CRIMINAL 3 (9)

The Strange

Criminals are usually rough, crude, and harsh individuals who have suborned ethics to prey on those who follow the rules.

• Street Tough (Earth): Desperate drug dealers, protective of their prerogatives, can turn vicious in seconds. With their fellows around to egg them on, street toughs can be every bit as terrifying as real monsters.
• Bandit (Ardeyn): Anyone who takes up arms against fellow travelers out in the wilds or in the back alleys of large cities is a bandit. Those who are caught are hung from the walls of said large cities as a warning to others.
• Dissident (Ruk): Anyone who works against the power of the factions is labeled a dissident, and everyone knows a dissident is a violent criminal with no morals, looking only to score her next hit of spiral dust.

Motive: Taking what they want

Health 9

Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (4 points)

Armor: 1

Movement: Short

Modifications: Speed defense as level 4 due to shield or other equipment.

Combat: Criminals use weapons appropriate to their recursion. They prefer ambushes, making ranged attacks from hiding, and doing so in large numbers. Sometimes they spoil the ambush to issue an ultimatum before attacking: give us your valuables, or you'll be sorry. If faced with a real threat, such as a situation in which they lose a third of their numbers, criminals usually retreat.

Interaction: Criminals are interested in money and power, which means that they almost always accept bribes. They aren't fighting for a cause, however, so they rarely risk their lives.

Use: Criminals are everywhere—in a way, they are the archetypal human foe. Since criminals are not very tough individually, you can throw large numbers of them at the PCs. If you want a smaller group of tougher individuals, use a commander instead.

Loot: Any given bandit has 1d6 units of recursion-appropriate currency in addition to weapons, shields, and light armor. One bandit in a group might have a cypher.

GM Intrusion: Another criminal, hidden until just the right moment, appears and takes a shot with a ranged weapon, then joins the fray.