HERO System Bestiary) in squads of six 
  to intercept the players from 24” away 
  as they come out into the open. The 
  Jayhawkers will fight until one third of 
  their number has fallen, then retreat 
  back the way they came… like the lily-
  livered poltroons they are! 
  Jayhawker 
   13 STR 
  12 DEX 
  12 CON 
   10 BODY 
  10 INT 
  10 EGO 
   10  PRE 
  10 COM 
   
  3 PD 
  2  ED 
  3 SPD 
   
  5 REC 
  24  END 
  23  STUN 
  Abilities:  WF: Small Arms, Riding  
  12-, +1 with carbine, Tracking 11- 
  Equipment:  Cattleman’s Carbine 
  (2d6-1, six shot, +1 OCV, +1 Stun, +2 
  Range) Light War Horse 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  23
  Appendixes 
  Appendix Three:  Speed Chart 
  and Bibliography  
  Speed Chart 
   
  This handy speed chart will help you keep 
  track of combat in Dreadwood, Missouri without 
  having to use the standard HERO System speed 
  chart. The number on the left represents a 
  segment, while the characters who can take an 
  action on that segment are listed in order to the 
  right with DEX scores already factored in. This 
  chart should help to speed up the process of 
  playing this scenario, allowing you and your 
  friends to complete the entire thing in three to 
  four hours (at the most). 
   
  1) Nobody 
  2) Nobody 
  3) The Minister, James 
  4) Ghost Prostitute, Goober Peas, Anderson 
  Younger, Maddox, Hockensmith, Whitsett 
  5) Nobody 
  6) The Minister, James, Skeletons Zombies 
  7) Nobody  
  8) Ghost Prostitute, Goober Peas, Anderson, 
  Younger, Maddox, Hockensmith Whitsett 
  9) The Minister, James 
  10) Nobody 
  11) Nobody 
  12) The Minister, Ghost Prostitute, Goober Peas, 
  James, Anderson, Younger, Maddox, 
  Hockensmith, Whitsett, Skeletons Zombies 
  Bibliography 
  Noted Guerrillas or the Warfare of the Border, 
  1861-1865 by John Edwards 
  Western Lawmen & Outlaws by Jay Robert Nash 
  The Story of Cole Younger by Himself; Being an 
  Autobiography of the Missouri Guerrilla 
  Captain & Outlaw, His Capture & Prison 
  Life by Cole Younger 
  Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri by 
  Robert Dyer 
  Filmography 
  The Stranger Wore A Gun (1953) with Randolph 
  Scott  
  Quantrell’s Raiders (1958) with Steven Cochran  
  Ride With The Devil (1999) with Toby Maguire 
  Appendix Two:  Character Sheets 
   
  The following character sheets are to be 
  given as handouts to the players. Each one lists 
  the characters statistics, skills, and equipment, 
  along with a brief historical quote relating to the 
  character. It should be noted that all of the 
  characters have KS: Bushwhacker, a general skill 
  covering the art of guerilla fighting. This 
  includes ambushing, concealment, small-scale 
  tactics, improvised weaponry, and general rural 
  terrain knowledge as well as a working 
  knowledge of the history of the Missouri Border 
  War. A roll with this skill should be made 
  whenever the player feels that his character may 
  know a reasonable item of information on those 
  subjects that he himself does not.  
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  24 
  “Bloody Bill” Anderson 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   15 STR 
  5 12- Lift 200 kg; 3d6 HTH [1] 
   14 DEX 
  12 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   13 CON 
  6 12- 
   10 BODY 
  0 11- 
   13 INT 
  3 12- PER Roll:  12- 
   11 EGO 
  2 11- ECV:  4 
   14 PRE 
  4 12- PRE Attack:  2½d6 
   10 COM 
  0 11- 
   
   
  6 PD 
  3 
   Total:  6 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  4 ED 
  1 
   Total:  4 ED (0 rED) 
   
  3 SPD 
  6 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12 
   
  6 REC 
  0 
   26 END 
  0 
   26 STUN 
  1 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  43 
  Movement: Running: 
  7”/14” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   
  2 Running +1” (7” Total) 
  1 
   
   Skills 
   
  8 +1 with All Combat 
   
   
  2 KS: Torture 11- 
   
  2 KS: Indian Fighting 11- 
   
  3 PS: Bushwhacker 12- 
   
  3 Riding 12- 
   
  5 Stealth 13- 
   
  3 Tactics 12- 
   
  4 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Small 
  Arms 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  32 
   
  Total Cost:  75 
   
   50+ Disadvantages 
   15 Hunted:  Jayhawkers 11- (Less Pow, NCI) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Sociopath 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  75 
   
   Equipment 
  Four .44 Confederate Navy Revolvers 
  (2d6-1 RKA, five shots loaded, -1 
  OCV, +1 STUN) 
  Bowie Knife (1d6 HKA) 
  Hatchet (1d6 HKA) 
  Light Warhorse with Saddlebags 
  Tattered Grey Clothing and Boots 
   
   
  Description 
   
  “The most desperate man I ever met… (He) 
  never took prisoners but always shot captives 
  out-of-hand… he was a walking and riding 
  arsenal, usually with four Navy Colt pistols in 
  his waistband, four rifles on his horse, a saber, a 
  hatchet, and a bag of pistols wrapped around the 
  horn of his saddle.” 
  — Western Lawmen & Outlaws by Jay Robert 
  Nash 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  25
  George Maddox 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   13 STR 
  3 12- Lift 150 kg; 2½d6 HTH 
   14 DEX 
  12 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   13 CON 
  6 12- 
   10 BODY 
  0 11- 
   13 INT 
  3 12- PER Roll:  12- 
   11 EGO 
  2 11- ECV:  4 
   13 PRE 
  3 12- PRE Attack:  2½d6 
   12 COM 
  1 11- 
   
   
  5 PD 
  2 
   Total:  5 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  4 ED 
  1 
   Total:  4 ED (0 rED) 
   
  3 SPD 
  6 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12 
   
  6 REC 
  0 
   32 END 
  3 
   26 STUN 
  2 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  44 
  Movement: Running: 
  7”/14” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   
  2 Running +1” (7” Total) 
  1 
   
   Skills 
   
  4 +2 with Revolvers 
   
   
  5 Fast Draw 13- 
   
  2 KS: Ladies of Ill Repute 11- 
   
  3 PS: Bushwhacker 12- 
   
  3 Riding 12- 
   
  1 Shadowing 8- 
   
  5 Stealth 13- 
   
  3 Tactics 12- 
   
  3 WF: Blades, Small Arms 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  31 
   
  Total Cost:  75 
   
   50+ Disadvantages 
   15 Hunted:  Jayhawkers 11- (Less Pow, NCI) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Fatalist 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  75 
   
  Equipment 
  Two .44 Confederate Navy Revolvers 
  (2d6-1 RKA, five shots loaded, -1 
  OCV, +1 STUN) 
  Bowie Knife (1d6 HKA) 
  Pearl Handled Shaving Kit 
  Light Warhorse with Saddlebags 
  Tattered Grey Clothing and Boots 
   
   
   
  Description  
   
  “All tenacity and endurance. Tried in the 
  fire of fifty desperate combats, he was a fatalist 
  to the extent of believing that the fates took good 
  care of him. He did not speculate, he did not 
  build air castles at night for the mists of the 
  morning to dissipate; if he was an hungered and 
  could not get to eat, he drew his revolver belt a 
  hole or two tighter and forgot that he had an 
  appetite. As he rode he sang, or was glad or gay. 
  Air and exercise put iron into his blood as wine 
  puts fire into the brain.” 
  —  Noted Guerrillas or the Warfare of the 
  Border, 1861-1865 by John Edwards 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  26 
  Henry Hockensmith 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   15 STR 
  5 12- Lift 200 kg; 3d6 HTH [1] 
   14 DEX 
  12 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   12 CON 
  4 11- 
   11 BODY 
  2 11- 
   13 INT 
  3 12- PER Roll:  12- 
   11 EGO 
  2 11- ECV:  4 
   13 PRE 
  3 12- PRE Attack:  2½d6 
   10 COM 
  0 11- 
   
   
  6 PD 
  3 
   Total:  6 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  3 ED 
  1 
   Total:  3 ED (0 rED) 
   
  3 SPD 
  6 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12 
   
  5 REC 
  0 
   24 END 
  0 
   25 STUN 
  0 
   
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  41 
  Movement: Running: 
  7”/14” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   
  2 Running +1” (7” Total) 
  1 
   10 Tough Fellow:  Physical Damage 
  Reduction, 25% 
  0 
   
  7 Bare Knuckle Fighter:  HA +2d6 (5d6 
  with STR); HA Lim (-½) 
  1 
   
   Skills 
   
  5 +1 with Hand-to-Hand Combat 
   
   
  2 AK: Rural Arkansas 11- 
   
  3 PS: Bushwhacker 12- 
   
  3 Riding 12- 
   
  2 WF: Small Arms 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  34 
   
  Total Cost:  75 
   
   50+ Disadvantages 
   15 Hunted:  Jayhawkers 11- (Less Pow, NCI) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Violent 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  75 
   
  Equipment 
  LeMats Pistol (2d6-1 RKA, eight shots 
  loaded, -1 OCV, +1 STUN with 
  miniature shotgun underbarrel 3d6 
  RKA, one shot, +3 OCV, +1 STUN, 
  -3 Range) 
  Double Barreled Shotgun (2½d6 RKA, 
  two shots, +1 OCV, +1 STUN, +2 
  Range) 
  Light Warhorse with Saddlebags 
  Tattered Grey Clothing and Boots 
   
   
  Description  
   
  “Solid as a young oak, built like a grizzly 
  bear for depth of chest and might of muscle, cool 
  as a grenadier, schooled by Quantrell, drilled by 
  George Todd, and graduated from a school that 
  knew no peril that would not flee if faced and no 
  bloody ground that would not give up its ogres if 
  penetrated.” 
  — ”Noted Guerrillas or the Warfare of the 
  Border, 1861-1865” by John Edwards 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  27
  Cole Younger 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   13 STR 
  3 12- Lift 150 kg; 2½d6 HTH  
   14 DEX 
  12 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   13 CON 
  6 12- 
   10 BODY 
  0 11- 
   13 INT 
  3 12- PER Roll:  12- 
   11 EGO 
  2 11- ECV:  4 
   12 PRE 
  2 11- PRE Attack:  2d6 
   10 COM 
  0 11- 
   
   
  4 PD 
  1 
   Total:  4 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  4 ED 
  1 
   Total:  4 ED (0 rED) 
   
  3 SPD 
  6 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12 
   
  6 REC 
  0 
   26 END 
  0 
   26 STUN 
  2 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  38 
  Movement: Running: 
  7”/14” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   
  2 Running +1” (7” Total) 
  1 
   
   Skills 
   
  5 +1 with Ranged Combat 
   
   
  2 AK: Rural Missouri 11- 
   
  3 Demolitions 12- 
   
  5 Fast Draw 13- 
   
  4 KS: Literature 13- 
   
  3 PS: Bushwhacker 12- 
   
  3 Riding 12- 
   
  5 Stealth 13- 
   
  3 Tactics 12- 
   
  2 WF: Small Arms 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  37 
   
  Total Cost:  75 
   
   50+ Disadvantages 
   15 Hunted:  Jayhawkers 11- (Less Pow, NCI) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Vengeful 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  75 
   
  Equipment 
  Two .44 Confederate Navy Revolvers 
  (2d6-1 RKA, five shots loaded, -1 
  OCV, +1 STUN) 
  Sawed-Off Double Barreled Shotgun (2d6 
  RKA, two shots, +2 OCV, +1 STUN, 
  -2 Range) 
  Light Warhorse with Saddlebags 
  Tattered Grey Clothing and Boots 
   
   
   
  Description  
   
  “Conflicts and troubles centered on our 
  home that planted a bitterness in my young heart 
  which cried out for revenge, and this feeling was 
  only accentuated by the cruelties of war which 
  followed. I refer in particular to the shameful 
  and cowardly murder of my father for money 
  which he was known to have in his possession, 
  and the cruel treatment of my mother at the 
  hands of the Missouri Militia.” 
  — The Story of Cole Younger by Himself:  Being 
  an Autobiography of the Missouri Guerrilla 
  Captain and Outlaw, His Capture and Prison 
  Life, by Cole Younger 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  28 
  Jesse James 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   11 STR 
  1 11- Lift 115 kg; 2d6 HTH [1] 
   14 DEX 
  12 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   13 CON 
  6 12- 
   10 BODY 
  0 11- 
   10 INT 
  0 11- PER Roll:  11- 
   10 EGO 
  0 11- ECV:  3 
   13 PRE 
  3 12- PRE Attack:  2½d6 
   12 COM 
  1 11- 
   
   
  6 PD 
  4 
   Total:  6 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  4 ED 
  1 
   Total:  4 ED (0 rED) 
   
  4 SPD 
  16 
   Phases:  3, 6, 9, 12 
   
  6 REC 
  2 
   26 END 
  0 
   26 STUN 
  3 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  49 
  Movement: Running: 
  7”/14” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   
  2 Running +1” (7” Total) 
  1 
   
   Talents 
   
  3 Ambidexterity (Reduce Off Hand 
  Penalty to -2) 
   
   Skills 
   
  6 +3 with Colt Navy Pistols 
   
   
  5 Fast Draw 13- 
   
  2 KS: Train Robbing 11- 
   
  3 PS: Bushwhacker 12- 
   
  3 Riding 12- 
   
  2 WF: Small Arms 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  26 
   
  Total Cost:  75 
   
   50+ Disadvantages 
   15 Hunted:  Jayhawkers 11- (Less Pow, NCI) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Reckless 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  75 
   
  Equipment 
  Two .44 Confederate Navy Revolvers 
  (2d6-1RKA, six shots loaded, -1 
  OCV, +1 STUN) 
  Light Warhorse with Saddlebags 
  Tattered Grey Clothing and Boots 
   
   
   
  Description  
   
  “He seemed to be afraid of nothing. In one 
  skirmish with the enemy… [James] was seen 
  riding pell-mell into the Union ranks, the reins of 
  his horse held by his teeth, firing two pistols. He 
  shot down six Northern soldiers and was 
  credited with killing three of them.” 
  — Western Lawmen & Outlaws, by Jay Robert 
  Nash 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  29
  Jim Whitsett 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   13 STR 
  3 12- Lift 150 kg; 2½d6 HTH  
   14 DEX 
  12 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   13 CON 
  6 12- 
   10 BODY 
  0 11- 
   15 INT 
  5 12- PER Roll:  12- 
   12 EGO 
  4 11- ECV:  4 
   13 PRE 
  3 12- PRE Attack:  2½d6 
   12 COM 
  1 11- 
   
   
  5 PD 
  2 
   Total:  5 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  4 ED 
  1 
   Total:  4 ED (0 rED) 
   
  3 SPD 
  6 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12 
   
  6 REC 
  0 
   26 END 
  0 
   26 STUN 
  2 
   
    
  Total Characteristics Cost:  45 
  Movement: Running: 
  7”/14” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   
  2 Running +1” (7” Total) 
  1 
   
   Talents 
   10 Danger Sense 12- (Intuitional) 
   
  3 Lightsleep 
   
   Skills 
   
  2 KS: Ancient History 11- 
   
  2 KS: Religion 11- 
   
  3 PS: Bushwhacker 12- 
   
  3 Riding 12- 
   
  3 Tracking 12- 
   
  2 WF: Small Arms 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  30 
   
  Total Cost:  75 
   
   50+ Disadvantages 
   15 Hunted:  Jayhawkers 11- (Less Pow, NCI) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Religious 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  75 
   
  Equipment 
  New Texas Army Pistol (2d6-1RKA, five 
  shots loaded, -1 OCV, +1 STUN) 
  Enfield Black Powder Rifle (2d6+1RKA, 
  one shot, +1 OCV, +1 STUN, +2 
  Range) 
  Light Warhorse with Saddlebags 
  Tattered Grey Clothing and Boots 
  King James Bible  
   
   
   
  Description  
   
  “All nerve, and dash, and rugged 
  appearance” 
  — ”Noted Guerrillas or the Warfare of the 
  Border, 1861-1865” by John Edwards 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  30 
  Appendix Three:  Map of 
  Dreadwood, Missouri  
   
  Though it contains a dozen-odd ruined 
  shells, there are only four actual buildings which 
  remain standing in the tiny town of Dreadwood. 
  In each case the dreaded Bramblewood grows 
  directly to the back of the structure, leaving only 
  a single entrance as well as a single exit. The 
  overall effect is claustrophobic. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  31
  Battleforge by W. Jason Allen 
   
  Background/History:  Jake Sullivan’s hands 
  glowed red with power as he focused his will into 
  the long sword he had recently taken hot from the 
  forge. The glow spread from his hands to the 
  blade, suffusing the sword from pommel to point, 
  then slowly fading to nothing. Grinning, Jake 
  hefted the blade, and it burst into flame. Satisfied, 
  he placed it carefully on a rack, next to other 
  items he had recently empowered. Soon he would 
  be ready to seek his vengeance. 
   
  As he cleaned the forge-soot from his face, 
  Jake recalled how he grew up in a small town 
  deep in the Midwest, hating every moment. The 
  only joy he found was in blacksmithing, working 
  for a local historical museum. His parents 
  disapproved of his learning such a “useless” skill; 
  they wanted him to be an engineer, or something 
  useful and profitable. Jake just enjoyed making 
  things with his own two hands. Working the forge 
  made him feel complete somehow. 
   
  One day, as Jake tended the forge by himself, 
  a large, well-built man with a thick black beard 
  entered the shop. He remembered it as though it 
  were yesterday: “You, lad. Who runs this 
  establishment?” 
   
