Game Master:
PL: 11
Strength 2
Stamina 3
Agility 3
Dexterity 5
Fighting 6
Intellect 6
Awareness 3
Presence 2
Skills: Deception 9 (+11), Expertise [Computers] 10 (+16), Expertise [Criminal] 4 (+10), Expertise [Games] 12 (+18), Expertise [Pop Culture] 6 (+12), Expertise [Science] 10 (+16), Insight 9 (+12), Investigation 1 (+8), Perception 9 (+12), Persuasion 6 (+8), Sleight of Hand 3 (+8), Ranged Combat [Joystick] 6 (+12), Stealth 7 (+9), Technology 10 (+16)
Advantages: Assessment, Benefit 5 [Wealth x5 (Billionaire)], Benefit [Robot/HAG Duplicates], Close Attack 2, Connected, Contacts, Eidetic Memory, Equipment 5, Inventor, Languages 2 [Base: English; French, German, Japanese], Ranged Attack, Second Chance [Expertise (Games) Checks], Seize Initiative, Skill Mastery [Expertise (Games)], Speed of Thought, Taunt, Well-Informed
Powers: Genius: Quickness 5 (Feat: Innate); (Flaw: Limited [Mental Tasks Only])
Game Master Suit: (Removable -11 pts) [47 pp]
Armored: Protection 10 (Extra: Impervious)
Built-In Computer:
Enhanced Skill 2 [Ranged Combat (Joystick) +6]
Feature 1 [Computer]
Crisis Sensor: Senses 1 [Danger Sense]
Disguiser: Feature 1 [Appearance Concealed]
Video Feed: Remote Sensing 10 [audio, visual] (Extra: No Conduit); (Feats: Feature [Recording/Playback], Subtle 2); (Flaw: Medium [Cameras])
Joystick: (Easily Removable -12 pts) [20 pp]
Maser Blast: Ranged Force Damage 10 (Extra: Penetrating)
-Stun Blast: Ranged Affliction 10 [Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated; resisted by Fortitude] (Extra: Cumulative)
-Maser Strike Field: Strength-Based Electrical Damage 10
SLATE [Soft-Light Animated Tactical Environment]: (Removable -8 pts) [33 pp]
VR Terrain: Create 10 (Extras: Increased Duration [Continuous], Movable, Stationary); (Feat: Precise)
HAG [Hard-light Avatar Generator]: (Removable -17 pts) [68 pp]
Mook Factory: Summon 8 (Extras: Active, Broad Type, Horde); (Feats: Mental Link, Multiple Minions 4 [16 total])
NPC Maker: Ranged Affliction 8 [--, --, Controlled; resisted by Will] (Extras: Perception); (Flaw: Limited Degree [3rd rank only])
Offense: Initiative +6
Melee Attack +8
Ranged Attack +6 // Joystick Attack +12
Defense: Dodge +9
Parry +9
Toughness +13*/+3 [*Gamemaster Suit]
Fortitude +8
Will +10
Equipment: HQ [Game Room (25 ep): Size: Huge; Toughness: 16] Features: Combat Simulator, Communications, Computer, Concealed 5 [DC 30], Deathtraps, Holding Cells, Power System, Security System 5 [DC 40], Workshop
Costs: Abilities 60+ Skills 32+ Advantages 26+ Powers 174+ Defenses 19= 286 pts.
Real Name: Gabriel ‘Gabe’ Crowell
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 174 lbs
Hair: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Complications:
Arrogant: There’s no doubt in the Game Master’s mind that he’s one of the smartest people in the world. A fact he’s not afraid to share with anyone who will listen.
Motivation ~Challenge: Game Master likes a good challenge, especially where games are concerned.
Sore Loser: When Game Master loses, he tends to take it out on everyone around him. Additionally, he also becomes obsessed with the person he lost to until he gets a re-match and wins.
Background: Gabe Crowell always loved games; it didn’t matter what the game was, either; whether a board game, a role-playing game, a card game, electronic game system or PC game, he loved them all. Combined with his remarkable intelligence and highly competitive spirit Gabe become a true master of so many kinds of games that it was nearly impossible for any of his opponents to win if they played fairly against him. As the years went by Gabe found fewer and fewer people who were willing to play against him until finally, there was no one who would. Since games were his only social outlet, Gabe focused a good deal of his efforts on developing a game that would challenge him; two years later he’d finished an electronic game of his own design, that he’d named Serum, and it took him almost six months to conquer it.
