Champions Villains - Why is Taipan an Omega villain?

[thorngumbald]

Hi all

 

Looking through the Solo Villains book, I see Taipan is marked as an Omega class villain. Can anybody see why that is? Yes, he's a super-fast assassin, but why does that rank a world-threatening rank alongside Dr. Destroyer, Mechanon, etc.? Seems he should be Delta at best ... but perhaps I'm missing something ...

 

Thanks,

[Ninja-Bear]

10 minutes ago, thorngumbald said:

Hi all

 

Looking through the Solo Villains book, I see Taipan is marked as an Omega class villain. Can anybody see why that is? Yes, he's a super-fast assassin, but why does that rank a world-threatening rank alongside Dr. Destroyer, Mechanon, etc.? Seems he should be Delta at best ... but perhaps I'm missing something ...

 

Thanks,

I don’t have the book so this is a big guess on what you wrote. Perhaps the Omega ranking isn’t due to his Powers per se but more because he’s a powerful assassin.  The wrong people getting killed could really put the world at edge or in collapse. It’s kinda how Organizations are really powerful like Viper but individuals like agents aren’t. 

[thorngumbald]

10 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I don’t have the book so this is a big guess on what you wrote. Perhaps the Omega ranking isn’t due to his Powers per se but more because he’s a powerful assassin.  The wrong people getting killed could really put the world at edge or in collapse. It’s kinda how Organizations are really powerful like Viper but individuals like agents aren’t. 

Yeah ... I hear what you're saying. But AFAIK there are only thirteen Omega rated villains (Doctor Destroyer, Eclipsar, Gravitar, Istvatha V’han, Kinematic, Mechanon, Menton, The Slug, Taipan, Takofanes, Valak, The Warlord, and Doctor Yin-Wu), and one Omega rated group (The Crowns of Krim). That's some pretty deadly dangerous company; villains which could wipe out whole countries.

[Ninja-Bear]

Like I said, that’s my best guess.  

[Lord Liaden]

There are occasional inconsistencies in published villain rankings. For example, in CV Vol. 1 the icon for Dr. Yin Wu is an Omega, but on Champions Universe p. 44 he's noted as a Delta-class threat. Of course that's in the 2010 United States Superhuman Survey; one could say that in-setting, it's possible the Doctor could have moved up the rankings subsequently due to his actions. Bottom line, though, is that just due to editorial human fallibility, oversights might occur in the books, and in this case that might apply.

 

But if you did wish to justify that classification, the rationale offered by Ninja-Bear is probably most relevant. However, another risk factor is that Taipan's identity, his history before debuting as an assassin, are total mysteries, despite years of global investigation. That leads to several unsettling questions: Are there more like him? What's the source of his powers, and could that source be exploited by someone else? Was Taipan following some larger agenda, or represents one part of a greater threat? (I have my own unofficial answers, of course.)

 

EDIT: BTW, Firewing's entry in CV 3 notes that he's considering breaking Taipan out of prison, because he believes Taipan could give him a good fight. So that's one route to setting him loose to terrify your PCs.

[thorngumbald]

7 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Like I said, that’s my best guess.  

... and it's likely the best one. Thank you. I can envisage world leaders and senior figures wanting a very high premium attached to Taipan, in case he comes after them!

[thorngumbald]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

There are occasional inconsistencies in published villain rankings. For example, in CV Vol. 1 the icon for Dr. Yin Wu is an Omega, but on Champions Universe p. 44 he's noted as a Delta-class threat. Of course that's in the 2010 United States Superhuman Survey; one could say that in-setting, it's possible the Doctor could have moved up the rankings subsequently due to his actions. Bottom line, though, is that just due to editorial human fallibility, oversights might occur in the books, and in this case that might apply.

 

But if you did wish to justify that classification, the rationale offered by Ninja-Bear is probably most relevant. However, another risk factor is that Taipan's identity, his history before debuting as an assassin, are total mysteries, despite years of global investigation. That leads to several unsettling questions: Are there more like him? What's the source of his powers, and could that source be exploited by someone else? Was Taipan following some larger agenda, or represents one part of a greater threat? (I have my own unofficial answers, or course.)

 

EDIT: BTW, Firewing's entry in CV 3 notes that he's considering breaking Taipan out of prison, because he believes Taipan could give him a good fight. So that's one route to setting him loose to terrify your PCs.

Good points, thank you! 

 

And similarly, the Crowns of Krim in CV2 are an Omega group, but only Delta per your same page reference.

 

 

[Dr. MID-Nite]

My take is that Taipan on a personal level is still very powerful. Few villains have 12 SPD and he's almost untouchable if he wants to be. Omega level villains are stated to 'be able to take on entire hero teams" and Taipan is certainly capable of doing that (assuming none of them have mental powers).

[Lord Liaden]

After I had Taipan broken out of prison for my game, I Focused 20 points of Hardened Mental Defense into his fancy snake headdress.

[Lord Liaden]

FWIW my own invented background for Taipan was that he's the third unspecified offspring of VIPER's serpent-god patron Nama, as described on VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent p. 14 sidebar. His mother is the Duchess Henrietta von Drotte. As a child the future Taipan was given over to the Takara-Shinja to be raised and trained as VIPER's supreme assassin. But the boy had much of his father's pride and mercurial nature, and as he grew older he chafed at serving VIPER. He wanted to use his abilities to enrich himself. As a young man Taipan used some of VIPER's own criminal contacts to help him stage his fake death during a training exercise, and flee to Australia far from VIPER's attention. For several years he lay low while continuing to train, then made his big-splash debut under his new identity.

 

During Taipan's publicized trial several of the Takara-Shinja recognized him, and the Supreme Serpent wanted to retrieve him immediately, but Nama forbade it. Over the years of Taipan's Hot Sleep confinement Nama sent dreams into his mind, tormenting him over his failure and excoriating him for betraying VIPER and his father, in order to break his will. When Nama judged him sufficiently pliant he allowed VIPER to extract him from House Taipan, and add him to their arsenal.

[thorngumbald]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

FWIW my own invented background for Taipan was that he's the third unspecified offspring of VIPER's serpent-god patron Nama, as described on VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent p. 14 sidebar. His mother is the Duchess Henrietta von Drotte. As a child the future Taipan was given over to the Takara-Shinja to be raised and trained as VIPER's supreme assassin. But the boy had much of his father's pride and mercurial nature, and as he grew older he chafed at serving VIPER. He wanted to use his abilities to enrich himself. As a young man Taipan used some of VIPER's own criminal contacts to help him stage his fake death during a training exercise, and flee to Australia far from VIPER's attention. For several years he lay low while continuing to train, then made his big-splash debut under his new identity.

 

During Taipan's publicized trial several of the Takara-Shinja recognized him, and the Supreme Serpent wanted to retrieve him immediately, but Nama forbade it. Over the years of Taipan's Hot Sleep confinement Nama sent dreams into his mind, tormenting him over his failure and excoriating him for betraying VIPER and his father, in order to break his will. When Nama judged him sufficiently pliant he allowed VIPER to extract him from House Taipan, and add him to their arsenal.

Nice!! Thanks for sharing ... I may use something like that in my own game