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Create a Villain Theme Team!


BoloOfEarth

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Twenty years ago, Kenneth Cruise was THE go-to reporter covering war zones and conflicts around the world. With rugged good looks and a magnetic personality, they dubbed him the "Cruise Missile" as he covered the most recent escalation between rival former Soviet territories in central middle Asia. Every night, viewers were left on edge as he built up the saber-rattling between the two factions as a powder keg ready to explode. Behind the scenes off camera, Cruise boozed it up with any and every woman available.

 

An eleventh hour peace accord suddenly diffused all major hostilities between the warring parties. To Cruise's misfortune, a rival channel scooped him of the story. And to make matters worse, the tabloids busted him on his carnal appetites overseas. Cruise was fired and his fiance dumped him. No longer being the darling of the media hit him hard. He continued to booze, but didn't age well. He would have easily been even money on someone's death pool or "Where Are They Now?" file.

 

All that changed 9 months ago.

 

"What would you give to be on top again, Mr. Cruise?" The gentleman's accent was hard to place, though maybe the haze of cheap liquor made it hard for Kenneth to focus. "All these peace treaties and accords...they're all built on lies. You know this, Mr. Cruise. Make them realize this too. The conflagration must never stop..."

 

Kenneth eagerly signed the contract before him. Now, as the Network's War Correspondent, Kenneth Cruise has it all again -- his looks, his fame, his pick of any woman out there. The conflicts he reports on are punctuated by ambushes and assassinations, mired by scandals, riots and failed negotiations. His one on one interviews with various leaders seem only to urge the fighting on. The wars he covers are utterly horrific...

 

...and his ratings are obscenely sky-high.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

For the last forty years, P. Palmer Peterson has been a fixture in newspaper journalism. He started off as a copy boy, then became a cub reporter, an investigative reporter, copy editor, and then chief editor. If you'll stand still long enough, he'll tell you all about his climb to the top, punctuated with stories of how he shined the "light of truth" on the rich and powerful to uncover corruption, illegalities, and improprieties galore, all using the same trusty Royal typewriter to type up his articles and editorials. Mr. Peterson was a very responsible journalist, providing fairly even-handed treatment of all people, though his critics claimed he went easy on the superheroes that operated in his city.

 

His crowning achievement, however, was becoming publisher of "his" newspaper, the Nightly Trumpet. Too bad it happened just a month before a city-spanning super-battle destroyed the printing presses and a large part of the newspaper's offices. Already teetering on the edge financially, the newspaper went belly-up shortly afterward.

 

Incensed at the superheroes that he used to support, he now uses his investigative talents and hard-earned contacts throughout the city to expose crimefighters as the "power-hungry, uncaring vigilantes" that he's positive they all are. Taking the nom de guerre of Joe Q, he has devoted his life to exposing their feet of clay, pointing out every time they lie, bend the law, or outright break the law. Some say he mis-characterizes the heroes, but he insists he's just showing them as they actually are.

 

 

His Royal typewriter is actually a magical construct provided by a thankful mystic after Peterson helped clear him of a murder charge. For years, the typewriter provided helpful details to round out Peterson's stories. Unfortunately, the force of Peterson's hatred has twisted the enchantments on the typewriter. It is now capable of actually altering background details of events (though not the main outcome or major details). For instance, if a hero helped stop a bank robbery, Joe Q can't alter the event so the robbers succeeded instead, but he could introduce a witness that links the hero to the robbers.

 

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Air Time had the sort of origin story all energy projectors talk about. Laboratory accident, radiation, yadda yadda yadda. Sure enough, when she recovered consciousness she found she could fly. Awesome! She'd no longer be mild-mannered Milly, the school newspaper photographer. Uh uh. Now she'd zip through the air and blast people with her...

 

Damn!

 

Poor Milly found that she didn't project blasts of pure energy. Nope. Instead, she projects whatever she sees and hears. She transmits her senses to everyone within several miles. Only with great concentration can she stop her transmissions -- and then only for a short time. She has no offensive powers whatsoever. But (there's always a "but" with Milly) she has recently discovered that she projects strong physical sensations to anyone within a few meters. Hit her and all the pain she feels will soon belong to you and everyone in the immediate area. Of course pain is not the only strong physical sensation Milly is capable of feeling...

