Grandiose Goals For Grandiose Villains

[wcw43921]

Another idea I had was for a character called Invictor--no relation to Doctor Invictus.  Invictor has the FISS powerset (emphasis on the Strength) and truly believes he, above all others, is best suited to rule the world.  Unlike all the other would-be world dominators, he seeks the mutual approval and acclaim of the people, rather than imposing his will by brute force.  So he goes around doing your basic superhero deeds--rescuing people from disasters, fighting crime and supervillains, preventing disasters from occurring--everything PC heroes do.  He may even offer to help the PC heroes on occasion.  And when the press asks him for a statement after his latest super-deed, he will tell them that his wisdom and willingness to use his powers to help people and protect them from harm makes him the ideal person to rule the world.

 

His website lists his agenda for his rulership, and a petition page that visitors can sign if want Invictor to be ruler of the world.  So far he has received over seven million signatures from all over the world--which has also attracted the attention of every hero team on the planet, not to mention every law enforcement and spy agency with skin in the game.

[Lord Liaden]

I created a team of extreme eco-terrorists out of existing official Champions solo villains, which I call "Gaia's Wrath." They believe Earth itself is in a war for survival with the human race, and intend to cull the human population until they're no longer a threat (at least 90%). They use their combined scientific expertise to devise and implement technologies to kill as many people as possible, almost always with a "nature" theme, as though the planet itself is striking back at Man. Possibilities based on each villain's specialty include: gathering and directing vast swarms of insects to attack humans; mutating all the large plants in a city into mobile carnivorous predators; modifying a string of satellites to concentrate the Sun's radiation into an orbital "death ray;" triggering earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanoes near large populations; or creating targeted hurricanes or tornadoes.

 

(Anyone who'd like to read more about Gaia's Wrath can download this free file from the Downloads section of this website.)

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah I wanted a counter to my far right South American villains Eisenkreutz (Iron Cross, ex Nazi founders in Argentina), so I came up with SOCIETY (the New Society) of hard left cranks that tried all kinds of crazy stuff like killing off most of the population to fight pollution, that kind of thing.  They were secretly a pastiche of the X-Men but altered enough that most were fairly unrecognizable (except Cyclops).

 

Basically any ideology taken to its extreme and most radical can produce some interesting plot lines and crazy bad guys to defeat

[Steve]

On 7/25/2022 at 7:19 PM, Lord Liaden said:

Part of the Champions adventure Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth involves King Cobra unleashing a zombie-virus type "Ophidian Plague" transforming its victims into berserk snake-people. In his case that is at least consistent with his conviction that a blend of human and reptilian represents the next step in human evolution (But he is unquestionably nuts.)

 

The Champs master villain called the Slug's main shtick is transforming large numbers of humans into Elder Worms like himself, stimulating the latent Worm DNA left in humanity after forced interbreeding experiments when the Worm ruled prehistoric Earth. (Best not to think about that too much.) 🤢  In the past he's done that to New York and London.

A socially-conscious supervillain unleashes an airborne, easily transmissible, delayed effect virus that rewrites the chromosomes of all humans into a single racial type, effectively homogenizing all of mankind.

[Clonus]

On 7/27/2022 at 11:46 AM, wcw43921 said:

Another idea I had was for a character called Invictor--no relation to Doctor Invictus.  Invictor has the FISS powerset (emphasis on the Strength) and truly believes he, above all others, is best suited to rule the world.  Unlike all the other would-be world dominators, he seeks the mutual approval and acclaim of the people, rather than imposing his will by brute force.  So he goes around doing your basic superhero deeds--rescuing people from disasters, fighting crime and supervillains, preventing disasters from occurring--everything PC heroes do.  He may even offer to help the PC heroes on occasion.  And when the press asks him for a statement after his latest super-deed, he will tell them that his wisdom and willingness to use his powers to help people and protect them from harm makes him the ideal person to rule the world.

 

His website lists his agenda for his rulership, and a petition page that visitors can sign if want Invictor to be ruler of the world.  So far he has received over seven million signatures from all over the world--which has also attracted the attention of every hero team on the planet, not to mention every law enforcement and spy agency with skin in the game.

 

Reminds me of an idea I had for a would-be alien conqueror who arrived on the planet he was supposed to take over for his overlord only to discover that it was in such a mess and in such constant peril of destruction and conquest that all of his energies ended up getting absorbed into defending the planet and fixing it up, until finally he ended up defending it from his former people.  

[death tribble]

For grandiose ideas just look at James Bond films.

 

For example Goldfinger plans to detonate a nuclear bomb in Fort Knox which will increase the value of his own stock.

In Moonraker Drax intends to use nerve gas against the world's population and repopulate the earth with his own superhumans

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service Blofeld intends to render livestock infertile and food plants as well and hold the world to ransom.

