Name. Oz, the Great and Terrible Val Char Cost 15 STR 5 18 DEX 24 13 CON 6 10 BODY 15 INT 5 15 EGO 10 20 PRE 10 10 COM 5 PD 2 2 ED 3 SPD 2 5 REC 26 END 25 STUN Characteristic Rolls: STR: 12-, DEX: 13-, CON: 11-, INT: 12-, EGO: 12-, PER: 12- Run: 6", Swim: 2", Jump: 3", Lift: 200 kg Cost Powers END/Roll Cost Skills, Talents, Perks Roll 3 Concealment 12- 3 Scholar 2 KS. Ballooning 12- 2 KS. Magic Tricks 12- 2 KS. Puppetry 12- 2 KS. Showmanship12- 2 KS. Stagecraft 12- 5 Mimicry 12- 3 Oratory 13- 3 Persuasion 13- 3 Jack of All Trades 2 PS: Aerialist 12- 2 PS: Magician 12- 2 PS: Balloonwright 12- 3 Sleight of Hand 13- 7 Ventriloquism 13- 2 Transport Familiarity. Balloons (Hydrogen, Hot Air) 2 Familiar with Small Arms 2 Familiar with Common Melee Weapons 10 +1 Overall Level 100+ Disadvantages 20 Normal Characteristics Maximums 15 Extreme Reputation 11-. Awesomely Powerful Wizard 15 Tries to Live Up to His Reputation, common, strong 15 Can't Pass Up A Sucker, common, strong 5 Sinister Little Bald Man, easily concealable 5 Unluck 1D6 1 Quirk. Fast Talker OCV: 6; DCV: 6; ECV: 5; Mental Def.: 0; Phases: 4, 8, 12 PD/rPD: 5/0 ;ED/rED: 2/0 Costs. Char.: 64 Disad.: 76 Powers. + 62 Base. + 50 Exp.. + Total. = 126 Total. = 126 Source. L. Frank Baum, "The Wizard of Oz," 1900; "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz," 1908 Quote. "I'm really a very good man; but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit." Background: Whether Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, the man who became the Wizard of Oz, is a cynical opportunist or a well-intentioned bumbler swept along by events is hard to determine. The Wizard, Princess Ozma, and Glinda the Good tell different accounts of how he came to rule Oz. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Diggs began his career as a carnival sideshow huckster and stage magician during or immediately after the U.S. Civil War. When the circus he worked for acquired a hot air balloon as an advertising gimmick, he volunteered as its pilot. He was unable to control the craft in strong winds and was swept high into the atmosphere. When the balloon drifted down again, Diggs found himself in a beautiful, alien countryside. The inhabitants of Oz, who had never seen a balloon before, hailed him as a powerful wizard. Diggs played along -- afraid to disappoint the crowd and perhaps unable to resist playing a joke on the gullible natives. Before he knew what had happened, the people had proclaimed him Oz ("supreme ruler"), regarding him with an awe that bordered on worship. Bemused, and dazzled by the prospect of wealth and power beyond his wildest dreams, he commanded the locals to build him a capital city of magnificent proportions. They did, replacing former King Pastoria's rustic encampment with a metropolis of gleaming white marble encrusted with emeralds the size of softballs. Never one to leave well enough alone, Oz required the inhabitants and all visitors to don green-tinted glasses -- supposedly to protect their eyesight from the city's blinding gleam. Over time, people became persuaded that the city was constructed entirely of emeralds. Astonished by his meteoric ascension, the territorial rulers of the nation's four provinces swore fealty to the Wizard, neighboring kingdoms sent ambassadors and traders, and united Oz entered a golden age of peace and prosperity -- until the wicked witches came. It's not easy to be a god-emperor when your opponents really do have supernatural powers and you don't. When the Wicked Witch invaded his western realm, Oz hastily assembled an army to drive her out. It was destroyed to a man by her Winged Monkeys. The good witches of the north and south did not interfere, possibly because they viewed his rule as illegitimate. Up to this point, Oz had considered his subjects' belief in magic a silly superstition. Now he cowered in his palace, further terrified by news that the Witch's equally powerful sister had laid claim to his eastern dominions. It was then that the Wizard performed the first truly despicable act of his career. Fearful that his subjects would turn on him, he seized Pastoria's infant daughter Ozma and gave her to Mombi, a would-be sorceress with whom he had traded magic secrets, with orders to keep her in hiding. However, his double defeat proved to be the Wizard's salvation. No soldiers returned from the West to tell how powerless Oz had been. And the rivalry between the two wicked witches stopped them from expanding their territories any further. The people believed that Oz was responsible for keeping them in check. His confidence shattered, the Wizard went into seclusion and pretty much let the City of Emeralds run itself. His absence added to the air of mystery surrounding him, and his reputation actually improved as the uneasy stalemate between the Wicked Witches of the East and West continued. His life of constant fear -- both of his subjects and of the witches -- explains if not excuses his second despicable act: n sending Dorothy Gale to slay the Wicked Witch of the West. When she returned having successfully met his demands Oz was even more terrified, and tired of playing emperor. His offer to take her with him to the United States in a balloon he had constructed was genuine. The makeshift craft lacked proper ballast and gas release valves, and the Wizard was unable to descend when Dorothy jumped out of the basket to retrieve her dog just as he was launching it. Oscar Diggs returned to North America as a sort