 

(I'm not sure how many of these there were supposed to be, but I swore off starting another villain group for a while. So if it is time, someone else please go ahead. Thanks!)

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Money Shot (blackmailer)

Rags (streetwise)

Mr. Cruise (war instigator)

Joe Q (journalist of the famous)

Air Time (area projector of sense and emotion)

 

The Spinner

this man of a thousand faces can switch places with another via teleport

has mind scan and clairasentience

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Hmm...it seems like the prior poster finished the group, but did not give us another team....

 

The Synthetics are a group of synthetic organisms (or perhaps real people with synthetic parts and augmentations). Their individual reasons are their own, but each of the Synthetics actively seek the following goals: 1) to coerce or eliminate those in the way of scientific advancement of any kind (that includes politicians, activists, government agencies, non-profits, and private companies etc.); 2) to advance technology as quickly, efficiently, and masterfully as possible; 3) to eliminate inefficiencies in current technologies and how people use/market them. This leads to a group that's just as likely to forcibly upgrade a power plant to reduce its emissions and increase its productivity as to kidnap humans on whom to test any number of drugs or inventions.

 

10 Members

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Helix likes life. He likes things to be alive. And stay alive. He likes new things to be alive and stay alive.

 

Helix maintains an impressive library of DNA samples from living things around the world. He's even managed to get hold of DNA samples of things long dead. His machines can construct DNA sequences one base pair at a time -- or speed things up with "pre-fab" chunks -- in order to create new life forms. He started with viruses and bacteria, but has gone on to build much larger and more complex life forms.

 

Helix expends a great deal of energy and money nudging along the efforts of scientists working along similar lines. He removes threats to that research. And he insists on having samples of every new tool or life form created. Sometimes he can insist quite . . . strenuously.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The New Man - A college medical experiment to build a man made completely out of artificial organs used in medical replacements (metal hips, experimental artificial heart, lungs, kidneys, syntheric skin for burn victims, false teeth, digital eye implants, false ears, etc). They got to the point where 99% of the human body was represented, then one drunken knight the college students decide to transplant in a cadaver's brain and nervious system, jolt him with electricity, and HE'S ALIVE! No real powers, but near perfect stats, and does not feel pain. With no memory of his past life, The Synthetic Man feels he is the first of the new human race, and wants to upgrade everyone to be perfect like him. His current plan involves getting enough parts to make his mate... The New Woman.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

From the March issue of Evil Unleashed inteview of Upgrade:

 

"Fire. Fire and screams. That's most of what I remember of that day. After those terrorist pukes hit our chopper's engine with a missile, we fell like a brick. Between the explosion and the crash, most of our squad was killed outright, but Deke and I were lucky. Yeah, Deke lost pretty much the entire right side of his body, and I lost my left arm and both legs, plus messed up my spine. But the Army medics got us stable and flew us to Ramstein where some more docs fixed us up just fine. State of the art, baby, even better than new. Well, the chrome came later -- everything they put on was matte black finish, but you gotta remember they were figuring we'd be their cyber-bulldogs, doing special-ops work, that kinda crap.

 

"Deke's always been the shy, silent, brainy type. Even before the accident, we called him Cypher. And with all those sensors they hooked him up with, the name made even more sense. He can see all up and down the electromagnetic spectrum, got x-ray vision, ultrasonics, parabolic dishes, even DNA readers. He can spoof any system, too. If he can’t locate and hack it, man, it don’t exist. I’ve even seen him shut down every weapon being carried by a PRIMUS team. You shoulda seen their faces!

 

"Meanwhile, the Army docs fixed me up with a trio of new arms. The ultimate plug-and-play, I’m telling you. The most boring one has hydraulics that can lift an APC and crush titanium like aluminum foil, and it took me for-freakin-ever to get used to the extendable bendy arm. But my fave is the gun arm. Belt-fed minigun surrounding a grenade launcher barrel. Laser sighting, the whole nine yards. With my new legs, I can run faster than a Ferrari. For a grunt like me, it was the ultimate upgrade, and that’s how I picked my name.

 

“Yeah, I heard people say the Army docs messed with our minds, made us not mind all the hardware, but that’s bull. Who wouldn’t love all this fun stuff? The only thing they messed up was in thinking we’d keep working for Uncle Sam. Lincoln freed the slaves, man, so after three missions Cypher and I gave ourselves honorable discharges and went freelance. After a year or so of bouncing from job to job, we hooked up with the Synthetics. And the rest, as they say, is history."

