Villain ideas. [Related to Golden Age thread.]

[Twilight]

Alright, since you fine people are helping me out so much with the Golden Age Campaign thread of mine I thought I'd get your thoughts and opinions on my concept for one of the villians of that campaign. After all, I need him to be his villianous best when he faces the heroes. ^_^

His name is Dr. Gustav Vonderhagen, perhaps better known to some [eventually anyway] as Professor Peril! Gustav wasn't always a villain however, at one point he was a nice boy. Like many patriotic Germans, Gustav was shocked when his country was defeated in World War One. It was made all the worse for Gustav however as his beloved father Felix Vonderhagen was killed by an American soldier. At his father's grave Gustav vowed to avenge his death and bring the countries that had defeated his beloved Fatherland, and by extention killed his father, to thier knees particularly the Americans. Since his family was rich, Gustav was able to devote his life to training himself and his household in his goals of revenge. Outwardly though he seemed to be a normal member of the aristocracy. Secretly he was training in the art of terror and warfare, trained by the masters of such crafts, including the legendary Fantomas!

As the Nazi's took power Gustav was declared Ambassador to the United States, a perfect platform from which to start his plans of revenge. He chuckled as he played the stockmarkets, using his knowledge of finances in attempts to cause the Great Depression that was so hindering the Americans to be worse. As he did that he donned the cowl of Professor Peril, pretending to be an American Criminal Mastermind as he made contacts amongst the underworld. Soon, soon revenge would be his!

So....what do you think? Like him, don't like him? How can he be improved?

[Hermit]

I like anything that reminds me of "Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies"

And it's classic Golden Age. 5th Column type in misleading traps so he can fool the underbelly of America into doing his work for him. Very nice.

Perhaps he should have either a right hand man who seems totally loyal (But might not remain that way if he finds out about the full ideals/goals of the Prof.) or a beautiful assistant/daughter/sister, who might fall for a handsome American square jawed hero?

[Twilight]

Originally posted by Hermit
I like anything that reminds me of "Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies"

And it's classic Golden Age. 5th Column type in misleading traps so he can fool the underbelly of America into doing his work for him. Very nice.

Perhaps he should have either a right hand man who seems totally loyal (But might not remain that way if he finds out about the full ideals/goals of the Prof.) or a beautiful assistant/daughter/sister, who might fall for a handsome American square jawed hero?

Ahh yes, how could I have forgotten the beautiful assistant/daughter/sister? ^^

*frantically takes notes*

I'll work in that idea somehow. Also, I'm glad you like the villain so much. ^^

[Pol Rua]

Yup, Professor Peril is an excellent character!
I do echo Hermit's idea of a retinue, though. The Prof doesn't appear to be a toe-to-toe fighter, so it might be a nice idea to give the heroes some operatives to manfully sock in the jaw.
The female assistant's good... could I recommend Catherine Zeta-Jones' Valkyrie-esque (Old Villain from 40's 'Airboy' Comics) Aviatrix as a template?

Mrowwr!

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Pol.

[Twilight]

Originally posted by Pol Rua
Yup, Professor Peril is an excellent character!
I do echo Hermit's idea of a retinue, though. The Prof doesn't appear to be a toe-to-toe fighter, so it might be a nice idea to give the heroes some operatives to manfully sock in the jaw.
The female assistant's good... could I recommend Catherine Zeta-Jones' Valkyrie-esque (Old Villain from 40's 'Airboy' Comics) Aviatrix as a template?

Mrowwr!

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Pol.

Good plan! I'm glad you like the character Pol, it's very gratifying to me and you can be sure that the not so good Professor does have a retinue to help him out. After all, he was training not just himself but his entire household for his schemes of revenge. However, the sexy Aviatrix will DEFINETLY be a template for one of them [was their ever really any doubt? ]

Of course, if anybody would like to suggest specific members of Prof. Peril's retinue [as opposed to the mooks kept around for heroic jaw punching purposes] feel free to do so.

[ProfessorM@ss]

Originally posted by Twilight
So....what do you think? Like him, don't like him? How can he be improved?

I've only got one issue with the good Professor...much of the criminal underground during WWII actively helped the government against fifth columnists and other such nastiness. If the Professor is ever found out...yikes. It could get very nasty for him, very quickly.

You can find more information on the criminal underground in WWII here:

http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/08.htm

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/luciano.html

I'm sure there's more out there...

--->M@ss

[Hermit]

Originally posted by ProfessorM@ss
I've only got one issue with the good Professor...much of the criminal underground during WWII actively helped the government against fifth columnists and other such nastiness. If the Professor is ever found out...yikes. It could get very nasty for him, very quickly.

Actually, That's one thing I like about the set up. It reminds me of the Rocketeer where our main villain is revealed as a Nazi spy, and the thugs that have been working with him turn on him.

This potiential "Achelies Heel" is a nice one.

[winterhawk]

Originally posted by Hermit
Actually, That's one thing I like about the set up. It reminds me of the Rocketeer where our main villain is revealed as a Nazi spy, and the thugs that have been working with him turn on him.

This potiential "Achelies Heel" is a nice one.

Didn't Paul Sorvino say something like "I might be a crook, but I'm an American Crook!" when he discovered Tim Dalton was a Nazi? That was a cool line.

Professor Peril is a great Golden Age flavored name BTW.

[Kevin Scrivner]

Since Peril is a behind-the-scenes type who never gets his hair or his hands mussed until the final chapter, he needs some goons to do his bloodletting for him. The sexy assistant/daughter is a nice touch. But he also needs a big brute of a henchman capable of slapping around the PCs. The brute need not be stupid, in fact he should be smart enough to spy on and occasionally thwart the heroes on his own account. But he leaves the intricate planning to the boss.