  Jake frowned. The man’s speech marked him 
  as a foreigner, probably a Scot, though he 
  couldn’t quite place the accent. He didn’t like the 
  way the man called him “lad.” Jake was nineteen, 
  a man grown! “My manager does, sir. But he’s off 
  at a meeting right now. Something I can do for 
  you?” Jake just wanted him to leave. 
   
  “Can ye forge shoes?” 
   
  “Shoes?” Jake blinked in confusion. 
   
  “Horseshoes, lad. M’ horse threw a shoe and 
  I couldna find the thing. I need ye ta make me a 
  new one, if’n yer master’s nae here ta do it.” 
   
  “Well, yeah, I can make horseshoes. You just 
  caught me by surprise, that’s all. Most people who 
  need them mail order their horseshoes. It’s 
  cheaper.” 
   
  The man chuckled. “Well, I’m not most 
  people, lad. Come check m’ horse, then get to 
  makin’ that shoe. I have things ta be about, and 
  standing here is’na gettin’ ’em done.” 
   
  Jake got to work making the horseshoe. He 
  ended up making a whole set, as the shoes that 
  hadn’t been thrown needed to be replaced. They 
  were severely worn, as if they hadn’t been made 
  to withstand being ridden on pavement. Before he 
  realized it, the set was done and on the horse’s 
  hooves. 
   
  “Lad, ye have the knack of forging. What’s 
  yer name?” 
   
  “Jake, sir. Jake Sullivan.” 
   
  The man smiled. “And yer polite, even when 
  ye’d rather a stranger like me be off and away. 
  Dinna be offended, lad. Yer thoughts were plain 
  on yer face. Here, take ye this.” He handed Jake a 
  small leather pouch that jingled when he took it. 
   
  “What is it?” 
   
  “Payment fer a job well done. Dinna open it 
  now; ye’ll know when. And get used ta making 
  things for others, young Jake. Yer good at it, and 
  it’s a terrible skill ta waste.” The bearded man 
  was gone before Jake thought to ask his name. 
   
  That night, Jake couldn’t sleep. Restless, he 
  finally got out of bed and went outside. He sat on 
  a stump in the backyard, staring out into the night, 
  when he realized the leather pouch was there on 
  the stump next to him. Jake didn’t remember 
  bringing it out with him, yet there it was. Jake 
  picked it up and opened it without thinking, 
  pulling out the gold coins within. 
   
  “Good evening, young Jake.” 
   
  Jake yelped in fright, the coins flying 
  everywhere. It was the bearded man, sitting on his 
  horse, suddenly there with no sound of approach. 
   
  “Who – who are you?” 
   
  “I have been known by many names, Jake. 
  Ye may call me Wayland.” 
   
  “What do you want from me?” 
   
  Wayland smiled. “I want nothing from ye, 
  lad. Rather, I wish to give ye something. The 
  forging of the horseshoes was but a test. While ye 
  worked, I observed. Ye have a rare talent for 
  making things. Ye put yourself into whatever it is 
  yer makin’, and that’s rare in this day. The smiths 
  of old could make things of power by doing as ye 
  did. Alas, that talent is all but lost now.” He eyed 
  Jake carefully, as though measuring him 
  somehow. 
   
  “Will ye learn from me, lad? I can teach ye to 
  imbue magic inta everythin’ ye make. Only a 
  handful in this age have the talent fer it, and yours 
  is the strongest I’ve yet seen. What do ye say lad? 
  Will ye become a true smith?” 
   
  “I’d like that. All my parents can talk about is 
  how I should go to college and learn some real 
  skills I can make money with. I don’t care much 
  about making money, really. I just enjoy making 
  things. But I can’t just disappear. What will 
  happen to them if I leave?” 
   
  “Well, they’ll miss ye, lad, as all parents do 
  when their sons leave home. They want what’s 
  best for ye, and in this day, that means being 
  wealthy. Once I’ve taught ye, yer talents will be 
  much sought after. Wealth will likely be yours 
  whether ye want it or no.” 
   
  Jake grinned, realizing the potential of 
  showing his parents that his own dreams could be 
  of value, despite what they thought. “All right, 
  Wayland. I’ll go with you. 
                                                             
  artwork by Dave Schrader 
  BATTLEFORGE 
  PLOT SEEDS 
   
   
   The largest 
  museum in town is 
  featuring a new 
  exhibit – rare gems 
  from around the 
  world. Security will 
  be extra tight, but 
  Battleforge is 
  confident he and a 
  few friends can get 
  the goods. Will the 
  PCs arrive in time to 
  stop him? 
   
   A PC pauses his 
  patrol when someone 
  yells for help from a 
  nearby alleyway. 
  Three street thugs 
  threaten a terrified 
  citizen! When he 
  moves to aid the 
  hapless victim, one of 
  the thugs points a 
  dagger at him – and 
  the dagger shoots a 
  bolt of lightning, 
  knocking the hero 
  through a wall. Where 
  did they get such a 
  dangerous weapon? 
  Has Battleforge 
  lowered his prices? 
  Or is a more dire plot 
  about to unfold? 
   
   Battleforge returns 
  home one night to 
  find his items of 
  power missing. He’s 
  been robbed! 
  Respecting the PCs 
  despite their clashes 
  in the past, he goes to 
  them for help in 
  reclaiming his 
  property. Will they 
  help him, or seize the 
  chance to bring 
  Battleforge to justice? 
  Who raided his forge, 
  and what all did they 
  get? 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  32 
   
  “That’s a good lad. Go and collect yer things. 
  Leave yer parents a note, if ye wish, but dinna 
  mention my name or what it is ye’ll be learning. 
  They wouldna understand. Now hurry, lad; time is 
  short.” 
   
  Jake spent years in the Land of Legends, 
  learning the art of Artificing. He stayed away 
  from the natives of the Land of Legends as much 
  as he could, fearing them for their strange 
  appearances and practices. Several natives asked 
  Jake to forge items for them, but he refused, 
  saying he was only an apprentice and not ready to 
  accept commissions. But he promised to 
  remember them, and would accept commissions 
  when his learning was done. 
   
  Shortly after his 30th birthday, Jake 
  completed his apprenticeship. Wayland returned 
  Jake to his home, where the smith gave him one 
  last instruction. 
   
  “Lad, always remember – what I have taught 
  ye is yours. Use it as ye will. There are those in 
  the world who would seek to use ye as a tool for 
  their own ends. Dinna let them. Yer power canna 
  be forced from ye, only bought or given as ye 
  choose or coerced as ye allow. Ye are yer own 
  master now. Dinna allow another to usurp yer free 
  will.” 
   
  Wayland’s last lesson echoed in Jake’s mind 
  as he looked over his handiwork. When Dark 
  Seraph heard of Jake’s skill, the villain quickly 
  moved to capture Jake’s skill for his own ends. 
  Jake refused, even when he was forced to watch 
  his parents suffer torture and death at Dark 
  Seraph’s hands. Scoffing at Jake’s tears, the 
  villain released him, promising that Jake would 
  come to serve him freely. Jake promised a silent 
  vengeance. 
   
  Jake went into hiding and set up a forge for 
  himself. There he made his armor and weapons, 
  and empowered them from his imagination. He 
  took the name Battleforge and began a personal 
  crusade to destroy Dark Seraph and any others 
  who would usurp his free will. 
   
  Personality/Motivation:  Battleforge remains 
  very bitter over the deaths of his parents. He left 
  home to develop his skill at smithing and prove to 
  his parents that it was worth learning. Instead, his 
  parents were tortured to death for the skill he 
  learned. Battleforge fully intends to kill Dark 
  Seraph, by any means necessary. This drive for 
  vengeance hardened Battleforge to the point that 
  he became willing to commit crimes in order to 
  gain the strength and resources needed to destroy 
  Dark Seraph. 
   
  Battleforge knows that destroying Dark 
  Seraph won’t be easy or swift. In the meantime, 
  he makes items of power for any who will pay his 
  price. Both heroes and villains have improved 
  their arsenals with items he has forged. He also 
  accepts custom orders, and has worked as a 
  mercenary, making contacts and earning favors. 
  Nearly anyone might find reason to employ 
  Battleforge, but his services don’t come cheap. He 
  sometimes raids warehouses or laboratories for 
  raw materials, especially if he hears of inherently 
  magical materials such as Dwarven silver-steel, 
  adamantine, and orichalcum. 
   
  The price Battleforge charges depends largely 
  on the person making the purchase. He will sell to 
  anyone, hero or villain, as long as they have cash. 
  The only people he won’t knowingly sell to are 
  Dark Seraph and anyone associated with 
  DEMON. DEMON once raided his forge for the 
  secrets of making items of power, believing his 
  secret to be arcane in nature rather than inherent 
  skill. Battleforge, upon discovering his ruined 
  workshop, quickly and messily took his revenge, 
  causing immense property damage and making a 
  name for himself as a dangerous villain. 
   
  Quote:  “Don’t tell me what to do. And if you 
  think you can force me, think again.” 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  Battleforge’s primary ability is 
  making magic items, or items of power, as he 
  calls them. It isn’t easy, though. He must 
  physically create or forge whatever he wishes to 
  enchant. Then the enchantment process takes at 
  least an hour of concentration. Once he performs 
  an enchanting, it takes a week before he has the 
  energy to enchant something else. 
   
  It is suggested the GMs use the Enchant Item 
  power as follows: when Battleforge enchants an 
  item, he rolls the 15 dice and adds the total. In 
  addition to determining if the enchanting was 
  successful (by rolling double the target object’s 
  body or more), the roll indicates the maximum 
  Real Points that can be spent on building the item. 
  The maximum Active Point value is 
  recommended to be 90, the maximum possible 
  roll on 15d6. GMs may wish to waive that if a 
  specific plot calls for a more powerful item. 
   
  Any points not used are lost, and he can 
  create any sort of powers in the item he desires. 
  He prefers Multipowers (like his Flaming Sword 
  and Wand of Day and Night), items with multiple 
  powers outside of a Power Framework (like his 
  Plate Armor of Glory) and single power items 
  (like his Helm of Defense and Ring of Phasing). 
  Though not reflected in a Limitation, GMs should 
  disallow Battleforge from making Variable Power 
  Pool items, unless required for a specific plot. 
   
  Anyone buying something from Battleforge 
  must either pay Character Points for the item (in 
  addition to whatever monetary price Battleforge 
  charges), or be able to fit it in a Power Framework 
  of some kind. Battleforge can use any item he has 
  made without paying points for it, unless he 
  begins using it on a regular basis. In that case, he 
  must pay points for it, as he did for his current 
  equipment. GMs who wish for Battleforge to keep 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  33
  Battleforge 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  34 
  Battleforge 
   
  Val Char 
  Cost 
  Roll Notes 
   25+20 STR 15+10*# 14-/18- Lift 800kg/12½ tn; 
  5d6/9d6 [2/4] 
   15+5 DEX 15+7*# 12-/13- OCV:  5/7/ 
   20+10 CON 20+10*# 13-/15-  
  DCV:  5/7 
   
  15 BODY 
  10 
  12-  
   
  14 INT 
  4 
  12- PER Roll:  12- 
   
  13 EGO 
  6 
  12- ECV:  4 
   20+5 PRE 
  10+3* 13-/14- PRE Attack:   
   
  14 COM 
  2 
  12-  
  4d6/5d6 
   
   
  10 PD 
  5 
   Total:  30 (20rPD) 
   
  8 ED 
  4 
   Total:  28 (20rED) 
   
  3+2 SPD 
  5+13* 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12/ 
   
  10 REC 
  2 
    
  3, 5, 8, 10, 12 
   
  40 END 
  0 
   
   
  40 STUN 
  2 
   * OIF (Armor; -½) 
   
    
   
   # No Figured (-½) 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  143 
  Movement: Running: 
  10”/20” 
   
   
  Teleport: 
  15”/30” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   35 Enchant Item:  Major Transform 
  15d6 (item into enchanted item, heals 
  back by Dispel vs. magic or anti-
  magic field), Improved Result Group 
  (any enchantment, see text; +½); 
  Limited Target (items Battleforge has 
  personally made; -½), 1 Charge (-2), 
  Charge Takes 1 Week to Recover  
   
   (-½), Costs Endurance (-½), Extra 
  Time (1 Hour; -3), Concentration (0 
  DCV, must Concentrate throughout;  
   
   -1), No Range (-½), Roll Result is 
  Maximum Real Points Available to 
  be Spent on Item with Maximum of 
  90 Active Points (-¼), Points Not 
  Used Are Lost (-¼) 
  [1],34 
   
   30 Flaming Sword:  Multipower, 60-point 
  reserve; all OAF (-1) 
   3u 1)  Flaming Blade:  HKA 2d6 (3d6+1 
  with STR), Armor Piercing (+½), +1 
  Increased STUN Multiplier (+¼), 
  Reduced Endurance (½ END; +¼); 
  OAF (-1) 
  3 
   3u 2)  Flame Blast:  EB 12d6; OAF (-1), 
  12 Boostable Charges (-0) 
  [12bc] 
   
   25 Wand of Day and Night:  Multipower, 
  50-point reserve; all OAF (-1) 
   2u 1)  Day-Burst:  Sight Group Flash 
  10d6; OAF (-1), 8 Boostable 
  Charges (-¼) 
  [8bc] 
   1u 2)  Day-Light:  Sight Group Images, 
  Increased Size (16” radius; +1), 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½); 
  OAF (-1), Only to Create Light (-1) 
  0 
   2u 3)  Night-Shroud:  Darkness to Sight 
  Group 4” radius, Personal Immunity 
  (+¼); OAF (-1), 8 Charges lasting 1 
  Turn each (removed by light-based 
  powers; -½) 
  [8cc] 
   
   24 Ethereal Crossbow:  RKA 3d6, 
  Affects Desolidified (+½); OAF (-1), 
  8 Charges (-½), No Knockback (-¼) 
  [8] 
   
  9 Shocking Gauntlets:  HA +4d6 
  (affects ED, not PD); Hand-to-Hand 
  Attack (-½), OIF (-½), 8 Boostable 
  Charges (-¼) 
  [8bc] 
   30 Plate Armor of Glory:  Armor (12 
  PD/12 ED), Hardened (+¼); OIF (-½) 
  0 
   31 Helm of Defense:  Force Field (8 PD/ 
  8 ED/5 Sight Group Flash Defense/ 
   
   5 Mental Defense/5 Power Defense), 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½); 
  OIF (-½) 
  0 
   10 Shield of Deflecting:  +4 with DCV; 
  OAF (-1) 
  0 
   30 Amulet of Phasing:  Teleportation 
  15”, Reduced Endurance (0 END; 
  +½); OIF (-½) 
  0 
   15 Ring of Hiding:  Invisibility to Sight 
  Group, Reduced Endurance (0 END; 
  +½); IAF (-½), Only When Not 
  Attacking (-½) 
  0 
   
  8 Fast Runner:  + 4” Running (10” total) 2 
   15 Magic Sense:  Detect Magic 12-, 
  Discriminatory, Range 
  0 
   
   Skills 
   32 +4 with Combat 
   
   
  3 Breakfall 13- 
   
  3 Mechanics 12- 
   
  3 SS: Gemology 12- 
   
  3 SS: Metallurgy 12- 
   
  3 Tactics 12- 
   
  5 Weaponsmith (Muscle-Powered HTH, 
  Muscle-Powered Ranged) 13- 
   
  6 WF:  Common Melee Weapons, 
  Common Missile Weapons, Flails, Staffs 
   
   
  3 Jack of All Trades 
   
  3  1)  PS: Jeweler 13- 
   
  3  2)  PS: Leatherworker 13- 
   
  3  3)  PS: Metalworker 13- 
   
  3  4)  PS: Smith 13- 
   
  3  5)  PS: Woodworker 13- 
   
   
  3 Scholar 
   
  1  1)  KS: Arcane and Occult Lore 11- 
   
  1  2)  KS: Fantasy 11- 
   
  1  3)  KS: The Mystic World 11- 
   
  2  4)  KS: Weapons and Armor 12- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  357 
   
  Total Cost:  500 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  35
   200+ Disadvantages 
   10 Distinctive Features:  Mystic Aura (Not 
  Concealable; Always Noticed; Detectable 
  Only With Unusual Senses) 
   15 Enraged:  takes BODY damage 
  (Uncommon), go 11-, recover 11- 
   15 Hunted:  Dark Seraph 8- (Mo Pow, 
  Enslave) 
   20 Hunted:  DEMON 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, 
  Enslave) 
   
  5 Hunted:  Trismegistus Council 11- (As 
  Pow, Watching) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Hates Being 
  Manipulated or Coerced (Common, 
  Strong) 
   
   20 Psychological Limitation:  Hates Dark 
  Seraph and DEMON (Common, Total) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Mercenary, 
  Will Do Almost Anything For Money 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Vengeful 
  (Uncommon, Strong) 
   15 Social Limitation:  Secret Identity 
  (Frequently, Major) 
   15 Susceptibility:  to anti-magic fields, 3d6 
  damage per Minute (Uncommon) 
   150 Experience Points 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  500 
   
   
  extra items of power on hand should give him a 
  suitable Variable Power Pool. 
   
  Battleforge fights in a fairly straightforward 
  manner. He won’t resort to stealth tactics unless 
  he knows he’s outmatched or planning an 
  ambush. Ranged combat, however, is his favorite 
  way to start a fight, most often using his Flame 
  Blast or Ethereal Crossbow. If he needs a tactical 
  advantage, he’ll create a couple of Night-Shrouds 
  or go invisible. For melee combat, he leads in 
  with his Flaming Blade, and sometimes throws a 
  punch with the Shocking Gauntlet. The sudden 
  switch sometimes draws a Surprise bonus. The 
  Amulet of Phasing is used for strategic 
  maneuvering, the Ring of Hiding for a stealthy 
  retreat. 
   
