Suggestions for a Villain

**Twilight** · May 1st, '03, 07:44 PM

Alright you fine people, as you may have guessed from the topic, I've thought up a new villain and would like to get your suggestions for powers and such.

The villain is called Mack the Knife, yes the guy from the song of the same name. Since he's a villain with his very one song he's going to be famous in my game world, almost an urban legend.

That said, what powers should the guy have? I mean obviously he's got the knife, but what else?

**Velocity** · May 1st, '03, 08:17 PM

Buy the guy a desoild, find weakness, buy the knife affects physical world, and buy his strength the same. Have at least one PC who can hit his special effect or has an affects desolid (so they have a chance) and give him a good combat value, speed, life support and an immortality based regeneration.

It's like a creepy ghost serial killer, who always comes back every few years. I think that would strike fear into the hearts of players, as well as being a scary mystic type foe.

**Brick** · May 1st, '03, 11:13 PM

There was a character in the Wild Cards book series based on that song. He had Desolidification and a very mean HKA - he could vibrate his hands like buzzsaws. A totally psychopathic killer... Read the series, it's brilliant.

**Killer Shrike** · May 1st, '03, 11:26 PM

Mackie Messer aka Mack the Knife was a very very cool character. Probably one of the best power sets in the series too.

He could vibrate his molocules hyperfast, which gave him effectively desolid, and his hands could shear through anything.....uh, except Golden Boy IIRC.

He was also a twisted little rhymes with mandarin duck and was under the control of the Puppetmaster for awhile, who used him as the perfect assassin. Literally, unless you were Golden Boy or maybe John Fortunato or Dr. Tachyon when the writer du jour hadnt decided he was a total incompetent, you were pretty much screwed.

**death tribble** · May 2nd, '03, 01:54 AM

Except he got his head blow off by the guy who could make you die by meeting your gaze.

Have the series and the Gurps conversion book.

Just don't mention the Vietnamese villain.

**Twilight** · May 2nd, '03, 05:35 AM

Desolidification?
I have maybe one character who can for sure nail somebody with that power.
I mean sure it would make him really scary but....

I just had images of most of my players getting slaughtered here. Perhaps I should be more specific. The character is a Golden Age character for one.

My players are a TK-defined flagsuit brick, a genius with a rocketpack, a female doctor with animal powers, a Blonde Phantom type character, a Batman style vigilante, a Guardian type character, a Native American shaman and a stretchy guy in a bright orange zoot suit.

Perhaps you could suggest skills and powers that would be scary to these guys and gals without overshadowing my already established big bad.

**Tom McCarthy** · May 2nd, '03, 05:52 AM

Perhaps a non-superpowered option ?

I think I saw a comic where Mack the Knife was just a nasty and highly competent normal whose profession was assassination for hire. A knife or two, some martial arts, and the kind of stealth, investigatory, and tactical skills most superhero teams should but don't include.

You might start out with Mack doing some odd jobs and silencing some stoolies, then move up to the point where they foil a job or two of his, then he starts to hunt the heroes and they manage to bring him down. By the climactic battle, maybe he's knicked one or two of them, and maybe he's learned some vulnerabilities and susceptibilities.

Or you can go way out on a limb and have Mack be possessed by a demon with blade powers. 2D6 HKA Penetrating starts to scare heroes pretty quickly if they're not used to losing BODY. 1D6 HKA AVLD Forcefield Does BODY or NND[Forcefield] Does BODY really scares them...

You can fool the players, too. Maybe it's Mack the Night, not Mack the Knife. He carries a knife, but has darkness field (personal immunity), teleport between shadows, clairsentience through shadows, desolidifcation (doesn't protect from damage) and only comes out at night. That old 'misheard the name/song lyrics' kind of an error (...the girl with colitis goes by...).

**Twilight** · May 2nd, '03, 07:36 PM

Oh I assure you Tom, it's Mack the Knife.

In my game he's somewhat of an urban legend and quite feared amonst those who know even part of his story. I figure he's got the rep: uber nasty badass killer at 14-

The limited desolidification thing is good Tom. Figure he has it with RSR: Acrobatics or only while dodging. That way he avoids blazes of police gunfire easily, but still has to run when they bust out tear gas. It also means if the heroes get close, they can hurt him.

