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Heroes vs Krampus: help?


Sam On Maui

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus

I'm doing a one-shot game for the holidays in our Champions game. The basic idea is the world has been SO bad, SO naughty that Krampus is going to hit the big shiny reset button on planet Earth. How? Well, there's an old missile silo out in the middle of Nowhere, USA, and he's going to fire the stupid thing off, expecting the Russians, North Koreans, etc., to go nuts themselves (or have automated systems they haven't updated in decades).

So, I'm looking for advice on statting him up, plus maybe some disgruntled elves who defected from Santa's side because, well, "kids today" (or something).

The challenge will be making this a reasonable challenge for a group of ~10 experienced players at 250-300 points each done up in HERO 5th. I generally make my NPCs in 6th because I think its easier to make them in a reasonable fashion without bloating up stats and such to get to desired points. Because they're such an army of players, I'm thinking of having some of the elves fixing the old equipment so over time they have to take them out to stall the launch.

 

Of course, now I wonder if he's really something to be defeated so much as an obstacle...

 

*arggggghhh*

 

Help? :(

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Krampus is a demon in shape of a humanoid goat. He carries a basket or sack of holding to put all the naughty kids in the world in it (usually depected as being on his back and filled). He can be easily depected as a demi-brick. He sometimes carries a bundle of birch twigs to whip others with.

 

Black Peter is the elf responsible for the naughty list and for delivering coal. He is caked with soot (Darkness), and should carry a bag of endless coal with him (making him a demi-energy blaster).

 

Father Whipper is the elf in charge of discipline, as he is the one who discipline children to naughty for coal. He carries and uses a horse whip as a weapon (usaly the kind used by horse drawn carrage drivers, or reindeer drawn sleigh). He also is covered in soot, but not as much as Black Peter.

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Krampus, Black Peter, Father Whipper. None of the three deals in toys. Krampus steals naughty children and either eats them or sends them to hell. Black Peter is responsible for coal and punishment for the naughty, as is Father Whipper.

 

If you want an evil toymaker to join in, why not use Black Harliquin himself?

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Actually, giving him evil elves as minions would make him even more of a dark reflection of Santa Claus. You can always deviate from the stories of Krampus for a good story.

 

Take existing supervillains and modify them into Dark Christmas versions.

 

How about Black Paladin as an evil version of the Nutcracker?

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KRAMPUS is perhaps go with brawler style think spiderman a bit of super strength teleportation shadow walking perhaps but equally night crawler style disappearing in a cloud of soot.

 

perhaps you could give him an ego blast like ghost riders penance stare that shows all your misdeeds.

 

His birch ruten could be a pain based nnd a psychic scourge.

 

A self binding chain might be a good option as well.

 

People he disables with it could be dropped into his sack a pocket dimension like a mini hell that the heroes will have to rescue.

 

The super honorable boyscout type hero might have an advantage maybe give him a limitation that he takes more damage from good boys or girls.

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If Krampus' sack is dimensional in nature, perhaps Krampus could actually use it to travel to another dimension to recruit some help.  Like maybe the Evil World versions of the PCs themselves.  (I'd give each evil doppleganger a power or two that is a nastier version of something the PC hero has.  And any gadgeteer or mage evil twin with a VPP should be ready to deal with the hero versions of themselves.)

 

This could be a surprise for the players after they've rather handily beaten the evil elves, Black Peter, and Father Whipper. 

 

You could foreshadow the evil dopplegangers' appearance by having someone in the media who actively dislikes the heroes, reporting on somebody who looks like one of them, committing some crime.  Maybe have a friendly media type suggest that it's actually a specific supervillain in disguise (which that villain of course denies), so the players don't immediately realize it was the hero's evil twin.

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If you're going to play on a dark version of Santa, he should be able to cast ribbons as Entangles that tie the PC's up in large bright red bows.  Very difficult to break out of, but can easily be pulled like a bow string and unravel by another PC (to make it a team effort to free the hero).

 

Elves maybe could have transform attacks that turn OAF into toy versions that only do maybe 2-3 D6 and shoot foam darts or bubbles.  

 

Dark Santa should also be able to lay down ice patches that will impede movement of be like entangles, but do not affect him or his minions.  

 

Sonic "Ho HO HO!" blast that does NND sonic damage?

 

Thrown glass christmas decorations that shatter and do small RKA damage?

 

He should take slightly more damage from fire attacks.   Which reminds me - evil snow men with cold snowball attacks!

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Alternately, Krampus can have already put a bunch of naughty kids in his sack as precursor to the missile thing, so defeating Krampus and stopping the missile launch is just the first part.  Once that's done, the heroes need to go into the sack themselves and and travel to hell to rescue the kids.  (And really, to an immortal demon, isn't everybody a kid?  So the list of nabbed people can include adult DNPCs, key NPCs / Contacts, celebrities, etc.)