Still, Gabe was driven to prove he was a better gamer than anyone else, so he uploaded the game onto the internet as a free game for anyone to play. After a year had passed and nobody had beaten Serum, Gabe was contacted by people representing a relatively unknown company, Hammerpoint Games, with the offer of a job to refine the game (and adjust it so that it could be beaten). Seeing this as the proper recognition of his skills, Gabe took the job and a year later the newest version of Serum hit the stores.
Gabe quickly became a rising star in the world of game design, earning a fortune in royalties as everything in Serum was his idea which meant that most profits went to him. His next job assignment was a special, top secret project: a virtual reality game that would put the player in a completely holographic game grid. As lead designer Gabe made leaps and bounds in progress, completing the project ahead of schedule which delivered fantastic, while utterly real looking, results and the virtual reality opus, Daystalker/Nightslayer was poised for a block buster release.
Unfortunately problems with marketing, which included a rash of video game related violent crimes, delayed the game’s debut and soon after that Gabe received word that the game feature that allowed players to import the likeness of real people to be used as ‘skins’ for victims, one of the more difficult parts of the game he’d developed personally, was going to be removed prior to the release of the game and Gabe hit the roof. Protesting the removal, he found no support for his position among his peers, which caused him to dismiss them as little more than corporate lackeys and not true gamers like himself. Gabe dealt with those critics on his own terms; slaughtering their digital images on a nightly basis in the development game grid. When one of his co-workers discovered Gabe’s virtual violence he reported the genius to his superiors who quickly fired Gabe on the spot.
Deciding that he no longer wanted to deal with a world that rejected and cheated him, Gabe began staying at his large mansion home where he began building robotic players to provide him with the competitive challenge and companionship he so desperately craved. However, even mechanical adversaries couldn’t keep up with his brilliant mind and their lack of personality and pitiful attempts at interaction got to Gabe, adding to his already weakened grip on reality and drove him slightly mad. Over the next few months Gabe perfected a plan to get even with those who had wronged him by practicing murdering them in a copy of the game grid he’d managed to somehow keep possession of. From there it wasn’t that difficult for Gabe to carry it out the deeds in real life and afterwards Gabe created the first mobile versions of the main components of the game grid - the HAG (Hard-light Avatar Generator) and the SLATE (Soft-Light Animated Tactical Environment), and went into hiding.
It took Gabe years to perfect and implement the upgrades he designed for the HAG and SLATE, and once they had been completed he wanted a true test of the devices abilities. Thus, Gabe ventured out of his home/lab to a nearby convention that was being held for comic books. There he tested out his new gadgets on some of the attendees and discovered that in addition to the normal functions of the HAG he could hack into the brains of some people, forcing them to do whatever he wanted. Giddy with excitement at the prospect of a new kind of game to play, Gabe tweaked his devices on the spot to broaden their range and effect until he had created his very own live action life simulator using the other convention goers as his playable characters. Fortunately for these people, there were a few members of the Vanguard that were guests at the convention who were able to intervene and stop him. However, Gabe managed to get away with a burning desire to play even more now that he’d learned his devices worked even better than he’d thought.
Gabe immediately began working on improving his devices, reworking them so that the next time he played he would be able to master his new game. Months passed and the only people who Gabe saw were deliverymen, either from one of the local restaurants and internet stores where he bought his supplies. Once he had everything built to his liking, Gabe visited a nearby mall and subjugated most everyone within it to test his new equipment for bugs. Watching from a secure location, he was able to the view the world through the eyes of his “players”, forcing them to experience whatever he wanted and altering their reality to see things not as they actually were. Gabe had his fun at their expense for a little while even though it wasn’t long before that the police and members of the Vanguard arrived to spoil everything, but Gabe was able to slip away once again and return to his lab. There he donned a costume of his own design and named himself the Game Master, because he was finally ready to start playing the ultimate game against the ultimate opponents.
Over the years the Game Master has developed a criminal style that is uniquely his own thanks to his use of the HAG and SLATE systems, but he has also developed what he calls the Game Room; locations he’s drastically altered to fit a specific theme or purpose and no two are the same. Each is designed to challenge and eventually defeat the people that are “playing”, though there a few constants - a workshop and control room hidden away somewhere where the Game Master runs the game and makes any needed tweaks and last-minute changes to his NPCs before sending them out. Additionally, he’s made sure to include several escape routes honeycombed within building, which allow him an easy escape if the current game he’s running goes haywire (also Game Master keeps at least one robotic duplicate of himself somewhere in the building, usually in the control room). There is a containment area set aside to hold the Non-Player Characters (aka random people he has kidnapped and force to take part in his games) until the Game Master needs them as well as dozens of hidden cameras he uses to observe and record the game for later personal enjoyment.
Art by Storn Cook