Name: Octopus
Real Name: Otto Octavius

THE BRAIN
LOOK
Masculine, white, short and thin body, scientific clothing, sleek costume

ABILITIES
You don’t have any powers of your own, besides your incredible intellect. All of your amazing abilities come from inventions that you have created. You’re best known for one particular invention that you use regularly:

Prosthetic self-altering limbs, four telescoping robotic arms tipped with multi-purpose waldos. They are composed of titanium-steel reinforced with carbonadium.

LABELS
Danger +0
Freak +0
Savior +1
Superior +3
Mundane -1

CONDITIONS
[_] Afraid (-2 to directly engage a threat)
[_] Angry (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask)
[_] Guilty (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation)
[_] Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers)
[_] Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence)

BRAIN MOVES
[X] Above the fray: When you enter battle as a Team against a dangerous foe, if you have Influence over the leader and provide tactical input, add 1 Team to the pool. When you contradict the leader during the battle, you may return Influence over the leader to add an additional 1 Team to the pool.

[X] Scientific insight: You have achieved mastery over a field of science and technology. Name it: Nuclear Physics
Whenever you assess the situation and your field of study is directly relevant, you may ask a single follow-up question.

[X] Tactical genius: When you point out the obvious flaw in a known foe’s plan, roll + Savior. On a hit, you’re right, and another teammate (your choice) can take advantage; they get +1 ongoing to act on your information. On a 7-9, pick one:
- You missed something important. The GM will tell you what.
- You look like a showoff. Your chosen teammate takes Influence over you, and you lose Influence over them.
- You make your teammates feel like little more than pawns. Your chosen teammate marks a condition.
On a miss, you’ve played into your enemy’s hands; watch the trap spring

YOUR SHAME
You have a deep and abiding sense of guilt for something you have created or had a hand in creating. It could have been something you invented when you first came into your genius, or something you set into motion that you no longer have the power to stop. It may even be something beyond your ability to achieve again, this once-in-a-lifetime creation. Just as you are a world-class intellect, your shame is a world-class problem. Whatever the case may be, your role in its creation is not publicly known...yet

What is your shame?
[X] A catastrophic weapon

Whenever you are confronted with your shame, either mark a condition or shift Superior down and Danger up. If your shame is an NPC, they can never lose Influence over you.

At the end of every session, answer the question:
• Did you take steps to make amends for your shame?
If the answer is yes, mark potential. If the answer is no, give Influence to one of your teammates.

BACKSTORY
• How did you first reveal your genius to your friends or family?

By being born. Heh, well, the truth is that I was pretty curious growing up, taking in every drop of information the world provided me. I asked questions, I blazed through books and took notes on things that caught my interest. Developed my own shorthand to speed up the process, before I’d discovered that shorthand was already standardized. In short, they’ve always known, because it’s obvious.

• Why did you decide to use your intellect for the benefit of others?

Because that is what scientists do. We reach into the flame and draw it out to pass on to the commons of humanity. We are Prometheus, and it is our duty to guide them into the light.

• What accident or misfire taught you some sense of humility or responsibility?

Ah. Well, you know how kids can be. During an early science class, while we were studying potato batteries, I may have combined a few other elements to the process to make it more efficient. The teacher didn’t seem to approve, but a couple of the other students certainly did. They tried to replicate my beautiful little generator, but without an understanding of how it all worked, things got... out of hand. They’d managed to create a plasma ball in the corner of the classroom where they were stealing my ideas rather than asking me for help like they should have. It didn’t last long, mind you, it’s hardly stable in an environment like that, but that was the problem. Some yelling and screaming, some small fires, some probably minor burns. You know how it goes. I realized that knowledge in the wrong hands can be extremely dangerous, so now I do my best to make sure science remains safe for the people using it and the people

• Who helped you realize you need other people?

