Roulette
(Jennifer Stavros)
Context
Roulette (Jennifer Stavros) is a Marvel Comics mutant and a bad seed. She first appeared in 1984 as one of the Hellions, and primarily appeared as a foe and rival of the New Mutants.
She comes with an interesting luck manipulation power (hence her moniker).
Background
- Real Name: Jennifer Stavros.
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: None.
- Group Affiliation: Hellions I.
- Base Of Operations: Massachusetts Academy.
- Height: 5’4” Weight: 110 lbs.
- Eyes: Blue Hair: Light blonde
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Powers and Abilities
Roulette can create Frisbee-like discs of psionic energy manipulating probabilities. Early descriptions depict white disks bringing “good luck” and black disks bringing “bad luck”. In practice she mostly throws dark red disks bringing bad luck.
The disks seem immaterial (strong winds do not appear to affect them), and seem difficult to spot. While they are usually obvious in the art, most people do not seem to spot them in-universe. Perhaps they absorb light to an extent, making them look blurry and shadowy.
Most of the time, Roulette uses her bad luck disks to make people trip, slip or stumble. A variant is to make them fumble, or make things fall on them. More creative jinxes are possible, but Roulette doesn’t seem to be the imaginative sort.
Good luck is seldom used, though it included reinforcing the Strategic Air Command’s intrusion sensors so they would suddenly detect the X-Men — or ensuring that she and Catseye would land safely on an awning when falling.
Bad luck disks are also used to play havoc with superhuman powers. For instance Roulette once made Speedball bounce with even less control than usual.
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Other assets
One assumes that she’s in good shape and trained in combat, as part of the Hellions’ regimen. On the other hand, being teleported by Nightcrawler knocked her out cold.
She’s very accurate with her psionic disks, especially as she usually throws them from behind, or at people who otherwise can’t dodge.
In combat Roulette hangs out in the back and only throws her disks when they would have the best effect. She’s not carpeting the battlefield with them. It is likely that generating a disk takes effort and she doesn’t want to do that for nothing.
History
Jennifer is the mutant daughter of an Atlantic City casino dealer. The youngest of six (four boys and two girls), Jennifer was a wayward kid. She spent time running with Atlantic City street gangs before the White Queen got to her.
For more information, see our Hellions (Massachusetts Academy) entry.
Description
Jennifer would like to be a sultry vixen and a high-roller, but was still too young to pull it off. Though now dated, her “big 80s hair” hairdos were fashionable back then. Well, by super-heroes comic book definitions of “fashionable”.
The old Marvel sourcebooks list Stavros as 5’1″ and 90lbs, but she’s not that diminutive in the art. Though she *is* the smallest Hellion.
Personality
Roulette is a bully, a troll and a troublemaker. She is almost completely self-centred. She likes to humiliate others and make them suffer – particularly nerds, and girls who might be more popular than she is. Basically she’s a bad case of high school girl-bully.
Stavros is loyal toward nothing and nobody. She has no problem harming her team-mates if she sees a reason to, or even just because it might be fun and she can get away with it.
Though she’d often associate with Empath, it was just because he could create interesting situations. She never hesitated to turn against him, even if just for a cheap laugh.
Roulette occasionally adopts a pseudo-feminist attitude. But it’s solely to aggravate people. She couldn’t care less about women who are not her.
One assumes that Frost used telepathy to make Stavros loyal to her, and even that has its limits. For instance if Roulette thinks she won’t get caught, she’ll gleefully break the rules.
Other traits
Jennifer’s roots as an Atlantic City gangbanger are evident in her speech, despite the veneer of aristocratic class Frost tried to spray on the Hellions.
Somewhere in there Stavros has non-toxic feelings. But she’s unable and/or unwilling to express these. For instance she was attracted toward Cypher (Doug Ramsey), but all she actually did was manipulate and humiliate him. Since she also found Speedball cute, she may have a thing for blond guys who are fit but not hugely muscular.
Jennifer likes what matches her definition of glamour – casinos, gambling, pool-playing, expensive alcohol, etc. She’s a bottle service sort of person.
Quotes
(Hurling a disk at Wolfsbane) “Hey fuzzy – catch !”
Thunderbird II: “He’s in agony — what did you do ?”
Roulette II: “Gave him some bad luck. That’s a real heavy piece o’ furniture, T-bird. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the boy pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve.”
Thunderbird: “You don’t sound terribly sorry.”
Roulette: “Why should I ? It was fun.”
“You know me, pal — I just love rattling people’s chains — the crazier I make ’em, the better !”
“Save the speech, Manny. You’re just doin’ this to bust T-bird’s chops.”
“Here’s a little something to speed you on your way — one of Roulette’s patented bad luck energy frisbees.”
“You a geek then, Cypher — or a player ? Me, I go for players.”
“Seems like my bad-luck disc short-circuited your powers, squirt.”