In Thunderball two nuclear weapons are used to blackmail various countries

In the Spy Who Loved Me Stromberg intends to start a nuclear war and start a new civilization underwater

In You Only Live Twice SPECTRE is trying to start a war between the USSR and the USA for China.

 

In the spoof Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, a man plans to make all other men sterile so that he would be preserved as the only person capable of propagating the human race.

[Foxiekins]

On 7/22/2022 at 12:45 PM, steriaca said:

Kidnapping everyone in the world sounds grand on paper. It just leaves one problem, who will pay the ransom?

Not to mention that kidnapping yourself is extremely problematic...

[death tribble]

But if you are the head of State you can cause all sorts of chaos by faking your own kidnapping.

[Foxiekins]

6 hours ago, death tribble said:

But if you are the head of State you can cause all sorts of chaos by faking your own kidnapping.

Why would this upset anyone other than your own people...?

[Steve]

Cursing the top thousand wealthiest people in the world so that they all have the Curse of Midas. All that directly touches their flesh (food, clothing, living things) is turned into pure gold. This curse lasts until they die from either thirst or starvation, as everything they try to consume for sustenance also transforms.

 

Other than death, it can only be stopped by them sending one billion dollars to a bitcoin address. Instructions are given via an internet video.

[Hermit]

On 7/25/2022 at 10:19 PM, Lord Liaden said:

Part of the Champions adventure Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth involves King Cobra unleashing a zombie-virus type "Ophidian Plague" transforming its victims into berserk snake-people. In his case that is at least consistent with his conviction that a blend of human and reptilian represents the next step in human evolution (But he is unquestionably nuts.)

 

The Champs master villain called the Slug's main shtick is transforming large numbers of humans into Elder Worms like himself, stimulating the latent Worm DNA left in humanity after forced interbreeding experiments when the Worm ruled prehistoric Earth. (Best not to think about that too much.) 🤢  In the past he's done that to New York and London.

 

I ran that. Enjoyed it so much I used it for a Braintrust plot seed

 

This is what happens when you don't spay your catgirls: So King Cobra made the Ophidian plague. Big Whoop, thinks the Overbrain. To prove he can do one better, he creates his own version of the gene altering plague, and uses Lynx as a carrier. Lynx begins to claw other women, making them into catgirls who are more animalistic than she, yet subject to her orders (which will include going out and making more cat girls (and maybe one lucky guy who has struck Lynx's fancy)). Can the PCs stop the growing Catgirl army or is the city doomed

 

 

Only problem was several posters at the time asked what the down side was *Sigh*

[death tribble]

20 hours ago, Foxiekins said:

Why would this upset anyone other than your own people...?

If you are the one negotiating between two warring States who want to unleash Armageddon, the rest of the world could be upset. Also what if you are the head of China, the USA or the USSR Russia ?

[DShomshak]

Speaking of contagious plagues... I ran one in my second Keystone Konjurors campaign (playtest for the Ultimate Mystic trilogy). Only in mine, the plague was Barbie.

 

The player of one of the PCs, Artifex, said the Master of Cosmic Craft had made a 0-point Follower for his stylish loft apartment in Babylon: a human-size, living Barbie doll. Live-in housekeeper. I think: Okay. And, well, bed partner. I think: Ew. Then think: MUAH HA HA HA! Because Barbie is a powerful archetype, one of the best known toys in the world, and a focus of bizarre obsessions. Plus there's that manically/creepily cheerful song by Aqua. "I'm a Barbie girl, In a Barbie World. Life in plastic -- it's fantastic!"

 

It started as apparently a different adventure, I think there was a fire demon. Anyway, some bystanders get hit in the fighting, and one of them partly melts instead of getting burned. He's a living plastic mannikin. He also has no soul. The PCs find other soulless plastic people... and they're turning humans into more plastic people. The PCs eventually traced it back to Artifex's Barbie simulacrum, who is absorbing all the reality from the transformed people and growing into a nascent cosmic entity; also turning Artifex's apartment into a colorful molded plastic Barbie World. Called on this, Barbie tells Artifex to defend her, which he finds he must do: He was Barbie's first victim and working for her all along. Artifex tries to convince the others that this is a good thing. There is no old age, sickness or death in Barbie World. The Dragon would be destroyed. The others did manage to get through to him and convince him to turn against Barbie and destroy her. So, um, yay?

 

Good times.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

You are a strange but creative and entertaining man.

[L. Marcus]

9 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

You are a strange but creative and entertaining man.

You, sir, speak for me also.

[wcw43921]

How did Artifex's player react?  Was it his idea to become a pawn of Barbie?

[DShomshak]

Well, he sort of knew something was coming. When he emailed me telling what Artifex was doing, I emailed back something along the lines of, "Please tell me this is indeed what Artifex is doing." He took the plunge, and played along when the reveal came.

 

I've been lucky in my players. They were quite good at making their own troubles, which is why the campaign became called "Keystone Konjurors."

 

Dean Shomshak