CU - Female Masterminds - That few?

[novi]

I was looking at the books to see if there was a female mastermind-type villain to build a campaign around, and I came back with only only 3.5 choices.  Are there really that few canon choices?  For the purposes of this exercise, I'm looking for villains likely to run a big scheme that takes multiple adventures to fully stop.  Just having a lot of points isn't what I want - Galaxia is strong, but she doesn't have the resources & contacts for a grand scheme.

 

I would also accept a villain team, but that doesn't seem to give me any more choices when sticking to canon.  I mean, GRAB has the highest female membership of the teams I can think of, but they're just thieves in it for the money.

 

1.  Istvatha V'han - Yes, but she's a bit too large-scale for my tastes.

 

2.  Gravitar - She's the half I mentioned.  Has most of the characteristics, I'm looking for, except that it explicitely says that she's generally not a schemer - she's going to conquer the world with her own two hands, or not at all.

 

3.  The Engineer - My top choice of what I can find.  Her biggest let down is the canon write-up says that she under-invests in her infrastructure, so she's a little light on bases and followers to beat up.  While I can just give her more, it does deviate from canon...

 

4.  Duchess Henrietta von Drotte - This is a bit of a stretch, but one of the top 5 in VIPER, who is a fabulously wealthy industrialist?  She has a lot of the right attributes, but it needs some explaining as to why she's the main target, and not just VIPER.

 

Is that it?  I'd like to make sure I've considered all the canon choices before I start gender-flipping or inventing new villains.

[segerge]

If you don't want to gender-flip, here's an idea based on your #4:

 

The Supreme Serpent decides to do a test run of Operation Human Achievement (their plan to take over the world) and set Ms. von Drotte up to take the fall once the heroes put all the clues together.

[Greywind]

If you want to run with The Engineer, disregard the bit where she under-invests and do what you want for your campaign.

[Lord Liaden]

On 7/14/2020 at 6:55 PM, novi said:

I was looking at the books to see if there was a female mastermind-type villain to build a campaign around, and I came back with only only 3.5 choices.  Are there really that few canon choices?  For the purposes of this exercise, I'm looking for villains likely to run a big scheme that takes multiple adventures to fully stop.  Just having a lot of points isn't what I want - Galaxia is strong, but she doesn't have the resources & contacts for a grand scheme.

 

I would also accept a villain team, but that doesn't seem to give me any more choices when sticking to canon.  I mean, GRAB has the highest female membership of the teams I can think of, but they're just thieves in it for the money.

 

1.  Istvatha V'han - Yes, but she's a bit too large-scale for my tastes.

 

2.  Gravitar - She's the half I mentioned.  Has most of the characteristics, I'm looking for, except that it explicitely says that she's generally not a schemer - she's going to conquer the world with her own two hands, or not at all.

 

3.  The Engineer - My top choice of what I can find.  Her biggest let down is the canon write-up says that she under-invests in her infrastructure, so she's a little light on bases and followers to beat up.  While I can just give her more, it does deviate from canon...

 

4.  Duchess Henrietta von Drotte - This is a bit of a stretch, but one of the top 5 in VIPER, who is a fabulously wealthy industrialist?  She has a lot of the right attributes, but it needs some explaining as to why she's the main target, and not just VIPER.

 

Is that it?  I'd like to make sure I've considered all the canon choices before I start gender-flipping or inventing new villains.

 

Those are all good choices, but I do have a few other recommendations. But first, some notes. Gravitar is noted as having become more deliberate in her program of conquest as she's become more mature, so you'd certainly be justified in having her build up more of a support network, and utilize her wealth and scientific expertise to a greater degree. (In my own games I had Gravitar encounter the Futurists, from Champions Villains Vol 2, and essentially co-opt their agenda and service.)

 

Duchess Industries does have a symbiotic relationship with VIPER, but it's still its own distinct entity, providing the Duchess with vast resources for more corporate-aligned conspiracy. DI runs its own projects, has its own security force, and its officers serve and are loyal to the Duchess first, not VIPER.

 

The Engineer can control machines, and create robot servants out of available parts. That gives her the capacity to turn many existing facilities into bases from which to launch her schemes, whenever she needs them. (Again for my own games, because she longs for companionship from someone else understanding the blending of human and machine, I had her pair up with the cyborg master villain Interface from CV Vol. 1. He gave her the direct physical combat power she lacked, while she provided the tech support he needed. Of course Interface was just using her, and when the Engineer found out it did not go well for him.)

