WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

[OddHat]

For Hero Teams: One of your enemies has “reformed†and struck a deal with the feds. He or she will be granted amnesty in exchange for giving evidence against his or her former partners/employers and public service in the form of Crime Fighting. For some reason your character has been asked to look after this ex-criminal.

1) Who has reformed? Is it sincere, or part of some scheme?

2) How do you try to protect your new ward in case his/her old partners show up?

3) A victim of your ward turns up looking for revenge. The crime your ward committed against this victim was serious, and is one of the crimes that will go unpunished if the amnesty goes through. Do you protect your ward?

 

For Criminal Teams, assume that one of the Heroes has gone renegade and joined your side. Are they sincere? Why are they with you? Do you help to protect them against the law?

 

WWYCD?

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

 

OK, Starguard is out -- she'd never be asked to do this solo (she's been a superhero for all of one week, fercryinoutloud), and if the New Sentinels do it... between the God of Truth, She Who Sees Into The Human Soul, and the World-Class Telepath... it would be sincere. Furthermore, protecting and whatnot would be relatively trivial for the New Sentinels, unless their hunteds were things like 'Entire Star Empire' or 'Doctor Destroyer / Takofanes tag-team'.

 

On to my other characters...

 

> 1) Who has reformed? Is it sincere, or part of some scheme?

 

Dr. Pain -- the only villains I can imagine him being called in for are guys like Bulldozer or Boa Constrictor. ("But you were the WWF Wrestling Champion! He *respects* you! He asked for you, specifically! You're perfect to be his handler, you can relate to him in a way that none of our PRIMUS agents can match!") Probably Boa Constrictor, as nobody would give a damn if Bulldozer reformed, but /anybody/ defecting from VIPER's Dragon Branch is a major issue.

 

Boa Constrictor, I think, would be sincere -- he's not the type for ploys, and he's genuinely happy where he is, which means he'd have to shift to being genuinely unhappy with VIPER if he ever left it. (Probably if he figures out how he's been being used this whole time, and that nobody there really likes him.)

 

 

Baron von Darien -- heh. Just for the humor value, I pick Astralle. And yes, it's a ploy.

 

Astralle -- "I've reformed now! Really! I want to serve Good!"

 

Baron von Darien -- "No, you want to find yourself a strong, handsome, male protector who is capable of getting you out of a very long string of bad debts, disgruntled ex-paramours, and other such trouble that you've gotten yourself into, and don't mind lying, stealing, cheating, or magically binding someone to get it. Plus, you have a secondary agenda that involves trying to use him for sex."

 

Astralle -- "... was I that obvious?"

 

Baron von Darien -- "Actually, no. But you were a very bad flashback to how I got Embraced in the first place."

 

> 2) How do you try to protect your new ward in case his/her old partners

> show up?

 

Dr. Pain -- *after hitting 'Call Silver Avenger' panic button/pager* "... you punch the ones on the left, and I punch the ones on the right." "Yo! You da man, Doc!"

 

Baron von Darien -- "Your offers, and the dubious charms that accompany them, are rejected. Leave my presence at once!"

 

*follows her secretly as she runs away crying*

 

*Sylvestri family / disgruntled demonic ex-lover / whoever attacks!*

 

*Sylvestri family / disgruntled demonic ex-lover / whoever is given horrible stabbity death via backstab!*

 

Astralle -- "... you saved me! You had a change of heart!"

 

Baron von Darien -- "No, I was merely using you as live bait to draw out the Sylvestri family / disgruntled demonic ex-lover / whoever, so that I could finally kill the bastard. You are of no further use to me, and so you can go now."

 

> 3) A victim of your ward turns up looking for revenge. The crime your ward

> committed against this victim was serious, and is one of the crimes that will

> go unpunished if the amnesty goes through. Do you protect your ward?

 

Dr. Pain -- "... look, it's either your vengeance, or all the zillions of lives that will be saved if they can finally crack the VIPER case after all. I'm sorry, man, but I gotta do this."

 

Baron von Darien (secretly) -- "Truth be told, I don't really like her, and she's not that sincere anyway... if you'll just wait a few days until after I've finished using her for live bait, you can kill her all you please."

[animemun001]

Re: WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

 

You know I'm not really sure what my Teen villian would do.. however my Golden Age Psymon villian is a bit different.

 

Captain hero "No really I want to be evil! I want to destroy things."

 

Psymon "You have got to be kidding, you can't even step on ants.."

 

CH: "I can to!"[steps on floor] "SEE!"

 

Psymon: "I have no ants in my castle CH.."

 

CH: "Um..right, let me behead a few of those people you have locked up!"

 

PSymon: "Fine.. but first let me strap you to this medical examination table."

 

Captain hero soon becomes mutated beyond recognition and gains brain problems.

 

On second thought... He might not be the best choice to try and convince that your evil..

[animemun001]

Re: WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

 

Now on the opposite side of the coin..

