Jump to content

M&M ranking


Nothere

Recommended Posts

So I was going back over my copy of Masterminds and Madmen and figured what the hey I'll see what everyone else thought of the charecters. So instead of cluttering thinks up with two different threads it's time for the combined top 5 worst 5 villians from the book

 

Top 5

 

5 THe Terrormonger

4 THe Skywayman

3 Maximillian Kreiger

2 The Iron CLaw

1 The Crimson Wraith

 

Funny 4 out of 5 have names starting with The

 

 

Worst 5

 

5 Victor Ivanovitch Petrov

4 Etienne and Vincent D'arques

3 The Red Sickle

2 The Volcano Master

1James Hunt

 

Sorry Doctor Shen and Cimba but your too much obvious proxies to get on the list. And Though it saddens me to put Victor on the list,. Something about them making him a werewolf just really bugs me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Reading through the book- I had forgotten I had it, I must say that instead of 35 points experience, the Crimson Wraith should have 7d6 unluck and the nickname "lucky" o.O- every member of his family dies, he's crippled, his boss cheats him on patents for his work- cheez whiz, all you needed was for his dog to die and he'd be a whole Country-Western album!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My picks:

 

Top 5:

 

1. The Yellow Scar

2. The Iron Claw

3. The Crimson Wraithe

4. Geistkaptain

5. The Electricutioner

 

Worst 5:

 

1. Epiphronia "Eppie" Curran

2. IL Corridors Notre

3. The Scorpion

4. The Frankenstein Mob

5. Darren "Gats" Gruner

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

First off, I want to thank you for 1) buying the book, and 2) taking the time to comment on it. As the author, I love it when people talk about my stuff, since for good or ill, they felt strongly enough about it *to* talk about it.

 

Out of curiosity, would you feel comfortable explaining your rationales for rankings? I realize that it's a very subjective thing, but I'm interested in what worked and didn't work about the characters for you.

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well since you ask why did I list the folks as I did. Lets do the opposite of before.

 

Bottom 5

 

5. Victor Ivanovitch Petrov

 

Like I said. It hurts putting him here, because when I was first reading the description I was thinking this is cool. Then I got to the werewolf part. Not that I have a problem with mystic type charecters. But he was such a solid charecter even without the werewolf bit that it seemed instead of the werewolf adding too it took away.

 

4. Etienne and Vincent D'arques

 

Hey were twins. Yeah us. Nothing particularly wrong with them, but nothing particularly interesting.

 

3. The Red Sickle

 

You have no doubt done more research on the subject than I have, but as most pulp is from the 20's-30's it just seems a communist villian would mostly be out of place. Also I can see a soviet spymaster using others religion against them, but not settingcommunism up as a quasi religion. So it just seemed to me he was out of place a couple of ways.

 

2. The Volcano Master

 

Well you said it yourself he is a one note villian. And one who has a lot of points in volcano creation. Which as were talking volcanos in necassary, but dosen't really leave him enough stuff for when the heroes actually meet him.

 

1.James Hunt

 

As one of the sinster and shadow leaders of a villianous group he isn't really supposed to be center stage, so I'm being a bit unfair here. But there's nothing really interesting about him. And worse he's not really interesting in two groups. I know the idea was for the dual membership to cause a conflict that might be interesting. But you'd have to shove him into the limelight for the pc's to notice, and he's not interesting enough for that.

 

O..k. enough bad mouthing a great book on to the best parts.

 

The top 5

 

5. The Terrormonger

 

A mysterious figure who dresses like a skeleton in dark clothes and plans to take over the city by causeing the people to flee screaming in terror? Now were talking. O.k. I would have prefered a bit of actual background. But I'm fine with inventing my own. Good to see your not afraid of giving us someone wih creepey style and panache

 

4. The Skywayman

 

A risk taking daredevil with the ability to outfly just about anything. The only real drawback is you almost need a pilot among he pc's to really use him effectivly, but only almost.

 

3. Maximillian Krieger

 

The Nazi version of  Jaws. And you can have conversations with him as an added bonus.

 

2. The Iron Claw

 

Pulp wouldn't be pulp without a masked criminal mastermind. And as the Iron Claw was the 2nd best in the book he gets 2nd place.

