____Background (-15)____
Riff has a wife and a two year old son, currently in
Kubukustan on an archaeological dig. The wife is the
archaeologist, and the kid's tagging along with her because
daddy doesn't seem to notice the short people when there's
large pieces of metal to put together.
He was recruited for some super secret project, but because
the government didn't trust him with the details before
making him sign the papers, he refused, and is in Hawaii
working on personal projects. He considered signing anyway,
because it WAS a super-secret project, but Oppenheimer was
involved, and Riff isn't all that enamored of the guy.
Riff has always had a natural talent for machines and
engineering, but a freak lab accident of some sort seriously
augmented his intelligence and physique beyond human norms.
Riff never noticed the accident. In fact, even he doesn't
even realize there ever was an accident, though if he
searches his memory, he'll find that he wasn't always able
to manually lift various large pieces of his robot. It isn't
even recorded in lab paperwork, because no equipment was
damaged and he kept to schedule. The accident occurred about
a year before his son was born.
____Description (-15)____
six foot even. 190 pounds. blond hair. pony tail.
greyish-tan trenchcoat doubling as a lab coat. Black
T-shirt. Jeans. dark sunglasses. All the time. Somewhere
around 27 years old. Jewish.
____Personality (-15)____
For the most part, Riff spends his time creating gadgets,
and experimenting in his lab. He vaguely recalls that he has
a wife, but needs to see pictures to remember the kid. A
good parent he ain't. Thus, in game terms, it could be
argued that he has a secret identity... that only he doesn't
know. For the rest of the world, it's public record.
Very nearly all of his experiments are explosive or expose
incautious users to a variety of chemical, biological, and
radiological hazards. Riff is more than cautious enough to
avoid or neutralize the dangers when he is involved, but for
some reason, he often tends to rush-work the finishing
touches. So for instance, the robot in the wrong hands would
eventually catastrophically fail, exposing several square
miles to a high dosage of gamma radiation, and possibly
vaporizing a city block or two--almost every time while
'safely' tucked away in storage. But when Riff's been with
it recently, arms fall off or guns don't fire--he's always
tinkering with it, so it's never tucked away where it can go
critical. Or another example, the toaster will eventually
collapse into a singularity, and immediately the tiny black
hole will evaporate, emitting vast quantities of alpha
radiation as it's mass and the mass of everything within
about 9 meters is nearly instantaneously converted to
hawking radiation. But not as long as Riff uses it for his
morning toast...perfect crispy browned bread done in
0.000000301 picoseconds--or perfectly blackened bread-shaped
charcoal hurled out of the toaster at a few meters/second.
The laser cannon is just a laser cannon. Suprisingly, it
works almost all the time, and isn't prone to really bad
side effects. It might even have a stun setting somewhere.
One point of note, as per Riff's style, something about the
finishing touches would go wrong if he set out to
deliberately cause one of his toys to go critical, and it
wouldn't work as planned. Either it'd harmlessly rocket off
into space or melt into a puddle of silly-putty, or just
self-disassemble. If he sets out to make a conventional
bomb, as opposed to naked singularity inducers, he'd
probably get it right...
____The Future____
I'm modeling the guy on the 'Riff' character at
www.sluggy.com. But since it's the 40's, I've made some
modifications. First, he doesn't have a portable mini
fission comrad suitcase nuke to run his equipment off of,
second, he doesn't really have any immediate connections to
the supernatural--that's for his son to dig up later and his
grandson to toy with. My Riff is sluggy Riff's grandfather.
The pony tail may not be appropriate for this timeframe, but
damn if I can't see Riff without it. I am considering a
talking ferret pet or a dorky side kick, but that might be
too much--besides, party members look like they can easily
fill those roles.
____Roleplaying____
Wife and kid in Kubukustan
All personal posessions have a useless scientific purpose
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____Subplots____
05. [A1] Professor Ulan Huminitz from the UK visits and
discusses robotic research.
07. [A2] Huminitz reveals himself to be the Ultra-Humanite!