 

Eric of the mutants I play online would be willing to change sides and give up more dangerous and vile allies (IE/ those that actually consider killing fun)

 

For the most part his skills are a reflection of Robin from the teen titans.

He'd have no trouble convincing the girls of the team that he was willing to turn over a new leaf due to his lust inflicting powers. The guys however would be watching him like a hawk because of that and at the end of all that Eric would likely turn out like a twisted version of batman.

 

As for problems that would hunt him down..his abusive father wouldn't stand much a chance against super-heroes of any sort physically but could give them alot more problems if they worked in his burg where he happens to a police detective. (Secret Identities could be in trouble there)

 

As for Erics friends and any crimes that he might of been commited...Child Support for a Teenager would be a very humbling experience, another reason for him to switch sides. Responsibility would certainly be something the heroes would have to teach him.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

 

Hey, I'm actually a player now, not just a GM, for the first time in many years, so I can take part in these now, speaking from the POV of the Mighty Malleable Man!

 

As to what the team would do... well, we're still hashing out the details of the team. It does appear that we have one Hunted in common - Holocaust - and quite frankly, he doesn't seem a very good candidate for reforming, given he's a self-centered megalomaniac. Most likely he'd be faking, either to try to catch us off guard or because he'd realized he'd pissed off someone really big-league. Still, if the Feds trusted this was for real, I'd assume we'd go with it. We'd be a pretty poor choice for being his keeper, though, for at least two reasons:

1) His power level is way higher than any of ours individually, so any time he stepped out of line, it would be a major fight to get him under control; and

2) Anyone big enough for him to be afraid and for the Feds to think he needs the protection will probably be enough out of our leagues that we'll be little more than speed bumps. If someone like Gravitar is after Holocaust for some reason, I doubt we'd be able to do much to stop her, but we'd give it our best, probably by Malleable Man and someone else trying to delay her while the rest got Holocaust to safety.

 

Someone coming after him for revenge - well, we'd do our best to stop that, perhaps even while having sympathy for their goals. At least two of the team - including Malleable Man - have full CVKs, so nobody is going to get killed on our watch if we have any say in the matter.

 

At least one of the people on the team is Hunted by VIPER, and I expect they will be a big presence in the campaign, so it's quite possible one of the Dragon Branch folk or some high-level VIPER op might run for it and need protection. That's possibly more in our league, assuming they don't send someone like Viperia after him. We'd have a difficult time trusting any former VIPER op, and would definitely keep a close watch for betrayal - not to mention forbidding access to classified or personal information. If VIPER sends a strike/retrieval team, we'd assume what is obvious is only part of the attempt, and stay very much on our guard while keeping the target close to potential escape routes. And again, nobody we are protecting is gonna die if we can prevent it.

 

As to personal Hunteds, I don't know who some of the teammates have as Hunteds, but Malleable Man has a few of his own - Ogre, Foxbat and Icicle. I would hope the feds would have better sense than to place a functionally-retarded super-brick in this situation, but I could see Ogre wanting to shape up in hope people would leave him alone. He's not smart enough to pull much in the way of tricks, so I expect he'd be sincere, and if we got stuck with him, Malleable Man would definitely try to keep him on the right path and watch out for him.

 

As for Foxbat - well, it's easy to see why any number of people might want to kill him. We'd watch closely for any sign his supposed conversion was part of some goofy "master plan" of his, but if he seemed legit, he'd get our full protection.

 

Icicle - well, she's really a good candidate for reforming, given she's pretty young and not particularly violent. She'd be watched carefully, but probably be given the most benefit of the doubt of any of these villains, and could well be a significant asset to the team in the long run. Again, given CVKs and Psych Lims like "Protective", she'd probably find herself in good hands.

[sinanju]

Re: WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

 

For Hero Teams: One of your enemies has “reformed†and struck a deal with the feds. He or she will be granted amnesty in exchange for giving evidence against his or her former partners/employers and public service in the form of Crime Fighting. For some reason your character has been asked to look after this ex-criminal.

1) Who has reformed? Is it sincere, or part of some scheme?

2) How do you try to protect your new ward in case his/her old partners show up?

3) A victim of your ward turns up looking for revenge. The crime your ward committed against this victim was serious, and is one of the crimes that will go unpunished if the amnesty goes through. Do you protect your ward?

 

Hell's Angel: 1) Absent utterly convincing evidence of sincere repentance and both the desire--and ability--to travel the straight and narrow, Hell's Angel wouldn't cross the street for her would-be ward. Her entire life experience (mostly with her own family) has taught her that leopards never change their spots, and that users will ruthlessly abuse any trust. 2) Protect him physically? Whatever's necessary. Protect him from temptation? That's not her job. Resisting temptation is HIS job, and he'd damn well better be up to the challenge if he wants her protection. 3) Depends on the crime. If restitution is possible, it better happen; if the crime was rape or assault or murder, Hell's Angel isn't going to accept the proposition in the first place.

 

Cassandra: She's neither a hero nor a villain yet. She could go either way, depending on how things work out. The question isn't really applicable.