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

I could easily see these guys butting heads with the Tesla Rangers (as upholders of "good" science) or the Luddites (evil tech vs. evil anti-progress).
In general, this is developing into something where the various villain groups could have interrelations.
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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

In general' date=' this is developing into something where the various villain groups could have interrelations.[/quote']

 

Well, since you brought it up...

 

The young male Seraphim known simply as Thomas stepped into the chamber and knelt before Archangel Michael, his eyes averted. "You called for me?"

 

"Yes. First, let me say that you did very well yesterday against the Rangers, Thomas. They might well have captured Perfection and Insight if not for your timely intervention."

 

Thomas smiled and his soft glow increased perceptibly upon hearing the praise. "I exist to serve. Utopia shall be ours."

 

"And all mankind's," Michael responded automatically. "I have a special task for you, Thomas. Have you heard about this new group, The Synthetics?" At Thomas' puzzled look, Michael shurgged and continued. "They are a new paranormal group seeking to advance the thresholds of science, sometimes to the detriment of the very people they claim to be uplifting with advanced technology." He smiled. "I wish you to become one of them."

 

"You... wish me to leave the Order of the Seraphim? To stop serving the Guardian Angels?" Thomas seemed on the verge of tears.

 

"Of course not, my son. Not fully, though to an outside observer it will appear that we have had a falling-out. I wish you to join them, to spy on them from within. And if their course of action appears to threaten our utopian ideal, get word to me and we will stop them." He paused, a small frown on his face. "Of course, to join them you must be of comparable power to them." He drew his sword, at which Thomas bowed his head even lower. When the sword rested on the Seraphim's shoulder, its glow increased to a blinding glare. When it finally faded, Thomas was no more. In his place was the White Knight.

 

White Knight absorbs all forms of radiation, transforming them into clean, blazing light that he can project from his hands and control to an astounding degree. Though he can send blasts of light at distant targets, his favorite trick is to fashion the light into a white-hot blade of pure energy, able to slice through most normal materials (wood, steel, stone) relatively easily. He can even turn himself to light for a very short time, projecting himself to another location before returning to normal. A former nuclear engineer, he claims to have split with the Guardian Angels over their reluctance to pursue fusion energy more forcefully, and the Synthetics appear to have accepted his claim (at least for now).

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The Model: android drone QRT413 was built in star sector 51/0815 almost a thousand years ago to be sent to Earth and spy on its inhabitants. Before the android could be delivered the civilization of its producers was attacked from the outside by an evil galactic empire (pick one) and completely destroyed. The star craft of the android launched automatically but it was damaged and so it took a little longer to reach Earth. Instedad of 63 months the journey lasted 832 years. Not much of a difference for an android who can turn itself off if needed. When the android arrived on Earth it was very confused. Almost none of the data it possessed matched with what it encountered. To make things worse headquarters did not answer interstellar communication attempts. After long years it found a group of beings who were willing to accept it as one of their own and helped to get along. Android QRT413 was given the name "The Model" (or Mody for some ), because it looks like a perfect female specimen.

 

The Model looks like a very slim yet athletic young woman in her early twenties, with a tanned skin and long black hair. Her eyes are steel grey and give her a very arrogant presence. She has superhuman physical attributes. Runs faster, jumps higher, lifts more and bends more easily than any other human being. The Model wears a skin-tight suit of dark blue spandex and black boots. She is six feet tall and weighs about 400 lbs. She is a member of The Synthetics but her ultimate goal i to restore contact to her home planet. She is unaware of the fact that it doesn't exist anymore, or that it ever was attacked, or that a thousand years have passed.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Unknown to the New Man, there is someone who could be his "New Woman" -- if Eve actually acknowledged him and didn't have certain obsessions of her own. Indeed, the rest of the Synthetics are unaware of the assistance they are receiving from her. Dr. Margaret McClaren is 52 years old and quadriplegic. While advances in cloning have been made, so far a successful brain transplant has eluded her. However, using sophisticated cybertechnology and neural interfaces, McClaren can control a series of androids that can pass for human (usually she uses a scout android to spy on things and people. However, she has androids for combat use if needed). Eve is her favorite "body" -- a buxom, blonde sixteen year old cheerleader "living off a trust fund after her parents tragically died in the Alps". She was the one who sabotaged ("Sabotage? Please... the obvious design flaw was on that idiot's end!") Amy Angelo's Van der Graaf generator, leading to her eventually becoming Arc Angel.

