The Cybertribe (or simply “the Tribe” as they often refer to themselves) began as a rescue effort. While researching a variety of neurological problems in an attempt to save her own life, Motherboard came across several young people who were essentially prisoners in their own bodies. The plight of these individuals resonated with her and she liberated them from the facilities in which they were housed, then gave them the means to interact with the world around them. Digital Demon, Pulse, and Rez, similar to Motherboard, have bodies kept safely in medical pods while highly advanced technology lets them roam free outside of those bodies. Both Sister Steel and Heavy Metal were rescued by Motherboard before she discovered the Hard Light Interactive Construct (HLIC) technology the others use and have decided to retain their cybernetic and robotic shells.

In the relatively short time the Tribe has been active, they’ve built a reputation among the tech-criminal com-munity as thieves of the first order, able to get into prac-tically anywhere and steal what they want. They’ve also managed to make allies among other “victims” of corpo-rate and government callousness, and helped fund some social initiatives from behind layers of shell companies.

The Tribe’s problems are about to escalate. Motherboard stole the technological know-how she used to help Pulse, Digital Demon, and Rez from a secret government program. The schematics and other files belonged to a rogue black-ops outfit, an outfit with a strong anti-ex-traterrestrial stance and the technology to pose a threat. They have figured out the connection between the Tribe’s technology and their own computer breaches and intend to terminate the problem with extreme prejudice.

MOTIVATION AND GOALS

First and foremost, Motherboard and her crew pursue the means to keep themselves safe. That safety requires funding and cutting-edge technology. Secondarily, they work to stay together and protect one another. On many levels, the members of the team are like family and are extremely loyal to one another.

Originally, the crew supported Motherboard in her ven-detta against Arwin Kessler and KessKorp just to make her happy. Over time, exposure to the man and his schemes has convinced them of the righteousness of their actions and they consider bringing down KessKorp a crusade worthy of their time.

The Tribe views property differently than others—they would never steal from private individuals, from govern-ment programs they find worthy, or from corporations they feel contribute to a better world. They have no such qualms about stealing from the corrupt or dangerous, or what they consider ‘institutional parasites,’ whether those targets are criminally-minded corporations or clandestine government operations of a morally-objectionable nature (against whom they view their actions as ‘punishment’).

TACTICS

The Tribe avoids fighting whenever possible. It’s not their focus and they don’t like the risks it entails (when Sister Steel or Heavy Metal are loaned out as “muscle,” it’s always with a very good reason). They prefer the fast inser-tion… snatch, grab, and gone. When forced to fight, they use Heavy Metal as their walking shield wall, with Sister Steel and Pulse combining lightning-fast strikes to keep their opponents off-balance, and Rez and Digital Demon running interference while co-opting accessible gear and equipment (duplicating opposing leaders to give contra-

MEMBERS: Motherboard (leader), Digital Demon, Heavy Metal, Pulse, Rez, and Sister Steel.

BASE OF OPERATIONS: Emerald CityMOTIVATION: Self Preservation

MOTHERBOARD DIGITAL DEMON HEAVY METAL

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dictory commands, making targeting systems lock on the wrong targets, and so on). They do this to expedite the fastest withdrawal from the field they can manage.

HEADQUARTERS AND RESOURCES

The Tribe makes its home in a converted cave system several hundred feet beneath an inconspicuous single family dwelling in a rural area north of Emerald City. There are amenities of a sort to make Sister Steel comfortable and keep Heavy Metal entertained, but the other four members are generally occupied elsewhere while their bodies remain safely ensconced in dedicated life support systems within the facility. A good portion of the facility houses the maintenance and support equipment for the central area, including truly massive data processing assets.

Critical support, repairs, and general upkeep are provid-ed by autonomous robots used as testbeds for some of Motherboard’s experiments in synthesized organs and cybernetic learning matrices. The team members have named these vaguely crustacean-looking, hyperactive, and relentlessly perky units BRATs (“Bio-Robotic Autono-mous Technoids”).

HEADQUARTERS: “HOME SWEET HOME” • 33 POINTS

Size: Huge Tou: 16, Features: Communications, Computer, Concealed 5 (+30), Defense System, Fire Prevention System, Grounds, Hangar, Infirmary, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Personnel, Power System, Security System 5 (DC 40), Self-Repairing, Workshop

The house visible on the surface is populated by what appears to be an insular and highly religious family of neo-luddites who home-school their children and rarely leave the house. This family is actually a set of sophisticated an-droids acquired from one of Motherboard’s contacts.

The Robo-Luddites and BRATS are both functions of the Personnel and Self-Repairing features of the headquarters.

