Teen Champions Supervillains

[Steve]

Other than the characters in the Teen Champions book, I've been wondering who else might be good opponents for young superheroes to face out of other sourcebooks.

 

That said, care would have to be taken when using the main villain supplements. I mean, compared against a group of 250-point super-teens, even Foxbat might present a challenge.

 

The Teen Champions books had a class of superhuman VIPER trainees, so I wonder if something similar could be done with other agent groups like DEMON or maybe even a rival team of super-teens working for UNTIL or PRIMUS?

[Mark Rand]

Great idea!!!

 

I'm working a campaign involving a junior version of the Justice Foundation from the San Angelo books and I need ideas.

[steriaca]

Evil Magical Girl types come to mind. Akin to Witches 5 from Sailor Moon S.

[pbemguy]

3 hours ago, Steve said:

 

That said, care would have to be taken when using the main villain supplements. I mean, compared against a group of 250-point super-teens, even Foxbat might present a challenge.

 

[Ninja-Bear]

The Geodesics from Enemies II (iirc). Many of the enemies in DC: TAS should be fine.

[Lord Liaden]

5 hours ago, Steve said:

The Teen Champions books had a class of superhuman VIPER trainees, so I wonder if something similar could be done with other agent groups like DEMON or maybe even a rival team of super-teens working for UNTIL or PRIMUS?

 

 

Boston: The New Paladins

"Boston’s superteam dates back to the early Sixties, although the current membership has no actual connection with the original group (a loosely-associated team of costumed solo heroes operating throughout New England). The current team consists of four teenagers mutated by a secret ARGENT project; they’re mentored by the veteran heroine Dr. Eclipse (who has extensive darkness manipulating powers and is a brilliant geneticist herself). Her team consists of Bodyguard (a nigh-indestructible brick), Lux (a light-manipulator), Python (a stretching brick) and Tandem (who can duplicate any power used against her). The team has enjoyed some successes, including a victory over Generation VIPER — but also its share of defeats, largely due to (a) inexperience, and (b) the tactical gaps in their overall power set (for example, other than Lux, none of them can fly or really have any significant movement abilities). The New Paladins have encountered the kids from Ravenswood Academy and consider them semi-friendly rivals." (Champions Universe p. 204)

 

No further description or character stats, I'm afraid.
 

[Ockham's Spoon]

Most of the villains can be scaled back without too much difficulty.  It might be fun to introduce a junior version of a major villain who is their child, protege, or unexpected successor.  They could be serious, (say Green Dragon's daughter trying to prove her merit to her father), or ambitious but somewhat bumbling (say a klutzy nerd apprenticed to Utility or Mirage).

[Steve]

31 minutes ago, Ockham's Spoon said:

Most of the villains can be scaled back without too much difficulty.  It might be fun to introduce a junior version of a major villain who is their child, protege, or unexpected successor.  They could be serious, (say Green Dragon's daughter trying to prove her merit to her father), or ambitious but somewhat bumbling (say a klutzy nerd apprenticed to Utility or Mirage).

 

I like this idea. It would help simplify character creation a bit, since you can just keep stripping out things until you reach a good point total.

[Lord Liaden]

You might take a look at Motlee's Crew, from Cops, Crews, And Cabals. They're a group of super-powered thieves, but really just thieves -- they each have one or two fairly minor powers that are very useful for theft, but not for combat. Otherwise they're normal humans who eschew costumes, code-names, and other traditional supervillainous gimmicks.

[HeroGM]

Id take a look at some of the kids in PSI.

[archer]

Scourge of the Deep had a hero on the last page who would be good in a "case of mistaken identity" sort of way. Some aliens, as a prank, gave a random doofus a low-powered set of power armor and told him he was the chosen champion of the seas, or some such garbage. Then they stepped back to watch the entertainment.

 

 

In one of the 3rd or 4th edition enemies-style books, there was a group of fairly low-powered villains (mostly family?) led by a lady whose name I think was Emerald. I always intended on working them into something but never managed it.

[Ninja-Bear]

10 hours ago, Steve said:

 

I like this idea. It would help simplify character creation a bit, since you can just keep stripping out things until you reach a good point total.

If you happen to have Champions for 5e there is a table which has guidelines for Reducing or Increasing characters.

[steriaca]

 

6 hours ago, archer said:

In one of the 3rd or 4th edition enemies-style books, there was a group of fairly low-powered villains (mostly family?) led by a lady whose name I think was Emerald. I always intended on working them into something but never managed it.

Sounds like the Psi-Kin. Indigo was the leader, who had true psionic powers. Emerald has a telekinetic shield, Alabaster telekineticlly manipulates cells, there is a guy with multiple telekinetic arms, and maybe one more.

[archer]

3 hours ago, steriaca said:

 

Sounds like the Psi-Kin. Indigo was the leader, who had true psionic powers. Emerald has a telekinetic shield, Alabaster telekineticlly manipulates cells, there is a guy with multiple telekinetic arms, and maybe one more.

 

That's exactly the group!  I thought I was going to have to move some heavy boxes boxes and dig through 20 books in order to figure it out. 

 

Thanks, that had been nagging at me for hours.

[Lord Liaden]

The fourth member of the Psi-Kin (all family, hence the name) with the multiple telekinetic "arms" is called Crimson. The whole group is in Enemies: Villainy Unbound for 3E Champs.

[dsatow]

I would think that any supervillain is fine so long as they are scaled to the heroes.  Here are some themes which might be good for a campaign.