That would be during my second potato battery accident. It was... bigger. I was performing a demonstration of a new source of clean energy I’d developed, a small Dyson Sphere built around a microstar capable of feeding into itself for fuel. The energy output was incredible! Handling it required special equipment, which I’d also developed. You’re looking at it, in fact. These autonomous telescopic waldos helped move and control the sphere. My lap partner, Anna Maria, kept suggesting I hold off until I could make a smaller demonstration, get funding for a team to ensure things were under control. I thought I could handle it all myself, without even Anna Maria’s help. Perhaps I was trying to impress her. Perhaps I was still under the impression that my hands were the only right ones to contain this power. Either way, I was practically the centerpiece of the demonstration.

Things were going well, up until it destabilized, as she’d predicted it might. I was utterly unprepared, and could merely contain the reaction within the sphere to buy a moment longer before the blast. It took a combined effort of the city’s nuclear engineers and an unexpected appearance by Spider-Man to avert utter disaster. I could have killed hundreds of people, and would have were it not for a properly trained and cooperative crew working as a team. The whole thing would have been averted had I listened to my partner and formed a team to help carry the burden. I was arrogant to think I could do everything myself.

• Why do you care about the team?

They may not be the sharp minds I’m used to surrounding myself with, but they are uniquely qualified to solve problems the mundane folk would balk at. We each contribute something that the others do not, could not, and we are a better unit than we would be as individuals. Besides, it’s actually sort of nice to have peers my age.

WHEN OUR TEAM FIRST CAME TOGETHER...
I created something lasting and beneficial for the whole team. What was it?

Octobots! These small robots are personal assistants, and potentially offensive or defensive weapons in battle. Their main purpose is to provide a hands-free helper to use objects via the user's voice commands, not unlike an adorable Siri with eight arms. They can also connect to your cell phone or other communications device, should you so desire, and provide holographic video interface rather than holding up a screen.

They also have programming for other, less secretarial work, octobots can be ordered to restrain subdued opponents much like police handcuffs. With this in mind, you could also throw one at an enemy as a distraction, acting as a bola or simply creepy (but still cute) grasping tentacle arms.

Oh, and they'll also automatically alert the rest of the team if it detects the user in danger. You can switch that function off, but please don't. Also if you switch off or don't have your communicator on you, the long-range networking systems won't work and they'll only have the range of a decent wi-fi system. They aren't a replacement for your communicator, ja?

And don't lose them. They're expensive. Also, if supervillains get hold of them, they can connect to our communications network and that would be not good. But mostly I just can't keep replacing them unless the team chips in, and we aren't talking pizza money here.

RELATIONSHIPS
You told Stone Cold about your shame and asked them for their confidence.
You wish you could be a better hero, more like Exemplar.

INFLUENCE
You need these people as much as they need you. Give Influence to two of your teammates.

Stone Cold
Exemplar

You have Influence over
Ghost-Spider
Exemplar

MOMENT OF TRUTH
Sooner or later, all the super powers, elite training, and experience are helpless in the face of evil or disaster. That’s when somebody like you, gifted as you are with a peerless intellect, can rise to the occasion. Your plan, your invention, or your lightning-fast thought processes save the day, in a way no one else could have foreseen. Of course, after you’ve shown how different you are from them, that distance between you and the others is now that much greater. And the world is only going to pull you farther apart...

TEAM MOVES
When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask them if they felt they could have done it without you. If they say yes, give Influence to them and mark a condition. If they say no, they give Influence to you.

When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, hold 2. Spend the hold 1-for-1 to clear a condition or add 1 Team to the pool when you are with them.

POTENTIAL
[_] [_] [_] [_] [_]
Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential.

ADVANCEMENT
When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below.
[_] Take another move from your playbook
[_] Take another move from your playbook
[_] Take another move from your playbook
[_] Take a Sanctuary from the Doomed playbook
[_] Take Drives from the Beacon playbook
[_] Someone permanently loses Influence over you; add +1 to a Label
[_] Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add +1 to a Label
[_] Unlock your Moment of Truth

When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below.
[_] Unlock your Moment of Truth after it’s been used once
[_] Confront your Shame on your terms; if you survive, change playbooks
[_] Change playbooks
[_] Take an adult move
[_] Take an adult move
[_] Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your choice
[_] Retire from the life or become a paragon of the city