Villain Think Piece: Half Jill

[steriaca]

I was thinking about Half Jill. Think Half Jack, but female. Except I want her to be her own cyborg. She is definitely not "Half Jack in a skirt".

 

So, what would you do to make Half Jill different from Half Jack? Both are of course VIPER Dragons and cyborgs with a half organic body. Both argument there protection with "force fields". But they are not mirrors of each other.

[Lord Liaden]

With that name and description, plus both working for VIPER, it's going to be really hard not to think of her as a mirror of Halfjack. If you really want her to be all those things yet still be her own person, a logical place to start would be her attitude toward that assumption. Let's say she hates her code-name, hates comparisons to Halfjack. Any other VIPER saying that in her presence is in for a world of hurt. That attitude plus Halfjack's mental instability might lead her to refuse to even work with him on a mission.

 

Another way "Halfjill" might differ from Halfjack is that she could have wanted to become a cyborg, maybe even volunteered for augmentation. Women are a decided minority among VIPER agents, and have to push harder than the men to prove themselves and be accepted in a Nest, and advance up the ranks. Female VIPERs have a reputation for being even more ruthless than males. Jill may have seen cybernetics as key to raising her profile and power within VIPER. Which would only increase her resentment of being viewed as only a "lady Halfjack."

 

Also, the entire-half-body layout for Halfjack needn't be the way Halfjill is built. I would suggest going the Steve Austin/Jamie Summers route, and replacing her arms and legs with bionics while keeping the rest of her body organic.

[Mr. R]

12 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Another way "Halfjill" might differ from Halfjack is that she could have wanted to become a cyborg, maybe even volunteered for augmentation. Women are a decided minority among VIPER agents, and have to push harder than the men to prove themselves and be accepted in a Nest, and advance up the ranks. Female VIPERs have a reputation for being even more ruthless than males. Jill may have seen cybernetics as key to raising her profile and power within VIPER. Which would only increase her resentment of being viewed as only a "lady Halfjack."

 

Also, the entire-half-body layout for Halfjack needn't be the way Halfjill is built. I would suggest going the Steve Austin/Jamie Summers route, and replacing her arms and legs with bionics while keeping the rest of her body organic.

I would agree about the volunteering part.  A lady who chose to have parts of her striped off and replaced would be extremely focused.  

 

 

Also I agree with the Steve Austin/ Jamie Summers idea.  Add a suit of body armour to protect those vital organs, but with arms and legs with built in weapons and tools!

[pinecone]

When I ran with this concept, lo so many years ago...I figured much the same. That she would Hate being called "Half-Jill"...so Jill-Plus was born. I made her main attack a built in Particle weapon, so she was more of a ranged fighter.

[Lord Liaden]

You might find another useful example in Cyborgs Inc., a small group often employed by VIPER, from the Fourth Edition source book, VIPER (in PDF in the online store). The co-leaders of the group, the cyborgs Heinous and Despite, are siblings who hate each other, but work together for mutual profit. Parts of their powers, histories, personalities, and relationship might be adapted to flesh out  Halfjill (or "Jill-Plus," great suggestion pinecone) and her dynamic with Halfjack.

[assault]

17 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Also, the entire-half-body layout for Halfjack needn't be the way Halfjill is built. I would suggest going the Steve Austin/Jamie Summers route, and replacing her arms and legs with bionics while keeping the rest of her body organic.

I wouldn't do that. The way Halfjack is built makes him look like a monster. The other route allows Halfjill to be more "normal", and even attractive.

 

It soft-pedals the whole thing, not to mention conforming to an "even female monsters are sexy" stereotype.

[Lord Liaden]

Which would certainly be different from Halfjack, as steriaca is asking for. Also makes it more likely that the character would voluntarily choose to have this done to her. And she would only be a "sexy monster" if she was role played as sexy. If she was driven to beat the men at their own game, as female VIPER agents often have to be to succeed, using her "feminine wiles" could be the last thing she'd do.

[steriaca]

Some ideas I would like to put to the crowd about powers.

 

Super Strength 40: Jill has her arms and legs augmented for such a thing. Including some internal muscles which make general use of strength easier.

 

Multipower one: Movement.

With her augmented legs, she can run faster, leap farther, swim better (also using her augmented arms), and even swing (this using only augmented arms).

 

Augmented arms: The arms can stretch (Stretching) and split (Extra Limbs, turning two arms into four arms).

 

Arm weapons: Force Slasher micro-forcefield generators which creates basically razor sharp fingernails (Killing Attack Hand-to-hand). Augmented hands cause extra damage when punching (Hand-to-hand Attack).

 

Force Field: The general protection ability.

 

Add On Abilities: A good size Variable Power Pool (60? 75?) for small upgrades when needed.

[Greywind]

Yes, but being partially made out of metal, doesn't that adversely affect her natural buoyancy?

[archer]

2 hours ago, Greywind said:

Yes, but being partially made out of metal, doesn't that adversely affect her natural buoyancy?

 

Internal floatation devices evens that out.

[Lord Liaden]

32 minutes ago, archer said:

 

Internal floatation devices evens that out.

 

Yes, I've noticed comic-book women usually come equipped with those.

[pinecone]

My version of "Jill-Plus" had, if I recall right...an "Infiltration Package" Of Images -3 to 5 Self only, sight/sound and +3 Compi-sci, because it is a "known fact" that Cyborgs are good with hacking....

 

I think Str ran in the 30 to 40 range, plus "Commando martial arts" modified for her Cyborg phisique. And a built in particle weapon of about 13D6 in a game where 12D was normal. and 14D impressed other supers.

 

Toss in +5" of running or so, and you have the basic outline for a Cyborg spy/assasain...

Def was around 16 with built in emitters for a Viper force field of around +8 Def for when stealth was no longer an option.

[steriaca]

4 hours ago, Greywind said:

Yes, but being partially made out of metal, doesn't that adversely affect her natural buoyancy?

She needn't be made of metal, but high strength plastics, ceramics, force field emitters, bio-tech. She needs not be robocrook to be a cyborg. 

[BoloOfEarth]

Personally, I'd make her cybernetic augmentation be somewhat obvious, without being monstrous-looking.  Outer coating of high-strength polymers, so one arm and both legs don't look natural up close, but from a distance can pass for normal (or covered up with slacks, long-sleeved blouses, and gloves).  If she has optic enhancements, maybe she wears tinted glasses to hide that cyber-eye.

[Dr.Device]

As a cyborg who happens to be named Jill, I approve this thread.