  Campaign Use:  Battleforge can be the origin for 
  characters who purchase or otherwise obtain 
  magic items from him. One such character is 
  Shadowspy, a mutant speedster and thief who 
  bought several shadow-based items to 
  complement her mutation. 
   
  Battleforge’s continuing quest for vengeance 
  against Dark Seraph and (to a lesser degree) 
  DEMON can easily bring him into conflict with 
  the PCs. He stages a raid on most any valuable 
  metal he hears about, especially if it has magical 
  properties. Often he’ll hire some villains to help 
  him, if the take is big enough or he expects 
  opposition. On the rare occasion when he wants to 
  get away from the forge and relax, he makes his 
  way to a favorite bar in the city, plays some pool 
  and talks sports with the other patrons. 
   
  Any PC with a sense of vengeance might find 
  a bit of sympathy for Battleforge. He came to 
  villainy through tragedy, after all. Had 
  circumstances been different, Battleforge might 
  have become a hero. Who knows? Perhaps he still 
  may. 
   
  Heroes who severely cross Battleforge may 
  find themselves regretting it, however. He 
  remembers those who thwart him, and enjoys 
  giving them a sound thrashing later. Those who 
  insult or actually wound him though, earn his 
  undying enmity. Battleforge creates some 
  deviously unpleasant things in the name 
  vengeance…. 
   
  Battleforge lives outside of Campaign City, 
  on a small plot of land near a mountain where he 
  set up his second forge after DEMON destroyed 
  his first one. He created a portal to the Land of 
  Legends recently, and charges a moderate fee for 
  its use. He has thought about making portals to 
  other realms, but has not yet done so. 
   
  To make Battleforge more powerful, add 
  more items to his arsenal and improve the power 
  of his current items. You might give him a VPP 
  for plot-based items he makes. To trim him down, 
  decrease the power of his items, and have his 
  Enchant Item power take a month to recharge. 
   
  Appearance:  Jake Sullivan is a large, well-built 
  man in his early thirties, over six feet tall, bald 
  with a thick, red beard and green eyes. He 
  normally wears a well-worn leather apron while 
  working at the forge. When out relaxing, he 
  typically wears jeans and a t-shirt. 
   
  Battleforge wears plate armor of a late 
  medieval style with a great helm and full, 
  midnight blue cloak. His sword bears runes unlike 
  any known on Earth, which glow through the 
  flames it creates. The shield appears to be of 
  simple white oak with steel bands, and like the 
  breastplate of his armor, bears his insignia in red – 
  a smith’s hammer poised over an anvil with rays 
  of light surrounding them. The armor is 
  surprisingly quiet when Battleforge moves. 
   
  The Wand of Day and Night appears to be 
  about 2 feet long, made of blue metal with a 
  large round crystal at the tip. His crossbow and 
  gauntlets appear to be normal, except for runes 
  etched in gold upon them. The Amulet of 
  Phasing depicts a starburst pattern on a gold 
  medallion, while the Ring of Hiding is a simple 
  silver band with runes carved around the surface. 
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  36 
  Ghost Stories by Michael Surbrook 
   
  “From ghoulies and ghosties.  
  and long-legged beasties, 
  and things that go bump in the night; 
  good Lord deliver us.” 
  — Scottish prayer 
   
  The belief in ghosts, defined as the spirit (or 
  soul) of someone who has died and is still 
  wandering the earth, is an almost universal 
  concept among all the cultures of the world. 
  According to many belief systems, the soul is 
  released from the body after death and eventually 
  travels to some form of underworld or afterlife. 
  Depending on the culture, there may be a period 
  of time between death and the actual trip to the 
  afterlife in which the soul may remain near its 
  original body. For some tribes of American 
  Indians this was a period of four days; the 
  Chinese, 10 days; for the Japanese this time 
  period can be as long as 42 days; and the 
  Egyptians believed that one portion of the soul, 
  the ba, never left the body. If the soul becomes 
  lost, isn’t given the proper funeral rites, or never 
  leaves to begin its trip, then it may become a 
  ghost. 
   
  According to more modern belief systems, 
  ghosts seem to occur when someone dies 
  suddenly, especially from violence, or if a person 
  dies before some important task can be 
  completed. Other ghosts are said to be the 
  psychic impressions of a person, usually attached 
  to something the person particularly liked (such 
  as a favorite chair or room).  
   
  The modern image for the “classic” ghost is 
  a white, sheet-draped figure, usually moaning 
  and howling and accompanied by clanking 
  chains. In reality, most alleged hauntings involve 
  strange sounds and odors, spots of cold, and 
  moving objects. Actual figures are usually hazy, 
  and if clear enough to be identified, are dressed 
  in clothing typical of the time period in which 
  the ghost originally lived. Homer described the 
  ghosts of the Iliad and the Odyssey as shades, 
  which assumed solid form after being given 
  animal’s blood to drink. In Japan ghosts are said 
  to have no feet, while Chinese ghosts are said to 
  lack their chin.  
   
  Skeptics have pointed out that many ghosts 
  and other alleged hauntings have natural 
  explanations. Many ghosts are witnessed by 
  those in their beds, and in this case the person 
  seeing the ghost is probably still asleep, although 
  they think they are awake. Other ghosts are 
  hallucinations brought on by stress, fear or 
  exhaustion. Still more ghosts may be explained 
  as tricks of the light, clouds of mist or fog, or the 
  manifestation of an electrically charged 
  atmosphere (many ghosts are associated with 
  thunderstorms). 
  PUTTING THE 
  SLIME IN SLIMER 
   
   
   Ectoplasm is a 
  semi-solid substance 
  said to extrude from 
  the pores and other 
  bodily orifices of a 
  spiritual medium. 
  This material can 
  assume life-like 
  forms, including 
  arms, faces, and entire 
  figures. When 
  extruded, it is warm 
  to the touch, but may 
  have a rubbery or 
  doughy feel. 
  Ectoplasm apparently 
  reacts strongly to 
  bright light, and can 
  only be produced by a 
  medium in a dark or 
  dimly lit room. The 
  production of 
  ectoplasm was a large 
  part of many séances 
  of the late nineteenth 
  and early twentieth 
  centuries. 
   Photographic 
  evidence of ectoplasm 
  gives one the 
  impression it is a 
  fairly disgusting 
  substance to 
  encounter, especially 
  when one sees from 
  where ectoplasm was 
  commonly produced. 
  Naturally, skeptics 
  have tried to expose 
  the production of 
  ectoplasm as visual 
  trickery, and small 
  samples of the 
  material, when 
  analyzed, have proved 
  to be ground-up paper 
  or altered animal 
  organs. 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  37
  Ghost 
  Ecology:  Being dead, ghosts do not eat, drink, 
  or sleep (at least as humans understand it). They 
  exist simply because of some strong tie to the 
  mortal world. This can be a desire for revenge, a 
  desire to protect their descendants, unfinished 
  business, or an improper burial. Places of 
  extreme violence are commonly inhabited by 
  ghosts. This category includes:  battlefields, 
  prisons, hospitals, and torture chambers. 
   
  Personality/Motivation:  Most ghosts seem to 
  have little free will and simply pantomime a 
  series of actions repetitively every night (or on 
  specific nights). Others may have strong desires 
  relating to their existence as a ghost. For 
  example, the ghost of a murder victim may wish 
  to have its body uncovered and properly buried, 
  the ghost of a miser may stand guard over its 
  buried treasure, while the ghost of a faithful dog 
  may eternally await the return of its master, and 
  so on. Some ghosts seem to have a certain degree 
  of intelligence. These ghosts may take action 
  against those who disturb their rest and 
  residence. Others may become protective of 
  those who live near them. In general, it is 
  impossible to create a blanket set of desires for a 
  ghost, as their personalities are so variable.  
   
  Powers/Tactics:  Ghosts don’t engage in open 
  combat, instead they tend to harass and menace 
  anyone to whom they have taken a disliking. 
  This harassment often takes the form of strange 
  noises, cold spots around the house (or other 
  buildings), and the movement of objects. Some 
  ghosts may actively throw objects about, often 
  doing so when a specific person is in the room 
  with them. This poltergeist activity can reach 
  extreme proportions in some cases, and can 
  include the hurling of heavy objects, breaking 
  fragile ones, emptying drawers, moving 
  furniture, and opening and closing doors. 
   
  Other ghostly powers include the ability to 
  extrude an eerie aura. This will disturb cats, dogs 
  and other animals, activate most forms of Danger 
  Sense and generally “spook” those who are 
  easily startled, nervous or sensitive to the spirit 
  world. Ghosts are also known to produce writing 
  and other symbols on walls, the floor, and blank 
  slates. This “automatic writing” varies greatly in 
  legibility and content, but is usually the only way 
  a ghost can communicate with the living. 
   
  As the typical ghost is insubstantial, most 
  conventional attacks will not harm it. If it can be 
  harmed by an attack of some sort, it seems likely 
  the average ghost would flee the local area as 
  quickly as possible. 
   
  Campaign Use:  The write-up presented here is 
  for a fairly generic ghost. It can be used as a 
  template to represent almost any of the ghosts 
  described in this section, especially if you add in 
  any of the optional powers. Note, this template 
  has no skills; it is up to you to determine what (if 
  any) skills a specific ghost had. 
   
  As written, the Generic Ghost is well-suited 
  for heroic-level games. It could be used with 
  ease in a Justice Inc., Fantasy Hero, Horror 
  Hero, or Western Hero campaign. When dealing 
  with Champions campaigns, you should feel free 
  to discard this template. Ghosts in comics books 
  usually are much more vocal, active, and 
  intelligent than the traditional ghost. Comic book 
  ghosts usually have more (and stranger) powers 
  as well. 
   
  Appearance:  When manifesting a visual 
  presence, a ghost is usually a filmy translucent 
  figure. It may (or may not) have any sort of 
  definitive shape, and often lacks facial features. 
  Humanoid ghosts are dressed in a manner fitting 
  the time period in which they lived, while 
  shapeless ghosts often resemble blobs of light or 
  shadows. It should be noted some ghosts take the 
  form of animals (such as dogs or cats) or 
  vehicles (phantom ships and carriages are 
  common). 
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  38 
  Ghost 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   
  0 STR 
  -10 
  9- Lift 25 kg; 0d6 HTH [0] 
   13 DEX 
  9 12- OCV:  4/DCV:  4 
   10 CON 
  0 11- 
   
  8 BODY 
  -4 11- 
   
  5 INT 
  -5 10- PER Roll:  10- 
   20 EGO 
  20 13- ECV:  7 
   30 PRE 
  20 15- PRE Attack:  6d6 
   
  6 COM 
  -2 10- 
   
   
  2 PD 
  2 
   Total:  2 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  2 ED 
  0 
   Total:  2 ED (0 rED) 
   
  2 SPD 
  0 
   Phases:  6, 12 
   
  2 REC 
  0 
   20 END 
  0 
   15 STUN 
  2 
    
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  32 (+10 w/ NCM) 
  Movement: Running: 
  0”/0” 
   
   
  Flight: 
  6”/12” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   43 Poltergeist Effect:  TK (10 STR), Affects 
  Physical World (+2), BOECV (+1), 
  Invisible To Sight Group (+½), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½); Affects Whole 
  Object (-¼), No Range (-½) 
  0 
   60 Insubstantial Form:  Desolidification 
  (affected by magic), Reduced Endurance 
  (0 END; +½), Persistent (+½), Inherent 
  (+¼); Always On (-½) 
  0 
   15 Insubstantial Form:  Does Not Bleed 
  0 
   50 Undead Vitality:  Life Support:  Total 
  (including Longevity:  Immortality) 
  0 
   
  8 Single-Minded:  Mental Defense (12 
  points) 
  0 
   10 Insubstantial Form:  No Hit Locations 
  0 
   24 Floating About:  Flight 6”, Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½), Persistent (+½) 0 
   -12 Only “Flies”:  Running  -6” 
   -2 Only “Flies”:  Swimming -2” 
   38 Create Cold Spots:  Change 
  Environment 1” radius, -3 Temperature 
  Levels, Affects Physical World (+2), 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½) 
  0 
   70 Fearful Presence:  Change Environment 
  4” radius, -5 PRE Roll for resisting 
  effects of the ghost’s presence, Affects 
  Physical World (+2), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½); No Range (-½) 0 
   94 Mysterious Noises And Smells:  Hearing 
  and Smell/Taste Group Images, -5 to 
  PER Rolls, Increased Size (2” radius; 
  +¼), Affects Physical World (+2), 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½) 
  0 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  398 
   
  Total Cost:  430 
   
   75+ Disadvantages 
   
  0 Physical Limitation:  Human Size 
   
  5 Physical Limitation:  Reduced Leap, 
  cannot leap (Infrequently, Slightly 
  Impairing) 
   20 Physical Limitation:  Tied To The Site Of 
  Its Death Or A Specific Location 
  (Frequently, Fully Impairing) 
   20 Psychological Limitation:  Single-Minded 
  And Locked Into Habits (Very Common, 
  Strong) 
   310 Experience Points 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  430 
   
  OPTIONS 
  Cost 
  Optional Ghost Powers 
   
  5 Self-Awareness:  INT  +5 
  0 
   
  2 Human Appearance:  COM +4  
  0 
   86 Full Poltergeist Effect:  TK (20 STR), 
  Area Of Effect (3” Radius), Affects 
  Physical World (+2), BOECV (+1), 
  Invisible To Sight Group (+½), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½); Affects Whole 
  Object (-¼), No Range (-½) 
  0 
   45 Fading:  Invisibility to Sight Group, No 
  Fringe, Reduced Endurance (0 END; 
  +½) 
  0 
   30 Automatic Writing:  Cosmetic Transform 
  3d6 (blank wall to wall with writing); 
  Affects Physical World (+2), Invisible 
  To Sight Group (+½), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½); Extra Time 
  (Full Phase; -½), No Range (-½) 
  0 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  39
  Poltergeist 
  Description:  The term “poltergeist” comes from 
  the German words poltern (“to knock”) and geist 
  (“spirit”). Thus a poltergeist is a “knocking 
  spirit.” Poltergeist cases are a very common form 
  of haunting and usually involve thrown objects, 
  moving furniture, slamming doors and windows, 
  loud and unusual noises, strange smells, and 
  physical assaults. Modern poltergeist cases 
  report such things as phones that dial themselves 
  and spinning light bulbs. In general, the actions 
  of a specific poltergeist can be traced to the 
  presence of a certain person. When that person is 
  present, the poltergeist is active, if the person 
  leaves, the poltergeist is quiet. Statistics show 
  this person to commonly be a female under the 
  age of 20. 
   
  In an attempt to explain poltergeist activity, 
  some researchers have offered the theory that the 
  actions are the result of the subconscious use of 
  psychokinesis (i.e. telekinesis). As many (but not 
  all) of the people on whom the poltergeist 
  activity is centered are young, it is believed to be 
  a side effect of puberty and stress. One theory 
  states that poltergeist activity is the result of 
  suppressed anger and hostility. Other theories 
  point to spirits of the dead, or the idea that the 
  person under stress projects part of their psyche 
  into an independent being. 
   
   
   
  Poltergeist 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   
  0 STR 
  -10 
  9- Lift 25kg; 0d6 HTH [0] 
   15 DEX 
  15 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   20 CON 
  20 13- 
   
  8 BODY 
  -4 11- 
   15 INT 
  5 12- PER Roll:  12- 
   23 EGO 
  26 14- ECV:  7 
   20 PRE 
  10 13- PRE Attack:  4d6 
   10 COM 
  0 11- 
   
   
  4 PD 
  4 
   Total:  4 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  4 ED 
  0 
   Total:  4 ED (0 rED) 
   
  3 SPD 
  5 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12 
   
  5 REC 
  2 
   40 END 
  0 
   20 STUN 
  2 
    
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  75 (+6 w/ NCM) 
  Movement: Running: 
  0”/0” 
   
   
  Flight: 
  6”/12” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   86 Full Poltergeist Effect:  TK (20 
  STR), Area Of Effect (3” Radius), 
  Affects Physical World (+2), BOECV 
  (+1), Invisible To Sight Group (+½), 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½); 
  Affects Whole Object (-¼), No 
  Range (-½) 
  0 
   71 Poltergeist Effect:  TK (10 STR), 
  Fine Manipulation, Affects Physical 
  World (+2), BOECV (+1), Invisible 
  To Sight Group (+½), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½); Affects 
  Whole Object (-¼), No Range (-½) 
  0 
   60 Insubstantial Form:  Desolidification 
  (affected by magic), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½), Persistent 
  (+½), Inherent (+¼); Always On (-½) 
  0 
   15 Insubstantial Form:  Does Not Bleed 
  0 
   50 Undead Vitality:  Life Support:  Total 
  (including Longevity:  Immortality) 
  0 
   
  8 Single-Minded:  Mental Defense (12 
  points) 
  0 
   10 Insubstantial Form:  No Hit 
  Locations 
  0 
   24 Floating About:  Flight 6”, Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½), Persistent 
  (+½) 
  0 
   -12 Only “Flies”:  Running  -6” 
   -2 Only “Flies”:  Swimming -2” 
   45 Fading:  Invisibility to Sight Group, 
  No Fringe, Reduced Endurance (0 
  END; +½) 
  0 
   94 Mysterious Noises And Smells:  
  Hearing and Smell/Taste Group 
  Images, -5 to PER Rolls, Increased 
  Size (2” radius; +¼), Affects Physical 
  World (+2), Reduced Endurance (0 
  END; +½) 
  0 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  449 
   
  Total Cost:  524 
   
   75+ Disadvantages 
   
  0 Physical Limitation:  Human Size 
   
  5 Physical Limitation:  Reduced Leap, 
  cannot leap (Infrequently, Slightly 
  Impairing) 
   20 Physical Limitation:  Tied To The 
  Emotional State Of A Specific Person 
  (Frequently, Fully Impairing) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Subject To 
  Sudden Mood Swings (Common, Strong) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Violent 
  And/Or “Playful” (Common, Strong)  
   394 Experience 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  524 
    
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  40 
  Old Hag 
   
  The Old Hag is a ghostly creature that 
  comes during the night to “ride” its victims, 
  pressing on the victim’s chest and slowly 
  suffocating him. Interestingly enough, the Old 
  Hag is unique of all the entries in this article in 
  that it is the one thing most likely to have been 
  actually experienced by a reader. The 
  phenomenon of the Old Hag is quite real, 
  although it does not necessarily have a 
  supernatural explanation. The Old Hag effect is 
  caused by a form of sleep paralysis, and may be 
  experienced by as many as one in every six 
  people. In his book The Terror That Comes in 
  the Night, David J Hufford describes the Old 
  Hag as follows:  “[the] state in which this 
  experience occurs is probably best described as a 
  sleep paralysis with a particular kind of 
  hypnagogic hallucination….” Of course, 
  knowing what the Old Hag effect is still doesn’t 
  make it any less frightening when it occurs. 
   
