The Midwest Avengers

[blackwingedheaven]

I ran a Marvel game set in the early 80s last summer, called The Midwest Avengers! The premise was that at the same time the West Coast Avengers were established, Vision and Scarlet Witch also started up an Avengers team for the central United States, based out of Chicago. It was thoroughly soaked in 80s culture and we all had a blast. They fought the Hulk, saved Chicago from faux!Cthulhu, battled the Mob, and even got Luke Cage to swear at them.

A little while back, I updated all of the characters to MHR (the original campaign used M&M 2E) and posted them on rpg.net. I figured I would go ahead and post them up over here as well, what with there being an entire subforum for datafiles. =3

I'll post them up at one per post so that they don't blur together or anything. As a sort of index, here's the team roster:

G-Force: Gravity-controlling inventor and team leader.
The White Queen: Alien monarch of a tide-locked planet.
Deadly Nightshade: Pheromone-controlling local girl with a big secret
One-Eyed Jack: The luckiest man alive, he once beat Death at a game of dice
Mentor: Telepath and poster boy for mutant rights

[blackwingedheaven]

The White Queen (Vandana, Queen of Frostopia)

Vandana is a member of the noble family of Frostopia, the mighty nation that covers the night side of her tide-locked homeworld, Zatrikion. Long ago, the Frostopians were locked in eternal war with their day side neighbors, the nation of Thermopylea. The war drained so many resources that eventually the two sides were forced to find a less violent solution to their problems. Aggression and competition were part of the Zatrikion way, however; the solution they found was not peaceful coexistence, but rather a regimented and highly ritualized conflict between a limited number of foes. This battle was held once a generation to determine which side would hold dominance until the next contest.

The most recent dominion war was chosen to be held on Earth, a distant planet noted for its high concentration of empowered individuals. Each of the contestants was given a personal retinue and an honor guard, and then were sent to Earth to settle their fight. Vandana has quickly (if occasionally uncomfortably) settled into the role of superhero under her formal title: The White Queen. She currently serves with the Midwest Avengers as a member of the team, though she has frequent personality clashes with them because of her imperious and often cold demeanor.

The people of Zatrikion look mostly human, though they tend toward extreme colorations and solid-colored eyes. Vandana’s hair is platinum-blond and her eyes are orbs of solid icy-blue. Her pale skin is almost the same color as the white, fur-lined corset that forms the centerpiece of her costume. The outfit is accentuated by elbow-length ice-blue gloves and thigh-high ice-blue boots. Vandana wears a fur-trimmed white cloak with a hood for formal occasions. She has only recently begun wearing Earth clothes and prefers outfits that reveal the maximum amount of skin—not out of a desire to titillate, but because she finds Earth’s climate far too warm for anything else.

Buddy d10, Solo d8, Team d6

Distinctions
•Queen of an Alien World
•Chess Mistress
•Cold-Hearted Bitch

Frostopian Nobility
•Cold Blast d8, Cold Control d8, Enhanced Stamina d8, Flight d6
•SFX: Create Ice. Add a d6 and step up effect die to create ice-based assets.
•SFX: Icy Sheath. Add a d6 and step up the effect die to inflict snared, immobile, imprisoned, or slippery conditions.
•SFX: Immunity. Spend 1 PP to ignore stress or trauma from cold.
•Limit: Conscious Activation. If stressed out, asleep, or unconscious, shutdown Frostopian Nobility. Recover when stress is recovered or you awake.
•Limit: Heat Exhaustion. Shutdown Enhanced Stamina after being affected by a fire attack and gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

Chess Minions
•Minions (Duplication) d8, Enhanced Durability d8, Enhanced Strength d8
•SFX: Pawn Gambit. Target multiple opponents. For every additional target, add d6 to your pool and keep +1 effect die.
•SFX: Queen’s Castle. Spend 1 PP to ignore physical stress or trauma unless caused by an area attack.
•SFX: Promotion. Shutdown Chess Minions to create a single ally asset under your control. This ally counts as an additional hero for purposes of determining your Affiliation status. You gain the Promoted Pawn d8 asset for the remainder of the scene. At the end of the scene, the asset ends and the power set recovers.
•Limit: Illegal Move. Earn 1 PP if you have Chess Minions shutdown for the remainder of the scene.

