The Enemy Abounds

Building baddies your player characters will respect

By Kevin S. Taylor

Easy, you hit em where it hurts.

You make up new variants on the same old stuff. Nothing will scare and confuse players more when the Aberrant that they have been chasing all over Luna turns out to be 6 inches tall. What I hope this article does is help you make variants on villains and antagonists for your Trinity games.

This article focuses on Aberrants, but could also be adapted to other types. So, we'll start with the basics.

The Basics

Part 1 -- why?

So why does that Aberrant with four arms and warp gates keep raiding medical facilities? Maybe he has someone he cares about that is sick, and he can't help him or her. Or how about the one that keeps impersonating people in an attempt to get into the Chicago Cube? Maybe he's looking for answers instead of just out to kill someone?

And remember, as strange as it sounds, Aberrants have families too.

Part 2 -- when?

Part 3 -- where?

Part 4 -- what?

Building the Better Bad Ass

Well, depends on that answer to the "what" question. That will determine what basic "template" you want to use from this list. For this article, I categorize Aberrants into three basic classes, Veteran, Leader, and Fodder. The following table sums up how to figure out what type your Aberrant(s) falls under:

	Leader	Veteran	Fodder
Age	Was alive before 2047	Erupted post-Exodus	Most recent Aberrants made/born
Taint	Has moderate (6+) Taint due to controlling their power, but can be higher in some cases	Has high (8+) Taint	Has lowest (1-5) Taint
M.O.	Usually leads others, but often works alone as well	Sometimes leads raiding parties	Likes to live to see the next battle
Notes	Usually have long term plans and goals	Often have other motives	Being of the most recent generations looks least human and is most twisted by its taint

After you know what kind you want, then you get to make them.

Leaders

• Nova Points: I move it up to 40 or 50 because these guys have been around for a while.
• Freebie/Bonus Points: move that up to 20 for the same reason.
• Instead of Buying "Quantum" and dealing with a new attribute in Trinity, I buy points of Taint at Quantum cost, and use Taint as the roll for powers, like in "normal" Trinity. In this case, I always buy powers at Tainted cost, which makes them real EVIL bastards to kill, cause they get a lot to play with. However, these are rare threats, and should be treated as such. Maybe one in a year of gaming and the players should have to work at it to EVER even see their opponent.

Veterans

Things to remember with Aberrants at this level:

• Attributes above 5 are "enhanced" but not Mega. So, while an Aberrant with Strength 9 will really mess up an Average Psion, he's not likely to toss a Drake MN-114 around like a rag doll.
• Keep the taint around 6-8 in these cases, unless you have a reason to take it higher (powers cost lots of Taint to use, simply want to scare players, etc.)
• When converting from Battleground, use the following guidelines:
  • Add three to four dice to the damage of attack mutations.
  • Add one to any Armor mutation the Aberrant possesses.
  • Adrenaline Sac: adds one action per 2 successes on Taint Roll
  • Regeneration: Allows healing of one level of health per 2 successes on a Taint Roll. In some cases, an Aberrant may be required to absorb living matter to use this power (requiring a successful clinch/hold attack and inflicts one level per level healed to the target).
  • Reduce Taint costs by 1/3, rounding down. So a 3 cost power costs 2 in Trinity. If that takes it down to less than one, it's free to the aberrant (still counts as an action).
  • Add 3 to 5 dice to the damage of the power, or add its pool to the Taint of the Aberrant.
  • In the cases of non-combat powers, use fair judgment when deciding how the power converts (the Battleground game is close enough to Trinity that often you can actually follow the text, I've found.)

Fodder

• Use the Template Straight from Trinity.
• Note that Attributes are "enhanced" and not Mega if over 5.
• Use the following ideas, or come up with your own, to add to the powers/mutations from the main book. Pick up to three or four powers/mutations. Give them a real ugly description. And most importantly, throw them at your players with abandon, so they worry about what kind of Aberrant is willing to sacrifice all these Squids to accomplish their goals.
  • Air Pollution/Poison
    Taint Cost: 1
    Damage: See below
    System: Roll taint. The Aberrant exudes a gas into the surrounding air that is potentially harmful. Roll Taint as Lethal damage if toxic, Bashing if non-lethal, or as a modifier effect if simply confusing (smoke or "laughing gas", etc.)

  • Cancerous Growths
    Taint Cost: 0
    Damage: 3d10L
    System: The Aberrant is covered with cancerous sacs that upon being struck will burst and spray a corrosive agent on nearby people. Count as an area effect with a 90-degree "firing arc" from the point of impact.

  • Infection
    Taint Cost: 3
    Damage: See below
    System: Fairly rare but dangerous, this power infects the victim by biting or clawing with a Taint based disease.

  • Kamikaze
    Taint Cost: 2
    Damage: 20/10/5d10 L
    Range: 50/30/10 Meters
    System: With this power the Aberrant literally blows himself up with his own power. Often referred to as the Wycoff Effect.

  • Machine Control
    Taint Cost: see below
    Damage: none, see below
    Range: Sight
    System: The Aberrant takes over surrounding hardtech by a "Quantum Remote Interface" and uses it as if they were extensions of his own body. Guns can be turned on their users, computers can be controlled, and ships can be set on crash courses. The Taint cost varies with size, 1 for 5 kg or less, 2 for 6 to 100 kg, and 3 for 100+ kg. Items over 30 tons can not be controlled. The roll is Taint vs. Fail-Safe. If no fail-safe is listed, assume 1 die.