  The Old Hag effect is common to cultures 
  all over the world and the experience of being 
  ridden is invariably described the same way. The 
  Norse blamed these attacks on a creature they 
  called “mara,” which is where we get the term 
  “nightmare” from. To the English, an old hag 
  was the culprit, giving rise to the terms of “hag-
  ridden” and “haggard.” The Japanese blamed the 
  ghosts of children, who sat on a sleeper’s chest 
  and stole their breath away. The Norse believed 
  in a walking corpse they called the dragur, which 
  could transform itself into a cat. In this form it 
  would sit on a sleeper’s chest, slowly gaining 
  weight until its victim suffocated. 
   
  A loose relation to the Old Hag was a 
  demonic creature known as an Incubus. The 
  Incubus was a male demon that came in the night 
  to seduce a woman and enjoy sexual congress 
  with her. The female form of the Incubus was 
  called a Succubus, which seduced men. Some 
  believed the Incubus and Succubus to be one and 
  the same, switching sex depending on their 
  intended victim. Some medieval scholars went 
  even further, stating that the Incubus, being a 
  demon, was incapable of impregnating a women, 
  and had to gather the needed semen by first 
  seducing a man. In any case, the attack of either 
  an Incubus or a Succubus would leave the victim 
  exhausted, much like the victim of the Old Hag. 
   
  Ecology:  The Old Hag can be found almost 
  anywhere, in locations all over the world. At 
  night they will leave their lairs (usually located 
  in deserted parts of the countryside) and seek out 
  their prey. They attack those who are sleeping, 
  pressing down on the chest of their target, 
  causing severe pains, general tightness, and 
  troubled breathing. This form of attack is known 
  as “hagging” or “riding.” It is said that pointing 
  one’s shoes away from the bed, hanging a 
  horseshoe over the bed, or keeping lit candles 
  around the bed will keep the Old Hag away. 
   
  Old hags are also known by the following 
  names:  hag, mahr, mara, mare, nightmare, 
  zashiki-warashi. 
   
  Personality/Motivation:  Old Hags are 
  malicious and evil spirits that come out at night 
  to haunt men. They delight in riding a man to 
  near death and exhaustion and are even known to 
  attack the local livestock in the same manner. 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  The Old Hag attacks its 
  victims while they are sleeping. It enters into 
  their bedroom and then fixes them with a fear so 
  intense they are rendered unable to move. At this 
  point the Old Hag will ride its victim, 
  suffocating its target and leaving them feeling 
  weary and drained. If uninterrupted, the hag can 
  and will ride its victim to death. However, the 
  hag only attacks one victim a night, and if the 
  victim is able to break paralysis (or is moved by 
  a friend or loved one) the hag’s control is broken 
  and she will be forced to flee (for the 
  moment…). 
   
  Campaign Use:  Old Hag is best suited for 
  fantasy or horror settings, although it could 
  easily be used in pulp or superhero settings. With 
  a little bit of modification it could even be used 
  in a science fiction setting, especially if one 
  decided to treat it as a form of psionic vampire. 
   
  Appearance:  An Old Hag normally appears as 
  an old woman, although its face is horrifying to 
  behold. Its approach is heralded by the sound of 
  footsteps followed by a great weight pressing on 
  the victim’s chest.  
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  41
  Old Hag 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   25 STR 
  15 14- Lift 800 kg; 5d6 HTH [2] 
   14 DEX 
  12 12- OCV:  5/DCV:  5 
   18 CON 
  16 13- 
   10 BODY 
  0 11- 
   13 INT 
  3 12- PER Roll:  12- 
   23 EGO 
  26 14- ECV:  8 
   35 PRE 
  25 16- PRE Attack:  7d6 
   
  2 COM 
  -4 
  9- 
   
   10 PD 
  5 
   Total:  10 PD (0 rPD) 
   
  6 ED 
  2 
   Total:  6 ED (0 rED) 
   
  3 SPD 
  6 
   Phases:  4, 8, 12 
   
  9 REC 
  0 
   36 END 
  0 
   32 STUN 
  0 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  106 (+26 w/ NCM) 
  Movement: Running: 
  6”/12” 
   
   
  Flight: 
  12”/24” 
   
   
  Leaping: 
  5”/10” 
   
   
  Swimming: 0”/0” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   16 Paralyzing Fear:  Mind Control 12d6, 
  Telepathic (+¼); One Charge (-2), No 
  Range (-½), Set Effect (“Stay with 
  me”; -1), Mind Control Effects are 
  Automatically Dispelled if the Victim 
  Moves or is Moved (-¼) 
  [1] 
   183 Suffocation:  EB 2d6, NND (Defense is 
  No Need to Breathe, or Self-Contained 
  Breathing; +1), Affects Physical World 
  (+2), Continuous (+1), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½); No Range  
   
   (-½), Only Affects Victims Under Mind 
  Control (-½) plus Riding:  Transfer 1d6 
  (Target’s BODY to Character’s 
  BODY), Delayed Return Rate (5 
  Character Points per Season [3 months]; 
  +3), Affects Physical World (+2), 
  Continuous (+1), Reduced Endurance 
  (0 END; +½), Linked (to EB; -¼) plus 
  Riding:  Transfer 1d6 (Target’s END to 
  Character’s END), Delayed Return Rate 
  (5 Character Points per Hour; +1), 
  Affects Physical World (+2), 
  Continuous (+1), Reduced Endurance 
  (0 END; +½), Linked (to EB; -¼) 
  0 
   47 Undead Vitality:  Life Support:  Total 
  (except for Diminished Eating, 
  including Longevity:  Immortality) 
  0 
   36 Floating About:  Flight 12”, Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½) 
  0 
   -2 Doesn’t Swim:  Swimming -2” (Total 
  0”) 
  0 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   100 Insubstantial Form:  Desolidification 
  (affected by magic), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END; +½), Persistent 
  (+½), Inherent (+¼) 
  0 
   
  5 Can See In The Dark:  Night Vision 
   
   Skills 
   
  4 +2 OECV with Mind Control 
   
   
  3 Concealment 12- 
   
  7 Shadowing 14- 
   
  7 Stealth 14- 
   
  3 Tracking 12- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  409 
   
  Total Cost:  515 
   
   75+ Disadvantages 
   15 Physical Limitation:  Dispelled (forced to 
  flee) if Mind Control is Broken 
  (Infrequent, Fully) 
   
  0 Physical Limitation:  Human Size 
   15 Physical Limitation:  Restricted by 
  Certain Talismans (Infrequent, Fully) 
   20 Psychological Limitation:  Malicious; 
  Enjoys Tormenting Humans (Very 
  Common, Strong) 
   10 Reputation:  nighttime horror 8- 
  (Extreme) 
   380 Experience 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  515 
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  42 
  Baron Roberto by W. Ross Watson 
   
  Background/History:  Little is known of Baron 
  Roberto’s past. The son of an obscure Spanish 
  nobleman, Roberto mysteriously took over his 
  father’s estate a little over thirty years ago. In 
  that time he’s been married and has a daughter, 
  but there is no sign of his spouse. UNTIL files 
  propose that she sought, and was granted, a 
  divorce, but PRIMUS believes that Roberto 
  killed her in a fit of rage. Whatever the truth, 
  Roberto’s next step was to ally himself with the 
  most powerful supervillains the world has ever 
  known. (Exactly who makes up the elite group is 
  up to the GM.)  
   
  The origin of the Baron’s powers is 
  similarly a mystery. UNTIL analysts believe he 
  may be a mutant, who honed his abilities over 
  the decades to razor-sharpness. PRIMUS has 
  reports that Roberto’s powers were “created” in 
  him by another supervillain, identity unknown, 
  who tampered with the Baron’s DNA. 
   
  UNTIL has a file on Roberto’s daughter, 
  known as The Magician, who is a minor 
  supervillain in her own right. Roberto’s lackey 
  Ivan the Terrible likewise is noted in most 
  agencies’ (such as PRIMUS and UNTIL) 
  records. 
   
  Roberto’s Spanish estate was seized by 
  authorities shortly after his debut as a 
  supervillain, but his noble title has never been 
  revoked.  
   
  (Baron Roberto’s background is 
  purposefully left vague in order for GMs to have 
  free reign in order to incorporate a character as 
  powerful as the Baron into their campaigns.) 
   
  Personality/Motivation:  Baron Roberto is a 
  man who exists to make things interesting. He 
  believes in changing the world, for the 
  betterment of himself. He also believes in being 
  proactive as opposed to reactive. He rarely 
  hatches a plan or plot of his own. He is more 
  often encountered enforcing the edicts of other 
  elite supervillains and acting as an able assistant 
  to a world-class villain like Doctor Destroyer.  
   
  Roberto loves his daughter, The Magician, 
  but rarely shows his affections beyond regular 
  correspondence. He respects power and courage. 
  An honorable hero will gain Roberto’s attention, 
  for there is enough of the Spanish nobleman left 
  inside to make Roberto return the favor.  
   
  One thing he does not tolerate is being 
  manipulated or tricked. He feels that he has 
  earned his position as a preeminent supervillain, 
  and being toyed with or betrayed ensures that he 
  will become an implacable enemy. Roberto may 
  even end up assisting the superheroes if he feels 
  misused by the elite supervillain group! 
   
  The elite superhero he’s hunting is intended 
  to be left open for a suitable Player Character. 
  Normally, that Player Character would be 
  responsible for Baron Roberto’s missing eye, 
  thus explaining the animosity between them. 
   
  Quote:  “You’ll never escape!” 
  “Your plans have all come to naught.” 
  “Only I will chart the destiny of the world!” 
  “You heroes have accomplished nothing. 
  You are a reactive force, responding to whatever 
  the emergency at the time is. You have no vision 
  to change the world.” 
  “I, Baron Roberto, remain the most 
  powerful… challenge me if you dare!” 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  It should be apparent that 
  Baron Roberto is extremely powerful. In fact, he 
  is intended for play in a very high power 
  campaign. (See the HERO System 5th Edition, 
  page 15.) He was created to fill the place of a 
  world-class supervillain’s right hand man… 
  Baron Roberto would fit right in at the side of 
  Doctor Destroyer, for example. When an elite 
  supervillain or elite superhero is mentioned, it is 
  intended to represent a hero or villain with 
  enough Character Points to be considered among 
  the world’s best.  
   
  His follower, Ivan the Terrible, is a normal 
  superheroic level supervillain, and GMs are 
  encouraged write up Ivan however they wish. 
  Ivan should be a messenger boy for Roberto and 
  nuisance to the Player Character group.  
   
  Baron Roberto’s powers are based on a 
  mastery of the kinetic energies infusing the 
  universe. He can let loose with hideously 
  powerful energy blasts that can destroy nearly 
  anything. He’s fully capable of walking into a 
  superhero base and laying it to waste with a 
  wave of his hand. Any hero should feel worried 
  if he is the target of Roberto’s kinetic blasts. His 
  kinetic powers also enable him to move at 
  frightening speeds: Roberto can keep up with a 
  speeding car easily, or leap to the top of tall 
  towers, or swim with torpedo-like velocity deep 
  under the ocean. 
   
  Strangely, Roberto’s stylish suit never seems 
  to be rumpled, not even in the midst of 
  catastrophic superhero combat or gigantic 
  explosions. 
   
  Baron Roberto can, with great effort, assume 
  different shapes in order to hide and observe his 
  enemies. He does this only if absolutely 
  necessary, for it requires him to focus his iron 
  will into unflinching concentration, taking 
  control of his own molecules’ kinetic force and 
  reshaping it to change forms. 
                                                             
  artwork by Derrick Thomas 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  43
   
  The scientists of the elite supervillain group 
  that he belongs to constructed Roberto’s 
  monocle for him. (The GM should come up with 
  a suitable group for his campaign.) The monocle 
  can transmit and receive television signals, 
  allowing Roberto to communicate with his elite 
  group and Ivan whenever he wishes. The 
  monocle can also extrude a small radar dish to 
  see in many different frequencies.  
   
  Roberto’s most unusual ability is his near-
  immunity to death itself. Time and again he has 
  been defeated, his enemies assuming he’s dead, 
  only to reappear hale and hearty! This ability can 
  be explained by the Baron’s total control over his 
  own molecular energy. His body heals all 
  wounds by restructuring the kinetic energies of 
  his atoms, rearranging the molecular chains to 
  re-knit any damage. Much like other great 
  villains (such as Batman’s nemesis, the Joker), 
  Roberto’s body can rarely be found after his 
  apparent “death.” 
   
  The Magician, Roberto’s daughter, shares a 
  mind link with him. Whenever they 
  communicate, The Magician’s shadow morphs 
  into the silhouette of Roberto, and her voice 
  changes to sound like her father’s. On Roberto’s 
  end of the mind link, there are no apparent 
  changes, however. (The Magician’s Mind Link is 
  bought with the Visible Limitation, -¼.) 
   
  While Baron Roberto lacks any 
  Susceptibilities or Vulnerabilities, the nature of 
  his powers makes him affected more than other 
  villains by entangles and grabs. Any heroes who 
  live long enough to attempt these kinds of 
  attacks may find them more successful than they 
  might otherwise think. 
   
  In battle, Roberto will choose the elite hero 
  he’s hunting as a primary target. If that hero is 
  not around, the Baron mixes hand-to-hand 
  combat with ranged blasts, preferring to make 
  every attack a display of power. (The Baron 
  attempts Presence Attacks every other Phase or 
  so, using the “violent action” and “display of 
  powers” benefits constantly.) He prefers to start 
  by putting half his levels into offense and the 
  other half into defense, but is a smart and 
  cunning foe… his levels will switch around 
  depending on who he’s fighting. If enraged, he 
  tends to put all his levels into either offense or 
  damage and blast away at range. 
   
  Roberto enjoys combat, but even more he 
  likes destruction. Bases or Vehicles are preferred 
  targets for his kinetic blasts. He enjoys using 
  Area Effect blasts to disrupt the battlefield and 
  make the heroes’ jobs harder as innocents are put 
  into danger. 
   
  Campaign Use:  Baron Roberto only Hunts 
  those he deems worthy of his attention… but 
  those who are worthy receive his complete 
  attention. He prefers to Hunt only elite-level 
  superheroes, formidable foes who can match him 
  and provide a challenge. When he is a Hunter, 
  Baron Roberto focuses his attention on the 
  Hunted when he encounters him, often to the 
  exclusion of whatever mission he is on at the 
  time. However, he rarely seeks Hunteds during 
  his spare time… he has better things to do, such 
  as conquering the world. 
   
  To make Baron Roberto more powerful 
  (yikes… you want a more powerful villain?) 
  raise the active points in his attack Multipower to 
  350, add some more Combat Skill Levels, raise 
  his SPD to 8, and add another 10 points of 
  resistant defense to his PD and ED. To scale 
  down Baron Roberto (whew!) lower his attack 
  Multipower’s active points to 150, reduce his 
  Combat Skill Levels by 3, and his SPD to 5.  
   
  Baron Roberto’s primary use in a campaign 
  is to exist as the right-hand man for the 
  campaigns supreme supervillain. While Roberto 
  is capable of creating a world-dominating plot by 
  himself, he prefers not to… it’s so much easier to 
  let someone else handle that.  
   
  He is the one who will get things moving in 
  a very high-powered campaign, issuing 
  challenges or threats on behalf of his employer, 
  or as a direct assault on the heroes’ base in 
  revenge for a defeat.  
   
  In a campaign with lots of intrigue and an 
  epic-level story, Roberto may come to assist the 
  heroes as he is manipulated behind the scenes by 
  the schemes of other elite supervillains.  
   
  Finally, the link between Roberto and his 
  daughter The Magician could be exploited by a 
  GM. (The character of The Magician is left to 
  the GM to create for his own campaign.) 
   
  Any heroes who tangle with The Magician 
  should be prepared for a visit from Roberto. It 
  may not even involve combat… the Baron is 
  likely to offer a meeting for lunch at a posh 
  restaurant if his daughter was not treated badly. 
   
  (Baron Roberto was inspired by the character of 
  Lord Alberto from the anime series Giant Robo.) 
   