 

Now, as to additional suggestions:

 

Brangomar, the Shadow Queen (CV Vol. 1). She rules her own kingdom in the dimension of Faerie, and she typically operates through minions, particularly hired supernatural supervillains on Champions Earth who match her medieval motif. It isn't hard to justify a vendetta between her and any hero, she's that epically vindictive.

 

Hecate (The Hercules Force). The Greek goddess of magic is one of the greatest enemies of the NPC hero, Johnny Hercules, and has already launched some major schemes on Earth to gain more power, and allied with the likes of the Archlich Takofanes and the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. Hecate can summon demons and undead, and wants to steal the Hercules Force from Johnny Hercules to power her army of "hepatizon hoplite" golems.

 

Demoiselle Nocturne (DEMON: Servants Of Darkness). Yes, she's a member of the Inner Circle of DEMON, but all of them pursue their own individual agendas and schemes. In Nocturne's case that includes turning the waking world into a reflection of her own nightmare realm. She also has her personal Night Terror servants. I once adapted a plot from Scott Bennie's 4E VIPER source book for her being behind development of a device that made people's nightmares take on tangible form.

 

Chantal (Shades Of Black). The former lover of the Black Paladin, the witch Chantal was officially thwarted in her attempt to incarnate her damned soul in a new body. But you could easily rule otherwise, or bring her back through some other agency; and the Witch Reborn is fully statted in SOB. Chantal is accustomed to employing her considerable charms and magical enchantments to bend men to serve her. If she needs muscle she's adept at summoning demons, and she's on good terms with the princes of Hell.

[Lord Liaden]

Another character who certainly has precedent as a mastermind, but would require more work to flesh out, is Queen Lyrane (Champions Beyond). The ruler of the planet Naxar hundreds of thousands of years ago, she led a brutal campaign of galactic conquest which brought her to the attention of the Star*Guard. The Guard and Lyrane's military fought several pitched battles before the Star*Guard broke the Naxari forces. On the verge of defeat Lyrane attempted to detonate a doomsday bomb, but was apparently disintegrated by it. However, that bomb actually hurled her forward into the present day.

 

Queen Lyrane has discovered that she is the only survivor of the Naxari, Naxar having been destroyed in the recent past through the actions of Galaxia. This has left her without her former power base, but she still wields very formidable cosmic powers (abbreviated stats for her are listed on CB p. 254), and it's unlikely her ambitions have dimmed.

[Lord Liaden]

BTW I once wove together several elements from the official Champions Universe around the epic goddess/demon of darkness, Eclipsar (CV Vol 3), to create a mini source book building the basis for a campaign. It's freely available as a PDF in the Downloads section of this website: The Valley of Night. It's not official, although fully compatible with the CU; but I also made it as "modular" as I could, easily insertable into most supers settings, with notes on adapting it to other genres.

[Jhamin]

If you are willing to go backwards a bit, I got a lot of mileage out of Interface from Cy-Force in the old 4th edition book High Tech Enemies.  She isn't actually the leader of the team, but supports Doc Digital and will mentally condition anyone on the team who disagrees with him and is the main reason none of the Cyborgs on the team question why all their implants seem to be more useful to Doc Digital's plans than to their normal lives like he promised them.
She eventually turned into a real "power behind the throne" type enemy in our games, with Doc Digital being the obvious villain but her having done a lot more actual damage to people.  Especially when you consider that she had basically subverted two heroes onto their team and started working on a Cyborg PC to be the third.

[Lord Liaden]

Hey, if you're willing to go backwards, it doesn't get more campaign-driving mastermind-y than Lung Hung, from VOICE of Doom. And I happen to know that Hero Games retained the rights to the characters from that adventure, having asked Steve Long about that years ago.

[steriaca]

Lady Twilight of the renewed Assinenos (sp!) seems like a a mid lever criminal mastermind with both supernatural and vampiric power. Thanks Tiger, for burning bright these infamous 4th ed villains.

[Matt the Bruins]

Medusa from PSI is effectively a small scale mastermind, though Psimon is her figurehead so heroes may not realize she's calling the shots.

 

And there's always Ms. Doctor Frankenstein from Lucha Libre HERO.

[steriaca]

 

1 hour ago, Matt the Bruins said:

And there's always Ms. Doctor Frankenstein from Lucha Libre HERO.

