Example Antagonists

The following Antagonists are meant to serve as samples, illustrating how the system can be used to build mundane or supernatural beings. They should not be taken as gospel or the only available options; we encourage Storyguides to build their own and get a feel for the system if they can, but feel free to use these in a pinch.

BEAT COP

Empowered to serve, protect, and harass by the government, characters will frequently encounter the low rung of law enforcement. Cops patrol beats (designated areas) by foot, motorcycle, bike, or car for lengthy shifts. Beat cops may stop a player character for a myriad of reasons: strange behavior, speeding, or catching them escaping a heist. While not a huge physical threat to most, the beat cop has already called into the local police station, either reporting what happened or running the plates on a car before approaching, thus bending the long arm of the law towards the player characters. Individually, it is unlikely a beat cop could take on anyone with even a few dots in a Combat Skill, but the constant flood of reinforcements and the inevitability of SWAT arriving on the scene may give even those of the Warrior Calling pause.

Archetype: Mook
Qualities: None
Drive: To serve and protect
Primary Pool (5): Combat, Investigation, Personal Interactions
Secondary Pool (4): Athletics, Alertness
Desperation Pool: 2
Health: 1
Defense: 1
Initiative: 3

SWAT (SPECIAL WEAPONS AND TACTICS)

The majority of police departments in the United States and global major cities have a Special Weapons and Tactics team. These SWAT teams use military-grade weapons, tactics and practices, and first came to prominence in the 1960s for riot and violent crime control before evolving into rapid response teams after 9/11. The teams specialize in assault rifles, sniper rifles, riot-control gear, tear gas, and specialized heavy armor with night-vision optics. To become a SWAT member, an officer volunteers, after having served years on the force, to undergo rigorous mental, emotional, and physical training with a heavy focus on the physical fitness of the officer. After passing the initial testing, the training courses include demolitions, K-9, negotiation, marksmanship, intense hand-to-hand fighting in urban environments, and breeching buildings.

Archetype: Professional
Qualities: Group Tactics, Heavily Armored
Flairs: Spray n’ Pray (Heckler & Koch submachine gun), Dread Gaze (Flashbang grenades)
Drive: To take down the target with extreme prejudice
Primary Pool (8): Combat, Sniping, Athletics
Secondary Pool (5): Demolitions, Alertness
Desperation Pool: 3
Stress: 3
Defense: 3
Initiative: 4

MEN IN BLACK

Not the funny movie version that invades the cultural consciousness every couple of years to trick the masses. These Men in Black are things in human guise that serve the will of the Titans, or the things in the cracks of the Titans’ prisons. They travel in packs of three, using threats, violence, and murder to fulfill their shady unknown missions.

No matter the time, place, or weather, they always dress the same: crisp black suit, black fedora, black sunglasses, black tie, and pristine white shirt. Each has the highest level of clearance necessary to enter any facility and work with law enforcement when needed.

Archetype: Professional
Qualities: Super Soldiers, Stand Tall
Flairs: Dread Gaze (terrify), Imperfect Disguise
Drive: Whatever the master wishes…
Primary Pool (8): Combat, Drive, Athletics
Secondary Pool (5): Interrogation, Tracking
Desperation Pool: 3
Stress: 2
Defense: 1
Armor: 1
Initiative: 5

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: COPS

Occasionally, Beat Cops are equipped with riot gear (add Heavily Armored), and act under the leadership of skilled tacticians (add Group Tactics while being commanded). Beat Cops can easily serve as the backbone for any non-elite security, military, or organized fighting force. The primary component is that they are trained organized fighters with vast numbers.

SWAT is an elite law enforcement team trained and equipped to handle the worst situations mortals can imagine. The members always operate as a unit, and that is one of their greatest strengths. The unit is composed of various roles and their individual skills reflect their functions. To increase their ferocity, the team’s members could be on experimental drugs that enhance them and add the Super Soldier capacity at the cost of their humanity, leaving them monstrous vestiges of mortality. To make them extra ferocious, give the SWAT team Enhancement 2 to any Combat Skill when two or more SWAT members attack a single target during the same turn. The SWAT template can quickly be retrofitted to serve as an elite military squad (add On Your Feet — Squad Medic), a governmental specialist recovery team, or a corporation’s black ops force (add Twitchy).