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To expand upon that thought, perhaps the one missile is just a red herring, a smoke screen.  Maybe Krampus secretly has a number of missiles ready to fire, but he only lets the heroes know about the one to draw them in.  The true test is whether the heroes are willing to go to hell (battling demons, evil twins, or whatever) to rescue a bunch of people who the heroes might not feel deserve rescuing - maybe Krampus grabbed a serial killer from death row, a sociopathic teen who got off on a technicality, a drunk driver who accidentally plowed through people waiting at a bus stop, the spokesperson for a mutant-hating organization, Martin Skreli, etc.  Are the heroes good enough to offset the bad of those people?

 

Of course, Krampus doesn't tell the heroes that their actions are the true determinant of whether the big Reset button gets pressed.  As a GM, though, the players may need a nudge in the right direction, so maybe the drunk driver's kid or the sociopathic teen's mom is being dragged along by Krampus, there to plead with the heroes to save his/her parent/kid.

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  • 2 months later...

The (quite old) Adventurer's Club magazine 22 or 23 has a adventure called The fright before christmas by Scott Heine. Santa Claus is corrupted by Coatlicue's Skull Pendant from the adventure To serve and protect and becomes a sort of Dark Santa.

 

Maybe Krampus is Santa's evil alter ego.

 

 

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There are litterly hundreds of "evil Santa" type characters in folk lore itself. Black Peter. Father Whipper. The seven troles who's names excape me. That giant house cat who would eat children if they are not wearing one new item of clothing on Christmas and who's name excapes me (see kids, your parents were saving your life by giving you socks on Christmas).

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  • 9 months later...

I'm thinking of using Krampus for this year's December Champions game.  Krampus will recruit the heroes' evil dopplegangers from Backworld and have them rather publicly kidnap "bad kids" (as noted in my prior post above), and then serve as security at the missile site.  This gives the PCs some foreshadowing and a route of investigation to head the missile launch off at the pass, as well as some foes they'll enjoy beating on.  (FYI:  the heroes of Just Cause had a run-in with their evil counterparts, the Unjust, in a past trip to Backworld a year and a half ago.)

 

As soon as the heroes show up at the missile site, I figure Krampus will cut and run... leaving his "bag of holding" behind (into which the evil dopplegangers had previously been seen putting the kidnapped "bad kids").  Probably have him make a pronouncement over the silo's intercom before he goes, that he's sick of even supposedly good people doing evil, so he's deciding whether to send *all* the children to hell.  The hook is that Krampus is using the PC heroes' actions to help him make his decision, based on whether they try to rescue people they probably patently dislike.

 

With that in mind, a few questions:

  • Should he thank Just Cause for helping him make his decision?  I'm inclined that way, as it gives them fair warning that their actions will have a larger impact than normal.
  • Should one of the Unjust let slip that this isn't the only missile site that Krampus controls?  I'm tossed on this.  On one hand, it tells the players that Krampus still has the means to carry out horrible deeds even after they curb-stomp the Unjust, but on the other hand, they may just concentrate on trying to find his new site and stop him there, rather than thinking about the hostages.
  • Would having the parent / child / spouse / friend of one of the kidnapped "bad kids" plead with the heroes to rescue his/her child / parent / spouse / friend be too much like railroading?  Or maybe said innocent was also tossed into the sack, and makes his/her plea when the heroes go in to rescue him/her?
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I think I'd give Krampus a secret Identity. He has either disguised himself as, or even possessed the CEO of a major toy company in your campaign , but his American factories are not producing fun toys for boys and girls, but an ARMY malevolent killer toy soldiers, sociopath barbie rip offs, and more all in preparation.

 

Mostly these will act as goons to slow down our heroes so the missile launch can continue unimpeded. But it will be fun for the exec to loosen his tie, and suddenly increase in bulk and spout horns

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18 minutes ago, Hermit said:

I think I'd give Krampus a secret Identity. He has either disguised himself as, or even possessed the CEO of a major toy company in your campaign , but his American factories are not producing fun toys for boys and girls, but an ARMY malevolent killer toy soldiers, sociopath barbie rip offs, and more all in preparation.

 

Mostly these will act as goons to slow down our heroes so the missile launch can continue unimpeded. But it will be fun for the exec to loosen his tie, and suddenly increase in bulk and spout horns

 

How does Skampur Toys sound as a company name?  Or is that too obvious an anagram of Krampus?  Maybe SumPark, Inc. (a merger of Summit Sporting Goods and Parker Toys)?  That seems less blatant to me. 

 

Heh... I could have the company sponsor a massive toy giveaway for underprivileged kids in the campaign city, inviting the heroes (along with police, firemen, and other such people) to participate.  The CEO is regrettably unable to attend, but his CFO dresses up as Santa to hand out the toys.  Nice quiet, sedate opening scene for the adventure.  Of course, my paranoid players would be highly suspicious, but all the toys are genuine, no dangers at all. 

 

RE: the toys, I'm thinking of a Barbie rip-off that flames on.  We could call it the Barbie-Q.  :winkgrin:

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