Libra of The Zodiac Conspiracy

[bryanb]

Hi All,

I am attempting to do a write-up in 5th Ed for ths character from the 4th Ed module The Zodiac Conspiracy but am having difficulties. The description given for her powers is not descriptive at all. How does her Transform work (what are it effects)? Why does she have an EGO to END Transfer? Does she shapechange forms including growth and shrinking or is she a kind of Ant-woman to giant-woman character?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks
Daz

[Vondy]

Her powers came from a government experiment called SHIFT (Super Human Infantry Field Trooper) she volunteered for that involved... you guessed it: exposure to radiation. Why the government would select a 16 year old civillian female for a test subject when the goal was producing super-powered combat infantrymen in a military that uses all male front line combat troops I don't know.

She has a hefty multipower [75 points] with:
shapeshift (the whole deal)
Growth (30 PTS)
Shrinking (30 PTS)
2d6 Major Transform, Variable, Cummulative

And FIND WEAKNESS

She also has some armor she wears that seems to change size and shape with her. And power defense.

It mentions a power transfer attack to convert ego to end in the description, but doesn't list it on the character sheet. It would probably be another slot in her multipower. It also notes she has a hard time with transforming objects that aren't inanimate, but doesn't list a disad on the character sheet.

She seems to be able to do anything related to altering matter, and as an extension, should be able to convert types of energies. I think they used the transform because defining a VPP would have been a nuisance.

[RDU Neil]

I used the Zodia extensively, and always translated Libra as the most dangerous one of them all, potentially. I perceived her powers to be molecular transformation... i.e. she could create, change or destroy just about anything she wanted, given time. Over the years, she got more and more powerful, in my game. Very scary.


In the end, she was redeemed by a PC hero, and after Zodiac (kind of a gray team in my world) left their space station to colonize the moon, she transformed herself into a miniature sun that brought life to a "Genesis Cave" type colony that they created on the moon. The PC retired to tend this garden, always talking to the sun as he worked, since they had been in love before she transformed herself.

[Fur Face]

Dude, I've heard of "You are the light of my life", but never like that! :D

Actually, that sounds like the way cool ending of a story that could only happen in gaming. Congratulations!

[Crimson Arrow]

Originally posted by RDU Neil

In the end, she was redeemed by a PC hero, and after Zodiac (kind of a gray team in my world) left their space station to colonize the moon, she transformed herself into a miniature sun that brought life to a "Genesis Cave" type colony that they created on the moon. The PC retired to tend this garden, always talking to the sun as he worked, since they had been in love before she transformed herself.

Very touching. Actually, I was thinking that this is the sort of thing characters in Star Trek (especially the original series) do. I can imagine it happening in a superhero comic, but two years later, Libra would have turned evil and the heroes would have to defeat the sun or something equally silly which spoiled the beauty of the oirignal ending to the story.

[RDU Neil]

Thank you

[RDU Neil]

Originally posted by Crimson Arrow
Originally posted by RDU Neil


Very touching. Actually, I was thinking that this is the sort of thing characters in Star Trek (especially the original series) do. I can imagine it happening in a superhero comic, but two years later, Libra would have turned evil and the heroes would have to defeat the sun or something equally silly which spoiled the beauty of the oirignal ending to the story.

One of the reason I game is to do the comic stories the way "I" think they should be done. I still remember reading Uncanny X-Men#137 "Death of Phoenix" and #138 "Ellegy" and feeling so moved at the sacrifice that was made... not only by Jean... but by the creators in sacrificing a great character.

Later, when Byrne brought Jean back, I was incensed. I quit buying Marvel comics for a long time, and to this day, only buy a few. By destroying the validity of one of the most classic comic tales ever, they ruined my faith in the Marvel Universe. :mad:


Those quiet or moving or happy or tragic endings MAKE the game... because they are endings. A character's story has been told. The world moves on... new characters are explored... but that tale is now part of myth... and is more powerful for that.

No resurrection for Libra as long as I'm alive.

[Killer Shrike]

D-Man: Yeah, those whacky Army Generals and thier pet supers projects :rolleyes:

:D

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike
D-Man: Yeah, those whacky Army Generals and thier pet supers projects :rolleyes:

:D

I always figured that the powers-that-be chose criminals, addicts and other "people society wouldn't miss" for super-creation experiments because they stood a good chance of dying from the untested processes. IIRC Libra was at that time a broke, homeless street kid who needed the money the govenment was offering.

[RDU Neil]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden
I always figured that the powers-that-be chose criminals, addicts and other "people society wouldn't miss" for super-creation experiments because they stood a good chance of dying from the untested processes. IIRC Libra was at that time a broke, homeless street kid who needed the money the govenment was offering.

Help me out here... what the heck does...

... IIRC...

... stand for?

Everyone uses it, but I have no clue.

[DocMan]

Originally posted by RDU Neil
Help me out here... what the heck does...

... IIRC...

... stand for?

Everyone uses it, but I have no clue.

If I Remember Correctly.

IIRC. :)

Doc

[RDU Neil]

Originally posted by DocMan
If I Remember Correctly.