08. [B1] Tsunami steals Devastatron Robot.
10. [C1] Professor Charlie Van Den Haas joins Riff's team.
12. [D1] Devastatron II dating a female robot.
14. [A3] Ultra-Humanite attacks using Ultraman robot.
[D2] Riff meets Dev's girlfriend Mekanique.
15. [C2] Charlie modifies Laser Canon into Lightning Canon.
[E1] Try to play matchmaker with Charlie and Wally.
[F1] Office moral sinks. Throws party at local bar.
16. [D3] Mekanique continues to monopolize Devastatron 2.
17. [D4] Dev2 wants to marry Mekanique. Riff drives her off.
[E2] Wally and Charlie getting closer.
18. [D5] In Cairo, Dev2 leaves to look for Mekanique.
19. [G1] Shimmer returns from dead, revenge on Riff.
[H1] Mrs Riff and Kid Riff show up on Crete.
21. [F2] Office field trip to Water World.
[J1] Propose independent research institute to
Penelope.
22. [E3] Charlie breaks up with Wally. Wally is a mess.
[D6] Dev2 returns, Mekanique evil, much robot
sadness.
23. [E4] Wally, Charlie, Dev2, prototype equipment stolen!
[F3] Riff goes ballistic, threatens to quit military.
25. [A4] Wally revealed to be Ultra-Humanite
[K1] Devastatron reveals himself, renamed as Braniac
____History____
01. Defended IC Military Research Center from Japanese raid.
[+58 HPs]
02. Solve string of kidnappings.
[+112 HP] Wealth +1 (to 7), Weaponry +1 (to 6)
03. Stop Secret Society of Super Villain plot.
[+156 HPs] DEX +2 (to 5), BODY 5, Weaponry 7
05. Drug War-Maj Nathan, Tony Lucerno, Nathan's Nemesis, FBI.
[+141 HPs] Wrist Communicator.
06. Abnegazar. Destroy Japanese radar site.
[+102 HPs] Force Field Belt, Wealth +1 (to 8).
07. Robotics Conference. MechaGodzilla. Ultra-Humanite.
[+172 HPs] Wealth +1 (to 9), STR 5, Weaponry
(Exotic) 8.
08. Tsunami frees Sumo, tests ICH and steals Riff's robot.
[+171 HPs] BODY 6, Weaponry (Exotic) 9, Equip
Upgrades.
10. The Shark and Cheetah try to ruin Water World's opening.
[+124 HPs] Wealth +1 (to 10). Build DEVASTATRON II.
12. Der See Wulf tries to steal Kupe'e Mana'o from museum.
[+102 HPs] Wealth +1 (to 11). Buy off Unluck.
13. Dr Svoboda uses alien protein to produce supervillains.
[+100 HPs] Wealth +2 (to 13), -Public Identity.
14. Smee kidnaps Lost Boys and Charlie. Return to Neverland.
[+150 HPs] Wealth -2 (to 11). -Married.
15. Recue Ghost Girl from Dyer-Bennet Institute.
[+132 HPs] Wealth +4 (to 15), SPIRIT 5.
16. ICH travels to China to rescue Tsunami.
[+195 HPs] AURA 5.
17. Japanese Robots and Dragon Robot attack ICMRC.
[+120 HPs]
18. Rescue Gilmore from Axis, Axis gains Aaron's Rod.
[+278 HPs] INT 10, Build 13 AP LAB.
19. Stop Fearsome Five from taking over Crete.
[+151 HPs]
21. Japanese robots invade Silurian city underneath Oahu.
[+140 HPs] Wealth -1 (to 14), INT (+ Gadget/Scient)
11.
22. Stop Mekanique's Diabolical Nosferatu Squid Plot.
[+133 HPs] Wealth +3 (to 17).
23. Rescue Nyun Kim from Red
Dragon-led Koas
[+120 HPs]
25. Finale: Ultra-Humanite, Silurians, Braniac and Ralkazan
[+355 HPs] Wealth +6 (23), INT 12, DEX 6, MIND 8
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