Men in Black double as FBI special agents; just add the Cross-Training Quality and remove the Imperfect Disguise Flair. You can keep the Dread Gaze Flair if you want; it can be pretty intimidating to have one of those laminated IDs flashed in your face. Ironically, beat cops also make for decent mobsters, if you replace their Primary Pool with specialties in Intimidation or just plain Doing Violence. Many organized crime outfits developed from community support operations. One way to make them challenging to deal with is to return them to their roots: What if the Mafia is actually the thing that’s tying a real community together? What if, in addition to blackmailing the rich and shooting their enemies, they actually contribute to a struggling demographic’s well-being?

Making them morally complicated means that a Scion can’t just wipe them out and hope for the best; they have to figure out how to replace them and improve upon them. Mobsters have Group Tactics as well, but are frequently bereft of heavy artillery, preferring to come upon their target when they’re unsuspecting (blasting them while they’re enjoying a meal, for example, or when they’re getting gas or buying a toy for their kids). Mobsters typically have the Institutional Disbelief Quality, representing a lifetime of buying off the right people, and the Seeing Red Flair.

AMAZON

Amazons are a tribe of warrior women who, in antiquity, dwelt on the fringes of the Eurasian Steppe near the Black Sea, living apart from men. Related distantly to the Scythians, they are well accustomed to fighting from horseback, and favor both spears and archery. Though a few Amazons still live according to the ancient pastoral lifestyle, far more members of the tribe have emigrated to the cities, where they retain their warrior ethos even as they adapt to a modern way of life. To maintain their numbers, they either pursue men for the purposes of conceiving or, if such is not their preference, adopt women from outside the tribe. Most Amazons will happily take anyone who both identifies as a woman and can hold her own in a fight — the training they’ll put her through will more than make up for any lingering weakness from her origins. Amazons are extremely family oriented, living together in sprawling clans, and it’s a rare Amazon who doesn’t, at need, have sisters to back her up in a scrap.

Archetype: Professional
Qualities: Super Soldier
Drive: To best whatever champions may assail her!
Primary Pool (8): Combat, Feats of Strength (+1 Close-Quarters Combat, +1 Archery)
Secondary Pool (5): Equestrianism, Survival
Desperation Pool: 3
Health: 4
Defense: 2
Initiative: 5

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: AMAZON

Amazons are a classic mythological Super Soldier, so that Quality and the Professional Archetype (or Villain, for a really scary Amazon) are a given. Skills will be different depending on where the Amazon has grown up — the Traits given are for an Amazon raised in the traditional manner, but an Amazon born and raised in the city (or even by non-Amazons!) will almost certainly prefer driving to riding a horse, and may even take up firearms rather than the traditional archery — much to the dismay of her elders, of course. The Amazon template can easily serve to represent a number of other mythological warrior races, such as Achilles’ Myrmidons (add the Group Tactics Quality) the lesser valkyries of Valhalla and Folkvangr (Add Flight, On Your Feet, or Here I Come), or the dreaded Bearserker (build for Close Combat and add the Shapeshifting or Seeing Red Flairs, depending on if you want your Bearserker to be a literal bear, or both if you really want to terrify your players).

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY: CENTAUR

Centaurs are stronger, faster, and have greater endurance than humans. Most centaurs are well-trained in archery, but ever since the advent of the firearm they’ve been happy enough to add rifles to their repertoire — the western U.S., in particular, had serious problems dealing with an armed herd of centaurs in the late 1800s. Their mobility is second to none in open areas, but they’ll have serious problems trying to negotiate everyday obstacles — like, say, stairs.

Mechanical centaurs will vary depending on their form — for those who are parts of cars or trucks (or even larger vehicles!), they can be treated more or less like vehicles. When it comes to cycle-based centaurs, who are much more personal-scale (if extremely hefty and hard), the better approach is layering on Armor and Flairs that allow for rapid movement across range bands.

