Success Track

Let's formalise the villain rules from the core game slightly.
Minions!
Your villain has a Success Track similar to the Doom Counter the
Player Characters have. It's like their health score. You set the target
of the Success Track at the start of the game, it should be at least as
high as the number of Player Characters. Mark the Track every time a
Vicious, Voluptuous Villains! (Or Extras)
Detective gets a Success in a direct confrontation with the Villain.

New Villain Powers

When the Track reaches the target number, the Villain is defeated! Roll or pick from this table to fill out your cast with
disposable minions or hapless bystanders.

Epithets 1. A cheerful swing-band, consisting entirely of

skeletons.
Give your Villain a cool/cheesy title! Your Villain can have any powers you want. But let's try some powers
2. The cast of a feline-themed musical. (No, not that
1. The Maker of Eyes. 2. Angel of the End. 3. God Gnawer. 4. Heart Stopper.
which change up the game a little. one.)

5. Red-Handed _ 6. Black Cat. 7. _ Who Raves in Darkness. 8. Whispering _ 3. A gaggle of Victorian servants, undernourished and
He Sees You When You're Sleeping.
afraid.
The Villain can enter the dreams of other people and attack or manipulate them there.
9. Smiling _ 10. Tomb Dancer. 11. The Clawed Chaos. 12. Death's Right Hand/Lover/Biggest Fan.
If doing this to a Detective, have the Villain weaponise the Detective's fears or 4. The rats. They lurk just out of sight, but you can hear
whatever haunts them. Defeating such a phantasm should take at least 1 Success and them skittering and scuttling. They know too much!

More Suspects!
a personal revelation of some kind.
5. Ghosts, each haunting a very specific area or object.
I Am the Drama!
Everything is more dramatic when this Murderer is around! Fires become raging 6. Ghoulish lawyers.

Roll on or pick from this table to find new Murderers, infernos! Chases happen on motorbikes! Clear skies become raging storms! Everyone is
7. Shadows. Creeping, crawling, mocking, hateful.
Victims and Suspects for your game! shouting!!! MORE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!