  Appearance:  Baron Roberto is a tall, slender 
  man in good shape in his late 40s. Despite hints 
  of grey in his goatee, his hair is otherwise raven 
  black. He has a pencil thin mustache and 
  eyebrows. He is always wearing a very stylish 
  black three-piece suit, with a white undershirt 
  and black tie. A cigar is nearly always clamped 
  between his teeth or held in one hand, and a 
  cybernetic monocle has replaced his right eye. 
  He is very handsome and suave, possessing 
  faintly Spanish features and a light tan to his 
  skin. 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  44 
  Baron Roberto 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  45
  Baron Roberto 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   20 STR 
  10 13- Lift 400kg; 4d6 HTH [2] 
   27 DEX 
  51 14- OCV:  9/DCV:  9 
   20 CON 
  20 13-  
   20 BODY 
  20 13- 
   20 INT 
  10 13- PER Roll:  14- 
   20 EGO 
  20 13- ECV:  7 
   30 PRE 
  20 15- PRE Attack:  6d6 
   18 COM 
  4 13- 
   
   10 PD 
  6 
   Total:  35 PD (25 rPD) 
   10 ED 
  6 
   Total:  45 ED (35 rED) 
   
  7 SPD 
  22 
   Phases:  2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 
   15 REC 
  14 
   40 END 
  0 
   60 STUN 
  20 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  223 
  Movement: Running: 
  26”/52” 
   
   
  Leaping: 
  26”/52” 
   
   
  Swimming: 22”/44” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   270 Hyperkinetic Force Manipulation:  
  Multipower, 90-point Reserve, 
  Reduced Endurance (0 END, +½), 
  Variable Advantage (up to +1 
  Advantages, can only select from a 
  group of four:  No Range Penalty, 
  Penetrating, Area Of Effect Radius, 
  Autofire, +1¾); Gestures (-¼) 
   27u 1)  Hyperkinetic Blast:  EB 18d6; 
  Gestures (-¼) 
  0 
   27u 2)  Hyperkinetic Bolt:  RKA 6d6; 
  Gestures (-¼) 
  0 
   12u 3)  Forceful Fists:  HA +12d6 (16d6 
  with STR); Gestures (-¼), HA Lim 
  (-½) 
  0 
   90 Hard to Kill I:  Armor (25 PD/35 ED) 
  0 
   40 Hard to Kill II:  Desolidification (Not 
  versus Electricity), Reduced Endurance 
  (0 END, +½), Persistent (+½); Only To 
  Protect Against Attacks That Would 
  Take Him Below 0 BODY (-1) 
  0  
   25 Ridiculously Hard to Kill:  Healing, 
  3d6 (Regeneration; 3 BODY per 
  Hour), Resurrection (prevented by 
  finding the body and immersing it in 
  acid), Reduced Endurance (0 END, 
  +½), Persistent (+½); Extra Time + 
  Increased Time Increment (3 BODY 
  per Hour, -1), Self Only (-½), 
  Resurrection Only (-½) 
  0 
   120 He’s Dead, But Where’s the Body?:  
  Invisibility to Hearing, Mental, Radio, 
  Sight, Smell/Taste Groups, Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END, +½), Persistent 
  (+½), Trigger (when Roberto is at -1 
  BODY or less, +¼); Bright Fringe (-¼), 
  Chameleon (-½) 
  0  
   40 Hyper Movement:  Multipower, 40-
  point Reserve 
   4u 1)  Hyper-Running:  Running +20” 
  (26” Total) 
  4 
   4u 2)  Hyper-Leaping:  Leaping + 22” 
  (26” Total), Accurate, Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END, +½)  
  0 
   2u 3)  Hyper-Swimming:  Swimming 
  +20” (22” Total) 
  2 
   
  8 Cybernetic Monocle:  High Range 
  Radio Perception; OIF Durable (-½) 
  0 
   15 Cybernetic Monocle:  Radar, Increased 
  Arc of Perception (360o); OIF Durable 
  (-½) 
  0 
   
  3 Cybernetic Monocle:  Infrared 
  Perception; OIF Durable (-½) 
  0 
   
  3 Cybernetic Monocle:  Ultraviolet 
  Perception; OIF Durable (-½) 
  0 
   15 Immaculate Suit:  Cosmetic Transform 
  2d6 (one set of clothing into a clean, 
  perfectly dry and stylish three-piece 
  suit), Reduced Endurance (0 END, 
  +½), Persistent (+½); Limited Target 
  (clothes, -½) 
  1  
   40 Metamorphic Disguise:  Shape Shift 
  (Sight, Hearing, Radio, and Touch 
  Groups, any shape), Cellular, Costs 
  END Only to Change Shape (+¼); 
  Concentration (0 DCV Throughout, -¾) 6  
   
  5 Family Bond:  Mind Link with The 
  Magician, Psychic Bond; Only With 
  Others Who Have Mind Link (-1) 
  0 
   
   
   Martial Arts: Wing Chun Kung Fu 
   
   Maneuver 
  OCV DCV Notes 
   
  4 Block 
  +2 
  +2 
  Block, Abort 
   
  4 Disarm 
  -1 
  +1 
  Disarm, 30 
  STR 
   
  4 Dodge 
  — 
  +5 
  Dodge, 
  Abort 
   
  4 Escape 
  +0 
  +0 
  35 STR vs. 
  Grabs 
   
  3 Grab 
  -1 
  -1 
  2 Limbs, 30 
  STR to Hold 
   
  3 Legsweep 
  +2 
  -1 
  5d6 Strike, 
  Target Falls 
   
  4 Punch 
  +0 
  +2 
  6d6 Strike 
   
   Perks 
   70 Ivan the Terrible:  Follower (350 points) 
   
  5 Fringe Benefit:  Member of the 
  Aristocracy 
   
  5 Fringe Benefit:  Member of the Inner 
  Circle of Elite Supervillains 
   
  3 Money:  Well Off ($300,000 per year) 
   
  8 Reputation:  Mastermind-level Incredibly 
  Dangerous Supervillain (The Entire 
  World) +4/4d6 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  46 
   
   Talents 
   
  3 Absolute Range Sense 
   15 Combat Sense 13- 
   15 Danger Sense (Self Only, Out of 
  Combat, Intuitional) 
  13- 
   
  3 Simulate Death 
   
   Skills 
   40 +4 Overall Levels 
   40 +5 with All Combat 
   
   
  3 Acrobatics 14- 
   
  3 Analyze Combat Technique 13- 
   
  3 Breakfall 14- 
   
  3 Bureaucratics 13- 
   
  3 Concealment 13- 
   
  3 Conversation 13- 
   
  3 Deduction 13- 
   10 Full Defense Maneuver 
   
  3 Gambling 13- 
   
  3 High Society 13- 
   
  3 Interrogation 13- 
   
  3 KS: The Criminal World 13- 
   
  3 KS: Elite Superhero Organization 13- 
   
  3 KS: Elite Supervillain Organization 13- 
   
  3 KS: Kung Fu 13- 
   
  3 Oratory 13- 
   
  3 Persuasion 13- 
   
  5 Rapid Attack (Hand-to-Hand) 
   
  5 Rapid Attack (Ranged) 
   
  3 Shadowing 13- 
   
  3 Stealth 13- 
   
  3 Streetwise 13- 
   
  3 Systems Operation 13- 
   
  3 Tactics 13- 
   
  3 Tracking 13- 
   
   
  3 Linguist 
   
  1 1)  Language: English (Fluent, Spanish is 
  native) 
   
  1 2)  Language: French (Fluent) 
   
  1 3)  Language: German (Fluent) 
   
  1 4)  Language: Japanese (Fluent) 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  1066 
   
  Total Cost:  1289 
   
   200+ Disadvantages 
   10 Distinctive Features:  Dapper, Debonair 
  One-Eyed Man in a Stylish Suit 
  (Concealable) 
   10 DNPC:  The Magician (Roberto’s 
  Talented Daughter) 14- (Slightly Less 
  Powerful, Useful Skills) 
   20 Enraged:  Enraged in Combat versus the 
  Hero He’s Hunting (Uncommon), 14-, 11- 
   20 Enraged:  Enraged in Combat with Elite 
  Superheroes (Very Common) 8-, 11- 
   30 Hunted:  Superhero Group 14- (Mo Pow, 
  NCI, Capture) 
   20 Hunted:  Elite Superhero Group 8- (Mo 
  Pow, NCI, Capture) 
   10 Hunted:  Elite Supervillain Group 11- 
  (Mo Pow, NCI, Watching)  
   15 Hunted:  Police 11- (Less Pow, NCI, 
  Imprison) 
   10 Physical Limitation:  Addicted to 
  Smoking Cigars (Frequently, Slightly) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Hunting Elite 
  Superhero (Uncommon, Total) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Despises Being 
  Manipulated (Uncommon, Strong) 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Protective of 
  The Magician (Common, Moderate) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Ambitious 
  (Common, Strong) 
   20 Reputation:  Murderous, Master-Class 
  Supervillain 14- (Extreme) 
   10 Rivalry:  Professional (with fellow 
  members of Elite Supervillain Group for 
  approval of leader, Rivals outnumber 
  Roberto, Rivals aware of Rivalry) 
   15 Social Limitation:  Subject to Orders 
  (Frequently, Major) 
   649 Experience Points 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  1289 
   
   
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  47
  Secret Origins by Michael Satran 
   
   
  Remember the good old days? When good 
  was good and evil was evil, and the secret, yet 
  just forces of the government warred against evil 
  villains too terrible to reveal to the public? 
  That’s the way things were in many of the 
  comics of the 1950s and 1960s. Regrettably, the 
  concept of super-prisons hadn’t been developed, 
  so many of these terrible criminals were secretly 
  placed in suspended animation, never, in theory, 
  to threaten the world again. This is the story of 
  one of those groups. Behold Doctor Brutallo and 
  the Alliance of Evil! A team of supervillains so 
  horrifying that the government struck their 
  existence from the minds of men, and hid them 
  deep beneath the earth in temporally suspended 
  slumber…. 
   
  A few words about the era that these villains 
  come from should be mentioned at this point. 
  Many superhero adventures during this time 
  period involved either fighting the communists, 
  or superheroes as secret agents, or some 
  combination thereof. These themes are reflected 
  in the villains below. Because of the fact that the 
  villains are also from the 1950s, there will be 
  some things that the villains consider morally 
  reprehensible and just won’t do. 
   
  For example, a husband and wife superhero 
  duo with public identities steal a kiss in public. 
  Doctor Brutallo, witnessing this, is shocked, and 
  shows up to offer them membership in The 
  Alliance Of Evil. Real Heroes don’t do that sort 
  of thing; therefore, they must be villains. An all-
  out battle ensues instead, as Doctor Brutallo 
  discovers that the future doesn’t share the strict 
  moral code of the ’40s and ’50s.  
   
  As another example, Doctor Brutallo 
  witnesses a hero or villain use language that in 
  the ’50s would have been considered foul and 
  unacceptable. He immediately offers them 
  membership in The Alliance Of Evil, assuming 
  that no hero would willingly contribute to the 
  moral depravity of youth, not realizing, of 
  course, that youth is a lot more jaded than it used 
  to be. 
   
  Above all, these villains are different than 
  what most of your players have probably seen 
  before. While in some ways they are a standard 
  supervillain team, in others, they are more like a 
  dysfunctional family similar to Leave It To 
  Beaver or other 1950s television shows. 
  Watching the villains cope with the changes to 
  the world during the fifty-year gap should be as 
  much fun for your players as it is for the GM 
  running the adventure. There’s really not a lot 
  more to be said here, except for Excelsior! Enjoy 
  the ride, True Believers.   
  SCENARIOS FOR THE ALLIANCE OF 
  EVIL 
   
   
   
  Mighty Comics:  Doctor Brutallo stumbles 
  upon an issue of Mighty Comics, only to 
  discover that he is featured in it, and he hasn’t 
  committed the crime within. Only a fool would 
  dare to misrepresent The Alliance Of Evil! 
  Doctor Brutallo begins to seek revenge on 
  Mighty Comics, attacking comic stores, comic 
  book conventions, and kidnapping the editor, 
  demanding redress for the crimes that he has not 
  committed. If the PCs discover the connection 
  between the government and Mighty Comics, 
  they may put two and two together, and discover 
  the secrets of the Super Six, and what the 
  government actually did. 
   
  Digging Up The Dead:  In this scenario, 
  only Doctor Brutallo has been awakened, and it’s 
  a race against time to stop him before he can 
  reassemble the Alliance of Evil. Suggested order 
  for maximum playability is The Terrible 
  Titanoid, Kanga The Dominator, Atomicus, and 
  The Armageddon Mind. If the group is very 
  powerful, add Brutalloids to taste. 
   
  Villain Tutor:  Doctor Brutallo decides that 
  younger villains don’t know how to really be 
  villains anymore, and sets up classes for them 
  somewhere. Heroes must decide whether to stop 
  him, or hold out hope that he might actually 
  teach them something that might keep them alive 
  a little longer. Alternatively, villains might reject 
  his tutelage, causing some really nasty battles 
  that the heroes might have to stop. 
   
  Total Domination:  Kanga The Dominator 
  begins taking over criminal organizations in 
  order to rule the world through crime. His mental 
  powers combined with the ruthlessness of 
  Organized Crime make a deadly combination, as 
  well as giving Doctor Brutallo access to a much 
  greater range of illegal equipment. 
   
  The Return of Captain Unity:  Doctor 
  Brutallo decides that there are no more worthy 
  opponents to face anymore, and decides to 
  resurrect Captain Unity, his greatest enemy, to 
  prove how mighty he is, since the new Captain 
  Unity will serve only Doctor Brutallo. In order to 
  accomplish this, he will need to build a new 
  Dimension Z machine, which will require several 
  extremely expensive parts (though the parts will 
  be slightly smaller than he is used to), and the 
  dead body of Captain Unity. 
                                                             
  artwork by J.P. Hyde 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  48 
  The Alliance Of Evil 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  49
  Doctor Brutallo 
  The Most Brilliant Mind on Earth! 
  Background:  Doctor Brutallo was born Nicolai 
  Borodenko, in 1907, to a family loyal to the 
  Tsar, in the outlying reaches of Moscow. As he 
  grew up, he was treated well, and his family 
  discovered that he had something of a brilliant 
  mind, sending him to the best schools available 
  in Moscow for young nobles. But at the age of 
  ten, all that came to an end, and he was spirited 
  out of the country by a faithful servant, watching 
  his parents burn in a proletarian riot as the 
  communists came to power. He would never 
  forgive them…. 
   
  He fled first to Europe, then to America, just 
  ahead of the communist agents who wanted his 
  blood. Conservative elements in the United 
  States agreed to protect him in exchange for his 
  working on secret government projects regarding 
  mysterious dimensional energies, which he 
  gladly accepted out of fear for his life. By 1935, 
  he was well ensconced as the theoretical director 
  of the top secret Dimensional Project Z. He 
  became best friends with the military attaché, a 
  Carlton Hughes, who he began to confide in as a 
  close friend, the first American he had ever truly 
  felt comfortable around.  
   
  Throughout the war, he worked on 
  Dimensional Project Z, always hoping that when 
  the time came, the United States would roll over 
  the Germans and crush the communist threat that 
  he knew to be on the horizon. Several attempts to 
  kidnap him by Nazi superbeings were thwarted 
  by superheroes, and he began to theorize a way 
  that it might be possible to infuse a target with 
  the energy of Dimensional Project Z, granting 
  them superpowers and abilities. Carlton was still 
  there, though he was much older, and slowly, the 
  government began to cut funding to the 
  Dimension Z project, as the war had ended.  
   
  Doctor Borodenko pressed on as funding 
  slowed to a crawl, his friend Carlton carrying 
  him onward as his health began to fail from the 
  dangerous radiation experiments he was 
  conducting, unable to afford the funding for 
  shielding against the lethal radiation. Slowly, 
  members of the project began to turn against 
  him, suspecting him of being a communist and 
  maintaining Soviet Sympathies, even though that 
  was the furthest thing from his highly rational 
  mind, though slowly, Carlton had begun to 
  suspect that his friend had suffered from the 
  radiation, and was slowly going mad. In 
  December of 1945, shortly after the war was 
  over, Nicolai Borodenko, in a laboratory bereft 
  of assistants, decided to activate the Dimension 
  Z Device, and prove to the world that his 
  research for fifteen long years had not been in 
  vain. Carlton tried to stop him, in a struggle that 
  carried the two men far beyond camaraderie, but 
  the Dimension Z Project activated with a terrible, 
  ratcheting shudder. 
   
  The explosion transformed Carlton into a 
  paragon of Justice, physically perfect, handsome, 
  and powerful, capable of projecting eyebeams of 
  the strange Dimension Z energy. Doctor 
  Borodenko apparently disappeared in the 
  explosion, hurled through the wall in a fit of 
  quantum light. Outside, he discovered that 
  something wonderful had happened to him. He 
  understood all there was about Dimension Z, and 
  more concepts filled his mind at an astounding 
  rate. He mastered fields at which he was a novice 
  in seconds, putting together concepts he never 
  could have before. Then he howled in agony as 
  he stared into a car mirror, at the apish, devolved 
  face that stared back at him from the light of the 
  window. Seeing Carlton’s perfection in the light 
  of the window, he grew filled with rage. The 
  Dimension Z energy had evolved his mind, and 
  devolved his body. How could he, the brilliant 
  Doctor Nicolai Borodenko, be transformed into 
  this horrible apelike creature, while his weak-
  minded assistant had received the true powers of 
  Dimension Z? He had become a monster! 
  Fleeing into the night while Carlton repaired the 
  burning laboratory, he vowed revenge on the 
  small-minded and the puny who had forced him 
  into this. If he had become a brute, then he 
  would become the noblest brute ever. With his 
  brilliant mind, he would rule the world! And 
  thus, Doctor Brutallo was born.  
   
