Super-Vision #8: Masterminds & Minions

In this month's installment of Super-Vision we take a look at minions, those unsung (and usually unappreciated) flunkies of criminal masterminds. In particular, we've got a new power for getting minions into play, along with some of the most infamous minions of the Freedom City setting, the foot soldiers of the Lord of the Terminus, the Omegadrones.

New Power: Summon Minion

Cost: 2
Action: Half
Range: Touch
Duration: Sustained

You can call upon another creature—a minion—to aid you. This creature is created as an independent character with (rank x 15) power points. Summoned minions are subject to the normal power level limits, and cannot have minions themselves.

You can summon your minion to you automatically as a half action; it appears in the nearest open space beside you. You always have the same type of minion unless you apply extras allowing you to summon different minions (see below). Your minion automatically has a helpful attitude and does its best to aid you and obey your commands.

Unconscious and dead minions disappear. Defeated minions recover normally except they recovery from death as if disabled. You cannot summon a defeated minion until it has completely recovered. Your summoned minions also vanish if your power is turned off or neutralized.

Power Stunts

• Progression: Each time you apply this stunt, the total number of minions you can summon doubles. You can still only summon one minion per half action.
• Mental Link: You have a mental link with your minions, allowing you to communicate with them over any distance.
• Sacrifice Minion: When you are hit with an effect requiring a saving throw, you can spend a hero point to shift it to one of your minions instead. The minion must be within range and a viable target of the effect. Needless to say, this is not a particularly heroic ability. The Gamemaster may wish to restrict it to villains or non-player characters.

Extras

• Heroic: Your minions are not subject to the minion rules, but treated like normal non-player characters.
• Horde: You can summon all of your minions with one half action. You must have the Progression power stunt to take this extra.
• Type: Minions are generally the same in terms of attributes. For one extra, you can summon minions of a general type (elementals, birds, fish, etc.), for two extras, you can summon minions of a broad type (animals, demons, humanoids, etc.).

Flaws

• Attitude: Your summoned minions are less than cooperative. For one flaw, they are indifferent. They are unfriendly for two flaws, and hostile for three.

Agents of Omega

In the depths of the Terminus, on worlds dominated by Omega, massive drone factories work day and night with one purpose: the strengthen the ranks of Omega's army by creating Omegadrones. Many initially believe these factories manufacture artificial soldiers for the Lord of the Terminus, but in truth, they are where living creatures are "processed" to become Omegadrones.

When the work is done, an Omegadrone is a hulking humanoid figure clad in armor from head to toe. Stubby metallic wings protrude from the drone's back, and Omegadrone armor is equipped to allow them to fly (albeit slowly and clumsily). More feared are their power-pikes, the tips crackling with energy, which Omegadrones use to cut or blast through their targets, or to inflict agony at their master's command.

The process of creating an Omegadrone wipes the subject's mind clean and alters the body with cybernetics and genetic resequencing. The individual is destroyed, becoming another in an endless series of obedient soldiers knowing only loyalty to the Lord of the Terminus, and a willingness to fight and die as they are commanded.

Omegadrones make up the bulk of Omega's forces. During the Terminus Invasion, wave after wave of them attacked Freedom City, and there is no one who wouldn't recognize them now. A few scattered Omegadrones were left behind when the invasion failed. While heroes have rounded up most of them, some have fallen in with other criminals, seeking either a way to return home or a new master to obey. For a time, a rogue Omegadrone worked for the Freedom City mob until Foreshadow defeated and captured it.

Omegadrone: PL 5*; Init +0; Defense 14; Spd 30 ft. (fly 25 ft.); Atk +6 melee (+9S power-pike), +3 ranged (+5S power-pike); SV Dmg +3, Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +0; Str 18, Dex 11, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 8.

Feats: Aerial Combat, Attack Focus (power-pike)

Devices: armor (Armor +5; Extras: Flight; Stunts: Darkvision, Immunity (pressure, suffocation), Radio Hearing), power-pike (Weapon +5; Stunt: Energy Blast)

*Although Omegadrones are effectively PL5, they are built on fewer power points.

Product Update

Gimmick's Guide to Gadgets has headed off to print, while the Lockdown super-prison sourcebook is finished in editing and warming up in the wings. Let's take a look at what's coming:

Lockdown is a sourcebook on the Buckner Ridge Superhuman Penitentiary, commonly known as "Lockdown," a private contract prison for super-powered criminals. It gives you everything you need to place Lockdown in your campaign and customize it to suit.

Chapter One of the book is a history of the prison system in the United States and the challenges faced by modern prisons, including overcrowding, gangs, executions, bribery, and an increasing trend towards privatization, which leads to the world's first privately-run prison for the most dangerous criminals in the world, those with super-powers.

Chapter Two looks at Lockdown in detail: the layout and structure of the prison, classification of prisoners (based on their powers), security systems (and the ways around them), the layout of the cell blocks, and the various systems used to restrain prisoners' powers.

Chapter Three is all about life behind bars. What is it like to be a prisoner in Lockdown? This chapter describes a prisoner's daily routine, the rules they must follow, and the realities of prison life. It also describes the administration and staff of the prison.

Chapter Four looks at the inhabitants of Lockdown, both inmates and the people who guard them. It describes the powered members of the Special Operations Unit, charged with keeping prisoners in line. It also looks at numerous inmates, from hardened criminals like Skab to masterminds like Duke Nefarious, fallen heroes like the Golden Marvel, criminals on the road to reform like the Hexorcist, and cases like Blackcroft and the Wight Bishop, where even Lockdown may not be enough to contain them and the powers they wield. This chapter also includes an overview of some villains from Freedom City and Crooks! and how you can put them in Lockdown.

Chapter Five is all about gamemastering Lockdown, from using the prison as a place for the heroes to put captured criminals to the centerpiece of a campaign where the players take the roles of imprisoned super-villains or heroes working under-cover to find out more about the prison. This chapter is filled with campaign and adventure ideas for Lockdown and incorporating it into your campaign.

Chapter Six contains the real secret of Lockdown, which could literally blow the prison wide open if and when it's uncovered. What is it? Just wait and see...

Chapter Seven looks at the town of Buckner Ridge, located in the mountains close to the prison. The construction and opening of Lockdown saved the former mining-town's economy. Its continued operation provides jobs and income, but is it worth the price of having the world's most dangerous convicts in your backyard? Buckner Ridge is detailed as a location for off-duty prison officials, as well as the first place that will be in danger is something should go wrong in the prison.

We'll have more previews of Lockdown as things progress. For now, villains beware! There's a new prison open for business, and it's not a place you want to visit.

Superlink Spotlight: The 'Zine Scene

This month in Superlink Spotlight we look at some online periodicals supporting Mutants & Masterminds. The first is Odds & Ends from Devil's Workshop, available at RPGNow. It's a monthly 8-page e-zine featuring new ideas for your M&M campaigns. O&E tends to focus on team-oriented concepts, along with miscellaneous rules systems that plug into the game to expand your options. Each issue sells for $2.00 in PDF form, and a yearly subscription is available from Devil's Workshop: $13.00 for an entire year (pro-rated if your subscription begins after January).

The newest M&M e-zine is the fanzine Super Samurai, available for download as a PDF from the E-CORE fan website (www.e-core-news.org). The first issue of Super Samurai presents a variety of M&M articles, including designing creatures, playing villains, pulp-era archetypes, and game stats for the fiendish devices of a certain iron-masked ruler of a tiny Eastern European country (a great complement to Gimmick's Guide to Gadgets). The 'zine also includes a comprehensive catalog of all available M&M and M&M Superlink products! Plus you definitely can't beat the price: it's free!