1. Lucifer!
2. The decrepit or voluptuous, but definitely
supercilious, butler or maid who has at least one
mechanical or cybernetic limb/organ.
3. A walking corpse with her mouth sewn shut.
Carries a chainsaw for aesthetic reasons. Dutiful to
the end but carrying many secrets.
4. A stern, very tall, large, magical governess who
can fly. Outdated fashion sense but makes it work.
5. A god. Roll on/pick from both lists to determine
the two things they're the god of. A 1. Knives. 2. Air.
3. Snakes 4. Murder. 5. Pain 6. Spiders B 1. Roses.
2. Smiling. 3. Darkness. 4. Grace 5. Bats 6. Desire.
6. A shape-shifting assassin-witch who must always
be the most beautiful person in the room.
7. The only person who ever beat Death at chess.
Now immortal, rich, and thoroughly jaded. They
wear lilac the way most people wear black.
8. A hulking, shambling, hatchet-wielding
muscleman with a horribly scarred face and the
soul of a poet, which he keeps in a glass jar.
9. A doll, brought to life by a cruel
master/curse/twist of fate. Destined to destroy all
she/he/they/it loves.
10. A friendly computer/AI with a menacing voice
and odd gaps in its memory. Its programming has
probability curves in all the right places.
11. Cheekbones like scalpels, an artfully
disarranged lab-coat and a thousand-watt stare;
the perfect Byronic Science-Hero. Are you
brooding? He’s more brooding.
12. An elegantly besuited and coiffured author,
who may have misunderstood the phrase ‘Murder
your darlings’. Wants to cast you in their next
novel.
13. A startlingly attractive highwayman or
highwaywoman, riding a supernatural steed and
looking for love, with disastrous results.
14. A mournful android. His face is a work of
transcendent art. He weeps lasers. OR a
majestically malevolent gynoid who will watch the
world burn.
15. Just a Pre-Raphaelite lookin’ Southern ghoul
who wishes he/she/they/it knew how to quit you.
16. The bride of a ghost, or a ghostly bride. Curious
and headstrong. Not averse to bursting into song.
17. A monster. That’s what the locals call this
sensitive survivor of a pre-human, semi-aquatic
species. Weirdly alluring. Superhuman.
18. The local mayor. At night, her head pulls free of
her body, taking the spine and entrails with it, and
flies off in search of prey.
19. A telepathic, telekinetic hacker who can make
heads explode by thinking about it. Hasn't
recovered from the 90s.
20. A pure green absinthe dream. Made real and
experimenting with becoming a nightmare.
8. A band of scientists. Smiling, polite, too polite,
This Will Hurt You Precisely As Much As It Hurts Me. solicitous, inquisitive, eager. What do they want???
The Villain can voluntarily reduce their success track by 1 to increase all Detectives'
Doom by 1. This could be a dark ritual to draw Death closer, carving eldritch runes into 9. Animal-human hybrids. Dogs, walruses, birds, fish. A
ludicrous and tragic circus-full of unfortunate
their own flesh to infuse it with murderous power or activating a series of death traps.
creatures.
She Moves Like Sunlight On Razorblades. 10. Lost souls and shades. Weeping and begging. For
The Villain is incredibly mobile. They may have superspeed or teleportation or the help? For release? Forgiveness? A last kiss?
power to step out of mirrors or the ability to travel as mist or a cloud of bats. They can
attack any Detective in the area and prefer to switch targets regularly. Increase the 11. Ruthless, jump-suited future-people. Their clothes
Difficulty of all attempts to slow, capture or grapple them by 3. are painfully tight and the gadgets they carry are
delightfully strange.
Dark Sacrifice.
12. A decaying aristocratic family, riddled with secrets
The Villain can sacrifice themself in order to bring in an even more dangerous killer,
and petty resentments.
(with at least one more Success on their Track). This could be a literal sacrifice, using
their own lifeblood to summon a demon. Or it could be as prosaic as admitting to the 13. Nuns or monks. Pious and self-righteous. But oh! The
head of their crime family that the Detectives are too much for them - the original things that happen when the moon is full!
Villain is punished, while a ruthless hit-person is sent to dispatch the Detectives.
14. Dancing zombies.
Enforced Personality Recalibration.
15. Cuddly therapy bats.
The Villain can target any Detective and swap around two of their Stats e.g. making
their Best Stat their Worst Stat. This could be a curse, a psychic attack, a cybernetic
16. A full horror film complement of American
brain-hack, or something else. Defeating the Villain will end this effect, as will a teenagers. How are you going to keep them all alive?
suitable treatment of the Players' devising, requiring at least one Success.
17. Overdramatic Renaissance-style assassins, complete
Death Becomes Me. with domino masks, daggers and long swishy cloaks.
A single Success is all it takes to kill the Villain, even if the Detective wasn't really
trying to kill them. (Have fun with this.) 18. Grim cultists, in search of sacrificial material.
Hidden tattoos, secret handshakes, eldritch curses.
They will soon rise from the grave however, and they won't die the same way twice.
Don't follow them into the basement!
This is due to vampirism, a magical artefact, cloning, body-hopping or something else.
The Detectives will need to find a way to contain them or kill them permanently. 19. Alien clones that scream at socially inappropriate
moments.
Paradigm Shift.
20. Cannibals! Either a friendly suburban family or a
The Villain has a way of changing the setting of the Case. They may have a time
decidedly unfriendly clan of subterranean human-
machine which lets them escape to the past or future. They might be able to alter
descended dwellers.
reality or hop dimensions. They could have access to a portal to another realm. The
Underworld or some kind of Hell are classic choices. Think of the Labyrinth in
Hellraiser or Hell in the Sandman series.

Mark Hunt (Order #34017691)

© Richard Marpole 2021
 Beautifully Gothic Villain Generatortron 3000!
Want someone unique to serve as a Villain, Suspect or Tragic victim? Roll on or pick from as many of these four tables as you like.
Feel free to tinker with the machine by picking multiple options from the same table or throwing in your own ideas.

Gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, disabilities and other matters of identity are up to you. Be inclusive, be kind.