You can do this in a couple of ways. One is to give the Professor one super-capable assistant, like Lothar in the Rocketeer movie. This guy can do it all: pack a pair of automatics, scale sheer walls, move as noiselessly as a cat, crack a safe, etc. The PCs will have to get through him to finally get a crack at Peril himself. The other approach is to supply the Professor with a group of henchmen, each a specialist of some type: a driver, a sharpshooter, a burglar, a pugilist, a slimey private detective, and so on. In the latter scenario, the PCs might encounter, be thwarted by, or defeat the henchmen one at a time without knowing what Peril has to throw at them next.

Also keep in mind that while masterminds of this type often had a core group of three or four henchmen as their main assistants, they also had a horde of lesser minions scattered in the most unlikely of places. The governor's pert secretary, the old man who runs the news stand on the corner, workers at any factory or construction site the PCs visit could all be on Professor Peril's payroll. The tough part of role-playing this is to make the players suspcious without having them become paranoid of every NPC they encounter. But if they chase down a clue, there should always be three to six minor goons there waiting for them.

[Trebuchet]

Besides, every pulp-era hero should get the chance to utter the immortal line:

Nazis. I hate these guys!

It was of course first used by Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. during his crusade to recover the Holy Grail.

[Twilight]

Trebuchet I'm actually gonna do my best to make that line the slogan of the campaign. ^_^

Kevin, you're right about the assistants and mooks of course. Since I want the Professor to be a recurring villain in this campaign I think he needs both a super capable assistant [one he will not hesitate to pin all his crimes on should it come to that] and the group of henchmen.

So without further ado, some of the henchmen employed by the not so good Professor. Feel free to make suggestions for these guys as well. ^_^

Jaeger: He was the Professor's groundskeeper and huntsman back on the family estate. He's a big bear of a man, Andre the Giant size. He's an excellent wrestler and boxer and knows everything there is to know about hunting. Sort of a cross between Kraven the Hunter and Fezzik from the Princess Bride. When the Professor needs muscle, this is the guy he calls in.

Herr Morderin: Literal translation, Mr. Murder. He's the Professor's valet and is also an expert sharpshooter, gunfighter, knifefighter and about a dozen other weapons you could name. Believed to have been trained by the best killers the Professor could hire and proved his skill by slaying those who taught him. He's the most likely guy to be framed for Professor Peril's crimes should that become neccesary.

Like most villains of this sort, he also employs a mad scientist, though I can't think of a good name for one at the moment. I could also use a good name for his beautiful daughter/assistant as well. Of course, given the timeline, she might end up the beautiful sister/assistant.

[Syberdwarf2]

Maybe I'm beatin' a dead horse here, I assume this Golden Age campaign is set in the Champs Universe? If so do you have any plans to use VIPER? VIPER, IIRC, got its start sometime after WWI or WWII. Anyhow, say this guy is sucessful, at least to the degree that he doesnt get 'outted'. He could be one of the driving forces behind that organizations inception. After all, VIPER was started by international corporate types....(again, IIRC)

[/dead horse mode OFF]

[Pol Rua]

Man, if I didn't live in Australia, and you didn't live in Mississippi, I'd be all over this game...

I love the idea of his Household. Okay, you've got a groundskeeper, a butler/valet and a mad scientist (I don't have my German dictionary to hand so I can't help you with the name, sorry)...

Howabout a driver? Maybe a mechanical genius who supes up the car and builds robots in his spare time... this might be a good role for a simian-looking monkeyguy (a literal 'grease monkey).

Japanese houseboy/martial artist. Could be a super-ninja/assassin in his spare time.


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Pol.

[Twilight]

Originally posted by Syberdwarf2
Maybe I'm beatin' a dead horse here, I assume this Golden Age campaign is set in the Champs Universe? If so do you have any plans to use VIPER? VIPER, IIRC, got its start sometime after WWI or WWII. Anyhow, say this guy is sucessful, at least to the degree that he doesnt get 'outted'. He could be one of the driving forces behind that organizations inception. After all, VIPER was started by international corporate types....(again, IIRC)

[/dead horse mode OFF]

While those are very good points Syberdwarf, at the moment they're a little bit beyond the scope of my campaign as of right now. At the moment I kinda have to focus on the here and now of the character so as to give my players the thrills and chills they deserve. So while he very well could end up forming VIPER at a later date [even if his identity is exposed, wouldn't be the first time shady business types have done business with a known supervillain after all] that will only come up in my campaign when and if it gets to the closing days of WW2 in game.

[Twilight]

Originally posted by Pol Rua
Man, if I didn't live in Australia, and you didn't live in Mississippi, I'd be all over this game...

I love the idea of his Household. Okay, you've got a groundskeeper, a butler/valet and a mad scientist (I don't have my German dictionary to hand so I can't help you with the name, sorry)...

Howabout a driver? Maybe a mechanical genius who supes up the car and builds robots in his spare time... this might be a good role for a simian-looking monkeyguy (a literal 'grease monkey).

Japanese houseboy/martial artist. Could be a super-ninja/assassin in his spare time.


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Pol.

Yes of course! How could I possibly have forgotten the hunchbacked assistant? ^_^ Seriously the pilot/driver is a very good idea. The family chauffeur, trained by the best drivers and pilots in all of Europe in order to become the best pilot the Luftwaffe and possibly the world had ever seen. He is the Iron Eagle!

Since the Japanese will have thier own villains to menace our heroes I'm thinking no on the Japanese houseboy, though it is a cool idea. However, rest assured there will be plans involving super-ninja/assassins and the good Professor. Most notably a far superior version of the old Marvel villain Agent Axis.

Hmmmm. Perhaps a personal astrologer who's also a sorceress?