CENTAUR

In antiquity, centaurs roamed the western Eurasian Steppe in massive herds. Their encounters with settled folk living in Greece rarely went well — the battle that ensued between a herd of centaurs and the Lapith tribe after the former, invited to a wedding, heavily overindulged in wine is handed down in myth as the Centauromachy; and many a culture cursed the centaurs for inspiring the mounted combat of the Scythians, who mimicked the centaur style of archery. Centaurs have never held with settled life. They cannot bear to be confined, and the hard roads humans lay down pain their hooves greatly (for a centaur will never allow herself to be shod like a common horse!). The more personable and staid of centaurs will often trade with settled civilizations, especially for alcohol, which centaurs love.

Despite the best efforts of modern states to civilize them (most of which were given up as futile more than a century ago), centaurs still live in great numbers on the Eurasian steppe, with smaller colonies in northern Greece (particularly the plains of Thessaly) and even the United States. The products of an abortive 19th-century experiment, these centaurs were captured and transported to North America in numbers significant enough to sustain a native population, which to this day circulates throughout the Great Plains, much to the frustration of farmers there. Modern centaurs tend to be less violent than their historical counterparts, having learned well that there are always more humans and they always have more guns, but friction between humans and centaurs show few signs of abating.

Classical centaurs are, of course, not the only centaurs around. With the advent of the internal combustion engine, the ever-curious Hephaestus took to tinkering, and created bizarre hybrids of mortals and the vehicles they designed. Few survived the process, and even fewer managed to linger. Centaurs engineered around heavy motorcycles tend to be the most common, but they tend to die young, being much faster than classical centaurs and having no protection from falls whatsoever. As a result, they have a “burn brightly, burn quickly” philosophy, which lends them to extremes of behavior, especially violence.

Archetype: Professional
Qualities: Group Tactics, Natural Weapons (Hooves), Twitchy
Flairs: Here I Come
Drive: Eat, drink, and be merry!
Primary Pool (7): Agility, Archery (+1 Enhancement), Creative Pursuits
Secondary Pool (5): Kicking, Endurance, Survival
Desperation Pool: 3
Health: 2
Defense: 2
Initiative: 7

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: KITSUNE

There are many stories of shapeshifting foxes, with variations down to a regional level at times. Many kitsune are enshrined across Japan, often as aspects of Inari, and more traditional kitsune will dwell in or near such places, serving as Inari’s messengers (and making good use of any edible offerings left at the shrine). Most kitsune are exceptionally well-informed, and too clever by half. If you want to make a ninetail as an Antagonist, promote the Archetype to Villain (at the least) and consider adding on Sorcery — the elders among kitsune are mighty indeed, and given well-earned respect.

Kitsune are one of many trickster spirits in wider Asian folklore — the original myths of shapeshifting foxes most likely originated in China before travelling to Korea and eventually making the crossing to Japan. For most of these, the default template works, but if you want to bring a kumiho (a much more violent and malevolent fox-spirit) into the story, you’ll probably want to add claws to their natural weapons and give them both the Unnatural Hunger Quality (for livers or hearts, depending on the myths you’re drawing from) and the Thousand Faces Flair, for tales speak of kumiho who could take on the shape of anyone so consumed. The default template also works well for tanuki, though they’re less inclined to take up with the mortals they trick — mostly, they’re just out for a good laugh. Give them Thousand Faces and let them use it to become anything, and we do mean anything.

KITSUNE

A fox that has lived for 100 years gains powerful abilities of shapechanging and illusion. As they age, they grow additional tails, one for every century beyond the first — when they reach nine, their fur becomes a shining, golden-white pelt. Kitsune are not a breed unto their own: Any fox, should it be clever enough to survive for so long, may achieve such heights. Kitsune — much like humans — may be either benevolent or malevolent, though in their case the difference is whether or not you’ll likely survive the results of the kitsune’s mischief. Most often appearing as beautiful young women when they employ their powers of shapeshifting, kitsune have adapted as well to the modern world as their animal cousins, glomming onto romantic partners with wealth to spare or even taking jobs themselves to pay for their aburaage. The less scrupulous enchant leaves to look like currency just long enough to spend it with wild abandon.