  The battles between Doctor Brutallo and 
  Captain Unity, as Carlton now called himself, 
  quickly escalated into open warfare, which the 
  government strove hard to keep quiet in light of 
  the developing situation with the Soviet Union. 
  As Doctor Brutallo acquired allies, built robots, 
  and stole the wealth of ancient civilizations, 
  hiding it for his own evil purposes, Captain 
  Unity recruited superbeings of his own in the 
  secret war against the forces of Evil. Several 
  times, Doctor Brutallo nearly triumphed in 
  taking over the world, once in a very public way. 
  To cover up the fact that Doctor Brutallo was 
  real, the United States Government created 
  Mighty Comics in 1949, and called the whole 
  thing a publicity stunt. Mighty Comics was very 
  successful, featuring “The Secret Adventures of 
  Captain Unity and the Super Six.” The false 
  adventures were almost more bizarre than 
  Brutallo’s real plans, though some of the villains 
  that the Super Six faced were either real, or 
  parodies of the enemies of other superteams.  
   
  In 1951, the Super Six cornered Doctor 
  Brutallo and the Alliance of Evil, as Brutallo 
  now called his allies and minions, deep inside an 
  abandoned Salt Mine in Southern Virginia, and 
  Doctor Brutallo was defeated, just before he 
  could activate his sinister Seismotron. The 
  villains were too dangerous to keep in a standard 
  PLOT SEEDS 
   
   
   Russia Redux:  
  Russian Agents 
  contact Brutallo, now 
  that the menace of 
  communism is over, 
  and ask him to work 
  for his old country. 
  Brutallo accepts, but 
  is he sincere, or is it 
  really a sinister step in 
  his latest plan to take 
  over the world? 
   Doctor Brutallo 
  Falls in Love:  (with 
  one of the PCs, of 
  course.) Brutallo’s 
  affections are sincere, 
  although he faces two 
  major obstacles in 
  pursuing the object of 
  his desire. One, he’s 
  still evil, and he will 
  attempt to prove his 
  love for the PC by 
  doing things like 
  stealing national 
  monuments and 
  delivering them to 
  her, capturing her 
  enemies and 
  reprogramming their 
  minds, and vowing to 
  conquer the world in 
  her name (always bad 
  for a stalwart hero’s 
  reputation). Two, 
  Brutallo is hideously 
  ugly, and this obstacle 
  is probably far more 
  difficult than the first. 
   Doctor Brutallo 
  Dies!:  In the course 
  of a combat with the 
  PCs, or even with 
  NPCs, Brutallo is 
  killed. At his funeral, 
  a cryptic note is 
  received that indicates 
  that Brutallo might 
  still be alive. Has the 
  most brilliant mind on 
  Earth faked his death, 
  or is a sinister 
  imposter out there, 
  somewhere…? 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  50 
  prison, but Captain Unity, unable to put his old 
  friend in jail, hoped that the future would find a 
  way to deal with the villains properly. Placing 
  them in specially designed suspended animation 
  capsules of Doctor Brutallo’s own design, 
  Doctor Brutallo and the Alliance of Evil were 
  buried deep beneath the earth, never to be seen 
  again. Or so they thought…. 
   
  The Present… A group of construction 
  workers breaking ground for a new housing 
  project drilled slowly downward, testing for 
  surface stability, broke into the cavern housing 
  Doctor Brutallo’s suspended animation capsule, 
  pushed slowly towards the surface of the earth 
  by a massive explosion caused by a super-battle 
  in the mountains some years before. The capsule 
  opened, to the shock and surprise of the workers, 
  to reveal Doctor Brutallo, clad in a yellow 
  jumpsuit. When he told them of his plans to 
  recover his might, and rule the world, they 
  laughed at the ape-man, as he stumped down the 
  road. How much of a threat could he really 
  be…? 
   
  Quote:  “You may think my apish countenance 
  foolish, but know that you face the most brilliant 
  mind on earth, in this or any century! Face 
  Doctor Brutallo, dolt! And know that your 
  powers are no match for his ultimate genius!” 
   
  “Know that you are doomed, at the hands of 
  the (fill in the appropriate thing here, followed 
  by a dramatic pause) …of Doctor Brutallo!”   
   
  Author’s Note:  This led to several comments 
  on the part of the players of the playtest scenario 
  such as “We have disabled The Jeep …of Doctor 
  Brutallo,” and “Observe …The Line Drawing of 
  Doctor Brutallo,” not to mention the ominous 
  “The Flowers …of Doctor Brutallo” which 
  deserves special mention here.  
   
  Powers/Tactics:  Doctor Brutallo was the most 
  brilliant mind of his time, but even in the modern 
  era, his brilliance shines in devious and terrible 
  ways. Doctor Brutallo’s gadgets cannot be 
  affected by electromagnetic pulses, since all of 
  his devices still work on vacuum tubes 
  composed of the mysterious element he created 
  himself, Brutonium. He carries a Brutonium 
  battery back on his belt to power his mysterious 
  devices. His goal is to rule the entire world, and 
  nothing less will satisfy him. His tactics are 
  typical of an evil genius, though he will follow 
  the code of villainy to the letter. Even in 
  suspended animation, his brilliant mind 
  functioned, building and designing weapons of 
  subtle power as well as brute force. If a character 
  has a weakness, Doctor Brutallo will exploit it 
  with a device located somewhere in his awesome 
  arsenal. He deliberately builds devices to exploit 
  the strengths of his teammates, the Titanoid, 
  Atomicus, Kanga the Dominator, and the 
  Armageddon Mind. Once Doctor Brutallo 
  discovers that no one uses Vacuum Tubes 
  anymore, he will find this vastly amusing and 
  continue to use them, as everyone will continue 
  to be afraid of electromagnetic pulses…but him.  
   
  Appearance:  Doctor Brutallo appears to be a 
  Cro-Magnon apish man, hairy and stunted, with 
  long arms and bow legs, wearing a yellow 
  jumpsuit covered with devices, as well as a belt 
  to hold up the pants of the jumpsuit. On his head 
  is an old style helmet with a large side pod for a 
  radio, and his eyes are concealed behind an 
  ominous visor. His voice is gravelly and rough, 
  and were it not for his intelligence, it would 
  seem to be little more than a piggish grunt.   
   
  Campaign Use:  In lower powered campaigns, 
  give Doctor Brutallo’s gadget pool a half-Phase 
  to change, or even a full Phase, unless he is in a 
  laboratory. Reduce the amount of sciences on his 
  sheet so that he cannot be as effective with the 
  gadget pool. Remove one of his gadget levels as 
  well. 
   
  Remember that Doctor Brutallo needs to 
  operate a portion of his defenses out of his 
  gadget pool in a standard campaign, or he will 
  become a super smear.  
   
  In high-powered campaigns, increase Doctor 
  Brutallo’s gadget pool to 75, 90, or even 120 
  Active Points. Increase his body armor to 20 PD, 
  20 ED to give him defense outside of his gadget 
  pool. Whatever devices are most commonly used 
  should be removed from the pool as well, and 
  bought on his standard power listing. Replace the 
  leaping boots with a 25” flight belt, and add 2 
  Combat Skill Levels.  
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  51
  Doctor Brutallo 
  The Most Brilliant Mind on Earth! 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   30 STR 
  20 15- 1½ tons, 6d6 HTH [3] 
   23 DEX 
  39 14- OCV:  8/DCV:  8 
   23 CON 
  26 14- 
   15 BODY 
  10 11- 
   30 INT 
  20 15- PER Roll:  15- 
   20 EGO 
  20 13- ECV:  7 
   20 PRE 
  10 13- PRE Attack:  4d6 
   
  4 COM 
  -3 10-   
   
   10 PD 
  4 
   Total:  15 PD (5 rPD) * 
   10 ED 
  5 
   Total:  15 ED (5 rED) * 
   
  5 SPD 
  17 
   Phases:  3, 5, 8, 10, 12 
   12 REC 
  2 
    
   46 END 
  0 
   
   50 STUN 
  8 
   
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  178 
  Movement: Running: 
  6”/12” 
   
   
  Leaping: 
  20”/40” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   100 Gadget Pool:  VPP, 60-point Reserve, 
  0 Phase to Change (+1); OIF (-½) 
  var. 
   13 Power Cells:  END Reserve (100 END, 
  10 REC); OIF (-½) 
  0 
   13 Jump Boots:  Leaping +14” (20” Total), 
  Accurate; OIF (-½) 
  4/2 
   10 Reflective Jumpsuit:  Armor (5 PD/5 
  ED); OIF (-½) 
  0 
   
  8 Helmet Radio:  High Range Radio 
  Perception, OIF (-½) 
  0 
   19  Helmet Visor:  Sight Group Flash 
  Defense, 10 Points; OIF (-½) plus 
  Infrared Perception; OIF (-½) plus 
  Nightvision; OIF (-½) plus Ultraviolet 
  Vision; OIF (-½) 
  0 
   13 Helmet Radar:  Radar, 360o, OIF (-½) 
  0 
   
  4  Extreme Longevity:  LS: Increased 
  Aging (800 Years) 
   
   Talents 
   
  5 Eidetic Memory 
   
  3 Lightning Calculator 
   
  6 Speed Reading; 100x Rapid 
   
   Perks 
   50 Headquarters Deep in the Mountains of 
  Peru:  Base (250 Points) 
   60 Brutalloids:  16 Followers (100 Base + 
  100 Disadvantages) 
   10 Treasure of the City of Gold:  Wealth: 
  Multimillionaire 
   
   Skills 
   10 +1 Overall Level 
   10 +2 OCV with Gadgets 
   
   
  3 Bureaucratics 13- 
   
  3 Computer Programming 15- 
   
  3 Concealment 15- 
   
  3 Cryptography 15- 
   
  3 Deduction 15- 
   
  3 Demolitions 15- 
   
  3 Disguise 13- 
   
  3 Electronics 15- 
   15 Gadgeteering 20- 
   
  3 Inventor 15- 
   
  3 Lockpicking 14- 
   
  3 Oratory 13- 
   
  3 PS: Scientist 15- 
   10  Weaponsmith (All) 15- 
   
   
  3 Linguist 
   
  3 1)  English (Idiomatic, Russian is Native) 
   
  3 2)  Arabic (Idiomatic) 
   
  3 3)  Cantonese (Idiomatic) 
   
  3 4)  French (Idiomatic) 
   
  3 5)  German (Idiomatic) 
   
  3 6)  Hindustani (Idiomatic) 
   
  3 7)  Polish (Idiomatic) 
   
   
  3 Scientist 
   
  2 1)  SS: Anthropology 15- 
   
  2 2)  SS: Archaeology 15- 
   
  2 3)  SS: Biochemistry 15- 
   
  2 4)  SS: Biology 15- 
   
  2 5)  SS: Biophysics 15- 
   
  2 6)  SS: Botany 15- 
   
  2 7)  SS: Chemistry 15- 
   
  2 8)  SS: Dimensional Physics 15- 
   
  2 9)  SS: Exobiology 15- 
   
  2 10)  SS: Genetics 15- 
   
  2 11)  SS: Inorganic Chemistry 15- 
   
  2 12)  SS: Mathematics 15- 
   
  2 13)  SS: Medicine 15- 
   
  2 14)  SS: Metallurgy 15- 
   
  2 15)  SS: Nuclear Physics 15- 
   
  2 16)  SS: Physics 15- 
   
  2 17)  SS: Organic Chemistry 15- 
   
  2 18)  SS: Pharmacology 15- 
   
  2 19)  SS: Robotics 15- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  480 
   
  Total Cost:  658 
   
   200+ Disadvantages 
   15  Distinctive Features:  Apelike Humanoid 
  (Concealable, Major Reaction) 
   10  Enraged:  when Plans Thwarted 
  (Uncommon), go 8-, recover 11- 
   20  Hunted:  US Government 8- (Mo Pow, 
  NCI) 
   20  Hunted:  UNTIL 8- (Mo Pow, NCI) 
   20  Psychological Limitation:  Megalomania 
  (Common, Total) 
   20 Psychological Limitation:  Code of 
  Villainy, Always Captures Hero, Puts in 
  Deathtrap,Tells him his plan, etc… 
  (Common, Total) 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  52 
   10 Psychological Limitation:  Overconfident 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   20 Vulnerability:  2x STUN and BODY from 
  Dimensional Energy Attacks (Uncommon) 
   323  Experience Points 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  658 
   
  DEVICES FROM THE GADGET POOL 
  …OF DOCTOR BRUTALLO! 
   
   
   30 Hypno-Ray:  Mind Control 12d6; OAF 
  (Device makes a “Mwoom-Mwoom-
  Mwoom” Noise, -1) 
  6 
   16 Force Field Belt:  Force Field (10 PD/ 
  10 ED), Reduced Endurance (½ END, 
  +¼); OIF (-½) 
  1 
   25 Neural Disruptor Grenades:  Drain 
  DEX 2d6, Ranged (+½), Resetting 
  Trigger (+½), Returns 5 points per 
  Minute (+¼), Personal Immunity (+¼); 
  16 Charges (He will only ever use 15, 
  due to the way the rules on Gadget 
  Pools work, -0), OAF (-1) 
  0 
   
   
  Doctor Brutallo 
  The Most Brilliant Mind on Earth! 
   30 Plasma Amplifier Pistol:  EB 12d6; 
  OAF (-1) 
  6 
   30 Neural Disruption Ray-Gun:  Drain 
  DEX 4d6, Ranged (+½), OAF (-1) 
  6 
   30 Gyrojet Pistol:  RKA 4d6; OAF (-1), 
  8 Charges (Only uses 7, -1) 
  0 
   24 Psychic Field Rifle: Drain EGO 3d6, 
  Area Of Effect (6” Cone, +1), OAF 
  (-1), No Range (-½) 
  6 
   30 Dimension Z Field:  Entangle 8 DEF, 
  4d6 BODY; OAF (-1) 
  6 
   15 The Dreaded Seismotron of Doctor 
  Brutallo: RKA 1d6, Area Of Effect Hex 
  (+½), Uncontrolled (+½), Continuous 
  (+1), Penetrating (+½), Sticky (+½); 
  Doesn’t Work against Living Beings or 
  Their Equipment (-1), OAF (-1), 1 
  Charge Lasting 1 Hour (-0), Immobile 
  (A city-destroying device, which slowly 
  expands outward from the central hex. 
  More hexes touch each other on each of 
  Doctor Brutallo’s Phases, slowly 
  crumbling buildings and leveling 
  everything in sight, -1). 
  52 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  53
  The Brutalloids 
  Background:  In his quest to battle Captain 
  Unity and the forces of Justice, Doctor Brutallo 
  created the inexorable Brutalloids. Loyal soldiers 
  in the secret war, they battle endlessly in the 
  name of Doctor Brutallo. 
   
  Quote:  None, Brutalloids don’t speak.  
   
  Powers/Tactics:  The Brutalloids have one 
  tactic. Leap into battle and smash. They are not 
  very intelligent, but do make good shock troops, 
  which is what Doctor Brutallo uses them for.  
   
  Appearance:  The Brutalloids look like dull, 
  grey, faceless humanoids, with three fingers on a 
  hand and absolutely no distinguishing body 
  parts. The closest description of their appearance 
  would be Jack Kirbyesque, faceless tofu-men.  
   
  Campaign Use:  In a lower-powered campaign, 
  remove the Brutalloids’ Combat Skill Levels, 
  reduce their Mental Defense to 10 points, and 
  subtract their Power Defense entirely. Lower 
  their Strength to a 35, and their defenses to 12.  
   
  In a higher-powered campaign, add two 
  more Levels with Punch, Grab, and Haymaker, 
  increase their Mental Defense to 25 points, and 
  Power Defense to 15 points. Raise their Strength 
  to 60, and their PD and ED to 22.  
  The Brutalloids 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   45 STR 
  35 18- Lift 12½ tons, 9d6 HTH 
   18 DEX 
  24 13- OCV:  6/DCV:  6 
   23 CON 
  26 14-   
   10 BODY 
  0 11-  
   
  8 INT 
  -2 11- PER Roll:  11- 
   
  5 EGO 
  -10 10- ECV:  2 
   10  PRE 
  0 11- PRE Attack:  2d6 
   
  8 COM 
  -1 11-  
   
   15 PD 
  6 
   Total:  15 PD (10 rPD) 
   15 ED 
  10 
   Total:  15 ED (10 rED) 
   
  4 SPD 
  12 
   Phases:  3, 6, 9, 12 
   14 REC 
  0 
   
   46 END 
  0 
   
   45 STUN 
  0 
   
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  100 
  Movement: Running: 
  6”/12” 
   
   
  Leaping: 
  15”/30” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   10 Android “Skin”:  Damage Resistance, 
  10 PD, 10 ED 
  0 
   16 Android Mind:  Mental Defense, 16 
  points 
  0 
   10 Android Body:  Power Defense, 10 
  points 
  0 
   27 Android Body:  Life Support:  Does 
  Not Age, Self-Contained Breathing, 
  Safe Environments: Cold, Heat, 
  Radiation, Vacuum, High Pressure 
  0 
   11 Android Legs:  Leaping +6” (15” 
  Total), Accurate 
  1 
   20 Android Radar:  360o Radar 
  0 
   
   Skills 
   
  6 +2 with Punch, Grab, and Haymaker 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  100 
   
  Total Cost:  200 
   
   100+ Disadvantages 
   15  Distinctive Feature:  Faceless Robotoid 
  (Concealable, Major Reaction) 
   20  Hunted:  UNTIL 8- (Mo Pow, NCI) 
   20  Hunted:  US Government 8- (Mo Pow, 
  NCI) 
   20  Psychological Limitation:  Loyal to 
  Doctor Brutallo (Common, Total) 
   30  Vulnerability:  1½ x STUN and BODY 
  from Electricity (Common) 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  200 
  PLOT SEEDS 
   
   
   Discovery:  A 
  group of construction 
  workers uncovers 
  Doctor Brutallo’s 
  secret Brutalloid 
  Factory! Can the PCs 
  get inside and disable 
  it before Doctor 
  Brutallo arrives to 
  make more? 
   Genesis:  A group 
  of Brutalloids develop 
  independent thinking 
  and tactics, and split 
  from Doctor Brutallo, 
  waging war on him 
  for imprisoning their 
  fellow Brutalloids. 
  This causes lots of 
  property damage, and 
  since all Brutalloids 
  basically look alike, 
  chaos ensues.  
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  54 
  54 
  The Terrible Titanoid 
  Background:  Soon after Doctor Brutallo’s  
  first evil plan was foiled by Captain  
  Unity, he realized that the reason for  
  his defeat had been Captain Unity’s  
  superior physical strength.  
  Regrettably, he was not the  
  physical superior of  
  Captain Unity,  
  and so he was  
  forced to  
  resort to  
  other means  
  of dealing  
  with the  
  flying  
  sentinel.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Carefully stealing 
  components in secret, he 
  managed to build a small 
  Dimension Z generator 
  that would enable him  
  to build a robot strong 
  enough to battle  
  Captain Unity in  
  combat, when  
  properly infused  
  with the mysterious  
  energy. For months  
  he labored,  
  creating a  
  powerful robot  
  capable of  
  absorbing  
  energy from  
  any source,  
  the material  
  designed to  
  expand upon  
  contact with  
  almost any sort  
  of power. 
   