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Roulette
| Dex: 03 | Str: 02 | Bod: 03 | Motivation: Thrill |
| Int: 03 | Wil: 03 | Min: 03 | Occupation: Student |
| Inf: 03 | Aur: 03 | Spi: 03 | Resources {or Wealth}: 002 |
| Init: 009 | HP: 020 |
Powers:
Extra limb: 05, Probability control: 15, Stretching: 02
Bonuses and Limitations:
- Probability control neither has an AV nor a Range – she has to throw a disk. Use her Accuracy below for AV, and accurate range is about a dozen metres.
- The OV/RV of Probability Manipulation to bring good luck are increased by 1CS – Roulette much prefers to bring bad luck.
- Extra Limb and Stretching only to trigger bad luck events – see “I should be so lucky” below. Stretching only applies to Extra Limb.
- Extra Limb is invisible energy, and will often gain the Blindside Bonus as a result.
Skills:
Accuracy (Luck discs): 06, Thief (Concealment): 06
Bonuses and Limitations:
Thief (Concealment) is a shorthand for the APs she uses to use a disk without being spotted. For instance by having it fly very close to the ground.
Advantages:
Familiarity (Gambling), Rich friend (Hellfire Club).
Connections:
Hellions (Low), White Queen (Emma Frost, Low).
Drawbacks:
MIA toward Bullying, MIA toward Spite.
Equipment:
- UNIFORM w/PSI-SCREEN [BODY 03, Mind blank: 02, Iron will: 02].
- At one point, Roulette had a one-charge canister of knockout gas that could also neutralize even Professor Xavier’s psionic powers for a full day. But that was obviously a one-shot device stolen from the White Queen.
I should be so lucky
Roulette’s Probability Manipulation (from Blood of Heroes: Special Edition) covers many of the unusual applications of her power. Some of the mechanic are on the abstract side, but it makes for a very flexible Power.
However, most of the time, Roulette uses bad luck disks for unimaginative applications. She acts chiefly to make people trip and stumble, and more rarely to make things fall (preferably on somebody). The Extra Limb and Stretching approach we suggest is a simple way to handle such actions. Use Probability Manipulation when Roulette attempts more complex manipulations.
Imagining that she uses a sort of invisible arm to grab people’s ankles and make them fall, to push people backward, to tip heavy furniture by grabbing from the top and pulling, etc. is intended to help visualise what she can and cannot do.
What happens in-universe is that people walk on a slippery patch, trip on a shoelace, just happen to lose their balance, that a piece of furniture happens to break and fall, etc. It’s “bad luck”.
Roulette cannot use her Extra Limb and Stretching to trigger events that cannot be justified as “bad luck’ – for instance to steal the keys from the pockets of a guard ten metres away. But she could use it to make the key fall off the guard’s keyring, since it’s credible as “bad luck”.
Game Stats — DC Adventures RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Roulette — Averaged PL 4.5
| STR | STA | AGL | DEX | FGT | INT | AWE | PRE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Powers
Luck Discs array ● 11 points ● Descriptor: Luck, Mutant, Psionic
- Probability Manipulation — Luck Control 4, Action (standard), Diminished Range 1, Luck 4, Ranged, Subtle 1.
- Trip — Affliction 4 (Resisted by Dodge or Acrobatics; impaired, prone), Diminished Range 1,Limited Degree, Ranged, Subtle 1.
- Foul Up — Affliction 14 (Resisted by Will; hindered, compelled), Diminished Range 1, Instant Recovery, Limited (effects requiring physical control or movement, including power use), Limited Degree, Ranged, Subtle 1.
- Stuff Falling and Moving — Move Object 4, Diminished Range 1, Limited (things that could happen by chance), Subtle 1.
Devices
Uniform with Psi-screen ● 1 point ● Descriptor: Psionic, Technology
Mind Shield — Enhanced Will 2, Limited (mental effects).
Combat Advantages
Improved Aim, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Ranged Cover).
Other Advantages
Benefit 1 (Rich Friend — The Hellfire Club).
Skills
Expertise: Gambling 3 (+4), Perception 4 (+4), Ranged Attack: Luck Disks 5 (+6).
Offense
| Initiative +0 |
| Unarmed +3, Close, Damage 0 |
| Luck discs +6, Ranged, various |
Defense
| Dodge | 4 | Fortitude | 3 |
| Parry | 2 | Toughness | 2 |
| Will | 2 |
Complications
- Bullying and Spiteful Roulette is irrationally attracted to bullying people and taking shots at her enemies.
- Thrill Seeker Roulette thrives on the thrill of the crime.
Power levels
- Trade-off areas Attack/Effect PL 10, Dodge/Toughness PL 3, Parry/Toughness PL 2, Fort/Will PL 3.
- Point total 44. Abilities 12, Defences 8, Skills 6, Powers 11, Devices 1, Advantages 4. Equiv. PL 3.
Source of Character: Mostly X-comics.
Helper(s): Darci, Chris Cottingham. M&M stats by Pawsplay.