Introduction

Welcome to the first installment of yet another regular column: The Gang’s All Here. This column will feature entire sets of organizations, gangs, groups, etc. that you can drop right into your game.

This first set gives you the Stryker Crusade and the Purifiers. I don’t strive for an all encompassing history of an organization, but more a general set of my favorite bits. I hope you enjoy!

Here is the format this column will follow:

• Overview
• General Characters
• Paraphernalia
• Named Characters

(All images by Marvel via Marvel Comics Database)

Stryker Crusade & The Purifiers

The Purifiers serve the Stryker Crusade, a worldwide extremist religious group whose goal is the utter eradication of mutantkind. They like to make the killings of mutants as much of a spectacle as possible, and often hang a sign which reads “Mutie” somewhere near the corpse. The Crusade uses any act of violence against them as proof that mutants are evil.

Overview

Aims

They’ll be happy when all mutants are dead, and the human race is purified of Satan’s evil plan to claim human souls within the womb, thus subjecting them to mutation.

Acts

You might find them preaching hate against mutants, spreading false “truths,” persecuting mutants, and executing them via the Purifiers.

Ties

• Magneto sees their kind as the reason his own cause is just. They are the opposition to his own vision.
• They agree with Senator Robert Kelly’s anti-mutant agenda, but don’t think he takes it far enough.
• They are feared by the mutant community in general.
• They face direct opposition from mutant supporters and advocates for peaceful mutant/human relations including the X-Men.
• (Later on)
  • The Choir is an elite winged team of Purifiers created using Apocalypse’s techno-organic virus.
  • Lady Deathstrike vowed to Rev. Stryker that the Reavers would aid the Purifiers against the mutants.
  • Led by the Human Council: an inner circle of mutant-killer Technarch/human hybrids

Players wishing to further invest their heroes in the Stryker Crusade and the larger mutant question can take the following Milestone.

Mutant & Proud

1 xp When you expose your mutant abilities in public.
3 xp When your mutant genetics become the center of a conflict.
10 xp When you bring a peaceful understanding between a group of mutants and non-mutants, or you actively take a militant stand against one side or the other.

General Characters

Purifier (Specialty Character)

Expert Mutant Hunter d8
Solo d4, Buddy d6, Team d8
Gear: Knife d6, Handgun d6 (or Assault Rifle d8), Car or Truck d8

Purifier Mob

Team 2d6 (6 purifiers) 3d6 (12 Purifiers)
Distinctions: Mutants Must Die, Zealots of Purity

Handgun d6, Knife d6, Vehicle d8

SFX: Area Attack. Add a d6 and keep an additional effect die for each additional target.
SFX: Focus. Replace two dice of equal size with one die +1 step larger.
Limit: Mob Cohesion. Defeat Team dice (with d8 stress) to reduce mob.

Specialties: Combat Rookie, Covert Rookie, Menace Rookie

Paraphernalia

Purifier Battle Suits

Armored suits with helmets and power packs on the backs with cables attached to blaster weapons on the arms.

Battle Suit (Power Set)
Superhuman Durability d10, Blasters d10
Limit: Gear. Shutdown Battle Suit and add +d6 Doom. Spend d6 Doom to recover.

Purifier Attack Helicopter

Attack Helicopter (Power Set)
Subsonic Flight d8, Bulletproof Armor d10, Weapon d8

SFX: Rockets. Step up or double Weapon die on your next roll, or spend d6 Doom to do both, then shutdown that power. Recover by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.
Limit: Airborne Maneuverability. If Flight is shutdown, shutdown Weapon as well and add d6 Doom. Recover Flight to Recover Weapon.

Anti-Mutant Tech

The Purifiers use anti-mutant tech to track, locate, and neutralize mutants. All of this gear acts against any mutant characters’ Mutant Limit. Tech examples include power-neutralizing chairs and mutant tracking devices that pick up on a mutant’s location when they use a power.

The Purifiers and Stryker Crusade call the mutant gene the “number of the beast.”

Vibranium Weapons

Weapon d10 (*Special)

Purifiers occasionally have access to Vibranium weapons which can sometimes puncture otherwise invulnerable barriers, such as Emma Frost’s diamond form.

To simulate this ability, activate a Mutant Limit and prohibit the character from using the Invulnerable SFX against the weapon.

Legacy Virus

Legacy is a virus bio-weapon designed to kill mutants.

Legacy 1 – Anyone infected that has the Mutant Limit takes d10 Physical Stress at the beginning and end of each Transition Scene.

Legacy 2 – Anyone infected that has the Mutant Limit takes d8 Physical Stress at the beginning and end of each transition scene. Once Physical Stress reaches d12, a Mutant’s highest-rated power becomes a Complication, that is only recovered when the virus is cured. Once mutants reach Physical Stress d12+ and are stressed out, they take trauma as normal and start over with the virus’ physical stress process. (And once they reach Physical Stress d12 again, another power becomes a complication!)

Named Characters

Rev. William Stryker

Affiliations: Solo d8, Buddy d6, Team d10

Distinctions
Ex-Army Ranger Master Sgt.
Controversial Preacher
“God Wants Me to Kill Mutants”

Gear: Handgun d6

Specialties: Business Expert, Combat Expert, Covert Expert, Menace Master, Psych Expert

Bio: William Stryker was a Master Sergeant in the Army Rangers. After an automobile accident, his wife went into labor. When Stryker delivered his child, he was horrified to see it was a mutant. He killed the child and his wife, placed them back in the car and, after climbing in with them, ignited the leaking gas. The car exploded, but he was thrown clear. He decided that God had shown him that Satan planned to corrupt humanity through mutation. He also decided God now wanted him to kill mutants.

William Stryker became an infectious religious leader, promoting hatred toward mutant-kind. His ultimate goal is the annihilation of all mutants.

Anne

Affiliations: Solo d6, Buddy d8, Team d4
Distinctions: Mutants Have No Right To Live, Faithful Servant
Gear: Handgun d6
Limit: Mutant. (Anne does not know she has mutant genes. This Limit begins shutdown. Add +d6 Doom and recover the Limit when her mutant abilities emerge.)
Specialties: Combat Expert, Covert Expert, Menace Expert

Bio: Anne is one part loyal bodyguard to William Stryker, and one part go-between for Stryker and his Purifiers. She is unaware of her mutant genes. They do not activate until the limit is recovered and activated for the first time.

Rocco

Affiliations: Solo d4, Buddy d6, Team d8
Distinctions: Purifier Team Leader, Loyal to Anne
Gear: Handgun d6, Assault Rifle d8, Armor d6
SFX: Anti-Tank weapon. Step up or double Assault Rifle die on your next roll, or spend d6 Doom to do both, then shutdown that power. Recover by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.
Specialties: Combat Expert, Covert Expert, Vehicle Expert

Bio: Rocco is a Purifier team leader, and answers to Anne.

Dr. Phillip Ramsey

Affiliations: Solo d8, Buddy d6, Team d4
Distinctions: Unethical, Head-Shrink
Gear: Mind Control (drugs & machines) d10
Limit: Psychotropic drugs and machines. Mind Control cannot be used on a target until a “Drugged” complication is created on the target with an Effect, or d6 from the Doom Pool (if its used on a Watcher character). Mind Control may then be used on that target until the complication is eliminated.
Specialties: Medical Expert, Psych Master

Bio: Dr. Ramsey is a psychologist/psychiatrist specializing in control of the mind through drugs, machines, and mental torture. He usually uses his mind control techniques on subjects that have already been subdued.