Villain Concept for your review/input.

[Hal Owen]

Hello there,

I am a regular poster here, but I have chosen a pseudonym (pseudohandle?) for this thread because I do not want my players to see my name and read this.

While some regular posters here may guess my identity, please don't post guesses in the thread. (If you just have to know if you are right, send me a Private Message)

I don't think my players are evil or anything, I just think they are human, and this concerns the major big-bad of my campaign, and is completely unknown to the players at this time.

They would not go out of their way to ruin the campaign, but they might be tempted to "peek".

 

Also, I am sure there are some similarities between this character and some published character somewhere, but I didn't intentionally "steal" it. I came up with this a couple of years ago, and it has been percolating for some time. The character is already part of the campaign, but is "hidden in plain sight" and the players have no idea of his true nature.

 

On to the concept:

You are a hybrid of a humanoid cyborg race, and an Earthling.

You appear completely human, at least on the outside.

The other race you are from is extremely warlike.

It exists only to conquer other races.

 

In addition to being a hybrid, you could also be considered, for lack of a better word, a mutant. You possess abilities above and beyond those of both your parent species. And you possess other things that no member of the humanoid race has ever possessed compassion, a conscious, and a belief in the inherent value of intelligent life.

 

You become aware that the cyborg race will be coming to invade Earth, it is only a matter of time. At its current level of readiness, Earth does not stand a chance. If they had the proper time to prepare, the Earthlings could survive.

 

But how?

 

A scientist, your Earthling mother, has discovered a way to predict the formation of rifts in the timestream. Theoretically, her device can place you at the exact coordinates necessary to travel backwards in time. You enter a tiny scout ship and take off. As predicted the rift begins to form. A small holographic projector in the device activates itself when there are five minutes left before the rift appears.

 

An image of your mother appears:

"My son, by the time you see this I will no longer be alive. I and my lab will have been destroyed in an "accident". I could not risk the possibility of my work falling into alien hands. They might be able to undo everything you are trying to accomplish, and the timestream could be so constantly ripped by changes that all existence could come to an end. So, I am ensuring that your trip will be the only one. Don't feel too badly about my sacrifice. If you accomplish your mission, it will not have been unnecessary, and my alternate self will live out a life of peace. Good luck. You hold the fate of everyone on Earth in your hands."

 

Your trip through the rift is terrifying, but you survive it. The stealth technology on your craft is so advanced that the primitive Earth systems are not able to pick up any trace of you. Your ship buries itself deep under the ocean, where you enter a state of hibernation, during which your ship scans all Earth broadcasts and downloads them into your mind so that you can become familiar with the culture of Earth. You also learn all of the common languages. When you emerge, you know a lot about the humans of this time period. They are suspicious, especially of outsiders, and people who talk about intelligent alien life forms are considered insane. So the original idea you had, of presenting yourself openly and offering to help them prepare cannot possibly succeed. You are going to have to find a way to prepare them without them realizing it.

 

You see three possibilities:

 

1) In this era there are "Superhumans" that possess abilities far above those of the common human. If these beings could be trained and tested, they would be a great asset in the coming battle. But, since they are not likely to believe your story, and they have the power to prevent you from completing your mission, they must never know your real purpose.

 

2) Standard humans could be "improved". You have access to the technology of the cyborg race. With some minor changes, you could make subtle improvements in humans that would make them better able to fight for themselves. You never discussed this possibility with your Mother, but you cannot escape the logic of it. By "converting" the humans in a benign way before the cyborgs arrive, you could prevent the hostile conversion to come.

Of course the humans would resist this, so you must be very subtle, converting one human at a time, and doing so in a way that is not obvious to anyone, including the subject.

 

3) A combination of the two. Through a series of experiments, you might be able to find a way to "create" Superhumans by using cyborg technology, without the subjects being aware of the process. This could be the solution.

An army of cyborg Superhumans would no doubt repel the coming invasion easily.

 

How to proceed?

 

a) Become familiar with the human anatomy, and how to make beneficial changes to it using cybernetic implants and nanotechnology. By posing as a Doctor, and starting a free clinic in a poor neighborhood, you could find willing subjects.

