If your heroes had gone down a darker path

[Hermit]

Inspired in part by the "Champions of Evil" thread here. As we know, good supervillains are hard to come by. Sometimes it's a good idea to base one on a succesful good guy.


So, using our own characters... what if your super hero(s) had "Joined the dark side"? What would have happened to do it, and what would they be like?

[Supreme Serpent]

I think that its generally harder to see it happen once they're already established as a hero, barring major plot devices like insanity, "opposite alignment" thingamabobs, and so forth.

Pretty much anyone could work well with some origin changes - they're a different person at the point they get their powers, different circumstances lead them to create the power armor, etc. Change the basic nature/nurture input, get a different output.

[Battlestaff]

Battlestaff was born a Light Lord, his twin brother a Dark Lord (and currently a member of DEMON's inner circle). In each generation a pair of Light/Dark Lord's are born, always siblings, always of the same sex, always immortal. The Light Lord is inclinde toward good, the Dark Lord evil. He was inclinded toward the light all along.

However, if he had been the Dark Lord, with his incredible speed, martial arts ability, and stealth skills, he would quite effectively have become an accomplished assasin. He could defeat a large force of agents, and get to the target before the target could react. All in all, a scary thought.

[t-bear]

My hero is teleportation based using gateways instead of simply "blinging". He can use these gateways to "stretch" without crossing the interviening space. In addition, he has stealth, slight of hand, and a fairly strong case of kleptomania.

He joined the hero team he's on when all his friends at a party were killed by an evil martial artist from another dimension trying to get the attention of one of the members of the Hero team.

Had that not happend, I think it's easy to figure out what path my character might have followed...stealing whatever pretty pretty objects he came across =) Heck, his first super hero costume was stolen =)

[Blue]

Funny you should ask. With Anthem, there is a moment in the campaign where the character can turn, if I want. Though the character would be far less fun to play.

Uncle Slam has already had his preconceived notions of what the American Government stands for--shattered, and he's still on the "good guy" team. So it would take more of a public rebellion, with America itself turning on him. He'd likely go off somewhere and skulk, slowly simmer to where he'd decide that all the lives he used to take (before his CvK) and all the battles he fought were for nothing and that America must pay! But it would never happen.

Audra Blue... has already resisted a lot of evil in her life. To turn evil she would have to literally be corrupted. Being a hacker (cybernetic jacks and all), she'd likely have to have some kind of virus reprogram her. Either that or if the current team of heroes turned on her... She's actually the closest to the edge of any of my characters, and sometimes has to do things just the other side of the line.

[Nuadha]

Chango, my character in RDU Neil's game, is currenty going down a dark path. He's done what the villains usually try to do. He became a god. This can not end well....

In case your wondering, a new-born god gets an extra 300 pts to work with.

[Chuckg]

Starguard -- would have to have an entirely different early life (i.e. -- an amoral little bitca from the wrong side of town instead of a nice young woman from a good family situation) and a different origin (merged with the dying essence of a demon prince, not a cosmic entity of Good).

And with that kind of origin, well, and you thought Dark Seraph was bad...

The worst part is, Starguard is *not* stupid -- she's actually a borderline genius -- merely naive and unexperienced. So while Dark Starguard would starts out as 'Hummingbird with a clear-cut case of sociopathy and the Power Cosmic', she will *rapidly* improve in dangerousness.

I foresee a strong Rivalry with Dark Seraph and the Crowns of Krim, and an alliance of convenience with either DEMON or Takofanes. (When you have Dark Seraph as a Professional Rival, even people with 80-point Cosmic Power Pools need backup.)


Dr. Pain -- hell, Dr. Pain *was* originally a villain in his original Ninja Hero writeup, I merely changed his backstory to that of a decent guy whose 'pro wrestling heel' career was merely a stage persona, and gave him 350-point brick powers.

If we keep the same origin story, he still has to quit wrestling -- his first power manifestation was too public to be concealable. Bitter and angry over losing his career, he'd definitely go supervillain. However, since he's not stupid, and has the painful examples of many low-end bricks to learn from (especially Bulldozer's), he'd definitely not go the 'Grog Smash Puny Armored Car!' route.

Instead, he'd go join VIPER... a 60 STR brick with an MBA (OK, so I improved Dr. Pain's IQ a little too) and public relations experience should find many job opportunities as either a Nest Leader or a Dragon Branch sub-commander.


Baron von Darien -- seeing as how he's an 1100-year-old vampire elder, the timeline where the Baron is a *good* guy is the low-probability event. An evil Baron von Darien would be pretty much Baron de'Lear from 'The Mutant File', only more subtle... the secret Illuminated ruler of much of Europe, and probably the guy who actually created Eurostar by using his vampiric hypnosis to very, very subtly drive Danar Nicole insane and plant little suggestions in his brain... and then keep whispering...