IIRC. :)

Doc

Light is dawning in my dark mind at last.

Thanks, Doc.

[Lord Liaden]

Neil, should you or others be interested, several of us recently compiled a list of the abbreviations most commonly used on the boards:

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly

LOL = Laugh Out Loud

ROFL = Roll On Floor Laughing. Often combined with

LMAO = Laughing My A$$ Off

AFAIK = As Far As I Know

OTOH = On The Other Hand

BTW = By The Way

IMO = In My Opinion. Common variant is

IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

FWIW = For What It's Worth

IOW = In Other Words

FLGS = Friendly Local Game Store

To get back sort of on topic, the problem bryanb has with Libra is shared to some extent by several of the Zodiac members - inconsistencies between their character sheets and their background descriptions. I usually tried to include those elements in the text that didn't make it onto the character writeups, like Taurus's Variable Power Pool or Sagitarrius's investigative skills.

On a more general level, while I found the Zodiac to be an intriguing collection of diverse characters with the most sophisticated battle tactics of any published Champions team, I did feel that they lacked the support "on the ground" that a group with ambition of world domination needs: agents, facilities, communication and control network, etc. My approach was to make several Zodiac members people of power and influence in their own right, based on their backgrounds and abilities. Libra for example, murdered and then disguised herself as a rising young corporate executive, eventually taking control of his company and making it a major economic player.

Scorpio assumed the leadership of his ninja clan, putting it at the service of the Zodiac. Pisces seized the throne of Atlantis. Gemini became head of a prestigious law firm with ties to both government and organized crime. Sagittarius used her modelling agency to recruit "escorts" for the political and economic elite, seducing damaging secrets from them. Aquarius became monarch of his own European state. Capricorn founded a coven of sorcerors. Cancer led a brigade of duplicates of himself grown from the fragments of his crashed spacecraft, all of whom were Mind Linked to him. While Taurus learned to utilize the shape-shifting power that was part of his Olympian heritage, and with his vast knowledge and experience assumed several guises as experts in diverse fields, all of them trusted advisors to various world leaders.

[Crimson Arrow]

Lord Liaden - that would have been a frightening team to face - a JLA level threat to the world.

[Lord Liaden]

Yes, the Zodiac was the principle menace in that campaign. I took a "multiple lines of attack" approach with them: the PCs did not a first connect the supervillain team they'd fought with attacks by ninjas, or raids by Atlanteans, or the lawsuits they were hit with, or harassment by the government, etc.

Occasionally, though, they would receive anonymous tips regarding major Zodiac activities that eventually helped them connect the dots. Remember the Zodiakos Kyklos, the sentient alien orbital base for the Zodiac discovered by Taurus? I decided for the purposes of this campaign that the origin story the ZK gave Taurus was a fabrication. The base was actually Danu from Kingdom of Champions, the Progenitor construct left behind to monitor the results of Progenitor experiments on the human genome. Danu used the Zodiac to help it gain more firsthand information about humanity. It had little concern for the political changes that Taurus and his group were implementing, but if their schemes threatened widespread loss of life or interference by aliens or extra-dimensional entities, Danu would send clues for heroes to enable them to intervene. Sometimes Danu would arrange for confrontations with the Zodiac just to test how far mankind had developed its potential.

This information came out in the PC's final confrontation with the Zodiac. It was a truly affecting moment when Taurus, the immortal demigod who had manipulated human affairs for millennia, learned that he had been someone else's pawn. The Zodiac collapsed after that. Several members were imprisoned or dead, although Pisces, Aquarius and Scorpio retained their freedom and power base for some time, but Taurus withdrew from world affairs and became a recluse. The PCs did consult him a couple of times for help with particularly tricky conundrums, though.

[RDU Neil]

Liaden,
Thanks for the info. I had the Zodiac be major players in my campaign for years, but not necessarily as threats. Taurus, based on his origins and wisdom, is not interested in world domination, as much as guiding the world to a better place. Some of the Zodiac members were mistakes, and bad apples, and eventually the Zodiac fell apart, with the really villainous ones going off, as the rest became allies and mentors to heroes.

The living spacestation I had turn out to be one half of a massively powerful Progenitor tech simply called "Ship" with Dr. Destroyer with the other half. After ten years of my campaign, the big final battle with Dr. D was to stop him from combining the two artifacts into one, under his control. Dr. D was stopped and killed... "uh... correction... he died of natural causes" and the ships did combine and was dubbed Aria, because her mental contact with Locke, a major psionic PC, sounded like music to him. She turned out to be highly benificent, and turned herself into a massive "uplift embassy" floating in the middle of the Atlantic.

It was at this point that the few remaining Zodiac... Taurus, Virgo, a cloned Sagittarius and Scorpio... moved to their Lunar Base "Genesis Cave" type area. Big Guy, the PC who helped reform Libra, retired after nearly being killed by Dr. D, and became the gardener... eventually.

These days, this Lunar Cave is becoming a full fledged colony, as the human race begins moving out into the stars. Taurus is seeing some of his dreams fulfilled, as the PCs have taken on some aspects of his "mission."