Professor Pomegranate And His Ubermachine (Steriaca's Take)

[steriaca]

This is my take on the character of Professor Pythias Pomegranate and his Ubermachine. Any other take is, of course, someone else's take. Since we don't really have, never gotten, and will never get "official" stats for both, we will probably never get them. I MIGHT do some writeups later on.

 

The Ubermachine And What Exactly It Is.

 

The Ubermachine is actually a "fraud". The machine is NOT what actually gives people superpowers. What the machine DOES do is open a portal into a place with a sentient energy being. This being connects to the mind of the subject, and grants the subconscious wish of the subject. It also implants a portion of itself within each subject. The Blonde Bombshell wanted to be beautiful, so the entity made her such. Darkion wanted to prove his theory about "darkion particles", so the entity made it so that he could generate thoes particles and make them work the way he wished them to. Jabberrok wished than nobody could harm him, so he made his skin like stone. Spectra only wished to stay by Jabberrok's side, so the entity had to improvise. And Professor Pomegranate himself only wanted to be the smartest person on Earth.

 

The entity tends to grant people energy based powers, but it is also capable of granting physical powers. It can't grant psionic powers in the normal sense, but can grant physical powers which mimic psionic powers.

 

The Entity And What He Wishes And Wants.

 

The actual name of the entity is unknown. What he wants is to empower 666 individuals with part of his energies, then cross over to our section of dimensions. It is up to the GM on how many he has changed, and what his goals are once he gets here. It could be possible that the Ubermachine is actually a portal to Kurin. Or not.

 

Professor Pomegranate And His Powers. 

 

Generally speaking, Professor Pomegranate simply has increased intelligence and EGO stats. He supplements his intelligence with gadgets, but rather uses his henchmen to fight.

 

It should be noted that another "power" allowed his brain to be safely transplanted from body to body.

 

In the Professor's old body we was rather feeble physically with bright red hair. He is now in his sixth body, an enlarged brain in the body with his brain in an plastic transparent shell he just loves to expose. Over time he has added devices to the shell, like a device which changes thoughts into electrical bolts (a "Mind Storm", as he likes to call it). All in all, his head roughly resembles a pomegranate fruit. 

 

The Professor's best friend is a man known only as Morese, better known as the Thugmaster. It is unknown if the Thugmaster has ever been through the Ubermachine or not. Thugmaster likes to employ the Professor's subjects, paying the Professor a portion of the profit for each crime. The Professor uses the money to just research for more technology and science. 

 

Tell me what you think.

[Beast]

And I use to play in Dennis's game for 27 yrs

[Lord Liaden]

That's quite an original take on a super-empowering device, with interesting long-term campaign potential. And I really like how you took a silly name and the tiny published history for him, and extrapolated a credible character while still retaining a bit of gonzo.

 

BTW Pythias Pomegranate was named for the Greek mythic character, who with his best friend Damon play out a parable of self-sacrificing friendship. Note that part of the history of Prof. P is that he has a loyal brother named "Damien."

[steriaca]

20 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

That's quite an original take on a super-empowering device, with interesting long-term campaign potential. And I really like how you took a silly name and the tiny published history for him, and extrapolated a credible character while still retaining a bit of gonzo.

Thank you. The idea of the character was basically a gonzo mad scientist. So, well, and only remembering small facts about him, and knowing I definitely wasn't going to be correct about him, I went all in with the "wierd science" aspect.

 

I also went with the "alien energy being" aspect because, well, why not.

20 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

BTW Pythias Pomegranate was named for the Greek mythic character, who with his best friend Damon play out a parable of self-sacrificing friendship. Note that part of the history of Prof. P is that he has a loyal brother named "Damien."

Blame my misremembering his name and my habit of misspelling. I'm better than I use to be, but worse than most people here.

[steriaca]

54 minutes ago, Beast said:

And I use to play in Dennis's game for 27 yrs

And Dennis' version is 100% correct. But since we never seen his stats, your free to create your own version. 

 

Dennis, by the way, is free to run with my ideas also (since this IS the only place I'll publish it). I'm not going to sue for something he originally created after all.

 

(I think the Professor only is mentioned a few times in his comics and I don't believe we ever seen him.)

 

Just searched Comic Vine. He appeared in 13 issues. 

[death tribble]

I take it for granted that you will mis-spell something. That is because you are an American and it is an epidemic in your country......

[assault]

25 minutes ago, steriaca said:

I also went with the "alien energy being" aspect because, well, why not.

This is really the only part that bugs me.

 

It strikes me as a bit of a complication for the sake of it - one of many, many such things. A bit like the "true" nature of Cyberline - nothing can be what it is like on the surface, everything has to have a secret behind it. Any surprise or shock value is attenuated by it happening every single time.

That said, a machine that creates superbeings is always going to have to be unreliable, unpredictable, and generally messed up. Otherwise everybody will be trying to build them. (Which, come to think of it...)

[DShomshak]

6 hours ago, steriaca said:

an enlarged brain in the body with his brain in an plastic transparent shell he just loves to expose.

Of course it is, and of course he does. It could not be otherwise!

 

Dean Shomshak

[steriaca]

5 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

Of course it is, and of course he does. It could not be otherwise!

 

Dean Shomshak

If your going to cover your brain with a high strength plastic shell, your going to want to show it off.