Edit -- damn, I realized I'd have to find some way to keep Mentalla from noticing. Well, the simplest way is merely to bring her on board with the scheme... it's not like she *wouldn't* go for such a thing, and with a 45 EGO the Baron can actually hope to deal with Mentalla as a respected equal, not a 'mortal plaything'.

[Elysea]

Oh, let’s see. Requiem would start by settling some old scores. The Bloodsabres killed her parents and kidnapped her as an infant and trained her to be a sword-wielding black magic shocktrooper. All of them would have to die. Every single one of them. Painfully.

This might create some tension between Requiem and her Code-Versus-Killing teammates, and the Knights Templar, the order of holy knights to which her parents belonged and which recently “purified” her through trial by combat. Requiem had never thought that wielding shadow magic was evil in and of itself – she thought of it as a tool, which could be used towards evil ends or good ends -- but several members of the team disagreed, and the Knights Templar disagreed, so they forced her to give it up. She’s still kinda sore about that. After that, her new powers were/are mostly channeled into her by her parents and the powers on high. They might try to pull back on Requiem’s leash if she brutally murdered all of the Bloodsabres, so if her holy powers suddenly dried up, she’d probably turn right back around and take shadow magic back up. She would then inevitably have to wipe out the Knights Templar, and probably her teammates along the way.

After that, she would probably just want to keep fighting against the forces of darkness and evil, using their own methods and weapons against them. Of course, after you slay your own team of superheroes and a secret order of holy knights mostly out of spite, your definitions of good and evil are probably open to debate.

So if Requiem went Evil, she would fight Evil, with Evil, for Good (in her own mind).

[Chuckg]

To answer what I didn't earlier, getting caught up in my enthusiasm for Elseworlds as it were...

For my heroic versions of characters to go down a darker path...

Starguard -- it's just not happening. Belldandy is easier to morally corrupt than this kid.

(Which isn't to say that a plotline can't be written where Starguard is *tricked* into doing the wrong thing, but the thing is, the instant she finds that out she'll move Heaven and Earth -- literally -- to make up for what she's done. Making her *knowingly* serve the Dark is about as close to impossible as anything ever gets.)


Dr. Pain -- easy. He's a pretty good guy now, but he is street-smart and a former pro wrestler. Have his heroic efforts met with enough ingratitude, shaft him over legally enough, and he can eventually become bitter enough to consider joining the bad guys' team... at which point, cue the 'Kevin Armstrong career path' that I outlined above.


Baron von Darien -- can possibly become frustrated enough with the shortsightedness and stupidity of mortals to believe that they actually need more than just a fair chance to set themselves straight -- they need a wiser, stronger figure to set them straight *for* them.

At which point the Supreme Serpent had really better watch his back, because the Baron would much rather take over an existing organization with compatible purposes than go to all the efforts of making his own, especially since they'd inevitably come into conflict anyway.

And for that matter, Nama might very well accept such a happening, because the Baron's more than competent enough for the job, and somewhat less egomaniacally prone to overreach than the current occupant.

Edit -- and correction to my post above. In a timeline where the Baron is already evil by the 19th century, forget him being a European villain mastermind... Nama would have tapped him for the original Council Of Thirty.

[Lord Mhoram]

Ballistic - A supersuit excop, dismissed from the force for excessive violence (he shot and killed a teen gang member who was trying to use mind control on him, but that was never proven)....
The bad guy version would have gone more into the violence and death, becoming a ruthless murdering vigilante - not unlike the Punisher or the Blue Moon Killer (yes in my superhero campaigns these types of characters are villians).

Black Cat - She got possessed by her powers and went evil and got depowered. The badguy version never got depowered and really enjoyed the suffering she caused.

[Lord Mhoram]

Originally posted by Lord Mhoram
..
The bad guy version would have gone more into the violence and death, becoming a ruthless murdering vigilante - not unlike the Punisher or the Blue Moon Killer (yes in my superhero campaigns these types of characters are villians).

Quoting myself sheesh...

Yes - Dark Champions is the sourcebook I would have put at the very bottom of the pile after Western, Cyber, Horror or Pulp.

[The Watcher]

Warp: Oh, this one's easy. Have his father (Franklin Stone, Champions Universe page 59) get custody of him when his parents divorced when he was five instead of his mother. When your father is the CU equivalent of Lionel Luthor, it's not that big a step into turning out like Lex.

Spectrum: Hmmm, the Progenitor Probe which gave him his powers could have also driven him mad when it mindlinked with him, causing him to turn into an insane and immensely powerful engine of destruction.