  At last, activating the switch on the small 
  Dimension Z generator, the robot was infused  
   
  with power, and as the horrible crackling  
   
   sounds rang through Doctor Brutallo’s  
   
    secret base, The Terrible Titanoid at last  
   
     strode through the world of men!  
   
      Doctor Brutallo no longer needed  
   
       
  to do battle with  
   
       
   
  Captain Unity.  
   
       
   
   The awesome  
   
   power of the  
   
    Titanoid  
   
     would do  
   
      it for  
   
       him.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Rarely did  
  the loyal robot ever  
  leave Doctor Brutallo’s 
  side, except when 
  commanded by his master. 
  Captured along with the 
  other members of the 
  Alliance of Evil, the 
  Titanoid was allowed to 
  return to normal size, and 
  placed in suspended 
  animation, hidden 
  somewhere deep within 
  the bowels of the Earth.  
   
  Quote:  None, the 
  Titanoid does not speak. 
   
   
  PLOT SEEDS 
   
   
   Rampage:  The 
  Titanoid goes on a 
  rampage, and the 
  heroes have to stop it, 
  but something goes 
  horribly wrong, and it 
  breaks open a 
  genetics facility. Can 
  the heroes stop the 
  Titanoid before it 
  spreads a deadly 
  virus? 
   Into the Titanic 
  Realm:  The Titanoid 
  is found unconscious 
  in the desert, and 
  emitting strange 
  waves of Dimension 
  Z radiation. When the 
  characters approach 
  the Titanoid,  
  they are  
  transported to  
  a place where they  
  are all giants, and 
  everyone around  
  them is very  
  tiny. How will  
  the players  
  cope when  
  they are treated as 
  they treated the 
  Titanoid in his 
  previous plot seed? 
  How will they get 
  home? 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  55
  The Terrible Titanoid 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   40 STR 
  30 17-  Lift 6½ tons, 8d6 HTH  
   20 DEX 
  30 13-  OCV:  7/DCV:  7 
   35 CON 
  50 16-  
   15 BODY 
  10 12- 
   10 INT 
  0 11-  PER Roll:  11- 
   10 EGO 
  0 11-  ECV:  3 
   25 PRE 
  0 14-  PRE Attack:  5d6 
   
  8 COM 
  -1 11- 
   
   30 PD 
  22 
    Total:  30 PD (18 rPD) 
   30 ED 
  23 
    Total:  30 ED (18 rED) 
   
  5 SPD 
  20 
    Phases:  3, 5, 8, 10, 12 
   18 REC 
  6 
     
   70 END 
  0 
     
   65 STUN 
  12 
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  202 
  Movement: Running: 
  6”/12” 
   
   
  Leaping: 
  20”/40” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   13 Titan:  Growth, 1 Level, Inherent 
  (+¼), Persistent (+½), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END, +½), Trigger 
  (resets when hit, +½) 
  0 
   48 Amplification:  Physical and Energy 
  Absorption 6d6 to Growth, Increased 
  Maximum (40 Points), Fade at 5 
  Points per 5 Minutes (+½) 
  0 
   18 Android “Skin”:  Damage Resistance 
  (18 PD/18 ED) 
  0 
   15 Android Mind:  Mental Defense 17 
  points 
  0 
   10 Android Body:  Power Defense, 10 
  points 
  0 
   50 Android Body:  Total Life Support 
  0 
   17 Android Legs:  Leaping +12” (20” 
  Total), Accurate 
  2 
   30 Shielded Radar:  360o Radar plus 
  Radio Group Flash Defense, 10 points 
  0 
   
   Skills 
   
  6 +2 with Punch, Grab, and Haymaker 
   
  3 Rubbery Body:  Breakfall 13- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  210 
   
  Total Cost:  412 
   
   200+ Disadvantages 
   20  Physical Limitation:  Blind, Sees by 
  Radar (Common, Frequently) 
   20  Hunted:  UNTIL 8- (Mo Pow, NCI) 
   20  Hunted:  US Government 8- (Mo Pow, 
  NCI) 
   20  Psychological Limitation:  Loyal to 
  Doctor Brutallo (Common, Total) 
   30  Vulnerability:  1½x STUN and BODY 
  from Electricity (Common) 
   102  Experience Points 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  412 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  The Titanoid takes a front line 
  position in front of its teammates, along with the 
  Armageddon Mind. It knows only one purpose, 
  fighting for the glory of Doctor Brutallo. Its 
  strategy is simple. Smash anything Doctor 
  Brutallo designates as an enemy. A fully 
  amplified Titanoid is a gruesome opponent, 
  when backed up by the other members of the 
  Alliance of Evil, it is even worse. The Titanoid is 
  programmed to interpose itself between attackers 
  and other members of the Alliance. This gets 
  easier as it gets bigger.  
   
  Appearance:  The Terrible Titanoid is a large, 
  grayish green robot similar to the Brutalloids in 
  overall appearance. It wears a set of skintight 
  olive swim trunks, but underneath them, it is 
  anatomically incorrect. The Titanoid is faceless, 
  and has no lips, nose, mouth, or eyes, seeing and 
  targeting by radar. It has two wide, fat, stubby 
  fingers on each hand, and an opposable thumb. 
   
  Campaign Use:  To weaken the Titanoid for 
  lower-powered campaigns, lower its STR to 30, 
  take its ED down to 20, and remove the 
  Absorption Growth. Slow its SPD to 4. 
   
  For higher-powered campaigns, increase the 
  Titanoid’s STR to a whopping 60, increase its 
  PD and ED to 40 each, and raise its SPD to 6. 
  Increase the Absorption Growth to 10d6, with 
  the same return rate.  
   
  In all cases, be sure to keep careful track of 
  the Titanoid’s Growth. It drastically affects the 
  character’s DCV and STR. At maximum output 
  (which Doctor Brutallo will sometimes pre-
  pummel the Titanoid for), The Titanoid, in a 
  Standard Campaign, has a STR of 85, additional 
  reach of 4”, +9 BODY, +9 STUN, and 9” of 
  Knockback Resistance. This makes for a fairly 
  fearsome opponent. 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  56 
  Kanga the Dominator 
  Original Concept by James Silverstein 
  Background:  Kanga the Dominator was born 
  Kaangaa, in the City of Valperon, on the world 
  of Ru. A poor and shiftless Ru, he was easily 
  turned to a life of crime by several of his equally 
  poor associates in the slums of Valperon. He 
  never knew his pouch-rearer, and may not even 
  have had one, a sign of shame among the Ru.  
   
  Kaangaa grew up cold and heartless, 
  stealing from his fellow Ru, and rising in the Ru 
  underworld, his ability to cause illusions 
  indicating that perhaps, he was the result of a 
  tryst between a Ru noble and a common pouch 
  for coin. The idea that his parents had thrown 
  him into the street, to be raised by cutpurses 
  inspired in him a dark rage, and he began to plot 
  against the crown of Valperon. 
   
  Over the years, Kaangaa’s plots bore fruit, 
  and eventually, he managed to assassinate the 
  Dominator of Valperon, through his 
  manipulations of two Ru princesses and an 
  outworlder named Jorath. This was too much for 
  the royalty of Valperon, and after many brutal 
  battles in the slums of Valperon, Kaangaa was 
  captured, and sentenced to imprisonment in the 
  Zone beyond life. With horror, Kaangaa was cast 
  into the nebulous void, to float forever in the 
  horrid space, screaming and wailing that one 
  day, he would return to Valperon, and have his 
  revenge on those who had opposed him.  
   
  Kaangaa floated in the void for what seemed 
  like an eternity, until suddenly, a golden sphere 
  of light seemed to float before him, widening 
  into an enormous portal. Barely sane, Kaangaa 
  drifted towards the light, and slammed on to the 
  cold concrete floor. 
   
  “Goodness,” purred a deep gravelly voice. 
  “What have we here?” 
   
  Kaangaa struggled to move, but the 
  dimensional travel had made him weak, too 
  weak to resist as Doctor Brutallo’s Hypno-ray 
  bored into his mind, making him reveal all of his 
  deepest secrets to the strange, hunched monkey 
  creature. As Kaangaa and Doctor Brutallo spoke, 
  Kaangaa felt a strange kinship with the outcast 
  creature, and vowed to rule this world as he had 
  once planned to rule Ru. Of course, eventually, 
  he would replace Doctor Brutallo as the ruler of 
  this world, and then return to conquer Ru, as his 
  scheming mind plotted the possibilities of 
  ultimate power. The foolish ape creature could 
  not even pronounce his name properly, clearly a 
  sign of inferiority. 
   
  The ape creatures and Brutallo’s enemies 
  feared him greatly, choosing to name him The 
  Dominator, which brought him great amusement, 
  though the strange little ape man’s brilliance, 
  while disturbing, seemed to find it fitting with 
  the Ru’s mental abilities. 
   
  Kanga, or so the humans called him, 
  traveled with the Alliance of Evil, longing for the 
  day when he would return to the world of Ru, 
  and conquer it for his own. However, Doctor 
  Brutallo’s enemies, the Super Six, tracked them 
  down and placed them in suspended animation, 
  their dreams of conquest frozen in icy sleep. 
   
  Quote:  “Bah, you pitiful humans dare to match 
  wills against Kanga the Dominator? Feel the 
  awesome power of my mind, and know that 
  yours is puny in comparison!” 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  Kanga the Dominator fights 
  mostly with his mental powers, though he has 
  studied the primitive Ru of Earth and discovered 
  their aptitude for a unique sport which humans 
  favor. He has become an excellent boxer, though 
  he prefers to rely on his psychic abilities to crush 
  opponents from a distance, and enters hand-to-
  hand combat only as a last resort. The future 
  Dominator of Ru does not sully his hands with 
  physical fighting unless absolutely necessary. 
  Kanga enjoys using suggestions to crush his 
  foes, humiliating them with his subtlety. 
   
  Appearance:  Kanga the Dominator is a six foot 
  two kangaroo with a pouch. It is, however, a 
  male kangaroo with a pouch, which should clue 
  in PCs with animal handling that something is 
  not quite right. He is occasionally carrying 
  several of Doctor Brutallo’s gadgets in his 
  pouch, which should prove a rude surprise for 
  heroes who dare to reach inside. 
   
  Campaign Use:  In lower-powered Campaigns, 
  reduce Kanga’s Mind Control to 10d6 or even 
  8d6, reduce his EGO to 23 and his SPD to 4. 
  Drop his DEX to 18 and remove his Martial 
  Arts. Lower his defenses to 15 PD and 15 ED, 
  and eliminate his Danger Sense.  
   
  In higher-powered games, increase Kanga’s 
  DEX and SPD to 26 and 6, his EGO to 30, and 
  his Mental Powers to a whopping 20d6. Add 
  levels and damage classes with his martial arts 
  abilities, and increase his defenses by 10 PD and 
  10 ED. Add 5 to his Damage Resistance as well, 
  and add Mind Scan 15d6 at 0 END outside his 
  Multipower.  
  PLOT SEEDS 
   
   
   Life’s A Zoo:  
  Kanga hides out in the 
  local city zoo, and 
  mind controls the 
  staff into committing 
  robberies for him. 
  Hiding out with the 
  local Kangaroos, he 
  believes his disguise 
  to be impenetrable.  
   Hostile Takeover:  
  Kanga the Dominator 
  slowly manipulates 
  Doctor Brutallo into 
  doing his will, using 
  subtle mental 
  movements and 
  diversionary tactics. 
  Suddenly, Kanga is in 
  control of the 
  Alliance of Evil, and 
  Doctor Brutallo must 
  figure out a way to 
  wrest control back 
  from him.  
   Ru Invasion:  The 
  Ru invade Earth, and 
  Kanga comes to the 
  PCs for help. The 
  invasion must be 
  repelled, or Kanga 
  will be executed for 
  his crimes against the 
  Ru. He will not tell 
  them this part, of 
  course…. 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  57
  Kanga the Dominator 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  58 
  Kanga the Dominator 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   20 STR 
  10 13- Lift 400 kg, 4d6 HTH [2] 
   23 DEX 
  39 14- OCV:  8/DCV:  8 
   23 CON 
  26 14-  
   12 BODY 
  4 11-  
   23 INT 
  13 14- PER Roll:  14- 
   26 EGO 
  32 14- ECV:  9 
   15 PRE 
  5 12- PRE Attack:  3d6 
   10 COM 
  0 11- 
   
   20 PD 
  16 
   Total:  20 PD (10 rPD) 
   20 ED 
  15 
   Total:  20 ED (10 rED) 
   
  5 SPD 
  17 
   Phases:  3, 5, 8, 10, 12 
   10 REC 
  2 
    
   46 END 
  0 
    
   40 STUN 
  6 
    
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  185 
  Movement: Running: 
  11”/22” 
   
   
  Leaping: 
  10”/20” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   70 Mental Powers:  Multipower, 70-point 
  Reserve 
   7u Seizing the Mind:  Mind Control 12d6 
  (Human, Alien) 
  6 
   7u Burning the Mind:  Ego Attack 6d6 
  (Human, Alien) 
  6 
   7u Deceiving the Mind:  Mental Illusion 
  12d6 (Human, Alien) 
  6 
   27 Combat Precognition:  Danger Sense 
  14- (Personal, Out of Combat, Any 
  Danger); Flashed as a Mental Sense (-0) 0 
   10 Mental Protection:  Mental Defense 
  (15 total) 
  0 
   10 Tough Hide:  Damage Resistance (10 
  PD/10 ED) 
  0 
   10 Bouncy Legs:  Running +5” (11” 
  Total) 
  2 
   11 Bouncy Legs:  Leaping +6” (10” 
  Total), Accurate 
  2 
   
   
   Martial Arts:  Boxing 
   
   Maneuver OCV DCV Notes 
   
  4 Block 
  +2 
  +2 
  Block, Abort 
   
  3 Grab 
  -1 
  -1 
  2 Limbs, 40 
  STR 
   
  5 Hook 
  -2 
  +1 
  10d6 Strike 
   
  5 Jab 
  +1 
  +3 
  6d6 Strike 
   
  4 Punch   
  0 
  +2 
  8d6 Strike 
   
  8 +2 Damage Classes (added in) 
   
   Talents 
   20 Universal Translator 14- 
   
   Skills 
   
  3 Animal Handler (Kangaroos) 12- 
   
  3 Breakfall 14- 
   
  3 Combat Driving 14- 
   
  3 Combat Piloting (TF: Spaceships Free) 14- 
   
  3 Computer Programming 14- 
   
  3 Electronics 14- 
   
  3 Mechanics 14- 
   
  3 Navigation 14- 
   
  3 Oratory 14- 
   
  3 Persuasion 14- 
   
  3 Power (EGO-Based) 14- 
   
  3 Security Systems 14- 
   
  3 Tactics 14- 
   
  3 Teamwork 14- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  270 
   
  Total Cost:  455 
   
   200+ Disadvantages 
   20 Distinctive Features:  Kangaroo 
  Humanoid (Not Concealable, Major 
  Reaction) 
   20  Hunted:  UNTIL 8- (Mo Pow, NCI) 
   20  Hunted:  US Government 8- (Mo Pow, 
  NCI) 
   10  Physical Limitation:  No Opposable 
  Thumbs (Common, Frequently) 
   10  Psychological Limitation:  Driven to 
  Conquer the World (Common, Moderate) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  
  Overconfidence (Common, Strong) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Vengeful 
  (Common, Moderate) 
   10  Rivalry:  For Leadership with Doctor 
  Brutallo 
   20  Vulnerability:  2x STUN and BODY from 
  Magic (Uncommon) 
   115  Experience Points 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  455 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  59
  Atomicus, The Radioactive Man 
  Background:  Leonard Carlsen was a smalltime 
  thug in 1947 – the kind of smalltime thug who 
  made cheap talk but could never get anything 
  done. He had run out on his family; he couldn’t 
  trust his friends; and he had stolen three 
  thousand dollars of Big Frankie’s money. He 
  was leaving town to set up a new life somewhere 
  in New Mexico, where Big Frankie and his thugs 
  couldn’t find him.  
   
  Regrettably, Leonard also was not 
  particularly adept at covering his tracks, and Big 
  Frankie’s thugs trailed him into New Mexico, 
  always a step behind him. He finally noticed 
  them driving into a small gas station, and hurried 
  into the desert, the gunshots cracking behind 
  him, gas slowly leaking from the hole in the tank 
  as he drove into the sand dunes, heedless of the 
  signs warning of atomic testing.  
   