Archetype: Professional
Qualities: Natural Weapons (Teeth and Claws), Imperfect Disguise (Tails)
Flairs: Illusion, Possession, Shapeshifting (Young Women)
Drive: To survive long enough to grow more tails; to trick mortals so I’ve got it easy (or just for fun!)
Primary Pool (7): Illusion (+1 Enhancement), Seduction, Trickery
Secondary Pool (5): Biting and Clawing, Stealth
Desperation Pool: 3
Health: 2
Defense: 2
Initiative: 5

SATYR

Walking in the woods, one might hear the distant song of panpipes. Drawing closer, you hear laughter on the wind, smell the heady scent of wine, and before you know it, you’ve stumbled into a satyr revel. Satyrs, associated with the God Dionysus, are known for the wild abandon with which they celebrate, and have historically been behind resurgences in the Dionysian Mysteries throughout the western World. In such times they are often accompanied by maenads, mortal women driven to the very edge of madness through the revelations of Dionysus and who serve as his priestesses. They revel with the satyrs in his name, and have been known in extremis to violently tear other mortals apart with their bare hands, and according to some accounts, even to eat the remains.

Satyrs are goat-people; they have the gift of gab and a knack for attracting the like-minded (or the potentially likeminded, for that matter). More than a few artistic works depicting satyrs had the genuine article to pose for them, and satyrs have even appeared in a number of classic (and decidedly unclassic) films. However, while it is true that satyrs prefer play to work, they are universally in excellent physical condition and more than capable of defending themselves should local governments (as they often do) attempt to disrupt their revel. An angry satyr can easily put a mortal in the hospital with a single well-placed headbutt.

Archetype: Professional
Quality: A Cage of Words, Inspiration, Natural Weapons (Horns), Sure-Footed
Flairs: Hypnotic Charm
Drive: Let’s party!
Primary Pool (7): Athletics, Headbutts, Music (+1 Enhancement), Revelry
Secondary Pool (5): Alcohol Tolerance, Survival
Desperation Pool: 3
Health: 2
Defense: 2
Initiative: 5

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: SATYR

Satyrs are relatively harmless, unless you get on their bad side, but the basic idea of the satyr applies to a wide number of celebrant beings, not all of whom are so benevolent. Sirens, for example, may not seem to fit the bill, but much like satyrs, they have a knack for drawing in even those who would otherwise avoid them. In this case, let Hypnotic Charm serve as the lure, and add in Illusions or Immobilize to befuddle or trap unfortunates while the sirens dig in.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: SORCERERS

Let’s be honest: “Witch” is the most commonly used term, or the term chosen for translation, for people accused of making dark pacts and performing wicked deeds for power. We chose “sorcerer” because of the gendered implications and historical malus “witch” has in the English language, despite the fact that the term was and still is used to describe men who are accused as well.

For game purposes, Sorcery does most of the heavy lifting, but it’s not the end-all-be-all one might think it is. For example, the asiman of Western Africa are difficult to distinguish by day but by night shine with eerie light pouring from every orifice — a classic case of Imperfect Disguise. The kitsunemochi of Japan have no powers of their own, but rather strike a bargain with a fox (see Kitsune, p. 163), and are able to command it to use its powers, most often to spy on or possess others. Some sorcerers are known to fly; others to transform into animals. The sky is the limit when it comes to magic, after all — be creative.

SORCERERS

Humans are notorious both for tinkering with things they shouldn’t and having unhealthy ambitions — a sorcerer is someone who takes both traits well beyond the baseline. Often, sorcerers hold to strange behaviors, either as payment for their power or from some deeper knowledge kept from the unenlightened — and some, of course, were just unusual to begin with. Those who dabble in magic can be found in every region, on every continent, across The World. In ancient times, such people were deeply respected or feared, sought out for their wisdom by those with need or courage in excess. More recent history has been less kind to sorcerers, as mortals sought first to control, then to wipe out those with power greater than theirs. Some did this out of envy; others acted from fear, for not every sorcerer is benevolent. Many cultures have examples of mortals trucking with dangerous and malignant powers for their own gain, trading away their own soul for temporal power, and many governments across The World still have, hidden deep in labyrinthine legal code, archaic laws proscribing interaction with certain entities, or the practice of magic entirely.

