CU - The Monster: Story Ideas

[Acroyear II]

I was wondering if any of you have ever used the Champions Universe villain known as The Monster (from any Edition) in your campaign. What was the background that you gave this frightening character? I'd like to use the new version from the 5th Edition, but I just can't come up with a good back story for the creature (although I'd like to go with the demon angle, that much I'm sure of). Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Acroyear II

[death tribble]

The Monster usd to appear out of fogs and attack lone stagglers in the big city.
As part of the backdrop to the campaign, Atomic Man, Ice Angel and the Magician imprisoned him on the Astral plane entangled. On one of our last visits there he was baning on the entangle.....

So now he could have got free.

With the Monster, you really don't need an explanation. It just is. Worry more about stopping it.

[Lord Liaden]

One of the many cool GMing tips I picked up from Aaron Allston's Strike Force is that you don't always have to work out a detailed backstory for every character you introduce into a campaign. Sometimes it's better to let the campaign do that for you. With some characters and their plot elements (and I think the Monster is a prime candidate), as long as you as GM have a general idea of how you want to use him, you can leave the character's background mysterious until developments in the campaign create the perfect tie-in for him. Then you can tell your players that that's what you intended for the character all along, and look like a genius.

[CBikle]

In my games , the Monster was always used as more of a henchman (although a hard to control one).

Always had kind of a "Solomon Grundy" type feel.

[Champsguy]

I always thought of him as a Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th)/Nyarlhotep (Cthulhu mythos)/Randall Flagg (The Stand) crossbreed.

[Uncle Shecky]

The GM I played with most often used the Monster sort of like a hunted for which we got no points. The Monster would just fixate on a hero and keep showing up: always on dark stormy nights, while the hero is on a stake out or just trying to enjoy a night off.

It was especially scary for Nightfall, my 200 pt. martial artist with no resistant defense. The Monsterreally scared me when I was playing that character, because I couldn't stop the Monster or survive his attacks. He became more of a force that drove the story, not a villain I had to defeat. I just had to stay on the run from him and find out what had caused him to pursue me (turned out to be a curse). This was one of my favorite gaming experiences too. It's frustrating for players when they must defeat opponents that are far too powerful for their characters, but I loved knowing I could "beat" the Monster by watching my back and solving the mystery.

[wcw43921]

This is the idea I had for the Monster's background--of course it isn't official, so take it as you will.

A medieval wizard summoned a demon, killed it, skinned it, and used the skin to make a magically-endowed "costume," thus enabling him to use the demon's strength and power without having to appease the demon's appetites. After the wizard's death, the Monster costume, including the cloak, hat and demonskin, disappeared until its recent discovery, by person or persons unknown.

Now the Monster's skin, while of demonic origin, is not of itself evil--but those who seek it out usually do so to further their own selfish or vengeful ends. It is possible that someone may one day wear the Monster garb and skin to do good and destroy evil--but this is not that day.

[Siberian Tiger]

Although I never got round to developing this concept or using it in my campaign, I always imagined the Monster as a representation of urban decay. Had some vague thoughts about the Monster travelling (teleporting) from city to city, committing murders and atrocities and then moving on again. The heroes would need to work out the pattern of attacks and detect when the Monster would strike again.

[Balok]

I would go out of my way *not* to provide a background for the Monster.

Think of it: the characters check their scientific sources, their mystical sources -- and they draw a blank. What could be more terrifying?

And that's the purpose I see for the Monster -- he's the embodiment of horror, and as such, it shouldn't be possible for mere mortals to explain him. Oh, sure, there's a reason, someone (something?) somewhere knows. But the characters never will.

A reminder that no matter how good they think they are, there will be things they don't understand.

[Redmenace]

In my campaigns the approach was always to make him a "local Legend", kind of like a boogie man or the urban legend about the escaped lunatic with the hook stalking lover's lane.

This is just an oppinion, but the unknown quality of the character seems to generate a lot of his mystique. When you quantify him with a backstory it diminishes him to "just" another bad guy.

Okay that might not be very helpful or in the direction you want. Here are some alternatives.

Psychic manifestation- Maybe its all the fears felt by earth's peoples manifesting or maybe a latent psionic is subconsciously creating him. He becomes physical for a time, or ectoplasmic whatever, and can be defeated and destroyed.

However, as long as people are afraid of the dark he'll be created again somewhere. Maybe a villain who uses phobia projection or fear gas is triggering his latest appearance and the key to knocking off the monster is stopping the other guy.