 

The one in a million "anomaly" that let Angelo survive fascinates McClaren. She's 95% certain Angelo and Arc Angel are the same. However, she's more interested in Clarke. She initially took his class as Eve because she wanted evidence on his "poor teaching". And yet, despite his flawed methods, somehow his experiments work. The fact that he's a very good looking man hasn't been lost on McClaren either, leading her to despise her broken, aged body all the more.

 

As perfect as Eve is, McClaren would hesitate about making the neural interface permanent. The android bodies right now are incapable of sensing touch, scents or tastes. And she desperately wants to walk and feel on her own again -- in a human body.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Sergeant Deathbringer: Andrew Pendleton was a field sergeant of an infantry platoon in the 2nd Desert War of the American Empire against the Baghdad League, where both sides were fighting for the magic wells in the middle of the desert. Pendleton was a known sword-master and almost legendary among the soldiers. He was wounded in an airstrike of imperial battle mages in Tikrit. Field healers saved his live and he was soon transported to Sicily where mago-surgeons and source-smiths began to forge new parts for him. All his limbs and part of his skin were replaced as well as some organs. He now looks like a walking fusion of man and armor parts.

 

A year later he returned to the front. In the mountains of the Hindukush he and his men were hunting terrorist mages. One day they confronted a whole bunch of them. The terrorists wiped out his men but were unable to do the same to him, so they opened a portal and sent him to another world. Everything was different in this new world. It was lacking the overwhelming magic power of his home dimension. Here the people were relying on technology. A power that was just as good as magic if not better. Pendleton realized that his own magical existence was beginning to wane and so he sought out the help of other individuals who would be able to help him replace his magical parts with technological ones. Ans so he became a member of The Synthetics.

 

Deathbringer is almost seven feet tall and carries a longsword and various daggers with him. His legs and arms were replaced by crude metallic body parts protected by medieval armor. His head is shaved and he wears short beard.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The Synthetics seventh member is the Insect Booster. This robotics master has developed an army of minions based on bugs. His tiny henchmen can chew through steel, and mob any lesser opponent. He has transportation based on his concept of robotic insects.

 

His goal is to create working methods where life based robotics are plugged into the existing infrastructure and change the world the way he wants too.

CES

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

So the tenth and final member of the Synthetics is Wormhole, a man who has invented a series of devices that allows him to teleport anywhere -- anywhere on Earth, other planets, alternate timelines, parallel universes, and even through time. He's implanted a version of the device into his own body, and uses this ability in increasingly devious ways. In a fight, he can easily send his enemies elsewhere. He can smuggle drugs, weapons, gold, or other goods through other timelines without worrying about Customs, this being how he funds his projects and those of his colleagues. He can steal nuclear weapons and send them where he wants to, with virtual impunity, and he's not afraid of using it for extortion. He could force his way into the group's leadership if he wanted to, but he doesn't have the head for such things; he'd rather just develop his machines, and terrorize people.

 

Now for the next group: The Vengeance League, seven criminals who are all former members of the preceding groups (state which grouip with each entry) but were kicked out for some offense. They have banded together seek the most horrible possible revenge against their former teammates.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The man who calls himself The Director has been kicked out of both The Globe and Counter Measures for being an untalented, passive-aggressive hypocritical doofus. In both cases he tried to bully his way into being the leader of those group, but his plans were too over-complicated, yet left out important details -- like escape routes. It's looking like he may burn his bridges with The Vengeance League sooner rather than later. If he gets kicked out again (and survives), he's checking to see if The Network would be willing to take a massive slander/libel job on all his "enemies".