Specialties:
•Political Master d10
•Psych Expert d8
•Tech Expert d8


Battle for the Throne
1 XP the first time you face the forces of the Red Queen in battle.
3 XP when you defeat one of the Red Queen’s major servants, or the first time you face the Red Queen herself in battle, regardless of the outcome.
10 XP when you defeat the Red Queen in battle and become the ruler of your homeworld, or are defeated and accept exile on Earth.

Chessmaster’s Gambit
1 XP when you first inflict physical stress on an enemy with your Chess Minions power set.
3 XP when you engage in a confrontation with another hero regarding your use of your Specialties and your action or reaction total makes you the victor.
10 XP when you turn your Chess Minions against another hero in the midst of a battle, or when you defeat a foe using a roll including one of your Specialties or an asset generated by them.

[blackwingedheaven]

G-Force (Dr. Lorentz Lang)

Lorentz Lang is the greatest unknown scientific mind in the modern world. He attended college with Henry Pym, exchanged scientific letters with Reed Richards, and drank with Tony Stark—all of which gained him nothing when his first attempt at building a corporate think-tank failed completely due to his lack of business acumen and people skills. While battling a deep depression, Dr. Lang moved into his deceased father’s house and converted the garage into a crude laboratory. Rather than succumb to his despair, he threw himself into his work on theoretical energy models and night school for business administration.

After five years of scrounging parts and living off his savings, Dr. Lang finally had a breakthrough on gravity manipulation technology. The recent revelation of Iron Man as Tony Stark and Henry Pym as Giant-Man filled Dr. Lang with jealousy for their wealth and fame. Rather than become a villain, however, he fell back on his strong moral center to become a costumed hero. As G-Force, Dr. Lang has protected the Chicago area for much of the last year, making him a natural choice to lead the newly-formed Midwest Avengers. Still, Dr. Lang has some personal problems—not the least of which is his burning desire to show up all the people who “slighted” him.

Dr. Lang is a middle-aged man with thinning blonde hair and a weak chin. His hazel eyes are unfocused without his glasses and his clothes are inevitably rumpled and messy. His preference is for plain button-up shirts and slacks. When he wants to make an impression he wears a tie, but he can never quite get it on straight.

Team d10, Solo d8, Buddy d6

Distinctions
•I’m an Engineer, Not a Physicist
•Number Two, So I Try Harder
•Three-Dimensional Thinker

Powered Armor
•Cybernetic Senses d6, Superhuman Durability d10, Superhuman Strength d10
•SFX: Boost. Shutdown highest-rated Powered Armor or Gravitic Energy Converter power to step up another Powered Armor power by +1. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.
•Limit: Power Surge. Shutdown highest-rated power to gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. the doom pool to recover.

Gravitic Energy Converter
•Gravitic Blast d8, Gravity Control d8, Subsonic Flight d8, Telekinesis d8
•SFX: Area Attack. Target multiple opponents. For every additional target, add d6 to your poor and keep +1 effect die.
•SFX: Overcharge. Step up or double Gravitic Blast on your next roll, or spend 1 PP to do both, then shutdown Gravitic Blast. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.
•Limit: Charged System. Shutdown highest-rated power and gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

Specialties
•Business Expert d8
•Science Expert d8
•Tech Master d10
•Vehicle Expert d8

Bitter Business Rivals
1 XP when you declare another known character to be a business rival.
3 XP when you inflict trauma on your rival’s assets.
10 XP when you forgive your rival and forge an alliance with them, or you utterly destroy their business interests.

Garage-Built Supertech
1 XP when you first shutdown a power.
3 XP when you shutdown all the powers in one of your power sets in a single scene.
10 XP when you choose to abandon your armor to focus on your business life, or defeat a villain with all powers shutdown.

[blackwingedheaven]

One-Eyed Jack (Jack Taylor)

Jack Taylor was a professional gambler living the high life in Las Vegas until he cleaned out a mob-owned casino. The casino’s owner had a little “discussion” with Jack that involved dragging him out to the Mojave Desert, beating him almost to death, gouging out his right eye, and tossing him into a half-dug grave fifty miles from civilization. As he lay there dying, Jack had a vision of a skeletal woman dressed in black coming to claim his life. Jack did the only thing he could think to do: he challenged her to a game of chance, with his soul as the stakes. He won back his life, and in doing so became a nexus for the universal forces of luck and chance.