VEHICLE: “BUTTERFLY” (PROTOTYPE KESSLER MRV-332X IRONWASP ASSAULT RECON VEHICLE)

• 45 POINTS

Size: Gargantuan Str: 14 Speed: 8 Def: 4, Tou: 14 Features: Alarm, Navigation System, Remote Control, Cloaking Device—Concealment 4 (Auditory, Normal Visual, Radar)

Repurposed and disarmed (and renamed by Rez), this is an armored vector-thrust craft modified so Heavy Metal can attach himself to the rear undercarriage of the vehicle. It was based off of designs Kessler stole from a competi-tor and he had planned on mass-producing for sale to a number of unsavory despots before the Tribe stole the prototype and wiped all the plans from Kessler’s files. Already more maneuverable than any helicopter, an EM cloak Motherboard designed makes Butterfly as quiet as her namesake, and very difficult to track.

HOOKS

Thanks…We’ll Take It: The heroes develop or acquire nice new toys, either for personal use or for their team, and somehow the Tribe gets information about it. They then move in to take it for their own use. The heroes must track down the thieves and recover the purloined prize.

You’re Our Only Hope: Something has gone terribly wrong with the equipment Motherboard uses to keep her and her adopted children alive. The Cybertribe approach one of the heroes, an accomplished inventor who pos-sesses (or has access to) advanced technology that can be used as a substitute for the team’s failing systems. They beg for the hero’s assistance. What does the hero do and what—or who—caused the malfunction in the first place?

ROLEPLAYING QUANDARIES

The Cybertribe present a departure from many “super-villain” teams in that they are somewhat sympathetic figures, and their targets are usually people the players wouldn’t mind seeing hurt anyway. They are supposed to present heroes with some moral questions. Yes, they are thieves. But when the heroic paragon just beat down Heavy Metal, he also ruptured the life support keeping a fourteen year old boy alive, a boy who basically just sacrificed himself so his family could escape, and who now needs medical attention immediately. How do the heroes react to that situation?

Gamemasters should keep these considerations in mind when dealing with the Cybertribe. If you feel the players won’t enjoy those elements in a game, you may want to jettison some details before introducing the Tribe and simply treat them as another group thieves with a memorable motif.

PULSE REZ SISTER STEEL

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Dr. Karen Ross lived for her work. She was on the cutting edge in cybernetic applications, brain-mapping, and arti-ficial intelligence. This left her with little time for relationships or building a family… which were sacrificed for her career. She always thought she’d have time do those “someday.”

When Kessler Industrial Tech-nologies hired Dr. Ross to develop smart weapons she thought it would help make her reputation, while also doing her country a great service. Over time, she dis-covered how misguided she had been. Arwin Kessler, her employer, had no intention of fulfilling his government con-tracts; instead, her work was being funneled overseas and Kessler was making astro-nomical amounts of money. She was appalled. She set up a safe contact within the Justice Department, one to whom she thought she could pass incriminating data to help bring Kessler down. Unfortunately, her contact was in Kessler’s pocket and when he heard about Ross’ disloyalty, he arranged for her removal.

The doctors were at a loss when she began present-ing symptoms of some kind of neurological dis-order (they couldn’t know about the neurotoxins Kessler had exposed her to, after all). While she was dealing with the fallout from her deteriorating health, the company in-stalled an “interim” director in her place, and her care-fully compiled evidence on Kessler mysteriously dis-appeared. When that hap-pened, she realized Kessler was behind it, but couldn’t spare time for that, she had to figure out what he’d done to her. She spent all her time and energy (what little she had)

researching neurological disorders in an attempt to save herself. Instead, all she found were other lost souls whose fates contributed to her spiraling depression.

The criminal roboticist Dollface infiltrated Ross’ research program in the guise of a consultant. She was interested in how she could apply Ross’ research to her own. While

working with Ross, Dollface grew fond of the good doctor, a rarity for the eccen-

tric criminal, and when Ross’ health deteriorated, she decided to “help.” Dollface staged an accident, left a body behind that would be mis-taken for Ross’, then abducted Ross and built her a life support pod that would keep her alive until Dollface could create a new body for her. When Ross finally

woke up in the cyberwomb, Dollface revealed herself and told Ross what she’d done.

Ross was angry and upset, but eventually came to realize that she could do things in her pod, that she’d only dreamed of doing before. She told Dollface she was happy to stay in the pod for now; she had things to do. She struck

back at Kessler with her new-found abilities and ‘adopted’ a number of the children she had discovered while researching her own condition. She gave them all the gift of a technological

escape from the prisons their bodies had become. Thus was the Cy-

bertribe born.

PERSONALITY

Motherboard has em-braced the maternal side of

her nature she denied during her career. She will go to any lengths to protect her “children.” Her experiences

with Kessler have made her feel society’s laws are flawed and designed to protect the powerful from the masses rather than mete out real justice; hence, she feels nothing when she breaks them. She feels a great kinship with those she views as “discarded” by the rest of the world, and works to protect them whenever possible.