 

1. The Crimson Wraith

 

Being the best of the masked criminal masterminds gets the top honors. Interesting style, weapons, and planning. You have to love someone who commits public themed crimes so nobody pays attention to the bank heist and jewel robbery that also happened.

 

Anyway thats why I listed them as I did. For whatever it's worth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5. Ming Wei --the only member of the Demon Doctor's crew who really appeals to me, maybe because I have a hard time seeing Dr. Fang as a villain.

4. Geistkapitan. Submarine pirate? I am so there. 

3. Iron Claw. Hamilton Fish as supervillain? I am so there. 

2. The Volcano Master. Because pulps.

1. The Skymaster. I love the "man of mystery" thing, and then there's the aviation angle. I'd personally be tempted to both tone down the pulpy side of the character and take it up to 11 at the same time. Who needs a dirigible base when you can have a tramp freighter that's actually a hydrofoil operating from a whaling base on Kerguelen Land that is actually the Skymaster's secret base. (Naturally, the colony of sheep farmers on the island is actually made up of a cult of devoted followers). Why a hydrofoil, you ask? Because it gives the ship the speed to  catapult-launch a giant flying boat with diesel engines built to the Skymaster's secret design, etc, etc. And if you're wondering how a sea-launched flying boat can appear over Chicago, ask yourself who really was the first through the Northwest Passage from the North Pacific to Hudson's Bay....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5. Ming Wei --the only member of the Demon Doctor's crew who really appeals to me, maybe because I have a hard time seeing Dr. Fang as a villain.

4. Geistkapitan. Submarine pirate? I am so there. 

3. Iron Claw. Hamilton Fish as supervillain? I am running him in my head right now. He's explaining why America will thank him in the end when he has eugenically purified the White Race. And he is aware of the irony of using a gang of half-bred trash to do it, thank you very much. Now, my dear sir, I shall show you how the Crimson Tide got its well-deserved reputation for brutality when I was playing for it.

2. The Volcano Master. Because pulps.

1. The Skymaster. I love the "man of mystery" thing, and then there's the aviation angle. I'd personally be tempted to both tone down the pulpy side of the character and take it up to 11 at the same time. Who needs a dirigible base when you can have a tramp freighter that's actually a hydrofoil operating from a whaling base on Kerguelen Land that is actually the Skymaster's secret base. (Naturally, the colony of sheep farmers on the island is actually made up of a cult of devoted followers). Why a hydrofoil, you ask? Because it gives the ship the speed to  catapult-launch a giant flying boat with diesel engines built to the Skymaster's secret design, etc, etc. And if you're wondering how a sea-launched flying boat can appear over Chicago, ask yourself who really was the first through the Northwest Passage from the North Pacific to Hudson's Bay....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Random thoughts based on the lists so far:

 

In my home game, the Skymaster graduated from airships to Cloud Bases (think the SHIELD Helicarrier or the Flying Airfield from Sky Captain) by the end of the 1939 - just in time to have to decide which side of WW2 he was going to fall on. (He wound up fighting a mostly private war against the fascist air villains because they were a more serious threat to hs goal of world domination, but he still stole air power secrets from everyone as the war progressed.)

 

The Pulp Era actually lasted into the 1950's, by which point all sorts of new ideas had entered popular culture. Part of the fun in working on M&M for me (and, I assume, for Steve) was in creating villains that could span the thirty-year range from the 1920' to the 1950's for people to use. That's why you see people with ties to WW1, to the rise of 'cinematic communism,' to the Olympics in the 20's, to the rise of Naziism, to everything else.

 

There were definitive tropes from the era that were going to be in the book, but I tried (hopefully more successfully than not) to at least spin them a little so that they weren't literal retreads of the originals. Even a casual reader of period literature should be able to pick them out.

 

Several of my home game's favorites actually didn't make it into the book: The Benevolent Master Ravi Singh and his Sacred Albino Python, Guptra; The Mistress of the Hunt, and Ned Drury, Master of Ghost Cay. You can find them in Digital Hero #35, along with a few others that didn't make the cut. (In all fairness, I turned in close to 20,000 more words than I was budgeted for, so something had to go. )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

O,k. These haven't been considered as much as the M&M crowd but since you ask.

 

The Dragon Crown

 

Well this isn't really so much of a who as a what. Which makes it rather interesting. More of a fantasy story sort of protagonist. But as the pulps included those it fits in, and makes a nice change of pace.

