Heroes Unlimited: World's Strongest 11

Previously on World's Strongest:
Impact, The Alien Renegade
Calamity, The Cybernetic Sniper
Megaton, Friendly Neighborhood Nuclear Warhead
The Whirlwind, a Fusillade of Fisticuffs
Car Mage, The Wizard of Wheels
Night Sheriff, The Sheriff of Shadows
Hammer of Heaven, The Daring Demon Hunter
The Wanderer, Precocious Practitioner of the Arcane Arts
Storm Eagle, Queen of the Skies
Breakthrough, Multi-powered Mutant Powerhouse

Continuing onward we will be delving into the next type of mutant hero, mutant animals. The rules for them are different from just about every type of character in any Palladium game. The rules were designed for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness.

Step 1: Attributes
These start at eleven as normal. They will change a great deal as we move forward with this, mutant animals have a lot of changes that happen as character creation, but for now we are at eleven. I kind of wish that the attributes worked the same way that they worked in TMNT&OS, where your speed attribute added to your dodge modifier. With the right martial art you could get stupid broken in combat. I remember making a Mutant Mouse for a Rifts game and cheating like crazy. I had an amazing auto dodge(like a +16 automatic dodge, or something) and my character trained in a sword school and had a sword set from an ancient samurai family. This is pretty easy to get in TMNT. In Rifts that sword set automatically become lesser rune weapons and my character could dodge laser fire without using an action. Good times.

Step 2: HP and SDC
Again this is listed here. It should be listed at the end, because all the numbers here are going to change as we go forward.

Step 3: Animal Type
I will be using the expanded animal listing from After the Bomb for this. Heroes Unlimited has a few animals, but I like having more options and the animal I want to use is in After the bomb. Normally you roll for what kind of animal you get, but for this I will choose. Our hero will be a Ferret. And a ninja. A ferret Ninja. He will be awesome.

Step 4: Cause of Mutation and Education
The cause of mutation for this character will be deliberate experimentation. In this world coming out of these characters I think this is the type of mutant that would need a mutant underground. Constructed beings who legally belong to the companies that build them. So I think we could have a major gene research company building mutant animal super soldiers. Maybe they even have a theme park where you can go see live cloned dinosaurs. So this company is leading in the field of genetic research, cures for cancer, Parkinson's and all that kind of stuff. However it gets these breakthrough by illegal genetic manipulation. Our hero is one of those illegal genetic experiments.  He was raised in a cage as if he was a wild animal. When he escaped he was found by a wise ninja master. He gains one skill skill program of choice(Physical, for this character) plus 2 espionage skills, 2 rogue skills, plus 6 secondary skills and Ninjitsu(from Ninjas and Super Spies).

Physical Program
Boxing+1 Attack, +2 Parry and dodge, +1 roll w/punch, +2 PS, +10 SDC
Gymnastics+2 roll w/punch, +2 PS, +1 PP, +2 PE, +7 SDC
Wrestling+1 Roll w/punch, +2 PS, +1 PE, +13 SDC
Running +1 PE; +10 spd; +3 SDC
Espionage/Rogue Skills
Escape Artist
Tracking
Pick Locks
Safecracking
Secondary Skills
Athletics: +1 Parry/Dodge; +1 roll with punch/fall; +1 PS; +3 Speed; +5 SDC
Body Building: +2 PS; +10 SDC
Wilderness Survival
Literacy
Research
Photography
Ninjitsu
Acrobatics+2 roll w/punch, +1 PS, +1 PP, +1 PE, +3 SDCClimbing,
Swimming,
W.P. Shuriken,
W.P. Fukiya (Blow Gun),
W.P. Fukimi-Bari (Mouth Darts),
W.P. Kawanga (Rope/Grapple).
W.P. Knife,
W.P. Kusari-Gama,
W.P. Kyoketsu-Shoge,
W.P. Manriki-Gusari,
W.P. Nekode (Cat Claws),
W.P. Shikomi-Zue (Hidden Blade Staff)
+2 MA, +1 PS, +1 PE, +1 PP, +4 Spd
+3 roll w/punch, +1 strike, critical strike from behind

Arts of Invisibility
Art of Stealth
Art of Mystic Invisibility

Body Hardening Techniques
Stone Ox +2 PE, +25 SDC

Martial Arts Techniques
Zanshin +6 initiative, +2 parry, +4 dodge

Step 5: Bio-E and Special Abilities
Alright, now I get to make my sweet mutant ferret ninja. Mutant animals are made through the expenditure of Biological Energy Points(Bio-E) to gain human characteristics and animal powers. These points are spent to increase the size of a creature as well as grant the bipedal stance, full hands and human speech. This is one of the few point buy systems in all Palladium games and so it is interesting to see how that works. Also each animal type has a set of bonuses that come just with the choice of picking that animal. A ferret has 80 Bio-E available. I really wish there was a little more Bio-E. Often you cannot make the hero you want to make. I kind of like the feeling of being trapped between two options I want. I think maybe if you had more Bio-E gained per level, rather than a flat amount at the start it might work...I don't know. But anyway, this is the fun part. Lets get to it then, yeah?