Of course there has to be a Luchidor Frankenstein Monster. It's Lucha Libre Hero.

[Lord Liaden]

I always thought there was tremendous potential in the history of the Dragon Queen, from the 4E VIPER source book, long before she ever came to the attention of VIPER. Daughter of a mortal woman and a Dragon King. Ageless and able to assume a mighty dragon form at will. Goddess to a Chinese religious sect. Built a criminal empire in Japan, China, and ultimately the western United States. There's so much one could do with that.

 

(For my own games I conflated the Dragon Queen with Shinyu, last seen in 4E Golden Age Champions, because their time period and location overlap, and that adds extra layers to her character.)

[Lord Liaden]

Again taking a retrospective of older Champs materials, the second adventure in the 4E compilation, Champions Presents, titled "No News of a Thaw," presented the most terrible figure in Inuit mythology, the demi-goddess spirit of the ocean, Sedna. She would be epic enough for almost any campaign. Our forum colleague Christopher R. Taylor posted a fine 6E conversion of Sedna from that book: https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/90305-6th-edition-conversions/page/20/?tab=comments#comment-2457562

 

[Mr. R]

Another is Nerid from "Beneath the Waves" 

 

Like the Duchess, she has a large corporation to back her.  She has a super team to act as her strike force.  She has a cadre of agent who aid her in her endeavors.  Finally she tends to focus on schemes beneath the water's surface, which is her home turf and will place PCs at a weakness in any fight.  

 

Oh and remember that the oceans and lakes make up 70% of our surface, and she can appear anywhere.

 

[Lord Liaden]

Do you mean Scourge from the Deep?

[Lord Liaden]

I always had a fondness for Madame Jeantelle Lareau from 4E Normals Unbound. A "normal" in that she has no super-powers, but having raised herself from the street to become a criminal drug kingpin (queenpin?) through cunning, ruthlessness, and natural genius in chemistry. Her pharmaceutical company is also a front for designer recreational drug manufacturing and distribution. She has more than enough money to hire whatever mercenaries she needs to deal with opponents, including supervillains. I particularly love this line from her description on NU p. 13: "She dresses like a countess, spends like an heiress and kills like a tigress."
 

[Lord Liaden]

I can't think of this many female mastermind villains from DC and Marvel Comics combined. I believe Champions has always had an edge over them in that department.

[Greywind]

Whitney Frost/Madame Masque
Emma Frost

Talia Head

 

Just off the top of my head.

[Lord Liaden]

On 7/15/2020 at 8:38 PM, steriaca said:

Lady Twilight of the renewed Assinenos (sp!) seems like a a mid lever criminal mastermind with both supernatural and vampiric power. Thanks Tiger, for burning bright these infamous 4th ed villains.

 

Lady Twilight's first incarnation in Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies had her taking over Campaign City's organized crime, so that's always been a feature of the character.

[Matt the Bruins]

Marvel also has Morgan le Fay, Mystique, Viper, Hela, Selene, Umar the Unrelenting, and maybe Madelyne Pryor (not sure if she's currently dead, or if that would hamper her much).

 

DC has Morgaine le Fey, Circe, the Queen Bee of H.I.V.E., and this new cosmic villain Perpetua that they keep pretending is interesting enough to sustain big events.

[archer]

12 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I can't think of this many female mastermind villains from DC and Marvel Comics combined. I believe Champions has always had anedge over them in that department.

 

Goblin Queen, whether living or dead

White Queen

 

Emerald Empress? I think that's the name. The lady with the giant floating eyeball who battles the Legion of Superheroes. And the lady who replaced the Time Trapper...Gloria? Something like that.

 

[Greywind]

Granny Goodness? Even working for Darkseid his elite are always jockeying for position/favor.

[Steve]

Now that I think a bit about it, if one is willing to break away from CU dogma, it could be interesting to gender flip a master villain or two.

[steriaca]

The Supreme Serpent can just as well be female. Same with Luthor Black (Lilith Black?). I can't see a female Doctor Destroyer (the Nazi history tends to rule a female Destroyer out). Same with Murtie (sp!).

[Mark Rand]

1 hour ago, steriaca said:

The Supreme Serpent can just as well be female. Same with Luthor Black (Lilith Black?). I can't see a female Doctor Destroyer (the Nazi history tends to rule a female Destroyer out). Same with Murtie (sp!).

I like the idea of a female Supreme Serpent.  It could be Jeantelle Lareau from the 4E book Normals Unbound.