 

He has no powers, save a mental defense most egoists would give their frontal lobes to have. The Director feels that if you're not with him, you're against him. He goes berserk at the slightest insult -- which, given he's got a beer gut and a scraggily excuse for a mustache, isn't that impressive. For now, the rest of the League keeps him around because he's rich. Paranoid, but rich.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The villain known as Mister Sleep was temporarily known as Gold Dust while he was a member of the Gold Bandits, but he returned to his original name after he was kicked off that team. He was never all that into the whole theft and greed thing, preferring to advance his study of dreams and nightmares (usually done with unwilling subjects). After he used his powers to enter and manipulate the dreams of Spun Gold... well, lets just say that he was lucky to escape with his life and he still bears the scars, both from her hair as well as Gold Brick's fists. He has vowed to destroy the Gold Bandits, one way or another.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Do-Over was known as Recapitulation when he was a member of the Counter Measures. He is a powerful mutant able to repeat whatever actions were just performed in his presence -- though able to select a different target if he so wishes. Unfortunately, he found himself unable to stop repeating whatever actions were just performed in his presence. His compulsion to repeat everything said in his presence got him kicked out of Counter Measures. After six months of zen meditation and inaction in the hills outside of Kamakura, Do-Over is ready for action once more!

 

Do-Over has a large VPP but is limited to using it only to repeat actions performed in his presence since his last Phase. His power allows him to copy any Power with any special effect. If someone shoots a gun at him, he can "shoot a gun" back at them without needing a gun. At GM's option, Do-Over never rolls to hit. Rather, if the attack he is repeating hit, he hits automatically. Naturally, Do-Over is most powerful when working with supers.

 

Edit: Actually, I'd advise any GMs who might want to run this sort of villain to forget about statting him out and go with heavy doses of handwavium.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Glob tried to make it with the Synthetics but was unwanted. A lab asistant of a scientist attempting to create a synthetic DNA. The man who would become Glob had a bought of clumsiness and let loose a batch of the exprerimental stuff. It consumed him and altered his own DNA. Turning him into a globby mass of tissue. It also gave him the ability to shape shift. Making him effective to the group in spying, infiltration and sabotage. Can only stay in that form for a max. of about 20 minutes, though. So, he tends to need to hide and regain strength (maybe 5 minutes max. to regain strength) for longer jobs. Fortunately, a globby mass doesnt have much trouble finding a hiding place.

 

Note: Kind of a homage to Clayface, and a little toward those "synthetic humans" COBRA used to use in the GI joe cartoon.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The Commentator David Cryszinscki was always a jerk and a bit of a bully. He became a play by play announcer for a sports station and was notorious for his put downs on teams and their individual members. This made him more than a few enemies but he guaranteed rating because his opinions always drew heat. So when a storm hit a stadium where he was doing live commentary he was not exactly on the receiving end of a lot of sympathy when he was injured. However the storm gifted him with powers now making his barbs really lethal. Being a smart mouth he was unable to hide his powers but to the surprise of many he quit his job on amicable terms as he pointed out 'I would feel dreadful now if something happened to kids at an event or at home over something I said'. Although he did receive a good payoff he was greedy and looked for ways to exploit his powers. operating from the shadows he was able to provide support for others and thus came to the attention of the Decalthletes. David true to form irritated each and all of them but they kept him around until while drunk he all but sparked a riot and nearly killed a couple of them.

David would not accept that it was his fault and then decided to bring them down. As the Commentator he believes he has the right weapons to destroy them and the right to.

However he also sees that the others in the Vengeance League are entitled to revenge and if they help him, he'll help them.

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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Is there anything more embarrassing than being kicked out of a team named for you? Nicola Tesla would say "No." In one of the Tesla Rangers strangest and (strangely) most successful capers, the team of super villains located the body of Nicola Tesla, spirited it away to a lab, and had it reanimated. The skeleton of Nicola Tesla sprung to life very confused and horrified by his own appearance. He made an effort to try to fit in. He tried to use his intellect to help the people who brought him back to life. He tried to rob banks. But he wasn't very good at it. He's not an immensely strong animated skeleton or anything, you know. Just an animated skeleton. So the Tesla Rangers kicked him out.

 

And his heart wasn't in it. Or, more to the point, he had no heart to put into it. Tesla became more and more depressed with his skeletal condition. In despair, he tried to take his own un-life only to find that he could not. His depression grew until he decided the only way out was to get someone really powerful to kill him. He has joined the Vengeance League hoping to go up against really powerful heroes. When he finds one with a really powerful attack, Tesla walks right into it. So far, no go.

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