of early 20th century Rip Van Winkle. He was now an old man; his friends and relatives and the world he had known were gone. He managed to get hired by Bailum and Barney's Great Consolidated Shows, again as a balloon operator. The circus was touring near San Francisco in 1908 when the countryside was torn apart by especially violent earthquakes. Diggs drifted into one of the fissures while trying to land his balloon and descended into the underground kingdom of the Mangaboos, a beautiful but heartless race of plant people. He landed just in time to prevent the execution of Dorothy Gale and her cousin Zeb Hugson, who had also been swallowed by the quake. Perceiving that the Mangaboo sorceror Gwig was as much a fake as he had been, Diggs challenged him to a duel of magic. Diggs won the contest only to have Gwig attempt to magically stop his breathing. He cut the plant man in two with a collapsible sword he carried with his props. In a manner worthy of Indiana Jones, Diggs led the children toward the surface world, fending off invisible man-eating bears in the Valley of Voe and a swarm of wooden gargoyles in the mountains beyond. When the group escaped the caverns, they found themselves in Oz. Diggs learned that his reputation had survived intact and was only too happy to pledge allegiance to Princess Ozma. The Princess, who apparently had no knowledge of his role in her imprisonment by Mombi, named him official court wizard, enabling him to retire in comfort. Diggs is a born huckster and chatters like an excited used car salesman even when he's not trying to pull something. Although player-characters may first perceive him as a comical bumbler, the Wizard can be charming, witty and persuasive. When he goes into his magic act, he becomes downright sinister. Imagine Robert Preston's Music Man with a healthy dose of Vincent Price tossed in. Powers and Abilities: Although he has no supernatural abilities, the Wizard is a masterful stage magician and probably would have earned a name alongside Harry Houdini had he remained in the United States. That he kept four witches with real powers at bay and kept the people of Oz content for four decades speaks volumes about his skill as a conjurer and confidence artist. While gift of gab is his greatest weapon, Oz is more dangerous than player-characters might expect. He's a tough old campaigner from the Wild West era, used to having to protect himself as his circus travelled across 19th-century America. He's a tolerably good shot with the pair of bulky revolvers he carries in his satchel, and his feat of slicing Gwig in half demonstrates that he's surprisingly strong and agile for a man going on sixty-something. Despite the travel difficulties that landed him in Oz, the Wizard is a competent balloon pilot and, given time and materials, can construct a working balloon from scratch. Disadvantages: After all he's been through, you'd think Oscar Diggs would settle down and enjoy a quiet retirement -- but he can't stop playing the Wizard. Although he freely admits to his friends that his magic is only pretend, his reputation is so persistent that he continues to challenge and be challenged by the would-be conquerors and their magic-wielding henchmen that keep popping up in Oz and the nations that surround it. With help from his friends, he's been able to continue his grand swindle a bit longer. Height: cm (5' 2"), Weight: kg (148 lbs), Sex: Male, Race: Caucasian Appearance: The Wizard of Oz is an old man, completely bald, and not much taller than his Munchkin subjects. He has bushy dark brows over deep-set green eyes, a beak of a nose, and a prominent chin. He normally wears a black frock coat and top hat over a checked vest and high-collared shirt, offset by a huge white cravat. On state occasions he dons an exotic black and green velvet catsuit that makes him look comical rather than distinguished; unfortunately, it's the official court wizard's uniform. =================== The Defenders of Oz Why write up the Oz crew for the Hero System? There are several good reasons. According to author L. Frank Baum, Oz is a difficult to reach but real place located on early twentieth-century Earth, much like other lost worlds such as Maple White Land, King Solomon's Mines or Pellucidar. And like them, it preserves something from the planet's past, in this case, functioning magic. It is conceivable that a hardy band of cowboys or pulp adventurers or a superhero team could stumble upon Oz during their travels. Also, the heroes of the Oz books are arguably the earliest example of a modern superhero team, predating the Justice Society of America by more than forty years. While they may not be as "super" as later protagonists, they demonstrably have abilities beyond those of mortal men. The Cowardly Lion's powerful muscles enable him to leap wide ravines and reach palace balconies with a single bound. The Tin Woodman and Tiktok are at least men of metal, if not of steel, impervious to blades and to the primitive firearms native to Oz. The Shaggy Man, while not strictly a master of men's minds, frequently gains the loving cooperation of total strangers. Dorothy Gale may not be able to bend steel in her bare hands, but she is an all-American heroine raised by foster parents on a small Kansas farm. Like Captain America of the Avengers, she's able to get her motley collection of powerful friends to work together to protect the people of Oz against evil. =================== Hero System write-up by Kevin Scrivner