Archetype: Villain
Qualities: Sorcery, Imperfect Disguise
Flairs: Immobilize, Inspiration, Share and Share Alike
Drive: Power! Absolute power!
Primary Pool (10): Magic, Scheming
Secondary Pool (8): Fascinating Others, Monologues Paranoia
Desperation Pool: 5
Health: 4
Defense: 3
Initiative: 7

STRANGE FOLK (AOS SI)

Stories of unearthly people exist across the world — the Alfar and Dvergar of Scandinavia, for example, or the Jo-Ga-Oh of eastern North America. They may be kind or cruel, playful or vindictive, because for all their strangeness and uncanny power, they are still people. Strange Folk are universally more knowledgeable than mortals, particularly when it comes to the natural world, with which they often have deep ties — many live underground, or inside trees, or on the shores of rivers hiding under rocks. Very few can be seen unless they wish to be, which serves them well in the modern World, where they by necessity live alongside the mortals who have long since swarmed over what was once their land. Some resent mortals for this, but most recognize a lost cause when they see one, and have either adapted to modernity or fled for Terra Incognita. Most governments in the west mark those areas where the Strange Folk are known to congregate, for safety if nothing else.

Archetype: Villain
Qualities: Cross-Training, Center of Gravity, Twitchy
Flairs: Hypnotic Charm, Illusions, Shroud
Drive: To go unseen.
Primary Pool (10): Crafting, Nature Lore, Self-Defense
Secondary Pool (8): Honeyed Words, Trickery
Desperation Pool: 5
Health: 4
Defense: 3
Initiative: 9

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: STRANGE FOLK

Strange Folk are, more or less, humans (don’t let them hear you say that), though possessed of skill far in excess of humans. In many cases, this can be handled with narrative, but when it comes to direct mechanical effects, Sorcery is probably the best way to handle the myriad ways the Strange Folk can do terrible things to interlopers. Defensive Flairs or Qualities are also a good choice, as the Strange Folk almost always excel in getting out of bad situations.

Strange Folk come in every shape and size imaginable, and so too do their abilities. Alfar, from whom we get the English word “elf,” still make up a small but significant minority in the Icelandic population, where they are known by the more polite euphemism “Huldufólk.” They are said to be stunningly beautiful and possessed of a particularly nasty temper; they inflict terrible rashes on those who earn their disfavor. Their distant cousins, the Dvergar, are makers without peer, crafting the finest of Relics, including the famed Poetic Mead. The Koropukkuru of Hokkaido, long known to the Ainu people, are skilled and friendly fishers but absolutely cannot bear to be seen by mortals.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: TROLL

Almost every culture in the world has legends of monstrous wild creatures, some vaguely humanlike, others not, who seemingly exist only to terrify mortals. Trolls in mainland Europe are often called ogres, and typically lack the sunlight allergy of their northern kin. Oni, from Japan, add anywhere from one to three horns and a set of sharp claws, along with unusual skin colors (particularly red and blue) and other occasional differences. Unlike trolls and ogres, however, oni are not generally known for eating humans, merely for their violent natures — the image of an oni bearing a kanabo (a massive iron club) is a common one.
A troll or similar being should never be a trivial challenge. They make excellent Villains for the Mortal Tier, and particularly hefty or powerful examples serve as suitable fodder for Monsters as well. If it’s a particularly large or potent troll, give it Scale. Most often, the best course of action will be to outwit the creature rather than fight it head on, so make sure you set the stage with lots of options for players to take advantage of.