Adjective Form Profession Interesting Fact

Choose one of the words next to the Do they wear this guise all the time? Or can What do they do all day? 1. Enjoys Period or Goth Lolita fashion.
number you rolled/picked. Or more than they pick it up and cast it off like a cloak?
one, or a mixture. It's your Villain! 2. Summons the dead. And/or has a body in their car/carriage/luggage.
1. Bat/Raven/Crow 1. Lady/Gentleman/Dandy/Dilettante/Libertine/Rake
1. Artful/Androgynous/Athletic 3. Wears the night like a cloak.
2. Skeleton/Mummy 2. Barber/Butcher/Hunter
2. Time-travelling/Tormented 4. Has blades instead of hands.
3. Werecreature
3. Doctor/Scientist/Genius/Surgeon
3. Victorian/Vicious/Vivacious 5. Keeps extremely dangerous and hungry pets e.g. carnivorous plants, tigers.
4. Zombie/Revenant/Ghost
4. Dancer. Ballet perhaps? Or something modern?
4. Lithe/Languorous/Lissom 5. Fallen angel 6. Brings bad luck to anyone they touch.
5. Funeral Director
5. Cybernetic/Robotic/Reanimated 6. Creation of twisted science 7. Sleeps in a coffin and does it with style.
6. Femme Fatale/Homme Dangereux/Personne Mortelle

!!GNINTHGIL EROM
6. Delicate/Deceitful/Dearly Departed 7. Weirdly human-looking alien 8. Puts on sunglasses even when it's dark.
7. Torturer
7. Romantic/Dashing/Purehearted 8. Cat person or literal panther 9. Waxes lyrical. Or, has more limbs than you'd expect.
8. Crime Scene Investigator/Mortician
9. Giant spider
8. Lethal/Highly Trained 10. Possesses power over nightmares.
10. Hellhound or painfully thin urban legend 9. Agent/Spy
9. Spikey/Pierced/Tattooed/Modified 11. Can step into any mirror and step out of any other.
11. Goblin royal or Dark Lord/Lady/Master 10. Assassin/Hit-person
10. Sarcastic/Sardonic/Seductive 12. Always appears if you say their name three times.
12. Living nightmare 11. Sorcerer/Necromancer/Spiritualist/Medium
11. Croaky/Smoky/Throaty/Booming 13. Has lived for centuries. And/or wears skulls.
13. Some sort of vampire - Impundulu, Yara-Ma- 12. Cultist/Priest/Monk/Nun/Hermit
12. Flirty/Vampy, but in a scary way Yha-Who, Langsuir, Upir, Lamia, Penangallan, 14. Dances with The Devil.
Vyrkolak, Skademagutc, Bukwus.
13. Pirate/Corsair/Buccaneer
(Go on, look them up, have fun.)
13. Bloodthirsty/Beautiful/Bitey 15. Has a truly monstrous family.
!doolb ,doolb ,doolb hO

14. Animal-human hybrid or chimeric being 14. Explorer of new horizons/worlds/sensations/people

14. Poisonous/Addictive 16. Has a body you could bounce silver coins off of.
15. Artificial life-form or robot 15. Detective. A potential rival?
15. Intelligent/Cunning/Scheming 17. Grew up in an isolated mansion/castle or was locked in an attic/basement and
16. Formless horror 16. Innocent youth or maiden knows little of the world.
16. Curvy/Svelte/Chiselled/Large
17. Human? 17. Courtesan/Gigolo 18. Is the last surviving member of a lost people.
17. Hypnotic/Honourable/Haughty
18. Incubus/Succubus.
18. Drummer/Frontman/Bassist/Guitarist/Vocalist 19. Plays the piano, the violin, or some other suitably dramatic instrument.
18. Gorgeous/Gunslinging/Gregarious
19. Faerie. (The terrifying kind.)
19. Merchant/Businessperson/Executive 20. Has “Come to bed so I can suffocate you with a pillow” eyes.
19. Cursed/Cruel/Chaotic/Cute/Creepy 20. Siren
20. Historical warrior or monarch Did it work? If not, summon extra bats and double the amount of lightning.
20. Sombre/Savage/Sensual

It lives!

Mark Hunt (Order #34017691)

© Richard Marpole 2021