Fallen Hero- Maybe he is a former hero who was believed lost on some supernatural mission and long believed dead. In fact they have been held captive and brainwashed, cloned or just corrupted by constant torture. Maybe he is redeamable and maybe he's just too far gone. If you have older characters maybe he was a former team mate. That could jibe with the demonic idea- what better revenge against humanity than to turn one of it's defenders into a predator?

[Uncle Shecky]

Originally posted by Redmenace
... This is just an oppinion, but the unknown quality of the character seems to generate a lot of his mystique. When you quantify him with a backstory it diminishes him to "just" another bad guy.

Okay that might not be very helpful or in the direction you want. Here are some alternatives.

Psychic manifestation- Maybe its all the fears felt by earth's peoples manifesting or maybe a latent psionic is subconsciously creating him. He becomes physical for a time, or ectoplasmic whatever, and can be defeated and destroyed.

However, as long as people are afraid of the dark he'll be created again somewhere. Maybe a villain who uses phobia projection or fear gas is triggering his latest appearance and the key to knocking off the monster is stopping the other guy.
...

I agree with the idea that the Monster is best left unexplained, but if you like the psychic manifestation idea, you might want to take a look at the first "Asto City" collection. The Living Nightmare fits that idea exactly. He's only a small part of one story, but it might give you some ideas. (And you should buy Astro City anyway, because it includes some of the best comic book stories ever made.)

[Agent Escafarc]

Originally posted by Redmenace

This is just an oppinion, but the unknown quality of the character seems to generate a lot of his mystique. When you quantify him with a backstory it diminishes him to "just" another bad guy.

Too bad Marvel forgot this about Wolverine that and the over-exsposure of the X-Men in general.

[Marchwarden]

The Monster is supposed to be a mystery, true...but if it becomes clear to the players that the mystery is unsolvable by GM fiat, they'll give up trying.

I'd say that the unraveling of the Monster's story ought to be possible, but only as the result of prolonged and heroic effort. If the PCs don't rise to the bait when they encounter the first teaser clues, then the Monster can remain an enigma forever (no sense shoehorning the players into a multipart adventure if they don't seem interested in the plot). If, on the other hand, they seize upon it and swear to unmask the monster at any cost, then the game is afoot.

- The sessions shouldn't run back-to-back. One clue might lead them to cross paths with DEMON, then there might be a natural disater requiring their immediate attention, then more Monster-hunting, then VIPER kidnaps some DNPCs and needs to be dealt with and so on.

- There should be at least one false trail. Perhaps a latent psychic who was terrorized by the Monster starts subconsciously releasing "psychic manifestations" of it whenever frightened or angered...or perhaps when suffering from nightmares. The PCs could spend some time "discovering" that the Monster is actually the product of someone's powerful but traumatized mind, and somehow end that threat (which will require more than just combat skills, since the person causing the problem is actually an unwitting victim), only to discover that the mental-illusion Monster was not in fact the original Monster. Sure, lives have been saved, but they've only been chasing the echo of a nightmare. Back to the drawing board, then...

- By the time they reach the end, spilling the Monster's origin won't be an anticlimax; it will be a reward well earned, and at great price. And, having hit upon a couple of false leads already, the PCs might never be *completely* certain that they know the whole truth...

[Rune]

In the Mystic Champions campaign that my GM is running, the Monster is the creation of Takofanes, the arch-liche. What was really scary was when we discovered that the Monster is not unique. Takofanes has built a number of these engines of destruction.

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Rune
In the Mystic Champions campaign that my GM is running, the Monster is the creation of Takofanes, the arch-liche. What was really scary was when we discovered that the Monster is not unique. Takofanes has built a number of these engines of destruction.

Okay, the idea of a cadre of Monsters is definitely disturbing. Particularly if the campaign is centered around super-sorcerors; spell casters tend to be less effective against stand-up super brawlers. And if they're actually the muscle for the Ravager of Men, I don't like the heroes' chances. (Which is why they have to be heroes, I guess.)

Actually, this isn't a bad idea for using the Monster with other origins. The PCs finally destroy the creature, only to have it turn up again - how it's "returned from the dead" would be a mystery the heroes would probably be eager to solve. The payoff when they have to confront multiple Monsters would be priceless... but by that point the PCs had better be very powerful, or else have discovered some weakness of the Monster(s) that they can use against them.