Ferret
+4 MA, +2 PS, +3 PP, +5 spd
Size Level: 10(-35) +4 PS, +2 PE
Hands: Full(-10)
Biped: Full(-10)
Speech: Full(-10)
Looks: None(looks like a ferret, but human sized)
Powers
Increased Metabolic Rate(-20) +2 initiative, +2 dodge, +1 attack
Night-vision(-5)
Advanced Smell(-5)
Leaping: Rodent(-15) 15' up, 30' down
Drawbacks
Reptile Brain: Predator(+10)
Nocturnal(+10)
Diet: Carnivore(+10)

Step 6: Finishing Touches
Now we have our hero a mutant ferret ninja, escaped from a massive genetics firm and trained by a secret ninja master. This implies a bunch about the setting, like that ninja clans still exist, so that is fun. So lets say that the Iga and Koga ninjas still exist and are in a secret war with each other through catspaws and rival street gangs. Our hero was trained by a renegade ninja master from one of the clans and has been given the goal of wiping out these clans. Also he has set himself the goal of ending the cruel treatment of mutant test subjects by the genetics company. SO he is fighting against two types of ninjas and corporate mercenaries and rogue scientists. So we mix TMNT and Blade runner.

Name: Horatio
Super Identity: Mr. Shade
Alignment: Unprincipled
Height: 7'6"
Weight: 191 lbs

IQ: 11
ME: 11
MA: 17
PS: 30
PP: 17
PE: 21
PB: 11
Spd: 34

HP: 24
SDC: 111
Chi: 21

Skills
Boxing; Gymnastics; Wrestling; Running; Escape Artist; Tracking; Pick Locks; Safecracking; Athletics; Body Building; Wilderness Survival; Literacy; Research; Photography; Ninjitsu; Acrobatics; Climbing; Swimming; W.P. Shuriken; W.P. Fukiya (Blow Gun); W.P. Fukimi-Bari (Mouth Darts); W.P. Kawanga (Rope/Grapple); W.P. Knife; W.P. Kusari-Gama; W.P. Kyoketsu-Shoge; W.P. Manriki-Gusari;  W.P. Nekode (Cat Claws), ; W.P. Shikomi-Zue (Hidden Blade Staff)

Powers
Increased Metabolic Rate; Night-vision; Advanced Smell; Leaping: Rodent; Art of Stealth; Art of Mystic Invisibility; Stone Ox; Zanshin

Initiative: +8
Attacks: 4
Strike: +1
Parry: +5
Dodge: +9
Roll w/punch: +10

On the streets of Coast City there is a rumor, an urban legend. A monster that walks like a man, who can walk through walls, appear and disappear at will, and the criminal syndicates that run the streets fear him beyond all others. They call him Mr. Shade. He was born in pain and fear, a base creature built up by science to be the equal of humanity. He escaped and was trained by  Fujibayashi Nagato an ancient rogue ninja master, older than he looks. He claims to remember when the first building in Coast City went up. It was he who found Horatio, alone and starving in the city, trained him, and unleashed him on the criminal class and the secret over lords. Now all organized crime knows the name of Mr. Shade. The know fear of the dark.

While I think that Mutant animals are a bit underpowered in Heroes Unlimited, they are a blast to make and they are pretty fun to play. I would recommend Using Ninjas and Superspies with mutant animals, it grants whole new kinds of powers and that can grant a pretty nice edge in the game. Also mutant animals have access to animal psionics which work different than regular psionics, so you may want to check those out as well.

The next post will not be a mega hero. The reason for this is that Mega heroes are not a full class of hero, but a template you place on top of the regular hero category. Also the ones in the book suck. I would recommend using the expanded mega hero rules from Rifter #37, as that really makes the template work better and has options for a bunch of different ways to do it. So the next post will be Physical Training. It should be fun. Also I noticed something, almost every hero has a martial art of some sort or another. Maybe that is where a lot of these super teams met up for the first time, at the dojo!

Also you should check out my Kickstarter...

A Far Off Land

In this Fate RPG you take the roll of the Fated, Shapeshifting Demigods who seek to bring about or prevent the destruction of two worlds. It contains new magic systems and Factions Dynamics in play.