After walking out of the Mojave Desert in the middle of a freak rainstorm, Jack became the scourge of the Las Vegas underworld. He would roll into a casino, bankrupt them, and slip out before the goons could figure out how their guns had gotten jammed or their shoelaces tied together. When things got too heated out West, he cruised toward Chicago and got involved with fighting the long-entrenched Mafia families in the heart of their power. The Vision offered him a chance to do so as part of a team, though joining the Avengers is a decision he’s still not entirely comfortable with.

Jack is a tall blonde man, clean-shaven and prone to wearing light linen business suits. He wears an eyepatch over his missing eye; the patch is decorated with a stylized poker diamond. As One-Eyed Jack, he keeps the patch but hides his lower face with a garish green-and-purple bandana and replaces the business suit with the garb of a Tarot-deck Fool.

Solo d10, Buddy d8, Team d6

Distinctions
•Lucky Devil
•Let the Dice Fall Where They May
•High Roller

Devil’s Own Luck
•Enemy Mishap (Blast) d6, Enhanced Durability d8, Enhanced Reflexes d8, Luck Mastery d10
•SFX: Lucky Miss. Spend 1 PP to ignore physical stress or physical trauma unless caused by area attacks.
•SFX: Second Chance. Spend 1 PP to reroll when using any Devil’s Own Luck power.
•Limit: Fortune’s Fool. Shutdown Devil’s Own Luck to gain 1 PP. Recover by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

Specialties
•Covert Expert d8
•Crime Expert d8
•Vehicle Expert d8

Throw the Dice
1 XP the first time you shutdown Devil’s Own Luck.
3 XP when you defeat an enemy while using your Solo affiliation.
10 XP when you start a fight while Solo and immediately shutdown Devil’s Own Luck but win anyway, or when you become stressed out while using your Solo affiliation and Devil’s Own Luck is active.

Taking Down the Mob
1 XP when you first fight against a servant of a Mafia cartel.
3 XP when you take down a Mafia lieutenant.
10 XP when you either break the back of a major Mafia family, or assume control of it as its new don.

[blackwingedheaven]

Deadly Nightshade (Lia Yancy)

Lia Yancy is a half-Hmong girl from the greater Chicago area. Her father fought in the Vietnam War, and her mother was a Hmong fighter helping the American forces against the Communists. From a young age, Lia showed the rebelliousness of both of her parents, and it was only a matter of time before she fell in with a bad crowd. During one of her gang’s outings, she wound up being exposed to a chemical spill that made her very sick—but when she was well, she discovered that she had gained amazing powers! She swore off her former associates and decided to use her newfound powers to help people, which eventually led to her being asked to join the Midwest Avengers.

All of that would be quite heartwarming if it were true. Unfortunately, while Lia’s parents are who she says they are, the rest of it is a convenient lie. Lia was a member of a Hmong street gang at age fifteen when her powers first developed—the power to extrude bone spurs from her elbows and fists, and to exude powerful chemical suggestions with her pheromones. Lia was a mutant. She left home immediately after discovering her powers and fell in with a Chicago-based branch of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants before realizing how dangerous they were.

In an effort to fake her own death she arranged to be at a chemical factory explosion she knew was in the works, but instead wound up helping save people from the blast instead of carrying through with her plan. The Vision and Scarlet Witch were present for the incident and were impressed by her altruism. They agreed to hide her true origins in exchange for her presence on the new Avengers team they were putting together. Lia agreed and took on the codename Deadly Nightshade, though she lives in constant fear of her teammates finding out about her former involvement with terrorists as well as the possibility of the public discovering that she’s a mutant.

Lia is a pretty half-Asian girl with long brown hair and striking violet eyes. Her preferred casual dress is a leather jacket over the latest urban chic—usually off-the-shoulder T-shirts, leather pants or acid-washed jeans, and lots of chains. Lia’s costume as Deadly Nightshade is a green-and-purple sleeveless bodysuit with thigh-high black boots, fingerless black gloves, and a facemask that leaves her hair and mouth exposed, along with a dark green waist sash.