TROLL

Enormous, hairy, and terrified of the sun whose touch turns them to stone, mortals across Northern Europe have known for eons that trolls are to be avoided and feared, passing on stories of trolls hurling mortals into chasms, keeping them as slaves in their dark cave dwellings, or even devouring them whole — supposedly, trolls can smell the blood of Christians, but this has never been validated by scientific study. Accounts differ as to troll intelligence; some are renowned as metalworkers and herbalists, others described as only semiaware brutes. Only in relatively recent times have mortals been able to push trolls back from civilized settlements, using church bells to make noise, disturbing the trolls’ natural habitats. Norway in particular is known for setting aside vast tracts of mountains and plateaus as troll preserves, while carefully monitoring the borders for any trolls who might try to migrate down into the valleys — Jotunheimen National Park is perhaps the best known of these. Note: The Traits listed here are for the less intelligent sort of troll, i.e., the sort that player characters are far more likely to get into a scrap with.

Archetype: Monster
Quality: Heavily Armored, Sure-Footed, Vulnerability (Sunlight), Vulnerability (Church Bells)
Flairs: Seeing Red
Drive: Grind their bones to make your bread.
Primary Pool (13): Smash n’ Bash, Feats of Strength
Secondary Pool (10): Climbing, Throwing Rocks, Survival
Desperation Pool: 5
Health: 8
Defense: 4
Initiative: 9

VODYANOY (WATER SPIRITS)

The vodyanoi is a water spirit common to Eastern Europe and Russia. Taking the form of a frog-like old man, they lurk in rivers and ponds, waiting to drown the unwary — kappas are a similar example, native to Japan. Ahuizotl, not to be confused with the famed conqueror, are an example of how radically the archetype can differ from region to region — they are spiny dog-like creatures with grasping hands on the ends of their tails. Most water spirits are bound in some way to the water, unable to stand outside it or venture far from it, and as a result are typically quite territorial.

Archetype: Professional
Qualities: Invulnerability (Water), Miasmic Presence
Flairs: Immobilize (in water), Shroud
Drive: To clutch at and drown the unwary.
Primary Pool (7): Grappling (+1 Enhancement), Swimming
Secondary Pool (5): Lurking Hidden
Desperation Pool: 3
Health: 2
Defense: 2
Initiative: 5

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: VODYANOY

Most water spirits are renowned for a strong grip, but the vodyanoi in particular is possessed of a fearsome strength, able to smash dams or bridges when enraged — consider Seeing Red. Kappa are turtlelike, meaning they’re an excellent candidate for Heavily Armored, but they also suffer from a significant weakness — if the water in the bowl-like depression on their head is spilled, they become weakened, confused, and may even die, a classic case of Keystone. For Ahuzotl, consider tying Immobilize or Get Over Here to the creature’s tail.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES: THERIANTHROPE

Werecreatures are, unsurprisingly, extremely variable — while almost every culture has an example of such a being, rarely can they agree on what particular animal they turn into, or what other strange powers they may possess. Shapeshifting is a requisite, of course, and most therianthropes that player characters will be picking fights with (or vice versa) will have Natural Weapons. Depending on the cultural background, they may have Dread Gaze or Seeing Red. This is a place for Storyguides to stretch their legs, where understanding of the underlying Antagonist system will really shine.

WEREWOLF (THERIANTHROPE)

Stories of shapeshifting humans can be found across the world — beasts that wear the faces of humans, or vice versa. Some are cursed, compelled to commit monstrous deeds; while others are respected as semi-sacred guardians, following ancient practices handed down from generation to generation. In the modern World, these practices and curses alike continue to be passed down — to spread across the world, thanks to the advent of globalism. Those who suffer from curses tend to dwell on the fringes of society or engineer containment solutions for themselves, fearing that a surveillance society would doom them for a single slip-up: After all, most Western nations still have lycanthropy laws on the books, even if they haven’t been enforced in decades.

Archetype: Villain
Qualities: Natural Weapon (Claws, Teeth; only when transformed), Imperfect Disguise, Super Soldier (only when transformed), Vulnerability (silver)
Flairs: Shapeshifter
Drive: Pass on this terrible curse!
Primary Pool (10): Close Combat (+3 Enhancement), Hunting
Secondary Pool (8): Stealth, Athletics
Desperation Pool: 5
Health: 6
Defense: 3
Initiative: 7