 

Also an excuse for a few levels of Striking Appearance ("hideous") and a Distinctive Appearance (brain visable in plastic shell).

 

Also, what other character who is not a brain in a jar has a visual brain?

[steriaca]

43 minutes ago, assault said:

That said, a machine that creates superbeings is always going to have to be unreliable, unpredictable, and generally messed up. Otherwise everybody will be trying to build them. (Which, come to think of it...)

Well, the energy being doesn't enhance everyone who subjects itself to the Ubermachine. Some people actually don't have desires for powers, or desires for powers the entity can not grant (it works by the entity implanting its energy inside it). It will not enhance anyone who is already powered, even if the power is latent. Also, if the person who steps into it has even a tiny bit of a wish to die, the entity will sense it and grant it.

 

Also, the entity needs to sleep and eat. When it is asleep, it won't even notice anyone using the Ubermachine. And if it needs to eat, it will eat the first soul who enters the Ubermachine (it feeds on souls/bio-energy/whatever macguffin you wish to explain it).

 

Also, Professor Pomegranate regulates the darn thing. Yes, he wants to have more powered helpers. But he seen how Jabberrok turned out. He seen people step out looking worse than Jabberrok, or even never to step out of the machine alive. So...

 

(Or at least that's my explanation. Your mileage may vary.)

[Beast]

2 hours ago, steriaca said:

And Dennis' version is 100% correct. But since we never seen his stats, your free to create your own version. 

 

Dennis, by the way, is free to run with my ideas also (since this IS the only place I'll publish it). I'm not going to sue for something he originally created after all.

 

(I think the Professor only is mentioned a few times in his comics and I don't believe we ever seen him.)

 

Just searched Comic Vine. He appeared in 13 issues. 

Guess you did not see the like icon on your original post

 

[steriaca]

1 minute ago, Beast said:

Guess you did not see the like icon on your original post

 

I did. Thank you. I still felt the need to explain myself thoe.

[assault]

1 hour ago, steriaca said:

Also, what other character who is not a brain in a jar has a visual brain?

 

Validus.

 

 

Psimon - the DC character, not the CU one.

[steriaca]

5 minutes ago, assault said:

 

Validus.

Psimon - the DC character, not the CU one.

Was speaking Champions wise. Othoe someone is going to point to the leader of the Brain Trust anyways...

Well, there are villains who are mindless...

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, assault said:

This is really the only part that bugs me.

 

It strikes me as a bit of a complication for the sake of it - one of many, many such things. A bit like the "true" nature of Cyberline - nothing can be what it is like on the surface, everything has to have a secret behind it. Any surprise or shock value is attenuated by it happening every single time.

That said, a machine that creates superbeings is always going to have to be unreliable, unpredictable, and generally messed up. Otherwise everybody will be trying to build them. (Which, come to think of it...)

 

In the case of this interpretation of the Ubermachine, I don't see it as a complication for the sake of it. It seems to me a potential plot to develop into a story arc in future with several possible outcomes, one that I've never seen associated with this type of origin gimmick before.

 

Cyberline is a different animal. I believe the change from drug and biofeedback treatment to gene therapy in the 1990s Primus source book came from two trends: stigma due to the "war on drugs" in America; and the comic-book Iron Age trope of every government agency having some sinister secret corruption. In the DOJ era the genetic nature of Cyberline was maintained, but the way it's described -- requiring daily boosters, being "mildly addictive" -- in practice is no different from a drug treatment as it was originally, and is not typical for gene therapy, so keeping that is rather pointless.

[steriaca]

Cyberline? I liked it as a drug, and agreed with Lord Liaden about the protental reasons why it was changed. Considering that IT'S YOUR GAME AND YOUR CAMPAIGN, you can change it to whatever you darn well want to. Nothing prevents you from making it into whatever method you want. 

 

Just like you can easily scrub the energy entity from my version of the Ubermachine and make it whatever you want it to be or make it work the way you wish.

 

In other words, your mileage always differs. 

[Lord Liaden]

2 hours ago, assault said:

That said, a machine that creates superbeings is always going to have to be unreliable, unpredictable, and generally messed up. Otherwise everybody will be trying to build them. (Which, come to think of it...)

 

In the CU only Teleios seems to have powers-on-demand down to a science, so to speak. But the setting's official time line also includes a long list of government-sponsored "super-soldier" experiments, mostly in America but also elsewhere. They could provide background for the right character concept. Here's the last place I posted that list to these forums:

 

 

 

[starblaze]

This was in the Freedom Force computer game.  Freedom Force was a RTS game with the premise that people got superpowers due to an element called Energy X.  At the end of the second game it's revealed that Energy X is an actual person named Energy X.

[Khymeria]

1 hour ago, starblaze said:

This was in the Freedom Force computer game.  Freedom Force was a RTS game with the premise that people got superpowers due to an element called Energy X.  At the end of the second game it's revealed that Energy X is an actual person named Energy X.

I remember this vaguely I think. A tricot hat patriot type and a bug guy, maybe in a super suit on the cover? 

[starblaze]

11 hours ago, Khymeria said:

I remember this vaguely I think. A tricot hat patriot type and a bug guy, maybe in a super suit on the cover? 

Minuteman, The Ant, and my favorite Man-Bot.  The first four superheroes in the game are Mentor, Minuteman, El Diablo and Man-Bot.