POWERS & ABILITIES

Karen Ross’ body is kept alive in a heavily protected life support womb buried deep within the Cybertribe’s head-

MOTHERBOARDREAL NAME: Karen RossOCCUPATION: Professional thief BASE: Emerald City

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MOTHERBOARD PL12STR STA AGL DEX FGT INT AWE PRE

-5 -2 -5 -5 -5 9 6 6

POWERS

Proxy Drones: Communication 4 (Radio; Subtle); Morph 1 (Motherboard hologram); Remote Sensing 18 (1,000 miles, Auditory and Visual; Visible—Drones); Senses 6 (Radio, Vision Counters All Concealment (radar)) • 76 points

Queen of Cyberspace: Enhanced Advantage (Eidetic Memory); Feature (‘Speed of Thought’—Use Intellect instead of Agility for Initiative); Mind Reading 12 (Cumulative, Effortless, Sensory Link; Subtle; Limited to Machines, Quirk—Must have an electronic connection to target); Quickness 10 (Limited to mental tasks) • 55 points

SKILLS

Deception 6 (+12), Expertise: Computers 9 (+18), Expertise: Cybernetics 9 (+18), Expertise: Life Sciences 6 (+15), Insight 6 (+12), Perception 6 (+12), Persuasion 8 (+14), Technology 13 (+22), Treatment 7 (+16)

ADVANTAGES

Benefit 5 (Cipher 2, Wealth 3—Millionaire), Eidetic Memory, Equipment 16 (Motherboard pays for the HQ and vehicle detailed in the Cybertribe team entry), Well-informed

OFFENSE

INITIATIVE +9

Varies Varies depending on which systems she is controlling

DEFENSE

DODGE -5 FORTITUDE -2

PARRY -5 TOUGHNESS -2

WILL 15

POWER POINTS

ABILITIES -2 SKILLS 35

POWERS 131 DEFENSES 9

ADVANTAGES 22 TOTAL 195

COMPLICATIONS

Disability: Karen Ross suffers from terrible and debilitating medical problems. Outside of her life support womb, she is completely incapacitated and can’t survive for more than a few hours.Enemy—KessKorp: Motherboard believes Arwin Kessler and his cronies are evil. She takes every opportunity to strike at Kessler and his business dealings. He knows he failed to kill her the first time around and won’t stop hunting her and her people until he’s sure they’ve been eliminated.Motivation—Safety: Motherboard is driven to keep herself and her “family” alive and safe from harm. When the group needs resources which can only be acquired out in the world, she attempts to limit their exposure to harm as much as possible.Power Loss: If removed from the life support womb that cybernetically integrates her with her systems, she loses all her powers, her Will drops to 8, and her mental traits drop to Int 5, Awe 3, and Pre 2; similarly, if her proxy drones (Dodge/Parry 6, Tgh 6, Flight 3) are destroyed, she loses all abilities tied to them.Responsibility: The Cybertribe are Ross’ family in every sense that truly counts and she has strong maternal feelings towards each of them.

quarters. The cybernetic interfaces built into the womb allow her to access external equipment, including the drones she uses to interact with people in the real world. These drones are sophisticated mobile surveillance pods that project a stylized holographic image of Motherboard around the drone. They are for communication and infor-mation gathering only and they aren’t built for combat. As long as she is in her life support unit, her mental process-ing is augmented outside of human parameters. When she needs “hands” in the physical world, she relies on the Cybertribe or hacks into an available piece of networked technology and controls it remotely.

Typically, Motherboard has one of her drones project a holographic image of her virtual appearance to act as her proxy in the outside world. Those encountering Moth-erboard may initially believe she is an intangible energy being (like some of the other Cybertribe members) or even a robot. Her Remote Sensing is limited to the opera-tional distance of her drones.

ALLIES

Motherboard has a number of valuable allies, starting with her “children,” the Cybertribe. Dollface is a friend—or as near to one as possible for the eccentric roboticist. In addition, Motherboard has frequently helped other

super-humans that aroused her maternal instincts, which may allow her to call on them in times of need.

ENEMIES

Arwin Kessler, CEO and main scheming mind behind Kessler Industrial Technologies, Inc., (better known as “KessKorp”) will not rest until he eliminates Motherboard and her crew.

HOOKS

Of Course They’re Guilty… : Representatives of Kess-Korp approach the heroes with a request. They say that because founder Arwin Kessler has embarrassed too many AEGIS R&D managers in the past, AEGIS is ignoring their problem. Somehow, a group of thieves has stolen a prototype no one was supposed to know even existed and the corporation needs the heroes to get it back. They’d like it done as quietly as possible so knowledge of the theft doesn’t enter the public arena and hurt the com-pany’s bottom line. The technology in question could be the Butterfly or anything else you want to introduce.

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System Reference Document, Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc., Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

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Mutants & Masterminds Threat Report #9: Motherboard

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