Solo d10, Team d8, Buddy d6

Distinctions
•Street Smart
•Comfortable Liar
•Flirting with Darkness

Pheromone Controlling Mutant
•Enhanced Durability d8, Enhanced Stamina d8, Emotion Control d8, Poison Touch d8, Psychic Resistance d8
•SFX: Bone Spurs. Add a d6 to your dice pool for an attack action and step back the highest die in your pool by –1. Step up physical stress inflicted by +1.
•SFX: Pheromone Cloud. Target multiple opponents with your Emotion Control power. For every additional target, add d6 to your poor and keep +1 effect die.
•SFX: Poison Immunity. Spend 1 PP to ignore stress, trauma or complications from poison or chemical-based attacks.
•SFX: Unleashed. Step up or double any Pheromone Controlling Mutant power for one action. If the action fails, add a die to the doom pool equal to the normal rating of the power die.
•Limit: Mutant. Earn 1 PP when affected by Mutant-specific Milestones and tech.

Specialties
•Acrobatic Expert d8
•Crime Expert d8
•Menace Expert d8
•Psych Expert d8

Troubled Past
1 XP when someone from your past shows up.
3 XP when your past associate asks you for a favor and you agree.
10 XP when you either reveal the truth about your past to your teammates to avoid doing something morally questionable, or when you commit a crime to hide your past from them.

Mutant Liberation
1 XP when you first engage in a conversation about mutants without admitting that you are one.
3 XP when you first deny that you are a mutant to your teammates or in public.
10 XP when you either admit that you are a mutant publicly, or when you leave the team to avoid questions about your origins.

[blackwingedheaven]

Mentor (Jacob Stephens)

Jake Stephens is a mutant success story. Born to middle-class mixed-race parents in New Hampshire, Jake was already living in a tolerant, accepting environment when his powers first started manifesting shortly before puberty. His parents consulted several experts about what they could do for their son, but the most appealing offer was a scholarship to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, which had a reputation for guiding special children on their path to adulthood. Jake spent four years at the school, mastering his telepathic abilities under the guidance of such luminaries as Charles Xavier, Jean Grey, and Betsy Braddock before attending college on the Worthington Scholarship.

Now, a college graduate at 20 years old, Jake has chosen to don a costume to be a good influence on young mutants everywhere. Taking the name Mentor to describe what he hopes to be to other young people with super powers, as well as a nod to his own telepathic powers, Jake pulled some strings with old friends to get an invitation to the newest Avengers team. All his life, Jake has had other people watching out for him and guiding him—now, on his own, the only question is whether or not he can live up to all of their expectations.

Jacob is a short, thin young man of mixed African and Hispanic heritage with dark skin and large, soulful eyes. His mutation has caused him to go prematurely bald, but he wears it well. His street clothes tend to be neatly-pressed slacks and sweater-vests over button-up shirts. His costume is a modified X-Men trainee uniform, but with a yellow stylized “A” across the chest instead of an “X.” Jake’s face is uncovered in his costume, and he is the only member of the Midwest Avengers whose identity is public.

Team d10, Buddy d8, Solo d6

Distinctions
•Mutant Success Story
•Trained by the Best
•Shy Genius

Telepathic Mutant
•Enhanced Intellect d8, Mind Blast d8, Mind Control d8, Telepathy d8, Psychic Resistance d8
•SFX: Lethal Thoughts. On a reaction against a mental stress attack action, inflict mental stress on your attacker with your effect die at no PP cost or spend a PP to step it up by +1.
•SFX: Fortress of Iron Will. Spend 1 PP to ignore stress, trauma or complications from psychic attacks.
•SFX: The Focused Totality of My Psychic Powers. Step up or double any Telepathic Mutant power for one action. If the action fails, add a die to the doom pool equal to the normal rating of your power die.
•Limit: Conscious Activation. If stressed out, asleep, or unconscious, shutdown Telepathic Mutant. Recover when stress is recovered or you awake.
•Limit: Mutant. Earn 1 PP when affected by Mutant-specific Milestones and tech.

Specialties
•Medical Expert d8
•Psych Expert d8
•Science Expert d8

Mutant Poster Boy
1 XP when you first talk about being a mutant to another hero in positive terms.
3 XP when you respond to anti-mutant prejudice with diplomacy rather than anger.
10 XP when you publicly defeat a mutant villain, or when you are publicly defeated by an anti-mutant villain.

Standing on My Own
1 XP the first time you use your Solo affiliation.
3 XP the first time you are stressed out while using your Team affiliation.
10 XP when you defeat an enemy while Solo without suffering any stress, or when you quit your current team to prove you can go it alone.