 

The Master of Ghost Cay.

 

He's o.k. You could either take him in an eerie mystery direction by keeping his friends hidden the first few encounters, or more the Deep Rising/ Mummy remake with them crawling all over the cruise ship the passengers are on.

 

The Maestro

 

Again he's o.k. a solid enough entry, but being more of a  ahem one note :) sort of story between the two I'd go with the Master of Ghost Cay.

 

Mistress of the Hunt.

 

This ones a bit trickier. At first glance she seems to be Cimba light, and as such not overly useful. Though as I think of it with her city skills she fits in better with an urban campaign than if you brought in Cimba . And not every adventurer is going to want to go to the jungle. The Robin Hood aspect helps.

 

Benevolent Master

 

A solid entry if nothing special. Still a nice change of pace from most of the people in the published books. And what gm wouldn't want the chance to have the players crushed by a python?

 

The Smoky Mountain Bandits

 

Bonnie and Clyde in the game. A fun and useful pair.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I personally didn't think there were any characters in Masterminds and Madmen who were particularly bad.  Sure there were a couple that didn't interest me but for the most part I was able to come up with ideas for most of them.

 

Particular favorites of mine include Dr. Fang and his minions, Yellow Claw, Crimson Wraithe, Skywayman and Skymaster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

O,k. These haven't been considered as much as the M&M crowd but since you ask.

 

The Dragon Crown

 

Well this isn't really so much of a who as a what. Which makes it rather interesting. More of a fantasy story sort of protagonist. But as the pulps included those it fits in, and makes a nice change of pace.

 

The Master of Ghost Cay.

 

He's o.k. You could either take him in an eerie mystery direction by keeping his friends hidden the first few encounters, or more the Deep Rising/ Mummy remake with them crawling all over the cruise ship the passengers are on.

 

The Maestro

 

Again he's o.k. a solid enough entry, but being more of a  ahem one note :) sort of story between the two I'd go with the Master of Ghost Cay.

 

Mistress of the Hunt.

 

This ones a bit trickier. At first glance she seems to be Cimba light, and as such not overly useful. Though as I think of it with her city skills she fits in better with an urban campaign than if you brought in Cimba . And not every adventurer is going to want to go to the jungle. The Robin Hood aspect helps.

 

Benevolent Master

 

A solid entry if nothing special. Still a nice change of pace from most of the people in the published books. And what gm wouldn't want the chance to have the players crushed by a python?

 

The Smoky Mountain Bandits

 

Bonnie and Clyde in the game. A fun and useful pair.

 

The Master of Ghost Cay went the Syfy horror film route in my home game. After some attempts to dissuade the party on land (sea snakes in bathtubs, etc) it was 'swarm the boat' time when they reached Ghost Cay. Highlights included the Master water skiing behind a pack of spiders, crawling through underwater web tunnels to try and find carried off party members, ad one player saying '<bleep> it' and slitting the web tunnel open to let the sea in rather than fight the spiders again.

 

The Maestro was supposed to be a one note (pun intended) villain. Lots of them in the pulps were, and every campaign needs a stock of them.

 

The Mistress of the Hunt was supposed to fall on the line of folks that were interested in many of the same things as the heroes, but went about it the wrong way. In her case in my home game, she went the Robin Hood route mentioned in her 'power up' text and began to not only steal, but engage in vigilante 'hunts' of callous, greedy businessmen that ruined lives and exploited the masses and criminals that escaped the law by buying judges, intimidating witnesses, and the like.

 

Ravi Singh was played with a light touch in my home game, as a potential con man that might or might not really believe his own story. His scam entailed setting up groups of five people that donated money to do charitable works, all using the same law firm as the manager of their bequests. The law firm took a high (very high in the day) 15% commission (7% to the firm/lawyer within it and 8% to Ravi) off he top... but the rest of the money went straight to the charity intended. Projects were done, the 'Hands of Five' felt better about themselves, and Ravi and his partner quietly took in tens of thousands of dollars for no effort whatsoever.

 

The Smoky Mountain Bandits were used as a change-of-pace criminal group in my game, with Walter actually doing the 'spell my wife's name in robbed bank first letters' plan. I also tied their Hollywood plot seed into the one in M&M's Caroline Nefertari Madison for a Hollywood extravaganza session.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...