Marvel Super Heroes Write-Ups

Here's an excellent write-up of several Japanese Beetle characters for the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game system (the old one that uses TSR's Conan rules, not the new one that uses the Saga system). Thanks to loyal reader Brian A.H. for wasting his precious time on these conversions!

Asashi Suzuki

• Real Name: Asashi Suzuki
• Identity: Public
• Group Affiliation: member of several volunteer organizations
• Physical Form: Normal Human
• Origin: Natal

• Fighting: Excellent (20)
• Agility: Excellent (20)
• Strength: Excellent (20)
• Endurance: Excellent (20)
• Reason: Excellent (20)
• Intuition: Excellent (20)
• Psyche: Excellent (20)

• Health: 80
• Karma: 60

• Resources: Good (10)
• Popularity: Good (10)

• Talents:
  • Chemistry
  • Languages
  • Leadership
  • Martial Arts B
  • Mathematics
  • Teaching

• Contacts:
  • The Japanese Beetle

The Flying Squirrel

• Real Name: Unknown
• Identity: Secret
• Base of Operations: Thanatos Towers, Apt. 3C, Skyline City, USA
• Group Affiliation: None
• Physical Form: Random Mutation
• Origin: Natal

• Fighting: Excellent (16)
• Agility: Remarkable (30)
• Strength: Remarkable (35)
• Endurance: Incredible (40)
• Reason: Typical (10)
• Intuition: Poor (6)
• Psyche: Excellent (10)

• Health: 121
• Kharma: 26

• Resources: Good (10)
• Popularity: (-20)

• Powers (Inborn):

  • Communicate With Squirrels: Shift-X (150)

  • Mind Control: Monstrous (75)
    Benefit: Puppetry
    Limit: Squirrels Only

• Powers (Equipment):

  • Jet Belt: This belt of unknown origin allows the Flying Squirel to take on the Japanese Beetle in the air. It grants the rough equivalent of the Rocket power at Excellent (10) speed.

  • "Natural" Weapons: The Flying Squirrel uses Lee Press-On Claws&153;, which are not only sharp and tough, but fashionable as well. They're equivalent to Excellent (20) Claws.

• Talents:
  • Animal Training
  • Business/Finance
  • Martial Arts B
  • Woodscraft

• Contacts:
  • George Gorge
  • His army of evil squirrels
  • The supervillain "community"

The Japanese Beetle

• Real Name: Ken Watanabe
• Identity: Public
• Base of Operations: Thanatos Towers, Apt. 3B, Skyline City, USA
• Group Affiliation: Deputy of the Skyline City P.D.
• Physical Form: Normal Human
• Origin: Natal

• Fighting: Good (10)
• Agility: Good (10)
• Strength: Typical (6)
• Endurance: Excellent (20)
• Reason: Typical (6)
• Intuition: Poor (4)
• Psyche: Excellent (20)

• Health: 46
• Kharma: 30

• Resources: Typical (6)
• Popularity: Feeble (1)

• Powers (Inborn):

  • Probability Manipulation: Monstrous (75)
    This power is wholly untrained in the Japanese Beetle. He has the ability to cause both good luck and bad, although this appears to be unconcious. He has one additional limitation, and one additional benefit.

    Benefit: The Beetle may add or subtract the number of this power (75) from the number of any trait he is about to make a roll on. (Agility could shoot up to Monstrous 85, for example, to dodge, or an opponent's roll drop by a similar amount) This counts as a good luck/bad luck usage, though.

    Limitation: Balancing of the Scales. The power is not, strictly speaking, a way to gain bad luck or good luck; a better way of thinking of it would be "Borrowing from the Kharmic Bank." For every time that this power manifests (Which is random, up to the Judge/Author), at least one equal and opposite effect will occur, i.e.: The Japanese Beetle manages to survive the vicious attack of NOW and they begin to fight with each other! However, when he gets home, his landlord believes he is dead and has sold the appartment to someone else and he loses his girlfriend. Or, Ken gets a date with Asashi, but when he takes her out, the Chinese spies show up, then Joe McCarthy arises from freezing, etc...

  • Hyper-Invention: Excellent (20)
    Note that this power is often subject to his Probability Manipulation.... Both ways.

• Powers (Equipment):

  • Jet Pack: Probably created with JB's Hyper-Invention, it appears to actually work, granting the Rocket Power at Excellent (20) speed. It does not appear to require fuel of any sort (which is why I use the Rocket power and not True Flight). However, thanks to JB's Probability Manipulation, it probably could go out at any suitably embarrassing time.

  • Ray Gun: Another example of the Japanese Beetle's combination of Probability Manipulation and Hyper-Invention. It is unknown what the powers of this weapon are, as any time he tries to use it, it appears to have Shift 0 uses. In fact, it may be impossible to determine what the gun's actual abilities are, because it appears to be a magnet for JB's Probability Scales-Balancing.

• Talents:
  • Computers
  • Engineering
  • Law Enforcement
  • Repair/Tinkering
  • Trivia

• Contacts:
  • His roommate, the Cartoonist.
  • Asashi, his ex(?) girlfriend
  • The Chief, head of local police.
  • Max Factor, a fellow superhero.
  • The Dean (See Max Factor)
  • George Gorge

  • The Grim Specter Of Death, the Destroyer Of Worlds, The Thief of Time, the Killer of Empires, The End of Everything, the Taker of souls, etc. His landlord.