  Leonard chose that moment to look behind 
  him, as the bullets flew, and one caught the gas 
  tank again just as he vaulted over the edge of a 
  tall cliff, the car sailing downward, erupting in a 
  fireball in midair, the bright white light in the 
  distance signaling that some sort of radiation test 
  was being conducted. Big Frankie’s thugs 
  headed back the way they had come, intending to 
  report that Leonard Carlsen was dead.  
   
  But Leonard did not die…. 
   
   
  Leonard’s body hurtled through the air, dull 
  and limp as the radiation suffused his dying 
  body, filling it with power as his senses slowly 
  returned to consciousness, his eyes filled with 
  stark terror as he commanded his falling body to 
  stop. It did. Leonard could fly, and he was 
  surrounded by a reddish-hot field of blinding 
  energy. He flew down towards the retreating car, 
  laughing maniacally as he approached the 
  somewhat quiet men inside. 
   
  The men turned to look, the driver placing 
  his foot on the accelerator as the laughing, 
  glowing man closed in on them, wishing they 
  could drive faster than he could fly.  
   
  They had not driven far before Leonard 
  caught up with them…. 
   
  Leonard committed crimes throughout the 
  southwest for a while, robbing a bank here and 
  stealing a car there. He barely made enough 
  money to survive, and his money was running 
  out when Doctor Brutallo found him, asking him 
  to front an operation to steal the legendary 
  treasure of the City of Gold from its rightful 
  holders. It was better than the life he had, so he 
  joined Doctor Brutallo’s Alliance of Evil, 
  becoming Atomicus, the Radioactive Man. 
   
  Leonard never did see any of the money, 
  though he knows that Doctor Brutallo holds it in 
  a secret location, to mint the currency he will 
  need to keep the world running. Leonard figured 
  as long as he stuck with Doctor Brutallo, he has 
  a bright future in the New World Order.  
   
  Such was not to be, however. Leonard and 
  his compatriots were cornered by the Super Six 
  deep in South Virginia, as Doctor Brutallo was 
  about to activate his Seismotron, and crumble the 
  country beneath a wave of earthquakes. Leonard 
  was placed in suspended animation with his 
  comrades, hopefully never to be freed from 
  captivity, buried deep in the New Mexico atomic 
  testing area that first created him… 
   
  Quote:  “Shut yer yap! Yer lookin’ at Atomicus. 
  Dat’s Right, Atomicus! The Radioactive Man! 
  Now yer gonna Fry!” 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  Atomicus is a rather powerful 
  man without much education. He is a good team 
  player because Doctor Brutallo has trained him 
  to respond tactically to situations. His radiation 
  field can be shut off if it suddenly presents a 
  danger to his own team. Left to his own devices, 
  he simply blasts away at the weakest opponents 
  he can, trying to cause as much harm with his 
  radiation powers as possible.  
   
  Appearance:  Atomicus is the most colorful of 
  the Alliance of Evil. He wears a bright red 
  costume with a greenish visor, spiked gauntlets 
  and spiked shoulder epaulets. He has a bright red 
  belt with a shiny “A” etched across it, and the 
  helmet shows most of his jaw and mouth. He 
  sports a bright red cape that trails behind him, 
  down to his knees. There is a large biohazard 
  symbol on the chest of the red costume, and the 
  gauntlets and shoulder epaulets, as well as his 
  boots, are a sickly medium olive color.  
   
  Note:  This costume is very similar to the 
  costume on the cover of the first Champions 
  Rulebook from 1981. This is intentional. 
  PLOT SEEDS 
   
   
   Mutation 
  Madness:  Another 
  villainous scientist 
  kidnaps Atomicus in 
  order to mutate his 
  minions into 
  something else by 
  bathing them in the 
  radiation field of the 
  Dastardly Villain! 
  Doctor Brutallo tells 
  the heroes, in the 
  hope that they will 
  track down Atomicus 
  and save him from an 
  awful fate. 
   Revenge of the 
  Radioactive Man:  
  Atomicus has 
  discovered that Big 
  Frankie has 
  descendants living in 
  the heroes’ campaign 
  city, who still have 
  mafia ties. Atomicus 
  attacks these people, 
  trying to erase them 
  for trying to kill him 
  over fifty years ago. 
  The Mafia retaliates, 
  and the Alliance of 
  Evil retaliates against 
  the Mafia. All out 
  battles ensue!  
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  60 
  Atomicus, The Radioactive Man 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  61
  Atomicus, The Radioactive Man 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   20 STR 
  10 13- Lift 400 kg, 4d6 HTH [2] 
   23 DEX 
  39 14- OCV:  8/DCV:  8 
   33 CON 
  46 16-  
   15 BODY 
  10 12- 
   10 INT 
  0 11- PER Roll:  11- 
   15  EGO 
  10 12- ECV:  5 
   20 PRE 
  10 13- PRE Attack:  4d6 
   12 COM 
  1 11- 
   
   
  5 PD 
  1 
   Total:  20 PD (15 rPD) 
   19 ED 
  12 
   Total:  34 ED (15 rED) 
   
  5 SPD 
  17 
   Phases:  3, 5, 8, 10, 12 
   14 REC 
  6 
   
   66 END 
  0 
   
   45 STUN 
  3 
   
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  165 
  Movement: Running: 
  6”/12” 
   
   
  Flying: 
  18”/288” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   22 Radioactive Energy:  Elemental Control 
  (44-point Powers) 
   23 1)  Force Field:  Force Field (15 PD/15 
  ED), Reduced Endurance (0 END, +½) 0 
   42 2)  Flight:  Flight 18”, 16x Noncombat 
  Multiplier, Reduced Endurance (½ 
  END, +¼) 
  2 
   53 3)  Radioactive Wasting:  Drain REC 
  and STUN 2d6, Continuous (+1), 
  Damage Shield (+½), Reduced 
  Endurance (0 END, +½), Persistent 
  (+½), Inherent (+¼) 
  0 
   
   75 Radiation:  Multipower, 75-point 
  Reserve 
   7u 1)  Beam:  EB 12d6, Reduced 
  Endurance (½ END, +¼) 
  3 
   7u 2)  Blast:  RKA 4d6, Reduced 
  Endurance (½ END, +¼) 
  3 
   7u 3)  Bang:  Flash vs Sight and Hearing 
  Groups 10d6, Reduced Endurance (½ 
  END, +¼) 
  3 
   7u 4)  Bomb:  Drain STUN 3d6, Ranged 
  (+½), Explosion (-1 DC per 2”, +¾), 
  Reduced Endurance (½ END, +¼) 
  3 
   10 Radioactive Shielding:  Power Defense, 
  10 points 
  0 
   10 Radioactive Shielding:  Sight Group 
  Flash Defense, 10 points 
  0 
   
   Skills 
   
  8 +1 with All Combat 
   
  3 +1 with Multipower 
   
  6 +2 versus Range Penalties 
   
   
  3 Animal Handler 13-  
   
  3 Interrogation 14- 
   
  3 Power (EGO-Based) 12- 
   
  3 Stealth 14- 
   
  3 Streetwise 13- 
   
  3 Teamwork 14- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  298 
   
  Total Cost:  463 
   
   200+ Disadvantages 
   10 Distinctive Features:  Radioactive (Easily 
  Concealable, Major Reaction) 
   25 Enraged:  when Wounded/Takes BODY 
  (Uncommon), go 11-, recover 11-, 
  Berserk 
   20 Hunted:  UNTIL 8- (Mo Pow, NCI) 
   20 Hunted:  US Government 8- (Mo Pow, 
  NCI) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Overconfident 
  (Common, Strong) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Hatred of US 
  Government (Common, Strong) 
   30 Vulnerability:  1½x STUN and BODY 
  From Lead Attacks (Common) 
   128 Experience Points 
   
  Total Disadvantage Points:  463 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  62 
  The Armageddon Mind 
  Original Concept Geoff Depew 
  Background:  Jacob Cosmovich was a 
  speechwriter, a pamphleteer trying to save the 
  world from Communism in the late 1940s. His 
  writing was not terribly inspirational, and in the 
  postwar atmosphere, the Russians were still 
  friends to the United States. Looking for people 
  who shared his views of facing down the 
  Communist threat, he found very few takers, and 
  he fell upon hard times. 
   
  Using the last of his savings, he put an ad in 
  the newspaper, as his last few pamphlets failed to 
  sell, collecting dust on bookstore shelves, 
  advertising for a speechwriter. Unfortunately for 
  Jacob, it was Doctor Brutallo who answered his 
  ad. Doctor Brutallo did not need a speechwriter. 
  However, Doctor Brutallo needed a brain. In 
  Jacob, he had found the right sort of brain he 
  needed. 
   
  Jacob didn’t make a sound as his body 
  slumped to the floor, and Brutallo carried him 
  from the building where they met. He didn’t make 
  a sound on the operating table, as his life slipped 
  away from him, his girlfriend, his car, his tiny life. 
  It all seemed so insignificant now. When Jacob 
  awoke, he felt strange, different. He tried to look 
  around, but it felt like he was looking out of a 
  television camera at Doctor Brutallo, a man who 
  was supposed to only exist in comic books. 
   
  Jacob listened to Doctor Brutallo, for in his 
  new body, at the side of Doctor Brutallo, he 
  would fight communism as no one ever had. 
  Jacob turned to look at himself in the mirror, and 
  he was impressed. Whereas, before he had been a 
  weak, scrawny individual, now his brain was 
  encased in a massive robot body, a titanic metal 
  saucer with retractable legs and ten tentacle arms. 
  Whereas before, he had to struggle to get a 
  girlfriend, now he could simply take any woman 
  he wanted. Jacob decided to test his new abilities, 
  and together, with the rest of the Alliance of Evil, 
  they stormed a drive-in theatre and made 
  everyone flee in panic. Jacob was christened The 
  Armageddon Mind, the newest member of the 
  Alliance of Evil. 
   
  Jacob worships Doctor Brutallo, for Doctor 
  Brutallo had taken him away from an unhappy life 
  and made him one of the most powerful 
  supervillains on Earth. Clearly, Doctor Brutallo’s 
  brilliant mind had made Jacob a better person. 
  Clearly, Doctor Brutallo was best suited for ruling 
  the Earth, precisely as he had explained. Clearly, 
  the brain transplant had driven poor Jacob mad, 
  for he was Jacob Cosmovich no longer. He was 
  simply The Armageddon Mind.  
   
  The Armageddon Mind was placed in a 
  suspension chamber somewhere underneath 
  Wyoming, where, the Super Six prayed, no one 
  would ever discover its whereabouts.  
  Quote:  “You who stare at my horrifying 
  appearance, know that it is the will of Doctor 
  Brutallo, the greatest genius ever to walk the 
  Earth, and future ruler of the world! Now, my 
  beauty, you shall reside forever at the side of The 
  Armageddon Mind!” 
   
  Powers/Tactics:  The Armageddon Mind is a 
  slow, ponderous engine of destruction. It lumbers 
  forward, and tries to destroy anything Doctor 
  Brutallo orders it to, except women, which it tries 
  to capture and collect. Doctor Brutallo has tried to 
  cure it of this habit, however, everything he has 
  tried has failed. The Armageddon Mind is easily 
  the most powerful member of the Alliance of Evil 
  in a fight, though it often spends lots of time 
  expounding on why Doctor Brutallo should rule 
  the world. This irritates Atomicus greatly. Note 
  that the Armageddon Mind does not have any idea 
  what to do with the women it collects. Sometimes, 
  in the middle of combat, the Armageddon Mind 
  will pause to place one of its Why Doctor Brutallo 
  Should Rule The World pamphlets on the body of 
  a defeated foe.  
   
  Appearance:  The Armageddon Mind is a nine-
  foot tall saucer shaped robot with four extendable 
  legs, rocket pods, and a central brain surrounded 
  by cameras, floating in a liquid preservation gel. 
  Sliding doors on the rotating saucer reveal various 
  weapon ports and long mechanical tentacles, 
  ending in various claw and hand shapes. It is a 
  highly disturbing creation. If knocked out, the 
  creature slumps to the ground, unmoving. 
  Attempts to dismantle the Armageddon Mind in 
  the past have proved fruitless, as they would 
  clearly kill the brain inside.  
   
  Campaign Use:  In lower-powered campaigns, 
  remove The Armageddon Mind’s Damage 
  Reduction, add 5 points of raw PD and ED, and 
  reduce the Multipower to 60 Active Points. 
  Remove one Combat Skill Level, and remove the 
  Hardening from its defenses.  
   
  In higher-powered games, increase the 
  Armageddon Mind’s Damage Reduction to ¾ 
  Resistant to Physical and Energy, and add 10 
  points of Physical and Resistant Energy Defense. 
  Doubly Harden its PD and ED, and increase the 
  Multipower to 120 Active Points. Increase the 
  SPD of the Armageddon Mind to 6, and its DEX 
  to 20. Add 4 more levels with OCV for its main 
  weapons systems.  
  PLOT SEEDS 
   
   
   Rallying Point:  
  The Armageddon 
  Mind takes over a 
  printing press, in an 
  attempt to replace the 
  main character of 
  every novel with 
  Doctor Brutallo. (The 
  Armageddon Mind is 
  not a great planner.) If 
  The Armageddon 
  Mind isn’t stopped, 
  this leads to novels 
  like The Secret Affair 
  of Doctor Brutallo 
  and self-help books 
  like Cooking 
  Malaysian With 
  Doctor Brutallo.  
   False Mind:  
  Doctor Brutallo sends 
  The Armageddon 
  Mind on a rampage, 
  but when the 
  characters get there 
  and fight it, The 
  Armageddon Mind is 
  a pale imitation of its 
  usual self. Where is 
  the real Armageddon 
  Mind, and what is 
  Doctor Brutallo up 
  to? 
   
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  63
  The Armageddon Mind 
  
  DIGITAL HERO #15 
   
  64 
  The Armageddon Mind 
   Val Char Cost Roll Notes 
   80 STR 
  70 25- 1600 tons, 16d6 HTH [8] 
   18 DEX 
  24 13- OCV:  6/DCV:  6(4) 
   30 CON 
  40 15-   
   15 BODY 
  4 12-  
   10 INT 
  0 11- PER Roll:  11- 
   15 EGO 
  10 12- ECV:  5 
   25 PRE 
  15 14- PRE Attack:  5d6 
   
  4 COM 
  -3 10-  
   
   20 PD 
  4 
   Total:  20 PD (20 rPD) 
   20 ED 
  12 
   Total:  20 ED (20 rED) 
   
  4 SPD 
  12 
   Phases:  3, 6, 9, 12 
   22 REC 
  0 
    
   60 END 
  0 
     
   60 STUN 
  5 
   
   
  Total Characteristics Cost:  172 
  Movement: Running: 
  20”/40” 
   
   
  Flying: 
  20”/640” 
   
   
  Leaping: 
  12”/24” 
   
   
  Swimming: 2”/4” 
  Cost Powers 
  END 
   75 Weapons Systems:  Multipower (75-
  point Reserve) 
   7u 1)  Armageddon Missiles:  RKA 5d6, 4 
  Charges (-1) 
  [4] 
   7u 2)  Protonic Ray:  EB 12d6, Reduced 
  Endurance (½ END, +¼) 
  3 
   5u 3)  Mindwave Ray:  EGO Attack 3d6, 
  Explosion (-1 DC per 3”, +1), Reduced 
  Endurance (½ END, +¼); Based On 
  DEX (-½) 
  3 
   7u 4)  Sonic Ray:  EB 6d6, NND (Defense 
  is Hard Ear Coverings or Hearing Flash 
  Defense, +1), Reduced Endurance (0 
  END, +½) 
  0 
   5u 5)  Synth-Gel of Doctor Brutallo:  
  Entangle, 8 DEF, 4d6 BODY; 8 
  Charges (-½) 
  [8] 
   60 Robotic Body:  50% Damage 
  Reduction, Physical and Energy, 
  Resistant 
  0 
   25 Robotic Body:  Damage Resistance, 20 
  PD, 20 ED, Hardened (+¼) 
  0 
   10 Robotic Body:  Hardened PD and ED 
  0 
   10 Robotic Body:  Mental Defense, 13 
  points 
  0 
   10 Robotic Weight:  Knockback 
  Resistance -5” 
  0 
   60 Rocket Pods:  Flight 20”, 32x 
  Noncombat Multiplier 
  4 
   28 Robot Legs:  Running +14” (20” Total) 4 
   
  5 Robot Limbs:  Extra Limbs (Up to 14, 
  10 Arms, 4 Legs) 
  0 
   
   Skills 
   16 +2 with All Combat 
   
   
  3 KS: Why Doctor Brutallo Must Rule 
  the World 11- 
   
  3 Power 11- 
   
  3 PS: Composer 11- 
   
  3 PS: Musician 11- 
   
  3 PS: Pamphleteer 11- 
   
  3 Teamwork 13- 
   
  Total Powers & Skills Cost:  330 
   
  Total Cost:  502 
   
   200+ Disadvantages 
   25 Distinctive Feature:  Brain in a Robot 
  Body (Not Concealable, Causes Horror) 
   20 Hunted:  UNTIL 8- (Mo Pow, NCI) 
   20 Hunted:  US Government 8- (Mo Pow, 
  NCI) 
   
   
   Physical Limitation:  Large (16x Mass, -2 
  DCV, -4” Leap) 
   
   
   15 Psychological Limitation:  Covets Women 
  and Collects Them (Common, Strong) 
   20 Psychological Limitation:  Loyal to 
  Doctor Brutallo (Common, Total) 
   15 Psychological Limitation:  
  Overconfidence in Doctor Brutallo 
  (Common, Strong) 
   30 Vulnerability: 1½x STUN and BODY 
  from Electricity (Common) 
   211 Experience Points 
   
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Hero System/DIGITAL_HERO/Hero System - Digital Hero 15.pdf