Holiday-Themed CU Villains

[Steve]

Just a thought that struck me. Out of the CU’s cast of villainy, who would be best to use on holiday-themed teams? I’m mainly thinking Halloween and Christmas.

[steriaca]

I remember my old GM springing the team which was once known as the Reindeer Raiders. 13 original villains originally named after Santa's Reindeers. You can probably pick and choose writeups and mold them into the new Reindeer Raiders.

 

I won't name them here. Just go through the part of the Night Before Christmas which names the Reindeer and add Rudolph at the end.

 

As for Halloween, use any spooky scary villain you wish. Champions have a lot of them (Samhine, Dead Man Walking, etc.).

[Lord Liaden]

For Halloween, it would be a question of how you want to scale the threat to your PCs' power level. If you'd like someone more in the vein of Michael Meyers or Jason Voorhees -- an opponent who strikes from the shadows, and terrifies as much as kills -- IMO the closest analogue would be Freakshow (CV Vol. 3). Not overwhelmingly powerful, but quite deadly with knives, and very hard to permanently take down, plus he can evoke "waking nightmares" in people by touch.

 

If you want a genuine threat even to groups of superheroes, I'd probably go with Demoiselle Nocturne (Demon: Servants Of Darkness). She's essentially Freddy Krueger or Pennywise, but even more powerful, and with followers. With her abilities and resources, there are lots of ways you could use her. Of course as steriaca mentions above, the CU has many spooky villains, ranging from horrors who can go toe to toe with most supers, such as The Monster, to behind the scenes manipulators like Samhain. (See CV3 for both.)

 

For Christmas, I would favor Black Harlequin (also CV Vol. 3). His write-up already specifies that Christmas is a particularly active season for him, and his murderous toys obviously fit the motif of the holiday. Increasing the size and power of his toys, like his giant murderbot teddy bear, "Clarence," would help scale his threat to the power level of your PCs.

[wcw43921]

I was thinking Black Harlequin as well.  I had the idea that for Thanksgiving (which I posted in the Hero System Facebook Group) he would duplicate the infamous "Turkey Drop" from WKRP In Cincinnati.  Only instead of live turkeys, he would use plush turkeys stuffed with explosives, and there would be hundreds of them, if not thousands.

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

In the BBB, there was a sample plot with a Giant Turkey. Well, which geneticist could create a live giant turkey?

[Lord Liaden]

8 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

In the BBB, there was a sample plot with a Giant Turkey. Well, which geneticist could create a live giant turkey?

 

For Teleios that would be child's play, but I had to think for a minute about why he would even bother. I believe Professor Paradigm might hire him to do it. I could see Paradigm wanting to provoke people to question the ritual and symbolism of Thanksgiving.

 

Moving away from genetics, as the CU's analogue to Mr. Mxyzptlk, I could absolutely accept the Incubus pulling such a ridiculous and potentially tragic "joke" in response to the holiday.

 

(Teleios and PP are both in CV Vol. 1, while the Incubus is in Vol. 3.)

[Ninja-Bear]

I know Dr. Destroyer could also but I don’t see him having that sense of humor. Foxbat on the other hand would have to pay someone to do it but he would use the turkey. And he would ride it too!

[Ninja-Bear]

I just realized that if we go comical with the giant turkey then it was created by the…Gweenies! And they are dressed up as Pilgrims instead of Mobsters.

[Duke Bushido]

Was working on a series of thematic adventures when the computer started to disagree with various websites (to include my G-drive, where last year's work is stored).

 

The set up is "magic rock causes random havoc as it resurfaces across the best parts if the year."

 

Short version?  Foxbat stole it because he needed a cool stone to use as the head of his walking stick to really sell himself as a revival preacher to ensure the success of his church scam.

 

Magic rock creates lors and lots of zombies (this was the Halloween game).

 

I had just started to write the nexr bit when I got locked out of G-drive (could I do it from my phone?  Sure; I can- and have-accessed it.  But look at my posts from this phone!  Can you imagine trying to write up lengrhy adventures like this?!)

 

Anyway, we played that one on through Thanksgiving (so I will have to write that one later) and I decided to skip ahead to December.

 

Without giving away too much about the adventure itself (I have heaed a rumor that one of my youth group players has been lurking here), the title of the adventure and the stones strange life-giving powers should tell you all that you want to know:

 

"...Oh, Christmas Treant, oh Christmas Treant..."

 

 

[DShomshak]

Back in my old "Seattle Sentinels" campaign, one of the PCs disguised himself as a villain to make contact with the vampire Lady Twilight (see Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies). We ran it near Hallowe'en, so calling it "Trick or Treat" was inevitable.

 

A year later, as Oct 31 approached again, I ran "Trick or Treat II: The Movie." The Seattle Sentinels agreed be consultants for a movie inspired by some of their adventures. They ran into some loonies who'd been enthralled by Lady Twilight, engaged in a "Scooby-Doo" scam against the movie (they were upset at her portrayal) -- then a pair of real ghosts, including the Haunt (CotN again) in the old house used as a filming location.

 

In my first "Keystone Konjurors" playtest campaign for Ultimate Supermage, the heroes were trapped in a recursive series of horrific dreamworlds by Tappan Arkwright II (Arcane Adversaries), in "Trick or Treat: The Next Generation."

 

The second Keystone Konjurors campaign ended near Christmas. Coincidentally, one of the PCs was pregnant with an infant that was the focus of a plan by Yahweh to escape Heaven. In the simultaneous escape of Yahweh from Heaven and the PCs from Hell, it was obligatory for the hasty EDM to deposit them in Bethlehem, PA.

 

ADDENDUM: I almost forgot: During the second KK campaign, we gamed on Oct 31 but one of the players couldn't make it. So I just did a short, silly fill-in scenario in which the PCs (and Black Fang, who at this time was merged with his human side for a sane and controlled personality, married to a PC, and effectively an NPC hero) decide to crash the Emperor of Babylon's Hallowe'en party. Hijinks ensued and a good time was had by all.

 

Dean Shomshak