[Blue]

Re: WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

 

Not all that unbelievable an option in my game. There's one NPC from the previous team of Sentinels whose origin was that he was a reformed firebug; and the current team has a player character thief performing community service.

 

If I'm writing this (And I *am* the GM, ya know...)

 

The villain is Eldritch, the big mystical villain of the campaign (so far). He's a former member of the team and viewed already as a sort of turncoat. The team members would hate him. But there are at least three that would uphold his ability to perform community service as being "The Law".

 

He has no old partners. However, his has many enemies. And THIS would be the whole reason for him agreeing to this. He would be doing this nonsense because he knews he can't defeat the other badguys without the team's assistance. He'd stick with them until they help him bring in his enemies, then he'd bail on them at an inopportune time. Some feel this is what happened to the original team of Sentinels; He bailed to protect his own hid and two team members died as a result.

 

Anthem would never trust the guy though she would be amiable enough and keep an eye on him. Let him think he's pulled one over on her.

 

Audra Blue would NEVER allow him back inside the base. You only need to cross her once (which he's done). It's hard to gain her trust, so when you throw it away like that...

 

For Uncle Slam we'll assume that Eldritch has been enlisted by PRIMUS. Since Eldritch is partially responsible for the retrofitting of THE KEEP (super-prison) that Slam is working on right now, he'd think it was all about him getting an inside look. He'd refuse to allow Eldritch on his detail, to the point of severing his ties with the agency over it, which is something PRIMUS can ill afford if it got out to the media. ("PRIMUS tosses Patriot for Criminal! See Page 3")

[S7Michelle]

Re: WWYCD #125: The Turn-Coat

 

For Sailor Io, remove the deal with the feds part and instead assume that one of their enemies has surrendered to the Senshi, perhaps offering to provide information in exchange for protection.

 

The Senshi are already sort of dealing with this situation, in that Vash’s followers are now all living on an island outside the city, and one of his dying requests was that the Senshi look after them. Sailor Io has every intention of keeping that promise, but we haven’t seen yet in game how it is all going to work out.

 

But, lets assume that one of their other Supernatural enemies became a “turncoat.†The first thing the Senshi would do is insist that their new ward give an oath that she would not harm any of the Senshi or any humans except in self defense. Even with that oath given, the Senshi are going to be a bit wary. They won’t be revealing their secret ids any time soon.

 

1. The “turncoat†would probably be a Mah-ki, since that is the group we’ve primarily dealt with. I’d say, seventy-five percent chance she is sincere, twenty percent chance it is a scheme.

 

2. Protecting our ward is going to be somewhat challenging since we don’t have a base and since we are going to be protecting our Secret Ids.

 

If the ward doesn’t have a safe place to stay, will either see if he or she can stay on the island with Vash’s followers, or if not, try to pay first months rent on an apartment. That will leave Io allowanceless for a while. Hopefully the ward will be able to afford her own place without relying on the Senshi for financial support.

 

Next, Io will create a limited communicator for the ward. The communicator will be set up to allow the ward to reach the Senshi in the event of an emergency but won’t let her listen in on the conversations the Senshi don’t want her hearing. Depending on circumstances, Io may also try provide her with a portable force field, though it will have a backdoor built into it so that Io can disable it if needed..

 

Additionally, for the first few days at least, a rotating shift of Senshi will remain close to the Mah-ki, just in case the other Mah-ki show up looking for revenge.

 

3. Sailor Io will first get all of the facts and then try to get them to talk things out and negotiate some sort of fair and non-lethal settlement. If that fails, she will try to find some way to bring them before a trial of their peers. She will act as defense council if needed and provided that the judgment is at least reasonably fair, will stand by it.

 

 

 

Cannis (Criminal Team)

 

1. The most likely of the City’s Champions to turn renegade and join our side are Wheeler or McCray. And while, I can see them agreeing to collaborate with us for a common purpose, if they actually turned bad, it would be a scheme.

 

2. Wheeler has a fairly good relationship with Cannis and has flirted with Kono. McCray appears to be taken with Southern Belle. The most probably reason they would give for wishing to join us would be love. Other options would be some sort of dramatic fight with their teammates over something or just “allowing us to convince them that we are right.â€

 

3. Our group will be somewhat suspicious of him initially and won’t be willing to reveal our secret identities or take him back to our base. However, Adam probably has a safe house where he can stay. And most likely, Cannis and her packmates will be assigned to keep a close eye on him.

 

Cannis’ personal feelings are going to depend a lot on the attitude the “turncoat†shows about his former teammates. If, he states something like, “I’ll work with you and stand beside you against the police and other groups. But I won’t betray my former team and I won’t fight against them,†Cannis will be pleased and have a lot of respect for him. If on the other hand, he is willing to completely turn on his friends, Cannis will still be polite, but her opinion of him will drop dramatically.

 

And yes, we probably would help protect them against the law. After all, if we could bring him to a point where we could totally trust him, he would make a great addition to the team. And even if not, having an extra villain around certainly wouldn’t hurt.