 

Evil authority figures:  basically along the theme of preventing a teenager from blossoming into a healthy individual

• A group which promotes a "proper" line of thought: Fanatical religious groups or something like the Stepford Wives but with students
• Uncaring or evil teachers: Kind of like The Faculty (aliens).

Evil tempters: getting teenagers to do wrong

• A coven tempting PCs to the dark arts
• A gang tempting the PCs to be bullies and vandals
• The evil geek squad trying to be a power to manipulate society in their image.  More chess club, less football!

There is no such villain villain: Villains which no adult believes exists

• The hidden demon
• The silent take over aliens
• Replacements

[assault]

Doctor Destroyer is so overpowered compared to most "adult" heroes that teen heroes have about the same chance of defeating him. Likewise for a bunch of other megavillains.

 

I kind of like the idea of Dr D cursing a bunch of meddling kids.

 

As long as he can't find them to get revenge.

[Jhamin]

I'm actually running a Teen Champions game with my players.  So far most of the enemies I've used are home-brewed as there isn't much official that is in the right point range.

 

I've used

- individual members of the Cirque Sinister (the whole team is *way* too powerful for teens), emphasizing the Circus of the Weird aspect.

- A time solder from the future the heros eventually figured out was a possible future incarnation of one PCs very normal girlfriend.  She *hates* them for all the damage their future selves have done to the world.  (Sort of puts a shadow over all that potential everyone keeps telling them they have)

- A Daughter of the Black Mask clan who is not first in line to take over the mantle.  Calls herself Silhouette, which isn't a big hit with her Godmother. (She is actually a hero, but I"m playing her as female 16 year old Bruce Wayne stuck in High School because Alfred wants him to have a normal life instead of training with monks in a hidden fortress somewhere.  Thinks the PCs are a bunch of amateurs.)

- I'm also using Generation Viper as an idea but I've recast most of them with homebrews.

- I stole Chessclub from Mutants & Masterminds.  He is a teenager who found his dad's legion of robotic chessmen after dear old dad went to jail for holding the city hostage.  Impulsive kid with *way* more firepower than he has earned or can control

 

[dsatow]

1 hour ago, assault said:

Doctor Destroyer is so overpowered compared to most "adult" heroes that teen heroes have about the same chance of defeating him. Likewise for a bunch of other megavillains.

 

I kind of like the idea of Dr D cursing a bunch of meddling kids.

 

As long as he can't find them to get revenge.

 

Instead of Doctor Destroyer, maybe Science Teacher Destroyer, before he got his PhDs and paying off student loans.

 

It could be his evil origin story, he was going to be the greatest superhero but those teenage heroes drove him mad!!!!!

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

Steve I just realized.....The Sc hook of Hard Knocks module by Aaron Allston. It’s for GURPs but still. And he did have them converted to Hero System 4e that can be found on McIntyre. Net iirc. Hunt for the old BBS Red October.

[Lord Liaden]

Or just come here.

 

 

School of Hard Knocks.doc

[DShomshak]

One group I wrote up but never got to use was the College of Crime, a group of teen supervillains-in-training led by the sinister Headmaster. (Who had no super-powers, just a smart guy with skills and some gadgets.) One was the kid brother of an established supervillain who had the same mutant powers, another gained powers in an accident, the usual stuff. But none are hardened villains -- yet. Make of it what you will.

 

An idea I had for a "people with powers" campaign was based on the idea that a team of super-thieves finally struck it rich and retired. They still live near each other (maybe a block of row houses they bought). Now their teenage kids have discovered what Mom and/or Dad used to do, and have in one way or another inherited their powers: mutant power activates, finds the power ring or old battlesuit, etc. Of course they don't tell their parents at first, because, teenagers. What do they do?

 

And then the CW did something rather like that with the new Stargirl series, with a new generation of legacy heroes and two kids (so far) who know their parents are supervillains. I am slightly miffed at being preempted.

 

 

dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

You snooze, you lose.

[archer]

6 hours ago, DShomshak said:

One group I wrote up but never got to use was the College of Crime, a group of teen supervillains-in-training led by the sinister Headmaster. (Who had no super-powers, just a smart guy with skills and some gadgets.) One was the kid brother of an established supervillain who had the same mutant powers, another gained powers in an accident, the usual stuff. But none are hardened villains -- yet. Make of it what you will.

 

An idea I had for a "people with powers" campaign was based on the idea that a team of super-thieves finally struck it rich and retired. They still live near each other (maybe a block of row houses they bought). Now their teenage kids have discovered what Mom and/or Dad used to do, and have in one way or another inherited their powers: mutant power activates, finds the power ring or old battlesuit, etc. Of course they don't tell their parents at first, because, teenagers. What do they do?

 

And then the CW did something rather like that with the new Stargirl series, with a new generation of legacy heroes and two kids (so far) who know their parents are supervillains. I am slightly miffed at being preempted.

 

 

dean Shomshak

 

That's pretty much the premise of Marvel's Runaways series (2003).

[Pariah]

On 7/24/2020 at 6:40 PM, Ninja-Bear said:

The Geodesics from Enemies II (iirc). Many of the enemies in DC: TAS should be fine.

 

I came here to say this. And yes, it's Enemies II (or Dystopia, if you want the 4th Ed. update.)

 

You could also use GRAB, the Crusher Gang, or even the Ultimates (minus Plasmoid) and just change the names and costumes.