Good ideas there Tom. Not that the rest of ya didn't have good ideas, they were just WAY to nasty for the power level of the game I'm running.

Also, perhaps a cosmetic transform to clean up after a kill. The song says he wears fancy gloves so theres "never ever a trace of red."

What do you think people?

**Wyrm Ouroboros** · May 4th, '03, 02:16 AM

Mack the Knife should be a very, very, very competent normal, the 'Leon' of your superhero world. Levels in DCV, levels in the weapon of choice (i.e. the knife). Smarts. Contacts. The intellectual capacity to do research, you know? This isn't the guy who's going to be doing backflips and karate moves on the superheros; this is the guy who's going to be sneaking around until he gets an opportunity to put a blade into a kidney.

Powers? The knife. A garrotte, perhaps. CV levels. Find Weakness up the yin-yang. DCV levels. Oh, and 'Vanishing Teleport'.

Go see 'Leon', aka 'The Professional', for inspiration.

**Twilight** · May 4th, '03, 05:48 PM

Oh I completely agree with you Wyrm. He's definetly not gonna be karate chopping or backflipping. But he will be slipping through the shadows as the police guns blaze at him, yet never getting hit, the cops on the other hand....*evil grin*

Any other ideas? *takes notes*

Liked the vanishing teleport bit, good thing you reminded me about that.

**Killer Shrike** · May 4th, '03, 06:45 PM

Originally posted by death tribble
Except he got his head blow off by the guy who could make you die by meeting your gaze.

Demise? I guess Ive forgotten about that bit, although I do remember Demise running around the convention; he almost killed Golden Boy (

). His head actually exploded huh?

**dbsousa** · May 5th, '03, 03:47 AM

Go to the Source...
The ThreePenny Opera is a Kurt Weill/Berthold Brecht Musical that equates capitalism with organised crime.
from Culture Vultures...

Macheath ("Mack the Knife") heads up the thieves division. His men tremble before him, he's got the police well greased, and women compete for his sexual attentions. He has impregnated his lover, Lucy, he marries Peachum's daughter Polly, and he still has a passionate connection with hooker Jenny.

Perhaps Mac the Knife is a symbol in your game for the failure of the system to provide justice. He sits at the top of a vast criminal empire, acknowledging no law but his own. Everyone knows him, but no one provides the same description. He has an empathic mind control that make men see that which they fear, and women that which they love...

**Twilight** · May 5th, '03, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by dbsousa
Go to the Source...
The ThreePenny Opera is a Kurt Weill/Berthold Brecht Musical that equates capitalism with organised crime.
from Culture Vultures...

Perhaps Mac the Knife is a symbol in your game for the failure of the system to provide justice. He sits at the top of a vast criminal empire, acknowledging no law but his own. Everyone knows him, but no one provides the same description. He has an empathic mind control that make men see that which they fear, and women that which they love...

Well I really hadn't intended to get that psychological with the whole thing, I just wanted a big scary villain around before I brought in the Nazi's.

However the idea of Mac having a vast criminal empire appeals to me. Something for them to work towards before the Nazi's start hogging the limelight 24/7.

Good idea sir, I'll add it to the list.

**Dr. Anomaly** · May 5th, '03, 07:57 PM

A "vanishing teleport" is a good gimmick for somebody like this. So is the "super stealth" -- Invisibility vs. Hearing, RSR. Or perhaps Invisiblity Only in Shadows.

For an extra 'twist', buy him a competant norm follower, x128 -- and make them the local police force!

In other words, he's so hard to catch not only because he's good, but he's also bought off and/or scared s**tless the entire local police force. This would also give him an excuse to have good Contacts for info. ("So...the Champions of the American Way are setting a trap for me at Lovette Bridge tonight, eh? Good job, Mahoney...I guess that pretty little five-year-old daughter of yours doesn't get an extra smile below her other one tonight after all.")

**Twilight** · May 5th, '03, 08:06 PM

Dr. Anomaly that idea simply rocks!

Most definetly have to use that one, though I'm not going to say online just WHO his follower will be, just in case my players are watching. Suffice it to say he's somebody who can cause a lot of trouble for my players. *evil laughter*

Of course, Mack hasn't just scared the local police force shitless but the local Mafia as well. Even the local mob boss steps carefully around Mack the Knife!