Mystic: Delving into the wrong types of arcane lore early in his career could have possibly driven him mad, or seduce him onto the path of darkness.

Proteus: Well, he was originally discovered in the abandoned lair of an unknown super villain by a super hero team. If the super villain had never left but had raised Proteus for whatever purpose he was originally intended for, Proteus could have easily turned out to be a villain.

[Crusader108]

Skyknight was an Air Force fighter jock who ran into trouble for failing to obey an order to saturation bomb an enemy controlled village during the Gulf War in order to prevent the death of the innocent civilians. To make him a villain, change that bit of origin and have him bomb the village...and LIKE IT. He would still recieve the experimental airborne combat suit since his father, General Tasker, was in charge of the project. Instead of suggesting he conduct the suit's field trials as a member of a superhero team, he "arranges" the suit's theft and takes up with VIPER as the supervillain, Strafe, the leader of L.A's Viper Nest airborne division.

[Rook]

So, using our own characters... what if your super hero(s) had "Joined the dark side"? What would have happened to do it, and what would they be like?

This one was waaay too easy. I'm currently playing as a PC a character who is an NPC villain in my own campaign. The idea was to go back to a point before he "went bad" and have him take a different path. So I know exactly what he would have been like.

My character is a disembodied shadow with abilities that have little to do with the question at hand. He believes he has been sent by a higher power to lead "his people" (all other shadows, whom he believes to be alive) from the darkness to the light - to save them in the messianic sense.

In accordance with his current philosophy, this means helping human beings (who he calls companions) since it is through a "training period" of subservience to humans that his people learn the lessons needed to make their journey into the afterlife. He thinks of human beings essentially as nothing more than cocoons. Of course, to protect his fellow shadows, he must protect their humans. Not very heroic from a human standpoint, but at least he's on the right side.

The character as a villain is mostly the same but he believes that human beings have enslaved their shadows and that his mission is to free them. As a villain, he leads a large cult dedicated to this purpose. The decisive moment came when he confronted and killed his human half (an innocent child) to be sure that he would never again be enslaved to him.

[Mayday]

Mayday's parents died at age 2 in a fiery car accident, causing her to grow up with her grandparents who instilled a sense of noblesse oblige and responsibility in her that her parents would not have. The loss of her grandparents and parents both, could also have done it if the new guardian were out to hold onto what is rightfully hers and forced her to run away.

With her mental abilities beginning to show and the knack for lockpicking that she learned out of curiousity to know things (also hacking) it wouldn't be hard to fall into bad company and start moving up the food chain. She'd probably end up either in P.S.I., Eurostar (shes far easier to get along with than Mentalla but can be ruthless), or working for some brilliant megalomaniac as a Science Advisor/Trusted Lieutenant, wearing leather bustiers to work and learning how to use a bullwhip.

Our GM recently created a clone of Mayday. The French government decided two of their national heroine/mascot was twice as good. The clone is being raised by an Ambassador, believing him her father) and has all the wealth and gadgets she could want, a globetrotting lifestyle and not much to keep her on the Good Side. Overly heavy handed interference by the government could cause her to rebel. Offers of new 'toys'... opportunities to prove how brainy she is, even if she is only 12 could easily result in people dying and I dont see her being overly bothered if they did. Her mental powers are to be used, and invade minds she does.

Neither Mayday or clone grew up with siblings or friends their own age. Both are raised by elders of the WWII generation. Mayday has hundreds of people relying on her to keep her in line. The clone has none, and no emotional attachments to people to keep her in line.

I wouldnt be surprised if the clone knew her government and 'father' had plans to use her, and had plans of her own to counter theirs. Plans involving alot of explosions both physical and otherwise. Growing up in an Ambassador's residence, with daily access to the mind of the Ambassador, his staff, and hence to the secret information passing through them... Using their own codes and passwords, it would be ridiculously easy for her to hack the systems.

Marjorie is ruthless but her goals are for an improved (in her view) world. If her ideas of 'improved' were a bit more dark she'd have a string of ghouls in control of major political positions, would control enough criminal enterprises to buy almost any politician she didn't ghoul. Ninja assassins would hunt and slay her enemies, the world would be less polluted (she likes greenery) but her methods for inducing a greener world would destroy alot of lives. Anyone that interfered with The Plan would have to be removed, by death or by destroying their ability to cause her trouble. Their offspring as well, none of this heroic revenge in 20 years stuff for her.

She was a sorceress at one time and the change to vampire was not her choice. She'd be taking her revenge in buckets on any vampire within her grasp with only the Ancient Vampires power to hold her in check. Destroying them would be a part of her ultimate plan however. It will simply take a long time to achieve it.