 

Conduct a series of tests on existing Superhumans to determine the scope of their powers, and their suitability for fighting the coming invasion.

 

c) Begin creating a group of cyborg operatives that you can use to help you in your work. By using advanced technology, these operatives will become more capable than standard humans, and with the proper cerebral interface will be both totally loyal and have no memory of the tasks they perform for you.

 

Now, there is no more time to waste, you must get to work . . .

 

 

Questions? Comments? Observations?

 

"Hal Owen"

[OddHat]

Re: Villain Concept for your review/input.

 

So will the terminator borg mutant superman be fighting any ninja jedi slayers?

[Hal Owen]

Re: Villain Concept for your review/input.

 

So will the terminator borg mutant superman be fighting any ninja jedi slayers?

 

First, thanks for taking the time to even read it.

 

I admit to muddying up the story a bit, mostly so that the parts that are already a part of my campaign wouldn't look too familiar to my players if they just happened to read this.

 

The real story is not quite as convoluted as it may seem.

The character in question is basically this:

One

with the serial numbers filed off, and enough changes that I am not impinging on anyone's IP.

The idea I had was, what if this character ended up on the Earth of the present. (If you have actually seen the episode you get a better grasp on him.)

He wants to prevent an invasion at all costs, and does not have much of a grasp on the finer points of "freedom" or "morality" as we see them.

He would see all of his actions, however horrific they might be to us, as necessary.

 

So far he is responsible for one PC's powers, even though the PC is unaware of this, and he has "converted" a couple of NPC's.

 

It may sound a little goofy in this format, but in the campaign it is working quite well, so far.

 

What I am really concerned about is the "reveal" when the players find out what is going on.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to look,

 

Hal Owen.

[OddHat]

Re: Villain Concept for your review/input.

 

Fair enough, and I've always liked villains who are certain that they're doing the right thing. IMO, for what it's worth, a reveal of something like this is best handled in chunks. If you try to give it to them all at once they'll go into exposition shock. I'd handle the reveal with a few speeches from the villain ("I'm doing this for you"), maybe a couple of telepathic probes, and some exposition from Captain Chronos or a similar time traveller. A rich back story is always fun, as long as it doesn't take over the game.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Villain Concept for your review/input.

 

Hmmm

Ok there are a couple of major flaws there where did this amazing hybrid come from one of your merciless world conquering cyborgs fell in love perhaps or was his mother raped?

 

Perhaps he’s the product of a genetic experiment using the genetic material of the conquered races to produce a superior soldier.

 

So his mother is not his real mother but a member of the human resistance who rescued him from the breeding camps/biolab. Earth has been conquered already and he has been sent back in time to prevent this (alternatively he comes from only a few years in the future his mother was kidnapped by advanced scouts of the aliens either because of her cosmological genius or as a genetic specimen this might be interesting because a younger version of his mother would be around and he would have to avoid interacting with her but also keep her safe.

 

Ditch the cybernetics go with pure nano-tech (not that there fundamentally different) call it soldier-ware a system that improves on and enhances the aliens physiology boosting strength reflexes and regeneration, with systems that protect the soldier from harmful environments and offer tactical enhancements (like upgraded vision smell etc) as well as a computer system with tactical and cultural databases and a universal translator. perhaps his was stolen by the resistance to level teh playing field but given to him as full humans are incompatible with it)

 

The fun thing with this concept is that you can really mess with your player’s heads with him technically he’s quite heroic but his methods are not.

 

He has access to highly advanced technology mind control implants etc and tactical genius he ill is willing to do anything to save earth from its terrible fate.

So mind controlling politicians, starting wars or supplying VIPER to create an arms race creating super villains (but also heroes he actually wants to make more heroes but chooses the wrong people) or kidnapping people to study or enhance or performing experiments on down and outs poisoning the environment to improve the population creating diseases to kill off some action of the populous he considers a burden etc.

 

He will also be willing to help heroes in trouble and is an expert in meta-human/extra terrestrial physiology (of course explaining how is half the fun) he may even act as a superhero him self occasionally.